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Cyhist Aug 3 1997 A
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========================================================================= Date: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 18:34:01 -0400
Reply-To: bradmcc@cloud9.net
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <bradmcc@CLOUD9.NET>
Organization: AbiCo.
Subject: "Greeked-in text"
X-cc: doug.schaff@ssa.gov, geedel@aol.com, sn23@columbia.edu,
tomgee@clark.net, jimsan@EROLS.COM
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
I was browsing the National Cancer Institute web site yesterday. I clicked on their Website Index, and got a page of what looked like Latin.
http://rex.nci.nih.gov/
http://rex.nci.nih.gov/INTRFCE_GIFS/WEBINDX_INTR_DOC.htm (if
it's still there!)
The text began:
>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
>consenuetur adisplising eli, set diam
>nonumy eiusinod temtor incidunt et
>laboril ut dolone magrina. Ut neniquer
>ad minim pariatur, quis suscipit
>exercitato ullamaris corpor nostrud
>ladori nisus ut consequiat et....
I then chanced to look at pp. 41-2 of Yuri Rubinsky's _SGML on the WEB_ (Prentice Hall, 1997), where I found exactly the same first couple lines, and pieces of the rest. Yuri wrote: "In certain days gone by, we would fill out dummy pages of things with what was called Greeked-in text, Greek for
short. The idea was that it was gibberish, but less distracting in examples like this one than those infernal paragraphs that just went on and on filling space and never really saying anything..." (pp. 41-2).
Apparently the NIH web page is something that got out in the public view which should not have, but I think it may be something with an interesting "history". How many different systems must this ersatz latin have passed through over the years? Who all has copies of it? It strikes me as a potentially fascinating piece of programmer ethnography.
Does anybody know anything that might shed further light on this?
--
Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world.
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / bradmcc@cloud9.net (914)238-0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA ------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: bradmcc@cloud9.net
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <bradmcc@CLOUD9.NET>
Organization: AbiCo.
Subject: "Greeked-in text"
X-cc: doug.schaff@ssa.gov, geedel@aol.com, sn23@columbia.edu,
tomgee@clark.net, jimsan@EROLS.COM
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
I was browsing the National Cancer Institute web site yesterday. I clicked on their Website Index, and got a page of what looked like Latin.
http://rex.nci.nih.gov/
http://rex.nci.nih.gov/INTRFCE_GIFS/WEBINDX_INTR_DOC.htm (if
it's still there!)
The text began:
>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
>consenuetur adisplising eli, set diam
>nonumy eiusinod temtor incidunt et
>laboril ut dolone magrina. Ut neniquer
>ad minim pariatur, quis suscipit
>exercitato ullamaris corpor nostrud
>ladori nisus ut consequiat et....
I then chanced to look at pp. 41-2 of Yuri Rubinsky's _SGML on the WEB_ (Prentice Hall, 1997), where I found exactly the same first couple lines, and pieces of the rest. Yuri wrote: "In certain days gone by, we would fill out dummy pages of things with what was called Greeked-in text, Greek for
short. The idea was that it was gibberish, but less distracting in examples like this one than those infernal paragraphs that just went on and on filling space and never really saying anything..." (pp. 41-2).
Apparently the NIH web page is something that got out in the public view which should not have, but I think it may be something with an interesting "history". How many different systems must this ersatz latin have passed through over the years? Who all has copies of it? It strikes me as a potentially fascinating piece of programmer ethnography.
Does anybody know anything that might shed further light on this?
--
Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world.
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / bradmcc@cloud9.net (914)238-0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA ------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
______________________________________________________________________
