Leet

Leet (or "1337"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, is an alternative alphabet for many languages that is used primarily on the Internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters. For example, leet spellings of the word leet include 1337 and l33t; eleet may be spelled 31337 or 3l33t.

The term leet is derived from the word elite. The leet alphabet is a specialized form of symbolic writing. Leet may also be considered a substitution cipher, although many dialects or linguistic varieties exist in different online communities. The term leet is also used as an adjective to describe formidable prowess or accomplishment, especially in the fields of online gaming and in its original usage – computer hacking.

History

Leet (programming language)

Leet (or L33t) is an esoteric programming language based loosely on Brainfuck and named for the resemblance of its source code to the symbolic language "L33t 5p34k". L33t was designed by Stephen McGreal and Alex Mole to be as confusing as possible. It is Turing-complete and has the possibility for self-modifying code. Software written in the language can make network connections and may therefore be used to write malware.

Language specification

The basic data unit of L33t is the unsigned byte (big-endian), which can represent ASCII values and numbers in the range 0-255.

The source code is in "l33t 5p34k" and words are separated by spaces or carriage returns. The language uses 10 opCodes and each word in the source code is translated into an opCode by adding all the digits in the word together, e.g. l33t = 3 + 3 = 6. It is not necessary to use anything but digits in the code.

The language utilises a 64K block of memory, and 2 pointers - a memory pointer and an instruction pointer. The l33t interpreter tokenizes all the words in the source to create a sequence of numerical opCodes, and places them in order into the memory block, starting at byte 0. The instruction pointer will keep incrementing until it encounters an END. The memory pointer starts at the first byte after the instructions. Memory "wraps": incrementing the memory and the instruction pointer past 64K will cause it to run around to byte 0, and vice versa.

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (usually shortened to HIStory) is the ninth overall studio album and his fifth under Epic Records by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on June 16, 1995 by Epic Records. This is Jackson's first album on his own label, MJJ Productions, and consists of two discs: the first disc (HIStory Begins) is a compilation of some of his greatest hits from 1979 onward, while the second disc (HIStory Continues) is a studio album composed entirely of new material. The majority of the second disc's tracks were written and produced by Jackson, often in conjunction with collaborators.

HIStory was Jackson's return to releasing music following the accusation of child sexual abuse in August 1993. Many of the 15 songs pertain to the accusations and Jackson's mistreatment in the media, specifically the tabloids. The songs' themes include environmental awareness, isolation, greed, suicide and injustice.

HIStory is Jackson's most controversial album. Jackson was accused of using anti-Semitic lyrics in "They Don't Care About Us". Jackson stated that he did not mean any offense and on multiple occasions denied anti-Semitism. The dispute regarding the lyrics ended with Jackson re-recording them. R. Kelly was accused of plagiarizing one of the album's songs, "You Are Not Alone". In 2007 a judge ruled that the song was plagiarized and the song was subsequently banned from radio stations in Belgium.

History (Loudon Wainwright III album)

History is the twelfth studio album by American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, released on September 21, 1992 on Charisma Records. The album was recorded following the death of Wainwright's father, Loudon Wainwright Jr.. Regarding his father's death and its influence on History, Wainwright stated that:

The album featured deeply personal compositions, with a musical style that ranges from talking blues ("Talking New Bob Dylan") to almost pure country rock ("So Many Songs") and modern folk ("The Picture", "Men").

History is often regarded as a breakthrough in Wainwright's career. Allmusic call the album "his masterpiece", and both Bruce Springsteen and Bob Geldof cited it as their favourite album of the year.

Song information

The final track, "A Handful of Dust" is an adaptation of a song written by his father.

"Hitting You" is the fourth song of Wainwright's career dedicated to his daughter Martha Wainwright, and "A Father and a Son" is directed to his son Rufus Wainwright.

History (novel)

History: A Novel (Italian: La Storia) is a novel by Italian author Elsa Morante, generally regarded as her most famous and controversial work. Published in 1974, it narrates the story of a partly Jewish woman, Ida Ramundo, and her two sons Antonio (called "Nino") and Giuseppe ("Useppe") in Rome, during and immediately after the Second World War.

The Italian title "La Storia" can be translated as either "History" or "The Story"; the ambiguity is lost in translation.

La storia, a motion picture based on the novel, directed by Luigi Comencini and starring Claudia Cardinale, was produced in 1986.

References