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It doesn't seem odd given the context of the full paragraph, which starts: > Still, the numbers/letters divide is emblematic of the Internet’s built-in bias: E
by coderholic 7y ago
It doesn't seem odd given the context of the full paragraph, which starts:
> Still, the numbers/letters divide is emblematic of the Internet’s built-in bias: Even more than two decades after its birth, it’s still a fundamentally American system.
It describes how URLs are frustrating and difficult to use for non-English speakers. Given that, it makes a joke about that frustration using the URL-hacks that are often used in China, which is what the whole prior article covers.
- tlrobinson 7y agoI get that the author wanted to express frustration and be clever, and he had limited examples of “number-based slang” to do so with, but I agree with the parent comment that calling Americans “idiots” and telling them to “go die” seems excessively hostile. Though I also can’t imagine “go die” has the same force in Chinese that it would have in English if it’s a common slang.
- RandomBacon 7y agoThat's my thought too. Apparently HN does not agree which I think is sad. It's interesting information in the article, but being hostile just because the Internet was pioneered in the U.S. and thus a lot of U.S. customs are baked in seems excesive. I like anime, but I'm not hostile to the Japanese because the shows I like are spoken in Japanese with only English subtitles.
- mikeash 7y agoAnime isn’t deeply embedded in society the way the internet is now. Imagine if you had to learn some Japanese just to access your bank account or buy plane tickets.
- RandomBacon 7y agoI have (Japanese, Spanish, and Korean). I didn't hate the host cultures because of it.
- mikeash 7y agoI don’t mean imagine if you had to do that in order to live in those countries. I mean, imagine if you had to do that in the US, to access your American bank down the street.
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- kev6168 7y agoI think you are correct that '0748' is not a very serious/forceful phrase. Probably only a lighthearted slang used by young netizens in China.
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