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The title is a bit click baity. The loss and magic relates to the use of magic numbers in the Linux kernel and nothing more.
by binkHN 4y ago
The title is a bit click baity. The loss and magic relates to the use of magic numbers in the Linux kernel and nothing more.
- troad 4y agoI think they’re just having fun with the title - I don’t think lwn tries to be “click baity” in the news media sense. You pretty much know what you’re going to get on lwn.
- cpach 4y agoKinda like The Economist in that regard :)
- dspillett 4y ago“click bait” is very slowly taking on a more general meaning as any title or link that doesn't precisely and concisely describe the article, including where humour is being applied (like here). It is literally like the word literally often being used to mean figuratively these days, as in this example…
- coldtea 4y agoHaven't seen that use of the term in the general internet, but I see it on HN and a few literal-minded forums. Perhaps people in these places are just not big on humor and elaborate titles and just want some dry description of the contents...
- Joker_vD 4y agoThe word "literally" literally means "literally" but figuratively it means "figuratively".
- dspillett 4y agoI hadn't thought of it that way. I shall steal that pithy quote for future use!
- Dylan16807 4y agoNo it doesn't. Please never say that. Literally it means literally. Figuratively it means very. It never means figuratively.
- Bjartr 4y agoInteresting trivia: "Literally" has been routinely used to mean "figuratively" for over a century. It's definitely not a recent change in usage.
- petesergeant 4y agoThat was exactly what I was expecting given the source and the title
- dEnigma 4y agoIt was exactly what I expected, but I can see how it would be surprising if you don't know about LWN and/or magic numbers.
- eterm 4y agoIt's not clickbait just because you made an assumption from a title and that assumption was incorrect.
- greenbit 4y agoClick bait tries to induce a reflexive response, typically by trying to induce fear. E.g. something like "Safety Feature Quietly Being Removed from Linux Kernel"
- gibspaulding 4y agoI don't know that it was intentional, but I clicked the link thinking it translated to something like "Someone highly involved in Linux kernel development is about to step down". Maybe not click bait in the typical sense, but I was baited into clicking it. You get a pass for cheeky titles though when the article is actually interesting and well written like this one.
- coldtea 4y agoWe should not conflate "Title doesn't give a literal dry explanation of the subject discussed" with "clickbait" (which is another thing alltogether)
- contingencies 4y agoNothing more? Clearly the LWN authors are also MDMA fiends :) There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson. ... quote via https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup