"Julia is a high-level, high-performance dynamic programming language for technical computing, with syntax that is familiar to users of other technical computing environments. It provides a sophisticated compiler, distributed parallel execution, numerical accuracy, and an extensive mathematical function library. The library, mostly written in Julia itself, also integrates mature, best-of-breed C and Fortran libraries for linear algebra, random number generation, FFTs, and string processing. More libraries continue to be added over time. Julia programs are organized around defining functions, and overloading them for different combinations of argument types (which can also be user-defined)."

"The ubiquitous $20 bills spewed out of ATMs everywhere. Often used when trying to split the bill after a meal.
We owe $8 each, but all anybody's got are yuppie food stamps."

"The Ojibwe People's Dictionary is a searchable, talking Ojibwe-English dictionary that features the voices of Ojibwe speakers. It is also a gateway into the Ojibwe collections at the Minnesota Historical Society. Along with detailed Ojibwe language entries and voices, you will find beautiful cultural items, photographs, and excerpts from relevant historical documents. Whenever possible, we provide examples of documents in the Ojibwe language."

"Julia is a high-level, high-performance dynamic language for technical computing, with syntax that is familiar to users of other technical computing environments. It provides a sophisticated compiler, distributed parallel execution, numerical accuracy, and an extensive mathematical function library. The library, mostly written in Julia itself, also integrates mature, best-of-breed C and Fortran libraries for linear algebra, random number generation, FFTs, and string processing. More libraries continue to be added over time. Julia programs are organized around defining functions, and overloading them for different combinations of argument types (which can also be user-defined). For a more in-depth discussion of the rationale and advantages of Julia over other systems, see the following highlights or read the introduction in the manual."

That article about agentive nouns.

First off, the winner: -- attachmeant -- the file you have to resend because you forgot to attach it the first time. (from Julie Meyer) Tied for second and third were: -- polydundant -- of a phrase that is redundant through the use of words from two or more languages that have the same meaning, e.g., Panera Bread Company. (from Annaliese Hoehling) -- pretoxicated -- the state in which sufficient alcohol has been consumed to be intoxicated, but before feeling intoxicated. (from Tierney O'Dea) Some other favorites from the workshop ... -- forblogen -- unsuitable or unavailable to be blogged about, "don't post about our new beta, it's still forblogen." (Also Julie. :-)) -- techumanitarian -- someone who uses technology to promote social good. (from Michelle Riggen-Ransom, a Pop!Tech blogger -- she should know, right?) -- sustetic -- achieving sustainability through aesthetics (i.e., the object is so beautiful you don't want to throw it away, you want to reuse it). (from Jens Martin)

"a language designed for generic programming"

"This is a golf server. You can enjoy short coding here in several languages (80 languages). The purpose of this server is not serious competition. Joke problems are welcomed and you can speak freely about problems and can release spoilers. For serious competition with ranking, enter Code Golf.

IRC channel for this golf server: #anagol in freenode. Please feel free to join the channel to talk about various things around golf."

Holy shit.

"From the beginning of her research in Nicaragua in 1986 until Nicaraguan Sign Language was well-established, Kegl carefully avoided introducing the signed languages she already knew, in particular American Sign Language, to the deaf community in Nicaragua. A type of linguistic imperialism had been occurring internationally for decades where individuals would introduce ASL to populations of deaf people in other countries, often supplanting already existing local signed languages. Kegl's policy was to document and study rather than to impose or change the language or its community. While she did not interfere with deaf Nicaraguans gaining exposure to other signed languages, she did not introduce such opportunities herself. She has however documented contact and influences with other signed languages that began as early as the 1990s and that continue to influence ISN as any languages in contact influence one another."

"What terrible business jargon do you need unsucked?"

"Linguistics is a framework for building linguistic utilities for Ruby objects in any language. It includes a generic language-independant front end, a module for mapping language codes into language names, and a module which contains various English-language utilities."

"Qglic is phonetic, typeable, and compact. If you're like many English speakers, Qglic renders the sounds of your speech with greater fidelity than you've ever seen in writing before. And though it's typed with the same twenty-six letters as the leading style of written English, Qglic is on average just six-sevenths the length!"

"The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to build a publicly accessible digital library of human languages."

"A full list of Like, Python keywords is below (swearing optional):

Valleygirl: omg, so, like, totally, right, toootally
Frat guy: friggin, fuckin, dude, man, bro, broheim, broseph
Internets: lol, rofl, teh, ohai, plz
Snoop: yo, homey, homeboy, sup, dog, shit, girl, ma, biatch, ho, shiiit
Local: wicked, hella, anyways
Misc: just, hey, yeah, ok, um, uh, ah, actually, something"

"In the context of computing, a polyglot is a computer program or script written in a valid form of multiple programming languages, which performs the same operations or output independently of the programming language used to compile or interpret it.

Generally polyglots are written in a combination of C (which allows redefinition of tokens with a preprocessor) and a scripting programming language such as Lisp, Perl or sh."

"Jiffy is used in different applications for various short, very short, or extremely short periods of time. In informal speech a "jiffy" means any unspecified short period of time, as in "I'll be back in a jiffy", but in other contexts it has more precise definitions. The word is thought to originally be thieves' cant for lightning, though this cannot be confirmed.[1]"

"Approximately 212 RFCs, or about 7% of RFCs issued so far, starting
with [RFC269], contain the terms `foo', `bar', or `foobar' used as a
metasyntactic variable without any proper explanation or definition.
This may seem trivial, but a number of newcomers, especially if
English is not their native language, have had problems in
understanding the origin of those terms. This document rectifies
that deficiency.
Read more: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3092.html#ixzz0jlmuEAN9"

Werner Heisenberg, Kurt Gödel, and Noam Chomsky walk into a bar. Heisenberg says, “It’s very odd and improbable that we three are in this bar together. It suggests to me that we’re in a joke, but I can’t be certain.”

Gödel says, “Well, if we were outside the joke we would know, but since we’re inside it, there’s no way we can make that determination.”

And Chomsky says, “Of course this is a joke, but you’re telling it wrong!”

Benny The Irish Polyglot

"E-Prime (short for English-Prime) is a form of the English language from which the verb to be in all its forms is avoided by the writer or speaker. Thus, E-Prime does not contain the words "be", "is", "am", "are", "was", "were", "been" and "being", nor does it contain their contractions "'m", "'s", and "'re". E-Prime therefore re-phrases most statements which use the passive voice, thus encouraging writers and speakers to clearly state an action's agent.[1] E-Prime can be based on any dialect of English."

"In the context of programming language design, one encounters Wadler's Law, named for computer scientist Philip Wadler.[4] This principle asserts that the bulk of discussion on programming language design centers around syntax (which, for purposes of the argument is considered a solved problem), as opposed to semantics."

Alphaprosodic means it represents the prosody of speech; semiprosodic means it represents the prosody of meaning. So a carriage return in a poem means “stop talking for a moment,” while in a grocery list it means “new item.” And here we had a lot of people thinking it only meant “send what I just wrote in my chat program.”

"Powerpoint presentations, key performance indicators and mission statements. Do they make our businesses and institutions run more efficiently, or are they irritating and faddish, not just devoid of meaning, but actually obstructive of clear communication? In his new book, "Bendable Learnings", there is no doubt what Don Watson thinks. In this laugh-out-loud talk at the ANU, he outlines his argument for why we need to avoid the ridiculous confusion of corporate language."

ETAOIN SHRDLU is the approximate order of frequency of the twelve most commonly used letters in the English language, best known as a nonsense phrase that sometimes appeared in print in the days of "hot type" publishing due to a custom of Linotype machine operators.

Last week I had a great time at the Latin America Rails Summit. (Thanks to the organizers for inviting me!) During breaks in the action here and there, I spent time working on Tarantula, and for a lot of that time I was sitting with Chad Fowler and David Chelimsky. David was working on RSpec, and asked Chad and me for help coming up with a good name for a method. The ensuing conversation struck all of us as a great example of the power of good names.