There’s a small house ( ⌂ ) in the middle of IBM’s infamous character set Code Page 437. “Small house”—that’s the official IBM name given to the glyph at code position 0x7F, where a control character for “Delete” (DEL) should logically exist. It’s cute, but a little strange. I wonder, how did it get there? Why did IBM represent DEL as a house, of all things?
↫ Heikki Lotvonen
Don’t waste any time here, and go read the article. It’s immediately become one of my favourite reads of all time.
New CDN? I got asked to identify stairs and traffic lights today.
Same here.
Ditto.
Got one too and it made me boo. Asked the powers that be where it’s coming from, and if we can fucking yeet it into the sun. My apologies.
I couldn’t log in the other day at all. I gave up after seven attempts. I blame google.
What people may not realize is that google recaptcha has increasingly de-emphasized the weight of the captcha over the years in favor of IP and other heuristics. Using non-chrome browser -> penalty. Using public hot spots or shared mobile IPs -> penalty. Using anonymizing extensions -> penalty. There may be geolocation heuristics too but I am not able to test this effectively.
This is why recaptcha is so difficult for some people while it just takes a tick for others. It has nothing to do with getting captchas right or wrong. Those who use chrome, are logged into google services, or are using a static IP all decrease the odds of users being denied by recaptcha. Unfortunately it’s quite easy for humans to end up being discriminated against by google’s “captcha walls”. This is especially troublesome for me whenever I travel. Switching IP addresses – if able – can make a big difference. Running chrome and logging in helps but unfortunately this runs counter to my desire to be google-free 🙁
This is an interesting mystery that I never thought about. I’ve known about the “delete” glyph as far back as I can remember, but somehow I did not make the same association as the author that it was ever a house., haha.
Delta makes a lot more sense, The shape probably came about by stretching to fit design characteristics. But what I find weirder is that someone would then go on to write reference material calling it house rather than what it was supposed to be. Probably an employee tasked with documentation got confused.