{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2053",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2053,
    "subject": "A Little Dotty? * is an Artifact",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1999-12-22T21:29:03+00:00",
    "last": "1999-12-23T09:47:22+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0655@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Talarican",
        "address": "chemmie at mindspring.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-12-22T21:29:03+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) A Little Dotty? * is an Artifact",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Dan,\n\" Hmmm, I always assumed the plate read: M . Million\n\nSometimes a dot is used to indicate multiplication.  \"Monsieur\" is\noften abbreviated to \"M.\" \"\n\nYou're right, of course. I would actually have preferred to more correctly\nuse a \"bullet\" dot floating at mid-line height for this, but of course the\nemail character set wouldn't support it, so far as I know.\n\nBut that's how _I_ envisioned  what Number Five sees. His hungover\nrevelation comes when he realizes that the dot is not a period but a dot at\nhalf-height in the line of text.\n\nI tried to approximate it with an asterisk, which of course is also used as\na multiplication sign, esp. in most programming languages.\n\nBTW I apologize to all for my mishap last couple of posts; I didn't realize\nmy new email software defaulted to HTML."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0656@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "mark millman",
        "address": "millman at us.ncipher.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-12-23T09:47:22+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) A Little Dotty? * is an Artifact",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0028-0655@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "At 9:29 pm Wednesday 22 December 1999, \"Talarican\" \n<chemmie at mindspring.com> wrote:\nDan,\nHmmm, I always assumed the plate \nread: M . Million"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "Sometimes a dot is used to indicate \nmultiplication.  \"Monsieur\" is often \nabbreviated to \"M.\""
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "You're right, of course. I would actually have \npreferred to more correctly use a \"bullet\" dot \nfloating at mid-line height for this, but of course \nthe email character set wouldn't support it, so \nfar as I know.\n\nBut that's how _I_ envisioned  what Number \nFive sees. His hungover revelation comes when \nhe realizes that the dot is not a period but a dot \nat half-height in the line of text.\n\nI tried to approximate it with an asterisk, which \nof course is also used as a multiplication sign, \nesp. in most programming languages."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I just got back from a business trip to England, where I saw\npeople use a dot, not at half-height in the line, but at the bot-\ntom of the line (just like a punctuation period), to indicate mul-\ntiplication.  Whether this is also customary in France, or among\nFrancophone mathematicians, I can't say, but it seems possible.\n\nMark Millman"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}