{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/469",
    "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": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 469,
    "subject": "Pieces of Eight!",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-05-10T21:43:19+00:00",
    "last": "1998-05-10T21:43:19+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0008-0623@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Charles Dye",
        "address": "raster at highfiber.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-05-10T21:43:19+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Pieces of Eight!",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "\"Gordon Brain\" <gobrain at netcomuk.co.uk> can do cant, can't he...."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "(doesn't make a) bad bit's difference – 'Makes no difference'. From bit as\nin small coin worth 12.5 cents (i.e. one eighth of a dollar - related to\n'piece of eight' = old Spanish dollar ?), survives in phrase 'two bit …'\nmeaning cheap, not worth much. Bad bit = counterfeit small coin, so worth\neven less. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Yes.  But note that these \"bits\" are pieces of computer cards!  Computer\ngeeks have been getting milage out of this pun for decades:  a bit is an\neighth of a byte, so a byte must be worth a dollar.  Eric S. Raymond, for\ninstance, lists \"quarter\" in \"The New Hacker's Dictionary\" (recommended!)\nas two bits, and specifically mentions the Spanish silver dollar\nconnection.\n\nSad irony:  The computer revolution has just wiped out the last surviving\nuse of the monetary \"bit\" in the U.S.A.  Stocks are now being traded in\nsixteenths of dollars instead of eighths, preparatory to purely decimal\ntrading."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "\"Tis no Disparagement to understand the Canting Terms: It may chance to\nsave your Throat from being cut, or, (at least) your Pocket from being\nPick'd.\"\n\nElisha Coles (1676)"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Beautiful!\n\nraster at highfiber.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}