Pieces of Eight!

Charles Dye · 10 May 1998, 21:43 · from whorl-v0008.mbox · original

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From: raster at highfiber.com (Charles Dye)
Subject: (whorl) Pieces of Eight!
Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 21:43:19
Message-ID: <whorl-v0008-0623 at digest.urth.net>
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"Gordon Brain" <gobrain at netcomuk.co.uk> can do cant, can't he....

>(doesn't make a) bad bit's difference =3D96 'Makes no difference'. From bi=
t=3D
 as
>in small coin worth 12.5 cents (i.e. one eighth of a dollar - related to
>'piece of eight' =3D3D old Spanish dollar ?), survives in phrase 'two bit =
=3D85=3D
'
>meaning cheap, not worth much. Bad bit =3D3D counterfeit small coin, so wo=
rth
>even less.=3D20

Yes.  But note that these "bits" are pieces of computer cards!  Computer
geeks have been getting milage out of this pun for decades:  a bit is an
eighth of a byte, so a byte must be worth a dollar.  Eric S. Raymond, for
instance, lists "quarter" in "The New Hacker's Dictionary" (recommended!)
as two bits, and specifically mentions the Spanish silver dollar
connection.

Sad irony:  The computer revolution has just wiped out the last surviving
use of the monetary "bit" in the U.S.A.  Stocks are now being traded in
sixteenths of dollars instead of eighths, preparatory to purely decimal
trading.

>"Tis no Disparagement to understand the Canting Terms: It may chance to
>save your Throat from being cut, or, (at least) your Pocket from being
>Pick'd."
>
>Elisha Coles (1676)

Beautiful!

raster at highfiber.com

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/

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