Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

I've noticed something odd... All the time when the second letter of a word is the letter "L", it is capitalized. For no reason. Even in words I was certain had lowercase "L"s first.

Could someone please give me an explanation?

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

This has to win the prize for the most obscure post ever on this forum. What the heck are you talking about?

Are you an alien? Are you from Alaska? Are you trying to alarm us?

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif All of these look fine to me.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

What I'm talking about:

I was browsing older posts on one of the threads, and came along one of my old posts. It said "bLaster" there TWICE while I am CERTAIN I did NOT capitalize the "L" myself. I checked another thread... yup. I spotted it again in some posts, all NOT mine. And ONLY the SECOND letter of a word, never another one. Always the SECOND. I figured something was wrong. At least three people capitalizing their "L"s as the second letter? That's impossible. Again, I am absolutely CERTAIN I wrote "blaster" and NOT "bLaster". DEFINITELY not twice. And others as well? I thought something might be wrong with the server or something. That;s why I posted this.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

note: the capitalizations in my previous post were not accidental. In fact, they had nothing to do with teeth at all.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Stop being a bLoody aLarmist. There's probabLy some sLight dirt in your keyboard. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Not just me. Also AT and several others. And only the SECOND "L" in a word, never the third, fourth, fifth, or whatever. I'm serious.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Well, it isn't happening all the time. Since it happens only occasionally I'd be more apt to chalk it up to a wierd conincidence.

If you are seeing it mainly when the first word of a sentance has L as the second letter, I have a theory that should make some sense. Most right handed people use the left shift key for capitalizing words since they can hold it down and search for the letter with their dominant right hand. Also, since the L key is way over on the right side of the keyboard you tend to hit it with you right hand. So it's not extraordinary to think that your right hand would respond a little faster and hit the L key before your left hand has let up on the Shift key. Since your dominant hand responds quicker to commands from your brain.

Are you right handed Stratigial?

I myself find that I capitalize the first two letters of words quite frequently, but not just the letter L. Pretty much any letter that is on the right side of the keyboard and is hit with my right hand will tend to get cappitalized if it's teh second letter of the first word of a sentance. Letters on the left side of the keyboard typically wont though since I use my left hand to hit them, I have to remove it from teh shift key first. Usually though I notice it before posting. (In fact I did it in at least once while typing this message. But I corrected it before posting.)

Perhaps there is something about the fact that Capital L can be more easily mistaken for a lower case L while reviewing your post so it doesn't get corrected? That in combination with the fact that it's on the right side of the keyboard could account for a greater frequency of second letter L's being capitalized. Since they are more frequently capitalized, it's not extraordinary that conincidentally the ones you saw when you noticed this today happened to be L's.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

This differnce in response times between right and left hands also accounts for why I chronically mistype "the" as "teh". Since my right hand hits the T key and my left hand hits the E key. The signals for H and E leave at almsot the same time, but the right hand responds mroe quickly.

EDIT: Same thing for o and r in more. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Not just as the second letter of a sentence; the first two times I spotted it it was almost at the end of a sentence.

(Btw, it's Strategiainultima, not StrategiaLultima. I've had trouble with that earlier, on another location. It's like in my email adress.)

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Well, being the first word of a sentance wouldn't be required according to my theory. Just that the second letter L appears in a word that is capitalized. If the word is not capitalized I have no explanation why the L would be. Be I am highly skeptical about any sort of forum problem. For one thing it's not happeneing every time. In fact I've yet to see any second letter L's capitalized. To be sure I haven't really been looking, but in the last couple posts in this thread there have been many such words and none of them are capitalized, except the ones you intentional capitalized for demonstration purposes. It's surely just a coincidence that the couple that you noticed happened to all be L's.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

NON-capitalized words. Not just the pair close together in my post, but also other posts - by AT and several others (Alneyan, I believe, was one of them.). I don't know if it's a forum problem, and I haven't really been looking either (I just noticed it happen all the time), perhaps the reason you're not seeing it is because my PC is throwing a minor tantrum. It's been known to happen, just not like this b4 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

If that's any help, I have been looking in my recent posts, and saw no such occurrence. I certainly hope I did no such thing: I am supposed to be a grammar nazi after all.

Do you have any example of a specific post where this phenomenon happens? My guess is that you are confusing L, l and I, and/or an odd font may make them pretty much the same: those three letters are almost identical on my computer.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Well, personally, I just think you're making aLl of this up. I mean, it's not like there are some aLiens among aLl of us that are insidiously capitalizing only the second 'L' of every word we type.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

But, more seriously, if it is happening in some older posts, then it could be an odd quirk in the software used to convert UBB into whatever the database is that Shrapnel is now using for the forums. When the switch happened, there was basically just a script that took the individual files in the UBB, parsed, and loaded them into the database. If the script was from some other source, I wouldn't be suprised if the writer purposely put that in there as a joke. It sounds like something I would do http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

I have to open your eyes, finally. Such group of aLiens do exist. And their names are:
aLarikf, ALneyan, ALpha Kodiak, ... etc etc. You can easily find all of them in the User List, applying the *L* pattern for names. They even don't try to cypher themselves! It means that the CLLAOI project (Capitalize L Letter All Over Internet) had started already. Naturaly they've started Capitalization from the oldest posts, and then they'll move to the newest ones. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/stupid.gif

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Jesus, why are Geoschmo and Alneyan the only ones who take me seriously?!?

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Well, we take you seriously, but that's not the same thing as saying I really think there's a problem here other than you just fumble fingering the keyboard.

My background in computer support teaches me how to offer you plausible sounding suggestions why it might not be your fault, while simultaneously telling you it probably really is your fault. That way you don't think I'm just discounting your concerns and suspcisions about the system, even if I am. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

It's all part of generating customer satisfaction. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

By the way, you've still not given us any actual links to any threads with this problem so we can see if we are seeing it as well. I can't exactly search through every post At or Alneayan has ever made looking for words with a second letter L. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

I've searched... can't find anything except my own post anymore. Forgot the thread in which I saw it. Here's my original post, when I discovered the error first:

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Also saw an occurence with a LOWERCASE second letter "L".

(Narrator's Note: He's beginning to doubt there ever was a problem...)

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Heh, well I have to admit that looks a little odd. But the human mind is a wonderful tricky little machine. Sometimes things get crosswired in funny ways and stuff comes out wrong, and sometimes it comes out consistantly wrong. For example, like I said before how I almost always type "teh" instead of "the". Another one is how I can't ever seem to type the word "custom". It always comes out "customer". Usually I catch it and edit it, but not always. I just think it's interesting how sometimes even when I am concentrating and typing slow it's like something takes over my fingers and types that last "er" on the end. Something like that might have happened here for you with the word blaster.

Of course, it could be a forum bug. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

But what about V?!

Resource ConVersion, atmosphere conVerters, aiieeeee!

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Could be a localized bug, yes... Pretty sure I didn't want to type "Blaster". And I ALWAYS use the RIGHT shift key for capitalizations (I'm right-handed).

(Narrator's Note: He's resuming his doubts about a minor bug...)

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Non-L thing: Lately I've been seeing large grey patches over text, apparently without reason.

Attached is a screenshot of it.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

I saw that one once, in the FAQ. It always appeared on the same spot (somewhere in chapter 17), and reloading did not remove the thing. I wouldn't know from where it comes however, or how to get rid of it.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Firebird? Isn't that a tad out of date? Could just be a bug that was resolved in a later version of the program. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

I know Firefox is better, but this is not my own PC. My own PC has no internet, so I'm reliant on an account on this computer for Internet (i.e. forum, 92% of the time, Schlock Mercenary 7% of the time, rest 1% of the time) access. And I don't know if Alneyan uses Firebird, Forefox, IE, Netscape, a hypernet node, or whatever. But if he sees them too...

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Hmm, let me see... I *saw* the grey boxes, but they have now disappeared. It has been at least a few months since I last saw them, however. I was on Firebird or an early Firefox release back then; I am now using Firefox, and the grey boxes are no longer here.

A Spell of Greater Purging has been cast since then as well, so perhaps it solved the matter (that spell is better known as "HD crash, roll Fortitude or lose all your data. DC is 30"). Still, I would believe Firebird is responsible for those grey boxes, and nothing else.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Looks like a piece of Scotch tape on your monitor to me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Oh. Well then, no forum error.

And it is NOT tape. It is an actual image.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

That's the point... Firebird is an old version of Firefox. It has bugs that were fixed in later releases. Whomever's computer that is really, really needs to update it...

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Breaking news! Another occurrence of the bL phenomenon was witnessed by our investigating teams. Story follows.

In this post, blasted has been written as "bLasted", which seems fairly odd. There is another L in R'lyeh, but this may be an unrelated matter.

This post is fairly odd, from before the forum upgrade, which would support Will's theory about it being a prank. Hmm... Both times, the word in question began with "bL". Perhaps it is something with bL, or even "bLast"?

Several occurrences of "bLast" in old threads (before the last forum upgrade) were detected. Oddly enough, in these occurrences "bLast" only appears in the subjects, and not in the posts themselves. It seems that *all* such threads have "bLast" instead of blast, even threads following the last forum upgrade. Hmm, it smells of a conspiracy... Connecting too many dots? Who, moi?

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Blast blast blast.

My blasts come out just fine.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

As I wrote, most occurrences are only in the subjects, not in the posts themselves. I think only two occurrences of bLast within the posts were found, both before the last forum upgrade.

Hmm, I will try changing a topic name to include bLast, just for the sake of curiosity. Didn't work. It looks like though that the only "bLast" after the forum upgrade I noticed was actually in a pre-upgrade thread.

Examples of subjects with bLast in it: here , here , here , and here.

blast test blast blast blast
 

Testing subject... New posts have no conspiracy nut issues. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: blast test blast blast blast
 

/me makes some popcorn and sits down to watch and have a bLast...I mean, a blast. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: blast test blast blast blast
 

Its only a conspiracy if its truly is part of a hidden agenda.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Its just so strange is hard not to make jokes

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

its not like that at all. neither Geo or Alneyan take you seriously either, they are just humoring you.

maybe you can provide some links to the suspect posts? because I certainly dont see the problem you are describing in any of the posts in this thread - aside from the jokers who are doing it on purpose.

on a more serious note, it could be a forum issue. if it really is happening consistantly with older posts, it could have to do with UBB upgrades. This board has been through three major upgrades that i can remember, a few minor ones, and countless upgrades that i never noticed. maybe the post format changed at one point, and certain strings of characters were reinterpreted as code.

but thats sort of a long shot. im more inclined to think that you're just high.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

OK, OK, I surrender. Please, no more. I'm calling quits. I withdraw my statements. I won't even bother to LOOK here anymore.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Hurrah for self-quoting! All the threads are before the forum upgrade, and the problem no longer occurs after the upgrade. Besides, it looks like subject names are much more likely to be affected by it, as evidenced by the number of "bLasts" in subject names. Feel free to search for blast in the whole forums Puke, while only looking at subject names.

Of course, it isn't exactly a world-shattering matter, but hey... A man's got to have some hobbies.

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

Both from the following thread:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...&fpart=all
and from december 2K4.

OK, OK, so I withdraw my surrender.

edit: Oh, and this morning, about seven hours ago, the server went down - it wouldn't load anything, some pages just appeared blank, the rest just kept on loading. What was that?

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

I believe that is a bug with banner advertisements at the top of the page, it looks like it's the same size and shape and I've had that problem a few times on some sites.

The Logical Explanation is to Blame Marketing, ALWAYS! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

When can you NOT blame marketing?

Re: Semi-OT: Strange behaviour of the letter \"L\"
 

From the original Xenology thread... tho I think that was before the forum modificetions.

However the first occurences which I noticed were more recent.