|_|_|47 4 l0|)3 0v r|_|bb1$h!

I came across the following phrase in some documentation written by a developer:
"... can be used to understand the l33t h4x0r 5p33k used in Internet chat rooms."

I had no idea what this meant, but an Internet search enlightened me:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A787917

Here's the first paragraph from this article (entitled "An Explanation of l33t Speak"):

'l33t speak' is a unique language because it cannot truly be spoken out loud nor can it successfully be handwritten; it is an Internet-based language reliant on the keyboard. It is, however, simple to learn and has much room for creativity.

What a load of rubbish! I came across some sites full of this stuff. As someone whose working life revolves around trying to write clear, concise, accurate and easy to understand text, this stuff is anathema to me.

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In the past few days I haven't been posting because I've been doing lots of work on the Admin Manual I'm working on (long past its original delivery date now), and I've been trying to find an hour or two in the evenings to get the home page for itauthor.com working. I'm nearly there now and will hopefully be able to FTP it up there some time soon, but it involved some JavaScripting, and it's been a while!