?Backwards Day!
December 11, 2006 2:56 PM Subscribe
?Let today - the eleventh day of the twelfth month - henceforth and forever be Backwards Day! ?Fun with Unicode
Via the wonderfully nerdy 74 68 65 20 64 69 67 69 74 61 6C 20 6D 65.??
Via the wonderfully nerdy 74 68 65 20 64 69 67 69 74 61 6C 20 6D 65.??
FTW
posted by randomination at 3:05 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by randomination at 3:05 PM on December 11, 2006
So funny - I just saw this a few minutes ago and wondered where I could go to test it out.
posted by routergirl at 3:09 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by routergirl at 3:09 PM on December 11, 2006
huh. did not know that
posted by bob sarabia at 3:10 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by bob sarabia at 3:10 PM on December 11, 2006
FYI: I don't think it works in IE. It might in 7.
If you use Firefox and note that your text cursor has a dangly bit, worry not. It's just Firefox indicating that reverse mode is in use on this page. It'll go away when you navigate to a non reversed page.
It doesn't seem to pass through tags or RSS headers properly, but on preview it looks like routergirl managed it in comments.
It should be able to be passed and there are many international usability cases and arguments that support that it should. It may be edgecase here, though.
posted by loquacious at 3:15 PM on December 11, 2006
If you use Firefox and note that your text cursor has a dangly bit, worry not. It's just Firefox indicating that reverse mode is in use on this page. It'll go away when you navigate to a non reversed page.
It doesn't seem to pass through tags or RSS headers properly, but on preview it looks like routergirl managed it in comments.
It should be able to be passed and there are many international usability cases and arguments that support that it should. It may be edgecase here, though.
posted by loquacious at 3:15 PM on December 11, 2006
jack_mo: You must be using IE7. Ah, well, serves you right for going the MS route. Those of us in Firefox don't get stripped in comments...
posted by koeselitz at 3:15 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by koeselitz at 3:15 PM on December 11, 2006
Irritating.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 3:15 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by OverlappingElvis at 3:15 PM on December 11, 2006
I'd try to write something backwards but I'd just fuck it up and look stupid. I forgot how many different hoops you have to jump through to get unicode characters to work on here.
posted by bob sarabia at 3:20 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by bob sarabia at 3:20 PM on December 11, 2006
.ti kcuf
posted by quonsar at 3:20 PM on December 11, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by quonsar at 3:20 PM on December 11, 2006 [1 favorite]
That is pretty cool. I like that it hits the bottom posted by as well.
posted by scodger at 3:22 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by scodger at 3:22 PM on December 11, 2006
.senel wef a retfa ysae ylgnisirpruS
.sretcarahc eht esrever dluoc ew if nuf erom eb dluow tI
posted by jam_pony at 3:25 PM on December 11, 2006
.sretcarahc eht esrever dluoc ew if nuf erom eb dluow tI
posted by jam_pony at 3:25 PM on December 11, 2006
bob sarabia: "I'd try to write something backwards but I'd just fuck it up and look stupid. I forgot how many different hoops you have to jump through to get unicode characters to work on here."
Ah, come on, sourpuss. All it takes is a copy and a paste.
posted by koeselitz at 3:27 PM on December 11, 2006
Ah, come on, sourpuss. All it takes is a copy and a paste.
posted by koeselitz at 3:27 PM on December 11, 2006
A man, a plan, a canal, Panama
Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog
posted by bbuda at 3:29 PM on December 11, 2006
Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog
posted by bbuda at 3:29 PM on December 11, 2006
God? Hey, meta ate my... eh.... dog.
posted by hydrophonic at 3:33 PM on December 11, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by hydrophonic at 3:33 PM on December 11, 2006 [1 favorite]
Hello World. Wow that is really wierd.
ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW ELBA.
HAH
posted by freebird at 3:34 PM on December 11, 2006
ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW ELBA.
HAH
posted by freebird at 3:34 PM on December 11, 2006
.sdrawkcab lla er'yeht won dna egap stnemmoc ym ot tnew I
posted by randomination at 3:39 PM on December 11, 2006
.sdrawkcab lla er'yeht won dna egap stnemmoc ym ot tnew I
posted by randomination at 3:39 PM on December 11, 2006
Dang. Unicode shows up in preview but gets stripped in posting.
posted by chairface at 3:41 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by chairface at 3:41 PM on December 11, 2006
8238;Haha, this is great. May Backwards Day live forever!
posted by defenestration at 3:42 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by defenestration at 3:42 PM on December 11, 2006
Well, that's one way to make yourself look silly.
posted by defenestration at 3:45 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by defenestration at 3:45 PM on December 11, 2006
so why does it work if its pasted and not if you just type in the entity? After all, it seems to work in the preview box.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 3:47 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by spaceman_spiff at 3:47 PM on December 11, 2006
Don't feel silly. I can't seem to get it to work in comments, either. I'm not sure what folks are doing to get it to work.
posted by loquacious at 3:47 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by loquacious at 3:47 PM on December 11, 2006
.tuoba si ssuf eht tahw ees t'nod I ,yllaeR
posted by reventlov at 3:47 PM on December 11, 2006 [5 favorites]
posted by reventlov at 3:47 PM on December 11, 2006 [5 favorites]
So how does this work?
posted by octothorpe at 4:08 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by octothorpe at 4:08 PM on December 11, 2006
Everyone who has posted in this thread has a backwards comments page now.
posted by utsutsu at 4:12 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by utsutsu at 4:12 PM on December 11, 2006
this is pretty cool but sort of disconserting
posted by octothorpe at 4:12 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by octothorpe at 4:12 PM on December 11, 2006
Whatever you're doing doesn't appear to work in Safari.
posted by Mwongozi at 4:13 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by Mwongozi at 4:13 PM on December 11, 2006
Everyone who has posted in this thread has a backwards comments page now.
Not me
posted by octothorpe at 4:13 PM on December 11, 2006
Not me
posted by octothorpe at 4:13 PM on December 11, 2006
Oddly enough it works in the title bar (in Safari) but nowhere else.
posted by thecaddy at 4:14 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by thecaddy at 4:14 PM on December 11, 2006
OTTO...NOON
posted by Smart Dalek at 4:15 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by Smart Dalek at 4:15 PM on December 11, 2006
8238;This is the best thing I've ever seen! This post should win the December contest.
posted by knave at 4:20 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by knave at 4:20 PM on December 11, 2006
It's totally bizarre to me how the mirror character gets passed through some areas of the site and not others.
When I compiled and previewed it, it seemed to be escaping properly as it didn't spill outside the post, and it didn't break the front page.
But I had no idea that it would pass through and show up in favorites and other places on MeFi.
I'm tempted to start a MetaTalk thread to help ferret out the numerous places it's being improperly passed.
Waxing metaphysical, it's interesting how complex and dynamic systems can be broadly effected by very small things. In this case, one character - supported by well intentioned behavior across multiple domains of interacting technology. (Unicode + modern browsers + international language support + database-driven website and engine.)
posted by loquacious at 4:27 PM on December 11, 2006
When I compiled and previewed it, it seemed to be escaping properly as it didn't spill outside the post, and it didn't break the front page.
But I had no idea that it would pass through and show up in favorites and other places on MeFi.
I'm tempted to start a MetaTalk thread to help ferret out the numerous places it's being improperly passed.
Waxing metaphysical, it's interesting how complex and dynamic systems can be broadly effected by very small things. In this case, one character - supported by well intentioned behavior across multiple domains of interacting technology. (Unicode + modern browsers + international language support + database-driven website and engine.)
posted by loquacious at 4:27 PM on December 11, 2006
loquacious writes "I'm tempted to start a MetaTalk thread to help ferret out the numerous places it's being improperly passed."
Or just strip it period depending on whether just posting in a backwards contain thread is enough to mess up your comments page. I'm checking right after this comment.
posted by Mitheral at 4:30 PM on December 11, 2006
Or just strip it period depending on whether just posting in a backwards contain thread is enough to mess up your comments page. I'm checking right after this comment.
posted by Mitheral at 4:30 PM on December 11, 2006
Sure you do. That's how it looks to me anyways.
Oh yea, you're right. Just the first page though.
posted by octothorpe at 4:32 PM on December 11, 2006
Oh yea, you're right. Just the first page though.
posted by octothorpe at 4:32 PM on December 11, 2006
I believe the entity doesn't work because Matt is stripping all numeric HTML entities (due to securityish issues).
posted by MikeKD at 4:44 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by MikeKD at 4:44 PM on December 11, 2006
Is it weird that I can read all of this almost as easily as left-to-right text?
posted by Spike at 4:58 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by Spike at 4:58 PM on December 11, 2006
(This should include the Right To Left encoding character. For details on what's goin on here, rather than the Mirror Character magic, check the specs - it's pretty neat stuff, with real application:
http://unicode.org/reports/tr9/
posted by freebird at 5:04 PM on December 11, 2006
http://unicode.org/reports/tr9/
posted by freebird at 5:04 PM on December 11, 2006
This is exactly how AIDS got started.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:11 PM on December 11, 2006 [2 favorites]
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:11 PM on December 11, 2006 [2 favorites]
(( lol
posted by phylum sinter at 5:23 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by phylum sinter at 5:23 PM on December 11, 2006
.daerht siht evol gnikcuf I
posted by sdrawkcab at 5:26 PM on December 11, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by sdrawkcab at 5:26 PM on December 11, 2006 [1 favorite]
You can also use the bdo tag to make things backwards. It is probably the best tag ever.
posted by ph00dz at 5:29 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by ph00dz at 5:29 PM on December 11, 2006
So, what are the people who can do it doing to make it work?
posted by jack_mo at 5:38 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by jack_mo at 5:38 PM on December 11, 2006
It works in the form field on Firefox, but not on Safari or Webkit. TestThough Safari and Webkit will still display the mirror character and the text affected by the mirror character correctly.
posted by Colloquial Collision at 5:48 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by Colloquial Collision at 5:48 PM on December 11, 2006
The (tseT) in my previous comment is an error made on preview...Ah, what the hell, no one will read it anyway.
posted by Colloquial Collision at 5:50 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by Colloquial Collision at 5:50 PM on December 11, 2006
At first I thought loquacious actually registered a new user just to make this post.
posted by smackfu at 5:53 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by smackfu at 5:53 PM on December 11, 2006
!This is some wacky shit
posted by jason's_planet at 6:15 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by jason's_planet at 6:15 PM on December 11, 2006
I just want to add that if you read these closely, this is one of the most profane threads of all time. Also, bask in the one-time awesomeness of my MeFi name... tomorrow, I'm just a fist-smash mash of letters again...
posted by sdrawkcab at 6:34 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by sdrawkcab at 6:34 PM on December 11, 2006
Ha! This is awesome!
posted by brundlefly at 7:17 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by brundlefly at 7:17 PM on December 11, 2006
What the cockass is going on in here?
posted by danb at 7:22 PM on December 11, 2006 [2 favorites]
posted by danb at 7:22 PM on December 11, 2006 [2 favorites]
((ecin yrev
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 7:38 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 7:38 PM on December 11, 2006
?ereh ni no gniog si ssakcoc eht tahw: reltifateM.
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:46 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:46 PM on December 11, 2006
otto abba otto
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 7:50 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 7:50 PM on December 11, 2006
((I don't know how to get this thing to work so screw you guys, I'm going home!
posted by hojoki at 7:58 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by hojoki at 7:58 PM on December 11, 2006
I think my browser is broken. I can get it to work on the following words:
METATARSAL
OSTINATO
OVALTINE
:no ton tub
WOW
MA'AM
TOT
".MYTH" ,egami rorrim sti syalpsid ylegnarts "HTYM" dnA
Somebody please hope me.
posted by Opposite George at 8:29 PM on December 11, 2006
METATARSAL
OSTINATO
OVALTINE
:no ton tub
WOW
MA'AM
TOT
".MYTH" ,egami rorrim sti syalpsid ylegnarts "HTYM" dnA
Somebody please hope me.
posted by Opposite George at 8:29 PM on December 11, 2006
What the hell is going on here?
posted by interrobang at 8:44 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by interrobang at 8:44 PM on December 11, 2006
Hell if I know!
posted by loquacious at 8:53 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by loquacious at 8:53 PM on December 11, 2006
((
Weird, now my birthday will be known as "Backwards Day."
Oh, and I heard a cool palindrome yesterday, this one for people who work in the food service industry:
Stressed? No tips? Spit on desserts!
posted by jiawen at 9:38 PM on December 11, 2006
Done with bdo tag
posted by Joeforking at 10:08 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by Joeforking at 10:08 PM on December 11, 2006
There's a Flickr user who's used unicode in their user name - it confuses the crap out of me, and by the looks of it, the Flickr layout engine (the reversal carries on for other words in addition to the user name).
Pretty cool once you get your head around it... but I can't imagine that it will ever catch on.
posted by Chunder at 3:00 AM on December 12, 2006
Pretty cool once you get your head around it... but I can't imagine that it will ever catch on.
posted by Chunder at 3:00 AM on December 12, 2006
Happy birthday, jiawen!
And did you notice your username backwards looks like a homonym for "New age?"
posted by Opposite George at 3:48 AM on December 12, 2006
Happy birthday, jiawen!
And did you notice your username backwards looks like a homonym for "New age?"
posted by Opposite George at 3:48 AM on December 12, 2006
There are some nice instructions here
For more flexible use.
posted by rogerh at 5:55 AM on December 12, 2006
For more flexible use.
posted by rogerh at 5:55 AM on December 12, 2006
"This is bloody disgusting! My brain hurts!
:laer roF !thgiarts gninrut ti fo sepoh ni sdrawkcab ecnetnes siht epyt ot gniog yllaretil m'I woN
0rezrm rof hcraes dna F+lrtC tih dna tihs siht no ecruos egap eht weiV
Also, I'm totally LAME. Confused??
posted by mrzer0 at 7:04 AM on December 12, 2006
:laer roF !thgiarts gninrut ti fo sepoh ni sdrawkcab ecnetnes siht epyt ot gniog yllaretil m'I woN
0rezrm rof hcraes dna F+lrtC tih dna tihs siht no ecruos egap eht weiV
Also, I'm totally LAME. Confused??
posted by mrzer0 at 7:04 AM on December 12, 2006
Hebrew confuses the operation:
פרשנו רעבתן שבדבש נתבער ונשרף
تُوْت
خَوْخ
لَيْل
Νίψον ανομήματα μη μόναν όψιν
我愛媽媽，媽媽愛我
上海自來水來自海上
枯眼望遙山隔水，往來曾見幾心知。壺空怕酌一杯酒，筆下難成和韻詩。迷路阻人離別久，訊音無雁寄回遲。孤燈夜守長寥寂，夫憶妻兮父憶兒
tattarrattat
saippuakuppinippukauppias
Koortsmeetsysteemstrook
Kuulilennutunneliluuk
posted by meehawl at 9:01 AM on December 12, 2006
פרשנו רעבתן שבדבש נתבער ונשרף
تُوْت
خَوْخ
لَيْل
Νίψον ανομήματα μη μόναν όψιν
我愛媽媽，媽媽愛我
上海自來水來自海上
枯眼望遙山隔水，往來曾見幾心知。壺空怕酌一杯酒，筆下難成和韻詩。迷路阻人離別久，訊音無雁寄回遲。孤燈夜守長寥寂，夫憶妻兮父憶兒
tattarrattat
saippuakuppinippukauppias
Koortsmeetsysteemstrook
Kuulilennutunneliluuk
posted by meehawl at 9:01 AM on December 12, 2006
I was going to refrain from posting in this thread because it gives you a backwards comments page. Then I realized I could just post another comment in a different thread with the closing reverse tag, and all would be well.
...shit.it's a unicode character, not a tag. WHAT DO I DO NOW?!?!
posted by tehloki at 9:21 AM on December 12, 2006
...shit.it's a unicode character, not a tag. WHAT DO I DO NOW?!?!
posted by tehloki at 9:21 AM on December 12, 2006
the closing reverse tag
Does that really work?
posted by meehawl at 10:59 AM on December 12, 2006
Does that really work?
posted by meehawl at 10:59 AM on December 12, 2006
12345
12345
12345
Ah, it's all become çłεმл.
posted by meehawl at 2:29 PM on December 12, 2006
12345
12345
Ah, it's all become çłεმл.
posted by meehawl at 2:29 PM on December 12, 2006
I guess posting the unicode is the escape character on here?
posted by edverb at 9:18 PM on December 12, 2006
posted by edverb at 9:18 PM on December 12, 2006
For the historical record, the original post here was rendered entirely backward - including the "posted by" description tag - as some of the in-thread comments are backwards.
I had Matt (admin, site owner, mathowie, etc) try adding the closing tag to get the post to stop reversing stuff in people's my comments and in other on-site indexes but it broke the original reversed formatting. Attempts to recreate it via manually entering the unicode as an HTML entity or as a direct paste have failed to bring it back.
Ah, well. I'd like to thank Matt for being a good sport about it, since it effectively broke much of the site for 24 hours or more.
posted by loquacious at 4:10 PM on December 17, 2006
I had Matt (admin, site owner, mathowie, etc) try adding the closing tag to get the post to stop reversing stuff in people's my comments and in other on-site indexes but it broke the original reversed formatting. Attempts to recreate it via manually entering the unicode as an HTML entity or as a direct paste have failed to bring it back.
Ah, well. I'd like to thank Matt for being a good sport about it, since it effectively broke much of the site for 24 hours or more.
posted by loquacious at 4:10 PM on December 17, 2006
it seems like Metafilter breaks fairly easily... I nearly broke the frontpage with the tag, but jessamyn convinced matt to fix it before anything horrible could happen.
posted by tehloki at 4:34 PM on December 17, 2006
posted by tehloki at 4:34 PM on December 17, 2006
although, it looks like if you type < plaintext> in the comment window, it breaks the preview but is apparently stripped out of the actual posted comment, like above.
posted by tehloki at 4:35 PM on December 17, 2006
posted by tehloki at 4:35 PM on December 17, 2006
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This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Buzz at 3:00 PM on December 11, 2006