OT: Regex

[Paul Foraker]

According to my non-resident genius cousin (computer science student at 
UCSB),

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me: do you know what m|n>k means?

him: sure, in a programming context, it means "if m bitwise or with n 
is greater than k"

me: thank you!

him: sure sure 
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me: and... what's it mean? 
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him: hehehe

me: so, bitwise, meaning counted as bits
so, the bits it takes to represent m or n is more than it takes to 
represent k
?

him: so, (m | n) is almost like an add... let's see... so if any bit in 
either variable is a 1, then in the result that bit is also a 1
so if m were, say, 100 (in binary), and n were 010, the result of m | n 
would be 110

me: (lying through my teeth) Ok, thanks, I get the idea.

him: sure, sure

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On Tuesday, Jan 13, 2004, at 13:37 US/Pacific, J. Landman Gay wrote:

> I saw this in someone's tagline months ago in a non-computer 
> newsgroup. It has been on my desk blotter ever since, and every once 
> in a while I try to figure it out. Anyone have a clue?
>
>   m|n>k
>
> The beginning looks like "moron" to me, or maybe "more and". But who 
> knows, it could be something else entirely. It's driving me nuts.