?sthetic Permissive License - For Approval

Rick Moen rick at linuxmafia.com
Sun Dec 30 01:51:03 UTC 2007


Quoting Lawrence Rosen (lrosen at rosenlaw.com):

> The two-line notice I suggested is, in some sense, a minimum that satisfies
> John Cowan's obscure "McQuary limit" test. I had to go to Google after
> reading John's email, never having heard of that test before. Here's the
> first hit:
> http://www.answers.com/topic/mcquary-limit-computer-jargon?cat=technology.

Ah, well, if you'd looked at http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/afw/faq.php3,
you'd have also seen:

   Q11. What is the McQuary limit?
   A11. "There once was a man from Nantucket,
        who lost his .sig in a bucket.
        Five lines was too long,
        columns 80 just strong,
        so he didn't know where to tuck it."
   A11. The limit on signature size:  "4x80".

Less colourfully, http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/afw/glossary.php3 comments:

   McQ
       short for "McQuary limit". adj.: adhering to the sig standard of
       "4x80", i.e., the maximum size of a signature tolerable in Usenet 
       posts and e-mails.  Named after George McQuary.

...and http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/afw/purpose.php3 elaborates:

   Signatures which follow the "Holy Rule of Signature Size" are thus
   conform to the "McQuary rule" and thus are called "McQ sigs" and
   "mcqsigs" for short. Some signatures include the word "McQ" to indicate
   a "true sig":

  _    Sir Bruce, K'niggit of Usenet   btomlin at aol.com  Tired: baseball cards
 _| ~-                  |    fnord      o=|===>         Wired: 2600 cartridges
 \, *_} <-- WINDCREST   |    "" - Helen Keller   February 23 1996: IT'S TIME!!
   \(                   |    Windows '95: "It Makes A Grown Man Cry"    | McQ!


-- 
Cheers,                       Ah, September, when the sysadmins turn colors
Rick Moen                     and fall off the trees....
rick at linuxmafia.com                                     -- Dave Van Domelen



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