FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994)

Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by cdchn on Sunday May 26, 2024 @07:57PM (#40486403)

I was under the impression the DIZ was because it first appeared on a BBS called DiZZYboard iirc

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by BennyH26 on Sunday May 26, 2024 @05:53PM (#40485732)

Same here. This is the first thing I looked up when I saw the article.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by fullstop on Sunday May 26, 2024 @05:51PM (#40485719)

As a kid, I always assumed that it was "description" but in some other language which I was unfamiliar with.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by spitfire on Sunday May 26, 2024 @06:27PM (#40485983)

Leetspeak. As a kid, you should have known leetspeak.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by dylan604 on Sunday May 26, 2024 @06:47PM (#40486095)

Yes, but which color book was this term first used? Then we'll establish how l337 you are or are not

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by fragmede on Sunday May 26, 2024 @06:55PM (#40486145)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U9MI0u2VIE

https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/10997/wer...

great scene.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by herodoturtle on Monday May 27, 2024 @02:20AM (#40488133)

I’m the biggest fan of Hackers but that scene has always irked me.

They’re all so impressed with Dade’s knowledge yet he simply appears to be reading the cover title of each book as it gets passed.

Someone please give me a meta explanation that justifies this so that my inner fanboy can sleep better at night. I’ve probably watched Hackers 100s of times. Best love story ever.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by doublerabbit on Monday May 27, 2024 @10:23AM (#40490986)

The nicknames given to each book is what he's being tested on.

"The dragoon book", "That ugly red book that wont sit on the shelf" and so on.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by fragmede on Monday May 27, 2024 @12:19PM (#40492174)

physical books weren't just given away to anyone who asked back then, so getting a copy of one is an achievement in the first place so the assumption is if you got it, you read it and by reading the title out loud he's saying I know what's in those books, like the anarchist cookbook

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by bytearray on Sunday May 26, 2024 @06:40PM (#40486061)

Um, I think you mean 1337

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by Scotrix on Sunday May 26, 2024 @06:57PM (#40486161)

not to be mistaken with 31337 ;-)

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by 31337Logic on Sunday May 26, 2024 @08:27PM (#40486541)

Oh, hi there! ;^)

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by xtracto on Sunday May 26, 2024 @10:12PM (#40487046)

I think .diz preceeded leetspeak by a couple of years.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by euroderf on Monday May 27, 2024 @02:16AM (#40488107)

FWIW, leetspeak is just a calligraphic flourish away from feetspeak.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by lloeki on Monday May 27, 2024 @01:48AM (#40487952)

I assumed it was short for "distribution", stylised.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by ahartmetz on Monday May 27, 2024 @04:32AM (#40488859)

I thought it was leetspeak for "this", so FILE_ID.DIZ was "file to identify this"

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by drbig on Sunday May 26, 2024 @05:56PM (#40485745)

Indeed!

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by foresto on Sunday May 26, 2024 @11:33PM (#40487350)

I assumed it was because "diz" was "zip" rotated 180°.

"Description In Zip" seems like it could be a backronym.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by lloeki on Monday May 27, 2024 @01:49AM (#40487962)

I remember those as far back as filesystems were 8.3 all caps, so D would not rotate to P though.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by foresto on Monday May 27, 2024 @02:03AM (#40488031)

I think the way it was conceived is orthogonal to the way it is encoded or displayed.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by b3lvedere on Monday May 27, 2024 @03:13AM (#40488423)

I have seen thousands and thousands of those files and until now it never clicked that you could kinda rotate 180° that. Thank you!

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by wengo314 on Monday May 27, 2024 @04:12AM (#40488743)

i just thought it was "this" shortened to DOS standards.

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by weinzierl on Monday May 27, 2024 @05:41AM (#40489212)

Same, and still makes the most sense to me.

"Description In Zip" has the typical clunkiness of a backronym and the 180° theory suffers from the fact that filenames (as lloeki rightfully pointed out) were usually presented in all uppercase (even when lowercase was available) in that era.

Phonetically shortening stuff on the other hand was almost a requirement in the scene, even if you had the space.

EDIT: Thinking about it "identify this" is well in line with "read me".

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by xnx on Monday May 27, 2024 @07:14AM (#40489693)

Singular of "deez"

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Re:FILE_ID.DIZ Description (1994) by ale42 on Monday May 27, 2024 @06:48AM (#40489532)

Lol, when I was seeing them around as a teenager I was thinking to DIZ as "dizionario" in Italian (dictionary)... of course, had I thought a bit more, I could have figured out that it was probably not Italian.

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