Big BOOOOOBS!

Now that I have your attention, this story really is about Big Boobs.

Microsoft has contributed thousands of lines of code to the Linux kernel, the open source software at the heart of the widely used Linux operating system. And now, the software giant has contributed some controversy too.

Sometime over the past few years, as Microsoft beefed up the Linux kernel with code related to its Hyper-V virtualization software, one unidentified developer needed a name for a piece of code used by the software, and for some unknown reason, he went with this: 0xB16B00B5.

That’s leetspeak for “Big Boobs.”

Microsoft issued an apology that seemed completely sincere, and will be removing the code in an upcoming patch.  It happens, no hard feelings against Bill's House for this one.  One developer nailed it on his blog, showing he gets the real problem, however.

Red Hat kernel developer Matthew Garrett is not impressed. “At the most basic level, it’s just straightforward childish humour,” he wrote on his blog. “But it’s also specifically male childish humour. Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys club where girls aren’t welcome.”

Thank you, sir.  Well said.

In bonus awesomeness, a link from the article lets you translate any phrase you choose into leetspeak, binary, ASCII, even Morse code.  Enjoy!