# How do computers work? from 27-Sept-1999

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-computers-work-from-27-sept-1999/1374>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [December 7, 1999, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-computers-work-from-27-sept-1999/1374 "1999-12-07T16:58:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jekronenfeld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@jekronenfeld](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jekronenfeld)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 1999, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-computers-work-from-27-sept-1999/1374/1 "1999-12-07T16:58:00Z")

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In this column you wrote: '. . .the  
ultimate programming tool is produced: MicroSoft Excel. . . '. I took this for the sarcasm I sure it must be. A coworker in my office, however, took it at face value and claims it must be true, else why would Cecil (or his elves) write it.

Please, release my friend from your evil power and tell him that it was a put-on. Excel is not a programming language (by normal terminology, though it does use VBA as a support tool) and that you were only kidding.

Please!

Jerry

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-computers-work-from-27-sept-1999/1374/2 "1999-12-08T06:15:00Z")

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Yeah, great idea, from now on we’ll footnote every comment in one of the articles that is a joke, a sarcasm, a satiric comment, or an insult.\* How about metaphors, we need to footnote those, too?\*\*

\*Sarcastic remark.#  
\*\* Profound philosophical question.

# The footnote is, itself, also a sarcastic remark.

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**Author:** ![ravenous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4491bb/32.png) [@ravenous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ravenous)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-computers-work-from-27-sept-1999/1374/3 "1999-12-20T20:02:00Z")

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Uh…I don’t think that answers gonna fly with the tone-deaf friend if he didn’t get the sarcasm the first time. Nested sarcasm is even harder to parse.

Rav

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**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-computers-work-from-27-sept-1999/1374/4 "1999-12-22T06:39:00Z")

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Oh my god, now we are having to develope a calculus for understanding wit! I can see the class on college campuses: Basic Wit 100, Corny Wit 110, Puns and Their Offspring (Wit 666), and the always popular Putdowns and Ascerbic Comments (Wit 199).

Tell me, do you nest with {{ or [[ in wit? 😉

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**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-computers-work-from-27-sept-1999/1374/5 "1999-12-22T05:31:00Z")

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I nest with whichever chick will take me.