On Mon, Jan 24, 2005 at 03:18:56PM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> Michael Fuhr <mike@fuhr.org> writes:
> > "Allballs" is slang for "all zeros" because zeros look like balls.
> > You hear it sometimes in environments that use a 24-hour clock
> > (communications, military, etc.). Here's an example:
>
> > http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/bsf2-3.html
>
> > I don't know that "allballs" is specified in any standard, so I
> > suspect that somebody who used the term added it to PostgreSQL
> > (or whatever it was called at the time) for convenience.
>
> I'm sure it isn't in any SQL standard ;-). Tom Lockhart is doubtless
> responsible for it being in our code; I suppose he put it in because it
> is in reasonably common use at JPL.
>
> regards, tom lane
Actually I think all of the weird psuedonyms for 000000 were in
postgres very early on. I remember seeing them in illustra
and we branched postgres in 1992. So I blame funky grad students.
--elein
