this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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Microblog Memes

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[–] toynbee 2 points 6 hours ago

When I met the woman who is now my wife, instead of using <3, she would use <&. This reminded me of the graphic of the mouse from the classic game Rodent's Revenge. As a result, sometimes instead of saying more traditional expressions of love - textually or verbally - we will simply say "mouse heart."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 41 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
[–] essell 13 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

Could you explain it for the thickos like me?

[–] [email protected] 39 points 20 hours ago

The answer is that you type 2 characters to make a heart, which are the less than symbol < and 3, when together make a heart <3 And that's only 2 characters, which is less than 3. So the answer is both the instructions on how to type a heart and the number of characters required to type a heart.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)
[–] donuts 13 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

<3 looks like a heart on its side. Mathematically speaking, it means less than 3. And since it's 2 characters, that means the heart is less than 3, or <3

Edit: I love how three of us decided to explain at the same time in three different ways.

How many lemmings does it take to explain a joke? At least 3, it seems!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 20 hours ago

We are all so helpful! <3

[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

I’m old enough to remember when S2 was the common way to draw a heart..

..which ironically is also less than three characters!

[–] shrodes 16 points 22 hours ago

This feels like something Neil deGrasse Tyson would write.

You can kiss yourself in the mirror. But only on the lips.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 21 hours ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago

Mark that NSFW man, geez!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago
[–] capuccino 11 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] LongLive 9 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] capuccino 7 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago

I wish I could double up-vote this. It deserves it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

No the shift key counts too, it takes 2 to make the ‘<‘ plus one more for ‘3’.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Characters, not keystrokes

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Plus, I'm a programmer and type <>, (), {}, and [] enough that I have them bound to non-shift keys. So even if we were counting keystrokes, it'd still be fewer than three on my keyboard.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

You also have to include how many mouse clicks/keys you used yo bind them to non-shift keys

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

What, are you saying we're counting one-time configuration costs? If so, the hundred or so configuration clicks are still utterly dwarfed by the tens of thousands of saved keystrokes. Statistical noise.

Anyway, I ruined the joke by correcting the grammar. "Less than 3" is "<3", whether it took a hundred keystrokes to type or not. "Fewer than three" breaks the joke.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

All previous clicks should be counted, including installing linux, opening firefox/a firefox fork and arguing with strangers only about how many clicks are needed to type "<3"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 56 minutes ago (1 children)

Good point, but I think it doesn't go far enough. I think we need to include all of the key clicks and mouse movements needed to develop the Linux kernel and GNU tools, plus everything that went into designing and delivering the keyboard to you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 50 minutes ago (1 children)

Dont forget about the invention and evolution of the computer

[–] [email protected] 1 points 43 minutes ago

How many clicks do you think were needed to cause the Big Bang?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 hours ago