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How many AAAAAs in Khaaaaaaaan?

Cory Doctorow at 7:31 am Fri, Jan 16, 2009

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As can be seen in this chart, "Google search results for "KH(Ax)N" for x=1 to 100," there's a real spike of "AAAAA"s around 40 and 50. That's a lot of reptitious typing! Also, you have to admire the bloody-minded preserverence of the folks over there at 97-100 "AAAAA"s. Also, RIP, Ricardo Montalban.

Google search results for "KH(Ax)N" for x=1 to 100 (via Negatendo)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • Anonymous

    Montalbhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

  • hubbledeej

    Overanalysis of this fabulous enraged screen scream = missing the point of its fabulousness.

    PS, there’s no second L in Montalban!

  • Ugly Canuck

    Hubbledeej:
    You Klingon bastard
    You killed my fun.

  • Tensegrity

    @4 overanalysis of overanalysis = missing the point of its fabulousness

  • keighvin

    KHAAAN’T!

  • mirrormonkey

    @Calyth: yeah, I was wondering what wierd syntax (Ax) was for character repetition, maybe its some python thing.

  • Reverend Loki

    That’s a lot of reptitious typing!

    Alternatively, that’s holding down the ‘a’ key for a whole 10 seconds, right?

    Hate to add to the over-analysis, but I’d be interested to see this data translated into length of time a user held down the ‘a’ key while typing ‘KHAN’. Keep in mind you have to reach a certain threshold of time to meet the “count as multiple keystrokes” requirement.

  • davewells

    Yes we KHAAAAAAAAN!!!!

  • Anonymous

    May I be the next to say …

    KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • loganbouchard

    what’s funny is that this article itself threw off their extensive research. now the results are different based on the number of varying khans on this page, and the main page.

  • mdh

    Yes We KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

  • TheChickenAndTheRice

    That’s hilarious. I love the idea of someone searching for Khan with 97 a’s in the first place.

  • Anonymous

    Ithink the number of “A”s is

    OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!

  • mdh

    kudos to Dave@14 for coming up with my joke a full half hour before I did.

  • coldspell

    I made a similar graph of Google search results for “in spaaaaaaaace”.

    I think spaaaace was the most common. The number of results quickly tapers off, but there are some surprising blips in the deep spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace queries.

    It’s also funny to see Google try to spell correct something like spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace:

    “Did you mean: spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace?”

  • justanotherusername

    The Internet Uncertainty Principle:
    “As it becomes widely known that a particular search returns few or no hits, that will cease to be the case.”

    Or more general: as soon as you publish something on the internet, it’s outdated.

  • trr

    Of course, all the hits for “Khan” with one ‘a’ is just all the people looking for Genghis Khan, Kubla Khan etc. And keyboards just repeat after you hold the key down for a second or two, no effort involved. See: bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb.

  • trr

    Dear Sirs:
    Please cancel my subscription to the internets. I hate reptitious [sic] typing.

  • noahpoah

    How many AAAAAs in Khaaaaaaaan?

    If I’m going to be pedantic, and boy am I ever, I would first point out that if we’re being case-sensitive, there are zero AAAAAs in Khaaaaaaaan. I would then point out that, if we are not being case-sensitive, there are 8/5 AAAAAs in Khaaaaaaaan.

  • craigiest

    Perhaps the modest peak around 40-50 (or failure to fall off) has to do with lines typically being about 80 characters long. If people have an aversion to their repetition of letters wrapping onto a second line, and begin Khaaaa… at some random place in the line their typing, the average length would be half a line, or 40.

  • nath

    Noting that the plot is on a logarithmic scale, the bigger spike is at 5 A’s. As you get closer to the bottom of the y axis and further out on x, the signal to noise ratio decreases, which causes the jagged points seen. If the plot were linear, you would just see an exponential curve for the tail with similar visual jags along the entire length.

  • wiskinator

    As a Khaaaaann I approve of this message

  • Xeni Jardin

    I thought that was a graph of the US stock market.

  • ErikO23

    i wonder how many of those hits are ytmnd sites

  • calyth

    It’s not KH(Ax)N, it’s KHA{1,100}N!

    (If you don’t get this, you’re not nerdy enough)

  • minTphresh

    RIP ricardo, may you rest forever in soft corinthian leathre!

  • SpocksBrain

    How many are in the script?

  • dculberson

    @Rev (#8): The problem there is that different computers have varying key repeat rates. So holding the “A” key down for 10 seconds on first a Macbook Pro then a Dell would yield a different number of As. And the repeat rate is user configurable, so if someone’s cranked up their repeat rate they’d get yet another different result.

  • SFRT4

    I am reminded of the book “Mathematics Made Difficult” by Carl Linderholm, in which he models the Peano integers by a countably infinite set of increasingly pretentious waiters at a fish-and-chips restaurant: plaice, plaaice, plaaaice, etc.

  • EH

    khaaaaaaan i have another piece of pie?