《中英對照讀新聞》Microsoft fixes ’big boobs’ coding gaffe 微軟修補「大胸部」編碼烏龍

◎管淑平

Microsoft has swiftly fixed an embarrassing gaffe which saw a chunk of code labelled "big boobs".

微軟已迅速修補一段程式碼被標示成「大胸部」的尷尬烏龍。

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The hexadecimal string 0xB16B00B5 was discovered lurking in code that helps a Microsoft program work with Linux open source software. The string was used every time the Microsoft program ran a virtual version of Linux.

這段16進位字串0xB16B00B5，被發現隱藏在一個程式碼中。這個程式碼協助一個微軟程式與Linux開放原始碼軟體相容，每次在虛擬Linux系統上執行時，都會用到這段編碼。

The controversial string came to light on a mailing list for developers who oversee the core, or kernel, of Linux. Microsoft was alerted to the mistake and swiftly issued a statement. "We thank the community for reporting this issue and apologise for the offensive string," it said.

這個爭議字串是在Linux核心程式碼開發人員通信論壇中曝光。微軟經提醒察覺這個錯誤，並馬上發出聲明。「我們感謝這個社群告知此事，並為此冒犯性字串致歉」，微軟說。

Commenting on the gaffe, developer Dr Matthew Garrett noted that the first version of the Microsoft code used a similar string of 0x0B00B135 -- a form of letters that roughly translates to "boobies".

開發人員馬修．賈瑞特博士評論這起烏龍時，提到這個微軟程式碼的第一個版本，使用類似字串0x0B00B135，這串字大致地翻譯後是「胸部」。

"Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys’ club where girls aren’t welcome," Dr Garrett wrote.

「幼稚地拿胸部當嘲笑題材，更增加軟體開發是不歡迎女性的男生俱樂部的既定印象」，賈瑞特博士寫道。

新聞辭典：

lurk：動詞，潛伏、潛行。例句：The terrorists have lurked in the city for more than two years before the attack took place.（這場攻擊發生前，這批恐怖份子已潛伏在這座城市裡2年多。）

come to light：動詞片語，（某事）顯露出來、被發現、曝光。例句：More new details on the new product has came to light.（更多有關這項新產品的新詳細資料已經曝光。）

snigger：動詞或名詞，竊笑（他人的不幸遭遇或失敗），暗地嘲笑。例句：The school boys sniggered at her look.（這群男學生暗地嘲笑她的長相。）