From: u502sou@bnhb484.de   
      
   Maybe I should have psted that here, not in .misc:   
      
   > I have read, long ago, a short story that I'll vaguely summarize:   
   >   
   > The Hero is a xenolinguist working in an exploration team on a newly   
   > discovered planet, trying to find out if the observed species are   
   > intelligent (because this would forbid human settlement).   
   >   
   > His software can't match on the sound samples, until he forces it   
   > to ignore the sound and match on the silence.   
   >   
   > (There was a joke programming language like that:   
   > [[Whitespace (programming language]].)   
   >   
   > (Some intra-humans romance involved.)   
   > Does anybody remember this? I suspect it might be from the 1980s, possibly   
   > late 1970s.   
   >   
   > (I read this translated to German, I assume it came from the English   
   >  language.)   
   >   
   > Regards   
   >         -is   
      
      
   --   
   A medium apple... weighs 182 grams, yields 95 kcal, and contains no   
   caffeine, thus making it unsuitable for sysadmins. - Brian Kantor   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)