I’ve always been wondering what in the world does Kuro5hin mean.
From their FAQ:
No, it is most decidedly not ‘l337. It is a pun on Rusty’s name. Kuro5hin == corrosion == rust == rusty. The gratuitous “5” in the middle in an homage to the character “Da5id” in Neal Stephenson’s excellent Snow Crash. It started out as just an amusing thought that popped into Rusty’s head, and became an online alias. It stuck around as an online alias since it was not ever registered or used anywhere, being a word that he made up, as far as we know. And it became the domain name because all the other short snappy names were taken. “kuroshin.org” is now taken, but hey – it just points here anyway. 🙂
Update: John Prevost informs us that while “kuroshin” does not appear to be a valid Japanese compound, the roots “kuro” and “shin”, smooshed together, could be interpreted roughly as “dark devotion” or “black heart,” among other variants of that basic (gothicly depressing) theme. We thought that was pretty cool. For the record, Rusty does not know any Japanese, and the name was not supposed to be Japanese anyway. At least it did not turn out to mean “lustful ferret” or “Demon fetus” or something. A helpful reader submitted some links to the deeper meaning of Kuro5hin.org: kuro meanings, and shin meanings.