Basic Negate Question

[JJoe]

If I understand correctly,

Code:

(src|href)="http://*.(^arstechnica).*

(^arstechnica) doesn't actually 'consume' anything. It just checks to see if arstechnica is not there.
So, the part of the expression that 'consumes' is (src|href)="http://*..* and it doesn't match much.

Code:

(src|href)="http://*.(^arstechnica.)*
against
href="http://static.arstechnica.com/apple/

The (src|href)="http://*.(^arstechnica.) part does match href="http://static.arstechnica. as arstechnica. is not followed by arstechnica.
*.(^arstechnica.) didn't stop looking for a match after static. was found.

Code:

http://\0.(^arstechnica.)\1\2

This will fail when every period is followed by "arstechnica.". Probably not going to happen.
\1 will always be empty.

Why do these match http://static.rstechnica.com/apple/ but not http://static.arstechnica.com/apple/ or do they?

http://(^*.arstechnica)*
http://([^.]+.(^arstechnica))+{1,*}*
http://((*.)+{1}(^arstechnica))+{1,*}*

HTH