this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2025
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I mean fair enough, but it made me laugh.

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[–] [email protected] 102 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ English (Traditional)

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ English (Simplified)

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ English

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡² Pidgin English

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A pidgin language is a simplified language that appears when people need to communicate with each other, but they don't have a common language. But if the situation lasts long enough for children to grow up learning the mixture of languages as their native language then it quickly evolves into a creole. The difference is that a creole is not a simplified language, and it has regular grammar. While growing up children always "reanalyze" their language to regularize grammar and fill in gaps in expressiveness. This is a main driver in shifts in all languages. The effect is especially profound when starting from an irregular, simplified language.

Because of reanalysis pidgins tend to either be temporary, or to give way to creoles. I don't know of a pidgin that exists in the US right now. There are creoles - there are some details here

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

Okay. Duly noted and amended...

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ English

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡² Fuckwit

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

I dunno if I would say πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ is traditional. At the time of the American Revolution, the British accent was pretty close to what's considered an American accent today.

Check out this video around 13:40 https://youtu.be/KYaqdJ35fPg

[–] [email protected] 77 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

Throwback to Microsoft renaming "zip file" to "postcode file" in English.

The difference here obviously being that actual humans worked on the localisation Mint uses, whereas I'm sure Microsoft just uses machine translation.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yeah, this feels like a courtesy thing. I just didn't expect it.

(And only just now noticed after switching three weeks ago since this was the first time I had to delete anything in all that time.)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

Ah yes, the old "packed octet sequence, total compression of data encoding" format. It was invented by the boffins at Bletchley between cracking Enigma, and don't let Phil Katz tell you any different. ~waggles finger~

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

That's funny, I hadn't heard that before. Situations like this is why actual humans will always make better translators (overall).

Native readers can almost always tell when something was just run through a translation tool, because translation is about meaning, not just word/phrase replacement. Even LLMs will make weird contextual mistakes because there's no fundamental understanding of meaning.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I've never associated .zip files with mailing addresses, a lot of the time they have a zipper pull tab as if you're zipping up tight clothing around them to make them smaller. Nothing to do with the Zone Improvement Plan.

Amusing fact: There was a tool similar to winzip or winRAR for the classic mac called "Stuffit" which I think is the most superior name.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don't think they are, it was just Microsoft screwing things up. I've never heard someone call them postcode archives.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

yeah it's an exapmlenof the Scunthorpe problem.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Several years back, I set my phone's language to UK English so the voice assistant would be British, and my flashlight button changed to "Torch".

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Which is objectively a better word. Ah Americans - twice the syllables, twice the letters, and it doesn't even flash!

Reminiscent of "elevator", except that has four times the syllables! "Transportation" (transport), "burglarize" (burgle), "garbage collector" (dustman), "apartment" (flat)... I'm detecting a pattern.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It's nice that in Star Trek they went with British English for their turbolifts.

Can you imagine having to say turboelevator in a hurry? shudders

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They can flash by pressing the button. On some flashlights partially pressing and releasing the button flashes the light off and on. That's a notable difference from, say, lanterns where you need a cover or shield for signalling.

The problem with "torch" is that there's already a thing called "torch", and now I don't know which thing you mean. The word "flashlight" has avoided critical ambiguity in many of our Indiana Jones movies.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

They can flash by pressing the button

Oh come on, this is obvious post-hoc justification!

The problem with β€œtorch” is that there’s already a thing called β€œtorch”,

Indeed, it's a thing that you hold in your hand to provide light, as it has been for thousands of years.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Which is objectively a better word. Ah Americans - twice the syllables, twice the letters, and it doesn't even flash!

Except torch is a fancy stick with one end on fire. Flashlight is a light giving an intense flash, used for photographing at night or indoors.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

You seem to be German. I just looked up "flash" and it means Blitzlicht in German. Hope that helps.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago

Now this is the kind of innovation we need

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

Never really thought about it, but yeah, it's always been "Rubbish Bin" for me.

The directories created on filesystems for temporary storage are still called .Trash-* though.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oy! Mum's the word, old chap, don't go blabbing to the Yanks, or they'll be removing it faster than a Londoner can say "cheerio"!

Sorry

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So you're saying they should hit the rubout button?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Blimey, that horse has already bolted :(

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Can confirm. It always seems overly verbose, though. Why not just bin? Or Rubbish? Nobody IRL would ever say "rubbish bin".

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I guess because 'bin' is a shorthand of 'binary', that is, the directory where all your executable files reside, so the developers felt a need to clarify that /usr/bin isn't to be cleaned.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I thought the 'bin' folder in program folders was where they put trash for longer than I'd like to admit. >_<

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Well, that's better than moving all your binaries to the rubbish bin

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is your garbage little endian or big endian?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

It's a Python source with an executable flag set.

I guess plaintext garbage is big-endian.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Ya put it in the bin

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Just don't put the stuff to delete in /bin or /usr/bin

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Right, it goes in ~/.local/bin for safe keeping.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Did you move to the UK Squid?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I did. Left the U.S. with my daughter on January 20th, arrived here on January 21st.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm so happy for you! Well done getting the hell out of there.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thank you. Now I need a job.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Best of luck. I'm just glad you got out! Was it hard to do?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

No, I have dual US/UK citizenship (until Trump decides to revoke my US citizenship, which wouldn't shock me). But I need to find a job paying at least Β£29,000 a year so my daughter can stay on a family visa. She's currently only here on a 6 month visitor visa. My wife is also still in the US and won't be coming over until I secure it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago