Reading the thread about CSI reminded me of a WTF I saw on How It's Made awhile back.

They were assembling desktop PCs. The case was being put on and they showed all the wires from LEDs and the power/reset switches. Apparently amongst those components needing to be wired to the case there is something called a 'computator'. Seriously.... Somehow all the machiens I've ever made never had their computator connected to the case and they seemed to work fine. I wonder if I was missing out.

I've often wondered if stuff like that is a result of a bored worker giving the show-crew bad info for a larf. The guy is explaining "this goes here, this goes here", the video crew looks bored, so he starts inventing things "now this here is the computator, it is the most awesomest piece of the computer!" and the video crew eats it up. I do stuff like that anyway. 

 Although I don't remember that specific part I had caught that episode and it made it look dangerously easy. Afterwards I was wondering how many people screwed up their computers after watching that. 

"What do you mean I shouldn't have hooked up my CDROM sound cable to the motherboard jumper?" 

 The real WTF is the show "How Its Made" in the first place. They must take pride in really being a completely useless show. There's no discussion of why, what or where, just "this happens, then this happens, then they do this, then this happens..." SNORE!

Give me Modern Marvels any day, geez.

Google Fu says other people noticed too.... http://video.aol.com/video-detail/the-computator/1217932522

Here's a clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWQ3BeJLnzw

I've read about this somewhere before.  Somebody suggested the following possible explanation: How It's Made is produced in Quebec and is done in both English and French.  In French the word for "switch" is "commutateur".  

JamesKilton:

 The real WTF is the show "How Its Made" in the first place. They must take pride in really being a completely useless show. There's no discussion of why, what or where, just "this happens, then this happens, then they do this, then this happens..." SNORE!

 

My thoughts *exactly*. I was quite excited when I first saw the show on TV, just to be disappointed by the complete lack of any substance whatsoever in the 5 minutes of condensed assembly line shots. What a stupid format.

 

As far as the computator is concerned, the status LEDs, the power/reset button and the pc speaker connect to the pin headers on the mainboard.  Though not the connector shown in the video, most mainboards also support USB, Firewire and audio jacks on the front panel of the computer. Therefore the computator is either

• a power switch
• a reset button
• usb/firewire connectors
• audio sockets

I'm thinking the front panel connectors are the most likely candidate, while the reset button makes for far more "impressive" jargon.

«Your computer has crashed? Please activate the computator to reinitialize the processing facilities.»

JoC:

there is something called a 'computator

 

Well, the show's produced in Quebec, where the Language Police make sure that French is the only thing you'll ever hear or read. It's probably a bad translation from the French script - the Frogs absolutely MUST have their own official French word for anything, heaven forbid you corrupt the language with something like "email" (has to be courriel). Even the Stop signs have to say Arretez, even though in Mother France the stop signs say... stop.

 

Nandurius:

JamesKilton:

 The real WTF is the show "How Its Made" in the first place. They must take pride in really being a completely useless show. There's no discussion of why, what or where, just "this happens, then this happens, then they do this, then this happens..." SNORE!

 

My thoughts *exactly*. I was quite excited when I first saw the show on TV, just to be disappointed by the complete lack of any substance whatsoever in the 5 minutes of condensed assembly line shots. What a stupid format.

 

You're not imbibing the right substances before watching.

 

the Frogs absolutely MUST have their own official French word for anything

and they say things like "chapeau" instead of "hat" and "oeuf" instead of "egg".  It's like they've made up a whole entire new language

 

El_Heffe:

It's like they've made up a whole entire new language

The point, of course, being that the French deliberately create new words for things that currently have a perfectly cromulent foreign word in the french language but, as yet, no specific french word (as opposed to the foreign word being pronounced in a french way.)

 'computer' springs to mind as an example. And http://www.css.qmul.ac.uk/foreign/eng-french.htm lists a few more cases of this 'Not Invented Here' behaviour.

El_Heffe:

and they say things like "chapeau" instead of "hat" and "oeuf" instead of "egg".  It's like they've made up a whole entire new language

 

Because of course there are no French loanwords in the English language.

MarcB:

even though in Mother France the stop signs say... stop

This would appear to be an oversight. They don't have to.

I'm pretty sure the guy says "commutator" with wrong emphasis. He's probably french-canadian himself. In french, "switch" is "commutateur" like someone said above. Wrong translation I guess

MarcB:

[snip] must have their own official French word for anything, [snip, e.g.] "email" (has to be courriel).

 

Yes, but it allows for the most *wonderful* word for spam, "pourriel" (pun on "pourri" -- french for rotten)!

AssimilatedByBorg:

MarcB:

[snip] must have their own official French word for anything, [snip, e.g.] "email" (has to be courriel).

 

Yes, but it allows for the most *wonderful* word for spam, "pourriel" (pun on "pourri" -- french for rotten)!

 

 

Blame the OQLF and their Grand dictionnaire terminologique for those portmanteaus. They must invent a french word for every new Technology term or buzzword: pourriel, polluriel, espiogiciel, blogue, balladodiffusion (podcasting),  and then the really silly ones, like blog addict = blogodépendant. Everybody still say SPAM and podcast in Quebec, except where this agency has jurisdiction, like government and public-funded media.

I dunno, eliminating 'podcast' altogether would be a positive in my book. It's just a synonym for "Made an MP3" which assumes the only possible way to play it is with an iPod. Kind of like the airline stewardesses telling you "If you have any cell phones, laptop computers, or ipods, turn them off now". Great! I'll be happy to keep my Sansa on during landing, idiot.