from: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/10/lhc.collider/index.html#cnnSTCOther1

check out the TOTEM tab. 

"Exactly how big is a proton? The Total Cross Section, Elastic Scattering and Diffraction Dissociation (TOTEM) experiment will use silicon sensors..."

How the hell do you get TOTEM out of that?

campkev:

The Total Cross Section, Elastic Scattering and Diffraction Dissociation

 Wait, there isn't even a m in it...

Better suited for Funny Stuff though I think.

campkev:

from: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/10/lhc.collider/index.html#cnnSTCOther1

check out the TOTEM tab. 

"Exactly how big is a proton? The Total Cross Section, Elastic Scattering and Diffraction Dissociation (TOTEM) experiment will use silicon sensors..."

 

How the hell do you get TOTEM out of that?

Almost certainly by spelling it in a language other than English, which is hardly surprising because CERN is located in Switzerland, and the English-speaking nations are falling behind in the sciences and are unlikely to get back up to speed any time soon, so there's no need to cater to us. In another 20 years or so, we'll be lucky if physics students don't have to learn a second language just to study the subject.

cnn:

lawsuits allege it could generate black holes that could eat the earth

fair enough, though that all the other acronyms appear to be English-based. 

campkev:

fair enough, though that all the other acronyms appear to be English-based.

Oh yeah, all those English acronyms at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

You wouldn't, by any chance, happen to be American, would you?

The Vicar:

...and the English-speaking nations are falling behind in the sciences and are unlikely to get back up to speed any time soon, so there's no need to cater to us. In another 20 years or so, we'll be lucky if physics students don't have to learn a second language just to study the subject.

[citation needed] 

rfsmit:

campkev:

fair enough, though that all the other acronyms appear to be English-based.

Oh yeah, all those English acronyms at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

You wouldn't, by any chance, happen to be American, would you?

He's talking about the LHC acronyms, which all seem to be based on English. 

 It stands for TOTal and Elastic Measurement.

 TOTal cross-section and Elastic Measurement - TOTEM.

 From the papers associated with the device, it looks like they changed the name to the above but kept the acronym.

morbiuswilters:

He's talking about the LHC acronyms, which all seem to be based on English.

The LHC is at CERN. You're not getting this, are you?

rfsmit:

morbiuswilters:

He's talking about the LHC acronyms, which all seem to be based on English.

 

The LHC is at CERN. You're not getting this, are you?

CERN is not an English acronym, but all of the LHC projects appear to be.   The OP noticed this and assumed that TOTEM must be an English acronym as well, which it was.  Your response implies that because CERN is not an English acronym, the LHC projects must not be either, which is patently false.

The only thing I'm getting is the sense that somebody's public education system failed them. 

morbiuswilters:

CERN is not an English acronym.

No, it certainly is English. And French. Aside from standing for "Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleair", it also stands for "European Organization for Nuclear Research". 

Poor kid.

rfsmit:

morbiuswilters:

CERN is not an English acronym.

 

No, it certainly is English. And French. Aside from standing for "Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleair", it also stands for "European Organization for Nuclear Research". 

Poor kid.

At least he's not dyslexic.

rfsmit:

morbiuswilters:

CERN is not an English acronym.

 

No, it certainly is English. And French. Aside from standing for "Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleair", it also stands for "European Organization for Nuclear Research".

No.  Yes.  Yes.

Clearly CERN is not based off of English, even if the acronym itself is used in English.  I'm not sure what your point even is, as now you are contradicting your first post which was what started this whole thing.

You wouldn't, by any chance, happen to be severely brain-damaged, would you? 

morbiuswilters:

Clearly CERN is not based off of English, even if the acronym itself is used in English.

HOORAY! You got it! 

morbiuswilters:

  I'm not sure what your point even is,

Well, lack of comprehension is your problem, not mine.

morbiuswilters:

as now you are contradicting your first post which was what started this whole thing.

No, I'm being pretty consistent in pointing out that in English usage, the English word "CERN" is an acronym for "European Organization for Nuclear Research". Just because it's irrational doesn't mean it's not true.

...aaaaaaannnndddd right around here we get back to the OP, who was puzzled that "TOTEM" didn't appear to fit its definition.

See how both are irrational? Probably not...

See trwtf is that the OP (and you, by all accounts) have never before come across acronyms that don't fit their definitions. Stick in the technology industry kid, you'll come across a few more.

rfsmit:

morbiuswilters:

Clearly CERN is not based off of English, even if the acronym itself is used in English.

HOORAY! You got it!

rfsmit:

No, it certainly is English.

rfsmit:

morbiuswilters:

  I'm not sure what your point even is,

Well, lack of comprehension is your problem, not mine.

Your lack of coherency is the problem of the poor bastards who have to interact with you on a daily basis, not this forum's.

rfsmit:

No, I'm being pretty consistent in pointing out that in English usage, the English word "CERN" is an acronym for "European Organization for Nuclear Research". Just because it's irrational doesn't mean it's not true.

It's not irrational and nobody ever claimed it was.  Nor have I seen anyone say it stood for anything else.  You are the one who jumped in with the senseless comment in the first place.

rfsmit:

...aaaaaaannnndddd right around here we get back to the OP, who was puzzled that "TOTEM" didn't appear to fit its definition.

Which was pointed out by myself and another poster to be the result of a change in the scope of the original project, with the original name fitting the acronym.  One of the first theories was that it wasn't based on English to which the OP replied that all the other acronyms in the project were.  You then blundered in like an intoxicated elephant and told everyone what CERN stood for, which nobody had given the slightest indication of not knowing.  You had some moronic question about the OP's nationality as your stinger, adding even less to the debate.

rfsmit:

See how both are irrational? Probably not...

No, they are both quite rational.  CERN is an acronym based on French.  When translated to English the full name does not match the acronym, which would have been expected by anyone who had ever encountered the concept of differing languages before.  TOTEM is based on English and the project was simply renamed without modifying the catchy acronym.

rfsmit:

See trwtf is that the OP (and you, by all accounts) have never before come across acronyms that don't fit their definitions.

I can't speak for the OP, but I'm not sure what cocktail of anti-psychotics imbued you with the delusion that I have never encountered such.  This is especially odd, since I was the first person to actually point out the reason for the discrepancy, which clearly indicates I was not surprised in the slightest.

rfsmit:

Stick in the technology industry kid, you'll come across a few more.

Dear, merciful Lord,

Please do not let this man work in the same industry as me.  He is obviously one of those doddering WTF factories that takes pleasure in providing half-baked corrections to others' mistakes that exist only in his rapidly-deteriorating gray matter.  I imagine those around him fall prey to his sad ramblings on a near-daily basis, finding the strength to listen to his delirium only through fantasizing about the sweet embrace of death.  Having only experienced his grating, inane personality for a few minutes total, I find myself praying for blessed release.

Love,

Morbius 

morbiuswilters:

You then blundered in like an intoxicated elephant

morbiuswilters:

I'm not sure what cocktail of anti-psychotics imbued you with the delusion that I have never encountered such.

morbiuswilters:

Dear, merciful Lord,

Please do not let this man work in the same industry as me.  He is obviously one of those doddering WTF factories that takes pleasure in providing half-baked corrections to others' mistakes that exist only in his rapidly-deteriorating gray matter.  I imagine those around him fall prey to his sad ramblings on a near-daily basis, finding the strength to listen to his delirium only through fantasizing about the sweet embrace of death.  Having only experienced his grating, inane personality for a few minutes total, I find myself praying for blessed release.

 Because some of you have recently complained about over-moderation, I'll handle this thread through a completey democratic poll:

Should this thread be...

[ ] deleted

[ ] cleaned up (offensive posts removed)

[ ] locked

[ ] left unmoderated

ammoQ:

 Because some of you have recently complained about over-moderation, I'll handle this thread through a completey democratic poll:

Should this thread be...

[ ] deleted

[ ] cleaned up (offensive posts removed)

[ ] locked

[x] left unmoderated

 

ammoQ:

 Because some of you have recently complained about over-moderation, I'll handle this thread through a completey democratic poll:

Should this thread be...

[ ] deleted

[ ] cleaned up (offensive posts removed)

[ ] locked

[ ] left unmoderated

 

[x] printed and then burned 

ammoQ:

[ ] deleted

[ ] cleaned up (offensive posts removed)

[ ] locked

[ ] left unmoderated

[X] forgotten and never mentioned again

ammoQ:

 Because some of you have recently complained about over-moderation, I'll handle this thread through a completey democratic poll:

Should this thread be...

[x ] left unmoderated

[x ] left unmoderated

[x ] left unmoderated

[x ] left unmoderated

ammoQ:

 Because some of you have recently complained about over-moderation, I'll handle this thread through a completey democratic poll:

Should this thread be...

[ ] deleted

[ ] cleaned up (offensive posts removed)

[ ] locked

[x ] left unmoderated

 

DrJokepu:

 off-topic but otherwise interesting debates dont kill kittens - moderation does

 

I don't think anyone is complaining about the off-topic, but interesting debates ... I think it's just the insults and flaming that we can do without.  It would be great if the topic continues, and the debate continues, which is the whole point of trying to moderate -- to eliminate the trolling, flaming, de-railing and let people enjoy their discussions.

It is interesting, however, that just the other day you reported a post violation, claiming it was a flame and you actually requested that it should be moderated .... 

Jeff S:

 

It is interesting, however, that just the other day you reported a post violation, claiming it was a flame and you actually requested that it should be moderated .... 

bstorer:

Jeff S:

It is interesting, however, that just the other day you reported a post violation, claiming it was a flame and you actually requested that it should be moderated .... 

No it isn't.  You keep bringing up this point with the implied accusation that the people who do it are two-faced.  Have you ever considered that they're just looking for a little consistency?  I'd bet that they'd far and away prefer less heavy-handed moderation, but failing that, they want you guys to be equally heavy-handed to everyone.

If I wanted to say someone is two-faced, I'd come out and say that.  And I am not saying that.  I am simply repeating the common theme here, which is ironically the opposite of what you just wrote.  The forum abusers here don't want consistency -- they want to be able to troll, insult, flame, derail, and so on, but they don't want others outside of their little group to do the same.   That's been proven and demonstrated over and over by the actions and the reports we get .... The moderators are the ones who want consistency; but, it is tough for us, because if we delete every inappropriate flame and insult and troll, we pretty much delete 50% of the posts from one or two users (and you know who they are) so we let it slide for those users far too much in an effort to let them still contribute.  So, again ironically, any inconsistencies with the moderation go in the favor of the two biggest flamers/trolls we have here.  

And, by the way, in a simpler and more literal note, I was replying to what I quoted -- he wrote a tag that denounces the act of moderation, yet he also requests that things he doesn't like be moderated. I wouldn't call that being two-faced, but rather I'd call it being ... inconsistent (hey, there's that word again!) . Wouldn't you? 

The Vicar:

Almost certainly by spelling it in a language other than English, which is hardly surprising because CERN is located in Switzerland, and the English-speaking nations are falling behind in the sciences and are unlikely to get back up to speed any time soon, so there's no need to cater to us. In another 20 years or so, we'll be lucky if physics students don't have to learn a second language just to study the subject.

So? German was the language of science until +- 1940. After a large decrease between 1940 and 1960 (how o how could that have been...) it gained some importance until it was about a important as French (which has remained quite steady since it's decline in the 19th century). Thanks to increasing globalisation (including internet) English has been on a steady rise.

I never quite understood why in all langange, AIDS is called AIDS but in french it is called SIDA ...

Monkios:

I never quite understood why in all langange, AIDS is called AIDS but in french it is called SIDA ...

bstorer:

 

Monkios:

I never quite understood why in all langange, AIDS is called AIDS but in french it is called SIDA ...

The French are extremely protective of their language because they've got an outdated view of their importance at the global level.

Jeff S:

If I wanted to say someone is two-faced, I'd come out and say that.  And I am not saying that.  I am simply repeating the common theme here, which is ironically the opposite of what you just wrote.  The forum abusers here don't want consistency -- they want to be able to troll, insult, flame, derail, and so on, but they don't want others outside of their little group to do the same.   That's been proven and demonstrated over and over by the actions and the reports we get .... The moderators are the ones who want consistency; but, it is tough for us, because if we delete every inappropriate flame and insult and troll, we pretty much delete 50% of the posts from one or two users (and you know who they are) so we let it slide for those users far too much in an effort to let them still contribute.  So, again ironically, any inconsistencies with the moderation go in the favor of the two biggest flamers/trolls we have here.  

And, by the way, in a simpler and more literal note, I was replying to what I quoted -- he wrote a tag that denounces the act of moderation, yet he also requests that things he doesn't like be moderated. I wouldn't call that being two-faced, but rather I'd call it being ... inconsistent (hey, there's that word again!) . Wouldn't you?

This is nonsense.  Look at this thread for proof: I didn't start the flaming, I just mocked the guy who did.  I don't start flamewars, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let people say stupid shit without being called on it.  So, yeah, I end up in a lot of idiotic arguments that I would prefer to avoid, but in my mind it's the best possible scenario.  The alternatives are: 1) ignoring the mental midgets and letting this degrade even further until it is as nauseating as Slashdot or 2) reporting every troll and relying on the notoriously fickle judgement of the moderators in deciding what to censor.  Either way I'm fucked and this site ends up a lot less interesting.  By fighting back against this kind of garbage I hope to reduce the overall amount of flaming by discouraging people from posting ridiculous nonsense and to correct their errors so rational people don't pick them up and spread them further.

I haven't been in a flamewar that someone else didn't start.  I never post political opinions unless some ignorant person goes there first.  I stand up against the inaccuracies and anti-American propaganda that seem more and more common here, and I'm not the only one, I'm just the most active and notable.  I call people out on "technology X sucks" statements that don't have any support and I try my best to correct misconceptions about tech issues.  Honestly, I'm only here to discuss technology and crack jokes.  If I want to get into political flamewars, I'll go somewhere else.  Jeff, perhaps you need to start reading the posts I am responding to.  I try to prevent escalation of conflict and give tit-for-tat where necessary, like in this thread.  I'd much rather that people like rfsmit not start bullshit to begin with, but note that it was he who invoked a nationalistic non-sequitur to begin with and it was he who continually insulted my intelligence and knowledge when I clearly knew more about the situation than him.

So how to we handle asshats like him?  I'm sick of being the easy target for everyone who wants to bitch about the flamefests but never wants to do anything about them.  Maybe some other regulars could post a firm "we don't appreciate political/nationalist/technology flamebaiting here, please do not do this" instead of doing nothing.  You moderators are supposed to be the ones handling this crap, but you guys are always a day late and a dollar short.  You either moderate long after the flamewar has gotten out of control or you come in with the attitude of "oh, another morbuis flamewar" and delete everything by me while leaving the original flamebait intact.  At least when we were mostly self-moderated under ammoQ we could drive the trolls out or reform them.  Now any attempt ends up stifled.  Despite what you guys seem to think, I have no interest in these flamewars.  I find them tedious and exhausting, but I'm also afraid of seeing this place go the way of Slashdot.  I was a devoted reader of Slashdot in the early days and as the comments started moving towards blatant political flamebaiting, anti-MS FUD and crazy conspiracy theories I didn't do anything because I thought it was better to remain silent and let the peer-moderation system handle it.  Today Slashdot is such a horror that I can't read more than the first two comments without wanting to cancel my membership in the human race.  I like this place and I don't want to see the same thing happen here, although I increasingly suspect that nothing can stop it.

Jeff S:

It is interesting, however, that just the other day you reported a post violation, claiming it was a flame and you actually requested that it should be moderated .... 

DrJokepu:

Most of these things are pushed by the Canadian French (Quebecois) because they fear that their language is endangered.

rfsmit:

campkev:

fair enough, though that all the other acronyms appear to be English-based.

Oh yeah, all those English acronyms at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

You wouldn't, by any chance, happen to be American, would you?

I was referring to the names of the other projects mentioned. Like:

ALICE - A Large Ion Collider Experiment

CMS - Compact Muon Solenoid

LHCb - the part of the Large Halon Collider examining the decay of B mesons

LHCf - the part of the Large Halon Collider the will detect pions moving in the Forward directions

CERN is obviously from one of the romance languages, probably something like Center European Research Nuclear.

So as I am reading the article and going through the tabs, I see all of these English names and acronyms for the projects, then when I get to the last one, I see one where the acronym doesn't even come close to the name and I say "WTF?"

And yes, I am American.  You wouldn't happen to be a dickhead, would you?

morbiuswilters:

So how to we handle asshats like him?  I'm sick of being the easy target for everyone who wants to bitch about the flamefests but never wants to do anything about them.  Maybe some other regulars could post a firm "we don't appreciate political/nationalist/technology flamebaiting here, please do not do this" instead of doing nothing.  You moderators are supposed to be the ones handling this crap, but you guys are always a day late and a dollar short.  You either moderate long after the flamewar has gotten out of control or you come in with the attitude of "oh, another morbuis flamewar" and delete everything by me while leaving the original flamebait intact. 

Great point, and thank you for your suggestion. Let's do that from now on.  So, morbius, when you spot these trolls/flamebaits, that would be perfect to post that excellent canned response:

"we don't appreciate political/nationalist/technology flamebaiting here, please do not do this" 

Coming from you, that would really help to curtail things around here, as a senior, respected member who is very active in this forums.  I tried that approach early on but it just made things worse, but coming from you,I think it might work.  You are also very adept at spotting these situations, since you always reply to every single one of them and are always right in the middle of every flamewar, so again, I think you are the perfect man for this job, along with bstorer and other respected, senior members who innocently get caught up in these threads in an honest, sincere effort to keep things on topic.

So, I think we all agree.  Flamebaiters and trolls are called out with that excellent canned response, and  we don't respond and flame further, we just ignore them.  Perfect! Thanks, guys, for your help on all this, with that approach and support from you and bstorer and some others, we won't have to be such heavy-handed moderators going forward.

UPDATE: and, of course, remember that flamebaits and trolling, even if done supposedly as a "clever, ironic joke", is still flamebaiting/trolling, so we need to be diligent about those as well. Agian, I don't want you to be victimized any further in these scenarios, so I think it's important to make that clear.... 

campkev:

CERN is obviously from one of the romance languages, probably something like Center European Research Nuclear.

Jeff S:

Great point, and thank you for your suggestion. Let's do that from now on.  So, morbius, when you spot these trolls/flamebaits, that would be perfect to post that excellent canned response:

"we don't appreciate political/nationalist/technology flamebaiting here, please do not do this" 

Coming from you, that would really help to curtail things around here, as a senior, respected member who is very active in this forums.  I tried that approach early on but it just made things worse, but coming from you,I think it might work.  You are also very adept at spotting these situations, since you always reply to every single one of them and are always right in the middle of every flamewar, so again, I think you are the perfect man for this job, along with bstorer and other respected, senior members who innocently get caught up in these threads in an honest, sincere effort to keep things on topic.

So, I think we all agree.  Flamebaiters and trolls are called out with that excellent canned response, and  we don't respond and flame further, we just ignore them.  Perfect! Thanks, guys, for your help on all this, with that approach and support from you and bstorer and some others, we won't have to be such heavy-handed moderators going forward.

UPDATE: and, of course, remember that flamebaits and trolling, even if done supposedly as a "clever, ironic joke", is still flamebaiting/trolling, so we need to be diligent about those as well. Agian, I don't want you to be victimized any further in these scenarios, so I think it's important to make that clear.... 

My previous response was childish and gratifying, but now for a serious reply:

1. Your sarcasm makes it entirely unclear what sort of solution you really support. I'm forced to assume that you want to stick to deleting entire conversations and then whining to the crowd when somebody confronts you. Super, that seems to have gone over nicely.

2. I think you bear a grudge against certain members of the forum, which causes you to be hyper-critical of them. I warned you a while back that such behavior is reprehensible in a moderator. You haven't heeded my advice, likely because you've got me marked in your mind as a big, bad troll. Since you've gone to the lengths of calling us out, I think it's clear that morbius and I are on that list. I'm sure there are others who perceive the same thing. Whether or not they're on the list is irrelevant, it's the perception that's important. I won't speak for everyone else, but I expect consistency from moderators, and I don't see it coming from you.
3. Before you begin in again about how I have nefarious schemes against the forum and it's dear, sweet members, I'll remind you, once again, to learn to differentiate people. I can't even recall the last flamewar I was involved in. Don't try to pin a label to me that doesn't apply. It just makes your grudge that more apparent.
4. Yes, I do get a lot of posts deleted. I don't think there's any regular reader who doesn't know this. Most of my comment deletes of late have been for being off-topic. Fine, whatever, I don't care. I've let it go without voicing any complaint, because it's so trivial as not to matter.
5. You've taken it upon yourself to declare things said in jest as automatically being flamebait or trolling. I think you go about this the wrong way. You're moderating preemptively instead of culling only those posts that create flamewars. I think the forums is worse for it. You disagree, and there's nothing I can do about it, other than continue to post and let the chips fall where they may.
6. I don't know why you've opted to call me out on this, except that apparently I'm Public Enemy #1 or #2. Is that Jeff S's opinion, or is that the opinion of the moderators in general? I find the transparency of the moderation process here fairly weak. The only time anything on the inner workings are revealed is when it suits your goal of discrediting certain posters in the eyes of the community.

I didn't really have any interest into dragging all this up again, because in my mind we've reached a detente that can't be broken short of drastic measures. But you wanted to bring it out in public, so here it is.

bstorer:

Your sarcasm

I am not being sarcastic in any way, shape or form. I am dead serious -- I think it would be great if we followed Morbius's advice to curtail trolling and flamebaiting. I hope I am crystal clear on this.  You and morbius are senior members, you are involved in every single flamewar, you are active posters, you seem to be quite good at finding flamebaits/trolls since you respond to every one of them -- so, in the interest of a better forum, let's follow morbius's suggestion and no longer respond to flames/trolls and let them know that flaming and trolling is not welcome here.  I think that is a great idea, I initially tried that approach and failed, but I think you guys would be excellent at it.  It's your very own suggestion, so let's give it a shot.

I have no personal vendetta against you or morbius -- everything that is done is based on simply reading posts and responding to the content.   If anything, it is the opposite -- as I said, I have let hundreds of insults and flames and trolls slide from you and morbius because, frankly, I would be deleting over 50% of your posts probably, and I still want you to contribute and much of the content within those insults/flames/trolls is good.  It's a testimate to your creativity that you make it a difficult judgement call often, since you will often post a good overall message but of course do via insults and flames.   It's funny -- try avoiding flame wars and trolling for a while, and you might even notice that the mean old moderator suddenly leaves you alone!   (Purely coincidentally, of course.)

So, again, I am serious in that I think morbius's statement and post is excellent and I completely 100% agree with what he wrote.  If you are truly interested in the well-being of this forum and the community, then do what you can to fix things on your end as well.  No more responses to flames, no more responding to trolls, other than to briefly tell them they are not welcome without resorting to personal insults, using the example morbius provided.  I honestly, truly think it's an excellent idea. 

(edit: fixed some typos ...)

bstorer:

5. You've taken it upon yourself to declare things said in jest as automatically being flamebait or trolling. I think you go about this the wrong way. You're moderating preemptively instead of culling only those posts that create flamewars. I think the forums is worse for it. You disagree, and there's nothing I can do about it, other than continue to post and let the chips fall where they may.
6. I don't know why you've opted to call me out on this, except that apparently I'm Public Enemy #1 or #2. Is that Jeff S's opinion, or is that the opinion of the moderators in general? I find the transparency of the moderation process here fairly weak. The only time anything on the inner workings are revealed is when it suits your goal of discrediting certain posters in the eyes of the community.

So, we've all voiced our opinions, we all agree, so let's move on and get back to enjoyable acronym talk. 

For any other thoughts, complaints, criticisms, please PM me and we can discuss. 

BTW, Jeff, your avatar is EXACTLY what I pictured you would look like.

amischiefr:

BTW, Jeff, your avatar is EXACTLY what I pictured you would look like.

Exactly!  Who better to be a fascist internet forum moderator than Dwight E. Shrute ?

amischiefr:

Personally I get tired of all of the acronyms used today. Someone will come along and say "hey did you see the FHKDJKJOKKKKLKL? Isn't that a hoot?" and if you don't know what the acronym means they look at you like you're stupid. Stop being lazy and say it FFS! Maybe it was the 7 years in the military that made me disgruntled *shrug*.

DrJokepu:

bstorer:

 

Monkios:

I never quite understood why in all langange, AIDS is called AIDS but in french it is called SIDA ...

The French are extremely protective of their language because they've got an outdated view of their importance at the global level.

See also: NATO - OTAN, EU - UE, UN - NU. I speak quite a few languages but French is the only one having its own word for 'digital' (numerique), 'e-mail' (courriel) etc. Most of these things are pushed by the Canadian French (Quebecois) because they fear that their language is endangered.

They don't use "computadora", but "ordenador" (Sorter? WTF???)

They translate every frickin' thing they can to Spanish, even tech stuff: RDSI (ISDN) for example, and I'm pretty much surprised they haven't translated DSL yet. Bonus points: they use fichero (chip) for file, instead of archivo (file).

I think the worst thing they've done is to disrespect proper names: Mexico is written Mexico pretty much everywhere, however they insist on writing Mejico. Even the Real Academia Española recommends the correct Mexico spelling.

This is one of many reasons I definitely don't consider studying anything tech related in that country.

amischiefr:

Personally I get tired of all of the acronyms used today. Someone will come along and say "hey did you see the FHKDJKJOKKKKLKL? Isn't that a hoot?" and if you don't know what the acronym means they look at you like you're stupid. Stop being lazy and say it FFS! Maybe it was the 7 years in the military that made me disgruntled *shrug*.

BTW, Jeff, your avatar is EXACTLY what I pictured you would look like.

I'm terribly sorry, but I am unfamiliar with the acronyms "FFS" and "BTW" which makes reading your post very difficult.  Please avoid using acronyms in the future.  Thank you. 

Jeff S:

amischiefr:

BTW, Jeff, your avatar is EXACTLY what I pictured you would look like.

Exactly!  Who better to be a fascist internet forum moderator than Dwight E. Shrute?

bstorer:

amischiefr:

Personally I get tired of all of the acronyms used today. Someone will come along and say "hey did you see the FHKDJKJOKKKKLKL? Isn't that a hoot?" and if you don't know what the acronym means they look at you like you're stupid. Stop being lazy and say it FFS! Maybe it was the 7 years in the military that made me disgruntled *shrug*.

The solution is simple. You need only reply with something like "No, I missed it because I was working on the new OREPCSD for the IAD in NP2." If they ask what you're talking about, apologize and say that you have to get back to work.

danixdefcon5:

They don't use "computadora", but "ordenador" (Sorter? WTF???)

They translate every frickin' thing they can to Spanish, even tech stuff: RDSI (ISDN) for example, and I'm pretty much surprised they haven't translated DSL yet. Bonus points: they use fichero (chip) for file, instead of archivo (file).

I think the worst thing they've done is to disrespect proper names: Mexico is written Mexico pretty much everywhere, however they insist on writing Mejico. Even the Real Academia Española recommends the correct Mexico spelling.

This is one of many reasons I definitely don't consider studying anything tech related in that country.

Ordenador comes from ordinateur because they prefered to translate from french than english.. usually a lot of tech related words, they preffer to translate from french than from english.

Fichero comes from FICHA, which is a word also used to define tab files or whatever you call those old rectangle thingies where people took notes (A.K.A = FILE).  So it's a perfect valid translation , although too literal.  I do prefer "archivos" instead.

Spanish is a phonetic language, were you usually spell it just like it sounds.. No one in Spain pronounces Mexico with the X sound.. they will alway pronouce it with an J sound. 

That is why the write "beicon" instead of "bacon".. and shit like that on some anglicisims. 

BTW acronyms are stupid IMO.