__/ [William Tasso] on Tuesday 06 December 2005 13:25 \__
> Greetings One and All
>
> What on earth have we done to the English language? By 'we' I mean IT in
> general hence the 'ot:' header.
>
> From a recent news article[1] ....
>
> "[...] the power supply and processors [...] overheat, causing it to
> freeze."
>
> It overheats to the point of freezing? wtf is that all about? I know
> what is meant, you know what is meant, but it's no wonder that chap on the
> Clapham Omnibus[2] thinks we're all talking complete gibberish.
>
> Please remember your audience when penning your next great work. This one
> ranks right up there with "fighting for peace" ("shagging for virginity")
>
> Toodle pip
> ____
> [1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4502572.stm
> [2] although these days that chap is likely to be a web designer on his
> way to work in Battersea (aka: South Chelsea)
It's not just the oxymorons like cruel kindness and laborious idleness.
What's often confusing are those analogies, humanisations or naturalisa-
tions of computer behaviour.
What do you propose? Would you rather set a convention whereby computers
which cease to respond are said to have frozen? Or would you rather ex-
plain that the CPU is working on an infinite loop due to improper breakage
conditions?
Would you rather speak of a computer 'bugs' (yes, these creature that walk
among the large circuits in the room)? Or would you rather explain that a
programmer did not exhaustively test his algorithm?
Simplifications are very much necessary and that's why they exist. As the
chap on the Clapham Omnibus lives in a world where people are aided (if
not dominated) by machines, he might as well learn to cope. Resistance to
technology and modern terminology is never the answer.
Roy
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