Mixing "inputs" with "outputs", "receivers" with "transmitters" and generally not giving a flying F about the difference.
DB-9. DB-15, DB-37 (should be DE-9, DA-15, DC-37)Connectors have so many misnomers around them. "Dupont connectors" (breadboards) and "Molex connectors" (disk drives), for instance.
I'm not talking about general, non-tech-savvy users here ... but people who should know better, like tech salespeople or web tech reviewers.made me smile. (A wry smile).
Brushless DC motor. How exactly is a synchronous motor "DC" if it needs an ESC/driver/VFD/whatchagonnacallit to do anything other than being stuck in one position and heating up?
"Sensorless" motor drives often have voltage and current sensing.
DMA used to be defined as a peripheral accessing RAM without going through the CPU, but when basically all modern computers have the RAM directly attached to the CPU, it is now redefined as a peripheral accessing RAM without going through the CPU *cores*.
Connectors have so many misnomers around them. "Dupont connectors" (breadboards) and "Molex connectors" (disk drives), for instance.
A recent discovery for me were "Amphenol connectors" (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/what-are-these-connectors-formally-called/msg1058107/#msg1058107) (spoiler: almost never actually made by Amphenol).
When something happens "organically"...
...
Gasoline is referred to as "gas" when it's a liquid.
...
Brushless DC motor. How exactly is a synchronous motor "DC" if it needs an ESC/driver/VFD/whatchagonnacallit to do anything other than being stuck in one position and heating up?
That means that the driver providing electronic commutation is built into the motor so it may be treated as a DC motor.
I've never seen a brushless motor being sold with an in-built controller -- where abouts have you seen these?Most common are DC fans and pumps.
QuoteBrushless DC motor. How exactly is a synchronous motor "DC" if it needs an ESC/driver/VFD/whatchagonnacallit to do anything other than being stuck in one position and heating up?
That means that the driver providing electronic commutation is built into the motor so it may be treated as a DC motor.
I've never seen a brushless motor being sold with an in-built controller -- where abouts have you seen these?
I have noticed another weird motor recently. The shaded pole AC induction motors used for refrigerator evaporators have been replaced with the same lamination stack without the shorted turns, the same rotor, a commutation sensor, and some kind of driver. They run on standard AC line power but I suspect it is just rectified to DC. I assume the advantage is greater efficiency placing less load on the refrigeration system however they are also much less reliable and more expensive. Confusingly they seem to be referred to as "electronically commutated motor".Why would they go through the effort to engineer a small fan motor when there are loads of small DC fans on the market? The last time I worked on a residential refrigerator (preventative maintenance - i.e. clean the condenser), the condenser fan looks just like a common 120mm computer fan. I wouldn't be surprised if the evaporator fans are also off the shelf DC fans.
I have noticed another weird motor recently. The shaded pole AC induction motors used for refrigerator evaporators have been replaced with the same lamination stack without the shorted turns, the same rotor, a commutation sensor, and some kind of driver. They run on standard AC line power but I suspect it is just rectified to DC. I assume the advantage is greater efficiency placing less load on the refrigeration system however they are also much less reliable and more expensive. Confusingly they seem to be referred to as "electronically commutated motor".
Why would they go through the effort to engineer a small fan motor when there are loads of small DC fans on the market? The last time I worked on a residential refrigerator (preventative maintenance - i.e. clean the condenser), the condenser fan looks just like a common 120mm computer fan. I wouldn't be surprised if the evaporator fans are also off the shelf DC fans.
I agree with the whole AC/DC motor thing. All motors are AC.All except the Faraday homopolar disc motor/generator.
I've never seen a brushless motor being sold with an in-built controller -- where abouts have you seen these?Most common are DC fans and pumps.
I agree with the whole AC/DC motor thing. All motors are AC.All except the Faraday homopolar disc motor/generator.
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=faraday%27s+homopolar+disc+generator&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSjvqToKjbAhXHfrwKHeeoC5gQ_AUICygC&biw=1457&bih=972 (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=faraday%27s+homopolar+disc+generator&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSjvqToKjbAhXHfrwKHeeoC5gQ_AUICygC&biw=1457&bih=972)
QuoteBrushless DC motor. How exactly is a synchronous motor "DC" if it needs an ESC/driver/VFD/whatchagonnacallit to do anything other than being stuck in one position and heating up?
That means that the driver providing electronic commutation is built into the motor so it may be treated as a DC motor.
I've never seen a brushless motor being sold with an in-built controller -- where abouts have you seen these? They've always been separate in the markets I've seen (small hobby & in-hub car) and you have to find a controller that can match your motor's params and type.
I agree with the whole AC/DC motor thing. All motors are AC. One type (brushed DC) makes its own AC out of DC to be convenient, but is still an AC requiring type.
If you're lucky enough to find a single unit with motor driver or VFD as well as a motor, then again it's an AC motor that's been made a bit more convenient by turning it into a DC "module".
Here is one we all use: current flow.And also conventional flow vs. electron flow. Although in semiconductors and liquids/gases, there often are positive charges in motion...
Current means flow so we are really saying flow flow, when we should be saying charge flow, or flow of electricity, or electric current.
It is so pervasive in the language now, I doubt it will ever stop. I wonder when & how it started.
My pet peeve - when people measure time in mS. Time is not conductive.
Hard drive when it's actually a solid state drive...
...leading to...
what exactly is being driven in an SSD other than electrons?
To put the cat among the pidgins:Maybe uncertainty would be a better word.
Usage of the word "accuracy" where the word "inaccuracy" would be correct.
Example:" ... an accuracy of +/- 0.01 V" should read "... an inaccuracy of +/- 0.01 V".
Go figure... This accuracy nonsense has been going on for ages and simply can't be stopped,
not even in this forum. :palm: :popcorn:
This is not limited to the English speaking world. The Germans do the same. |O
To put the cat among the pidgins:This feels an awful lot like objecting to the notion of 0V. There is no voltage after all, silly gooses. Maybe we should use unvoltage in those cases instead.
Usage of the word "accuracy" where the word "inaccuracy" would be correct.
Example:" ... an accuracy of +/- 0.01 V" should read "... an inaccuracy of +/- 0.01 V".
Go figure... This accuracy nonsense has been going on for ages and simply can't be stopped,
not even in this forum. :palm: :popcorn:
This is not limited to the English speaking world. The Germans do the same. |O
Hard drive when it's actually a solid state drive...It's hard when I throw it at your head and the system sees it as a logical disk.
...leading to...
what exactly is being driven in an SSD other than electrons?
This feels an awful lot like objecting to the notion of 0V. There is no voltage after all, silly gooses. Maybe we should use unvoltage in those cases instead.
This is not limited to the English speaking world. The Germans do the same. |OThey do more wrong, They call the sea a meer and a lake is a see. In Dutch a sea is zee and a lake is meer. A seastar in Dutch is zeester. The Germans call it a seester instead of a meerster
I also love this one. Music power for nanoseconds:Yeah, PMPO ::) :bullshit:
200 W power rating for some tiny active loudspeakers.
And on the tiny wallwart it reads 5 W!
One day I will catch one of those marketing guys and spank him a bit.
Oh well, it's probably not worth it.
Inflammable and flammable vs non-combustible.
"Next". It mystifies me why most people use 'next' to mean "the one after this one coming up soon."
Misuse of "post" and "reply" words in buttons on forums. For example one private forum I frequent, in which a reply entry box is always present, and the button used to cause your text to be posted, is called "Reply".
Where the sensible thing would be to have no text box till you click "Reply", you type a message, then click "Post".
The person in charge of coding that forum cannot see anything wrong with how it is now. Like the damned words don't actually have specific meanings in English.
When talking about the data transfer rate of serial interfaces most people use the term "baud" instead of "bps". And another commonly misused term for the throughput or data transfer rate of networks, lines and internet access is "bandwidth".
Inflammable and flammable vs non-combustible.
baud is correct (named after Emile Baudot) and when applied in the digital domain is defined as 1 bit/second.
But later on with improved modulation we had 9600 bps modems with 2400 baud, but people called them still 9600 baud modems.
Yes, there is such thing as a homopolar motor.I agree with the whole AC/DC motor thing. All motors are AC.All except the Faraday homopolar disc motor/generator.
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=faraday%27s+homopolar+disc+generator&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSjvqToKjbAhXHfrwKHeeoC5gQ_AUICygC&biw=1457&bih=972 (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=faraday%27s+homopolar+disc+generator&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSjvqToKjbAhXHfrwKHeeoC5gQ_AUICygC&biw=1457&bih=972)
No, only generator. There's no such thing as a "homopolar motor". A static field on a static disc would make a magnetized static disc. ::)
But the biggest fault: Talking about a Voltage and Amperage when you talk about electric tension and electric current. :box: (in Dutch we use spanning (tension) )Electric tension sounds incorrect to me. When most people talk of voltage, they really mean potential difference.
Electric tension sounds incorrect to me.What about the high tension lines transporting electric energy to your town?
I don't talk in English often, but I read a lot, especially technical stuff.
What amazes me is how many native speakers write it's when it's its.Its like their totally confused, which means your confused as well.
Missing commas, or other punctuation. :rant:
Dates also jar my brain. For example, if I see 5/7/18 I have to ask myself "do they mean 7th May or 5th July?". Come on - write it unambiguously, e.g., 7 May 2018. This really irks me when people write dates on forms that are obviously going to be seen by an international audience.
What amazes me is how many native speakers write it's when it's its.Its like their totally confused, which means your confused as well.
I hope all that incorrectness was intentional.Poes Law is in full force.
It's only the US that does that, though apparently the international standard for date formatting is YYYY-MM-DD.
It's only the US that does that, though apparently the international standard for date formatting is YYYY-MM-DD.
Its, his kidding.I hope all that incorrectness was intentional.What amazes me is how many native speakers write it's when it's its.Its like their totally confused, which means your confused as well.
The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.Do note that although at first glance the ISO time standard appears sane, it contains two very different concepts both called "a year": one is the year you already know about, but the other one is "the year for the purposes of the ISO week", which is something different. Getting this wrong can make your software badly bugged and this has caused widespread outages.
You might like to start by reading
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html (https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html)
Decimate used to mean removing one in ten. Something about a roman centurion ordering every tenth legionaire to walk off a cliff to impress the foe.
Its like their totally confused, which means your confused as well.Make that "Its like there totally confused witch means your confused as well", so we get to the levels of noise that :scared: me.
For example, I would never have put a comma in the snippet of your comment above. But, now that I live in the US, I use them more.I don't use commas (or apostrophes) correctly myself. I was talking about the specific case where they are completely omitted, making the text difficult to understand. It is particularly horrible when documentation lists something, and you are left wondering where the delimiters are. Especially if some of the text includes the serial comma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma) and some does not.
Dates also jar my brain.The international standard, YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS (ISO 8601 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601), if you replace the space with a T) is the one that sorts correctly when sorted alphabetically or numerically. (The largest units are on the left, smallest right, in decreasing order of significance.) That is what makes it useful, in my opinion.
Errant apostrophe's.Apologies for mine. I'm severely irked by people omitting possessive suffixes in Finnish, and it seems to affect my grasp of the English possessive negatively.
The international standard, YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS (ISO 8601 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601), if you replace the space with a T) is the one that sorts correctly when sorted alphabetically or numerically. (The largest units are on the left, smallest right, in decreasing order of significance.) That is what makes it useful, in my opinion.
However, I get confused because one half of my brain wants to put the comma there, the other doesn't.
However, I get confused because one half of my brain wants to put the comma there, the other doesn't.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/comma-fault (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/comma-fault)
However, I get confused because one half of my brain wants to put the comma there, the other doesn't.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/comma-fault (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/comma-fault)
Therein lies part of the problem: an American English reference source. Some grammar rules in one variant of English are considered absolutely forbidden in others. A case in point is the Oxford comma. You will hardly ever see it in British English. Also the placement of full stops at the end of sentences relative to other trailing punctuation.
...
Errant apostrophe's.
...
Its like their totally confused, which means your confused as well.
Normally you do not use an apostrophe to form plurals.Mentioning Poes law still wasn't enough? ::)
Or is that error intentional as Mr. Scram's post appears to be?
Which makes no sense at all unless rewritten:
It's like they're totally confused, which means you're confused as well.
I find it helpful when using contractions to substitute the actual two words to see if the statement still makes sense.
It's paint was flaking off.
It is paint was flaking off.
This also helps with confusion between your and you're, their and they're, and so on.
Normally you do not use an apostrophe to form plurals.Mentioning Poes law still wasn't enough? ::)
Or is that error intentional as Mr. Scram's post appears to be?
Which makes no sense at all unless rewritten:
It's like they're totally confused, which means you're confused as well.
I find it helpful when using contractions to substitute the actual two words to see if the statement still makes sense.
It's paint was flaking off.
It is paint was flaking off.
This also helps with confusion between your and you're, their and they're, and so on.
'cause peeps that like talk like dis in dem dere weird tounges insomuch as text speak IRL are like totes off my books.Hey, nothing ambiguous or particularly hard to understand there. It is sentences that consist of words that seem correct, but are misspelled (so homonyms or homophones), that non-natives like me have the most trouble with.
Kilobyte.Why? SI says 1 kB = 1000 B, 1 KiB (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibibyte) = 210 B = 1024 B.
Kilobyte.
"I've run out of bandwidth." Often misused by the technically illiterate such as politicians and journalists to mean how much data they can download per month.
Kilobyte.
*dons flame-proof suit and enters bunker*
No suit is flame proof enough and no bunker is protected enough for that one.
Memory is not measured in SI units. Get back to me when I can buy 524.288 kilobit RAM.
Kilobyte.
What's wrong with that?
"I've run out of bandwidth." Often misused by the technically illiterate such as politicians and journalists to mean how much data they can download per month.Generally the speed of a connection is greatly reduced when you exceed your download limit. In that case, you quite literally run out of bandwidth. Though I doubt that's what these people mean.
That would be one. People seem to quite consistently confuse bits and bytes, even when the difference is pointed out. A computer with 8 Gb of RAM really isn't the same as one with 8 GB of it. In that case you might argue the intended meaning is obvious and it's being pedantic, but quite often it's quite unclear what the intent was. The resulting message could be off by an order of magnitude.
We're not even taking about the gb crowd.
It also doesn't help that every STEM discipline outside of computer science uses the kilo prefix to mean 1000, not 1024. Indeed, to indicate 1024 the prefix should be Ki (kibi) and not K. How many people do you ever come across distinguishing the two?
It has been a problem for a long time. Whence "1.44 MB" floppy disks?
Data ARE, not data IS :scared: |O :palm:I think that's an example where language has moved on and some people are left behind.
The problem though is that you end up sounding like a pompous arse if you say it correctly. Same as for "whomever" and the correct pronunciation of "valet".
Data ARE, not data IS :scared: |O :palm:I think that's an example where language has moved on and some people are left behind.
The problem though is that you end up sounding like a pompous arse if you say it correctly. Same as for "whomever" and the correct pronunciation of "valet".
Data ARE, not data IS :scared: |O :palm:Same as when people talk about their Por-sha. :rant:
The problem though is that you end up sounding like a pompous arse if you say it correctly. Same as for "whomever" and the correct pronunciation of "valet".
A recent howler was a poster on another messageboard who was talking about the Windows scheduler. He kept saying oh the quantas are 15ms long and this and that, oblivious to "quanta" already being plural.Could be worse. 2.76523 quantas.
Data ARE, not data IS :scared: |O :palm:Same as when people talk about their Por-sha. :rant:
The problem though is that you end up sounding like a pompous arse if you say it correctly. Same as for "whomever" and the correct pronunciation of "valet".
Data ARE, not data IS :scared: |O :palm:Let's say I pull the results of some large simulation from a cluster to local external disks, and put them all into a box for the researcher to carry.
But it's a German name.How would it being a German name make a difference?
On the other hand, coupe' - 'coup-ay', not 'coup'. I'm not a damned chicken!
Data ARE, not data IS :scared: |O :palm:
The problem though is that you end up sounding like a pompous arse if you say it correctly. Same as for "whomever" and the correct pronunciation of "valet".
Data ARE, not data IS :scared: |O :palm:Er, "datum" is the singular and "data" is the plural. So it isn't as simple as you would like to believe.
Grinds my gears when people use the word “shall”.That's a bit like how some people loathe the term "boss" or anything similar. I feel it often coincides with a little man complex, though I'm not saying that's true in your case. People can call or address me however they like, it's not going to change anything anyway.
As in “you shall not do this”.
Sounds like they are looking down their nose at you.
Grinds my gears when people use the word “shall”."Shall" is a funny word. I don't use it, but the way I learned is that its meaning is flipped depending on whether the subject is the first person.
As in “you shall not do this”.
Sounds like they are looking down their nose at you.
| I shall | You will | (Indicative mood: statement of fact) |
| I will | You shall | (Imperative mood: statement of necessity) |
I hate hearing the phrases...... "AC Current", or "DC Current"..... >:(
'AC' means 'Alternating Current', so 'AC Current' means "Alternating Current Current" Aarrgh....
That's a bit like how some people loathe the term "boss" or anything similar. I feel it often coincides with a little man complex, though I'm not saying that's true in your case. People can call or address me however they like, it's not going to change anything anyway.The Finnish word for boss, "pomo", is derived from Russian помощник (pomóšnik): helper or assistant. Very apt, IMO!
'Digital' aerials (antennas) - There is nothing digital about them its the signal that binary that's a rx or tx via a RF waveform
I used to think that sugar diabetes was a Greek boxer.
I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned "engineer" being used in place of technician, installer or operator.
If my cable TV box isn't working, I don't want the company to send an engineer. If they sent a real engineer, they'd be sitting in front of the box with a JTAG probe attached, probably spending days or weeks identifying the true root cause of whatever memory corruption causes the picture to freeze under very specific circumstances.
What I want instead is for them to send a technician, who can follow a prescribed diagnostic procedure, and who will hopefully know from experience that adding a -6dB attenuator in the signal path has a good chance of making it work reliably. Total time taken, about 20 minutes, and my cable box becomes usable again.
Back in the R&D lab, an engineer can (and should) replicate that empirical 'fix', determine exactly how and why it makes the symptoms of some underlying problem better, then fix the code and ensure the fix is rolled into to the next firmware update.
Very different skills, very different job functions, and neither could do the job of the other - yet still the confusion over the title.
'Digital' aerials (antennas) - There is nothing digital about them its the signal that binary that's a rx or tx via a RF waveform
Yea !!.... Reminds me of the days when 'Color' TV came in, and shops tried to sell you a 'special' Color 'Aerial' >:(
Grinds my gears when people use the word “shall”.
As in “you shall not do this”.
Sounds like they are looking down their nose at you.
I hate hearing the phrases...... "AC Current", or "DC Current"..... >:((smiling with all 42 teeth) Want some CD and DVD disks?
'AC' means 'Alternating Current', so 'AC Current' means "Alternating Current Current" Aarrgh....
Should be: relative atomic mass and relative molecular (or molar) massNot unless you also say "relative mass" when talking about kilograms.
IUPAC definitions:Bah, chemists and their weird ways. :box:
relative molecular mass, relative molar massBut that's different to non-relative molecular or molar mass.
My original annoyance is that nowhere does weight come into it.Yeah; I'm just :-/O you with the "relative" detail.
'Digital' aerials (antennas) - There is nothing digital about them its the signal that binary that's a rx or tx via a RF waveform
For awhile after portable digital music players were gaining market traction, you would see "digital" headphones offered for sale. Never mind that they had the same ⅛" or ¼" TRS jack that plugged into an amplifier that was analog.There are truly digital headphones that use USB or Bluetooth. As well as analog headphones that have buttons to control a digital device it's plugged into.
Abbreviations for units. Uppercase initial letter if named after someone others lower case but lower case for the full name of the unit. Funny how ohm isn't O.
Nobody uses Ω anymore?
But computer systems and unicode are now so screwed up that the Ω symbol is increasingly unreliable. It used to work great back when code page 437 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437) was ubiquitous.Get a real operating system :box:
Firefox does not even allow me to enter it directly without issuing a page back command.
Re-read what I wrote. This is very early on that standard analog headphones were marketed as "digital," well before anyone even thought about Bluetooth, and USB headphones did not exist. Now that I think about it, I remember they were being sold when portable CD players were still a thing.For awhile after portable digital music players were gaining market traction, you would see "digital" headphones offered for sale. Never mind that they had the same ⅛" or ¼" TRS jack that plugged into an amplifier that was analog.There are truly digital headphones that use USB or Bluetooth. As well as analog headphones that have buttons to control a digital device it's plugged into.
Re-read what I wrote. This is very early on that standard analog headphones were marketed as "digital," well before anyone even thought about Bluetooth, and USB headphones did not exist. Now that I think about it, I remember they were being sold when portable CD players were still a thing.I have seen portable CD players that had remote control on the headphones themselves. Pretty sure most of those worked by having the buttons connect a line to ground through specific resistances, so not even the buttons are technically digital.
Re-read what I wrote. This is very early on that standard analog headphones were marketed as "digital," well before anyone even thought about Bluetooth, and USB headphones did not exist. Now that I think about it, I remember they were being sold when portable CD players were still a thing.
I hate hearing the phrases...... "AC Current", or "DC Current"..... >:(
'AC' means 'Alternating Current', so 'AC Current' means "Alternating Current Current" Aarrgh....
That's like PAT testing - Portable Appliance Testing testing
DOS promptAs opposed to a command prompt?
In the days of PC-DOS or MS-DOS, the command line was the application COMMAND.COM, not the Disk Operating System itself; although in a world without process isolation such distinctions can appear blurred.DOS promptAs opposed to a command prompt?
DOS promptAs opposed to a command prompt?
I hate hearing the phrases...... "AC Current", or "DC Current"..... >:(
'AC' means 'Alternating Current', so 'AC Current' means "Alternating Current Current" Aarrgh....
That's like PAT testing - Portable Appliance Testing testing
I'll be right back, I need to get some money from the ATM machine.....
In the days of PC-DOS or MS-DOS, the command line was the application COMMAND.COM, not the Disk Operating System itself; although in a world without process isolation such distinctions can appear blurred.The latter makes the term "DOS prompt" quite reasonable, even if it's more of a descriptive convention than an official name.
In more recent times, the command line is not even a part of DOS, but a client of the NT kernel like everything else. Despite this, the icon for the command prompt on various versions of Windows has the letters "D O S" in it.
True, but it is still a technical misnomer and plain incorrect :)Well, I would call it technically a misnomer but arguably correct. "Plain incorrect" suggests there's no conceivable way it could be correct, and having a logo with "DOS" in it eliminates that quite effectively.
True, but it is still a technical misnomer and plain incorrect :)Well, I would call it technically a misnomer but arguably correct. "Plain incorrect" suggests there's no conceivable way it could be correct, and having a logo with "DOS" in it eliminates that quite effectively.
I don't see that logo. My command prompt logo is C:\_ and, since the command line utility is a user-mode application, it has nothing to do with the operating system itself.We did the disk thing a while back. Languages change, which means words can come to mean something they originally didn't while still being correct. "Disk" has become a concept, being a thing that semi-permanently stores data, normally within a computer system. You have solid state drives and even have virtual disks or hard drives. That's not wrong, it's just a continuation, expansion and abstraction of the original term.
I'll modify my claim of "plain incorrect" to "incorrect with a cherry on top". :)
EDIT: And...the D in DOS stands for disk. Well, my laptop doesn't even have a disk. ergo, misnomer and incorrect with chocolate syrup all over.
But that was 23 years ago.Words existed 23 years ago. ;D
In the days of PC-DOS or MS-DOS, the command line was the application COMMAND.COM, not the Disk Operating System itself; although in a world without process isolation such distinctions can appear blurred.The latter makes the term "DOS prompt" quite reasonable, even if it's more of a descriptive convention than an official name.
In more recent times, the command line is not even a part of DOS, but a client of the NT kernel like everything else. Despite this, the icon for the command prompt on various versions of Windows has the letters "D O S" in it.
Yea, wordeth doth existe. Ain't right, though, innit? I mean, my god, even MS saw the error of its wayAye, & some wordeth doth be parfait, gentil knight! ;Ds.
And you only get money from it after you enter your Personal Identification Number Number.I hate hearing the phrases...... "AC Current", or "DC Current"..... >:(
'AC' means 'Alternating Current', so 'AC Current' means "Alternating Current Current" Aarrgh....
That's like PAT testing - Portable Appliance Testing testing
I'll be right back, I need to get some money from the ATM machine.....
Ah you mean a Automated Teller Machine, Machine
And you only get money from it after you enter your Personal Identification Number Number.I hate hearing the phrases...... "AC Current", or "DC Current"..... >:(
'AC' means 'Alternating Current', so 'AC Current' means "Alternating Current Current" Aarrgh....
That's like PAT testing - Portable Appliance Testing testing
I'll be right back, I need to get some money from the ATM machine.....
Ah you mean a Automated Teller Machine, Machine
"second harmonic" and higher implies that there is a first harmonic which in reality is the fundamental
And you only get money from it after you enter your Personal Identification Number Number.I hate hearing the phrases...... "AC Current", or "DC Current"..... >:(
'AC' means 'Alternating Current', so 'AC Current' means "Alternating Current Current" Aarrgh....
That's like PAT testing - Portable Appliance Testing testing
I'll be right back, I need to get some money from the ATM machine.....
Ah you mean a Automated Teller Machine, Machine
And it verifies that PIN number, by using an IC circuit (Integrated Circuit Circuit).
The circuit is built on a PCB board (Printed Circuit Board board).
The PCB was probably designed on a PC Computer (Personal Computer Computer), which was originally based on an IBM Machine (International Business Machine Machine).
Anyway, Enough Enough Enough of This This, PUN PUN like thing. ;D
You forgot that the computer uses an LCD Display (Liquid Crystal Display Display)!
You forgot that the LCD Display, uses RAM memory to work.
RAM memory = Random access memory memory!
In the days of PC-DOS or MS-DOS, the command line was the application COMMAND.COM, not the Disk Operating System itself; although in a world without process isolation such distinctions can appear blurred.The latter makes the term "DOS prompt" quite reasonable, even if it's more of a descriptive convention than an official name.
In more recent times, the command line is not even a part of DOS, but a client of the NT kernel like everything else. Despite this, the icon for the command prompt on various versions of Windows has the letters "D O S" in it.
A bit like the way Engineers persist in calling a tuned LC circuit a "tank circuit", although that meaning has just about died out in the rest of the Technical community.
You forgot that the LCD Display, uses RAM memory to work.
RAM memory = Random access memory memory!
People cover their food with tomato tomato sauce. (Tomato Ketchup)
"Exponential"
You forgot that the LCD Display, uses RAM memory to work.
RAM memory = Random access memory memory!
People cover their food with tomato tomato sauce. (Tomato Ketchup)
Such circuits are also used in amplifiers, so the last choice isn't always right.In the days of PC-DOS or MS-DOS, the command line was the application COMMAND.COM, not the Disk Operating System itself; although in a world without process isolation such distinctions can appear blurred.The latter makes the term "DOS prompt" quite reasonable, even if it's more of a descriptive convention than an official name.
In more recent times, the command line is not even a part of DOS, but a client of the NT kernel like everything else. Despite this, the icon for the command prompt on various versions of Windows has the letters "D O S" in it.
A bit like the way Engineers persist in calling a tuned LC circuit a "tank circuit", although that meaning has just about died out in the rest of the Technical community.
Ahem... :box:
It's usually just "tank", "X tank, or "oscillator tuning circuit".
If you dare say "tuned LC circuit", your ambiguity will get the amplifier"A resonator or filter?" ;)
Ok... And this is a BIG one, that's 'pissed' me off since I was a 1st yearIt’s like saying you don’t drive to work, your parking space goes to your home. Why it takes so much energy and expense simply to move an empty space, I will never know.
elect apprentice way back in the 1970's, that's never changed!!!......
So called 'CONVENTIONAL' current flow, (+ve to -ve) from the 'very' old days of ignorance!!
Even today, with the likes of DIODES & TRANSISTORS, they show an 'ARROW' pointing in the
direction of 'conventional' flow.... , even though today we UNDERSTAND about 'Electron' flow.
So their confusing and silly 'explanation' to me back then, was that.....
"Yes, we know how Electrons travel, and their charge, but you need to think of 'current'
flow as the MOVEMENT OF POSITIVE HOLES, IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION "....
Even my young brain then, said, "Give me a break" !!!!! The biggest electrical lie ever told.
Why can't we simply accept the failings of the past, and change ?? (So much confusion caused).
The biggest electrical lie ever told.No, that would be the Electric Sun stuff.
Ok... And this is a BIG one, that's 'pissed' me off since I was a 1st yearIf you look at the MOSFET symbol, the arrow does point in the direction of electron flow. (Albeit MOSFETs are frequently used to conduct current going in the other direction, as synchronous rectifiers.)
elect apprentice way back in the 1970's, that's never changed!!!......
So called 'CONVENTIONAL' current flow, (+ve to -ve) from the 'very' old days of ignorance!!
Even today, with the likes of DIODES & TRANSISTORS, they show an 'ARROW' pointing in the
direction of 'conventional' flow.... , even though today we UNDERSTAND about 'Electron' flow.
So their confusing and silly 'explanation' to me back then, was that.....
"Yes, we know how Electrons travel, and their charge, but you need to think of 'current'
flow as the MOVEMENT OF POSITIVE HOLES, IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION "....
Even my young brain then, said, "Give me a break" !!!!! The biggest electrical lie ever told.
Why can't we simply accept the failings of the past, and change ?? (So much confusion caused).
It’s like saying you don’t drive to work, your parking space goes to your home. Why it takes so much energy and expense simply to move an empty space, I will never know.That obviously would be moving the stuff that's making the space not empty. :)
"Entreé" as used in the US - the word means entrance. Hence, it is the appetizer and not the main course.
Even an incorrect usage, if it persists long enough, can become a standard part of English.
"Entreé" as used in the US - the word means entrance. Hence, it is the appetizer and not the main course.What of "Pièce de résistance"? Many English speakers use it to mean "the cherry on the cake", but it actually means the main course, the thing that provides sustenance.
"Manufactured" comes from Latin that literally means "hand made". But somewhere along the line, as it was used in English over the centuries, it transformed to mean something closer to "mass produced by machine".There are many examples of words that mean the opposite in Latin. For example, "egregious" comes from a Latin word for praiseworthy.
"Entreé" as used in the US - the word means entrance. Hence, it is the appetizer and not the main course.
"Panini" is the Italian word for "sandwiches". Plural. It's incorrect to say "I'd like to order a panini". If you only want one, you want a panino.
What of "Pièce de résistance"? Many English speakers use it to mean "the cherry on the cake", but it actually means the main course, the thing that provides sustenance.
Similarly, “pierogi” is the plural of the Polish word for the yummy dumpling, even though people will order “a pierogi” instead of “a pierog.” And to make it worse, the yutzes will go into Veselka on 2nd Ave in NYC and say, “can i have a half-dozen pierogies?” The servers wisely say nothing.
What of "Pièce de résistance"? Many English speakers use it to mean "the cherry on the cake", but it actually means the main course, the thing that provides sustenance.
You prove my point. The US uses it the way you say but it's not what the word means. Most, if not all, of the rest of the English-speaking world use it in the way that it actually means, i.e., the course that precedes the main one. BTW, I've never heard of it used as "the cherry on the cake".
If you look at the MOSFET symbol, the arrow does point in the direction of electron flow. (Albeit MOSFETs are frequently used to conduct current going in the other direction, as synchronous rectifiers.)
Using the word "Professional" for all kinds of
cheap and cheerful - i.e. crappy - equipment. :palm:
Ok... And this is a BIG one, that's 'pissed' me off since I was a 1st yearIt’s like saying you don’t drive to work, your parking space goes to your home. Why it takes so much energy and expense simply to move an empty space, I will never know.
elect apprentice way back in the 1970's, that's never changed!!!......
So called 'CONVENTIONAL' current flow, (+ve to -ve) from the 'very' old days of ignorance!!
Even today, with the likes of DIODES & TRANSISTORS, they show an 'ARROW' pointing in the
direction of 'conventional' flow.... , even though today we UNDERSTAND about 'Electron' flow.
So their confusing and silly 'explanation' to me back then, was that.....
"Yes, we know how Electrons travel, and their charge, but you need to think of 'current'
flow as the MOVEMENT OF POSITIVE HOLES, IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION "....
Even my young brain then, said, "Give me a break" !!!!! The biggest electrical lie ever told.
Why can't we simply accept the failings of the past, and change ?? (So much confusion caused).
Using the word "Professional" for all kinds of
cheap and cheerful - i.e. crappy - equipment. :palm:
So called 'CONVENTIONAL' current flow, (+ve to -ve) from the 'very' old days of ignorance!!
Even today, with the likes of DIODES & TRANSISTORS, they show an 'ARROW' pointing in the
direction of 'conventional' flow.... , even though today we UNDERSTAND about 'Electron' flow.
Fret not. The symbol for the diode has nothing to do with flow of current. It was inspired in the old point-contact crystal detectors like this in the picture below:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Silicon_crystal_detector.jpg/234px-Silicon_crystal_detector.jpg)
The "arrow" is the pointed rod, while the bar is the crystal disk.
You can see the first use of this symbol in publications like this:
www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Bookshelf/A.P.Morgan/Wireless-Telegraph-Construction-for-Amateurs-Morgan.pdf (http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Bookshelf/A.P.Morgan/Wireless-Telegraph-Construction-for-Amateurs-Morgan.pdf)
See figure 108 on page 149 of the PDF document.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_detector (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_detector)
The same thing is valid for transistors (bipolar, J- or MOSFETs). The one invented by the Bell Labs was developed from a point-contact diode. So the arrow always points from P to N.
Using the word "Professional" for all kinds ofYea.... or "Hospital Grade" disinfectant.... as opposed to the weak fake 'pathetic' disinfectant, ???
cheap and cheerful - i.e. crappy - equipment. :palm:
The direction of current flow is arbitrary. Not all current flow is due to movement of electrons.
..........
The idea of positive holes is more of a mental crutch to help you think about the conventional current vs electron direction when staring at a circuit.
“As seen on TV” = totally amazing.A product that advertises "as seen on TV" rarely performs as well as advertised.
“Never before seen on TV” = even more amazing!
This is, I think, similar to gasoline, in that I think it's shorthand for a keyboard that uses discrete mechanical keyswitches. That is, of course, what really distinguishes them.
- Mechanical keyboard (when referring to a computer input peripheral). Mechanical vs. electric typewriter - now, that's something I get. In the former, the mechanical force of the typist hitting a key is translated to the motion of the hammer by purely mechanical means while in the latter there is always some kind of electric actuator involved. But for computer keyboards? Come on, how is a rubber membrane providing some "springiness", resistance and returning force for the key being pressed any less "mechanical" than, say, a metal spring? Both kinds of keyboards involve a microcontroller scanning an array of electrical switches and translating key presses into digital codes. While I understand what the actual difference between "mechanical" and "non-mechanical" computer keyboards is, the classification itself doesn't make any kind of sense to me.
Digital copy when referring to an asset (music file, game) provided over the network, not involving a physical media. Clunky as it is, I could kinda sorta almost accept the term as long as it means "digital vs. physical" even though it's messy and inaccurate. The problem is, people got (quite understandably so) confused to the point of now calling Blu-Ray discs analog :palm: Not once have I seen a guy posting on a forum that he's got an "analog copy" of the game and by that he means he's got a frickin' Blu-Ray copy of a game. EDIT: yes, I understand that the actual signal as being picked up by the BD drive laser detector is analog in nature and requires further conditioning/interpretation to be considered digital but I think that's beside the point here.If someone called a blu-ray "analog" I'd call them an idiot. But "digital copy" and "physical copy" form a nice, logical contrasting pair. (Especially since a digital copy can be conveyed by any means: online, disk, etc.)
Computer guys always talk about CMOS as being an IC in the computer.No, not "computer" guys. It's PC (as in, Wintel PC) guys only!
But the biggest fault: Talking about a Voltage and Amperage when you talk about electric tension and electric current. :box: (in Dutch we use spanning (tension) )English uses "tension" in very limited contexts. Otherwise, "voltage" is established. ::shrug::
Bzzzzt. It's more subtle than that:QuoteThis is not limited to the English speaking world. The Germans do the same. |OThey do more wrong, They call the sea a meer and a lake is a see. In Dutch a sea is zee and a lake is meer. A seastar in Dutch is zeester. The Germans call it a seester instead of a meerster
"Next". It mystifies me why most people use 'next' to mean "the one after this one coming up soon."It can definitely be ambiguous! :(
Misuse of "post" and "reply" words in buttons on forums. For example one private forum I frequent, in which a reply entry box is always present, and the button used to cause your text to be posted, is called "Reply".Well that's not misuse "in general usage" (the topic of this discussion), but rather a user interface cobbled together by someone who gave it no thought. Or by code sharing between segments of the system that shouldn't be shared…
Where the sensible thing would be to have no text box till you click "Reply", you type a message, then click "Post".
The person in charge of coding that forum cannot see anything wrong with how it is now. Like the damned words don't actually have specific meanings in English.
Momentarily is the one which bothers me. Why is the plane only going to land momentarily at its destination? Isn't that where the passengers were suppose to leave the aircraft?THIS!! This truly is a language pet peeve of mine. What's wrong with "shortly"??? The mental image of the plane basically doing a go-around, with pax doing Captain Kirk rolls out of the plane onto the tarmac…
No. Strictly speaking, baud refers to the symbol rate. But the symbol rate hasn't been 1:1 since the 2400bps modem days, as others have said. By using more complex modulation schemes, we encode more than one bit per symbol, hence a bitrate that's higher than the baud. (Since the actual baud isn't of particular importance to the end user, this hasn't been shown in specs for ages.)When talking about the data transfer rate of serial interfaces most people use the term "baud" instead of "bps". And another commonly misused term for the throughput or data transfer rate of networks, lines and internet access is "bandwidth".
baud is correct (named after Emile Baudot) and when applied in the digital domain is defined as 1 bit/second.
I don't use commas (or apostrophes) correctly myself. I was talking about the specific case where they are completely omitted, making the text difficult to understand. It is particularly horrible when documentation lists something, and you are left wondering where the delimiters are. Especially if some of the text includes the serial comma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma) and some does not.As someone who's worked as a professional technical writer, I hate most of the rules that people are taught in school, which are literary rules, as opposed to rules designed to rule out ambiguity and enhance clarity. As such, in comma-separated lists, yeah, I'm gonna use a comma for each item. And if there need to be commas inside a list item, then I'll use semicolons as you did. But if possible, it's even better to just avoid a comma/semicolon-separated list altogether, and instead use a bulleted list.
Something like "a, b; c; d, e, f" is pretty clearly an ordered set of three isubsets, with "a" and "b" in the first set, "c" in the second set; and "d", "e", and "f" in the third set. See what I did with the semicolon there? It may be wrong or annoying, but it sure makes the list clear!
It has been a problem for a long time. Whence "1.44 MB" floppy disks?Megabits vs. megabytes is bad enough.
Data ARE, not data IS :scared: |O :palm:Since the word "datum" is all but extinct, I see no issue with treating it as a noncountable group noun.
The problem though is that you end up sounding like a pompous arse if you say it correctly. Same as for "whomever" and the correct pronunciation of "valet".Huh? The only pronunciation I've ever heard for that word is "val-ay", like the original French. Are you saying there are people who pronounce it "val-it"?!? :o
Because the name of the company is pronounced Por-shuh, not porsh. It's not snooty, it's simply correct.How would it being a German name make a difference?Same as when people talk about their Por-sha. :rant:
But it's a German name.
Sounds to me like a Firefox bug (probably a Firefox on Windows bug). At least on the Mac, using Unicode for things like Ω has worked fine for a very long time. Outside of online services involving outdated servers, I haven't run into encoding issues for probably over 15 years.Nobody uses Ω anymore?
When I am writing or producing documentation, sure. But computer systems and unicode are now so screwed up that the Ω symbol is increasingly unreliable. It used to work great back when code page 437 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437) was ubiquitous.
Firefox does not even allow me to enter it directly without issuing a page back command.
Exactly!! If you know the history, you know that ketchup used to mean a savory sauce, which could be made from various things. For example, here's an 18th century recipe for the aforementioned mushroom ketchup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29u_FejNuks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29u_FejNuks)People cover their food with tomato tomato sauce. (Tomato Ketchup)
That's a reasonable disambiguation, though. If you've not already discovered mushroom ketchup, your pies, stews and sauces are missing out. (No tomatoes included!)
What of "Pièce de résistance"? Many English speakers use it to mean "the cherry on the cake", but it actually means the main course, the thing that provides sustenance.I think you're wrong on this. The original French phrase means exactly what it does in modern English: the masterpiece. The phrase literally meant "the piece with staying power". That could be the main course, but it also could be something else. If the memorable course (or work) is small, so be it. It's about being memorable, not about being large.
You prove my point. The US uses it the way you say but it's not what the word means. Most, if not all, of the rest of the English-speaking world use it in the way that it actually means, i.e., the course that precedes the main one. BTW, I've never heard of it used as "the cherry on the cake".So what do you think it means?!?
Using the word "Professional" for all kinds ofUgh, yes, don't get me started… I think the German-speaking world is unusually bad about this: marketers will plant the word "Profi" on absolute junk. On the Swiss equivalent of ebay (ricardo.ch), seeing the word "profi" on a listing instantly signals to me that it's garbage being peddled by a greedy vendor who knows nothing about the field. (It's full of "profi" soldering stations that are absolute garbage.)
cheap and cheerful - i.e. crappy - equipment. :palm:
When software/firmware screens say "We" as in "we are", when whatever it's doing is client side. There is no "we" in a machine...unless they mean the Tron people. ::)I suspect this comes from people who aren't technical writers doing the writing, and confusing the gerund ("Printing…") with the infinitive and the 1st person plural somehow ("We are printing…"). That and confounding the "we" used in marketing ("We are the world leaders in blah blah blah…").
A lot of the things people think are "wrong" are actually when shorthand (or other abbreviations) happens to collide with an existing word. Great example of this being "gas" for "gasoline". It's not because we think it's in the gaseous phase, it's simply shorthand for gasoline.Makes me think of what people in some countries refer to as the "gas pedal" in their car. In a diesel powered vehicle this is half correct because the pedal position controls the quantity of diesel fuel (not gasoline) injected per combustion cycle. In a gasoline engine the "gas pedal" controls the amount of *air* entering the engine, and as a =consequence= the amount of gasoline, both for EFI and carburettor engines. I realise this definition is a bit blurred nowadays with some late model very hi-tech engines though.
In a gasoline engine the "gas pedal" controls the amount of *air* entering the engine, and as a =consequence= the amount of gasoline, both for EFI and carburettor engines.
Thanks for that info, I am not a car nut and I’d actually wondered how the accelerator pedal actually controlled the engine! (I guess I just never cared enough to bother looking it up!!!)A lot of the things people think are "wrong" are actually when shorthand (or other abbreviations) happens to collide with an existing word. Great example of this being "gas" for "gasoline". It's not because we think it's in the gaseous phase, it's simply shorthand for gasoline.Makes me think of what people in some countries refer to as the "gas pedal" in their car. In a diesel powered vehicle this is half correct because the pedal position controls the quantity of diesel fuel (not gasoline) injected per combustion cycle. In a gasoline engine the "gas pedal" controls the amount of *air* entering the engine, and as a =consequence= the amount of gasoline, both for EFI and carburettor engines. I realise this definition is a bit blurred nowadays with some late model very hi-tech engines though.
"Fully Imported" = much better than us local idiots could make.
"Export Quality" = much better than us local idiots deserve.
As far as the high-tech engines, are you referring to Mazda’s newfangled “holy grail” engine with the fancy multistage fuel injection or something?I believe some newer engines with gasoline direct injection have a particular operating regime where at part load the drive-by-wire throttle is actually fully opened for reduced pumping losses and therefor better fuel economy. The gasoline that is sprayed directly into the cylinder under these conditions is concentrated near the centre so that the fuel-air ratio in the centre is correct and uniform despite there being way too much air present if the fuel was mixed throughout the entire cylinder air volume. A further benefit of operating this way is the flame stops short of the cylinder walls and so there is less heat loss to the cooling system. Also, the residual oil film on the cylinder walls doesn't get burnt off.
In the UK it seems to refer to the 1/4 inch (retro-defied as 6.5mm)
One of my pet peeves is "jack plug". In the UK it seems to refer to the 1/4 inch (retro-defied as 6.5mm) connector with either two circuits (TS = Tip, Sleeve) or three (TRS = Tip, Ring, Sleeve)
I grew up understanding that "plug" refers to the male gender, while "jack" refers to the female of the species. Perhaps "jack plug" is some newfangled politically-correct term here in the era of LGBTQQI (probably more variations that I can't remember?)
So I never know whether "jack plug" refers to a cord-end male connector, or a panel-mount female connector? One needs the context to be sure.
Sounds to me like a Firefox bug (probably a Firefox on Windows bug). At least on the Mac, using Unicode for things like Ω has worked fine for a very long time. Outside of online services involving outdated servers, I haven't run into encoding issues for probably over 15 years.Nobody uses Ω anymore?
When I am writing or producing documentation, sure. But computer systems and unicode are now so screwed up that the Ω symbol is increasingly unreliable. It used to work great back when code page 437 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437) was ubiquitous.
Firefox does not even allow me to enter it directly without issuing a page back command.