Do you have any pet peeve technology-related terms you hear or read often that make you cringe? Here's few of mine:
- 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.
- 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? Like, you know, actual spinning? Should I call all speakers "DC speakers" now as it's enough to hook them to a one-chip amplifier solution to make them sound?
- 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
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. - Mixing "inputs" with "outputs", "receivers" with "transmitters" and generally not giving a flying F about the difference. I'm not talking about general, non-tech-savvy users here (that I can understand and I'm not blaming them) but people who should know better, like tech salespeople or web tech reviewers. I think that, to some people, everything you stick a plug into automatically, by physical reference, becomes an input.
Feel free to pile up yours or argue mine. I hope the thread fits the theme of the forum enough for it not to be moderated-out. No audiofoolery bullshit terms please as I feel that's a whole different can of worms and had been done here to death already.
Ah, yes,"digital marketing", all it means is putting product information on some stupid web site.
When something happens "organically"...
Mixing "inputs" with "outputs", "receivers" with "transmitters" and generally not giving a flying F about the difference.
And the closely related mixing of
upload and
download. I get that it can be subtle when both devices are sitting next to each other and one person is operating both, but it still hits me funny when someone uses what I consider the wrong word.
It seems like almost everyone who don't know cryptocurrency think altcoins and Bitcoin are the same thing. Several times, I have been asked how I mine Bitcoin with smartphones and I have to reply first explaining the difference between altcoins and Bitcoin.
"Sensorless" motor drives often have voltage and current sensing.
Gasoline is referred to as "gas" when it's a liquid.
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*.
The process of recording video is referred to as "filming" when actual film is rarely used for that purpose anymore. Same goes for "hanging up" a cell phone, "burning" an EEPROM, "taping out" a PCB or chip, etc....
DB-9. DB-15, DB-37 (should be DE-9, DA-15, DC-37)
RJ11, RJ12, RJ45 (when not referring to the telco standard)
Calling an outlet a plug.
Sometimes my step-daughter would say she was going to 'download the internet'. I'd always respond with 'what? All of it?'. It took her months to realise what I was getting at!
The meaning of the word "calibration".
When I was a kid in the 60s, people used to carry around and listen to a “transistor”.
"chemical" when used like this:
"Don't buy that, it's full of chemicals."
Of course it is otherwise it would be a vacuum.
"naturally-derived" - i.e., it was natural and now we've modified it. Ain't oil out of the ground natural?
"plant-derived" - same idea
If you thought that was bad, the automotive world is far worse...
Just do not look at the terms visual arts use for stuff. I firmly believe they pick their terms based on how they feel about them, and completely ignore their actual meaning. You know, because art.
This is especially horrible in Finnish, where they have "redefined" just about all physical quantities for their own use. With zero correlation to their actual meaning. In the late nineties I got my hands on a list of "definitions", and I laughed at it for years until I lost it in a move.
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.
A recent discovery for me were
"Amphenol connectors" (spoiler: almost never actually made by Amphenol).
I understand where you are coming from, but this....
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?
That means that the driver providing electronic commutation is built into the motor so it may be treated as a DC motor.
"Sensorless" motor drives often have voltage and current sensing.
But they are distinguished from motor drives which require separate sensors.
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*.
I cannot really complain about this. It is still direct memory access in the sense that no CPU processing is necessary beyond what was required before.
The external access goes through the integrated memory controller which may also invalidate cache lines. In the past when the memory controller was not integrated with the CPU, cache lines could still be invalidated by DMA. Did that make it any less DMA since the CPU was involved in some form?
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" (spoiler: almost never actually made by Amphenol).
It gets worse considering that Amphenol and Molex both produce Waldom connectors and Waldom no longer does but I still use my Waldom crimper. There used to be a much larger variety of these connectors. I remember we had problems with the Amphenol versions being out of specifications.
I hate the confusion between differential, difference, and instrumentation amplifier. Thank Texas Instruments for immortalizing the confusion in their application notes.
If you go back far enough, push-pull was synonymous with differential. This can be very confusing when reading very old documentation.
There are a bunch more of these that I have thankfully forgotten.
When something happens "organically"...
Don't forget when Organic Chemistry was the study of chemistry in living things. Now practically anything with any carbon molecules will do.
...
Gasoline is referred to as "gas" when it's a liquid.
...
That's still right. You are buying just the gas - it takes an explosion inside the cylinder, after that, all you got is just gas. Then again, it could be an abbreviation.
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? 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".
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.
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?
I was thinking of the most common ones, DC brushless fans. Tektronix made their own DC brushless motor assemblies (1) for their fans for a long time (2) and I have one sitting on my desk.
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".
(1) I deliberately use the term assembly because the driver board and motor are not intended to be separated so they more closely fit "DC brushless motor" than PM AC motor and driver or whatever they would be called separately.
(2) Tektronix might have been making their own DC brushless motors to have better control of leaking magnetic flux which would be important in instruments which use CRTs. They sometimes (or maybe always) added steel shields to the standard shaded pole AC motors they used previously which I had not seen done before.
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.
mhz, mHz instead of MHz, hell even my bleeding Chrome spell checker gets this right.
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.
Because these are *evaporator* fan motors which have to operate inside the freezer compartment presenting a heat load to the compressor. They designed them to operate on 120/240 volt AC and be a drop in replacement for the previously used shaded pole motors. The one I encountered which is very common uses the laminated stack from a shaded pole motor without the shorted turns. The condenser fan motors are off the shelf shaded pole motors.
They call them "electronically commutated" which is just confusing. It is completely true but so are DC brushless motors and many others.