this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2025
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I mean fair enough, but it made me laugh.

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[–] Gork@lemm.ee 99 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ English (Traditional)

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ English (Simplified)

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 6 points 10 months ago

I dunno if I would say πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ is traditional. At the time of the American Revolution, the British accent was pretty close to what's considered an American accent today.

Check out this video around 13:40 https://youtu.be/KYaqdJ35fPg

[–] dojan@lemmy.world 77 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

Throwback to Microsoft renaming "zip file" to "postcode file" in English.

The difference here obviously being that actual humans worked on the localisation Mint uses, whereas I'm sure Microsoft just uses machine translation.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yeah, this feels like a courtesy thing. I just didn't expect it.

(And only just now noticed after switching three weeks ago since this was the first time I had to delete anything in all that time.)

That's funny, I hadn't heard that before. Situations like this is why actual humans will always make better translators (overall).

Native readers can almost always tell when something was just run through a translation tool, because translation is about meaning, not just word/phrase replacement. Even LLMs will make weird contextual mistakes because there's no fundamental understanding of meaning.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 9 points 10 months ago

Ah yes, the old "packed octet sequence, total compression of data encoding" format. It was invented by the boffins at Bletchley between cracking Enigma, and don't let Phil Katz tell you any different. ~waggles finger~

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I've never associated .zip files with mailing addresses, a lot of the time they have a zipper pull tab as if you're zipping up tight clothing around them to make them smaller. Nothing to do with the Zone Improvement Plan.

Amusing fact: There was a tool similar to winzip or winRAR for the classic mac called "Stuffit" which I think is the most superior name.

[–] dojan@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't think they are, it was just Microsoft screwing things up. I've never heard someone call them postcode archives.

yeah it's an exapmlenof the Scunthorpe problem.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 31 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Several years back, I set my phone's language to UK English so the voice assistant would be British, and my flashlight button changed to "Torch".

[–] anothermember@feddit.uk 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Unfortunately mine says flashlight which is a mild annoyance since it doesn't flash.

[–] blandfordforever@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

You're not pushing the button fast enough.

*after seeing some other comments, I want to clarify that I was being sarcastic.

[–] Bougie_Birdie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 10 months ago

So you're saying it's light on flash

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Which is objectively a better word. Ah Americans - twice the syllables, twice the letters, and it doesn't even flash!

Reminiscent of "elevator", except that has four times the syllables! "Transportation" (transport), "burglarize" (burgle), "garbage collector" (dustman), "apartment" (flat)... I'm detecting a pattern.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It's nice that in Star Trek they went with British English for their turbolifts.

Can you imagine having to say turboelevator in a hurry? shudders

[–] Sorse@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Which is objectively a better word. Ah Americans - twice the syllables, twice the letters, and it doesn't even flash!

Except torch is a fancy stick with one end on fire. Flashlight is a light giving an intense flash, used for photographing at night or indoors.

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[–] hallettj@leminal.space 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They can flash by pressing the button. On some flashlights partially pressing and releasing the button flashes the light off and on. That's a notable difference from, say, lanterns where you need a cover or shield for signalling.

The problem with "torch" is that there's already a thing called "torch", and now I don't know which thing you mean. The word "flashlight" has avoided critical ambiguity in many of our Indiana Jones movies.

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

They can flash by pressing the button

Oh come on, this is obvious post-hoc justification!

The problem with β€œtorch” is that there’s already a thing called β€œtorch”,

Indeed, it's a thing that you hold in your hand to provide light, as it has been for thousands of years.

[–] anothermember@feddit.uk 21 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It's "Wastebasket" in the UK on the GNOME desktop. I'm happy enough with that.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

OS/2 Warp called it the shredder.

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[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Gnome is going for the avocado-toast-eating market.

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago

Now this is the kind of innovation we need

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 13 points 10 months ago

Never really thought about it, but yeah, it's always been "Rubbish Bin" for me.

The directories created on filesystems for temporary storage are still called .Trash-* though.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Can confirm. It always seems overly verbose, though. Why not just bin? Or Rubbish? Nobody IRL would ever say "rubbish bin".

[–] pelya@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I guess because 'bin' is a shorthand of 'binary', that is, the directory where all your executable files reside, so the developers felt a need to clarify that /usr/bin isn't to be cleaned.

[–] renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I thought the 'bin' folder in program folders was where they put trash for longer than I'd like to admit. >_<

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 5 points 10 months ago

Well, that's better than moving all your binaries to the rubbish bin

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Is your garbage little endian or big endian?

[–] pelya@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

It's a Python source with an executable flag set.

I guess plaintext garbage is big-endian.

[–] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oy! Mum's the word, old chap, don't go blabbing to the Yanks, or they'll be removing it faster than a Londoner can say "cheerio"!

Sorry

[–] Eldritch@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

So you're saying they should hit the rubout button?

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[–] ordellrb@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Just don't put the stuff to delete in /bin or /usr/bin

[–] Maiq@lemy.lol 3 points 10 months ago

Right, it goes in ~/.local/bin for safe keeping.

[–] shifty@leminal.space 5 points 10 months ago

Ya put it in the bin

[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Did you move to the UK Squid?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I did. Left the U.S. with my daughter on January 20th, arrived here on January 21st.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm so happy for you! Well done getting the hell out of there.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Thank you. Now I need a job.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Best of luck. I'm just glad you got out! Was it hard to do?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

No, I have dual US/UK citizenship (until Trump decides to revoke my US citizenship, which wouldn't shock me). But I need to find a job paying at least Β£29,000 a year so my daughter can stay on a family visa. She's currently only here on a 6 month visitor visa. My wife is also still in the US and won't be coming over until I secure it.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 months ago
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