3360 replies to this topic

[Banjogirl]

It seems the original guy may have pronounced the 'T' because  he was Dutch and didn't know any different. Or everything on Wikipedia is a little bit wrong...No, that would never happen!!

[Gordon Shumway]

I'm not fully sure of Wiki's remit. I know there are people there who believe that a tertiary source is not permitted to refer to any primary sources, only secondary ones. That seems insane to me, but I suppose it's possible it's the official line. Even if it is legitimate, their secondary source evaluation needs a lot of improvement.

[Vicky Violin]

I have a friend who works for an accounting firm called Swindells.  She says they pronounce it "Swin-delles" with the emphasis on the second syllable.  I'm not convinced the pronunciation helps  .

[fsharpminor]

I have a friend who works for an accounting firm called Swindells.  She says they pronounce it "Swin-delles" with the emphasis on the second syllable.  I'm not convinced the pronunciation helps  .

Sounds to me like a contrived name, like the Estate Agents 'Doolitle and Dalley' in Kidderminster. and an Accountants 'Drinkwater and Passmore'.  A genuine one is the Solicitors  'Wright, Hassall and Co' (Wolverhampton I think)

[Gran'piano]

Here we have Swissboring!

[Latin pianist]

A friend has just asked whether is or are is correct in "There are/is a baptist chapel, a British school and charities." I think is sounds better but not sure!

[fsharpminor]

Definitely 'is' . It would be 'There are Baptist Chapels, British Schools and Charities'   (i.e. plural)

[Latin pianist]

Just asked why she wanted to know and it was on a charter on a pub wall as "are". But it didn't look right.

[zwhe]

Email from ebay:

Get a 50' Samsung 4K TV for only £349

I'm not quite sure a 50 foot TV would fit in my house, but it really would be a bargain!

[Maizie]

"Find out whose changing role this quarter"

Top headline on the home page of company intranet.  I checked it several times yesterday but it remained.  It had been corrected to 'who is' by the time I logged in this morning.

[Aeolienne]

I recently came across a (non-cryptic) crossword clue: Programs (4), for which the solution appeared to be APPS. Surely apps are software and programs are instructions to a computer. An app is no more a program than a cake is a recipe!

[musicalmalc]

I recently came across a (non-cryptic) crossword clue: Programs (4), for which the solution appeared to be APPS. Surely apps are software and programs are instructions to a computer. An app is no more a program than a cake is a recipe!

So how do you think an "App" does anything - an "App" will usually comprise of multiple "programs" which contain the instructions to the operating system.

Instructions to a computer are "code" and "programs" comprises lines of code arranged as programs which can be invoked (behind the scenes usually).

or put it another way - "Apps" is shorthand for "Application Program"

[Edwardo]

I recently came across a (non-cryptic) crossword clue: Programs (4), for which the solution appeared to be APPS. Surely apps are software and programs are instructions to a computer. An app is no more a program than a cake is a recipe!

Apps and programs are effectively synonymous.  In modern parlance an app is generally associated with a hand-held device (phone, tablet etc.) whereas programs tend to run on laptops, desktops etc.

 

FWIW I've been a software engineer/developer for nearly 25 years.

[Aquarelle]

I found the above posts enlightening - except that being a real cyber idiot I don't think my brain has taken much in and I am not all that enlightened! To me it's all a bit like driving the car and not knowing anything about what goes on under the bonnet. I just click or press and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I am full of admiration for those who understand the ins and outs  !   

[elemimele]

Maybe we have to accept that in fast-moving areas, such as IT, the meanings of words change more rapidly than normal. And the words used for a particular meaning also change more rapidly. For example, when I were a lad (well, a bit after that; computers didn't really exit when I really were a lad) a programmer called him- or herself a programmer, not a "coder". I personally loathe the term "coder" because (a) "code" is associated in my mind with the hiding of meaning, while a good programming language is about revealing, in human-friendly terms, the meaning behind a string of numbers that would otherwise make sense only to the hardware; and because (b) the process of translating a method into code is actually rather dull and unimaginative - the interesting end of programming, the rewarding bit, is deciding what approach to adopt in the first place.