|
|
Cannot argue with Oxford so, case closed. Maybe someone should send a memo to Merriam-Wesbster that is my go to reference.
Mircea
|
|
|
|
|
Mircea Neacsu wrote: Maybe someone should send a memo to Merriam-Wesbster that is my go to reference.
Agreed - mine too.
|
|
|
|
|
David O'Neil wrote: Brevity often coincides with clarity
But when it doesn't...
|
|
|
|
|
Especially as a non-native English speaker, I will say that it often doesn't!
I do not get used to it! I learned 50 years ago that in US newspaper headlines, "and" is written as "," (no matter how much empty space there is at the end of the line), but it still gives me chills. In technical media/literature, you too frequently read articles that use an insane amount of abbreviations, often rather obscure ones, without explaining a single one of them. And then you come across those going to the other extreme, not only expanding the abbreviation in a parenthesis, but doing it on every single use of it throughout the article, and also expanding (at every use) abbreviations so familiar to everyone that we no longer think of it as an abbreviation - such as FM, DAB, TV, DVD, USD, UTC, Basic and Fortran.
If you think brevity coincides with clarity, you should start programming in APL 
That is not just a joke: Conciseness may work well in a tribal language (such as the APL programmer tribe), but you should be aware when you move outside the tribe, and know how to handle that. Sticking to your tribal language is rarely the best alternative. Ignoring well known terms in the non-tribal language is not a good alternative, either.
Any professional should have a period as an instructor, teaching a non-tribal audience his profession, to discover what is easily understood and what is not. Too many professionals think the solution is to teach the tribal language to the non-tribal society; usually it is not. The solution is for the professional to learn to speak in a non-tribal language. That includes avoiding tribal abbreviations and tribalisms such as verbings and nouning. Yes, that is frequently an element of tribal language. An example: I had a motor that wouldn't work, and mentioned to a friend of mine that I suspected that the fuse was blown. His immediate response: "Ya ohmed it, didn't ya?"
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You speak like a true USAtian!
I guess that you really are joking. In case you are not: Have you heard about HD Radio? That is the US "Certainly Invented Here" attempt to create a US alternative to the international digital radio standard adopted by Europe, Australia, a lot of Asian countries and a few African ones.
If you read and article where "DAB" comes up, it must be because you are interested in broadcasting, not limited to the US of A (where DAB probably would not come up). In that context, DAB is as fundamental as AM and FM.
Asking "What is DAB" is like if you had asked "What is GSM" at the time when four different "Certainly Invented Here" mobile phone standards where fighting to kill each other in the US. They did, and the NIH GSM system took over. US authorities tried to avoid the same to happen with the three (or was it four?) competing digital FM radio replacements. So before they had all killed each other, FCC declared HD Radio as the winner based on battle points. HD Radio did not have enough going for it to make it an overnight success, and from what I have been told (I haven't visited USA for quite a few years), HD Radio can be described as 'marginalized' in the US radio market of today. So maybe you are not much aware of HDR.
Even though NIH, DAB was considered in the USA, although reluctantly. However, channels at the outer end of the DAB frequency spectrum was so close to frequencies used by US Armed Forces that there was a theoretical possibility that a badly tuned broadcast transmitter could cause interference with military communication. Of course it would have been possible to declare the DAB band to not go that high (in fact, some European countries do!), sacrificing a small fraction of the total capacity. More important: It was a good excuse for rejecting the international standard, replacing it with something Certainly Invented Here.
From a technical point of view, HD Radio is somewhat closer to DRM, rather than DAB. DRM is the primary radio technology in India. If you haven't heard of DAB, I assume that DRM is even more unfamiliar. DRM shares a lot of technological elements with DAB (so making a combined DAB/DRM receiver is quite simple), but some lower layers differ: DAB multiplexes a great number (typically 12-20) of audio channels on a single transmitter, requiring a coordination of the sources or those channels. DRM transmits from a single audio channel up to four, so it is much better suited for an independent 'husband-and-wife'-type radio station. DRM can (re)use an existing FM or AM transmitter. The 'single source' and (to a limited degree) reuse of old transmitters is a trait shared by HDR. But DRM is another NIH international standard, so I guess it is not a viable alternative in the US.
(One trait that HDR does not share: DAB and DRM can extend the coverage by adding transmitters on the same frequency. There is no need to allocate another frequency to a station, no matter how many transmitters it needs to cover its area.)
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
|
|
|
|
|
trønderen wrote: I do not get used to it! ... In technical media/literature, you too frequently read articles that use an insane amount of abbreviations, often rather obscure ones, without explaining a single one of them.
And then you violate your own desire:
trønderen wrote: If you read and article where "DAB" comes up, it must be because you are interested in broadcasting, not limited to the US of A (where DAB probably would not come up).
I, in the USA, have never heard 'DAB' before, and I've heard a lot of acronyms. I'm guessing it means 'Digital Audio Broadcast.' And then you violate your desire a couple more times: 'DRM,' 'NIH' - no clue what those are, although DRM is almost always Digital Rights Management in our news, but obviously not per your usage.
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler” - the best expansion of 'brevity's meaning, as I see it.
|
|
|
|
|
Concisely! 
|
|
|
|
|
They have not heard of the word favoured (favored in US)?
|
|
|
|
|
Isn't "verbing" itself a good example of exactly the same abomination?🙄
|
|
|
|
|
Isn't that exactly the reason why it is used in this context?
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
|
|
|
|
|
Verbing nouns and nouning verbs makes my toes curl.
"Learnings" 😱
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
|
|
|
|
|
Let me think about that and revert back to you
P.S. It's my pet hate misuse of a word, and now that I've done this thing I need to lie down in a darkened room and reconsider my life choices
|
|
|
|
|
I literally died when I read that! 
My kids use phrases like this, makes me cringe. 
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
|
|
|
|
|
It's ok, I speak only English, pretty much and favorited sounds like an abomination to me too.
|
|
|
|
|
Some constructed languages, such as Esperanto, have far simpler grammars than most natural grammars. E.g. verbing a noun, or nouning a verb, is certainly not wierding the language - it is the way it is done. Always.
Disclaimer: I do not know Esperanto (nor other spoken constructed languages), but people who have tried to make me study it, says that's roughly how Esperanto is. Correct me if I have a wrong understanding.
As a programmer, I feel a certain attraction to highly regular, simple grammar languages. Maybe they are not as well suited for, say, poetry - but Esperanto people will say that it certainly is, both for poetry, love stories and everything else. Let's see it from a programmer's point of view: A programming language with a complex grammar and lots of irregularities does not make it more suitable for providing workable software solutions. Yesterday's New Old Thing blog, How to convert between different types of counted-string string types[^] lists 8 (eight) different counted string classes (excluding NUL terminated). It gives me shivers; I look the other way and use the C# string type instead ... (or even 1970 vintage Pascal strings ). "Richness" doesn't always correspond to "valuable".
If you dislike verbing of nouns and nouning of verbs on principal, language independent grounds, then by implication you reject Esperanto. (Maybe you do for other reasons as well!). For English in particular, overusing it can be used for funny word play, such as the C&H "wierding" example mentioned by another poster. But as lots of fully established verb/noun pairs are related that way, I will never be able to draw a clear line: These verbings are fully acceptable, while those are condemnable, when they are created according to the same pattern.
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
|
|
|
|
|
From CP newsletter
https://www.codeproject.com/News.aspx?ntag=19837496582598984&_z=2928472[^]
A study that they did based on California data that compares accidents versus autonomous and humans.
Autonomous was better except is two cases. Although 'turning' was one of those which seems kind of important.
But at any rate I would think in California you are going to want to know how well the autonomous cars do when they have to drive down a road with raging wildfire on both sides.
|
|
|
|
|
They can't work in an open environment.
|
|
|
|
|
jschell wrote: a road with raging wildfire on both sides
like this one?[^] That's a fire truck at the bottom, with a firefighter standing on the road. My colleagues.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
|
|
|
|
|
jschell wrote: how well the autonomous cars do when they have to drive down a road with raging wildfire on both sides.
Unlike human drivers, an autonomous car wouldn't go into a panic.
But then, it might get itself burnt to a crisp before a human does.
I'd be more impressed seeing autonomous cars doing well in a snowstorm, or after a heavy snowfall. I guess there's not much of that sort of testing going around in California.
|
|
|
|
|
I was driving eastward across the Afsluitdijk today, in the slow lane, going just slightly under the speed limit, enjoying the views of the waters and boats. I catch up to a slow truck and I slow down to stay behind him. In my mirror I see another truck slowly gaining on us. He does not pull over into the passing lane, just gets closer and closer. He just creeps to within a couple feet of my bumper, at least that is what it feels like when all I see is grill in my rear view mirror.
So I decide maybe it is time to get out of there. Not comfortable between two trucks with one of them tailgating me. So I put on my signal, change lanes and boot it past the truck in front of me. I notice that the truck behind me does the same and also passes the truck. I pull back into the slow lane and slow down again to just under the speed limit. The truck, instead of just passing me, pulls in behind me again and once again pulls right up to my bumper, but this time he lays on his horn. So I let up on the throttle to slow down even more, before he finally pulls over and passes me, blaring his horn the whole time.
A little later this evening, I am driving down the A37 towards Coevorden, I am going the speed limit, passing a bunch of slower trucks when my GPS tells me my exit is coming up soon. So I pull into the slow lane and nestle in behind a truck so I will not miss my exit. Again, the truck I just past decides he does not like that, so he pulls right up behind me, just like the last guy earlier. But this time my exit is coming soon, so I just stay where I am. Bozo pulls up beside me, then comes into my lane, trying to run me off the road.
I have been driving for over 40 years, all over Canada and the US, and I have never seen behaviour like this before, then on my first day driving in Europe I have two incidents like this.
Are all European truck drivers this crazy, or is it just the dutch ones? I am almost not looking forward to tomorrow driving in Germany.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
|
|
|
|
|
Many moons ago, I visited Germany for business a number of times. I was told most trucks especially semi's used the autobahn at night. Not a law, but a practice that was pretty consistent. Most automobile traffic adjusted accordingly.
Left hand lane is passing only. If you cruise in the left lane the automobiles wanting to use it for passing let you know with flashing lights and maybe a horn to encourage you should move to the right. This is the practice here in Texas as well. Some just pass you on the right (not kosher but also tolerated). Road signs occasionally remind every one of the rules.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
|
|
|
|
|
PJ Arends wrote: and I slow down to stay behind him.
As a guess, you were too close. The field of view behind a truck is limited. So perhaps the other truckers were less than pleased about that.
|
|
|
|
|
Best Lounge answer in ... nine turns of the watery star.
Noting a trucker's demeanor is difficult to do from down under the running board of a semi but it shouldn't be that difficult to note the shipping company's name, get a fix on it's street address and a working phone number, and phone in a complaint.
|
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
