Etymology of Ham Radio

Good info for the next time someone asks about the origin of the term "ham radio" https://t.co/i8O65uEfTr #hamradio

— BobW (@K0NR) September 7, 2017

First Language

We joke about a warning on an HT charger that can cook meat, manuals that are indecipherable, and instructions that aren't super helpful, but when 30% of the population can't speak the national language, it does not bode well for the mastery of a second. (I know one may not really have anything to do with the other, but it still strikes me as interesting.)

Via Slashdot

Programming Jargon

Funny programming jargon. Read them and then come back, so the following will make sense.

Some of these are funny to me on a couple of levels. I work with a guy whose written communication can be a little confusing. We call it Yoda Speak. However, his SQL and other logic doesn't suffer from the same aliment, so we can't accuse him of Yoda Conditions.

I'm guilty of Smurf-like Naming Conventions when I get to name objects in our infrastructure, e.g. Knox_Engineering_HP_Laserjet_Series_2.Engineering.Knoxville.TN.USA.NA.Earth.MilkyWay

We have also seen procedures named TEST_Something get promoted to production or as they say protoduction.

Lastly, the mere act of getting up to go ask a question will simulate the rubber duck effect. That happens to me way more than I would like to admit.

Destroy = Party?

Time to get out your English to English dictionaries... destroy = party.

Euphemisms: How about a smoke and a drink?

Nifty article on the differences in euphemisms between cultures. A Chinese example:

One feature of Chinese euphemisms comes from the tonal nature of the language. Yan is slang for cigarettes; jiu means alcohol. But, with different tones, the two syllables together can also mean “to research”. So a corrupt official being asked to do something might suggest, “Let’s research (yanjiu) this issue together”, by which he would probably mean, “Give me some cigarettes and some alcohol and I’ll make it happen.”

andrewchen Euphemisms: Making murder respectable | The Economist econ.st/zFQnMZWed, Jan 18 11:19:04 from Timely by Demandforce

Harbrace

Also from my Tennessee Alumnus reading tonight... how did I not know that Hodges was responsible for Harbrace? No wonder he has a huge library named after him. I still use my Harbrace - not that you could tell from my raw, lazy, and unpolished writing for the blog. Proof reading is for the professionals.