News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by modernerd on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @05:10PM (#36233630)
Douglas Adams also battled with this:

> One general point. A thing I have had said to me over and over again whenever I’ve done public appearances and readings and so on in the States is this: Please don’t let anyone Americanise it! We like it the way it is!

> There are some changes in the script that simply don’t make sense. Arthur Dent is English, the setting is England, and has been in every single manifestation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ever. The ‘Horse and Groom’ pub that Arthur and Ford go to is an English pub, the ‘pounds’ they pay with are English (but make it twenty pounds rather than five – inflation). So why suddenly ‘Newark’ instead of ‘Rickmansworth’? And ‘Bloomingdales’ instead of ‘Marks & Spencer’? The fact that Rickmansworth is not within the continental United States doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist! American audiences do not need to feel disturbed by the notion that places do exist outside the US or that people might suddenly refer to them in works of fiction.

https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/please-dont-let-anyone-amer...

Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by jimmygrapes on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @06:16PM (#36234406)
This hampered me when playing the HHGTTG text adventure as a youth. My memory is fuzzy on the specifics, but one of the early things needed is to relieve a headache or similar, and a search of Arthur's home would reveal an "analgesic" eventually. Unfortunately you wouldn't be able to do something else until you consumed the analgesic, and eventually you'd lose the game because the home was demolished while you're in it.

I did not know at the time what an analgesic was, despite having a fairly broad vocabulary. If anything, I assumed it was some dirty adult toy; certainly not a thing to be consumed as a remedy for pain.

It was frustrating because I searched high and low for aspirin, Tylenol, pain-killer, etc. but never got past that section until I had a chance to search the Internet for a solution - many years after I really cared to play a text adventure again.

Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by brigandish on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @06:47PM (#36234720)
The word you really needed to know was dictionary, not analgesic ;-)
Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by Taywee on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @07:58PM (#36235342)
Analgesic isn't a British word, though. It's used plenty in American medicine.
Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by erhaetherth on Thursday June 08, 2023 @02:51AM (#36238184)
No, Americans only know brand names because #capitalism.
Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by gwd on Thursday June 08, 2023 @04:06AM (#36238689)
...that's why everyone in the UK has a Hoover. The most common term I've heard for {acetominophen, ibuprofen, etc} in the US is "pain killer".
Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by mcv on Thursday June 08, 2023 @06:06AM (#36239476)
So aggressive. In Dutch it's a pijnstiller, or "pain silencer".
Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by smsm42 on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @10:27PM (#36236422)
Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by gerdesj on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @07:23PM (#36235072)
"So why suddenly ‘Newark’ instead of ‘Rickmansworth’? And ‘Bloomingdales’ instead of ‘Marks & Spencer’?"

Newark (on Trent) is in Notts. Rickmansworth is pronounced "Rick-uth" (not really but it should be) and Bloomingdales would be pronounced something like "Blimmin'dolls", if it ever showed itself over here.

The Adams quotes are from some time ago and we have all passed a lot of water since then. The entirety of en_* are now routinely bombarded with everyone else's TV/stream output in various guises. I might be a Brit but I am now (not really) intimately familiar with Australian and New Zealand police and "Border Force" etiquette and more. I can even hold my own when confronted with a particularly tricky issue in say Nunavut with the RCMPs. I am of course an expert in Texan rangering thanks to a bloke called Walker.

You say tomato and I say fuck that: viva la difference!

Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by wlonkly on Thursday June 08, 2023 @06:18PM (#36250009)
> The Adams quotes are from some time ago

I would be surprised if they were recent, but I wouldn't put it past him, either.

Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by dallyo on Thursday June 08, 2023 @02:15AM (#36237933)
There's a Newark in England.
Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by mcv on Thursday June 08, 2023 @06:04AM (#36239459)
Sometimes it turns out great, though. Wasn't there a scene with an award for "best use of the word 'fuck'" that was changed to "best use of the word 'Belgium'"? That was an improvement.
Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by modernerd on Thursday June 08, 2023 @07:28AM (#36240098)
Yes! It was the “Rory Award” from Life, the Universe and Everything:

https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Rory_Award

Definitely funnier as “Belgium”.