(no subject)

[tamakun]

Y'know what's really annoying me? How companies use either made-up or alternate spellings of words to describe things and they're being accepted as right.

Things like "Rogers Hi-Speed Internet Lite".

Taco Bell has a "Stuft Burrito".

I guess I'm a bit of a stickler for grammar. But surely companies know the correct way to write words?

>,>
I guess L33t-sp34k falls into this category, too, now that I think about it...
<,<
>_<

I remember hearing that recently Oxford accepted a number of new words into the Oxford Dictionary of English (OED). Primarily because "Muggle" made its way into the dictionary. That press release mentions all the new additions to it - including Eeyorish, SARS, Cyberslacker, Bupkis (!) and Noughties (which, I believe, are the correct term to describe this decade, like how it was the 90's 4 years ago, this is the Naught-ies).

Here's a couple more - Bada Bing (brought to you by The Sopranos and not East Side Mario's or Beakman's World), Bootylicious Popstrels (what the heck is a Popstrel?), Egosurf (searching the web for your name - yes, I've done it myself), and Foo Fighters (which, until just now, thought it was just a band, but apparently Foo has a meaning, which is typically a sample name for absolutely anything, typically used for programming - FOO.ASP).

*continues to read* Looking up "Foo", there is a team at MIT called the Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC). Apparently, the place where they have a model train scooting around a room is controlled by a number of "Scram Switches" that are frobbed to prevent the train from hitting a wall or obstruction - and when a scram switch was hit, the digital clock (made with LEDs, the same 7-segment LED systems that are in most alarm clocks these days) would change to:
<td>

 _  _   _
|_ | | | |
|  |_| |_|

</td>

Don't ask me why. XD

Comments

[sierralad.livejournal.com]

The reason for the misspelling is so that they can call things by certain names and not get sued for it. Case in point: Cheez Whiz. It has no actual cheese in it, but has a cheese flavour. If they called it "Cheese Whiz" and someone took Kraft to court for false advertising, the plaintiff would win. Eregow, the slightly catchier "cheez".

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

O.o Crazy.

So I guess I can't sue if I figure my Burrito is not "Stuffed" enough or if my Internet isn't running at "High Speed Light" (whatever that means). :P

[bassbeast.livejournal.com]

But you're going to allow "Eregow" to get by? :P Ergo sum, some things don't change...

Foo Fighters

[scruloose.livejournal.com]

I believe that "foo fighters" also has a specific meaning quite apart from the programmer's "foo". I remember hearing something about it being Vietnam-war-era military pilots' slang (or code name) for UFO's. Apparently they had enough run-ins with those pesky aliens that they gave 'em their own name. *shrug*

[ex-wataame890.livejournal.com]

Stuft? wow never saw that one ^^;