Comments on: just like witches at black masses

By: the grandma test « Periscope Depth

the grandma test « Periscope Depth — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:06:21 +0000

[...] page. Grandma: That’s certainly an unusual name. Why do they call it ‘blog’? Me: I don’t know. Grandma: So this is a place you can go on the Internet that activates blogs? Me: No, aggregates [...]

By: stephanie

stephanie — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:27:06 +0000

ps, “clicker” totally is a synonym for remote control, but i don’t know if maybe it’s a new england thing? i hear it pretty much constantly in places like southern ri where we get, erm, a little bit country and it’s all “PASS ME THE CLICKAH”

By: Professor Coldheart

Professor Coldheart — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:44:02 +0000

Steph - thank you for navigating us away from the mocking laughter.

Erin - interesting. Could you display a web address for me to actuate my mouse cursor on?

By: Erin

Erin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:41:50 +0000

We should definitely not let the engineers name things. I’m pretty sure if it’d been up to them to give a name to what we now call “clicking”, though, it’d be something much more opaque.

To Jimbo: I don’t think “clicker” is a universal synonym for “remote control.” I don’t remember ever calling it that growing up. Dialectal variation, woo!

By: stephanie

stephanie — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:12:41 +0000

I DID NOT ASK FOR *THOSE* SMILIES

GOD DAMMIT TECHNOLOGY ARAGHHHHHH

By: stephanie

stephanie — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:12:07 +0000

i don’t know who that space hippo is but ffs, .gif uses the “g” sound from “good” and NOT the “j” sound from “jif.” if you say it like that, people ARE laughing at you behind your back. i’m a designer and i worked for a software company, just trust me.

also, my mother does “zap” things in “the micro.” hm. anyway, world wide web now sounds ridiculously dated, but thankfully people aren’t having to say “www” much anymore either.

can you tell me why “colonel” doesn’t even have an “r” in it? that word was the bane of my reading aloud in elementary school existence >

By: Professor Coldheart

Professor Coldheart — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:11:29 +0000

I called a remote a “tuner” until my freshman year of college, when my roommate pointed out how weird that was.

Josh - “Trip dub” does sound painful. Like Massive Attack meets Jah Shaka or something.

And it doesn’t bother me to say “click here” either. It’s just odd.

By: Brian Martinez

Brian Martinez — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:57:17 +0000

Jimbo: my wife calls it the “clicker”; I call it the “remote”. Maybe it’s a regional thang. And yeah, I’m guessing that the early remotes did make clicking noises when you used them.

And, Perich, I’m pretty sure engineers weren’t the ones who came up with the “clicking” term–more likely it was the interface designers or even the marketroids.

Even “activating a hyperlink” doesn’t ring true to my programmer’s ears. More like “Accessing a URL”. Imagine if we had stuck that in the user’s manual:

“Access the URL by applying downward force on the left button of your computer’s pointing device.”

Or: “Click on the link.”

Which would you prefer?

By: Alex(andra)

Alex(andra) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:56:39 +0000

Peanut butter.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:39:05 +0000

Don’t forget that the common masses tend to call the TV remote control the “clicker” - and that calling remotes “clickers” probably slightly predates the mouse itself, if my memory serves.

I actually hate calling remotes “clickers” but it doesn’t bother me at all to say “click here”. What else are you going to say? “Activate that link?” That sucks. “Navigate here?” A click isn’t always navigation, sometimes it’s just selection. “Select that?” See above. “Click” works.