Wol:

On 23/09/2024 23:53, karl@aspodata.se wrote:

It's just the pc hoard that thinks a server is some machine handling

(that should be horde, not hoard even though it sounds funny...)

databases, mail, files, printers or what

In other words, X uses the words the other way round than most people -
what I said.

Doesn't mean the majority are right! As far as I'm aware X got there
first, but is now swimming against the tide.

It could be a case of one million flies cannot be wrong, shit is good..
but at the same time what people call a server is a machine running
server programs, but the server itself is the program running.
Without that program it is just a fancy box, I could use the very same
box and use it as a desktop, and there is another false dicotomy, that
there are desktops and servers, but the majority of all computers out
ther are embedded. And many persons called (prior to laptops) the
box a disk.

So should computer words be defined by non-professionals or thoose
who knows ?

One effect of letting non-professionals define words is the case when
the poeple handling the collection of television licences had the
opinion the a computer is a television set and hence people with a
computer should pay for the right to view television.

So please stop spread misconcetions, or you might say, turn back the tide.

Regards,
/Karl Hammar

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On 24/09/2024 19:32, karl@aspodata.se wrote:

So should computer words be defined by non-professionals or thoose
who knows ?

Well, before computers, I thought servers worked in restaurants ...

(And what the hell are thoose :-)

One effect of letting non-professionals define words is the case when
the poeple handling the collection of television licences had the
opinion the a computer is a television set and hence people with a
computer should pay for the right to view television.

Well, given the number of times I've had to explain to professionals how
they should be doing their *own* job, I really don't think they are the
right people to be let loose on a dictionary ... your typical
professional is paid to do, not to think, and boy do they make a point
of NOT thinking ... (unless they're absolutely forced to, of course.)

(Oh - and if you're talking about the UK licence fee, I've had my
arguments with them about their ability to understand plain English -
like the EXPLICIT wording on the licence "if you are living away from
home eg as a student, you are covered by your home licence if your tv is
not plugged in to the mains". So they demanded my student daughter have
her own licence for her battery-powered tv!)

At the end of the day, jargon is jargon. What matters is that we have a STANDARD. And whether you like it or not, the STANDARD says that X is
using the words the wrong way round. Never mind that X pre-dates the
standard.

It's when people who should know better redefine words that things get
hairy - like the computing professor who used "real time" when he meant "online" or "interactive". And got rather upset when I pointed out that "interactive" and "real time" were different and confusing the two could
cause real harm.

Or those plain idiots who insist on using the word "memory" and refuse
to learn the difference between RAM and disk.

At the end of the day, the meaning of any individual work is irrelevant.
What matters is that we have a shared understanding, a STANDARD.

The only thing that bothers me is those idiots who expect me to be a
mind reader, and who expect me to realise when they use the word A, they actually want me to understand the word B. I don't care whether the word "server" means a restaurant waiter, some computer in a computer room
somewhere, Xorg, or what. Just so long as I have a shared understanding
with the person I'm talking to, and they don't expect me to mind-read
because they can't be bothered to use the right word in the right context.

Cheers,
Wol

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