• The Real Schwarzenegger. (unregistered)

    Which idiot puts up a big image in the comments section?

  • PseudoBovine (unregistered)

    The thing you have to recognize about the UK/Great Britain/England (heck, Europe in General) is that it's equivalent to legacy code.

    There was no plan putting things together - things were just tacked on as the situation required them. Don't bother crafting a coherent framework for sub-modules - each one gets it's own special interface depending on the whim of the designers who happened to be in charge at the time.

    And that library over there? It really isn't part of the codebase - it's technically the private property of a consultant we hired once, but the only official copy of it is hosted in our repository and everyone working on the main codebase is allowed to make changes to it, though you technically have to file a change request form first, though in practice no one does. (Legal says it's fine, but no one has bothered to update the documentation yet.)

    Not all of Europe is legacy code, though. For example, the French went through a bit of refactoring a while back, though, as expected, there was quite a bit of resistance from people who were invested in the old system. The eventual problem was that the refactor was lead by a bunch of architecture astronauts (instituting things like decimal time), and you ended up with the project lead thinking that for full interoperability we should shut down the rest of Europe and forcefully refactor that as well, even the parts that were still working reasonably well.

  • (cs) in reply to da Doctah
    da Doctah:
    Steve The Cynic:
    The Scots, the Welsh, and various other oddments will often be offended by those calling GB (or the UK) "England", despite the fact that using the phrase "England and Wales" has been tantamount to saying "England and part of England" since 1536.

    Oh, weepy weepy wah-waaah! Tell the Welsh to go have a leek.

    You don't hear people in Providence Plantations complaining about the use of "Rhode Island" to include them.

    People in Rhode Island prefer to be called "Italian-Americans"

  • Valued Service (unregistered) in reply to Steve The Cynic
    Steve The Cynic:
    Oh, and GB can't be called whatever you like. Calling it "Italy" wouldn't be right at all, for example. And calling all of it "England" is mostly a habit of ignorant rednecks, and (in translation) the French.

    Maybe the rednecks are ignorant of whatever mystical combination of words results in the right name for whatever country that is, because it's so convoluted.

    Ok, so, going through the list of what's wrong: England (ignorant rednecks). Great Britain (is only one of the isles). UK (wrong two letters).

    Hmm... which leaves us with: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

    We all call it China, while the UN name is People's Republic of China, when China is the name of the dish set that they're famous for. The actual name for "China" translates to "Middle Kingdom". Which would be confused for the "United Kingdom".

    So, you know what, ignorance be bliss and it's England for me. Because if the "Middle Kingdom" is China, the "United Kingdom" is England.

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Zylon

    I'm always amazed at how someone can put together such an understandable picture of such a convoluted situation!!

  • Dann of Thursday (unregistered) in reply to Berend de Boer
    Berend de Boer:
    I'm sure the story would be just as funny without the swearing.

    What swearing, exactly? There aren't any swears in the entire article.

    To put it bluntly: you're fucking nuts.

  • Yankee (unregistered)

    Well based on what I've learned today there are just too many places, and that's all there is to it.

    How the heck are we supposed to put boots on the ground in every one of them anyhow?

    I say we rename them all to "{whatever it's called today} of America" teach them how to read the English Bible, and nuke whatever doesn't get in line.

  • Yankee (unregistered) in reply to Yankee

    United Kingdom of America Federal Republic of America Canada of America South America of America

    Has a nice rhythm to it, don't you agree?

  • Decius (unregistered) in reply to Yankee
    Yankee:
    Well based on what I've learned today there are just too many places, and that's all there is to it.

    How the heck are we supposed to put boots on the ground in every one of them anyhow?

    I say we rename them all to "{whatever it's called today} of America" teach them how to read the English Bible, and nuke whatever doesn't get in line.

    United States of America of America? Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of America? Djibouti of America?

  • (cs) in reply to The Real Schwarzenegger.
    That Guy:
    I have to say, this is a bout the worst TDWTF story I've ever seen. It's unclear what it's about, it's unclear what's happening, it's unclear where the WTF is. The only thing that's clear is that the submitter is kind of a whiny prick.
    What it's about: massive nepotism; incompetence at gathering (supposedly) useful data; failure to follow international standards (which aren't just for losers); failure to enable the trouble-fixers with appropriate hardware; and, apparently, even failure to plan for a decent market share for the competition. Got it now, or are you just going to continue to be a whiny prick? Or even (*gasp*) a loser?
    The Real Schwarzenegger.:
    Which idiot puts up a big image in the comments section?
    Which idiot can't handle a large but informative image, offered helpfully (and with an apology for any difficulty)?
  • Jules (unregistered) in reply to Justsomedudette
    Justsomedudette:
    Roby McAndrew:
    QJo:
    Kivi:
    Roby McAndrew:
    Let's not mention the Isle of Man....

    That's the first rule of the Isle of Man.

    Don't forget the Isle of Wight either.

    The Isle of Wight is part of England and the United Kingdom, but not part of Great Britain (or The North Island as Caulk-heads call it)

    Is Caulk-head a nickname for people from the isle of Wight?
    I figured the Caulk Heads was some landmark on the Thames....

  • Michael (unregistered) in reply to Spits Coffee Through His Nose
    Spits Coffee Through His Nose:
    QJo:
    pif:
    HerrDerSchatten:
    I am from Germany, and we call it "England" too.

    Same in Italy: "Inghilterra". And we also say "Olanda" instead of "Paesi Bassi" (Netherlands).

    Holland is of course a province (well, a pair of provinces: north Holland and south Holland) of the Netherlands - so referring to The Netherlands as Holland is about on a par with referring to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as "England".

    But then, you people who live in America don't need to know all that.

    We in America just want one name to refer to "Those people who speak the same language, but with a funny accent". (Sorry, redneck is taken)

    What? Canadians?

    The Brits speak English. I don't know what yankee-boy calls his language, but it sure as hell is not English.

  • jophn (unregistered) in reply to The Real Schwarzenegger.
    The Real Schwarzenegger.:
    Which idiot puts up a big image in the comments section?
    Errr....I thought that was fricking obvious....

    HINT: Scour the page for said big picture, and check out who posted it (just above that).

  • jophn (unregistered) in reply to Valued Service
    Valued Service:
    Steve The Cynic:
    Oh, and GB can't be called whatever you like. Calling it "Italy" wouldn't be right at all, for example. And calling all of it "England" is mostly a habit of ignorant rednecks, and (in translation) the French.

    Maybe the rednecks are ignorant of whatever mystical combination of words results in the right name for whatever country that is, because it's so convoluted.

    Ok, so, going through the list of what's wrong: England (ignorant rednecks). Great Britain (is only one of the isles). UK (wrong two letters).

    Hmm... which leaves us with: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

    We all call it China, while the UN name is People's Republic of China, when China is the name of the dish set that they're famous for. The actual name for "China" translates to "Middle Kingdom". Which would be confused for the "United Kingdom".

    So, you know what, ignorance be bliss and it's England for me. Because if the "Middle Kingdom" is China, the "United Kingdom" is England.

    US vs USA vs America vs Yankland. Anyone?

    And I'm sure noone has ever said anything funny or inappropriate about appellatio

  • Meep (unregistered) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    [image]

    (hopefully this rather large image won't break anything)

    No, it seems fine.

  • bananas (unregistered) in reply to QJo
    QJo:
    Holland is of course a province (well, a pair of provinces: north Holland and south Holland) of the Netherlands - so referring to The Netherlands as Holland is about on a par with referring to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as "England".

    But then, you people who live in America don't need to know all that.

    Which America? North or South? And if North (which I assume is what you mean), do you mean Mexico, Canada, the United States of America, or some combination of them?

  • (cs) in reply to bananas
    bananas:
    QJo:
    Holland is of course a province (well, a pair of provinces: north Holland and south Holland) of the Netherlands - so referring to The Netherlands as Holland is about on a par with referring to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as "England".

    But then, you people who live in America don't need to know all that.

    Which America? North or South? And if North (which I assume is what you mean), do you mean Mexico, Canada, the United States of America, or some combination of them?

    Nicely played there, bananas!

  • Trey (unregistered) in reply to Winner
    Winner:
    What is the name of the company? Oh wait, that's for losers.

    Honestly, sounds like the glory days of MCI when Bernie Ebbers was in charge. Right up until he pissed on the FCC's shoes...

  • (cs)
    "That is not a valid country code, sir. The country code must consist of two letters."

    "Oh, I see. I'll use ISO 3166-1, then, which has two character codes."

    So Alan wasn't using ISO either, which makes him a loser too. Is that the WTF?

  • pencilcase (unregistered)

    Yes I have read the comments above about the "Great" in "Great Britain" referring to its size rather than its greatness. However, I like living in a country called Great Britain. I like the sheer arrogance of it! I pity all you "losers" out there who don't live in "Great America" or "Great France" or "Great Germany". I live in Great Britain. Hurrah!

  • Marbles (unregistered) in reply to bananas
    bananas:
    Which America? North or South? And if North (which I assume is what you mean), do you mean Mexico, Canada, the United States of America, or some combination of them?

    What about Greenland? Or is that part of Europe? Or part of North America AND part of Europe?

  • Marbles (unregistered) in reply to jophn
    jophn:
    Valued Service:
    So, you know what, ignorance be bliss and it's England for me. Because if the "Middle Kingdom" is China, the "United Kingdom" is England.
    US vs USA vs America vs Yankland. Anyone?

    Not quite the same.

    US, USA, Yankland are all the same country. OK, America is wrong (unless you are referring to a town in the Netherlands), but it's relatively hard to be ambiguous between a town in the Netherlands and a big country.

    England is a country, the United Kingdom is a sovereign state which consists of several countries.

    So, it is entirely possible for the meaning to be ambiguous for instance if someone says 'England is the best country in the world' - do they mean what they say, that ENGLAND is the best country in the world, or do they really mean 'THE UNITED KINGDOM is the best SOVEREIGN STATE in the world'?

    So, calling the UK 'England' would be a bit like calling the USA 'California'

  • faoileag (unregistered) in reply to Marbles
    Marbles:
    bananas:
    Which America? North or South? And if North (which I assume is what you mean), do you mean Mexico, Canada, the United States of America, or some combination of them?
    What about Greenland? Or is that part of Europe? Or part of North America AND part of Europe?
    Physiographically Greenland is part of Northern America, while politically and culturally it is associated with Europe, wikipedia tells me. But then, does it matter? It's just a big glacier! ;-)
  • chris (unregistered) in reply to pscs
    pscs:
    (So, when people say "Let's put the 'Great' back into 'Great Britain'", they are really telling people to put on weight, which we seem to be doing anyway)
    I think it's called malicious obedience.:-)
  • (cs) in reply to bananas
    bananas:
    Which America? North or South? And if North (which I assume is what you mean), do you mean Mexico, Canada, the United States of America, or some combination of them?

    United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru...

  • Paul Neumann (unregistered) in reply to The Real Schwarzenegger.
    The Real Schwarzenegger.:
    Which idiot puts up a big image in the comments section?
    Looks like Zylon to me:[image]
  • Todd Lewis (unregistered) in reply to faoileag
    faoileag:
    But then, does it matter? [Greenland]'s just a big glacier! ;-)

    Ha. There are at least a couple dozen pipe organs in Greenland. Really! "Just a big glacier" -- pshaw I say.

  • Anonymouse (unregistered) in reply to chubertdev
    chubertdev:
    bananas:
    Which America? North or South? And if North (which I assume is what you mean), do you mean Mexico, Canada, the United States of America, or some combination of them?

    United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru...

    Republic Dominican, Cuba, Carribean, Greenland, El Salvador too....

  • Andy Canfield (unregistered)

    Our highly respected general manager explained ISO: "The 'I' is for Idiot". Seems to apply to ISP, and many other acronyms, also.

  • Francois Botha (unregistered) in reply to Steve The Cynic

    Good description, but the best I've seen is this:

    The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10

  • Alex (unregistered)

    Oh, for crying out loud...

    For anyone not from your region to reffer to it, they usually want a name. They'd also appreciate it being generic and non-offensive. Most of the soverign entities nowdays consist of several used-to-be kingdoms, tribes, islands or whatever. If you expect me to know what name properly describes that particular collection of regions in a country (One that the UN recognizes), you better know the diffrence between Krasnoyarsk and Yakutia in Russia. And since I assume you don't I'll stick with calling you England.

  • Crikey (unregistered)

    Gern fantasy, didn't read.

  • UnknownUser (unregistered) in reply to @Deprecated

    It's because THE wtf is for loosers, instead go for many small WTFs.

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