• Andrew (unregistered)

    I wonder what the Kissagram person's STD code is? (See Company Telephone to the left.)

  • Jim Steichen (unregistered) in reply to bob

    Did you mean "Tactile" saliva delivery logistics technician?

    If the list includes proposed countries then I choose Moosylvania!

  • (cs)

    tchoh! it was Subscriber trunk dialling, not 'standard' From the days before everyone was a 'customer' (see - I can be just as pedantic as everyone else on here)

  • (cs) in reply to chimaera
    chimaera:
    tchoh! it was Subscriber trunk dialling, not 'standard' From the days before everyone was a 'customer' (see - I can be just as pedantic as everyone else on here)
    If you're responding to Andrew's STD musing above, I think he was headed in a different direction.
  • Scruffynerf (unregistered)

    Also, a househusband has no employer, but apparently a housewife does?

  • '; delete from users -- (unregistered) in reply to dowski
    dowski:
    I love how the Frizzel form lets you distinguish between Showman and Traveling Showman. I wonder if a traveling showman has to pay a higher premium?

    known as the Traveling Showman Problem.

  • cdg (unregistered)

    about magellan , do You see alaska or hawaii in the picture? I don't , makes me assume it's indeed preloaded with 48 states only ..

  • Jimmy Jones (unregistered) in reply to T $
    T $:
    The WTF that I'm noticing is the fact that the email address has to be typed in twice (per the site this comes from).

    What is it with this type everything twice mania? Sure, you need it when you're creating a root password but these days every trivial no-consequence input box has a type-it-again-to-confirm box. Windows XP has one of th ethe worst, for logging onto a wifi network. Huh? The consequences of getting that wrong are ZERO.

    PS: I use copy/paste whenever I see one. Any mistake in the first input just gets propagated to the second.

  • Sven (unregistered)

    I'm going to go out on a limb and say that those maps don't cover Alaska and Hawaii.

  • Sven (unregistered) in reply to Sven
    Sven:
    I'm going to go out on a limb and say that those maps don't cover Alaska and Hawaii.
    I somehow missed the first two pages of comments so I didn't see this was posted several times already. Sorry.
  • Ignominous (unregistered)

    Actually, a couple of 'states' in the United States of America are technically commonwealths...

  • (cs) in reply to Ignominous
    Ignominous:
    Actually, a couple of 'states' in the United States of America are technically commonwealths...

    Four, actually: Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. But they're still states for all legal and practical purposes.

  • Socket (unregistered) in reply to Jeremy
    Jeremy:
    Erm, re: Magellan - they are quite aware of the number of states, but they only preload the data for the continental US - IE 48 states.

    Are you suggesting that Alaska is not part of the North American continent?

  • (cs) in reply to Mel
    Mel:
    From someone currently learning Czech, in the Czech Republic (Yes, still called Czechoslovakia by my father and grandfather, and many others): In Czech at least, the letter 'j' exists - it's just pronounced kinda like an English 'y'. The sound of an English 'j' is written dž (ž is like an English zh). Therefore 'juice' becomes 'džus', but the Czech copy of the Hobbit ('Hobit') is still by J.R.R. Tolkein... Sorry for the nitpicking, but at least it's not about the number of continental/contiguous states!
    Ah yes, "džus" for "juice" and "džem" for jam. As another learner, I find this kind of thing does make it a bit easier. As do "fixovat", "mixovat", "relaxovat", "teletextové" etc.

    I asked a Czech friend of mine what she thought about this borrowing of English words; she found it funny, and remarked that "for every English word we use, there are three beautiful Czech words". FWIW "juice" has "šťáva" (pron. "shtyahva") and "tekutina".

  • (cs) in reply to luke
    luke:
    It might look funny to you, but that's the way they do it in most Slavic languages. All words all spelled phonetically using standard Latinizations of the Cyrillic alphabet. If you want to find the Hobbit in a bookstore, you have to look under Dž.R.R. Tolkin.
    Actually, not many change the spelling of foreign personal names (unless transliterating to a non-Latin alphabet). Using Wikipedia as a reference, J. R. R. Tolkien seems to still be J. R. R. Tolkien in all Latin-alphabet Slavic languages (e.g. Slovenian, Czech, Slovak, Polish). In fact, the only people who seem to do this are the Latvians, and Latvian is a Baltic language, not Slavic, and they go so far as to modify foreign names to suit Latvian grammar, too ("Džons Ronalds Rūels Tolkīns").
  • Bill Brasky (unregistered) in reply to dowski
    dowski:
    I love how the Frizzel form lets you distinguish between Showman and Traveling Showman. I wonder if a traveling showman has to pay a higher premium?

    Likewise, I wonder if the Mobile Disc Jockey pays more than a regular Disc Jockey.

    Seriously, did they just sit around a conference table and throw a ball at each other ant when you get the ball you have to shout out an occupation?

    "Traveling Physiotherapist!"

  • (cs) in reply to Bill Brasky
    Bill Brasky:
    dowski:
    I love how the Frizzel form lets you distinguish between Showman and Traveling Showman. I wonder if a traveling showman has to pay a higher premium?

    Likewise, I wonder if the Mobile Disc Jockey pays more than a regular Disc Jockey.

    Seriously, did they just sit around a conference table and throw a ball at each other ant when you get the ball you have to shout out an occupation?

    "Traveling Physiotherapist!"

    Telephone Sanitizer!

  • Joel (unregistered) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    Ignominous:
    Actually, a couple of 'states' in the United States of America are technically commonwealths...

    Four, actually: Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. But they're still states for all legal and practical purposes.

    Then there is West Virginia which technically shouldn't be as state at all. The split from Virginia during the Civil War was unconstitutional (since the confederacy was never recognized as a forign power).

  • (cs) in reply to MonsterDon
    MonsterDon:
    To be fair to the Magellan box, it does show a picture of the 48 states that it has maps for. Driving directions to Alaska are a bit difficult. I don't even want to be in the car with the person who tries to drive to Hawaii.

    http://www.gibbstech.co.uk/index.php

    A few choices of vehicle to 'drive' to Hawaii there.

  • (cs) in reply to Joel
    Joel:
    Then there is West Virginia which technically shouldn't be as state at all. The split from Virginia during the Civil War was unconstitutional (since the confederacy was never recognized as a forign power).

    Fortunately it is the United States Supreme Court, not you, that is charged with determining whether something is or is not constitutional, and they ruled in favor of West Virginia being a state.

  • Self Aware (unregistered)

    I personally find "Househusband No Employer" a misnomer because everyone knows that being a stay at home husband is a job in itself.

  • (cs) in reply to Jeremy
    Jeremy:
    Erm, re: Magellan - they are quite aware of the number of states, but they only preload the data for the continental US - IE 48 states.

    Man, what do you want? It's Made In China! That's why it soooo much cheaper.

  • (cs) in reply to Andrew
    Andrew:
    I had a look at that Avis site. It's got Yugoslavia as well, but also has successor states (eg Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina), which suggests they're better at adding countries than removing them. Unfortunately, they haven't left East and West Germany on the list.

    eventually they make a

    SELECT DISTINCT State FROM Clients ORDER BY State

    hence all the old stuff remains for existing clients

  • McSteve (unregistered)

    Did anyone else notice the "Enter STD code" on the left? Seems like it might go hand-in-hand with the Kissagram person.

    Captcha = suscipere

  • Hoàng Đức Hiếu (unregistered)

    Too lazy to search all 3 pages, but Slashdot calls UTC+0700 "USSR Zone 6", and requires email address twice. I didn't know /. is that old.

    There's no USSR Zone 1 in the options.

  • J S (unregistered) in reply to T $

    Actually, that's a really common method of confirming that the e-mail address is correct. Not correct syntactically, but correct as in - this is actually my address and there are no typos in it.

  • Mel (unregistered) in reply to Novus
    Novus:
    Actually, not many change the spelling of foreign personal names (unless transliterating to a non-Latin alphabet). Using Wikipedia as a reference, J. R. R. Tolkien seems to still be J. R. R. Tolkien in all Latin-alphabet Slavic languages (e.g. Slovenian, Czech, Slovak, Polish). In fact, the only people who seem to do this are the Latvians, and Latvian is a Baltic language, not Slavic, and they go so far as to modify foreign names to suit Latvian grammar, too ("Džons Ronalds Rūels Tolkīns").
    Females' surnames are changed - to have 'ova' included. For example: Hilary Clintonova. Try getting used to having your last name changed... oh, and having your first name declined (last letter changed/another added depending on use) takes some getting used to as well!
  • apaq11 (unregistered) in reply to Johnny Sane

    They're not truly hip to equality of the sexes. That's why Househusband specifically has No Employer after it and Housewife doesn't make this distinction.

  • Jabus (unregistered) in reply to Your Name
    Your Name:
    LadyPao:
    Josh:
    And I'm surprised no one mentioned the 'product contains lead' warning - WTF??

    Solder. (lead and tin amalgam)

    Every electronic device uses it for electrical component connections.

    An ongoing issue is Europes' new regulations on lead content in consumer electronics leading to reduced product lifetimes. (short circuiting due to tin whiskers phenomena)

    Ah, interesting, and I'm very surprised lead solder is still used as years ago in the stained/leaded glass hobby (one of mine) lead solder was replaced with lead free due to the toxicity of the fumes.

    no.

    The fumes are not caused by the lead. If you're evaporating and inhaling lead, you're doing it wrong.

    Electronics solder, if it comes off the spool, contains what is called a "rosin core". This tree sap stuff when melted basically protects the molten metal from oxygen, allowing one to get a good joint. Burning the rosin resin causes the carcinogenic smoke, and there's really no way around it.

    Lead free solder will contain a similar rosin.

    The other dangerous stuff in electronic devices is that thick green solder resist gunk on circuit boards. Just like the "new car smell", that "new electronics" smell is also carcinogenic.

    so please, leave lead alone. It's really the best way to hold components onto a circuit board, because it is somewhat flexible. It gets such a bad reputation for "known in the state of California as causing birth defects and reproductive harm"... Lead is fine, just don't eat it! You can't eat a lot of things.

    One wonders if the XBOX 360 wouldn't be getting the red ring of death if Microsoft would have been more evil and specified lead solder (where still legal)? Same thing with the reports of chips popping off in apple laptops. lead free solder is brittle.

    Now, on the other hand, putting lead in gasoline was not such a good idea.

    The most important error I was going to point out is that I work in stained glass (I come here to laugh at the horror of the commercial computer services employee) and we still use lead. Lead free solder is several orders of magnitude more expensive which may be fine for a paranoid hobbyist but for we who go through two rolls of solder and 100lb of lead came on a single window the costs tend to add up.

  • Pavel (unregistered) in reply to Corey
    Corey:
    nt:
    "Tadzhikstan"? Is this standard spelling anywhere?
    Russian doesn't have a "J" sound... they use "дж" instead, which transliterates into English letters as "dzh".

    Russian? WTF? What does Russian to do with that?

  • Pavel (unregistered) in reply to The General
    The General:
    I asked a Czech friend of mine what she thought about this borrowing of English words; she found it funny, and remarked that "for every English word we use, there are three beautiful Czech words". FWIW "juice" has "šťáva" (pron. "shtyahva") and "tekutina".

    "tekutina" means "fluid" (but it is often used as if it would mean only "liquid"), not "juice". And yes, we write foreign names with original spelling. Even loanwords are written with original spelling when borrowed, but most of them get regular spelling over time.

  • (cs)

    If they still have the USSR, do they also have East Germany and Czechoslovakia?

  • ML (unregistered) in reply to nt
    nt:
    "Tadzhikstan"? Is this standard spelling anywhere?

    Short answer is yes: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Tadzhikistan

  • Stephan Poirier (unregistered)

    For the Magellan map, they were right saying it was 48 states. The map shows only the 48 states that are part of the continent. They didn't include Hawaii and Alaska in that release.

    Cheers

  • Stevus (unregistered)

    Why would a Househusband need that extra definition of "No Employer" but a Housewife doesn't? Everyone knows a househusband has one very strict and tyrannical female Employer!!

  • (cs)

    i guess that would make me a "computer worker"; and "street trader" sounds more like a politically correct term for pimp or pusher to me

  • (cs) in reply to Pavel
    Pavel:
    The General:
    I asked a Czech friend of mine what she thought about this borrowing of English words; she found it funny, and remarked that "for every English word we use, there are three beautiful Czech words". FWIW "juice" has "šťáva" (pron. "shtyahva") and "tekutina".

    "tekutina" means "fluid" (but it is often used as if it would mean only "liquid"), not "juice". And yes, we write foreign names with original spelling. Even loanwords are written with original spelling when borrowed, but most of them get regular spelling over time.

    Ďekuji za opravení! Stále se snažím učit. I was trying to get three alternatives for "džus" to prove my friend's point, and had to settle for two.

  • luke (unregistered) in reply to Novus
    Novus:
    luke:
    It might look funny to you, but that's the way they do it in most Slavic languages. All words all spelled phonetically using standard Latinizations of the Cyrillic alphabet. If you want to find the Hobbit in a bookstore, you have to look under Dž.R.R. Tolkin.
    Actually, not many change the spelling of foreign personal names (unless transliterating to a non-Latin alphabet). Using Wikipedia as a reference, J. R. R. Tolkien seems to still be J. R. R. Tolkien in all Latin-alphabet Slavic languages (e.g. Slovenian, Czech, Slovak, Polish). In fact, the only people who seem to do this are the Latvians, and Latvian is a Baltic language, not Slavic, and they go so far as to modify foreign names to suit Latvian grammar, too ("Džons Ronalds Rūels Tolkīns").

    Yes, I was wrong to say most. I was generalizing from my experience with Serbo-Croatian, where changing the spelling of foreign personal names is common.

    Check out http://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien

  • Cogo is my captcha (unregistered)

    48 States excludes Alaska and Hawaii, i.e. US Mainland - as shown on the map. It's pretty common to say that, I'm surpised no-one has picked it up. I'm an Aussie and I know that from poking around on eBay.

  • Shill (unregistered) in reply to James
    James:
    proxy:
    The 48 states thing is a little silly, I feel it is clear they meant the 48 continental US states.

    Of course, the problem there is that there are 49 continental US states. Unless Alaska has been removed from the continent?

    You can argue that your way makes more sense but that doesn't make it right:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_United_States

  • (cs) in reply to Cogo is my captcha
    Cogo is my captcha:
    48 States excludes Alaska and Hawaii, i.e. US Mainland - as shown on the map. It's pretty common to say that, I'm surpised no-one has picked it up. I'm an Aussie and I know that from poking around on eBay.
    We all understand what they meant. The point is they shouldn't phrase it "the 48 United States". The prefix "the" makes it sound like there are only 48 states. They should have included the word continental, contiguous, or mainland.
  • Captain DaFt (unregistered) in reply to dpm
    dpm:
    Someone You Know:
    D.C. is not a state, so I don't think it enters into the discussion.

    But a map of it is included, so it should be.

    "... of the 48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia." Sure, it's wordy, but if you're going to do something, you should be accurate.

    Well, as long as we're being pedantic; "... of the 47 Contiguous States, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia."

    As many from there keep reminding me, "We are a commonwealth, not a state!"

  • Bryin (unregistered) in reply to Loren Pechtel
    Loren Pechtel:
    What I want to know is what's the difference between "Horse Dealer" and "Horse Trader"?

    The "Horse Dealer" works at a casino, and the "Horse Trader" works at a stock exchange. They should learn not to yell.

  • (cs) in reply to Captain DaFt
    Captain DaFt:
    Well, as long as we're being pedantic; "... of the 47 Contiguous States, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia."

    As many from there keep reminding me, "We are a commonwealth, not a state!"

    I'm sure you meant "... of the 44 contiguous states, the Commonwealths of Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, and the District of Columbia."

    As long as we're being pedantic. ;)

    (I'm from Massachusetts. It's a state.)

  • Nex (unregistered) in reply to Loren Pechtel
    Loren Pechtel:
    What I want to know is what's the difference between "Horse Dealer" and "Horse Trader"?

    No you don't...shudder

  • MrPicky (unregistered)

    "Househusband No Employer" is a nonexistent occupation. The employer is the "Lecturer" that is listed.

    I would presume that the Kissagram Person would find the STD Code field to be mandatory.

  • MrPicky (unregistered) in reply to J S

    So, typos are okay in all the other fields?

  • Jay (unregistered)

    I notice that "Henchman" is missing from the list. Or is it "Henchperson" now?

  • Jay (unregistered)

    Oh, bummer, when I first saw the "48 states" I got my hopes up. I thought maybe Massachusetts and California had seceded from the union. No such luck ...

  • Joseph (unregistered)

    Anyone else think it would be weird to read a box that said "Pre-loaded with maps of 48 of the 50 United States"?

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