# Anachronisms that persist
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 10, 2021, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009 "2021-06-10T22:28:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2021, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/81 "2021-06-12T00:13:06Z")
> [@griffin1977](#):
>
> “Steamroller …I’m not sure if this is a British-ism.
More American than Australian.
There also used to be something called a “steam shovel”. But a road roller at least looks something like a steam roller. Steam shovels were replaced by Bulldozers, and then by (hydraulic) diggers/excavator/backhoe. Even our local steam heritage organisation doesn’t have a “steam shovel”
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2021, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/82 "2021-06-12T00:31:29Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> I don’t think I’d say “steamroller” as a first choice unless I just wasn’t thinking.
What about the metaphorical use, though? The number of times per year that I have to refer to an actual pavement smoother/roller is approximately zero, since I don’t hang around construction sites. But saying that a person/company/team/etc. got steamrolled in some encounter is reasonably common. The alternatives don’t sound so great.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2021, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/83 "2021-06-12T00:34:20Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#):
>
> Processes that could be completed without this communication were “off line.”
What’s really weird is how corporate speak has distorted this even further. If you’re in an actual physical meeting but the discussion has started to get into the weeds, you’ll often hear “let’s take this off-line”. Where “off-line” means “let’s hash this out over email”.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2021, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/84 "2021-06-12T00:42:09Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> Where “off-line” means “let’s hash this out over email”.
"Just to make this clear, Boss, you want take this “off-line” by going _ON-line?"_
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### Author:  [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2021, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/85 "2021-06-12T01:25:14Z")
This reminds me of something I noticed while watching a cop show last week. The police requested a surveillance record to check for possible suspects, and one of them referred to watching the “footage”. I think there was even a mention of “rewinding” it. Of course, what they were viewing was a digital file.
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### Author:  [@tavaritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavaritz)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2021, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/86 "2021-06-12T06:00:41Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> As a former graphic artist, now web developer who sometimes deals with UX/UI, this is a tricky one. If a new icon ever universally replaces the old floppy icon for ‘save’, it’ll probably be something that’s more abstract at first glance but comes to be understood as meaning ‘save’, similar to the universal ‘power’ symbol-- the partial circle open at the top with a line going through the top.
(Little hijack) I wouldn’t compare those two as one is based on an existing item and the other is an abstraction. The broken circle means open circuit, whereas a circle with a dot inside means closed circuit. Eg. Off and on.
About abstraction: Better be safe than sorry.
There is a standard for information indexing that is large enough to index anything, and I really really mean anything. And on the other hand has packing rules that allows to pack the index to the barest information density as possible.
And what is it called? Abstract Syntax Notation One! So there will be Two someday? What did they miss?
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2021, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/87 "2021-06-12T06:41:50Z")
> [@tavaritz](#):
>
> The broken circle means open circuit, whereas a circle with a dot inside means closed circuit. Eg. Off and on.
The IEC won’t admit it, but it’s really just a one and zero mushed together. It evolved from toggle switches that were labeled 1 and 0. I.e., binary on and off.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2021, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/88 "2021-06-12T09:47:32Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#):
>
> According to wikipedia, the earliest use of “record album” referred to a bound collection of empty record sleeves, that you could use to store your 78s. In the 1930s they began issuing collections of 78s by a single performer, or in a particular type of music, in these kind of albums. I quote: “Most albums included three or four records, with two sides each, making six or eight compositions per album.”
Down in my basement, I still have my father’s collection of classical 78s. Each album contains several disks, usually totaling a single symphony or concerto.
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### Author:  [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/89 "2021-06-12T19:56:33Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> you’ll often hear “let’s take this off-line”. Where “off-line” means “let’s hash this out over email”.
Granted, usually email but in my experience it means “most of the people in this meeting don’t care (or it will take to long to resolve) so let’s talk about it later”.
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2021, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/90 "2021-06-13T04:43:00Z")
> [@Folacin](#):
>
> Granted, usually email but in my experience it means “most of the people in this meeting don’t care (or it will take to long to resolve) so let’s talk about it later”
Or the matter is too sensitive for everyone. It’s a good way to tell someone to STFU about that.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2021, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/91 "2021-06-13T10:22:28Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> But even more surprising to me, just the other day my 15 year old son referred to aluminum foil as ‘tinfoil’. I don’t call it ‘tinfoil’, and I thought that someone of his generation saying ‘tinfoil’ was very odd, since foil hasn’t been made out of tin since the 40s.
It’s still generally called tinfoil here. And cans are sometimes called tincans.
Amusingly, “ice box” is the literal translation of the Afrikaans word for a fridge, _yskas_.
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### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2021, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/92 "2021-06-13T10:28:41Z")
someone made a working pip-boy 3000?
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2021, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/93 "2021-06-13T11:47:28Z")
On steamrollers: When author Terry Pratchett died, one of the stipulations in his will was that the hard drive containing all of his future story notes and ideas be run over with a steamroller. And so his heirs went to the local historical society, and managed to get the use of an actual, old-school steamroller, to use for the purpose.
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### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2021, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/94 "2021-06-13T11:59:09Z")
I still occasionally say “the wireless” (meaning radio). And mine is anything but wire-less, what with the FM aerial and being part of a composite audio system with all its connectors.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2021, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/95 "2021-06-13T12:09:32Z")
> [@nightshadea](#):
>
> someone made a working pip-boy 3000?
Working? Not so much. The screen on [the kit version](https://www.thewandcompany.com/pip-boy-kit/) is just a single image with an LED behind.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2021, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/96 "2021-06-13T12:11:21Z")
> [@whitetho](#):
>
> The terminology for the email “in box” and “out box” dates back to small physical boxes that sat on work desktops, for incoming and outgoing paper memos.
Something old is new again: Collections of files are grouped together in an abstract place called a “folder”.
This is a deliberate anachronism created by Microsoft. Files were previously organized into directories and sub-directories (AFAIK, this was a Unix innovation). Microsoft deliberately chose to make a “desktop” metaphor out of everything. So your screen was called a “desktop”. Directories and subdirectories were called folders or sub-folders. (I think “in-box” and “out-box” for e-mails pre-dated Microsoft.)
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### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2021, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/97 "2021-06-13T12:20:33Z")
Does this Abstract Syntax Notation One index everything _including itself_? See, that is what the Abstract Syntax Notation Two will be for.
BTW: the abbreviation ASNO reads funny in [Spanish](https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/asno).
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/98 "2021-06-13T16:13:30Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Something old is new again: Collections of files are grouped together in an abstract place called a “folder”.
>
> This is a deliberate anachronism created by Microsoft.
Not a big deal, but I thought that the Apple GUI had folders from its inception, which was definitely pre-Windows. Much of the early Windows GUI was copied directly from Apple. Can anybody confirm or refute?
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2021, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/99 "2021-06-13T16:16:53Z")
> [@Railer13](#):
>
> Not a big deal, but I thought that the Apple GUI had folders from its inception, which was definitely pre-Windows. Much of the early Windows GUI was copied directly from Apple. Can anybody confirm or refute?
Unix and DOS also had “folders” long before Windows, only that they were called “directories”. Then some time Microsoft decided to call them “folders” (since Win95?), but technically a directory and a folder are exactly the same thing. (I still switch between both terms all the time.)
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2021, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/100 "2021-06-13T16:21:23Z")
> [@Railer13](#):
>
> Not a big deal, but I thought that the Apple GUI had folders from its inception, which was definitely pre-Windows. Much of the early Windows GUI was copied directly from Apple. Can anybody confirm or refute?
Apple’s Mac GUI was itself based on (or copied) [Xerox’s Alto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto#Xerox_and_the_Alto), including, apparently, the use of folders; Alto was introduced in 1973, but, as with much of what Xerox developed at their PARC facility, other companies wound up being the ones to successfully commercialize it.
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