# Tiny errors that drive you insane **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 29, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557 "2016-02-29T19:58:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/141 "2016-03-03T23:00:17Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > When they’re not called etoiles. That too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/142 "2016-03-03T23:53:19Z")
One thing that baffled me, and still does, was the scene in _Jurassic Park_ where the lass looks at a full-screen-graphics display of a fly-through of something – just a bunch of moving colored outlines – and declared, “This is UNIX!” There was no obvious clue that would have identified the type of OS, the only thing I could imagine is that, peripherally, she saw a 3-button mouse and/or a particular keyboard layout, but the impression given was that she made the determination by looking at the display. It made no sense. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/143 "2016-03-04T00:02:55Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > One thing that baffled me, and still does, was the scene in _Jurassic Park_ where the lass looks at a full-screen-graphics display of a fly-through of something – just a bunch of moving colored outlines – and declared, “This is UNIX!” There was no obvious clue that would have identified the type of OS, the only thing I could imagine is that, peripherally, she saw a 3-button mouse and/or a particular keyboard layout, but the impression given was that she made the determination by looking at the display. It made no sense. Not true. I saw _Jurassic Park_ on opening night with some friends, including one who is an excellent programmer. When that scene came up, he looked at the screen and said to me “that’s Unix” just a few seconds before the girl on screen said it. I asked him about it some time later and he said the giveaway was the directory names in the interface, “/bin”, “/etc”, “/home” and things like that. Classic Unix. Maybe you can’t make out the names when it’s shows on television, but on a theater screen they were visible. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/144 "2016-03-04T00:02:56Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > One thing that baffled me, and still does, was the scene in _Jurassic Park_ where the lass looks at a full-screen-graphics display of a fly-through of something – just a bunch of moving colored outlines – and declared, “This is UNIX!” There was no obvious clue that would have identified the type of OS, the only thing I could imagine is that, peripherally, she saw a 3-button mouse and/or a particular keyboard layout, but the impression given was that she made the determination by looking at the display. It made no sense. It is 3D file system program [fsn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fsn) on UNIX-based IRIX. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/145 "2016-03-04T00:03:46Z")
> [@Abner\_Ravenwood](#): > > Speaking of Andrea, I learned the hard way in my college Italian class that Andrea is a men’s name in Italy, after the professor and the class had a good laugh at my expense. My mom was in a college class with an earnest young woman who was going on about how important Evelyn Waugh’s female perspective was. :o ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/146 "2016-03-04T00:10:22Z")
Yesterday I heard a radio interview about the NC Gov’s proposal to float a multimillion$ bond issue for mostly education infrastructure and the PhD president of a community college referred at least twice to a “criteria”. Arrgghh. One is a criterion. More than one are criteria. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/147 "2016-03-04T00:10:54Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > My mom was in a college class with an earnest young woman who was going on about how important Evelyn Waugh’s female perspective was. :o [TIME magazine listed Evelyn Waugh as one of the greatest female writers.](http://observer.com/2016/02/time-magazine-put-evelyn-waugh-on-a-list-of-female-authors/) > [@](#): > > Speaking of Andrea, I learned the hard way in my college Italian class that Andrea is a men’s name in Italy I saw a TV series about a young American woman who was going to school in England. She stopped introducing herself with “Hi, I’m Randy” after people would snigger every time she did it. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/148 "2016-03-04T00:21:13Z")
> [@Ignatz](#): > > Yesterday I heard a radio interview about the NC Gov’s proposal to float a multimillion$ bond issue for mostly education infrastructure and the PhD president of a community college referred at least twice to a “criteria”. Arrgghh. One is a criterion. More than one are criteria. That is chump change compared to the run of a college catalog we printed a number of years ago. Imagine looking at tens of thousands of these enticements for higher education with a teaser at the top that said, “Finding Your Nitch”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/149 "2016-03-04T00:23:13Z")
The 3D objects in the silly graphical interface all had filenames attached to them (mostly, directory names, actually). It’s not implausible that some of those directory names were things like /usr/local or /etc/bin which would be distinctively recognizable as Unix. Or, of course, she might have happened to have had the same silly graphical interface (which did actually exist) installed on her own computer at home. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/150 "2016-03-04T01:01:25Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > I saw a TV series about a young American woman who was going to school in England. She stopped introducing herself with “Hi, I’m Randy” after people would snigger every time she did it. I once heard of a Czech girl who loved going to the theatre. So she told her British boyfriend she was a real “goer.” 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/151 "2016-03-04T03:01:28Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > A buddy of mine was running a motor pool in Vietnam during the war. He was a CW2, Army. > > As he tells it, one day he gets a call: “This is Captain such-and-so. Please send a car to pick me up.” > > That was a pretty ballsy request from a junior officer, so it got placed at the bottom f a long list. > > Several hours later: “This is Captain S-a-so – where the hell is my car?” > > At that point my friend says something like, “Maybe you should just get your own transport, sir.” And hangs up. > > An hour later, in storms Navy Captain Such-and-So. (The Naval rank of Captain is a senior officer, O-6, as opposed to,the comparatively lowly Army O-3). > > This wasn’t a film error, but the SGT / MSG confusion reminded me of the story. My friend dodged the wrath of the guy by sending someone else out to meet him, I think. The different rank titles in different services seems to have been custom made for confusion. It’s too bad the Navy\* can’t use a different title for the rank of naval captain. “Commodore” suggests itself since that rank no longer exists, strictly speaking. However, the term is still used as a courtesy title in certain circumstances, so that wouldn’t work too well. \*Or navies, I should say. I understand this differentiation between Captains in the Navy and those in the other services is standard practice in all the NATO forces and pretty much the rest of the world as well. > [@Bricker](#): > > A buddy of mine was running a motor pool in Vietnam during the war. He was a CW2, Army. > > As he tells it, one day he gets a call: “This is Captain such-and-so. Please send a car to pick me up.” > > That was a pretty ballsy request from a junior officer, so it got placed at the bottom f a long list. > > Several hours later: “This is Captain S-a-so – where the hell is my car?” > > At that point my friend says something like, “Maybe you should just get your own transport, sir.” And hangs up. > > An hour later, in storms Navy Captain Such-and-So. (The Naval rank of Captain is a senior officer, O-6, as opposed to,the comparatively lowly Army O-3). > > This wasn’t a film error, but the SGT / MSG confusion reminded me of the story. My friend dodged the wrath of the guy by sending someone else out to meet him, I think. The different rank titles in different services seems to have been custom made for confusion. IIRC the naval rank of Captain is equivalent to that of Colonel in the ground forces and thereby even higher than Major. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/152 "2016-03-04T09:06:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Definitely “Magda”, because it’s short for “Magdalena”. I know that - but I’m not sure the authors do! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/153 "2016-03-04T14:28:11Z")
No, the authors know that, because that’s how she’s first introduced. Or at least, some of the authors know that: With as many different co-authors as that series has, who knows what all of them know? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/154 "2016-03-04T15:41:52Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > I saw a TV series about a young American woman who was going to school in England. She stopped introducing herself with “Hi, I’m Randy” after people would snigger every time she did it. I once read a blog of a young student named Deb who was studying in Japan. English-Language words tend to get “Japanified” by native speakers; this often includes appending a vowel sound after the final syllable, so (for example) “ice cream” becomes “aisu kurimu.” In keeping with this practice, native Japanese folks pronounced her name as “Debu,” which happens to be Japanese slang meaning roughly “fatso”. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/155 "2016-03-04T16:04:51Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > For a real nitpick: you don’t pour concrete, you place it. Even when it’s being pumped to the top of a building and comes sliding down a chute, it’s being ‘placed’. I suspect there are few outside of the construction game who know that. I had an uncle who worked in the concrete biz almost his whole life. One of his biggest projects was a large Interstate highway bridge. he was the pour supervisor for it. What else would you call him? The place supervisor? (He also arranged for the 2nd driveway at our house when I was a kid. Nice range there.) “Pour” was the word he used. Never heard “place”. Now, if you wanted to nitpick about “cement” being used where “concrete” is the right term, okay then. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/156 "2016-03-04T18:50:40Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > The different rank titles in different services seems to have been custom made for confusion. It’s too bad the Navy\* can’t use a different title for the rank of naval captain. “Commodore” suggests itself since that rank no longer exists, strictly speaking. However, the term is still used as a courtesy title in certain circumstances, so that wouldn’t work too well. > > \*Or navies, I should say. I understand this differentiation between Captains in the Navy and those in the other services is standard practice in all the NATO forces and pretty much the rest of the world as well. > > The different rank titles in different services seems to have been custom made for confusion. IIRC the naval rank of Captain is equivalent to that of Colonel in the ground forces and thereby even higher than Major. We actually alleviate it by using “Navy” in reference - Lt(N) or Capt(N), and you say it like that too “Lieutenant-Navy” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/157 "2016-03-05T15:38:53Z")
When people refer to “Andrew Lloyd Webber” as “Webber.” His last name is “Lloyd Webber” dammit. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/158 "2016-03-05T17:10:21Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I think that is because some jurisdictions require it because of the rash of upskirt and downblouse pics so that it would be impossible to quietly take those pics. This is true, but there are ways to eliminate the shutter sound. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/159 "2016-03-05T21:19:13Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > When people refer to “Andrew Lloyd Webber” as “Webber.” His last name is “Lloyd Webber” dammit. But…how are we supposed to know this? This is the first time I’ve ever heard a reference to it. (Sumbitch oughta use a hyphen.) ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/160 "2016-03-05T21:32:03Z")
That is a good point. It’s not exactly easy to determine whether someone with three names has a two-part surname or is using their middle name, unless it’s indicated with punctuation or we’re actually TOLD about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557.md?page=9)