Ramblings of an Old Geek
RSSForeign Words We Could Use in English
Sometimes we must turn to other languages to find le mot juste. Here are a whole bunch of foreign words with no direct English equivalent.
1. Kummerspeck (German)
Excess weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally, grief bacon.
2. Shemomedjamo (Georgian)
You know when you’re really full, but your meal is just so delicious, you can’t stop eating it? The Georgians feel your pain. This word means, “I accidentally ate the whole thing.”
3. Tartle (Scots)
The nearly onomatopoeic word for that panicky hesitation just before you have to introduce someone whose name you can’t quite remember.
4. Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego)
This word captures that special look shared between two people, when both are wishing that the other would do something that they both want, but neither want to do.
5. Backpfeifengesicht (German)
A face badly in need of a fist.
6. Iktsuarpok (Inuit)
You know that feeling of anticipation when you’re waiting for someone to show up at your house and you keep going outside to see if they’re there yet? This is the word for it.
7. Pelinti (Buli, Ghana)
Your friend bites into a piece of piping hot pizza, then opens his mouth and sort of tilts his head around while making an “aaaarrrahh” noise. The Ghanaians have a word for that. More specifically, it means “to move hot food around in your mouth.”
8. Greng-jai (Thai)
That feeling you get when you don’t want someone to do something for you because it would be a pain for them.
9. Mencolek (Indonesian)
You know that old trick where you tap someone lightly on the opposite shoulder from behind to fool them? The Indonesians have a word for it.
10. Faamiti (Samoan)
To make a squeaking sound by sucking air past the lips in order to gain the attention of a dog or child.
11. Gigil (Filipino)
The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is irresistibly cute.
12. Yuputka (Ulwa)
A word made for walking in the woods at night, it’s the phantom sensation of something crawling on your skin.
13. Zhaghzhagh (Persian)
The chattering of teeth from the cold or from rage.
14. Vybafnout (Czech)
A word tailor-made for annoying older brothers—it means to jump out and say boo.
15. Fremdschämen (German); Myötähäpeä (Finnish)
The kindler, gentler cousins of Schadenfreude, both these words mean something akin to “vicarious embarrassment.”
16. Lagom (Swedish)
Maybe Goldilocks was Swedish? This slippery little word is hard to define, but means something like, “Not too much, and not too little, but juuuuust right.”
17. Pålegg (Norweigian)
Sandwich Artists unite! The Norwegians have a non-specific descriptor for anything – ham, cheese, jam, Nutella, mustard, herring, pickles, Doritos, you name it – you might consider putting into a sandwich.
18. Layogenic (Tagalog)
Remember in Clueless when Cher describes someone as “a full-on Monet…from far away, it’s OK, but up close it’s a big old mess”? That’s exactly what this word means.
19. Bakku-shan (Japanese)
Or there’s this Japanese slang term, which describes the experience of seeing a woman who appears pretty from behind but not from the front.
20. Seigneur-terraces (French)
Coffee shop dwellers who sit at tables a long time but spend little money.
21. Ya’arburnee (Arabic)
This word is the hopeful declaration that you will die before someone you love deeply, because you cannot stand to live without them. Literally, may you bury me.
22. Pana Po’o (Hawaiian)
“Hmm, now where did I leave those keys?” he said, pana po’oing. It means to scratch your head in order to help you remember something you’ve forgotten.
23. Slampadato (Italian)
Addicted to the UV glow of tanning salons? This word describes you.
24. Zeg (Georgian)
It means “the day after tomorrow.” OK, we do have “overmorrow” in English, but when was the last time someone used that?
25. Cafune (Brazilian Portuguese)
Leave it to the Brazilians to come up with a word for “tenderly running your fingers through your lover’s hair.”
26. Koi No Yokan (Japanese)
The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall in love.
27. Kaelling (Danish)
You know that woman who stands on her doorstep (or in line at the supermarket, or at the park, or in a restaurant) cursing at her children? The Danes know her, too.
28. Boketto (Japanese)
It’s nice to know that the Japanese think enough of the act of gazing vacantly into the distance without thinking to give it a name.
29. L’esprit de l’escalier (French)
Literally, stairwell wit—a too-late retort thought of only after departure.
30. Cotisuelto (Caribbean Spanish)
A word that would aptly describe the prevailing fashion trend among American men under 40, it means one who wears the shirt tail outside of his trousers.
31. Packesel (German)
The packesel is the person who’s stuck carrying everyone else’s bags on a trip. Literally, a burro.
32. Hygge (Danish)
Denmark’s mantra, hygge is the pleasant, genial, and intimate feeling associated with sitting around a fire in the winter with close friends.
33. Cavoli Riscaldati (Italian)
The result of attempting to revive an unworkable relationship. Translates to “reheated cabbage.”
34. Bilita Mpash (Bantu)
An amazing dream. Not just a “good” dream; the opposite of a nightmare.
35. Litost (Czech)
Milan Kundera described the emotion as “a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.”
36. Luftmensch (Yiddish)
There are several Yiddish words to describe social misfits. This one is for an impractical dreamer with no business sense.
37 & 38. Schlemiel and schlimazel (Yiddish)
Someone prone to bad luck. Yiddish distinguishes between the schlemiel and schlimazel, whose fates would probably be grouped under those of the klutz in other languages. The schlemiel is the traditional maladroit, who spills his coffee; the schlimazel is the one on whom it’s spilled.
Just because I think this cute.
Interesting stats on UK TV platforms. It seems the UK still prefer free to air services over subscription ones by quite a large margin.
Personal prediction: this balance won’t change much over time for broadcast platforms but expect on demand, low cost internet platforms like NetFlix and LoveFilm to eat away at the subscription base and perhaps drive a price war.
(source: http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107052089)
Happy Birthday Leonhard Euler.
Windows XP. One Year until the end of support.
There can’t be many people by now who do not know Windows XP is reaching the end of its support life. It was in many ways the most successful and popular Operating System Microsoft ever released. It brought together the old Windows 95/98/ME family with the more robust Windows NT family into one experience - in fact that is what XP meant “eXPerience”. Originally it might have been criticised for being less than perfectly secure - rightly in many ways, but then it came from the era of non-connected PCs where any programme expected to be able to do anything to any part of the hardware. It got a major new leaf of life though when Microsoft released Service Pack 2 (SP2) which pretty much fixed the security concerns as part of their Secure Computing initiative.
So if it was so popular, successful and (latterly) secure why does it have to end? In short because it was architected over 10 years ago and the kernel of the system was not designed for security but had it bolted on. The technology in later versions of Windows is much better designed for security and for adding new technologies. Vista may not have been popular as the changes meant it did not perform well on old machines but by the time Windows 7 came along pretty much all of the issues were fixed and it has become popular and widely used. Windows 8 builds on that, improves again for performance and security and introduces a new (if somewhat controversial) “touch first” user interface.
What should I do if I still have XP systems?
In my last role at Microsoft I led a team responsible for helping people move off old technologies to new ones so I probably ought to confess to some bias here. My team had the distinction of having the best deployment figures for new Windows and Office versions of any group in the UK for the 4 years I ran the team so I think I can claim a little experience in the area and can share some tips.
Firstly: Plan. Let’s be honest if you are running a business that still relies heavily on Windows XP I would be surprised if this is news to you and you probably already have a plan as what to do when support ends next year. For most companies I expect this mostly will mean moving to a newer version of Windows - almost certainly Windows 7 perhaps with some Windows 8 for your more advanced users. It also is a good time to think about how you support non Windows devices like phones and tablets.
Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, don’t make this a one off move. Doing big upgrades of any major software platform is expensive and there is another way. We used to call it “Business as Usual Deployment” - it may be a set of buzz words but it represents sound practice. In the time since Windows XP was released the tools and processes to manage systems have come a long way. Changes no longer need be big bangs where everything changes at once. One size no longer needs fit all. Use this as a chance to do things differently in the future and you will not regret it. There are lots of people out there who can help: talk to your Microsoft contacts or your partners: they have done this before.
Finally treat this as an opportunity. The world of IT has changed and will continue to change. We hear phrases like “Consumerisation of IT” and “Bring your own devices”. People talk of the “Post PC” world. Whatever the phrases there is no doubt most enterprises are or soon will be operating in an environment where one type of one brand of one build of PC and operating system no longer meets all their IT needs. Seize these changes and your users will thank you in the long run.
A year may be a long time in politics but it isn’t in an IT project. If you have not acted already, do it today.
There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate.
A cheese shop that actually sells cheese.
No this is not some Monty Python sketch, just a plug for a nice cheese shop discovered on a recent short break.
Remember on the internet all shops can be your local shop.
I loath open plan offices with a passion. So often they are introduced to save money under some guise of “increasing collaboration” coupled with some spurious ecological message as well. In reality what they do is restrict privacy, create noisy distractions and if you are in a mobile sort of job like sales conversely they can be a depressingly empty space when people are on the road. They get doubly depressing when they are “hot desks” with no defined space.
People like their own spaces they can identify and customise. They like the ability to control who enters those spaces. In effect they want somewhere that feels like home.
This article is an excellent summary of the issues pitfalls and advantages of open plan offices but in reality it’s pretty simple: ask people what they want and give options.
- If you have a mostly mobile workforce rather than rows of “hot desks” how about a coffee shop layout?
- If you have a “must be in the office” culture, ditch the hot desks and give people customisable spaces. How about being radical and actually giving them office doors?
- Want them to collaborate? How about decent coffee bars, open seating areas and some good internal social networking tools? Remember the “tea break” when everyone stopped at the same time? They were there for a reason and still play a really important part in a lot of academic environments to balance quiet working with exchanging ideas in an open environment.
- Want to save money? Move out of the expensive city centre or let people work from home and make the offices customer show cases and comfortable internal meeting spaces for when you do get together.
People vary and how they work best varies and it is the same with their working environments. Of course like many things to make these ideas work you need good management and governance that lets them manage and not just chase imposed one size fits all processes but that is a whole other article.
The Universal Machine | Projects | New Diorama
A NEW MUSICAL ABOUT THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ALAN TURING
It’s 1927. Young Alan Turing is at school developing the work of Einstein and Newton while doing anything to get out of PE.
It’s 1942. Newly engaged Alan Turing has done the impossible and broken the Nazi Naval Enigma Machine and secured the Battle of the Atlantic for the Allied Forces.
It’s 1954. After being arrested, Alan Turing is found dead at his home next to a half-eaten apple laced with cyanide.
The Universal Machine tells Alan Turing’s dense life story from his school days at Sherbourne, his time at the infamous Station X at Bletchley Park during World War Two, and his arrest for homosexuality and tragic death. This complex re-examination of Alan’s life and work tells the story of a man who could make machines think but struggled to make connections with those around him.
Written and directed by PIT and New Diorama Artistic Director David Byrne with music composed by Night Engine’s Dominic Brennan with movement from Gecko Theatre’s Associate Director Rich Rusk, The Universal Machine is part of the Alan Turing Centenary Celebrations.
About Ramblings of an Old Geek
I have been using computers since the 70s so don't let any Generation Z types tell you they are the net natives there is a generation of us who have used computers and the internet since before many of them were born.
This blog (might) contain ramblings about almost anything but probably will include thinks about IT and shinny gadgets as well as my thoughts on selling and management in organisations large and small.
