[OT] Bad translations in manuals

[Spehro Pefhany]

On 16 Dec 2003 18:48:40 GMT, the renowned Allodoxaphobia
<bit-bucket@config.com> wrote:

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 18:00:53 +0000, John Woodgate hath writ:
I read in sci.electronics.design that Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund
klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote (in <3fdf366c$0$9724$edfadb0f@dread14.news
.tele.dk&gt about '[OT] Bad translations in manuals', on Tue, 16 Dec
Not a manual, but a sticker inside a uninterruptable power supply I once
saw at a company I was employed in:

"High Tension"

The (mechanical) engineer had translated "Spćnding" (danish word for
voltage and mechanical tension) and just used the first word he saw in
the dictionary. It should ofcourse have said "High Voltage"

The phrase 'high tension' (meaning 'high voltage') is still current in
British English in certain contexts. It was far more widely used in the
time of battery-powered radios.

Here in the colonies, very high voltage power transmission lines are
referred to as High Tension Lines.

Jonesy

Also EHT for Extremely (?) High Tension is used for power lines.

I like the French word for power supply.. alimentation (like food)

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Winfield Hill wrote:

Paul Burke wrote...

Texas TTL data book included the 74LS2000...

? 74LS2000 ?

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com

Was it released on April first?
--
9 days!


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[Chaos Master]

Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund(klauskvik@hotmail.com) spoke, er, wrote:

Not a manual, but a sticker inside a uninterruptable power supply I once saw
at a company I was employed in:

"High Tension"

The (mechanical) engineer had translated "Spćnding" (danish word for voltage
and mechanical tension) and just used the first word he saw in the
dictionary. It should ofcourse have said "High Voltage"

What about "Low voltage - high tension"?
Or this one in Norton Antivirus: "Updating the updates".


--
ChaosŽ - posting from Brazil
wizard_of_NOSPAM@hotmail.com
Replace "NOSPAM" by "rodney" written backwards "yendor".

 

[Chaos Master]

Hubert Littau(hlittau@emesen.com) spoke, er, wrote:

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 01:32:05 -0200, Chaos Master
please.ask@ibestvip.com.br> wrote:

Has anyone in this group ever found bad translations in electronics equipment
manuals? I'm curious after I've found some:

"To tune, turn the digits on the front" - From one of those el cheapo radios.

"Power adapter driver software CD" - From the manual of my AOC scanner, that had
almost no line breaks at all. It was understood to be, in a listing:

"1. Power adapter
2. Driver software CD"

"256kb of 512kb of cache memory." - From my PC manual.

And my favorite, from a Brazilian site on repair, that has a translation in
English:

"<device> makes popcorn when turned on" - They translated "popping sound" to
"POPCORN"!!!

Perhaps not a translation error but certainly a miss-spelling with
potentialy painfull consequences was in the service manual for the
Sony model D9 cd player. In the alignment procedure it firmly states
to "insert the dick and close the lid."

Other one with a programming tutorial for a HP-48 calculator, translated to
portuguese:

(there's a HP48 assembly language compiler called ASS).

(burro -> "a**hole" in Portuguese, someone dumb, a fool)

"Agora, carregue seu programa na pilha e chame-se BURRO."
"Now, load your program into the stack and call yourself JERK.".

OUCH..

--
ChaosŽ - posting from Brazil
wizard_of_NOSPAM@hotmail.com
Replace "NOSPAM" by "rodney" written backwards "yendor".

 

[Paul Burke]

Winfield Hill wrote:

Paul Burke wrote...

Texas TTL data book included the 74LS2000...


? 74LS2000 ?

74LS2000 yes! It was a 16 bit cascadable up/down counter with output
latches and a quadrature decoding input. Very usefule for motion control
applications. Later there was a 74HC(T?)2000, very similar, then the
THCT2000, then it got renamed something else then finally disappeared
about 5 years ago.

It had its uses, the constant chop and change forced me into designing
my own using a PLD, good training.

Paul Burke

 

[Tim Shoppa]

Spehro Pefhany <speffSNIP@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat> wrote in message news:<1ilutvk33stjqhaar4c70qmpqdsl8r5u8s@4ax.com>...

The phrase 'high tension' (meaning 'high voltage') is still current in
British English in certain contexts. It was far more widely used in the
time of battery-powered radios.

Here in the colonies, very high voltage power transmission lines are
referred to as High Tension Lines.

Jonesy

Also EHT for Extremely (?) High Tension is used for power lines.

I was extremely confused when I moved to Canada and I found that
the hydro company delivered electricity, not water.

Tim.

 

[Al]

In article <bec993c8.0312170804.447d1c6a@posting.google.com>,
shoppa@trailing-edge.com (Tim Shoppa) wrote:

Spehro Pefhany <speffSNIP@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat> wrote in message
news:<1ilutvk33stjqhaar4c70qmpqdsl8r5u8s@4ax.com>...
The phrase 'high tension' (meaning 'high voltage') is still current in
British English in certain contexts. It was far more widely used in the
time of battery-powered radios.

Here in the colonies, very high voltage power transmission lines are
referred to as High Tension Lines.

Jonesy

Also EHT for Extremely (?) High Tension is used for power lines.

I was extremely confused when I moved to Canada and I found that
the hydro company delivered electricity, not water.

Tim.

When I was a child, I was confused when my father put a liquid into his
car and called it gas!

Al

--
There's never enough time to do it right the first time.......

 

[Franc Zabkar]

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 08:01:56 GMT, Hubert Littau <hlittau@emesen.com>
put finger to keyboard and composed:

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 01:32:05 -0200, Chaos Master
please.ask@ibestvip.com.br> wrote:

Has anyone in this group ever found bad translations in electronics equipment
manuals? I'm curious after I've found some:

"To tune, turn the digits on the front" - From one of those el cheapo radios.

"Power adapter driver software CD" - From the manual of my AOC scanner, that had
almost no line breaks at all. It was understood to be, in a listing:

"1. Power adapter
2. Driver software CD"

"256kb of 512kb of cache memory." - From my PC manual.

And my favorite, from a Brazilian site on repair, that has a translation in
English:

"<device> makes popcorn when turned on" - They translated "popping sound" to
"POPCORN"!!!

Perhaps not a translation error but certainly a miss-spelling with
potentialy painfull consequences was in the service manual for the
Sony model D9 cd player. In the alignment procedure it firmly states
to "insert the dick and close the lid."

IIRC, my local Dick Smith store sells a product whose on-the-box
instructions refer to a "dickette drive".


- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

 

[Tim Auton]

shoppa@trailing-edge.com (Tim Shoppa) wrote:
[snip]

I was extremely confused when I moved to Canada and I found that
the hydro company delivered electricity, not water.

You want to move to the UK and get your phone and gas from an
electricity company, your electricity from British Gas and your bank
account from a supermarket.


Tim
--
The .sig is dead.

 

[Chaos Master]

Franc Zabkar(fzabkar@optussnet.com.au) spoke, er, wrote:

IIRC, my local Dick Smith store sells a product whose on-the-box
instructions refer to a "dickette drive".

What about "Buck SMPS" turning into "Suck SMPS"? Or "Exciting pennis game"
(obviously referring to tennis)!

--
ChaosŽ - posting from Brazil
wizard_of_NOSPAM@hotmail.com
Replace "NOSPAM" by "rodney" written backwards "yendor".

 

[Keith R. Williams]

In article <no.spam-D19174.13131317122003@news.verizon.net>,
no.spam@here.com says...

In article <bec993c8.0312170804.447d1c6a@posting.google.com>,
shoppa@trailing-edge.com (Tim Shoppa) wrote:

Spehro Pefhany <speffSNIP@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat> wrote in message
news:<1ilutvk33stjqhaar4c70qmpqdsl8r5u8s@4ax.com>...
The phrase 'high tension' (meaning 'high voltage') is still current in
British English in certain contexts. It was far more widely used in the
time of battery-powered radios.

Here in the colonies, very high voltage power transmission lines are
referred to as High Tension Lines.

Jonesy

Also EHT for Extremely (?) High Tension is used for power lines.

I was extremely confused when I moved to Canada and I found that
the hydro company delivered electricity, not water.

Tim.

When I was a child, I was confused when my father put a liquid into his
car and called it gas!

I suppose you were confused by "good food - get gas" signs too.
Or when he passed gas you thought he should go farther (or
perhaps not, since he passed it)?

--
Keith