The "This Might Be A Stupid Question, But...." Thread

[Slartibartfast]

Topic in the special snowflakes thread reminded me of a question I've been wondering about: does autocorrect base its suggestions on words *you personally* use a lot, or does it acquire words from some big master list?  If it's based on the master list, how do they avoid offending half their users when it "corrects" an innocent word into something profane (which - based on what I've seen on the rest of the internet - would probably be a pretty common occurrence)?  If it's based on your own history, does that mean those embarrassingly profane autocorrects mean the person really did type that vulgar word enough for it to be at the top of the possibilities list?

[Ms_Cellany]

My autocorrect automatically capitalizes "Boojum."  I don't know if it's realized it's a name, based on my use, or if literary boojums are properly capitalized.

[magicdomino]

Autocorrect has to be learning words.  While I can understand the formal names for body parts appearing, and of course many perfectly nice words have unfortunate slang definitions, some of the words appearing on that site, well, lets just say that I would be very surprised if my office Blackberry offered them as possible words.   

So, if you don't want Autocorrect to be a pottymouth, don't be a pottymouth.

[Seraphia]

I don't know if this holds true for all phones, but I've accidentally saved a few goofy "words" to my phone's autocorrect. It comes up as an option every time I type something in, including things like: I tried to type 'bigger' and got 'biggest' from my phone, so I backspaced and corrected it. Somehow, I added 'gger' to my custom dictionary as a result, and now it comes up a lot as a suggestion. Also, if I miss the keyboard while trying to 'swipe' in a word, it will sometimes sub in some really odd things as well.

It does learn a little bit - it capitalizes the names I type in frequently, and it offers my husband's name as a suggestion before some other close words. But sometimes I think it just likes to mess with me, and refuses to recognize words out of spite.

[amandaelizabeth]

The first settlers in New Zeeland were not Dutch.  In fact Tasman only landed here once and sailed  away.  Cook did the exploration and charting.  The Dutch arrived in great numbers after WW2.  Early settlers were mainly English and Scots, with a fair number of French as well. In fact it was a close run thing as to whether it became a British or French colony

[camlan]

I had to think twice recently when someone told me in an excited tone that they were going to Boston for a long weekend. It's a pleasant place, but not that special ..... Oh, she meant Boston in the USA.

Similarly when my mother and I flew to Canada, landing in Toronto, it was very strange seeing the names of towns we were flying over, as though we were doing a crazy tour of the British Isles.

It's the same for someone from New England visiting England.

There are Manchesters in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine (as well as other, non-New England states). Here in NH, we have Dover, Exeter, and Portsmouth. Massachusetts has Cambridge, Taunton, Plymouth, Sandwich, Worcester, Boston, Gloucester, and Bedford. Connecticut has Bristol, Danbury, Derby, Dover, Guildford, Milford, New London, and Norwich. Vermont has Brighton, Coventry, Derby, and Essex. Maine has York, Cambridge, Leeds, and Topsham. And there's lots more.

There's a lot of repetition among the New England states, with city and town names from England. I live near Newington, NH. I used to live in Newington, CT. My guess is that a lot of settlers came from the same general areas of England, but settled in different parts of the country.

[Elfmama]

Can someone tell me why this is considered attractive?  It's so revolting to me that I don't even want to post the picture here!

[Diane AKA Traska]

Can someone tell me why this is considered attractive?  It's so revolting to me that I don't even want to post the picture here!

For a lot of people, bright red = sexy, wet lips = sexy, so mix the two...

[jaxsue]

I had no idea there was a Dutch Zeeland.

There are a lot of "Zees" in Dutch words. I have lived in upstate NY and Jersey (sorry, could not resist!), where there is a lot of Dutch influence. There is the Tappan Zee Bridge, for example, that connects Rockland and Westchester Counties via the Hudson River. The Tappan part is Native American, the Zee from the Dutch. And in MI, where I grew up, there a town called Zeeland, near Holland, MI. The Dutch got around!


As far as calling the state I live in Jersey, that is pretty much what the residents call it. You will never hear, "the New Jersey Shore." In formal settings, definitely it is NJ. In casual situations, Jersey is the norm.

Okay then, why don't New York residents call their city York? 

Why would we copy the people of Jersey? We're New York, people copy us. 

Err, we didn't in the midwest or the south.

[ladyknight1]

The lips remind me of Rocky Horror. 

[WillyNilly]

Can someone tell me why this is considered attractive?  It's so revolting to me that I don't even want to post the picture here!

Red glossy lips? I'm struggling with what you find "revolting" about such a classically sultry look.

[Iris]

Can someone tell me why this is considered attractive?  It's so revolting to me that I don't even want to post the picture here!

Red glossy lips? I'm struggling with what you find "revolting" about such a classically sultry look.

Well, I used to wear red lip gloss all the time and although I didn't find it revolting, personally I found it a bit OTT because they are so extremely wet and sticky looking. I would be afraid that if they kissed me I'd end up looking like I'd been attacked with a knife.

In fairness, 20-year-old  me would have thought that the more extreme look was great. Teamed with really really thick liquid eyeliner and pale foundation and I'd have been good to go.

[MrsJWine]

All the washing machines that I've seen around here are the same; they alternate hot and cold water to supposedly get the temperature you want. Except that it doesn't work that way. "Cold" means you get cold water, "warm" means you get barely tepid water, and "hot" means you get lukewarm water. You have to shut off the cold tap behind the washer in order to get a truly hot wash. And if you want anything more than freezing cold (but not truly hot), you have to stand there and help it fill just right. I thought it was just our apartment, but most of my friends have the same thing going on with theirs.

I use cold water most of the time, but sometimes warm or hot is necessary, especially with hard water. So can anyone tell me what the point is? I imagine it has something to do with being more environmentally friendly, but I don't see how that works; if I have to run the load once or twice more to wash the clothes adequately and rinse the everything out (I use a very small amount of soap, no softener), it's not saving energy or water.

[StarDrifter]

I use cold water most of the time, but sometimes warm or hot is necessary, especially with hard water. So can anyone tell me what the point is? I imagine it has something to do with being more environmentally friendly, but I don't see how that works; if I have to run the load once or twice more to wash the clothes adequately and rinse the everything out (I use a very small amount of soap, no softener), it's not saving energy or water.

The point is generally that you save energy by not using any hot water in the first place - so if you want to do a completely hot wash then in your case you'd need to turn the cold tap off before starting the hot wash.

With my machine there's only one tap connection (front loading Samsung machine) which is for the cold water, and to do a hot wash we select the temperature at the start of the wash - cold, 45 degrees, 60 degrees, 90 degrees (celsius) and then an element inside the machine itself heats up the water as it goes into the machine - so a 90 degree wash takes a minimum of 2 hours to go through because the machine spends 25 minutes heating the water up in the back of the machine before it's released into the barrel with the clothes.

[Elfmama]

With my machine there's only one tap connection (front loading Samsung machine) which is for the cold water, and to do a hot wash we select the temperature at the start of the wash - cold, 45 degrees, 60 degrees, 90 degrees (celsius) and then an element inside the machine itself heats up the water as it goes into the machine - so a 90 degree wash takes a minimum of 2 hours to go through because the machine spends 25 minutes heating the water up in the back of the machine before it's released into the barrel with the clothes.

That's why I hated having a front loader.  Between the time it took to do a load, and the tiny barrel that would hold 1 queen-sized sheet or 3 shirts and a few socks, I had to run it constantly for a family of 4.