25th Apr 2018, 3:06 pm | #41 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
And film, too. The go-to site for streaming movies, gratis and illegally, in the 15-35 year group only came down a year or two ago. ... e.g. Breaking Bad was the most illegally downloaded TV series of all time.
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25th Apr 2018, 3:06 pm | #42 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
I discovered at my evening class a couple of weeks ago that "televisore" is the word for a television set in Italian. Some European languages still use electronics terminology from the Edwardian era that has been superseded in English: for example, "syntonization", the original English word for tuning a radio, is still used in Spanish (sintonización).
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25th Apr 2018, 5:26 pm | #43 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
I've mentioned here before my difficulty in following transcripts of some of Tesla's lectures. Many of the terms used are virtually unknown today, while others have quite different meanings.
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25th Apr 2018, 6:10 pm | #44 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
I've heard of test cards in some languages being referred to as monoscopes, after the early equipment used to generate them electronically.
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25th Apr 2018, 6:20 pm | #45 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
I was discussing an obsolete radio related term in another discussion group a few weeks ago. Google does have a few references, but has anyone heard of it, or can even define it without recourse to a search engine?
Its "Tonic train".
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25th Apr 2018, 9:34 pm | #46 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
Instead of "film" I now say motion picture.
Jittery pictures should not happen with digital projection. One advantage of digital as opposed to film projection is that there is no moving film passing over a gate where it has to stop on each frame while its image is shown on the screen. With wear projectors do not always keep the film totally motionless in the projection aperture plate and weave (sideways moment) or jitter (up and down moment) is noticed on the screen. Weave was especially noticeable on CinemaScope or other formats using an anamorthic lens during projection to stretch the image horizontally as that gave more sideways magnification. One reason for the black masking around cinema screens was to give the impression of a steady image. With digital projectors you can get a rock steady picture and some cinemas do not have the black masking anymore. New technology is using projectors with coloured lasers for the light source and these have very sharp edges to the screen image. Large screen LCD direct viewing screens are being trialed in some cinemas up to 40 ft wide. "Films" are normally delivered to the cinemas on hard disk with high security and a licence for so many showings for that theatre. Sometimes cinemas show live relays from opera a or ballet performances and that may have been why Post 9 says he got a message "Cannot connect to the remote server." As far as I know Cinelab in London can still process 35mm or 70mm film. I believe 2001 A space odyssey is being re-released this year on 70mm in some cinemas with new prints. Like vinyl and now audio cassette tapes, real film is having a minor renaissance. To get back to the main topic I still say listening to the wireless (for radio). Older people may say Tannoy for a pa system not sure what young people would say, maybe sound system! John |
27th Apr 2018, 9:17 am | #47 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
The film and theatrical production industries have a rich fund of esoteric lingo. I'm on set now, and from where I'm sitting I can see some 'pags' (Paganinis, after Niccolo Paganini, wooden packing pieces), a 'honka-bonka' (stand extension) and a 'K9' (32A splitter). These no more or less odd than they ever were, but many terms in daily use are decidedly anachronistic when shooting digitally. We are about to 'turn over' (begin capturing to solid-state memory), after which camera will call 'speed' (image capture has begun), the recordist will call 'sound speed' (audio capture has begun) and the 3rd assistant director will relay 'we're rolling' on the radio to everyone off-set. etc. etc. It all still conveys a very strong sense of recording media and equipment being physically set in motion for a take, as with 'running up' for VT.
FWIW, celluloid film is alive and well as a capture medium; not everyone's choice and not for low-budget stuff, and the support infrastucture has thinned out rather drastically, but it's still mainstream tech. As a distribution medium though, 35mm is obsolete. |
27th Apr 2018, 10:05 am | #48 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
I rather like "tonic train" (as a fan of the Romance languages anyway), it conjures up an image of either a multi-gang TRF or a superhet IF strip with its suggestion of a succession of circuits that are tuned, i.e. in syntony. Whether that's the original meaning intent or not I don't know.
Best rendered with French inflection. Let's get it into use it a bit more! (Train tonique?) |
27th Apr 2018, 12:38 pm | #49 |
Nonode
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
In my view to refer to a "film" is still correct. IMHO "film" has come to mean a type of entertainment or education involving moving pictures without regard to the actual technology involved.
A bit like "reading a book" still in my view an acceptable term even if done on a digital device not involving actual printed pages. Words do change their meaning, and within reason this is acceptable provided that the meaning is still clear. This applies not just to technology but to everyday life. Everyone knows what is meant by "bed linen" you buy it in the "linens" area of a department store, despite that the fact that actual linen made from the fibres of the flax plant is now little used. |
27th Apr 2018, 1:02 pm | #50 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
The last 'film' I saw at a cinema was Apollo 13, real 35mm film in a real projector. It was a while ago (20 years I guess) at the Odeon, Slough.
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27th Apr 2018, 9:01 pm | #51 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
I'd say that the 'old way' of telling the time - stuff like "Five and twenty to three" or "Quarter to five" - is obsolete.
It always perplexed me why anyone would want to reverse the sensible and logical order of 'stating the largest part first' when telling the time. We don't say "a quarter and three miles" when giving distance so why did we ever put the minutes before the hours for time? "Three thirtyseven" is much more logical. Even the old Speaking Clock recognised this. "At the third stroke it will be three thirty seven and 45 seconds". I note that schools are replacing analog clocks in exam-halls because students are unfamiliar with non-digital time: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/educatio...nagers-unable/ For quite some time I've avoided using "clockwise" or "anticlockwise" when referring to rotational direction. |
27th Apr 2018, 9:09 pm | #52 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
So what terminology do you use then?
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27th Apr 2018, 9:31 pm | #53 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
"turn to the right" or "turn to the left" when describing rotary controls, "Normal" or "Reverse-thread" when describing nuts/bolts [and yes I do have stuff where you tighten it in the reverse direction to normal: wheel-hub nuts and crankshaft nose-nuts for example, even my antenna-rotator has a reverse-thread on one of the gear-retaining nuts]
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27th Apr 2018, 9:34 pm | #54 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
I'll stick with CW, ACW, RHT and LHT.
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27th Apr 2018, 9:37 pm | #55 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
Sunwise and widdershins, anyone?
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27th Apr 2018, 9:57 pm | #56 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
Telling the time analogue fashion (quarter-past three) is far easier in understanding what time it is, what time it was, and what time it shall be because it is graphical and can be visualised more readily. I think so, anyway.
I can't look at a digital watch without briefly visualising an analogue clock face, and if someone tells me it's 'three forty-seven' I instantly subtract forty seven from sixty and the thirteen minutes to the hour conveys far more to me than a series of numbers. I use both digital and analogue, but am more comfortable with analogue.
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27th Apr 2018, 10:00 pm | #57 | |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
Quote:
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27th Apr 2018, 10:13 pm | #58 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
I would suggest that the old way "Five and twenty to three" was/is used because that is how numbers were routinely expressed in previous centuries.
Nobody had difficulties with the "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie". If you learned it that way, it would not be a problem. Some of use were quite fluent with pounds, shillings and pence, as well as tons, hundredweights and quarters. As units, they "just worked" and people were comfortable with them. Les. |
27th Apr 2018, 10:29 pm | #59 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
I like to use 'balls out' meaning flat out. My reasoning is, the more i use it the more people will know what it means! (and it always gets a reaction)
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27th Apr 2018, 11:02 pm | #60 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
I read recently that young people (and not so young!) are having difficulty telling the time with an analogue clock nowadays, due to the ubiquitous use of digital displays. Even graduates aren't immune. Perhaps it's because digital is always past, but with analogue we mix from with to and add words. Instinct to those of us who knew no other way.
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