What's a tech term you hate?

[Rex Hite]

32 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

There’s an antique phrase.  That whole thing was trying to make a pun on “cold warrior” a very 80’s term. (Yes parachute pants were more period, but little passes hammer pants for pure garish cringe)  If someone is still using that I would unsderstand a sentance of forcing them to having their hair frosted and being force to wear hammer pants for a week.  Maybe even a Fanny pack in front too…. Would A Sanyo mbc555 be cruel and unusual? Probably.  4.0mhz.  Not ghz, MHz

I remember back when the expression "Road Warrior" was used to sell laptops to people like sales reps who had to travel to their customers.

 

A lot of marketing jargon used in tech is intended to appeal to the Walter Mitty in us.

 

 

 

 

 

[FRD]

I actually really hate some abbreviations.

One is mobo, it just sounds weird and kind of seems like you're using a certain foul word.

Another one is distro plate for distribution plate in watercooling, makes no sense to me.

Lastly one of the most annoying ones that is unique to Asus. To fool customers they use Aura RGB for RGB and Aura Addressable RGB for ARGB. Many people think Aura RGB is ARGB because of that.

[TheCoder2019]

When people refer to graphics cards as GPUs

 

when people have an SSD and call it a hard drive

 

when people think 5GHz WiFi is faster than Ethernet

[Middcore]

37 minutes ago, TheCoder2019 said:

When people refer to graphics cards as GPUs

 

 

I, too, hate it when people call things what they are.

[TheCoder2019]

1 minute ago, Middcore said:

 

I, too, hate it when people call things what they are.

No, the GPU is the Processing Unit, the card transfers data via PCI and some other controller duhicky. Like the GPU is the CPU of the card. I dont know if you get this, it was said by Linus in a video. I'll link it when I have YouTube

[Middcore]

51 minutes ago, TheCoder2019 said:

No, the GPU is the Processing Unit, the card transfers data via PCI and some other controller duhicky. Like the GPU is the CPU of the card. I dont know if you get this, it was said by Linus in a video. I'll link it when I have YouTube

I understand the concept of a PCI-e card, thanks. But since no discrete GPU's really exist in the PC space except the ones on cards, I think it's perfectly natural for people to call the cards GPU's... and since it's unlikely to cause any confusion about what's being referred to, objecting to it strikes me as pedantry. 

 

CPU's also used to come on cards that went in slots. Would it have been wrong to call them CPU's?

 

 

[TheNuzziNuzz]

On 5/7/2021 at 9:32 PM, Jurrunio said:

Calling 1440p "2K"

 

On 5/7/2021 at 9:48 PM, DobertRownySr said:

"2K display" when people are referring to 1440p.

 

On 5/7/2021 at 9:36 PM, ShrimpBrime said:

1.4K? XD

Actually, it's not exactly wrong. You see, "2k" officially refers to resolutions where the total width is greater than 2,000 pixels. That includes Cinematic 1080P, which is what most movies are filmed in. Which is very confusing considering how the rest of the numbers play out.

 

1080p has a total of 2,073,600 pixels

1440p has a total of 3,686,400 pixels

4k has a total of 8,294,400 pixels

 

4k contains exactly 4 times the pixel count of 1080p. 1440p contains 1.7777777777777777777777777777778 times the pixels of 1080p.

 

This is confusing because the number you see in "1080p" refers to the vertical height, not the width. But in the situation of "4k" we are actually measuring the scale of the number of pixels relative to 1080p. Theoretically, this would mean 1080p is "1k." So although 1440p would technically speaking be not 2k (being 1.7777k), it is obvious why people would call it that, especially considering there is no other possible resolution between 1080p and 4k that a person would be referring to when they say "2k."

 

I think generally it is healthier to think of 4k as 2160p. If you think about it like this, you end up with these three numbers, 1080p, 1440p, 2160p. Half way between 4k and 1080p's vertical resolution would be "1620p." 

 

Ultimately it is just very confusing because the real resolution depends on a combination of both width and height resolution values and we seem to mix/match the ways different standards measure different resolutions for some strange reason.

 

In conclusion - even though we call 4k 4k because it is 4 times the resolution of 1080p, 1440p IS infact 2k. This is because, despite 1440p being 1.7 times 1080p, the "2k" standard states since both 1080p (cinematic) and 1440 have a horizontal resolution of over 2,000 pixels, they are "2k" even though the same logic doesn't apply to how we refer to 4k. And this also makes regular 1080p (1920x1080) only 80 pixels away from being "2k." Which essentially means 1080p, by percentage, is closer to being 2k than 1440p is, but 1440p is technically 2k while 1080p isn't (while 1080p is about 2 million pixels).

 

or on second thought before I start an argument, I probably shouldn't be on a forum at 2:00 AM....

 

oh and don't even get me started on quad HD.

[AlwaysFSX]

On 5/14/2021 at 2:43 PM, Rex Hite said:

"Form Factor"- Just say "shape", or "size" or "proportions"

Oh boy I really love this one square shaped motherboard, this other, slightly different square shape. Don't forget about the slightly wider square shape and the small square shape.

[Stahlmann]

"Future proof" is one of the worst offenders for me.

 

Another candidate would be "bottleneck" because of how many people just don't understand what it's all about.

 

I have to hold myself back every time i read these two so i don't start to rant...

[GenericFanboy]

"High speed" or just general terms indicating speed. 

 

I want numbers, high speed could indicate anything. I could chuck an ssd real hard and it'd be high speed too. 

 

Even worse, 'Reliable' I wouldnt call anything reliable unless its redundant. But i hear people calling anything reliable these days, anything could blow. Anything could die.

[RaddedMC]

On 5/7/2021 at 10:20 PM, LloydLynx said:

GNU/Linux just being called "Linux". Like boi, Linux is just a kernel. The full OS that most people use uses the GNU core utils on top of Linux.

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

[da na]

5 hours ago, GenericFanboy said:

I wouldnt call anything reliable unless its redundant.

*cries in single 12 year old hdd*

[GenericFanboy]

36 minutes ago, wat3rmelon_man2 said:

*cries in single 12 year old hdd*

Get another 12 year old bad boy hdd and put m in raid, might be s l i g h t l y reliable  

 

SLIGHTLY

[da na]

Just now, GenericFanboy said:

Get another 12 year old bad boy hdd and put m in raid, might be s l i g h t l y reliable  

 

SLIGHTLY

I used to have 2 in raid then one died. F in the chat for 7 platter Hitachi

[GenericFanboy]

2 minutes ago, wat3rmelon_man2 said:

I used to have 2 in raid then one died. F in the chat for 7 platter Hitachi

point proven

[da na]

3 minutes ago, GenericFanboy said:

point proven

Yeah I don't use it for much anymore, it's my backup drive (ironically).

[WkdPaul]

On 5/7/2021 at 9:49 PM, Caroline said:

You know what really grinds my gears? This:

Some people just call that anything and everything, even WEBSITES.

I think a broader issue is general misuse by normies ... it's infuriating sometimes.

 

Terms I hate ;

- bottleneck

- futureproofing

- 'the cloud'

 

All of the above is because of the general misuse, or misunderstanding of the term, but there's also stuff I heard in my years of working IT that 'normies' sometime misuse or misunderstand, it's not terms I hate per say, but it's terms that I hate when misused ;

 

- wifi = internet

- charger = USB cable used for charging

- *application name* = platform they're on (calling the Chrome browser 'Google' for exemple)

- CPU = computer

- my personal computer = the company supplied laptop (when asked if it was corp supplied, or a personal device ... *sigh* ... yes, it was supplied to YOU, but you don't own it, that's what I'm asking !!! You would be surprised how many people get this wrong.)

[VFXGuy]

12 hours ago, TheCoder2019 said:

when people think 5GHz WiFi is faster than Ethernet

Muchly agree, ethernet is so underrated

[WhitetailAni]

I once asked my sister if she wanted Adblock on her Chromebook. She said no.

I explained what it did and she said no.

 

Fast forward two weeks while in the car:
"Yeah, whenever I try to watch YouTube I get lots of ads!"
Me: <turns around> "Did you know that Adblock can fix that?"
 

[da na]

7 minutes ago, VFXGuy said:

Muchly agree, ethernet is so underrated

As soon as I get home, that ethernet cable goes straight in. Before I even open the laptop.

[WhitetailAni]

1 minute ago, wat3rmelon_man2 said:

As soon as I get home, that ethernet cable goes straight in. Before I even open the laptop.

I try to use wired connections as much as possible. No matter how fast it can be. it will always be subject to interference. If your wired mouse isn't working, check if the cable is cut!
If your wireless mouse isn't working, are you:

Near a microwave?
In a room where lots of signals cross?
Is Bluetooth enabled?
Is your dongle plugged in?

 

I only use a Magic Mouse 1 for its gestures, and only when using a Mac. Otherwise it stays dormant.

[da na]

1 minute ago, FakeKGB said:

I try to use wired connections as much as possible. No matter how fast it can be. it will always be subject to interference. If your wired mouse isn't working, check if the cable is cut!
If your wireless mouse isn't working, are you:

Near a microwave?
In a room where lots of signals cross?
Is Bluetooth enabled?
Is your dongle plugged in?

 

I only use a Magic Mouse 1 for its gestures, and only when using a Mac. Otherwise it stays dormant.

It never fails to amaze me how reliable the PS2 controllers are, and how crappy my friend's ps3 controllers are. Just when it comes to wired/wireless. The ps3 controllers seem to have noticeable latency. 

[Murasaki]

10 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

I once asked my sister if she wanted Adblock on her Chromebook. She said no.

I explained what it did and she said no.

 

Fast forward two weeks while in the car:
"Yeah, whenever I try to watch YouTube I get lots of ads!"
Me: <turns around> "Did you know that Adblock can fix that?"
 

let me guess... she said no

[WhitetailAni]

4 minutes ago, Murasaki said:

let me guess... she said no

Sister: "Oh. How much does it cost?"
 

[Murasaki]

2 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

Sister: "Oh. How much does it cost?"