Wednesday, November 24, 2004

No More PDF's

I used to hate PDF files, more recently I have started to appreciate them a little bit more. Mainly as we now tend to have faster internet, and computers that can display the files with out too much delay. It's interesting to see that others still have issues with PDF's too.
Contentious - No PDF Press Releases


Another Surprising issue that I have come across is the number of people who don't know what a PDF is, and don't even realize that the Acrobat (aka PDF) file they read inside their web browser is any different to the other webpages they have viewed. I'll bet this is great for Adobe, but because of its wide spread use, every windows user is forced to install Acrobat reader on their computers! This does not give us much freedom of choice.

James

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Where do car names come from?

Heres a excerpt from todays AWAD:
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The very first car I owned was a black hatchback Volkswagen Scirocco.
Before I plonked down my hard-earned graduate-school allowance for this secondhand (euphemistically also called pre-owned or pre-loved) automobile, I made sure its air-conditioning was A-OK. With a name like Scirocco (hot, dry wind), I felt I just had to.

How do automakers come up with names for their cars? Some christen their models with feminine sounding names (Ford Festiva, Chevrolet Lumina), probably following the traditional way of naming boats, while others go for macho names (Mitsubishi Galant, Nissan Armada).

Some prefer animal names, as a way of ascribing those qualities to their cars (Mercury Cougar, Dodge Viper, Ford Bronco). Others name their cars after cities (Dodge Daytona, Chevrolet Corsica, GMC Yukon). Still others take the easy way out and use what appears to be a jumble of letters and numbers though these often indicate engine capacity or some such characteristics.

Here are some interesting auto tidbits:

o Camry is an anagram of "My car".
o "A TOYOTA" is a palindrome, and forms a mirror image.
o Chevrolet named a car Nova. In Spanish "No va" means "It doesn't go."
o Then there was the unreliable Yugo which earned the nickname "You no go."
o Saab is an acronym for Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (Swedish Aircraft
Company Ltd); BMW is Bayerische Motoren-Werke (Bavarian Motor Works).
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I thought it might make interesting Reading (and I haven't posted in a while :)

Have a great week,

James