[99839] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Need a word for ...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (lojmitti7wi7nuv@gmail.com)
Wed Nov 19 16:03:17 2014
From: lojmitti7wi7nuv@gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <F52986192E9FE346B0B7EF3D6F98E8771243CCAB@EXDB3.ug.kth.se>
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 16:03:01 -0500
To: tlhIngan Hol mailing list <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Errors-To: tlhingan-hol-bounces@kli.org
All are good suggestions, with {lI'wI' Deq} scoring really high, but given =
the fully nuanced definition in Wikipedia, cruft really is a word more spec=
ific in meaning than any of these. For hardware, it can mean something that=
never was really useful, but it sure was high tech, and now the tech is co=
mpletely useless.
Consider the supersonic, long-range bomber that the Air Force built and put=
in place briefly, before intercontinental missiles made it both obsolete a=
nd too expensive to justify maintaining. It looked cool, like an SST with h=
inged wings that would droop at the ends at high speed when it becomes impo=
rtant for the wings to NOT generate lift. It is one of the very few aircraf=
t in history to exceed Mach 3. Now? Maybe there's one or two in a museum so=
mewhere, but the rest are probably sitting in a military junkyard in a dese=
rt somewhere, partly stripped, corroding, awaiting a future age for archeol=
ogists to dig it up and wonder what it was, like a dinosaur, slowly sinking=
into a tar pit.
Or the Apple Newton. It was a brilliant idea that so many man-hours and so =
much money went into at a time when the end result could not live up to the=
expected functionality because of limits in the technology that could not =
be foreseen until the whole thing was assembled and tested by the public. A=
pple mass produced a thing that nobody wanted, and they couldn't know that =
nobody wanted it until they produced it.
Or Windows Compact Edition: The all-time prize winner in terms of its acron=
ym: WinCE. It actually was sold with that acronym. What were they thinking?
For software, it can refer to badly written modules of code that need to be=
replaced before the whole software package can be properly functional, or =
modules that were well adapted to earlier versions of the software, but now=
because of feature shift or changing standards, it no longer functions wel=
l in the software package and need to be replaced or removed, or it can ref=
er to complex and unnecessary codes in documents, as in the junk that MS Wo=
rd puts in a document when converting it into a Web page.
These are not simple leftovers. This is not simple garbage or debris. These=
are things carefully constructed by misguided hands and minds, often lacki=
ng sufficient context at time of construction to comprehend why it would be=
so poorly adapted to the future it will become a part of. It's quite often=
expensive to create and difficult to remove.
It's geek poetry, not simple landfill material to be handled by a scullery =
maid.
cruft.
It's the tech version of Darwin's losers. When it was born, it couldn't kno=
w that it couldn't compete. They figured it was worth a try, right?
I'm sticking to it. I want a word for cruft.
lojmIt tI=92wI=92 nuv =91utlh
Retired Door Repair Guy
> On Nov 19, 2014, at 2:25 PM, Felix Malmenbeck <felixm@kth.se> wrote:
> =
> chaq Qap =ABDI chuv=BB, =ABlI'Ha'pu'wI'=BB, =ABlI'wI' Deq=BB joq.
> =
> ________________________________________
> From: Alan Anderson [qunchuy@alcaco.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2014 20:17
> To: tlhIngan Hol mailing list
> Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Need a word for ...
> =
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 2:05 PM, <lojmitti7wi7nuv@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I have a new favorite word in English, and I really want an equivalent i=
n Klingon:
>> =
>> cruft
>> =
>> If we have words for scalene triangle, we need a word for cruft.
>> It's such a glorious, perfect word for the warrior's tongue.
> =
> qechvaD Qap <DI> qar'a'? veQ 'oHbe'law'. rut 'ut. vI' neH.
> =
> -- ghunchu'wI'
> =
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