But I *would* like a way of playing DVDs from different zones, as I have American, Asian, Dutch and British versions of Greenaway films alone. Currently I can play any of them, but I can only switch zones five times. I'm down to either 2 or 3, and it kept the count going despite recent events.

I also have a Russian-as-she-is-spoke disc, and various Russian films with original dialog. The first vowel in Boris is not a round 'o', nor is it a neutral unaccented schwa (most common vowel in English, and nobody's heard of it). Vowels are on a continuum, really, and Russian does have an 'o' ... but I still think Boris is closer to Bah Humbug than to Borrow my book.

Traumatized, moi? Only if traumatising happens at regular intervals. Good point about email, though. It's already the case with most comms and journo stuff, and occasional bits of *writing* writing. Never done it systematically, though.

That's actually another case of what I meant about having too much old info ... 1940s refrigerators, behavior of. I remamber copying emails out of hotmail and into word, for storage ... as low capacity meant online mails would be deleted in time.

Here's me inventing virtual reality:

<Kane wakes in a cubicle whose walls, a couple of metres apart, shade into infinity. Electric galaxies fade to household cherubim, circuits dancing in a millisecond dawn chorus. Let FN(K) = Morning. There is no outside.>

<OK, OK. Easy, tiger. I already had Quicktime - it's among the gone - but I simply don't play any audiovid stuff, movies or music or whatevva, sufficiently much to have a real preference among players.>

Heh. :) Well, it's not a matter of preference - just that my only recording equipment is the Voice Memos (aka microphone) app on my IPhone - and the IPhone being a Mac product, as is QuickTime, they understand each other. Whereas the WiMP (Windows Media Player) simply sez "huh?" or a more convoluted equivalent thereof, such as 'file type not recognized'. :s

The fact that I also find it - the WiMP - heavier, slower to load, and more intrusive into other applications - is a separate matter.

No comprende DVD tech, though. And I also don't use these player progs much. I didn't even remember I still had QuickTime on my comp, until it simply opened the audio file I sent myself for testing, and started playing it, while the WiMP was still busy making excuses.

As for Boris, I can check again, but as far as I've noticed thus far - and there's always a few of'em around... that's a normal Latin-type o they are employing there. Rilly. ;)

<That was, when, yesterday?>

As I recall, things changed when Gmail entered the online mail scene. I've had it since it was in early beta stage... dunno, maybe 6 years ago?

The day after I signed up for gmail, my hotmail a/c size went up by a factor of 20. And a week later effectively limitless. Strange coincidence, innit.

<Dom> if you hadda request an invite, it was still in beta stage, just a little later. :) It was in beta for a long time - over a year, I think, maybe even two?

Yeah, once Gmail started to pick up speed, the other providers had to match it, or fall out of the race. That's why it changed the whole online email scene.

About the latest Borisian Hypothesis, I dunno, the Borises around here speak to <each other> - that is, in Russian - most of the time I hear them, so not sure that works...

It's quite different from how an English speaker would say it.

We would say "Rah-SHEED"

But the Tatar fellow says

"Rah-sheht"

!?

?!

Slowly. A lot of restarts, a few downloads. It's easy to forget just how much customizing one does, even in a year or so. So even when I had Fritz running again it was still full of intrusive stuff like clocks, ticking sounds, a coach offering tips, etc. All needing removal, one by one, as my old configurations didn't survive.

It's even possible that relevant bits of useful data were written down by me *twice* - in a word file and a paper notebook, neither of which I'm likely to find again.

There may be something to be said for simplicity. Or non-perversely pointless complexifications, at least.

Speaking of words (eh?) I also stop regularly to read stuff I come across, including whole books. I found what must be the world's strangest copyright announcement, in the booklet with Scott Walker's CD, The Drift:

<All songs written by Scott Walker except "Psoriatic", in which the words

Ja-da ja-da
ja-da ja-da
jing jing
jing

were written by Bob Carleton ...>

He must be so proud. ;s

<Maybe it's Middle Neanderthal?>

I think they had more complex vocabulary by then...

http://translate.google.com/#en|ru|...

it is in fact "Nyezh" like you said- except it sounds more like a cross between "Nyeezh" and "Nyizh"-

And the second syllable sounds like "Myeeht".

Finally, the "Myeeht" and the "Dee" seem to be stressed evenly.

So at least according to the GOOGLE Translate robot-

"Nyizh/Nyeezh- myeeht- dee- nahv"

Can your puter "hear" from the Google listen button?

It can "sense" some strangeness- it will sometimes ask you "do you mean"?

However, you are correct. I did in fact think of that also- due mainly to the "did you mean" question the Google translator asked.

So for a week I've been using an online Cyrillic Keyboard- and I also have a bunch of back issues of <64> magazine.

So I have checked some of the cyrillic spellings working backwards from <64> magazine.

The google version of cyrillic "Nezhmetdinov" uses the same cyrillic letters used in <64>, so I'm sure about that one.

I've manually checked other names as well using this method.

HOWEVER

As you say, can we trust the actual speakers on Google translator?

I'm certain the Tatar audio of "Rashid" is correct, since I downloaded that one from a University project that uses native speakers- and has great audio quality to boot. I only wish the site had last names!?

You'd think Google could afford a good microphone eh?

Vietnamese right?

That's encouraging news eh? Particularly about the part where people can send in corrected or better versions.

That's innaresting. I hadn't read Wm Gibson yet, but I had read some Rudy Rucker. Or, rather, the maths stuff he wrote as Rudolph von Bittern Rucker. Never actually got round to meeting him.

His first fictions, such as White Light, were more mathfic than cyber or even sf. And in person, I think Rudy was one of those campus-dwelling beardy longhairs (cf Jon Speelman) who stayed in hippie mode years longer than strictly necessary. Woulda been repelled by 'punk' initially.

Gibson, by contrast, was always more innarested in people, and the things they got up to on the fractal edges of the now. Pored over UK style zines like The Face and i-d.

I had a newspaper review once, comparing two of these upstart zines from the early 80s: i-d, and my Zilch. Nobody, then, coulda known which of the two would flourish for 30 years. Unless they also knew me, of course.

Yep, even then.

<domdaniel> If you have not read from William Gibson, feel free to start with his "Burning Chrome" book, and continue with his "Neuromancer" book. Both provide the beginnings of an era of cyberpunk with plausible dialog on the world from a viewpoint a bit different from what you might read normally.

But I've met William Gibson several times, I've communicated in various ways, I've known him a long time. We actually looked very similar once, but we diverged. And I've read everything he's written.

That would be the source of the confusion. ;)

<Thanh> Dom meant he hadn't read Gibson yet at the time he wrote that snippet we were discussing. :)

<Dom> plz to answer yr mail?

Just time, is all.

*smiley*

And time's my business.

*nother smiley*

As it happens, both of these lines - along with the spelling 'innaresting' - were originally, ah, borrowed, from William Burroughs. Soft Machine, I think.