youtube

Good way!

Posted by

0

One video on the Youtube channel Lisa and Josh shows another American couple walking the Caminho Português/Camino Portugués from Porto in Portugal to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. I had seen their previous video, in which they walked part of the Camino Francés (I can’t remember where they started; possibly from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port) so I was familiar with the Spanish expression Buen camino! In the Portuguese video, their interactions with other walkers and the locals are sprinkled with Bom caminho!

A sign in one town lists the greeting/wish in eight languages:

BO CAMINO
BUEN CAMINO
BOM CAMINHO
GOOD WAY
GUTEN WEG
BON CHEMIN
BUON CAMMINO
DOBREJ DROGI

Clearly, five of these are related (Galician, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian, with French being the most different), two more are related (English and German), and one is very different (Polish, apparently). 

Continue reading →

Coincidence?

Posted by

5

This has to be a coincidence. Youtube can’t possibly be listening to my morning train ride when my laptop is in my backpack, closed, with no internet connection. Can it …?

I have used the Finale music notation program for almost 30 years. Yesterday morning I got an email from the company saying that they will no longer be selling, supporting or upgrading. We can keep the software we’ve got, but nothing more. They have a deal with the company behind another notation program, Dorico, to offer us their software at a reduced price. 

On my morning train, a young man and woman came into the carriage I was in and he explained that they were recently homeless and quite frankly wanted money but didn’t like taking money for nothing, so he would sing a song. He played his guitar and sang, quite well, but please don’t rob me of my choice to listen or not. I didn’t give them any money. I don’t want to encourage people robbing me of my choice. I didn’t recognise the song and could only pick out a few words here and there, mainly because I was trying to ignore him.

There have been several more emails from Finale since then. Obviously, some users are not happy. One of the emails included a link to a short series of videos explaining some of the differences between Finale and Dorico. One of Youtube’s suggested videos was an extended exploration of the design features of Dorico, by a composer/software developer I’ve encountered once or twice before. He covers the good, bad and janky (his word) of the current version of Dorico.

All notation programs I’ve seen come with sample files to demonstrate notation and audio playback. One of these on this version of Dorico is an arrangement of Clocks by Coldplay, which looked like something I’d heard, but the video man scathingly pointed out wasn’t a suitable choice for a product aimed at high-end compositional/typesetting users. I quickly found a video of this, which I have heard somewhere, sometime, maybe once. Youtube then suggested another of Coldplay’s songs, Viva la vida, the only thing I know of which is that it’s not Ricky Martin’s Livin’ la vida loca. I started the video, skipped to about one minute in … and realised that this was the song which the young man had played. 

This has to be a coincidence. Please …

University Challenge – music

Posted by

2


Several months ago (that’s how long it takes me to write some blog posts), Youtube suggested to me a series of videos of musical questions from the tv show University Challenge (UK). Watching these, it’s hard to remember what I knew at the same age (studying music) instead of applying what I know now, remembering too that most of these aren’t studying music. ‘Music’ apparently means ‘(mostly) European classical music between 1550 and 1950’ (though Wikipedia says it once had questions about Eurovision Song Contest winners).

ruth (lower-case)

Posted by

0

Some time ago I wrote about the word ruthless and the just-word ruthful. I didn’t mention the word ruth, which means pity or compassion; sorrow or grief; self-reproach, contrition or remorse (Dictionary.com). It is derived from rue (feel sorrow, repent, regret).

Recently Youtube suggested a video of Seven part-songs by Gustav Holst (as compared with Seven-part songs). 

Number 5, titled Sorrow and joy includes the line And she [sorrow, personified] with ruth will teach you truth. The video doesn’t list an author, but the internet found Robert Bridges, who I know enough about to know that he used older words at times. The final verse is:

Blush not nor blench with either wench,
Make neither brag nor pother:
God send you, son, enough of one
And not too much o’ t’other.

(Pother and t’other don’t rhyme in my pronunciation, if I ever pronounced them.)

Continue reading →

Signs of ambiguity

Posted by

0

Youtube more-or-less randomly showed me two ads with similar taglines: 

We’re built for growing businesses.

and:

Your business matters.

Ambiguity in English arises for a number of reasons. One is that a gerund-particle (like growing) can be used in a noun-type way (We’re built for the purpose of growing businesses), or an adjective-type way (We’re built for businesses which happen to be growing). In this case, the ambiguity is small, and probably deliberate. 

Compare Moving pianos can be dangerous (which can have both interpretations), Tuning pianos can be dangerous (which can only have the noun-type meaning) and Falling pianos can be dangerous (which can only have the adjective-type meaning). Note that the ambiguity can be resolved by using a different verb form: Moving pianos is dangerous (gerund) v Moving pianos are dangerous (participle).

Another reason for ambiguity is that many words ending with –s (like matters) can be a plural noun or a 3rd person present simple verb. In this case, the full stop probably forces the verb interpretation. Even without the full stop, most people would find the verb interpretation, which creates a complete sentence, in preference to the noun interpretation, which creates a noun phrase: compare Your business matters are important to us. 

Last weekend we went for a drive in the Blue Mountains. I saw a sign saying Falling rocks, and thought that it probably doesn’t, especially from the height of the cliffs there. Another sign said Slow buses, in which slow might be an adjective or an imperative verb. In this case, most people would find the incomplete adj + noun interpretation. In the imperative verb + noun interpretation, there are further options if you are the bus driver, a super-hero or a pedestrian. 

Today we drove in another direction. We visited a business which proclaimed Growing since 1919. Especially apt for an orchard/nursery/garden supplies business. One of the banners in the outdoor furnishing section stated Dark matters, which I couldn’t quite figure either way.  

Psycho

Posted by

0

Many years ago, a service worker introduced herself as a name which sounded like Psycho. It would have been unreasonable to ask for clarification, so I just tucked it away at the back of my mind. Maybe now I’d have more confidence to ask. 

A few months ago I was watching a video by Chris Broad, who has a Youtube channel about his life in Japan. One, titled 25 ESSENTIAL Japanese Words for EVERYDAY Conversation includes the word saikou literally the most, used to mean It’s the best. Searching for Japanese names, I found Saiko. There’s no definitive website of Japanese names, but this one gives a number of meanings, depending on the kanji; others give ‘most, greatest’ as the or a meaning. In the absence of any further information, I’ll assume that the service worker was Japanese, and this was her name. You’d think that some colleague would have told her that it’s not a good name for a service worker trying to make a good impression. Either that or wear a name tag.

I searched for ‘name sounds like psycho’ and found this unexplained site of Baby names like Psycho, which a) isn’t the same thing and b) mostly aren’t remotely like psycho. 

So why did this name stick in my mind out of all the service workers who have ever introduced themselves? Probably because of the unusualness of it. Maybe if I’d moved to Japan and/or been a manga or anime fan, I might have discovered this sooner.

(There’s a cartoon of a worker lettering the door of an office with ‘Psycho the rapist’.)

How is YouTube today?

Posted by

0

YouTube is asking me the question above with the five possible answers: Absolutely outstanding, Extremely good, Very good, Good, Not good.

What is the difference between the first four choices, really? Either I can access the site, find the video I want and play it, and there is an appropriate selection of related videos down the side of the screen; or I can’t or there isn’t. If I can’t access the site, it might be because of my computer, browser, internet connection or some other circumstance not related to YouTube, and I can’t see the question and answers anyway.

I rarely answer questions like this online or on telephone calls to call centres. They are welcome to assume that they are doing an acceptable job until I tell them otherwise.