Writing Software for Worldwide Distribution Proves Difficult

lupa1420 writes "Insensitive computer programmers with little knowledge of geography have cost the giant Microsoft company hundreds of millions of dollars in lost business and led hapless company employees to be arrested by offended governments."

Comments

Specific Ocean?

[American AC in Paris]

From TFA:

The annual National Geographic Survey had thrown up the sad fact that only 23 out of 56 young Americans knew the whereabouts of the Pacific Ocean

Oh, cry me a river--like the Pacific Ocean is some big, important thing. I mean, you need to drive all the way to Sweden just to see it!

Re:Specific Ocean?

[Nos.]

As a Canadian, I've talked to many folks from the states over the Internet and trying to describe to them where I live is sometimes very difficult. One of the ones that I thought would work was saying I live about 80 miles north of the border between North Dakota and Montana. However, a lot of people still had no idea where I was talking about, and these are people who live in the USA!

Re:Specific Ocean?

[musikit]

thats because you don't have WMD. once we need to invade your country everyone in the US and their cousin in Iraq will know the location of your oil deposits.

Re:Specific Ocean?

[KilobyteKnight]

As a Canadian, I've talked to many folks from the states over the Internet and trying to describe to them where I live is sometimes very difficult. One of the ones that I thought would work was saying I live about 80 miles north of the border between North Dakota and Montana. However, a lot of people still had no idea where I was talking about, and these are people who live in the USA!

Maybe if you referred to some place in America we'd understand. :)

Seriously, though, I have a friend who was moving from Wisconsin to Florida about 15 years ago. He got pulled over in Alabama by a state trooper for doing 70 in a 55. The trooper saw Wisconsin on his license plate and drivers license and then asked for his passport.

He did manage to get out of the ticket. I suppose the trooper didn't want that to get back to the station.

Re:Specific Ocean?

[mwood]

Robert Benchley wrote an essay which includes a list of handy phrases for Europeans visiting the U.S. One of them has someone newly arrived in NYC getting into a cab and asking to be driven to a hotel in Chicago.

"So, this is America? That is too bad, I wanted Brazil."

Re:Specific Ocean?

[fscmj]

I had similar experiences in South Africa. I would tell people that I was from Alaska and almost no one knew is was part of the US. Most thought is was part of Canada, some thought it was a country by itself, and a few thought it was an island in the pacific next to Hawaii (cuz that's where it is on all those maps of the US they see).

Re:Specific Ocean?

[vida]

A worldwide survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was:"Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"

The survey was a huge failure...

In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant

In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant.

In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant

In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant.

In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant.

In South America they didn't know what "please" meant.

And in the USA they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant

Re:Specific Ocean?

[LetterJ]

Don't be so sure. I live in Minnesota and have been asked by other Americans whether I needed a green card to work in the US, what with being from Canada and all.

Re:Specific Ocean?

[Anonymous Coward]

"If they can't figure out where the Pacific ocean is, I'm not even going to contemplate where they think Alaska is located. :)"

That's easy... alaska is in the pacific ocean just southeast of hawaii and just west of mexico. its surrounded by a thick white straight coral reef or something.

Re:Specific Ocean?

[Kevin Stevens]

Me and my friends about a year ago decided to come up w/ a single basic screening question to decide if a girl we met was halfway intelligent. We debated on what the one question should be, and finally decided on one: "Where is Kansas?" Where we would mark a point in the air for california and new york and then have them point to where kansas should be. You wouldnt believe where some girls pointed. Some thought it was somewhere around virgina, others in canada, one even pointed to some place out in the middle of the atlantic. And we weren't nitpicking either, you passed if you just pointed to somewhere approximately in the middle. The pass rate for a typical drunk girl was somewhere around 20%. We were astounded. We thought it would be something like 70%. So after seeing those dissapointing results, we did what any guy would do... and lowered our standards.

Re:Specific Ocean?

[Spock the Vulcan]

What about the Dhahran province in India? Here's a hint.. basmati is grown there. No?

No. There is no Dhahran province in India.

I don't know if that reinforces or rebuts your point. I'm just pointing out a matter of fact. Maybe you meant Dehradun, but that's a city, not a province.

Re:Specific Ocean?

[fader]

I'm not even going to contemplate where they think Alaska is located.

Duh... it's a few hundred miles southwest of California, right next to Hawaii. (There's a thick black protective barrier of some kind around them, I think after Pearl Harbor was bombed in the 1700s.) Don't you look at maps?

Re:Specific Ocean?

[switcha]

Where we would mark a point in the air for california and new york and then have them point to where kansas should be. You wouldnt believe where some girls pointed.

So you've got your hands held up in front of you to illustrate geographical locations. Maybe they were trying to poke you in the eye for being such a weirdo.

Re:Specific Ocean?

[bigman2003]

This kind of 'study' and the statistic about the Pacific Ocean are just bullshit.

There is no way possible that only 20% of the teenage population in America could identify the United States on a standard globe.

Now, possibly if this globe only had latitude/longitude lines, and no geo/political markings (such as continents, countries, oceans) etc. I could believe it.

We have all stared at maps. We all watch TV where the outline of the country is shown on the news. We know what the outline of the country looks like. Florida is that little thingy on the bottom, and Maine is the one way up on top.

We know what the North/South American landmass looks like...okay, yes, South America and Africa could be mistaken for each other - but North America doesn't look much like Eurasia.

I could possibly, somehow, believe that 20% of the teenagers could NOT find the United States. And I would assume that retards would make up about 1/2 of that number.

Take me to a highschool in the most backwoods, or crack infested neighborhood. At least 50% of those kids have some sort of brain and kind and could find the United States. Then go to a fairly decent high school, and you are talking about at least 95% (the other 5% being the aforementioned retards).

Yes, there are morons like Jessica Simpson (god I'd like to bone her) running around who don't know fish from poultry. But that is not 80% of the population.

Shit...if nothing else, about 20% of the teenagers are immigrants...and therefore by world standards, they must be educated enough to pick out our country on a globe.

Re:Specific Ocean?

[dago]

"We all watch TV where the outline of the country is shown on the news."

Maybe the TV is the problem.

ob simpsons

[Anonymous Coward]

"Marge, anyone could miss Canada. All tucked away down there."

Re:ob simpsons

[whiteranger99x]

Another Quote:

Homer: (Looking at a globe map...country being Uruguay) Hee hee! Look at this country! 'You are gay.'

Re:ob simpsons

[aslate]

How about a futurama one?

Leela: "The United States is part of the world"
Fry: "Man, i have been gone a long time!"

Que?

[mccalli]

From the article:
Perhaps the best known...was a colour-coded world map showing time zones, which showed the disputed Jammu-Kashmir region as not being in India...The mistake led to the whole of the Windows 95 operating system being banned in the country, losing large sales. For its replacement, Microsoft, Office 97, Microsoft removed the colour coding and sold 100,000 copies in India.

Office 97 replaced Windows 95? Yikes.

Cheers,
Ian

Re:Que?

[jav1231]

So would an Iranian version of Windows have the U.S. labelled as "The Great Satan?" This could actually get very funny. They could market regional versions even here in the U.S. Like label California as "The People's Republic of California" and market it to everyone who doesn't live in New York or California. Label Massachusetts as "Where the Kennedy's come from" for public school children. This could actually be fun.

Re:Que?

[ClippyHater]

Sure, make fun that you can't replace Windows 95 with a version of office.

But you Unix types wouldn't bat an eye if the text read "...replacing Windows 95 with emacs!"

Other items which caused offence

[dwalsh]

Pacific islanders objected to the label "Here be Dragons!".

Several Arab countries resented being called either "Oil" or "Just terrorists".

Several former Soviet Bloc and Warsaw Pact countries objected to the name of their countries being followed by "(or whatever they are calling themselves this week)."

Re:not exclusive

[slackerboy]

It's not like MS specifically hires programmers who have no clue where the Pacific Ocean is.

I hope not. Especially since Seattle is essentially on the Pacific Ocean.!

Re:Insular US

[Anonymous Coward]

There are over 30,000,000 functional illiterates here in the United States. 29,302,757 represents 10% of our population, rendering that a staggering figure.

Yes and one of them is your President!

Of course not!

[interactive_civilian]

Nos. said:

One of the ones that I thought would work was saying I live about 80 miles north of the border between North Dakota and Montana. However, a lot of people still had no idea where I was talking about, and these are people who live in the USA!

Of course they had no idea what you were talking about. Every US citizen knows that there is no such thing as "80 miles north of the border". There is no border! That is where the world ends! IIRC, there is a sign that says something like "Here there be monsters" and then a big drop off into the abyss because that is where one would fall off the turtle's back...

.

[/sarcasm]

Re: the grandparent post, that quote from the article got me too. I was wondering if they were showing an upside down map or something...

Re:Of course not!

[ansaari]

I have seen a t-shirt with the manufacturer's label saying in Canada's two official languages:

"Made in Turkey" and "Fabrique en Dinde".

The French "Dinde" is the bird, while the country's name is Turquie in French.

Re:Of course not!

[Anonymous Coward]

Or how about the Toyota MR2. The french read that as Emm Er deux, which sounds a bit like merde, which is french for a word that probably won't get past slashdot's naughty words filter.

Holy shit, when did slashdot add a fucking naughty word filter?

Re:Of course not!

[Brummund]

Now, imagine if some Christian zealots wanted to ban or censor offensive music, lyrics or even games. I mean, if that was to happen in the US, it would cause an outrage!

Re:Lame article

[Anonymous Coward]

Kashmir Smashmir..., who cares what Indians have to say, next time I drive past Indianapolis, I'll thumb my nose at them......

Re:Insular US

[Scoria]

Yes and one of them is your President!

"To the C students, I say, 'You too can be president of the United States.'" - George W. Bush, 2001

I wish I had a nickel...

[halivar]

I wish I have a nickel for everytime one of my friends calls with a computer problem, and when I ask what operating system they have its always one of the following:

1) Office 97
2) Office 98
3) Windows 97 (and they will refuse to be corrected)

23 in 56 can locate the Pacific Ocean? Seems a little high, to me.

Nice Title...

[maggeth]

Writing Software for Worldwide Distribution Proves Difficult

In order to assist our beloved editors with coming up with more accurate titles, I have included a list of other titles that they can use for articles at thier discretion:

Light Speed Turns Out to be Really Fast
Windows Security Hole Discovered, Disavowed
Fall Elections May Descend into Chaos
Script Kiddies Demand More H@x, Fewer Firewalls, Higher Salaries
Microsoft PR Campaigns Foolish, Ineffective
Hot Grtis Proven to Make ANYONE More Attractive

Oh that's great!

[Pandion]

A game called Age of Empires 2 offended the Saudi Arabian authorities because it showed victorious Muslim armies turning churches into mosques. The game was withdrawn from sale in the kingdom

*cough*hagia sophia*cough*

Re:Lame article

[Jonboy X]

Sorry Pakistan, no disputed territories for you.

Yeah, who cares about little piss-ant countries like Pakistan. Call me back when they have nukes...

*RRRINNNGGGG*

North Dakota and Montana

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is that only people from North Dakota and Montana care where they are. And neither one of them has access to the Internet. Or electricity.

And what about slashdot?

[hsoft]

Here in Canada, we consider this color as "puke yellow", not "IT color". What a geographical mistake!

I will not stop until the color changes!

Re:And what about slashdot?

[MKalus]

Here in Canada, we consider this color as "puke yellow", not "IT color". What a geographical mistake!

I will not stop until the color changes!

You Sir, ain't no Canadian.

It is colour, eh!

Re:not exclusive

[Anonymous Coward]

Especially since Seattle is essentially on the Pacific Ocean.!

And when the big one hits, will be IN the Pacific ;)

Re:The whole idea is crazy

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on - a US product is getting flamed for not knowing every fucking quirk of all other countries religeons, customs, languages, etc... I dont love MS by any stretch, but this is ridiculous - if you dont like it, dont fucking buy it.

And people didn't fucking buy it and so Microsoft fucking changed their fucking code so that the fucking people would fucking again buy the fucking product.

Why would studying C lead you to politics?

[crovira]

I mean its hard enough, isn't it?

All those pointers and 0 based arithmetic. I swear if I ever have to write another link-list routine, I'll go postal.

Ohio?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought Ohio was a Japanese greeting or something...

Kakuto Chojin

[erroneus]

I've gotta find a copy of this game!!!

I never even heard of it before this article and now I'm intrigued. I've got a few Muslim friends who might shed a little insight into that chant thing. And who knows! They might react with rage!! Could be very entertaining!

Anyone got that? Contact me at xdesign at hotmail.com :)

Re:Insular US

[caluml]

Pres v2001 Clippy

Re:Master / Slave HDD

[Anonymous Coward]

When I hear the word "Slave" the first thing that comes to mind is white women with blonde hair and big tits dressed up in leather that doesn't cover any of their goodies and strapped to a cross or something.

If I were you I'd worry less about IDE terminology and more about sexual frustration...

Re:After reading this article...

[Anonymous Coward]

I would say you can bitch about his spelling when you can argue your case in Hungarian.

Dickhead.

NEW Mexico

[greendot]

One summer, I was moving my girlfriend from Delaware back to our hometown in New Mexico. We were closing her bank account and wanted to wire the money to her account in New Mexico. It took about 2 hours (and 3 people) to convince the bank idiots that it was inside the USA and they didn't need to charge us an international wire transfer fee.

Also, I did tech support calls for a few years in college and at least once a month some idiot would make a reference to us being "foreign". My favorite was "You speak very good English for living in a foreign country." "I try my best..." is all I could come up with.

Re:While we're on the subject..

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if they were using taglines like "Slip inside a Fitta today." :-p

Actually one of their slogans were "Small on the outside but large on the inside".

Re:Master / Slave HDD

[PitaBred]

So, we should abolish the idea of Masters and Slave's from the english language? What about master and slave cylinders in a hydraulic system? They have a very specific meaning, and relationship, and guess what? Master and slave pretty much perfectly describe how they interact. Maybe people should start worrying more about CONTEXT, rather than the actual word.
If I say "asshole", are you offended? Just offhand? I wouldn't be. As soon as I say "You asshole", you should be offended. Context.
Get the chip off your shoulder, the bug out of your ass, and stop acting like anyone has anything against you. The only thing I see you guilty of is adherence to blind rhetoric. (Oops, I said blind... maybe I should say sight-impaired...)

Re:fall forever, Pacific Ocean where?

[Anonymous Coward]

And, unlike some parts of the world, where hatred rages on for centuries, I don't think it is illegal in Michigan to refer to Toledo as being in Ohio!

No problem...

[interactive_civilian]

Just tell us how would you feel if a program showed the flag of your country in reverse.

It wouldn't bother me at all. Here is the flag of the country I live in...

Re:Bah!

[Anonymous Coward]

Whap!

This probably won't translate:

[JimmytheGeek]

This is a good trick for you females. (There ARE some on /., dammit!)
A very attractive, accomplished, intelligent woman played a prank on me. As a party game, she had me close my eyes and trace the outline of "the ideal woman". I figured the game was to get the guy to lose track and laugh at the deformed outline. Something along the lines of "Her breasts are 2 feet above her neck!"

So I concentraited very hard.

"Ok, show where her eyes are."
"Show where her nose is."
"Show where her hair comes down to."
"Show where her breasts are and their approximate size"
"Show where her navel is."
"Show where her waist is."
"Show where her hips are."

I was focussing really hard as the bits got closer together, sure I was creating a monster.

"Show where her vagina is."
I put my finger out and felt a warm, moist cavity.

I fell over laughing - she'd knelt and put her mouth on my finger. I was pretty surprised. And a bit embarrassed.

Urban Legend?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hello to all, I'm from Spain, and here we can see a few of this 'Pajeros'. (I have seen some of them).
As you says, 'Pajero' is a word that here in Spain evokes some (un?)pleasant images ...

After a time, they renamed to 'Montero', a word without such connotations...

Not to mention the Mitsubitshi GRAND Pajero... :D

Re:The whole idea is crazy

[ChrisGuest]

A few years ago I met a seemingly worldly American in Australia (while the country was engaged in constitutional debate over getting rid of a foreign monarchy). He eanestly asked me, "Do you think Democracy would work here?"

Re:The whole idea is crazy

[HalfFlat]

Do you think it would work in the US?