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How 8 Pixels Cost Microsoft Millions
NubKnacker writes "Economic Times, one of India's biggest business daily's is carrying a story about how a small colouring mistake forced Microsoft to recall 200,000 copies of Windows 95. This wouldn't be the first time that has happened to Microsoft. From the article, "Microsoft has also managed to upset women and entire countries. A Spanish-language version of Windows XP, destined for Latin American markets, asked users to select their gender between "not specified," "male" or "bitch," because of an unfortunate error in translation." Ouch!"
This isn't the first time a huge company has made an embarassing translation error. There is that old classic when Ford introduced the Pinto in Brazil. After watching sales go nowhere, the company learned that "Pinto" is Brazilian slang for "small penis." Ford pried the nameplates off all of the cars and substituted them with "Corcel" which means horse.
Old News for Nerds. Stuff that use to matter...
Even better, this is a dupe of a dupe. The second dupe was pulled not long after it was posted. As for the Slashdot editors, they're all dupes of a dope!
"Some of our employees, however bright they may be, have only a hazy idea about the rest of the world," he said." ... and this is different from the rest of America how exactly?
- Bachelorhood is the father of necessity.
The first 10 or so comments aren't quite clear to me.
"...destined for Latin American markets, asked users to select their gender between "not specified," "male" or "bitch," because of an unfortunate error in translation."
I only speak english... could someone explain the problem with that translation?
After duplicating a post 8 times, Slashdot found that the majority of readers flamed the story before setting fire to their servers in protest.
And now for a naked dwarf chasing a chihuahua...
how a small colouring mistake forced Microsoft to recall 200,000 copies of Windows 95.
I seem to recall getting a lot of blue from Win95, and yet nobody at Microsoft returned by calls when I told them I wanted a refund for their faulty OS...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
A Spanish-language version of Windows XP, destined for Latin American markets, asked users to select their gender between "not specified," "male" or "bitch"
:)
Pretty bad when even the Slashdot crew knows thats not too smooth...
Same source, same headline, different day.
It's Groundhog Day!
Qué género es usted? El Man, La Woman, o Los Unspecifieds?
How could they possibly make such a simlpe mislake?
It isn't a dupe, just a deja-vu glitch in the matrix. You must realize, there is no slashdot!
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
"...farmers who were coming into urban areas for the first time and seeing a public restroom."
You don't call taking a crap in the middle of 110 acres of knee-high DeKalb XL a public restroom?
You got some growing up to do sonny boy.
So yeah... dupe!
I especially love the subtitle of this story: "from the debug-twice-distribute-once dept."
Perhaps it should have been from Slashdot's "post-twice-spellcheck-zero-times dept."
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in other news:
How could they possibly make such a simlpe mislake?
"Come alive with the pepsi generation" in chinese became "pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave"
"Got Milk?" in spanish became "Are you lactating?"
Pentium 4 chip became the korean "Chip of Death"
Purdue's "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken" in spanish became "It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused"
Why have a male/female option? When they're running Windows everyone is Microsoft's bitch.
No, it's true. There have been even worse blunders.
"Got milk" was tried in Mexico, except that it meant "Are you lactating?"
My personal favorite is Purdue's slogan - "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken" - the spanish translation actually meant "It takes a hard man to arouse a chicken"
Yes, Most people call them Anonymous Cowards.
News for Old Nerds. Stuff from yesterday we forgot about already.
Nope, "bitch" in Portuguese is "cadela" (brazilians tend to use "cachorra", but in both cases it means bitch, never girl or woman). The issue is a slightly different one. In Portugal, we use several words for "girl": "menina", "moça", "rapariga", "miúda", etc.
;-)
;-)
One of the most common ones is "rapariga" (feminin of "rapaz", which means "lad"). In Brazil, "rapariga" is usually used to describe a prostitute (although technically it means the same - a young woman).
A more interesting word is "puto". In standard Portuguese, it means "kid" (boy). In brazilian Portuguese it means "male prostitute". So, as you can imagine, when a portuguese writer (Altino Tojal) published a book called "Os putos" ("The kids"), in the 1970s, the brazilians thought Portugal (then a religious dictatorship!) was a really open society...
The feminin ("puta") does mean the same in both dialects.
Another interesting word is "Durex". In Brazil, it means sticky tape. In Portugal everyone knows it as a condom brand (although Control is more popular, and if you've used both, you know why). A couple of years ago, a (female) brazilian friend of mine came to Portugal, and needed some tape. She went to an office supply store and asked for "some Durex". The woman behind the counter looked at her as if she was some sort of nut and told her "well, if you want Durex, go to the chemist's!". She found this rather odd, but did as she was told. She walked into a pharmacy and asked for Durex. The chemist said "what type?", and she said "well, any type will do, I really need it quickly". The chamist said "well, what amount do you want?". Se held her hands about 70 cm apart and said "well, a piece about this big".
True story.
RMN
~~~
Can we have a forumcode that says "just go back and read my comments from the last 2 times this story was posted"?
Or, for slashdot editors:
Can we have a forumcode that says "just go back and read my comments from the last 2 times this story was posted"?
Can we have a forumcode that says "just go back and read my comments from the last 2 times this story was posted"?
Can we have a forumcode that says "just go back and read my comments from the last 2 times this story was posted"?
Can we have a forumcode that says "just go back and read my comments from the last 2 times this story was posted"?
-Styopa
The "bitch" translation error was due to the fact that the same word means "woman" in some regional dialects and "bitch" in others. This is clearly a forgiveable mistake.
I mean, what kind of culture actually uses the terms "woman" and "bitch" interchangeably?
Oh, wait...
How 8 Slashdot Editors Don't Read Slashdot
Rubber is a fourth dimensional word - old ladies think nothing of telling their grandchildren "Don't forget to wear your rubbers" (rain boots) when it rains.
:)
I guess either way, it's probably good advice. But a little shocking coming from Grandma.
Welcome back, my friends, to the dupe that never ends...
They speak Hispanic.
Long, long time ago I had to add French, German, & Spanish translations to an arcade game Midway produced called 280-Zzzap. (It was a "night-driving" game).
The program would rate the player's driving skills on a 1 to 5 scale. In French, the worst performance phrase was "reprendre la école", which means "go back to school". Since the game font did not have a circumflex in it, I put the phrase in as "reprendre la ecole".
The rough translation of this in French is "you're a cunt!".
We had to rev the ROMs and make sure we shipped the bad ones only to the US, England, Germany, and Spain!
For example, cojer means "to pick up", but in mexico it means "to have sexual relations with". You can swing by to cojer your friends in most countries, but your Mexican buddies will probably object. (Acutally, I don't don't know if this is true for Northern Mexico, not having been there).
;-)
No, in Northern Mexico, your buddies enjoy this sort of treatment, and often come to expect it.
Scarier is when she MEANS it the other way...
I would occasionally bring my girlfriend (now wife) over to Sunday dinner at her house. One day, as we were leaving, she kisses us both goodbye and says "Now you be good... and if you can't, name it after me".
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson