Why the Internet Hates My Name (It’s the Accent Marks)
25th August 2012
The Internet doesn’t like me — or, at least, it doesn’t care much for my name. My first name consists of two words and I have accent marks in both my first and last names, which seems to complicate my online life considerably. When trying to purchase an airline ticket or sign up for an email newsletter, I’m never completely certain whether it will go through, or how my name will come out of the transaction, but I’m usually pretty sure it won’t be right.
Tell me about it. At least it guarantees that I’ll never run for political office. Damn you, white males! Oh, wait….
“I think software is slowly conforming to us. It’s just inconceivable that English will be the sole winner of the Internet,” Miller said, noting that bigger tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google are keenly focused on internationalization. As these companies incorporate more diverse programming, others will follow, and eventually because the Internet is so global, older systems will be replaced, too.
Uh, the winner will probably be Chinese, in which case accent marks are the least of our problems. C’mon, guys, think it through.
August 25th, 2012 at 16:54
“Tell me about it.” *shrug* You did that to yourself.
“Uh, the winner will probably be Chinese” Very likely.
However, I predict that the Chinese will end adopt a simplified phonetic alphabet, a la Japan did. There may be 1 billion Chinese, but there are 5 billion other nationalities, most of whom will prove hopeless when it comes to understanding Kanji. The Chinese are nothing if not adaptable; they’ll modify in order to synchronize and ease their road to world domination.
Or maybe not. In which case we’re all (non-Chinese) screwed.