The future of realtime Linux in doubt

Posted Jul 9, 2014 22:32 UTC (Wed) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: The future of realtime Linux in doubt by marcH
Parent article: The future of realtime Linux in doubt

> I've always wondered why so many people are using "real time" for other, often quite fuzzy concepts with so many discussions about the corresponding meaning of them.

Because you get too many idiots who believe in the Humpty Dumpty school of language - you know - those journalists who think that computer "memory" is the space on the hard disk, and in this particular example I came across a journalist (writing in an industry magazine, for fsck's sake!) who redefined "real time" as meaning "online". And when I complained he came back at me and said "what's the difference?" or "who cares" - something like that!

At the end of the day, we've got too many clueless journalists writing in industry magazines who don't know what words mean byt are only too happy to mis-use them and teach newbies their mis-understandings. Bit like the difference between a cracker and a hacker. How many opinion-formers (journalists) are even aware of the difference?!

(and how many, when you point out their error, simply come back like Humpty Dumpty?!)

Cheers,
Wol

The future of realtime Linux in doubt

Posted Jul 12, 2014 14:27 UTC (Sat) by clump (subscriber, #27801) [Link] (1 responses)

Hopefully you're more respectful when approaching journalists than you are when referring to them.

The future of realtime Linux in doubt

Posted Jul 12, 2014 22:45 UTC (Sat) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

I just apply the standard rule. I will respect you until you throw that respect away.

And in this case, that's exactly what happened - the guy used "real time" in a manner I didn't understand, and when I queried it and said "I think you mean "online" ", his reaction was "well, they are the same thing now, who cares".

Sorry, I do care very much because if we define away the meaning of words, we then have no way of expressing that concept, and the meaning of "real time" is life and death! As others have said, real-time is about deadlines, and when you're dealing with industrial plant, that could well be a DEAD line.

And if you're stupid enough to change one word into another, like here using "real time" when there's a perfectly good word "online", then I'm sorry but you damn well shouldn't be a journalist! The grief people have caused me (when I did PC support) because they refused to learn the difference between "memory" and "disk space", or "PC" and "terminal", and probably various other terms as well. If I have to teach them, then fine. If they refuse to learn, well, I'm sorry if I trashed your system by mistake because you didn't want to express yourself clearly ...

Cheers,
Wol