On Saturday 21 May 2011 at 23:06:56 (GMT+2) Oleg Goldshmidt <p...@goldshmidt.org> wrote:
> Stan Goodman <stan.good...@hashkedim.com> writes: > > the item is not marketed outside Israel (because nowhere else is it > > customary for washing machines to heat their own water). > > Eh? You don't seriously think the world consists of US and Israel > only, I hope. ;-) Not I. Eh? What I do think, and you don't, is that English is the most ubiquitous western language, spoken in what is still the most lucrative export market, several other prosperous former British dominions, and as a second language by many millions in other countries east and west. International marketting is not practical for manufacturers that ignore it. Did you know that most of the publications of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (aka "Academia Sinica") have always (даже во времени "Братского Китая") been published in English, for the same reason. > > [Warning: what follows will not give you much information that you > can immediately utilize for OS development. It's very OT, in fact, > but I figure the engineering genes of some of us may stir a bit, > anyway.] > > AFAIK "cold fill" is the norm in most of the world except the US > (well, maybe except North America). There are multiple reasons for > that, including, but not limited to (a) energy-consciousness, (b) > costs, (c) hot+cold fill machines suffer from problems at least in > cases where the central heater is far away from the machine, so that > the hot inlet gets cold water in the beginning, (d) and (e) local > temperature control is gentler on fabric, and better for stain > removal, (f) standards and regulations (energy ratings - mandatory > in Europe - are determined on cold fill only), etc. > > Just about the only argument for hot+cold fill is that since water is > pre-heated centrally the cycle can start a little bit faster (but see > (c) above). The argument that central heating may be solar and > therefore "green" bumps its head into (c) again and into cloudy > weather (not much of a problem in Israel but a serious consideration > elsewhere). > > This is way outside my normal field of expertise or interests, but I > had to buy a new washing machine just a few months ago, and since I > had both cold and hot taps available (and the ***ancient*** AEG that > had died had been connected to both) I wondered about the > subject. After reading up I concluded that hot+cold fill machines had > disappeared the way of the dodo in most corners of the globe, and > good riddance. I am sure the US will catch up eventually [cheap > jibe, big smiley implied, no offence meant, etc.] and patents will > be filed on cold fill with USPTO [this part is, sadly, serious]. I > didn't even try to look for a hot+cold fill - I am not sure one can > find such machines in Israel at all, but I saw no reason to make an > effort. > > I agree that translations of instruction manuals are usually > horrible. However, there is no reason to expect that English texts > would be any better... Depends. At university in the late 1940s I had a Japanese bamboo sliderule the "English" user manual of which would have been understandable only with a basic knowledge of Japanese grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. But manuals translated by serious manufacterers of appliances (judging for those for my German washing machine, vacuum cleaner, and ice cream maker) are well translated, as far as I have seen. English has become even more entrenched since 1940s Japan -- Internet, don't you know. > And as for Wi-Fi-enabled dishwashers and refrigerators that order > milk over Internet when you run out - this is so 90ies... Am I too > old? > > -- > Oleg Goldshmidt | p...@goldshmidt.org -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel _______________________________________________ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
