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The words are chosen so that they sound dissimilar to each other, and they have an unamibiguous spelling and and pronounciation. They also ideally need to be wo

The words are chosen so that they sound dissimilar to each other, and they have an unamibiguous spelling and and pronounciation. They also ideally need to be words that won't come up in normal speech. The actual meaning is irrelevant. So mega/giga would be undesirable as they sound similar, and beceause many people pronounce giga as "jigga". And "Ten" is just terrible, what is someone is reading out an alphanumeric string?

mehrdadn 6y ago
Oh come on. Ten is terrible because someone might be reading out an alphanumeric string? You can say that about other stuff already on that list. What if they're just reading out names? Then Charlie and Mike will be confusing. What if they're reading months? Then November will be confusing. What if they're reading countries? Then India will be confusing... The particular choice of words wasn't even my point, and of course I get the dissimilarity thing. If "Ten" bothers you then just choose "Tom" or whatever. I know I've never seen anyone say jigga instead of giga, but if you have, then just pick another word. My point was about having a common theme to help make the list intuitive, not that "Ten" and "Mega" are inherently better than "Tango" or "Mike".
rauhl 6y ago
> many people pronounce giga as "jigga". Do they? I do, because it is the correct pronunciation (the hard G only became prevalent after hard drives grew to GB sizes and Americans unfamiliar with the French system of units mispronounced the prefix), but I am literally the only one I have ever heard use it in person, and the only other instance I have heard it pronounced correctly is by Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown in Back to the Future. Why do I persist when everyone around me pronounces it incorrectly? Indeed, if everyone else pronounces a word a different way, are they right and am I wrong? I guess I just like tilting at windmills, I guess! Also GIF has a soft g …
- jagged-chisel 6y ago
  No. You cannot pronounce a graphic standard's acronym in a way that might confuse it with my peanut butter.
- YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
  The French pronounciation is the "Correct" pronounciation? Wait 'till you hear how Greeks pronounce "Giga" and "Mega"- Greek words meaning "giant" and "large" :) ... or how we pronounce "gamma", for that matter. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_fricative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_fricative)
nucleardog 6y ago
> The words are chosen so that they sound dissimilar to each other Not just that, but to sound dissimilar to each other in all sorts of accents and regional dialects.

mehrdadn 6y ago

Oh come on. Ten is terrible because someone might be reading out an alphanumeric string? You can say that about other stuff already on that list. What if they're just reading out names? Then Charlie and Mike will be confusing. What if they're reading months? Then November will be confusing. What if they're reading countries? Then India will be confusing... The particular choice of words wasn't even my point, and of course I get the dissimilarity thing. If "Ten" bothers you then just choose "Tom" or whatever. I know I've never seen anyone say jigga instead of giga, but if you have, then just pick another word. My point was about having a common theme to help make the list intuitive, not that "Ten" and "Mega" are inherently better than "Tango" or "Mike".

rauhl 6y ago

> many people pronounce giga as "jigga". Do they? I do, because it is the correct pronunciation (the hard G only became prevalent after hard drives grew to GB sizes and Americans unfamiliar with the French system of units mispronounced the prefix), but I am literally the only one I have ever heard use it in person, and the only other instance I have heard it pronounced correctly is by Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown in Back to the Future. Why do I persist when everyone around me pronounces it incorrectly? Indeed, if everyone else pronounces a word a different way, are they right and am I wrong? I guess I just like tilting at windmills, I guess! Also GIF has a soft g …

jagged-chisel 6y ago
No. You cannot pronounce a graphic standard's acronym in a way that might confuse it with my peanut butter.
YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
The French pronounciation is the "Correct" pronounciation? Wait 'till you hear how Greeks pronounce "Giga" and "Mega"- Greek words meaning "giant" and "large" :) ... or how we pronounce "gamma", for that matter. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_fricative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_fricative)

nucleardog 6y ago

> The words are chosen so that they sound dissimilar to each other Not just that, but to sound dissimilar to each other in all sorts of accents and regional dialects.