by Grania
Here’s a jaw-dropping gif* from HighTechPanda
Here's what an astronaut sees upon reentry to Earth on a Soyuz lander, think you could handle that?#space pic.twitter.com/occlBlkgtr
— HighTechPanda (@HighTechPanda) July 27, 2015
And to answer their question, I don’t care if I could handle it, but I certainly want the experience.
*Pronounced GIF with a hard G because of reasons and also because the acronym stands for Graphics Interchange Format, and we say graphics with a hard G and not like ssjz-raffics.
Fab, but on this blog, it’s “jif” 😉 – MC
😛
~Grania
Ceci n’est pas un bleuargh; donc: GIF.
b&
When Matthew is typing, it’s pronounced like lemon juice (“Jif”) ; meanwhile in the real world (i.e. outside Manchester), Jraphics is pronounced with a hard G, and so are it’s derivatives.
And it’s not a “bloj”.
Let’s get serious for a moment. Is it Osgiliath or Osjiliath?
Hard g, of course. No elvish languages contain a ‘j’ sound. Well known fact. 🙂
Hah! That has always been my position as well. My father always insisted it was a ‘j’ sound. I am now vindicated!
“Blog” pronounced “website”
Everybody and his dog knows that.
That’d be pronounced “Everybody and his Dodge”, no doubt? 😉
cr
And I’d always thought GIF came from giraffe…you mean it doesn’t??🙊
It’s a complicated history, but I’m pretty sure the file format came first. As evidence:
http://www.gifs-paradise.com/animations/animated-gifs-giraffes-33.gif
Alas, it also comes close to resolving the other big debate, but doesn’t quite settle that one….
b&
You really can find anything on the Internet!
If that’s TP, I’m incensed!
So, you’ve got one of these?
b&
That’s right. But I don’t have to be happy about it.
I’m sure there’re things you could burn in that which would make you happy…at least, for a short period, and ignoring the unhappiness associated afterwards with cleaning the residual smell out of everything made of fabric….
b&
Since the axis of rotation is vertical, it is ambiguous with respect to the over-under question.
cr
It depends on the handedness (which is definitely a word) of the giraffe. Is the typical giraffe left- or right-handed?
Even more intriguing, how does a giraffe use toilet paper?
cr
I’ve seen elephants use a handy tree (but no-hands style).
Damn! Speaking as an inveterate tree-hugger, if I’m ever in Africa I shall have to be very cautious about which trees I hug!
Crap? It’s not really too bad. Our guide picked up a big chunk of fresh elephant dung and crumbled it in his hands to show us it’s consistency. Like wet sawdust since their digestion is so feeble. Because of this, no doubt, they are extremely destructive of the landscape, consuming enormous quantities of vegetation. They uproot small trees and topple larger ones and leave a moonscape behind them.
Blog??? Sounds like you’re askin’ for it, MC;-)
Sorry, but Steve Wilhite, the creator of the format has always said that it’s a soft g. (“Choosy programmers choose GIF”). When *you* create a format that’s used the world around, then you get to tell people that “luxury yacht” should be pronounced ‘Throat Wobbler Mangrove”.
Yeah, and he’s wrong. He gets to name it. He doesn’t get to subvert English. 😉
~Grania
Postscript: F’Tang-F’Tang-Olé-Biscuit-Barrel
I’m with Grania! Wilhite’s team chose to name it Graphics Interchange Format with the initialism GIF. They can pronounce it /jif/ all they want, but I’ll still follow the normal English conventions and call it /gif/ with a hard g.
If you want to pronounce it “gee eye eff”, that’s correct too.
How do you pronounce JPEG then? In your answer consider the fact that the P is the first letter of “potographic”.
The usual way. It’s not spelled JPHEG.
JPG or JPEG is pronounced “Jaypeg”.
And it stands, of course, for “Joint Photographic Experts Group”. An example of an object being named, not for itself, but for its creators. cf Polaroid.
GIF is a proper name, and as such, the correct pronunciation comes from the person to whom it belongs. And that person says it’s JIFF. End of story.
In NZ Jiff is a cleaning product – if I have to start saying that when I’m talking about GIF, no one will know what I mean.
Yes, same here: ammonia-stinking bottle of blerch for cleaning ovens and the like.
Also, Matthew knows this.
~Grania
“GIF” is an acronym constructed from the name of the image format, which is “Jraphics Interchange Format”.
Hey – could we have used this to get out of being sued by Unisys? (We just said “rude words to you” and switched to exporting from our proprietory format to PNG.
I’ve always pronounce PNG as Pee Enn Gee (soft G). However, in my research, on the pronunciation of GIF I found out that the correct pronunciation of PNG is “ping”.
… which is probably a joke on the most portable of network tools being “ping” . (Unfortunately my copy of the PNG book died long ago.)
Who cares how it is pronounced, I want a ride to the ISS on a rocket and a return trip back to Earth in a fireball!
Now, that’s a commute to get excited about, not like boring old I-95.
Of all the comments so far, yours is the most rational.
Besides, Jif® sucks. I’d rather have Skippy, though Smucker’s All Natural is even better.
Jif is a sub-par peanut butter when compared to Skippy. No doubt about that.
I’m not fond of anything in a jar on a shelf. I’d rather grind me some peanuts. If the peanuts are worth eating unadulterated, the peanut butter will be worth eating unadulterated.
b&
But the lyric, “Smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy,” is just so . . . I don’t know, spiffy? It makes me smile.
I prefer chunky. There is pleasure in doing some of the work yourself.
I hate to disappoint everyone, but in this case it’s neither GIF nor JIF. It’s MP4.
Don’t go confusing the issue with facts.
~Grania
Are you getting FLAC? 🙂
Free Lossless Audio Codec or Free Legal Advice Centres ?
Cos dude, codecs are my bitch. Also, lossless is not a word.
~Grania
Googling used not to be a word either, but it is now.
Irrelevant. Some neologisms win, some neologisms lose. Lossless is right next to doneness in the Loser’s Intergalactic Sweepstakes.
Even Google (PBUH) Chrome rejects both words.
I rest my case.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
Alea iacta est, and all that.
~Grania
Lossless is quite definitely a word, with specific regard to compression algorithms. Just as much as, say, superheater or understeer or recompile are in their fields.
cr
infiniteimprobabilit (did I get that right?)
There you go again, “confusing the issue with facts.” (I think it likely that Grania is “taking the piss” to one extent or another.)
Hi Darelle
It was supposed to be “infiniteimprobablitY” (as in the drive in Doug Adams’ novels), but for no known reason WordPress cuts the last letter off. It does this consistently. I gave up trying to fix it or figure out why. I think WP hates me (but then it hates everybody).
cr
Actually, when it’s not playing we see a png:
“https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/CK9VcHGWsAAtiyk.png”
When we click on it we see this little video:
“https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CK9VcHGWsAAtiyk.mp4”
What you probably see are small parts of the heat shield. The Soyuz uses a slowly burning heat shield.
Sorry Grania, without facts the world would come to an end.
“Giraffics”? Readers’ wildlife photos! (I know; they’re more likely JPEGs or TIFFs or RAWs.)
/@
Whatever that rocketship is on, I wantz it. What a trip!
All this arguing is irrelevant because it’s not a GIF! It’s a MP4*!
Stop the violence!
* Pronounced “Mip-Four”, obviously.
Oh, shush your mouth. We’re having a perfectly respectable argument about a perfectly irrelevant subject. 😛
~Grania
Lewis Hamilton would have been quicker.