The Old New Thing

April 17, 2006 - The Old New Thing

Merchandise your food with pride

April 17, 2006 Apr 17, 2006 04/17/06
Raymond Chen
There is a new placard in our cafeteria which reads "Merchandise your food with pride". That's the first time I've seen the word "merchandise" used as a verb. Here, I'll translate that last paragraph into management speak for you: The cafeteria newly signed a placard whose read is "Merchandise your food with pride". That's my first see of a...

Locale-sensitive number grouping

April 17, 2006 Apr 17, 2006 04/17/06
Raymond Chen
Most westerners are familiar with the fact that the way numbers are formatted differ between the United States and much of Europe. What people don't realize is that the grouping is not always in threes. In India, the least significant group consists of three digits, but subsequent groups are in pairs. I've also seen reports that the first ...