A gringo haiku:
By Charles Miller


Save downloads, upload backup; 

Cut, burn, rip, install.


A fact I have alluded to several times in past columns is the way in which the personal computer has been the catalyst that brought about changes in the way we use certain words in our language. As is always the case with new usage, there is a lot of incorrect usage.

“Copy” and “save” are two verbs that can be used almost interchangeably. A term I frequently hear misused is “download.” In the simplest sense, download means to copy something, but there are several specific and subtle variations.

Copying data from the internet to your local computer is properly referred to as “downloading.” Going the other direction, from your computer up to the internet is to “upload” data. When putting those same files on a CD or DVD, the correct verb is “burn.” The distinction is that burning files onto a CD or DVD implies that the copy process was permanent and that those files may no longer be erased or changed. If you are taking files from a music CD to put on your computer, the correct verb is “rip.”

If files being copied are executable in the form of a program, then the correct verb to use is “install” if you are going to execute the program, or “copy” if you are only preserving the files but not executing them.

So, it is correct to say that you “downloaded” some music and a program to play it from the internet, “burned” these to a CD and gave it to a friend so they could “rip” the music files to their computer and “install” the program used to play the music.

Still three more verbs to know are “cut,” “paste” and “backup.” Cut is what you do with a pair of scissors and paste you do with glue. To cut a file or object in the computer is to remove it from one place when you paste it somewhere else. To backup something generally connotes copying data files to a removable medium for safekeeping. It also implies saving the files in a compressed format to save space.

So there you have it. The eight variations of “copy” are save, download, upload, burn, rip, install, cut and backup. No wonder my Mexican friends complain that English is a hard language to learn.

The most recent addition to the technical lexicon is the noun “brick” now recast as a verb. The context in which I read this was, “Be careful installing the firmware or you will brick your router.” The first time I read that I had to go back and read again until I intuitively realized that to brick a router means to turn it into a useless doorstop.

In a more whimsical vein, I have seen several lists of definitions for computer terms floating around on the internet. Some of these include:

“Backup” was something nobody ever planned to do and when it occurred, it usually precipitated an emergency call to your plumber.

If you had a “3½ inch floppy,” that was something you never talked about and you hoped nobody else ever found out.

For those few years when 5¼ and 3½ floppy disks were popular, it was common usage in Australia to distinguish between them by the names “floppy” and “stiffy.” The day a lovely young Aussie asked a friend of mine if he had a stiffy is a day we still remember and talk about 20 years later.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.