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foone · 1 year ago

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So I'm annoyed at a collage of minidiscs ending up in my timeline because I follow "diskette" but that's not important...

You know how weird the etymology of "diskette" is?

So, it's a portmanteau of "disk" and "cassette".

Disk as in "a round flat thing", and it's the American spelling, because the diskette was invented by IBM, an American company. Disk (usually spelled "disc" in commonwealth countries) comes from the Greek dískos, as in "discus", the circular thing you throw for sport.

And floppy disks are primarily a circle of magnetic material. That's actually how they were first conceived, as a flexible version of the rigid metal magnetic circles used in hard drives. But they quickly realized that it was impossible to keep them clean: fingerprints and dust stick to the surface too easily, ruining them. So they were given a vinyl (and later, plastic) jacket, so they could be safely carried around.

And thus, diskette was coined. Sometimes you'll see it etymologized as "small disk", like a disk-ette, but that's wrong: it's a portmanteau with cassette. Because cassettes were made by taking reel to reel magnetic tape and putting it in a small case, so they can be quickly and reliably loaded.

And why are cassettes called that? Well, it's French. But in French it's quite simple: it's the diminutive of "casse", which means case. It's a little case. You put the tape in a little box. It's a cassette.

So similarly, diskette was made by cassettizing "disk". You put the disk in a little case. It's a disk cassette, a diskette.

This sort of thinking also explains why they're called "floppy disks" when they've been hard plastic since 1984: it's just like how we call cassettes "tapes". They're not tape, they're a little plastic box containing tape. Tape is a thin flexible thing that you wrap around a spool, not a little plastic box. But we call them "tapes"/"a tape" as synecdoche: a part is used to represent the whole. It's a "tape", fittingly because the tape is the important part. It's the part that stores the audio, the rest is just packaging to keep it safe and reliable.

Floppy disks are similarly called such: the floppy part is the magnetic disk inside the vinyl or plastic case. We're calling the whole package by the part that actually stores the data.

And in any case, they were named as such in comparison to "hard disks": the metal or glass surfaces used by hard drives.

Anyway, three final things:

1. You ever wonder why it's Floppy Disk but optical discs? You have a DVD* disc or a CD (compact disc), not a DVD Disk or Compact Disk. I already basically explained it: floppies were invented in the US, and compact discs came from a Philips/Sony partnership: a Dutch/Japanese partnership. So they used the commonwealth spelling, thus it became a standard to refer to optical media as "discs".

2. My favorite silly floppy fact comes from this sort of thing: so the first floppies were 8", then the 5.25" model was invented, and in 1981 we got the 3.5" floppy. These are by far the three most common floppy disks, and those are their names, used nearly** universally in English.

But here's the thing: one of them is wrong.

8 inch floppy disks? They're eight inches even. 5.25 inch floppy disks? They're 5.25 inches even.

3.5" disks are actually 3.543"!

This is for the same reason why we have disk vs disc for floppy and optical media: 8" disks were invented by IBM, an American company. 5.25" disks were invented by Shugart/Wang, both American companies.

3.5" disks were invented by Sony, a Japanese company. They're not 3.5" disks... They're 90mm disks!

But it was already the standard in English that floppy disk formats get called by their size in inches, so it has always been called the 3.5" disk, because that's close enough for jazz.

3. to get back to the first point of this post: minidiscs aren't diskettes. Diskette is for disks, and minidiscs are discs. They're not flexible, they're rigid: minidiscs are actually magneto-optical discs, where there's a small plastic disc like a CD, which is read by a laser but written by a magnetic read head. Since they have to be rigid for the laser to work, they're (rigid) discs, not (flexible) disks. They are confusing, I agree: usually magnetic media is disk, while optical is disc, and disks have cases, while discs are just a plastic circle... But minidiscs are magnetic AND optical, and they're optical but inside a case. They're one of those exceptions that makes taxonomy so difficult. (they're very trans in that way, imo)

* I intentionally didn't expand out the acronym DVD, because the fun fact is about that is that DVD is not an acronym. Not anymore. It was originally supposed to be Digital Video Disc, but the later Digital Versatile Disc to better reflect the non-video uses of the disc, but apparently the official meaning of the acronym is now that it just is the name of the disc. It's a DVD: it doesn't stand for anything.

** one exception to the "universally called by their sizes in English" that I'm aware of is South Africa. For Reasons they just called the 5.25" disks "floppies", and then when 3.5" disks came around, they called them... "stiffies". Yes, this is hilarious. They know.

#Floppy disks #etymology #minidisc #My articles

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lorirwritesfanfic · 1 month ago

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Chris Hemsworth as King Liam Rys

Disclaimers:

This character profile was created specifically to fit King Liam on Liam and Jade's Love Story universe. I unfortunately don't own the character, I don't assume to know everything about him and I have no intention to affirm this is exactly who he is and how other people should write him. I'm merely a hardcore enthusiast of this lovely character and I do my best to keep his essence while adding a few headcanons of my own;

Though I mostly write canon compliant fics in L&JLS, Lena isn't included in this character profile because I haven't played TRF and I personally don't know how relevant she would be for the series.

Name: Liam Rys

Nationality: Cordonian

Birthdate: January 10, 1990

Hometown: Cordonian capital

Current Residence: Cordonian capital / Duchy of Valtoria, Cordonia

Occupation: Politician, Head of State of Cordonia

Titles: His Royal Majesty of Cordonia, Colonel-in-Chief of Cordonian Army, Duke of Valtoria, Patron of the University of Cordonia, Patron of the National Museum of Cordonia, Patron of the National Library of Cordonia

Talents/Skills: Combat training, empathy, leadership, musicality, negotiation, perceptiviness, public speaking, self-defense, strategic thinking, survival skills, sword fighting, teaching, writing.

Parents: Constantine Rys and Eleanor Rys (both deceased)

Siblings: Leo Rys

Spouse: Jade Isabel Bourbon-Rys

Children: Elise Valentina Bourbon-Rys, Louis Philipe Bourbon-Rys, Sophie Eleanor Bourbon-Rys

Closest relatives: Regina Rys (stepmother), Ava Mei Tsui-Rys (niece), Emma Zhen Tsui-Rys (niece), Daphne Wang-Foredale (fourth cousin)

Background: Second son of King Constantine Rys and Queen Eleanor Rys, Liam is a kind-hearted, polite and sophisticated man with impressive diplomatic skills. Though he wasn't raised to be king, he was prepared from a very young age to serve the Cordonian Crown taking etiquette lessons, politics, philosophy, learning different languages (aside from English, he's fluent in Greek, Spanish, French and Italian) and even dancing and survival skills. While growing up, he was a free-spirited kid and had more opportunities to enjoy his childhood with his friends and the Walker family than his older brother.

After his mother's tragic passing, Liam became a reserved person, taking his role in the Royal family more seriously. With time, Liam grew apart from Drake (who left to the US to go to college) and joined the Royal Air Force to please his father. A few months after, the Royal family suffered an assassination attempt. Liam developed signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, avoiding social interactions, having trouble sleeping, being easily frightened/startled and showing some physical symptoms of panick (sweating, nausea, trembling). Leo asked Drake to return to the palace to help Liam, both encouraging the young prince to seek therapy.

As he got better, Liam enrolled in the University of Cordonia to study History and returned to the Royal Air Force. Liam had plans to follow an academic career when Leo abdicated the throne. After Liam got his major degree, he was formally introduced as the Crown Prince and officially prepared to rule the Kingdom. Though it was a drastic change of path in his life that required many sacrifices, Liam adjusted to the life of future monarch quite fast, undeniably enjoying the perks of using the many skills he had developed over the years to make a difference as a politician.

What's his family like?

Constantine wasn't a present parent, nor a father who easily showed affection towards his sons. Liam was mostly raised by his mother and a few nanies and tutors. Eleanor constantly talked about the importance of Constantine's role as king and father not just for their family but for the entire country, which is why Liam always looked up to his father.

Eleanor was a loving mother to him and his brother, but also disciplined them when necessary. She shared her love for reading, writing and History with Liam. Her passing had an enormous impact on Liam's life and personality. He still misses her dearly and visits her whenever he can. He always takes a bouquet of jasmines to her grave on Mother's day and on her birthday.

Being six years younger than Leo, the brothers always had divergences, often teasing each other, Leo and Liam played pranks that usually led to getting both of the. in trouble while growing up. Yet, Leo always knew Liam was a better fit for the Crown and has always been a protective of his baby brother, taking the blame for himself whenever Liam did something wrong, defending his brother from malicious comments and insults, helping him during his first months as Crown Prince and teaching him self-defense and mixed martial arts. Liam looks up to his brother and fully supports the lifepath and choices his older brother makes.

Regina entered the Royal family a few years after Eleanor's passing. Despite her usual commanding presence towards her stepsons, she cares for them deeply. Liam has great respect and fondness towards Regina.

Liam doesn't have a long list of relatives he's truly close to. The only exception are the Foredales, specially Lady Daphne.

Favourite childhood memory: Playing with Drake and Maxwell around the palace, trips to the Walkers ranch and summers at Applewood Manor.

Nicknames: He didn't use to have nicknames while growing up, but he loves all the petnames Jade has given him.

Astrology sign: Capricorn sun, Libra rising, Scorpio moon

Hobbies: reading, horse riding, sailing, playing guitar, singing, writing

Top 5 songs:

The Seasons, op. 37a: VI. June "Barcarolle" - Piotr Ilitch Tchaikovski

Requiem: Lacrimosa - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Bachianas Brasileiras n°1 - Heitor Villa Lobos

And I Love Her - Beatles

Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton

Favorite books:

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

Dubliners - James Joyce

Hamlet - William Shakespeare

Charneca em Flor - Florbela Espanca

Jane Eyre - Emily Brontë

Favorite movies:

Star Trek (1979)

Matrix (1999)

The Lord of Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2011) [he likes all the LOTR saga, but the first one is his favorite]

Black Swan (2010)

Lion (2016)

Favorite TV shows: Liam enjoys watching anything that gets his mind out of his life. He grew up watching The X-Files and Firefly with Drake and Maxwell. A friend introduced him to Death Note during his teenhood and it blew him away. Nowadays, he likes watching Stranger Things and Arcane by himself, but he often watches comedies like Friends and Parks and Recreation with Jade.

Biggest guilty pleasure: he's getting addicted to watching videos of people building things from scratch like furniture, houses or doing crafts. In any spare time he has, he will watch people building furniture out of bamboo, small cabins in the woods and intricate craftsmanship like jewelry design, intarsia and pastry sculpture.

Sweet or savoury? Sweet.

Favorite food: Baklava, chicken tagine, apple pie, any sort of pasta.

Favourite drinks: coffee (the stronger, the better), vanilla milkshake, wine, scotch.

Most treasured possessions:

A Lion Cross Royal Crown designed for his thirtieth birthday;

A small double bladed dagger that belonged to his ancestor Queen Kenna Rys;

Photo albums with many pictures of his family and friends

A Statue of Liberty keychain given by his wife on his coronation night;

Jade cufflinks given by his wife during the trip to China;

His wedding band;

His children's baby teeth (the kids find it gross, but Jade and him proudly keep them in the family safe).

Close Friends: Drake Walker, Maxwell Beaumont, Hana Lee, Bertrand Beaumont, Leo Rys

Goals for the future: Liam has many goals for Cordonia such as bringing back economic stability to the country, hosting big events that will increase tourism, supporting projects involving environmental sustainability, arts, culture and philanthropy, etc. But in his personal life, he simply wants to travel around the world with Jade, watch his children grow and spend as much time as he can with his loved ones.

Dog lover or cat lover?

Dog lover. He loves strolling with the family corgis. But he also likes Jade's cats and encourages his kids to have any domestic animals as long as they actually take care of them.

Early bird or night owl?

Early bird. But he can't deny he loves late nights with his wife.

How does he relax after a bad day?

It depends gon how bad the day was. On a not so bad day, half an hour listening to music (he has a soothing playlist on Spotify) when he needs to slow down will do. He goes horse riding or walking when he needs to clear his head. But on really tough days, he'll go to the gym to practice any sort of martial arts. Muay Thai and Krav Maga are his favorites.

Personality: INFJ-T (Turbulent Advocate)

Idealistic and principled, people with the INFJ personality type (Advocates) aren’t content to coast through life – they want to stand up and make a difference. For these compassionate personalities, success doesn’t come from money or status but from seeking fulfillment, helping others, and being a force for good in the world.

Thoughtful and often selfless, INFJ personalities pour a great deal of energy and care into their relationships, but this doesn’t mean that they always feel appreciated in return. People with this personality type tend to slow down and really evaluate how what they do might impact others before they take action. Consequently, it can frustrate them when other people don’t recognize their good intentions. INFJs are very sensitive to criticism of any kind and can take things very personally. A few close relationships, provided that they’re genuine, can fill INFJs’ hearts to the brim.

One random headcanon: Liam joined the Cordonian Royal Air Force when he was nineteen. He was progressively rising on RAF ranks (he reached Flight Lieutenant rank) and was in his third year studying History when Leo abdicated the throne. He still pilots helicopters and small planes from time to time, but since he doesn't fly often, he has never piloted any aircraft with his children in it. He took Jade a few times when they were newlyweds (it involved a lot of begging and persuasion on her part), but there was always an aircraft pilot team on board just in case.

#character profiles #choices fanfic #the royal romance #king liam #kingliamappreciationweek #KLAW day 2 #lorirwritesfanfic #lorircreates

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