Non-Latin-script web addresses

[Farelf]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8333194.stm

The internet regulator has approved plans to allow non-Latin-scri_pt web addresses, in a move that is set to transform the online world.

The board of Icann voted at its annual meeting in Seoul to allow domain names in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts.

More than half of the 1.6 billion people who use the internet speak languages with non-Latin scripts.

Well, yes, it's only fair, isn't it, when it's put that way? And we can look forward to domains like 現在您消滅圓眼睛.com. I'm sure SC engineering staff are gearing up to tweak the parser even as we speak.

[rconner]

And we can look forward to domains like ç¾åœ¨æ‚¨æ¶ˆæ»…圓眼ç›.com.

"Now you eliminate a round eye"

Another plot from the Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu?? Or maybe Dr. No (but he just died)??

Actually when translating this I noticed that the literal Chinese scri_pt showed up in the Google URL itself; I though that sort of thing had to get encoded!

-- rick

[Farelf]

"Now you eliminate a round eye"

Another plot from the Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu?? Or maybe Dr. No (but he just died)??

Actually when translating this I noticed that the literal Chinese scri_pt showed up in the Google URL itself; I though that sort of thing had to get encoded!

Mercifully the entire phrase doesn't Google to locations elsewhere. Yet. One would trust even Fu Manchu has shuffled off the mortal coil by now but alas, one can never tell. All the really superior villains give a pretty fair imitation of immortality (I think myself they are simply confused by the similarity to 'immorality', which is in the job description, but who can say ...?).

Think Professor James Moriarty. Did he really meet his end at Reichenbach Falls? Recall the spirited defence of the memory of his 'dead brother' by a 'Mr. James Moriarty'. Now it was the style in Victorian England, when infant mortality was much higher than it is now, to sometimes name a subsequent sibling the same as a deceased infant (no notion of 'tempting fate' would occur to those of resolute faith, it was felt a fitting memorial and otherwise unremarkable). But the bad professor was a man of mature years enshrining pre-eminent scientific, as well as criminal, achievements. How likely then the man's aged progenitors could stir their withered loins one more time in those days before the National Health and internet pharmaceuticals? Holmes feigned his death, why not the professor? I rest my case, he may still be among us, more shadowy than ever through undimmed cunning and well over a century of practised guile. Actually, that would explain a lot ...

So, on consideration, I would rule out neither Fu Manchu nor Dr. No.

[Farelf]

One phrase that does Google a little bit is 易女人论坛 (Easy woman forum). I suspect something is altered in translation there though optimists might disagree (as they used to say in the shearing sheds of my youth "Availability is the greatest aphrodisiac.") Well, those aren't quite the words used On the reverse of the coin, I'm gaining some insight into the difficulties faced by the (billion or more?) NESB (non-English-speaking background) internet users and the extra layer of obfuscation afforded by unfamiliar ѕcripts.

[rconner]

One phrase that does Google a little bit is æ˜“å¥³äººè®ºå› (Easy woman forum).

Would this be like an Invasion Power Board where easy women get together and talk shop? Where newbie easy women get flamed if they post into the wrong topic or don't read the FAQ?

-- rick

[Farelf]

Would this be like an Invasion Power Board where easy women get together and talk shop? Where newbie easy women get flamed if they post into the wrong topic or don't read the FAQ?

Now that you mention it - I would certainly like to think so.