[simonjames]

As you all know yesterday morning the Australian iTunes music store finally opened.

On the way home from work my car needed petrol - on the cashier's counter was a display of pre-paid iTMS cards for purchase. How fast is that?

I didn't see any TV last night - for those in Australia were there any iTMS commercials showing?

[Albert Pujols]

is?

[PurpleGiant]

Haven't seen any iTMS ads. The Eminem iPod ad was playing a fair bit though.

[alphasubzero949]

Originally Posted by Albert Pujols

is?

I thought of the same thing when I saw this thread.

[nredman]

that sucks too cause you can't change the thread name

but yes i would think that apple would be on the ball there

[ghporter]

The UK/Australian form is to use the collective plural as in "Apple are fast." In the U.S., we use the group plural as in "Apple is fast." Both are correct.

As for how fast they are, those prepaid cards have probably been waiting for the opening for a week or more, and the retailers were given notice when to post them-maybe days ahead, maybe last night. That's how you do that sort of thing. I spoke to an Apple Store guy the other day, (about how I should have waited a little while and gotten a Video iPod when they came out instead of getting 6 weeks of use of my iPod Photo) and he said that the stores don't even know when a product is going to come out until "SURPRISE" they come out! Apple seems to be pretty secretive about product releases too, so my guess is that the retailer was told last night "put the cards out on display in the morning."

[iLikebeer]

Originally Posted by ghporter

As for how fast they are, those prepaid cards have probably been waiting for the opening for a week or more, and the retailers were given notice when to post them-maybe days ahead, maybe last night. That's how you do that sort of thing. I spoke to an Apple Store guy the other day, (about how I should have waited a little while and gotten a Video iPod when they came out instead of getting 6 weeks of use of my iPod Photo) and he said that the stores don't even know when a product is going to come out until "SURPRISE" they come out! Apple seems to be pretty secretive about product releases too, so my guess is that the retailer was told last night "put the cards out on display in the morning."

Yeah, I used to be an overnight stocker at Walmart and helped the unloaders before going out to stock. We'd often get pallets with warning labels on them saying DO NOT DISPLAY UNTIL some date, so we'd put them back in the storeroom for a week until the item was released. Usually they were CDs or DVDs.

[Eriamjh]

Originally Posted by ghporter

The UK/Australian form is to use the collective plural as in "Apple are fast." In the U.S., we use the group plural as in "Apple is fast." Both are correct.

Perhaps Apple is a group of people, however Apple is ONE company. Using that logix, it is singular. Apple IS fast.

However, some might say Apple BE fast.

[Ozmodiar]

Oh my god. Learn the fuçking language. English isn't the same across the world. simonjames was correct when posting this title.

I can't believe there are still people who struggle with these rules.

[Hawkeye_a]

Coles Express ? im going hunting for those cards today.

[simonjames]

Yes - Coles Express Bondi

$1.30/litre for Optimax. $60 to fill my tank. I remember when it used to cost $25

I guess now we'll have the debate "is it litre or liter?"

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by simonjames

I guess now we'll have the debate "is it litre or liter?"

Sadly, it looks like that may be the case. And don't mention "colour" versus "color!" That is flame war material!

[JoshuaZ]

It could be worse, we could start looking into Australian slang, which dominates the language.

I saw we`re both speaking English, but I can`t understand my Australian (or New Zealand) friends.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

It could be worse, we could start looking into Australian slang, which dominates the language.

I saw we`re both speaking English, but I can`t understand my Australian (or New Zealand) friends.

I think I'd rather take my chances with Australian (or NZ) slang than have to deal with Cockney slang. That's a completely different sub-tongue!

[JoshuaZ]

All I have to say about that is `jandles.`

The other 5 of us were like `WTF?`

Jandles, NZ for flip flop shoes.

Though I would agree that cockney slang is a completely different sub-lanuage, and should be taught in schools along with ebonics.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

All I have to say about that is `jandles.`

The other 5 of us were like `WTF?`

Jandles, NZ for flip flop shoes.

Though I would agree that cockney slang is a completely different sub-lanuage, and should be taught in schools along with ebonics.

Where I grew up they're called "zories" (a brand name, I believe). My wife calls them "thongs," which generates some really interesting looks in certain conversations!

[JoshuaZ]

Originally Posted by ghporter

Where I grew up they're called "zories" (a brand name, I believe). My wife calls them "thongs," which generates some really interesting looks in certain conversations!

I guess it could be worse. We have `fanny packs` in the US.

English people find this really funny... he he fanny...

[Hawkeye_a]

Cockney(Brit slang), i can decipher if i think really hard.

Ozzie/NZ slag..... still getting used to it. I get most of the surfie slang though.

What i have the most problem with is Ebonics(i guess that's American slang?)....not a word.

And yeah....fuel prices, dont get me started. It hit $1.35 for unleaded here in Perth. i just started taking the bus instead. It used to cost me around $50 to fill up, now it's around $75.

Color vs colour. ..... u think it's hard here? trying doing a Masters degree where all the Macs(MS Word) are setup for American english spellings(what im used to), and all the professors want Ozzie spellings.... i had to put a disclaimer on anything i submitted lol.

Cheers

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

I guess it could be worse. We have `fanny packs` in the US.

English people find this really funny... he he fanny...

Yes, I can see that being an issue-and fun to watch!

A friend told of a classmate who went to England. She had a not-too out of the ordinary name for Texas. Her name was Randy. You can imagine the kind of problems that brought up! (Oh, and yes, people do name their kids things like Randy, Terry, and Bobby; my high school principle was Terry Byrd, and his brother Bobby was superintendent of schools-those are their formal names.)

[Face Ache]

Originally Posted by simonjames

I guess now we'll have the debate "is it litre or liter?"

What's a "liter"?

Kitty liter?
Cigarette liter?
Liter than air?

They still haven't taken the silent "o" out of country.

Note: A pedometer is a metre meter. Deal with it.

[slowspeed]

Face Ache you are just confusing us all Down Under now...

there is no word "lite" in australian english, only with a "ght", and rubbish/garbage type liter is a double T

thongs are flip-flops, a thong is a g-string and lite/light beer means low alcohol not low calorie.

now that we are all with the program/programme, we can go and get pis*ed (which means get drunk not get upset)

this is exhausting...

[JoshuaZ]

How about sunnies and chewies? The Australians shorten everything.

[exca1ibur]

Break out the Tim Tams and we can all be in peace

[Face Ache]

Originally Posted by slowspeed

Face Ache you are just confusing us all Down Under now...

there is no word "lite" in australian english, only with a "ght", and rubbish/garbage type liter is a double T

OH REALLY?!

Get out of Adelaide while there's still hope.

[Rolling Bones]

Originally Posted by Ozmodiar

Oh my god. Learn the fuçking language. English isn't the same across the world. simonjames was correct when posting this title.

I can't believe there are still people who struggle with these rules.

Yeah, I get get quite a kick out of boot and bonnet.

[simonjames]

years back when I lived in England I caused a few of my workmates to pi$$ themselves laughing when (at lunch time) I said I was going to the shops to get a couple of skivvies.

A skivvy in Australia is a turtle neck long sleeve t-shirt like top

A skivvy in England is a rough-ish woman bordering on a whore


As to car terminology - Americans have completely FU the English language there.
'stick shift'? Why not say manual gearbox?
turnpike? Trunk? Hood? Gas? SUV? The Hummer?

And they forced Maserati to turn the beautiful rear end of the coupe with it's boomerang shaped lights into what can only be described as butt ugly.

[Miniryu]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a

And yeah....fuel prices, dont get me started. It hit $1.35 for unleaded here in Perth. i just started taking the bus instead. It used to cost me around $50 to fill up, now it's around $75.

Where is Perth? U.S.? Here in the San Francisco Bay Area fuel has been like $3.15 a gallon for the cheap stuff for a while now!

[- - e r i k - -]

Perth, Australia. AU$1.35 a lit[re|er]

[Seb G]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Perth, Australia. AU$1.35 a lit[re|er]

Cool, that's cheap. Costs a lot more in Perth, Scotland

[Troll]

Originally Posted by simonjames

years back when I lived in England I caused a few of my workmates to pi$$ themselves laughing when (at lunch time) I said I was going to the shops to get a couple of skivvies.

A skivvy in Australia is a turtle neck long sleeve t-shirt like top

A skivvy in England is a rough-ish woman bordering on a whore

A "skivvy" in South African English is a kind of slave. At games, each player in the first rugby team at the boys' school I was at would be assigned a skivvy - one of the youngest at the school - to run around before and during the game, getting him oranges, carrying his bags etc. If you said you were going to buy a skivvy in South Africa, you'd get some very strange looks!

[Troll]

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

I guess it could be worse. We have `fanny packs` in the US.

English people find this really funny... he he fanny...

I almost choked on my sandwich when a young American girl I was on a bike tour with said over a picnic lunch that after all the riding, she had a huge pain in her fanny!

Some others that always causes a laugh:

* "pants" - in most countries, pants are trousers. In the UK, pants are strictly underwear. "Hello, I'm looking for a pair of corduroy pants." "Why you sick little bugger, you."

* "toilet" - in most countries, is synonymous with bathroom. In the US, it's the bowl itself. And the bathroom is a washroom. "Excuse me, where is the toilet?" "It's in the washroom, lady."

* "drugs" - in most countries means the nefarious stuff you get in a dark alley. Medicine is the stuff you buy in a pharmacy. In the US, you get drugs in a drugstore. "You have a headache? Why, you should git you some drugs at the drugstore." "Coooooolll".

* "café" - in most countries means a place where you sit and sip coffee. In South Africa, it means a small supermarket and is often pronounced "kaffie".

* "robot" - in most countries means R2D2 and co. In South Africa, it means traffic light. "Excuse me, where can I get some drugs for my headache?" "Hang a right there by the café, and there's a oke by the third robot down selling dagga." (where oke = guy and dagga = dope)

* "sneakers" - in most countries means people that lurk in dark areas. In America it means shoes. In South Africa, sneakers are "takkies" and in the UK they're "runners" or "trainers". Trainers in South Africa are the things that kids wear between nappies (diapers) and pants. "Do you know where I can buy some trainers?" "Baby and Co. has some, but I'm not sure they have your size (snigger)".

* "sharking" - in the UK means "attempting to pick up". In South Africa (and according to the urban dictionary in the US too), "spading" means the same thing. "Are you sharking me?" "Uh no, I was actually spading you." When you're talking to a girl, your mates in the UK will be walking around behind her back with their open hands on their heads. In South Africa, they'll be miming manual labour.

[moonmonkey]

Originally Posted by Seb G

Cool, that's cheap. Costs a lot more in Perth, Scotland

The bloody Brits are always copying place names, Old Jersey, Old York, Old England , Old Hampshire. Get some original ideas.

[Ozmodiar]

In the US, skivvies = tighty whities.

And I've never heard of sharking or spading before. Well, I've heard of spading, but only in reference to rendering a female pet unable to birth offspring.

[Troll]

Originally Posted by Ozmodiar

In the US, skivvies = tighty whities.

And I've never heard of sharking or spading before. Well, I've heard of spading, but only in reference to rendering a female pet unable to birth offspring.

Yeah, I've never heard anyone talk about spading in the US but I have a friend who assures me that it's current there too. It's on the urban dictionary too.

ttp://spading.urbanup.com/218535

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Ozmodiar

In the US, skivvies = tighty whities.

And I've never heard of sharking or spading before. Well, I've heard of spading, but only in reference to rendering a female pet unable to birth offspring.

The only time I've ever seen/heard "spading" as a bastardization of "spaying", which you're talking about, is in the classic Superchic[k] quote:


"Some people should be spade or nuttered."

Thank you Salty for that gem.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by ghporter

Where I grew up they're called "zories" (a brand name, I believe).

"zori" is the Japanese word for them.

[Ozmodiar]

Originally Posted by analogika

The only time I've ever seen/heard "spading" as a bastardization of "spaying", which you're talking about

One of my several hundred pet peeves. Ranks up there with "irregardless" and "for all intensive purposes."

[JoshuaZ]

He he he he.... pants in japanese.... パンス....

[ism]

Originally Posted by analogika

The only time I've ever seen/heard "spading" as a bastardization of "spaying"

In England it's also accepted as "speying".

[analogika]

Originally Posted by ism

In England it's also accepted as "speying".

Must be another grey area.

[andi*pandi]

sorry, I think you meant gray area?

Did someone say timtam? Yum!

[slowspeed]

Well I was going to get out..... But then we finally got iTMS so I'll stick around thanks all the same.

I enjoy my ignorance.....

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Ozmodiar

One of my several hundred pet peeves. Ranks up there with "irregardless" and "for all intensive purposes."

There was a comedian back in the '70s who did his whole schtick on misuse of near homophones-I wish I could remember his name right now, was it Norm Crosby? He was hilarious and that was because everyone listening KNEW how he was butchering the language. I don't think audiences today would gete him.

To me, misuse of homophones and near homophones is on a par with demonstrating one's whopping 71 on the Stanford-Binet IQ test. Can't we all just be a little literate?

[Troll]

Originally Posted by Ozmodiar

One of my several hundred pet peeves. Ranks up there with "irregardless" and "for all intensive purposes."

My mother's boss used to "pacificly" tell people what to do and what not to do. I thought she was joking until my Mom brought home a rather serious letter that her boss had written to a supplier saying, "We pacificly asked for the green one." We took a red pen and corrected it to "pacifically"! That was revenge for the note to my Mother in which she said she expected my Mom to be at her "beckon call".

The problem with things like that is that they get under your skin. Within our family, we now use pacifically more than specifically.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi

sorry, I think you meant gray area?

Did someone say timtam? Yum!

Some people should be spade and nuttered.

(repeated for affect)

[scottiB]

Originally Posted by ghporter

To me, misuse of homophones and near homophones is on a par with demonstrating one's whopping 71 on the Stanford-Binet IQ test. Can't we all just be a little literate?

There's a good FeEx commercial where co-workers tell a poor guy that he's wrong about everything. The guy believes fringe benefits are "French" benefits and that it's the Leaning Tower of "Pizza". Very funny.

[mojo2]

Area of Circle:
area = PI r2

Pie are round.

[mojo2]

Originally Posted by ghporter

There was a comedian back in the '70s who did his whole schtick on misuse of near homophones-I wish I could remember his name right now, was it Norm Crosby? He was hilarious and that was because everyone listening KNEW how he was butchering the language. I don't think audiences today would gete him.

To me, misuse of homophones and near homophones is on a par with demonstrating one's whopping 71 on the Stanford-Binet IQ test. Can't we all just be a little literate?

On this year's Jerry Lewis MD telethon he featured his old buddy, Norm Crosby, wha was and is the guy you are thinking of.

He reminded me of Sinatra's live performance in the years before his passing, a bit embarrassing to see how he wasn't the guy you'd once enjoyed not THAT long ago. But, as the performance went on he got stronger and stronger and by the end the transformation was complete. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Same with Crosby.

The greats never really lose it, it's just the machinery gives out.

[wdlove]

Very interesting chatter.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by Troll

My mother's boss used to "pacificly" tell people what to do and what not to do.

I've always wondered how to tell people what to do and not to do in Hawaiian.