QUOTE (poliss @ 19 Feb 2008, 01:28)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>The language needs to be simplified. To most people, a bus is something you catch, radials are the tyres on the bus. Choc boxes are what you give your girlfriend on Valentines day. Daisy chains are things girls make at school.
The problem here is that the language has already been simplified, or at least adapted from elsewhere, to be rather more descriptive than precise.
This, of course, is part of the overall problem - so few people are familiar with technical matters, and the terminology involved, that these more descriptive versions become prevalent, often leading to their use in several different, and usually unrelated contexts. Spare a thought for those of us using a PCB design program which uses the term LMS for 'Library Management System'. No matter how hard I try, the obvious railway context simply refuses not to come to mind first!
From my point of view, I will admit that I find it hard not to want to know how things work, especially when they are related to my usual spheres of activity (i.e. electronics). I cannot imagine being in a position where blind acceptance of things magically working around me without at least a rudimentary understanding of the principles involved is acceptable.
