back to article Even Linus Torvalds can have trouble with autocycle … autocracy… AUTOCOMPLETE!

Next time autocomplete takes over and you accidentally send an email to the wrong person or group, perhaps it will be a little solace to know that one of the world’s most accomplished technologists – Linux kernel boss Linus Torvalds – just made that same mistake. During most weeks of the kernel development cycle, Torvalds …

  1. Apocalypso - a cheery end to the world
    Trollface

    So which list did he send it to? Answers on a postcard, please.

    > “Bah,” he wrote. “I sent this out earlier, but it turns out that I sent it to the wrong list due to some messed-up autocompletion, so people didn't see it.”

    So which list do we think he actually send it to?

    1) The Iron Oxide Appreciation Society

    ...

  2. LBJsPNS Silver badge

    I, too, hate autocarrot.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yes! The land where an agricultural field is filed for your convenience, OFTEL and Dixons deal in offal and dioxins, respectively, and with almost no effort of your own, the delicious scrapple souse that you can make at home and compare, backtranslates itself to a raclette submarine (and for clarification, raclette(Fr) = squeegee(En)).

      I love that place!

      1. DoctorPaul Bronze badge

        That's funny, I ate raclette in the french Alps and very nice it was too!

    2. Kevin Johnston Silver badge

      Exactly the phrase I use too and oddly it is accepted by my phone as a real word unlike 'yeah' which is never left untouched

    3. Evil Auditor Silver badge

      Me too, it makes me write things I did Nintendo.

  3. jake Silver badge

    My favorite youngster ...

    ... calls it "autocorrupt", and refuses to have anything to do with it.

    Smart kid.

    1. BenDwire Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: My favorite youngster ...

      I suspect his parents may have been part of his education. Well done!

      (And even if said youngster is not one of your own, you can still raise a pint)

    2. stiine Silver badge
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: My favorite youngster ...

      Its the first thing I turn off on a new install. I'm in IT, and most of what I need to communicate is not based on dictionary words. The second thing I change is to a serif font because the difference between O and 0, and between I and l and 1, need to be plainly obvious.

      1. James O'Shea Silver badge

        Re: My favorite youngster ...

        I have set the font in Firefox to a nice serif font (Lucida Fax). For some reason, some websites, including El Reg, show in a sans-serif font, probably Arial. There is no difference between the uppercase I and the lowercase l. O and 0 are somewhat different.

    3. Lee D Silver badge

      Re: My favorite youngster ...

      I turn off all Autocorrupt and Artificial Interference.

  4. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Joke

    Linus needs an assistant

    May be Microsoft can assist by porting Clippy to Linux?

    1. Joe W Silver badge

      Re: Linus needs an assistant

      There is Veegor.... (userfriendly invention and somebody actually implemented it)

    2. m4r35n357 Silver badge

      Re: Linus needs an assistant

      Well until it appears in Debian as a dependency to 1500 unrelated packages, I am not interested.

    3. YetAnotherXyzzy

      Re: Linus needs an assistant

      Maybe Agent P can add Clippy to systemd.

      1. steelpillow Silver badge
        Joke

        Re: Linus needs an assistant

        Agent P /is/ clippy, after transplanting into a discarded Robocop prototype. Sheesh, he still runs on Windows Vista.

        1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

          Re: Linus needs an assistant

          Microsoft may be creating an AI version of Agent P for the future

  5. Bebu sa Ware
    Windows

    “to allow platform devices from stop being abused.”

    Couldn't quite parse that other than permitting devices from a vendor called "stop being abused." Cannot help thinking autoconfuse had been assisting here too.

    Fortunately clarified by Greg K-H in the next sentence.

    Unsolicited autocomplete does have it comedic moments. Completing "demented also rans" as "demented also fans" in a context of the supporters of DOGe Space Karen's activities seemed rather insightful.:)

  6. mostly average
    Terminator

    For ducks sake!

    Autocorrect always messes up at the won't Monet. It's ducking infuriating.

    Icon because it's the robots, man!

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: For ducks sake!

      As my friend says, "Oi! Autocomplete! It's never duck!"

      Except that time I messaged my mother about dinner, and was suggesting duck - sadly not a fake story. Oops.

      1. steelpillow Silver badge

        Re: For ducks sake!

        Bit of bad luck, eh?

        1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
          Facepalm

          Re: For ducks sake!

          Yup. My name was muck.

  7. Phil E Succour

    Back in the 90s…

    I remember a poster on the office wall that said:

    Always remember - Spelling chequers are knot infallible.

    It seems 30 years of development haven’t greatly improved the situation…

    1. KittenHuffer Silver badge

      Re: Back in the 90s…

      Eye no watt ewe meen!

    2. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

      Re: Back in the 90s…

      With all the improvements in modern technology, that poster would say "Spelunking cheeks arse note infantile". That's progress, for you!

      Irony of ironies: my spellchecker doesn't want to recognise "spelunking".

    3. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Re: Back in the 90s…

      While searching for a Pullet surprise I found out it had also become a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon.

  8. Nematode Bronze badge

    You look like you're writing a post on El Reg. Can I help you....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If someone is writing a post on El Reg they are probably beyond help...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Talking of authoritarians

    Gifted CEOs of successful companies become legends. They are rare and paid accordingly.

    Gifted countries' leaders are rare too, unfortunately. With procedurally limited time in the office.

  10. Boothy
    Pint

    Ah the joys of autocomplete.

    Just last week one of my neighbours sent me a text asking if I was going to be at home the following day, so that I could take in a parent for her, as she was going to be at work!

    She of course meant parcel. :-)

    Icon, well why not?

  11. Oh Homer

    Autocompost

    I fur of Elvin or new "Please try again" overlords.

    Annie is the real results of this phones agriculture.

    (However I just made up the title ... Bloody he'll it advise got that one right)

  12. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Autocomplete

    A priest, a minister and a rabbit walk into a bar ....

    1. steelpillow Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Autocomplete

      Anybody else remember the Goodies and the mythical Giant Rabbi?

  13. Kev99 Silver badge

    Pardon my ignorance, but if Linux is supposed to be vetted by umpteen hundred developer why does the kernel need to be continually updated? Are the fixes/patches/inclusions really adding anything?

    1. O'Reg Inalsin

      The Times They Are A-Changin

      In this case it is almost surely a new usage that some users have requested. I don't myself understand what "platform device" is, although I could if I had more time.

      Come gather 'round people

      Wherever you roam

      And admit that the waters

      Around you have grown

      And accept it that soon

      You'll be drenched to the bone.

      If your time to you

      Is worth savin'

      Then you better start swimmin'

      Or you'll sink like a stone

      For the times they are a-changin'.

    2. jake Silver badge

      Dude, how many hardware changes/updates/additions have there been in the world's computing lineup in the last month?

      They don't program themselves, you know.

      1. bazza Silver badge

        Well, they kinda do in some cases. Manufacturers want there to be a market for their devices and one way of achieving that is by writing Linux device drivers for them.

        After they’ve done the drivers for Windows of course…

    3. steelpillow Silver badge
      Trollface

      Are the fixes/patches/inclusions really adding anything?

      Yes.

      Unlike Microsoft's.

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