![]() ![]() Golden United Life Insurance founded CompuServe in 1969 as a computer time-sharing service. Digital breakthroughs still in use today originated there, including online shopping, stock research, and self-serve airline tickets. Although the name may not mean much to anyone under 40, CompuServe played a pivotal role in the early days of the Information Age. So what can we learn from this knotty issue? That the world is a bewildering place, language is unknowable, there is no God, and every single time we open our mouths we make at least half the population of the planet hate us.Wilhite invented the GIF while he worked at CompuServe, an early tech company that was based in central Ohio. The survey was conduced by eBay Deals and a digital marketing agency.Īn informal poll of developers using Stack Overflow revealed that 65.6 percent of respondents preferred the hard g pronunciation, while 26.3 percent used the soft g, 6 percent sounded out every letter, and 2 percent employed a different pronunciation entirely. A survey of over 1,000 Americans were asked whether they pronounce GIF as ‘jiff’ or ’giff‘ and ‘giff’ easily beat ‘jiff,‘ nearly 54% to 41%. There’s been proper surveys carried out to settle the matter. Mount Everest is named after a British colonial-era guy called George Everest (pronounced ‘Eve-rest’). The way language works, see, is that people get to choose what works for them. When Steve Wilhite won the 2013 Webby lifetime achievement award, his five-word acceptance speech was literally: ‘It’s pronounced JIF, not GIF’.ĭoes that settle the matter? Not really. The Obama administration had no such qualms, taking (as ever) a wise, considered position of the matter via it’s Tumblr page: ‘ Animated GIFs (HARD G)’. Although it wimped out of committing to one or other pronunciation, noting ‘GIF may be pronounced with either a soft G (as in giant) or a hard G (as in graphic)’ In 2023, the prestigious Oxford Dictionary chose ‘GIF’ as its word of the year. As long ago as 1994 the debate was already raging, with an encyclopedia author referencing how ‘most people’ seem to prefer saying a different way than the GIF godfather instructed: GIF.’ This controversy, by the way, is nothing new. Well, what about the JPEG file format? The ‘P’ stands for ‘Photograph’, so by that same logic ‘JPEG’ should be pronounced ‘JFEG’. Otherwise it’d be ‘Jraphics’ which is the stupidest thing ever. Like, as in ‘gift’ or ‘gills’.Īha, but what about ‘gin’ or ‘giraffe’?! Well, shut up, because the ‘G’ in ‘GIF’ stands for ‘Graphics’, which is pronounced with a hard-‘G’. You’re probably thinking, WTAF dude, it’s so obviously GIF. So our man Steve included in the technical specifications for his new format the immortal joke ‘ choosy developers choose GIF’. At the time, a popular brand of peanut butter called Jif was all the rage.Īs one of your typical eighties computer programmer’s three chief sources of nourishment – alongside Marlboro Reds and flat Mountain Dew – Jif peanut butter loomed large in Wilhite’s imagination.Ī popular ad campaign for Jif, at the time, said ‘choosy moms choose Jif’. Steve Wilhite was a computer scientist working at CompuServe during the late 1980s. Lo and behold, the GIF – which stands for ‘ Graphics Interchange Format’ – was born.Īlmost four decades later, while other formats from that same era have become long forgotten – BSAVE? ILMB? – the GIF is still going strong, effectively conveying everything from dank-ass memes to convenient short-form pornography. Way back in the obscure mists of internet history – 1987, literally last century – a man named Steve Wilhite developed a clever new file format that enabled the efficient sharing and posting of images. How do you pronounce GIF? Is the G hard, like as in the word ‘GIFT’, or soft, like your momma? What does the dictionary, or the dude who actually invented GIFS, actually have to say on the matter? ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |