Fun with Acronyms/Real Life/Science and Technology: Difference between revisions
Fun with Acronyms/Real Life/Science and Technology (view source)
Revision as of 17:21, 25 March 2020
, 4 years ago→Telecommunications
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== Telecommunications ==
* ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), a standard network system which was to transmit voice and data across circuit-switched copper telephone lines, was promptly backronymed to '''I'''t '''S'''till '''D'''oes '''N'''othing.
* '''NTSC''', the 1953-era analogue colour television system, was named for the US National Television System Committee. Any errors in phase would routinely cause the wrong colours to be displayed, earning the backronym '''N'''ever '''T'''wice the '''S'''ame '''C'''olour in many broadcasting textbooks. NTSC was used in North America, Japan and South Korea but is incompatible with both European
* Later, incompatible rival standards ('''PAL''' - Phase Alternate by Line and '''SÉCAM''' - Séquence de Couleur Avec Mémoire, introduced to Europe circa-1967) were more robust. They have their own joke acronyms, for instance the Anglo-West German '''PAL'' is '''P'''eace '''A'''t '''L'''ast or '''P'''erfect '''A'''t '''L'''ast while the French SÉCAM '''S'''hows '''E'''very '''C'''olour '''A'''ll '''M'''urky.
** In most NTSC countries (including South Korea but not Japan, which exports its own incompatible system) the successor to '''NTSC''' was '''ATSC''' (named for the Advanced Television Systems Committee). The new system has a few issues, including susceptibility to interference from impulse noise which has rendered the once valuable low-VHF channels all but worthless today, but at least it's '''A'''lways '''T'''he '''S'''ame '''C'''olour.
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