All files are made up of “text”, or rather, numbers. How each program interprets those numbers differs depending on the kind of work they do. Any program can open any file, but the way it translates those numbers won’t make any sense if the file wasn’t intended to be opened by that kind of program. So, if you opened an MP4, you might see a little bit of metadata that was encoded in a way the text editor can understand, and then you’d get a ton of random symbols, some that are numbers and letters you recognize, but a lot of them would be specialized characters from farther on in the list of characters whatever font is being used might have.

Think of it this way: take two human languages that use the same writing system, like German and French. Suppose you ask a Frenchman who also speaks English to translate and write down a few specific sentences. You then take those sentences to a German who also speaks English (but not French) and ask her to translate it into English. Obviously she can’t. She might be able to sound out the words, but neither of you will know what it means, and it probably wouldn’t sound right to a French speaker. Or better yet, you can ask her to try and guess what each word means. She’d likely come up with mostly nonsense (minus a few cognates and loanwords). This isn’t an exact analogy, but that’s basically what’s going on.

Which is a pitfall for anyone conversing in a language that isn’t their first, I’d say.

If only!

I remember in the mid-aughts my brother hacked his iPod — the wheel kind, this was pre-iPhone — to hold the entirety of the text of English Wikipedia at the time.

Excellent! So immersive!

Where’s the dedicated DRADIS monitor?

Was that Edelweiss? I don’t know what to do with this.

Okay, you didn’t have to put so much mustard on it.

I think autocorrect got your “compromised”.

Unless they are themselves Jewish…

Philosoraptor.jpg

Oh no, not Lucas!

Yeah but it’s not some big mystery why Margaritaville sucks. The lyrics are asinine and empty. What’s worse: it’s catchy.

This isn’t the most substantive of your comments in this chain, but I think it deserves some attention. It’s perfectly worded and it’s a concept more people need to embrace: you don’t have to speak in absolutes and it’s okay to express the limits of your knowledge.

I’ve never been able to watch past Rita dying. Colin Hanks as a villain sounds amazing, but whenever I get to her death it just feels too shitty and I can’t bring myself to start that season.

Like the infosquitos: “this guy sure loves porno!”

Yeah it was a tossup whether to quote that one.

Oh that Count of Monte Cristo is so fun. I wouldn’t have thought of it just now, but I do find myself moved to rewatch it every so often.

Haven’t got a sensible name, Calloway.

The Family Man as in Nicholas Cage/Tia Leoni? That’s up there with Secondhand Lions for movies I was not expecting to see in this thread.

Ah yes, the year of “There Will Be Old Men”. But seriously, I agree, but probably in reverse order. No Country may actually be my all-time favorite now that I think about it.