Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• From the Words-I-Didn't-Know-Until-Yesterday Department: mobula , a genus of fish in the general category of ray or skate. They can weigh as much as a ton, and get as high as two meters out of the water when they breach. (Thanks to Pete Albrecht for pointing it out.)
• From the same department: bodge , a UK-ism for a clumsy or ineffective repair. I'm

Comments

[anonymous]

Are there any programmers left at Yahoo, or have they all been sacked?

[madtechie2718]

Bodge has certainly been around as long as I can remember and certainly carries negative connotations. The American kludge is still not well known here.

According to a UK-english dictionary: The term "bodge" derives from Middle English boccen, which means "to mend." I didn't know this - thanks for bringing bodge back to my attention causing me to investigate the origin of a word I use quite frequently...

Close relative botch generally denotes an even lower-grade repair.

On another topic, you might find this of interest: http://forums.bit-tech.net/ quite an active electronic forum, though UK-based.