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Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!dave
From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman)
Newsgroups: net.works
Subject: Re: ICONS: Passing Fad or New Found Wisd - (nf)
Message-ID: <1645@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-Jun-83 15:55:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.1645
Posted: Wed Jun 29 15:55:11 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Jun-83 17:16:39 EDT
References: <1574@ihnss.UUCP>
Organization: CSRG, University of Toronto
Lines: 29

A true story:

When we got our new stove several months ago, I plugged it in
and it started making a horrible noise, although it was clearly
turned off. After several tries at figuring out what was wrong,
I finally looked through the manual carefully... only to discover
that it wasn't off after all, but set to self-clean. (The noise
was the buzzer telling me to latch the door.) Canadian General
Electric appliances now use these TOTALLY unintelligible and
non-intuitive symbols on all their appliances.

The symbol which I thought was "off" was an orange rectangle, where
the rest of the symbols are white. But no! "Off" is indicated by
a circle with a broken vertical line in it (something like the
or-bar '|' on most terminals). The rest of the symbols take a fair
bit of decoding.

Our other CGE appliances have the same symbols, but at least there
are explanations in English next to them (or, in the case of the
dishwasher, just inside the door as you open it).

Now, maybe there are lots of non-English/French people buying appliances
in Canada, but surely your average immigrant will learn the word "OFF"
soon enough. Sooner than he will guess what all the funny symbols mean,
anyway.

Dave Sherman
Toronto
(yes, I have learned to use the stove....)