lundi 24 septembre 2007

Wrong pin

I had a good laugh at Liverpool Airport the other day when hiring a car. I used a French credit card to pay the deposit, so the "intelligent" software, recognizing the card's provenance, displayed the read-outs on the pin-pad in French.
When the time came to key in my "PIN-number" the message "Saisir broche" was displayed. A moment's reflection made me realize that was a direct translation of "pin" in the sense of the terminal pins you get on a jack-lead, for example. An attempt therefore to render "Enter PIN"*. Good stuff, but not exactly obvious. What if poor Jean-Pierre turns up for his car and enters the digits on the pin-pad that correspond to B-R-O-C-H-E, thinking that the next step will be to enter his PIN?! I zink J-P will be catching ze bus.

*Just in case you're wondering, it should have been "Saisir PIN". Duhhh!

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