Ticket machine - Buy not translated

Irish Rail have installed automated ticket machines throughout the network. The interface can be displayed in multiple languages.

One day, while sheltering from the rain at the station, I decided to look at the translated interface. Early in my career I worked in localisation and we checked the translated software displayed and worked correctly when translated.

I checked the German translation to see if all the words fit (because German words are frequently longer than English) and it looked good. French was fine too, but then I noticed something small – the Buy button was not translated! Ouch.

It is surprising that this was noticed (and fixed) during product development.

Expensive at €92.50 per litre

When I am in my local Tesco I like to take a quick browse through the beer aisle to see if there are any bargains.

I am a big fan of Bulmers cider, even having a ‘Bulmers’ custom license plate while I lived in California and custom ‘Bulmers’ t-shirts made.

I have always felt that Bulmers is priced a bit high but the price per litre during this trip was crazy – -€92.50 per litre!!

While the correct value is €4.44 per litre,how can such an error happen? Surely this stuff is all in a computer. I didn’t inform Tesco because it seems to be pointless – I have used their Tesco Feedback site but have never received a response to any of my feedback.

KFC protecting the enviromental

When I worked in East Point Business Park I noticed that Smoking impacts dexterity, for Oracle employees anyway.

From a recent visit to the Blanchardstown Centre I saw an embarrassing attempt at a “green stance” by KFC. There are a few bins outside the restaurant with a brutal spelling error on them.

The bins say:

Thank You. Protecting the Enviromental (sic) for the next generation

“Enviromental” should be “Environment” – add an ‘a’ and drop the ‘al.’

I normally report issues that I find to the company or organisation responsible. The KFC.ie web site is a single page with no contact links.  The KFC.co.uk site only lists a snail mail address.

No More Babys (sic)

Not surprisingly there was quite a reaction to this, with the doctor being investigated and the woman’s grandparents calling her “absolutely irresponsible” and her behaviour “unconscionable“.

The photo here, from the Irish Times, shows a local resident protesting outside the woman’s home. Nice sentiment but poor delivery.

Even now, 8 months later, stories of Octomom provoke a strong reaction.

A beauty of a candidate arrived a few weeks ago.  At first scan I only saw the “availabul” typo.

When I flipped the flyer over it got worse. It started with a “Weather” (instead of “Whether”) typo, followed by a “Speciall” typo (instead of “Special”) and finishing with “Partys” typo (instead of “Parties”).

I reported all the typos to the email address on the flyer but never got an acknowledgement or thanks.

My email said:

Your flyer arrived in our letterbox here in XXXXXXXX late last week. It was actually a service that my wife had been searching for for a friend that just had a baby.

As my wife showed me the flyer I spotted 4 typos that you might want to know about.
On the side of the flyer with the pictures: “availabul” should be “available”
On the other side, the first word “Weather” should be “Whether”
In the Special Offers section “Speciall” should be “Special” and “Partys” should be “Parties”

By the way, my wife had searched the internet for mobile services like yours. If you had a web site she might have found you. As it happens (this is where I get a bit brazen) I develop web sites, so if you ever consider getting a web site, give me a call.

Regards, and good luck with your business.

We We duplicate word in a flyer

We all get tons of flyers (junk mail to many) in our letterboxes each day.

I always give them a look over, to see if there is anything interesting, but also to scan for typos.

Most are error free, but some have small issues (others not so small).

This flyer is from some building contractors. They have a  “we we” at the bottom. It is ironic that this error is part of the sentence “we pay great attention to detail.”

I haven’t reported this error.

Tesco Typos Tamatoes

On a positive note shopping in my local Tesco is a pleasant experience at 8am on a Monday morning – fruit and veg well stocked, very few customers and no queue at the till.

In the enthuasism to highlight the price of a vegetable fruit, someone mispelt “Tomato.”

I would normally report a typo to the manager but Tesco have consistently been brutal about fixing problems that I have reported to them.

Press Green Button For Ticket

A few weeks ago I was collecting my wife and newborn son from Holles Street.

Off to the parking meter with my collection of coins. As I fed the meter I noticed that the instructions tell people to Press Green Button For Ticket but the illustration beside this instruction shows a blue button. Are Dublin City Council trying to mess with those with colour blindness?

Employee's typo

“Employee’s must walk not run…” – drop the apostrophe and consider adding a comma after “walk.” And don’t capitalise “Point.”

Better still, drop over the to Borders Books and buy a book.

Opperation typo

As Blanchardstown Centre management have not been helpful in previous occasions, I am not writing to inform them of this error.