Ford Reconsiders, Now Keeping AM Radio

[CTListener]

I'm going to be pedantic here, but you don't need the tréma on "oui" - and it should be spelled either "oui" or "ouais", the latter being equivalent to "yeah".

Didn't notice the thingy on top of the "i" -- and after all these years, I still have no idea how to create diacritical marks on my computer -- and had no idea about "ouais." Is that pronounced with the French "ai" sound, between a long "a" and a short "e"? Or like a duck's quack, which is how "oui" comes out of a Quebecer's mouth?

 

[Mark Roberts]

Didn't notice the thingy on top of the "i" -- and after all these years, I still have no idea how to create diacritical marks on my computer -- and had no idea about "ouais." Is that pronounced with the French "ai" sound, between a long "a" and a short "e"? Or like a duck's quack, which is how "oui" comes out of a Quebecer's mouth?

Sounds roughly like "way" and pretty standard for spoken language.

Macintoshes can do diacritics automatically (explore the ALT key for more); on Windows one can either install the English (US) International keyboard or install a small program called "Compose Key". I usually use Linux, where a "compose key" functionality comes built-in as long as you assign a key for the purpose - e.g. I have selected the "Menu" key for this purpose on my laptop, so to type "é", press "menu", then ', and then "e". The Windows "Compose Key" program works similarly. If I have to do heavy-duty typing in Spanish or French, I switch to the international keyboard because that has "dead keys" that wait for a second input before actually typing a character.

Under no circumstances should anyone outside France install a European French keyboard. It isn't a QWERTY keyboard and you will be driven crazy. Oddly, the French Canadian keyboard is a QWERTY keyboard.

As for Canadian French, when I've been in Québec I've had a much easier time conversing with taxi drivers that came from the Caribbean or from Africa - who learned standard French - compared to Québecers. And then there's that business with dépanneur.

 

[Kelly A]

With about 16,000,000 Hispanics in just California and over 65,000,000 in the US, that is pretty important. We are getting to the point where we'll start to see movements and legislation such as exist to protect francophones and their culture in Canada.

Good Lord flew right over your sombrero.

 

[davideduardo]

Under no circumstances should anyone outside France install a European French keyboard. It isn't a QWERTY keyboard and you will be driven crazy. Oddly, the French Canadian keyboard is a QWERTY keyboard.

I used Latin American Spanish keyboards exclusively. Buy them from Mexico using Redragon ones with mechanical keys or get custom WASD keyboards from the Bay Area (nice folks, too!). They work just as well as English US keyboards but just have a few different placements. I use AutoHotKey for macros for any other needed letter with a diacritical.

As for Canadian French, when I've been in Québec I've had a much easier time conversing with taxi drivers that came from the Caribbean or from Africa - who learned standard French - compared to Québecers. And then there's that business with dépanneur.

Oh, yes. On my first trip to Montréal about in the late 60's, I had a hard time understanding and being understood. Yet I had a group of international friends in Ecuador, and we'd meet ever few weeks for wine and cheese and sausage (one of the friends had a German sausage factory) and we'd rotate German, French, Spanish and English in out meetings. But my French and that of French Canada did not match.

 

[Greg Goodfellow]

Without knowing which Toyota, I can't get too specific, but it sounds like a case of being unfamiliar with a rental car.

CarPlay likely came up as default because you had a route in progress. Somewhere either on the dash or the screen was a "home" button that would have taken you out of CarPlay and to the vehicle's default infotainment screen, where you could choose radio.

View attachment 5272

Failing that, the eight white buttons (which is actually one big one) at the bottom of the sidebar take you to the main CarPlay menu:

View attachment 5273

And in there is a "Toyota" app that also offers audio options.

There's also a "Home"button in the sidebar in that view (it may look different depending on the vehicle) that takes you back to a main screen.

One other note: the three apps in the sidebar are the most recently used. I know you've never used Apple Music---but it has to default somewhere, so it's designed to default to the three most common functions---phone, nav and music. If you were to use the Podcast or Audiobooks app, that would take the place of one of the other apps in the sidebar. Have Siri send or read a text message to you, and Messages would be in your last three on the sidebar, and so on.



Flaw in the logic: Very few people are keeping phones ten or more years. Most people get a new phone (especially people who have iPhones) every three to six years, and the software within---including CarPlay and the apps it makes available) are updated several times yearly while you own that phone. And there are firmware updates for it within the vehicle itself.

Compare that to whatever came with the vehicle when you bought it. You're light years ahead by having the phone and its updates.

We have a brand-new Rav 4 Hybrid, and we’ve had absolutely no problem with the infotainment system.

 

[michael hagerty]

I'm going to be pedantic here, but you don't need the tréma on "oui" - and it should be spelled either "oui" or "ouais", the latter being equivalent to "yeah".

If you mean the double dots above the “i”, my Mac did that. I thought it knew what it was doing. I was clearly faking it.

 

[radiofan2023]

Those are probably it, if you want it to stay under $20,000 including destination.

Excluding destination, the Hyundai Venue is priced at $19,995. There's quite a bit available between $20k and $25k, though.

A lot is made of the average new car price being $48,000 (ish), but factor out luxury ($76k), full-size pickups ($65k), and EVs ($55k) and the average regular new car that most people buy (gasoline or hybrid sedan, crossover, minivan or coupe) winds up at $37,292.

So even in the $20,000-$25,000 range, you're in what's now bargain territory.

You can get a base level Chevy Bolt EV for around $26,500. I think that’s the cheapest new EV out there.

 

[Mark Roberts]

If you mean the double dots above the “i”, my Mac did that. I thought it knew what it was doing. I was clearly faking it.

I probably should have called it by its English name, "diaeresis", an indication that vowels should be pronounced separately. The New Yorker uses them for words like "cooperative" ("coöperative"). This is not to be confused with an umlaut.

 

[michael hagerty]

You can get a base level Chevy Bolt EV for around $26,500. I think that’s the cheapest new EV out there.

It is, and it's dead at the end of this model year.

When it goes, the Nissan Leaf will be the cheapest, with a starting price right around $30k (2024 pricing hasn't been announced yet).

Then it's the Mini Cooper-E at about $32k, and the Hyundai Kona Electric, just under $35k.

The Bolt was only so cheap because GM discounted it to make up for no longer qualifying for the $7,500 tax credit. Without that, the price tag was $34k, which put it on par with the Kona.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Sounds roughly like "way" and pretty standard for spoken language.

Macintoshes can do diacritics automatically (explore the ALT key for more); on Windows one can either install the English (US) International keyboard or install a small program called "Compose Key". I usually use Linux, where a "compose key" functionality comes built-in as long as you assign a key for the purpose - e.g. I have selected the "Menu" key for this purpose on my laptop, so to type "é", press "menu", then ', and then "e". The Windows "Compose Key" program works similarly. If I have to do heavy-duty typing in Spanish or French, I switch to the international keyboard because that has "dead keys" that wait for a second input before actually typing a character.

Under no circumstances should anyone outside France install a European French keyboard. It isn't a QWERTY keyboard and you will be driven crazy. Oddly, the French Canadian keyboard is a QWERTY keyboard.

As for Canadian French, when I've been in Québec I've had a much easier time conversing with taxi drivers that came from the Caribbean or from Africa - who learned standard French - compared to Québecers. And then there's that business with dépanneur.

I'm wondering why the students in the TV series "Riverdale" are taking Spanish at their high school when they're near the border. Seems like they should be taking French. The fact that Veronica is Latina in this version is irrelevant because her celebrity parents sent her to this place in the middle of nowhere where they happened to have a hotel suite.

 

[michael hagerty]

I'm wondering why the students in the TV series "Riverdale" are taking Spanish at their high school when they're near the border. Seems like they should be taking French.

Wouldn’t the ability to speak Spanish be far more useful on a daily basis compared to French if you live near the border?

 

[vchimpanzee]

Wouldn’t the ability to speak Spanish be far more useful on a daily basis compared to French if you live near the border?

I was talking about Quebec.

 

[davideduardo]

I was talking about Quebec.

Name me a large American metro area on the border with Quebec.

Now name a medium size American metro on the Quebec border.

And now anything other than a little town or village.

Right...

...there is no San Diego, El Paso, McAllen or the like on the Quebec / US border. Not even a Nogales or Calexico or Del Rio. There are more otters than people along that border area.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

I'm wondering why the students in the TV series "Riverdale" are taking Spanish at their high school when they're near the border. Seems like they should be taking French. The fact that Veronica is Latina in this version is irrelevant because her celebrity parents sent her to this place in the middle of nowhere where they happened to have a hotel suite.

What possible relevance does this have to anything?

 

[michael hagerty]

I was talking about Quebec.

Ah. I need to stay more current on TV shows about Archie comic book characters.

 

[CTListener]

Name me a large American metro area on the border with Quebec.

Now name a medium size American metro on the Quebec border.

And now anything other than a little town or village.

Burlington, VT, a small city of about 45,000, is the closest you can get, I believe, and even that's not right on the border.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Ah. I need to stay more current on TV shows about Archie comic book characters.

I usually get accused of sharing too much information and this is a case where I assume the post I was replying to had enough information.

But at my high school we only had French. There are far more immigrants who speak Spanish where I live now than there were then. So it's curious to me why Archie's high school has Spanish when Quebec is so close. Unless they're actually closer to New York City where there are lots of immigrants, or descendants of immigrants.

 

[michael hagerty]

I usually get accused of sharing too much information and this is a case where I assume the post I was replying to had enough information.

But at my high school we only had French. There are far more immigrants who speak Spanish where I live now than there were then. So it's curious to me why Archie's high school has Spanish when Quebec is so close. Unless they're actually closer to New York City where there are lots of immigrants, or descendants of immigrants.

God only knows what possessed me, but I went looking and found that the general consensus of fans is that the fictional Riverdale is on the west side of the Tappan Zee bridge over the Hudson River, in Rockland County (which apparently gets mentioned in the show, and there is only one Rockland County in the United States).

So, assuming that's correct as can be for a place that doesn't really exist, it's 33 miles from midtown Manhattan and 485 miles from Quebec.

More I-can't-believe-I-bothered-knowledge: The show is actually shot in British Columbia.

 

[vchimpanzee]

God only knows what possessed me, but I went looking and found that the general consensus of fans is that the fictional Riverdale is on the west side of the Tappan Zee bridge over the Hudson River, in Rockland County (which apparently gets mentioned in the show, and there is only one Rockland County in the United States).

So, assuming that's correct as can be for a place that doesn't really exist, it's 33 miles from midtown Manhattan and 485 miles from Quebec.

More I-can't-believe-I-bothered-knowledge: The show is actually shot in British Columbia.

With the maple syrup industry, and the fact that a lot of CW shows are filmed in Canada, I had assumed it was farther north.

I have this memory of someone going across the border and maybe that's what I'm thinking about.

 

[Kelly A]

With the maple syrup industry, and the fact that a lot of CW shows are filmed in Canada, I had assumed it was farther north.

I have this memory of someone going across the border and maybe that's what I'm thinking about.

Sorry, what does this have to do with AM radio being kept in Ford vehicles?