As I was looking at the new updates for Windows Vista, I came across this Microsoft patch. This is the problem it fixes:
In Windows Vista and in Windows Server 2008, when you check the spelling of English language text in an application that uses the English dictionary, all the following words cannot be recognized and are flagged as being misspelled:
• Friendster • Klum • Nazr • Obama • Racicot
OBAMA.
How could Microsoft not recognize Obama for so long? I decided to check if this was true by writing one of kitsch-posh’s regular e-mails using Windows Mail.
Before the patch:
Replace Obama with Osama? That’s not change we can believe in. Microsoft also does not recognize the term “Wahabi” and thinks it’s a Japanese spice. At least they should have suggested “Wahhabi,” the well-known version of the word.
But worst of all…
Microsoft suggests changing “Wahabism” to “Arabism.” Oh boy.
The patch only resolved the Obama-Osama problem. I had to manually add the other words to Mail’s database; these included Wahabi, Wahabism, Barack (suggestion Barrack), Soetoro, and some of the cities.
And while Microsoft suggests that Barack should be Barrack, Google disagrees:
It’s said that Barack (Barrack?) is the first to successfully bring the Internet into politics. But perhaps what he’s really done is to bring politics into the Internet; even he can’t transcend the Google vs. Microsoft War.
Tags: Barack Obama, microsoft