I’ve always called it a GIF (like ‘gift’ but with no ‘t’). That’s the only way I’ve ever heard it — on two continents, no less. But I’m aware that some people call it a ‘jif’. I guess I don’t move in those circles. But I can accept that both are okay because, hey, I can accept the validity of things I don’t actually do. What a concept!
Seriously, isn’t it weird that intelligent people can accept other people’s right to do things they don’t do themselves — eat meat, have threesomes, wear plaid — but when it comes to language, they’re like “ERADICATE THE DEVIATORS!”
Anyway, this show’s about GIF, and it’s a fun one. We even strap into the time machine and find out about the letter G.
And if that’s not enough, there’s even a blooper from today’s show.
One-off show: Here
Subscribe via iTunes: Here
Show notes: Here
Show tunes:
‘Gigantic’ by the Pixies
from the album Surfer Rosa
‘Gila’ by Beach House
from the album Devotion
29 May 2013 at 2:31 pm
Didn't listen to the show (what ever happened to writing?) but I've always pronounced it "JIF", ever since I first read about it back in the early '90s – when I also first discovered Netscape and the internet.
My understanding is that it was designed as a way to quickly transfer a graphic across a network and therefore you would "have it in a jiff".
But then, I was also led to believe TWAIN stood for "technology without an interesting name", but I now understand that to not be the case and it's more likely a reference to getting a computer and scanner "twain" to meet.
31 May 2013 at 1:21 am
I've always pronounced it with a hard "G", but that's because back in the mid-late nineties, people sometimes used the alternative extension ".jif" for JPEG files. It made sense not to confuse the two.
That said, I've literally never once seen the ".jif" extension used since I've been internet connected, so while it might have been relevant then, it's an anachronistic argument now.