this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
83 points (98.8% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26674 readers
1571 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics.


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I got a task to buy a smart phone for my grandparents, they are not techsavy but they know how to use basic functions. Iam looking for an andoid because it has language pack i need. I dont need it to have lots of functions, onley a good camera and a big screen. Bonus points if it can be flashed with some kind of simplefied version of android.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] CascadianGiraffe@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

SOS doesn't stand for anything. People made it up later.

The original distress signal was CQD, which stood for "seeking you, distress" or "all stations, distress," according to PBS. This was widely used by the British, while Germans used SOE and the Americans used NC, which meant "call for help without delay."

A 1906 International Telegraphic Radio Conference effectively standardized communication by suggesting the simpler SOS, which is easier to signal because of its distinct dots and dashes sequence.

See the difference for yourself:

CQD: -.-./--.-/-..

SOS: .../---/...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2023/05/12/what-does-sos-mean-its-history-and-what-it-means-on-your-iphone/11746118002/

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

SOS doesn’t stand for anything. People made it up later.

Ah, so is it a backronym, then? Neat, I didn't know that.

The original distress signal was CQD, which stood for “seeking you, distress”

How did they decide on those letters? Is it relevant that "CQ" sounds a bit like "seek you"?