SANDY TOKSVIG: yes, the windows NT kernel was first introduced to the public in 1993. it is still used to this day! windows 11 states that its kernel version is NT ten point oh.

ALAN DAVIES: and uh, what's the NT for?

SANDY: new technology. it replaced the previous--

DAVID MITCHELL: new technology? the new technology kernel?

SANDY: yes, and the filesystem, NTFS, is the--

DAVID: new technology file system. and - to be clear - this is from nineteen ninety three?

ALAN: yes, but you have to consider that it was new at the time.

DAVID: oh, i have to consider... everything was new at the time! that's what "new" means! i-- when i was born, i was new! but they don't call me "new david", do they? because - by definition - things stop being new after a point!

AMERICAN CELEBRITY GUEST: ok, but, like... you know, like, with the... the other one was like, the old one, right? so they--

DAVID: but you must understand that anything that has ever been replaced by anything ever could be described as "the old one", right? it's a completely useless name! "hello, my name is new man, my father is old man, because i'm new and he's not and we don't need to specify any further details!" it's madness!

AMERICAN: yeah, but [laughs]

DAVID: so what happens when they replace the new technology kernel, then? do we get the new new technology?

ROB BRYDON: i think it would be, they rename the new technology to old technology, and the replacement gets called new technology. so the NT kernel is now the OT kernel, and--

ALAN: i bought a new fridge last month.

SANDY: moving on!

@lynnesbian this is funnier than it should be
@lynnesbian i have no idea who any of those names are btw
@lynnesbian if it helps at least microsoft doesn't call it NT anymore
@agatha they changed it?? to a less funny name? noooOO my ability to make niche technical jokes has been slightly diminished, why must microsoft ruin everything
@lynnesbian i mean it is still NT internally but it's not on any branding anymore since NT 4.0
@agatha this is almost as bad as the time apple HQ moved from the inherently funny "1 infinite loop, CA" to the boring "1 apple park way, CA"

@lynnesbian @agatha If it helps: the worst Microsoft naming is still in use! The PE format, for "Portable Executable".

PE binaries are not portable, they only run on the OS and the CPU architecture they were compiled for. And many of them are libraries and thus not even executable!

@agatha @lynnesbian Remember Windows 2000, Built on NT Technology?
@jernej__s @agatha @lynnesbian
They had to write that to make sure people know it's not a progeny of the cursed Windows 95, 98 or Vista kernels, but rather NT which had a stellar reputation at the time.
@jernej__s Built on NT Technology, probably by people who routinely enter their PIN Number into an ATM Machine, possibly one with an LCD Display...

@agatha @lynnesbian I do, and I can hear David Mitchell getting angrier and angrier.

Track down recent episodes of a British show called QI if you, too, would like this knowledge.

@agatha @lynnesbian

It's probably from an old episode of QI (Quite interresting), a BBC show with questions asked to guests. Some are always there like Alan Davies. Sandy used to host the show, I think she's been replaced by now. Before her and for a long time it was S. Fry.
Quite well known show in the UK, been around for ages. (and fun to watch too if you like trivia).

@ClubTeleMatique @agatha

it's written in the style of a QI episode, but i made it up  

@lynnesbian @agatha

Well done ! you certainly fooled me !!!

@ClubTeleMatique @agatha @lynnesbian looks like sandy is still on. I need to get back into the show, it's really fun
@agatha @lynnesbian it's a lot funnier when you know David is a snide middle-aged person who is not down with the kids
@agatha @lynnesbian (just reading that back, David is a comedian so that is a kind of persona that they have and may not be reflective of their true nature)
@lynnesbian I've only seen the Stephen Fry ones but I can hear everyone else's voices as I read this, well done

@lynnesbian

SUSAN CALMAN: But Sandy! New College, Oxford was founded in 1379. The new castle in Newcastle was built in 1080. The only problem with NT's name is that it's not old enough.

@pdcawley @lynnesbian I was thinking of the New Town in Edinburgh, which IS definitely newer than the Old Town. But, like...
Carthage - Wikipedia

@tedmielczarek Carthage is just a fad, it will never take off! 😒
@philbetts I learned of this etymology while visiting Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, which is named for Cartagena, Spain, whose name has…the exact same etymology.
@pdcawley @lynnesbian the New Forest in Hampshire is a thousand years old
@lynnesbian God bless QI & David Mitchell’s logical ranting 😆
@benjamincox @lynnesbian if you like David Mitchell's rants, check out the unbelievable truth. In one episode they have an essay on nuts and David really dislikes that things called nuts aren't technically nuts.
@Trikkitt @benjamincox @lynnesbian This is one of favourite pieces of radio 😂
@Trikkitt @benjamincox @lynnesbian In that 'nuts' episode, David got quite..er.. 'focused'.

@lynnesbian they're going to hate the New Church in Delft, which was constructed starting in 1381. it was named that way because it's 17% newer than the Old Church :D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nieuwe_Kerk_%28Delft%29

(now i wonder: what's the oldest thing in the world that's called new?)

Nieuwe Kerk (Delft) - Wikipedia

@Vierkantor @lynnesbian new testament is definitely older than this church
@lynnesbian In my city we have a street called "Paseo Nuevo" (New Promenade or something like that) and it's only 100 years old.
@lynnesbian Sadly my attempt to persuade people in Intel to call the next generate EFI firmware EFING failed.
@etchedpixels @lynnesbian
EFI:TNG doesn't have the same ring to it.
@lynnesbian If only my last book had sold a few (hundred thousand) more copies, I have might been famous enough to get on the show, and added to that conversation! :)
@lynnesbian I can't be the only one who read that in their voices.

Can I ?
@lynnesbian i mean, it would have been a bit silly to keep calling it N-Ten when the i860 port (the original target) got abandoned quite quickly
@lynnesbian Is there a dialogue like this, but for how, on an amd64 #WindowsNT system, System32 has the amd64 binaries and SysWOW64 has the IA-32 ones?
@lynnesbian I cannot read this without hearing Mitchell's voice in my head
@lynnesbian meanwhile, someone in Nintendo marketing was like “let’s call the new 3DS the New 3DS” that won’t confuse anybody
@lynnesbian Japan had a thing for this for awhile, like the Nintendo N3DS and Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie. Especially that last one felt like they were trolling us but no it was for real.
@lynnesbian was The American Celebrity Guest Rich Hall by chance?
@lynnesbian ‘new man’ is just what patronyms (Mac, Mc, -son, etc.) are. ~Therefor, I propose MacNT as the name of future kernel versions, avoiding any pssible confusion~

@lynnesbian Gotta love the possibility that the replacement would be "New NT Technology".

The folks who rage about "PIN numbers" will love that.

@lynnesbian David is going to be furious when he finds out about Newcastle.
@lynnesbian see also this absurdity on my work desktop
@lynnesbian @joe 👏👏👏 well written, I was confused and thought I'd missed an episode!
@lynnesbian Never name anything either "New" or "Final."

@lynnesbian Sadly no English version, but https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nieuwe_Nieuwstraat "New New Street". From 1599.

There is also an Oude (Old) Nieuwstraat.

Nieuwe Nieuwstraat - Wikipedia

@lynnesbian the regulation about seismic protection for buildings in .gr was at a point called "new new seismic regulation". This apparently didn't strike the regulators as odd as they replaced the general building regulation which was named by the year it was introduced since inception with "new building regulation" in 2012.

@lynnesbian @moof

And Edinburgh's New Town was started in 1767.

At two and a half centuries old it's still newer than the old town. 🤣

@lynnesbian "Nizhny Novgorod", "Lower Newtown", founded in 1221. Had to call it "Lower Newtown" because nearby "Great Newtown", "Veliky Novgorod" had been around since at least the year 859.
@lynnesbian When your product is forward-thinking but your naming scheme isn't.