The fun of writing software for the world
This article has some interesting anecdotes of challenges Microsoft has had writing software for use in other countries. In some cases employees were actually arrested in the in the offended countries. Apparently the software giant is now giving all their staff geography lessons...
A color-coded world map showing time zones, showed the disputed Jammu-Kashmir region as not being in India - an offence under Indian law. The mistake led to the whole of the Windows 95 operating system being banned in the country.
The Spanish version of Windows used the word Hembra - meaning "woman" in Spain - for choosing gender. But in some Central American republics, notably Nicaragua, the word is an insult meaning "bitch".
Labels: Development, Software