Cupertino effect

The Cupertino effect (after Cupertino , a city in California) is when the software-based spell checker suggests a completely incoherent replacement word due to a coincidental similarity of the characters and this is then taken over into the document by the user carelessly. The term was invented by the secretaries and translators of the European Union. It is based on the case that occurred in practice that a spell checker wanted to replace co-operation in cupertino . For example in this title: Within the GEIT BG the Cupertino with our Italian comrades proved to be very fruitful .

The Cupertino effect is a fundamental weakness of contextless spell checks that depend on human judgment to find the correct substitute word. As such, the influence of the Cupertino Effect necessarily extends throughout the history of word processing. The earliest documented example is incorrect replacements in Word 4 for the Apple Macintosh from 1989. In the computer field, such errors are often referred to as the Layer 8 problem ("the user"), since the error only occurs through immediate user intervention becomes possible.

The reproducibility of an individual Cupertino error therefore depends on the configuration of the word processor used and on personal judgment.

See also

• Scunthorpe problem

Web links

• Konrad Lischka: Technology annoyance spell check: Baroque Obama and the stinker rockets . In: Spiegel Online , March 26, 2009.
• The word: Cupertino effect . New Scientist # 2632, November 28, 2007 (English).
• Benjamin Zimmer: The Cupertino effect strikes again . University of Pennsylvania Language Log , October 2, 2006 (Screenshots Cupertino Effect; English).
• Benjamin Zimmer: The Cupertino Effect . University of Pennsylvania Language Log , March 9, 2006.

Individual evidence

1. ^ NATO Stabilization Force: Atlas raises the world . May 14, 2003.
2. ^ Benjamin Zimmer: The Cupertino Effect . University of Pennsylvania Language Log , March 9, 2006, accessed May 7, 2018.