> more frequent releases sounds like good news, but I've got one comment.
> Perhaps it's just me, but even at <1 release per year I find
> the naming, while cute, confusing - is kaulia > kapuahi (and have I
> spelt them correctly)? I dunno. Numbers are a great invention.
Funny that you should ask. Changing the naming was something we
discussed given the increased frequency, and we decided to start afresh
in 2013. That might be an Hawaiian name with an epoch so you can choose
your preference, or just a plain epoch as we used to have. One idea was
to have one name for the year with different suffices to indicate the
quarter. That's TBD. Suggestions are welcome.
We can certainly find more star names sufficiently distinct from earlier
ones to go for a year or so.
I tried to pick a different starting letter for the
Polynesian-challenged users so if they only recall the last few releases
they don't have to remember the full name. So if we were to use another
name for 2013 it would not begin with H, K, or N.
The names do emphasize that it's coming out of JAC and people might
wonder what will happen to the software two years ahead.
I have no objection to changing to an epoch; I was just following the
existing scheme set by Frossie. Actually Frossie may have rejected this
one as being too long. It rolls off the tongue for me.
The original order was by decreasing brightness but rejecting some that
were too long or too hard to pronounce or too similar to an earlier one.
So Frossie omitted A'a (Sirius), Kauluakoko (Betelgeuse), Nanamua
(Castor) as we had Nanahope aka Pollux, Puanakau (Rigel) to avoid
confusion with Puana, Hokulea (Arcturus) as we had used Hokulei and so
on. I found an alternative name for Aldebaran that I thought wasn't
hard to say and distinct from the others, likewise Hikianalia for
another first-magnitude star.
> I should say I have the same trouble with leopards and snow leopards etc -
> if you live and breathe the software in question no doubt it's clear
> as day, but for more casual users it's not.
I agree with you there. Leopard and Snow Leopard are too similar in
particular.
> I'm prepared to believe that for OSX this is part of a reasoned
> campaign to disorient and alienate Apple part-timers, but I don't know
Wouldn't that lose Apple business?
> if the same is true for Starlink.
The names and dates are given on the Starlink wiki and wikipedia. The
latest release is linked prominently from the Starlink home page and
it's top of the list of available Downloads table.
Malcolm
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