Paris, Nov 30th 1996

Bonjour Joyce Brite,

You write good French. Thank you very much.

Sorry I could not answer sooner your nice message in the MMD digest
(96.11.16), but, after I sent a flamer on 96.11.14 about ignorance of
France amidst English-speaking people, my hard disk crashed ... (mon
disque dur s'est planté).  Everything went wrong for me during
these last few weeks.  Even the caddie I used to carry my computer to
the repairer lost a wheel.

It was never my intention to hurt anybody's feelings in this "flamer",
and if that was the case, I humbly apologize. (Actually I finally got a
nice correspondance with several people, amidst them Robbie Rhodes of
course, and Jan Kijlstra).

Here are some equivalents to the words you were mentionning in the MMD
(96.11.16) digest:

player piano = pianola (!) or piano pneumatique, or the different maker's
names (such as: Autopleyela).¶
(Piano-player would be translated by Push-up ... instead of: appareil
pneumatique reproducteur a poser devant un piano)

Music box = boite a musique (with accents: boîte à musique)

computer = ordinateur

hard drive = disque dur
(But a Floppy disc = une disquette)

software = logiciel

home page = page d'accueil (or page personnelle)

Internet = Internet

Modem = Modem (modulateur-demodulateur)(démodulateur)

Memory (au computer) = Memoire (Mémoire) (memoire vive, memoire
morte, memoire virtuelle)

To have the accents on the e-mail, some encoding is necessary, but
sorry, I am no technician. Jody explained that last year in a digest,
if I remember well. And think about frustrated Japanese people who are
trying to get their caracters in ASCII.

We got in France some official regulations to protect the French
language about invasions from outside (from where ? I wonder).
Sometimes, it becomes surrealistic: lastly, it was asked to replace in
French the word CD-ROM by cédérom in one word (cederom). Of
course, nobody uses this last word.  These changes in spelling are a
general nuisance when you try to look for a word in a data-base (base
de données).

I hope I am not actually so mind-blinded about the use of French
language:  with the museum of CNAM in Paris (Musee des Arts et
Metiers), I built last August a Web site on Mechanical Music, which I
try to maintain in 3 languages: French, English and German.  I know
that there are some mistakes in the 2 last languages ... but I really
wanted to put on the Web a good listing of the museums in Europe, the
various MM associations in the world, and some links.  I updated some
information recently, but it needs some more work ... and more images
and sound.

The web address of this site is:

    http://www.cnam.fr/museum/

Then click on Musica Mecanica

The complete home-page address is:

    http://www.cnam.fr/museum/musica-mecanica/musica-index.html

Best regards,

Philippe Rouille¶
(Paris, France)