• onlinepersona@programming.dev
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    2 days ago

    The term also confuses me. What does customising a desktop have to do with rice? Is it like beads to decorate stuff? Maybe “beading” would have a bad interpretation, but rice is just confusing.

    • psycotica0@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Uhmmmm, pretty sure it’s worse than that. My understanding of the term is that it comes from cars, where cheaper Asian cars were entering the American market and were called “rice burners” (racistly), and I’m pretty sure from there the concept of decking out a cheap car with spoilers and ground kits and a wild paint job and stuff was called “ricing” because it was a thing in the Asian communities. As in “ricing a car” is “doing what an Asian would do to that car, and you know how they’re all about rice”

      I’d be happy to be wrong here… but I think that’s the history on that word.

        • rebelsimile@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          I am old enough that the term would make me uncomfortable to use, yeah. Imagine my surprise when all the Linux vids use it.

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        Im old. It used to be derogatory against imported cars to North America. Rice Racers meant Japanese imports that were modified.

        But the meaning or rather the connotation has changed. It now is more related to the cooking term of ricing, where you pass a vegetable through a ricer to break it into rice sized pieces. You rice your PC by tuning all the pieces and making minute tweaks.

        As another commentor added the RICE term for cars is now a backcronym of Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements

    • Krimika@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I believe ricing roots from the derogatory word for Asian mod cars, known as ricers. Customizing or modding them was the deal.

    • Bo7a@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      It is an extension/evolution of the idea of ricing cars. Originally it was something like Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements. Basically stuff that makes your car look “racier”/faster, but does nothing for performance.

      Edit to add - That is probably backronym to cover up for the mostly racist origination of that term. I can’t be sure.