Although I live in the UK at the moment, we speak German in the house.

I keep being aware that my German is badly out of date when talking about computery thingys. We left Germany before computer related terms really became everyday words and I only got a computer after having lived in the UK for a couple of years.

So when I talk in German about computer stuff I tend to simply germanify the English term...."den Rechner rebooten" for example.

*winces*

It gets worse.

"bluetoothen" ('mittels bluetooth schicken' just feels clumsy)

"reformaten"

You get the idea.

So if you're a German speaking geek, what are the commonly used words?

Do we still say 'dateneingabetaste' or is it simply now 'enter-key'?

Can i say 'Du solltest mal googlen' ?

yep, any word that is used in the german language will be used with the german grammar (chatten, mailen). but like in all languages, the average usage of that words makes the rule.

yes you can say "googeln" (you write the way you speak)
there is no "reformat", it´s called "formatieren".
don´t say "rebooten", the words are "neustart" or "neu booten" (einen reboot machen)
"bluetoothen" won´t be used, "schicks mir per bluetooth"
the enter-key has many expressions due to the long computer history in germany (Konrad Zuse) and because of many different terms in the industry. eingabetaste, datenfrei, apple wanted a different expression so they translated it as zeilenschalter, as the keyboard is like a typewriter rückführtaste (although this expression is more like "pos 1") etc etc

Brilliant ! :)

Thanks, this is exactly the sort of answer I was looking for and why I didn't look up answers on google. As you said "average usage of that words makes the rule.".

Anyways last night while out walking with Mrs .Ketch , I did a little 'war-walking' , just a little sniffing with the pda.

What the hell is 'war walking' in german???! I explained it as 'netzwerkschnüffeln"...

actually war walking in germany is not a common thing and only made by professionals for small corporations.

most people have very safe networks due to a wide education via tv. and those who don´t, usually do this to make wlan available in regions which are not covered by telekom because of a too low social (income) level. if you warchalk or drive there you´re not doing something honorable and it´s thereby infamous to do for hackers.

oh and I forgot, the most used english word for enter-key in germany is return. on a sidenote, I can only speak for the ruhr-area, I´m sure those schluchtenscheisser got some really weird words ..

LOL we say 'schluchtenpisser'.

well, german insults are usually related to ass and british insults to dick ..