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Paul McFedries' Tech Tonic

Making the world a better place, one computer book at a time

Lingua Techna

Technology, language, and technical writing (plus some interesting stuff, too)

May 2008 - Posts

  • Blame Technology!

    While looking for something else, this morning I stumbled over a Business Wire story about a survey conducted by WhiteSmoke, a software developer specializing in writing and grammar tools:

    In the survey, adults were shown 20 words and asked to pick out the correct spelling. 'Calendar' was misspelled by 19 percent of people, 20 percent were clueless when it came to spelling 'embarrass' and 'referring' drew blanks from 28 percent. Another 38 percent had no idea how to spell 'definitely'.

    Almost a third were stumped by the spelling of 'liaison' and 40 percent got 'questionnaire' wrong, followed by 'accommodate,' which was misspelled 38 percent of the time. Even 'receive' was misspelled by 15 percent of respondents.

    It's all quite pathetic, particularly when you take into account the eyebrow-raising fact that, unlike the brave contestants in this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee who actually have to spell each word, the survey respondents were given a choice of just three spellings and were asked to select the correct one. A Rhesus monkey could get at least 33% correct in that kind of "test." Ah, but here's the kicker:

    iStockPhoto

    When asked why their spelling was not up to par, two-thirds blamed technology — especially mobile phone predictive spelling and text speak abbreviations such as CUL8TR for see you later.

    Hah! I'll bet those same two-thirds also "blame technology" when they run out of milk (stupid refrigerator!) or when they oversleep (stupid alarm clock that doesn't set itself).

  • A Mess of MacBook Air

    Check out the setup I'm using for my MacBook Air while I write my forthcoming book MacBook Air Portable Genius (coming to fine bookstores everywhere this November!):

    A mess of MacBook Air

    That's a USB/FireWire hub connected to the MacBook Air's single USB port, with a FireWire DVD burner, USB external hard drive (for Time Machine backups), and Apple's USB network adapter connected to the hub. I also use an Apple Bluetooth Mighty Mouse (not shown), which I find faster than using the trackpad.

    Obviously the following Lenovo ad isn't so far off the mark:

    Many thanks to Ed Bott for the link to the Lenovo ad.

    Posted May 26 2008, 11:54 AM by Paul with no comments
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  • Scientists Discover Elusive Soup-Nuts Continuum

    COPENHAGEN—Researchers from Aalborg University announced today that they have finally discovered the long sought-after Soup-Nuts Continuum. Scientists around the world have been searching for this elusive item ever since Albert Einstein's mother-in-law proposed its existence in 1922.

    "Today is an incredible day for the physics community and for humanity as a whole," said senior researcher Lars Grüntwerk. "Today, for the first time in history, we are on the verge of knowing everything from soup to, well, you know, nuts."

    Istock_000000138617smaller_1Dr. Grüntwerk acknowledged that the search for the Continuum has been a grueling one: "We have had many missteps and false starts during the ten years that we have been working on this project. The number of different soups and nuts in this world and the number of possible permutations and combinations are both staggering and fattening."

    "Our breakthrough came when my colleague Äärdväärk Sörënstäm and I discovered that we could represent both soup and nuts as abstract mathematical quantities," explained Grüntwerk. "After that, the equations became almost child's play and before long the entire Soup-Nuts Continuum was revealed in all its glory. We had a couple of Tuborgs to celebrate!"

    Dr. Grüntwerk cautioned that this discovery is only the beginning. "This one answer will lead to many more questions," he said. "Why soup? Why nuts? What is the exact relationship between these two substances? There is still a great deal of work to be done."

    Researchers all over the world have hailed this announcement as a major scientific milestone. Science know-it-all Tal Forehead of Rutgers University said the biggest boost will go to other "theory of everything" researchers. "Those groups looking for continuums such as the Go-Whoa, the A-Z, and the Stem-Stern will be heartened and encouraged by this news," he said.

  • Word Spy Tech Terms: lifestreaming

    n. An online record of a person's daily activities, either via direct video feed or via aggregating the person's online content such as blog posts, social network updates, and online photos.

    Read more about "lifestreaming" on Word Spy

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