Y'know things that are all the rage? Blogs. Everyone has one; or at least had one before Facebook, Twitter et al diluted the realtime pool.
Since I'm nu-old skool — and watching endless streams of people writing #incomprehensible #twaddle u n me l8r lol @knickerlicker bores me — I figured why not make a blog? The main difference here compared with other people's blogs is that instead of being limited to one topic, you get a little slice of everything all mashed up. I'm too good to be tweeting.
When automation goes incorrect
· 214 words (devours less than a minute)Text to speech still has a way to go before it becomes broadly useful and not inadvertently funny, it seems.
Security without atoms
· 174 words (munches less than a minute)Ambiguous signage is a pet love of mine. Saving a few bucks to print less is fine, unless the meaning can be misinterpreted.
Five reasons why Emoji sucks as a language
[1 comment] · 1405 words (laps up about 7 mins)With the meteoric rise in the use of Emoji, I can’t help but wonder if people really have missed the point of communication.
Five on Politically Correct island
[6 comments] · 958 words (sucks up about 5 mins)What do you get when you cross an old book with idealists from a modern world, hell-bent on not offending anyone for fear of litigation? A damn mess.
Online illiteracy is rife
· 924 words (devours about 5 mins)I thought it was a simple question: “Why do you never forget how to ride a bike?” Yahoo Answers cropped up as the top result. I should have known better, but I clicked it.
Offended by sarcasm: cultural idioms
· 293 words (wastes about 2 mins)Oh great, now you’ve set my legs on fire. Thanks a bunch.
Manual translation
· 387 words (wastes about 2 mins)You know you’re in for something special when the opening paragraph of a DVD operating manual reads “When open, refit or demount the machine, our company cannot supply after-sales service.”
Word wrap vs line cut
· 48 words (munches less than a minute)Note to email client providers: sometimes it’s better to wrap than to truncate, to avoid potential confusion.
