A while back I applauded the BBC convention of not capitalizing all the letters in acronyms that are pronounced as words. Thus they write about Nasa rather than NASA and Nato rather than NATO, but still print USGS in all caps. The _New York Times_ is getting closer, but you can’t write an article about an agency that is pronounced U-S-A-I-D and call it Usaid. Keep trying, though.
Monthly Archive for October, 2006
Sat
Oct
28
2006
Dear Reader, How do you address your email correspondance? 0 cmts
Dear Reader, How do you address your email correspondance?
Built in word autocompletion in Mac OS X 3 cmts
When you use a well-designed computer program, you’ll occasionally stumble upon amazing little touches that you never noticed before. It is the mark of something well-crafted that it gives you what you need in an intuitive way and hides complexity under the surface so that as you use it more you gain additional functionality without additional confusion. How marvelous, then, when I discovered a few days ago — purely by accident — that most applications built natively for OS X support built-in functionality for auto-completion of words by using the escape key. Just another little design flourish that makes me a happier and more productive Mac user.
Fri
Oct
27
2006
Now that’s just showing off 2 cmts
Yesterday on The Show Ze Frank talked about his step-father teaching him the lesson that if you’re going to do something, you should do it well. Apparently Cambridge traffic officer #T61 took this lesson to heart. I parked my car on Everett street and dashed inside to print off my parking permit so I could move into a Harvard garage. Three minutes after I left the officer wrote the ticket. It took me a further eight minutes after that (damn broken printers) to get back outside and see another $30 down the tube. Touche, #T61, touche.
Sun
Oct
22
2006
Spreading the ABCs in Madagascar, one villager at a time 0 cmts
I’m glad to hear from Rachel (nearing the half-way point in her two year Peace Corps service in Madagascar) that USAID and the Peace Corps still teach the ABC approach to HIV prevention and planned pregnancy, despite political pressures at the highest levels to de-emphasize the “C” (condom use). Of course ABC alone won’t stop AIDS, but every little bit helps, and not playing idiotic far-right US politics with developing countries wracked by the AIDS epidemic is always a good step in the right…err…correct direction.
Twenty-five years of Weird Al 0 cmts
“Weird Al’s essential service is to point out that, from the perspective of the middle-class suburban lifeworld, pop culture itself is weird. This is the paradox of Weird Al’s weirdness: He’s actually Normal Al, a common-sensical, conservative force. He’s Everyman trapped on Neverland Ranch, exposing as many stylistic excesses and false profundities as he can.”
Tue
Oct
17
2006
Best title. Ever. 0 cmts
I am currently reading a short story collection titled _Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren’t As Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn’t Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out_. So far, so good.
Sat
Oct
14
2006
Imagine Earth without people 0 cmts
If all human life on Earth were to vanish tomorrow, how long would it take for every remnant of our civilization to be wiped away? Remarkably less time than you might think, according to an in-depth study bo _New Scientist_.
Thu
Oct
12
2006
MetaFilter discussion about the creation of Israel 1 cmts
On MetaFilter, a link to a 1947 piece penned by King Abdullah of Jordan for American readers about the escalating problem of Jewish settlement in Palestine, and an interesting number of comments supporting and contesting his facts and views.
Thank you, Mr President, for giving us the axis of evil 0 cmts
“Thank you, Mr President, for giving us the axis of evil.
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