yahoo! vs. google: tom raggett shows how the two searches compare. A very neat idea.
yahoo! vs. google: tom raggett shows how the two searches compare. A very neat idea.
My project made a side entry in the Guardian! Hurrah!
Two interesting releases: another free PDF creator (I could never get into using PDFs properly because of the vast licensing costs) and a system info tool.
The Washington Post’s Style Invitational has once again asked readersto take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting,or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are thisyear’s winners:
Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops brightideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows littlesign of breaking down in the near future.
Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
Hipatitis: Terminal coolness. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these reallybad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, aserious bummer (this contributor was clearly suffering from the Dopelereffect – the tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come atyou rapidly!)
Decafalon (n.):<:i> The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you. Glibido: All talk and no action. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you’re eating.
Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an ass****.
How to care for CDs for real. Interesting that we shouldn’t reposition labels given that the writing layer is only slightly below the label side of the disk.
We have to do something about chewing gum. It’s not just because I’ve never really got into chewing, its the gazillion pieces of trodden in gum that are on pretty well every street in central London. Look at the fan patterns outside any tube to see which directions people tend to walk in!
A new chemical culprit can make wine taste musty. It’s related to cork taint and comes from bacterial munching on a flame retardant used in cellars. Now that could explain why so many bottles are returned for taint than actually have it.
Alan Mather makes the valid point that we need some form of centralisation of government IT infrastructure (it will be cheaper and more efficient, right?). Maybe LAWs is helping in some way with this.
He also mentions theThe Visual Thesaurus which is beautiful.
To paraphrase and quote: it is all to easy to say “Local government needs to be local” to scupper the former approach and “all content must be accessible” to scupper the latter. There is no simple way to manage the conflict between accessiblity requirements and maximising usability. Maybe the answer is that anything that is mandatory for dogmatic reasons must be understood, but questioned. Of course government must provide all services for differently-able people, but why should it provide worse services for standardly-able people because of this?
Nice idea for a business: free conference calling based on a cut from the phone calls into the facility.