Category Archives: language

Twitter and Trees Felled in the Woods

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There have been several stories in the news about companies “listening in” on the Twitter feed for people struggling with their products, and providing personal support.

A reactive Squeaky Wheel policy that can preempt possible public bad mouthing before it happens. (Or truncate it soon after it begins.)

Since those examples, I’ve made a point of mentioning the products and services i’ve had issues with. On Wednesday I got a hit.

In the morning I whined about a Web 2.0 word that annoys me:

“webinar” – i wish I knew who coined that term, so I could make them my arch enemy, and dedicate my existence to their desctruction *pow* 10 am

About an hour later I mentioned the Internet broadcast lecture I was about to start watching.

attending a webinar by MyEclipse on Maven – i.e. i’m sitting at my desk 11 am

In the afternoon, just after 2pm, I received notice that myeclipseide had begun to follow me, in apparent response to my explicit “MyEclipse” reference.

The notice was shunted to my not-so-important folder, and I didn’t see it until later that evening. In the mean time, I had complained about one issue, without mentioning MyEclipse explicitly though.

does the Eclipse java debugger have a data watch/breakpoint? or are you going to make me revert to 1970s techniques to find this bug? 3pm

There was no response from the twitter account (which would of course only confirm the limitation of the debugger).

As an explanation to the unaware who have made it this far, Eclipse is an open source IDE that is practically infinitely extensible. MyEclipse is a configured, supported version of the IDE provided for sale by a company. (IDE is an acronym for Integrated Development Environment)

Another thing of interest is that the MyEclipseIDE account is only two weeks old, with 8 of their 9 posts coming in the last 3 days. Currently they have 15 followers and 36 followees.

The Maven presentation was informative, but I suspect they don’t have the development moxie to be modifying the java debugger to support data watch points. Thus the non-response, if they even noticed it.

Adjectivisitude

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Alice RooseveltAn impressively adjective-laden sentence:

Some say that some of Scarlett’s plotting and scheming aspects might have been drawn from Martha Bulloch Roosevelt’s beautiful and vivacious, independently wealthy and grandparent-spoiled, rebellious and attention-seeking granddaughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

Thanks to Wikipedia’s Scarlet O’Hara entry.

And the phrase “some say that some”, to boot!

My Googlegänger: Prince Charming

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So, I was reading this blogicle by an acquaintance of mine from college. He sometimes is used as a talking-head expert in the media. He has a Google Alert set for his name so he can see when and where he is talked about or quoted. He was giving a lecture in Amsterdam, and right after the lecture an alert went off – someone was liveblogging his lecture.

So, I though that was pretty interesting and wondered what might show up if I did that. Of course, I’m sure I get more false positives with my name that he does with his – Siva Vaidhyanathan. All my hits are from blogs I am involved in or from the 1940’s actor. I guess there could be worse things than being confused with the singing voice of Prince Charming.

Then I’m reading the Dictionary Evangelist’s blog about hacking English at Foo Camp. He has a few “new words” compiled from a session he gave. And one strikes me as applicable: Googlegänger. The other person who shows up in Google search results when people search for you.

Prince Charming is my Googlegänger!

pet peve: the death of adverb

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Monday’s horoscope.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Most social blunders start with the ego. Of course, you’re wonderful, and it is awful hard to keep quiet about such things. Cultivate a confident place in the world. Trust that others can sense who you are without your telling them.

Did you see it?
Prob’ly not, but I see it and hear it dozens of times a day.
It’s killing me slowly.

I may be a mathematician and scientist by education, but I try to treat the English language well.

You should have learned it many years ago: an adjective modifies/describes a noun, period; an adverb modifies/describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

Most often it is the [ADJ][VERB] (heard every minute on sports talk radio) grouping that gets me riled, but yesterday Joyce Jillson decided she wanted to use to the [ADJ][ADJ] of “awful hard” to piss me off. So perhaps my ego is leading to this social blunder (I will invariably smash some grammar here), but anyone who’s paid to write should know those two simple rules. That phrase rings of Jethro Clampett.

-b

Texas Talk

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“I got drunk,… as a skunk… because it rhymed.” – Drunkard’s Lullaby, The Minus Five

Studing the lingo that is Texas English, aka TXE. I thought it interesting that newcomers were particularly quick in picking it up.

The by-line is dated coincident with the start of the major ass whoopin’ that was put upon the Aggies this year. If it wasn’t for two Texas fumbles, it would have been 46-3. “Poooor Aggies”.


Scholars of Twang Track All the ‘Y’Alls’ in Texas

Fri Nov 28, 2:34 PM ET
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL The New York Times

COLLEGE STATION, Tex. “Are yew jus’ tryin’ to git me to talk, is that the ah-deah?”

That was the idea. John O. Greer, an architecture teacher at Texas A&M University, sat at his dining table between two interrogators and their tape recorder. They had precisely 258 questions for him. But it waddn what he said that interested them most. It was how he said it.

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