Machina improba

Language

The Copyright bill that Won't Die

Posted Fri, 10/17/2008 - 3:10pm by rernst

I'm not normally one to talk politics, and I regard it as distasteful (and annoying!) to deal with, but I do pay attention. Harper might have solace in his minority-majority, but eventually he's going to annoy enough people as to discredit the Conservatives -- much like the Liberal party has now -- for many years to come.

Why I dumped Domainsatcost.ca

Posted Tue, 06/17/2008 - 10:25am by rernst

I've been slowly moving all of my registered domains away from domainsatcost.ca over the past year. Why? There are several reasons:

  • Irony poisoning: $13.45 is not 'at cost' by any means. 10dollar.ca is cheaper, less annoying, and has a better interface
  • Big Irritations: you can't register a domain name for more than a year at a time. Whenever you perform any transaction, you get a 50 cent fee added to the total for the 'privilege' of using your credit card. Um, why?

The War on Words — part 4

Posted Thu, 12/27/2007 - 4:46am by rernst

The Death of the Written Language

Can I aks a question?

What do you want for Xmas?

What's become of the written language these days? Am I one of the last to care that if I type like a moron, people will believe I'm a moron? How hard is it to use capitals and punctuation,

The War on Words — part 3

Posted Thu, 12/20/2007 - 4:46am by rernst

Irrelevance

Side note: This was originally going to be the last part in the series. Because of an email I received about a week ago, I've been inspired to create a fourth part in the series. At the rate of language degeneration, who knows how many parts there might be?

‘Readability’ post filler

Posted Wed, 12/19/2007 - 2:04pm by rernst

cash advance

I remember reading somewhere that 'in order to appeal to the widest audience possible', your blog should be at the Junior High level or below.

Well, guess what...

The War on Words — part 2

Posted Wed, 12/12/2007 - 12:54pm by rernst

The Omni-word

In every era there's a catch-all label that doesn't really mean anything. But meaning is independent of power, and of perceived meaning.

"The one means that wins the easiest victory over reason: terror and force."

The War on Words — part 1

Posted Fri, 11/30/2007 - 3:19pm by rernst

Equal, But Opposite

I'm confident it's not a 20th century invention to use words to mean the opposite of what they conventionally mean. But it certainly is pervasive. And annoying. And very, very dangerous.

Something I saw somewhere:

"English is the language that lets you talk until you figure out what to say"

Take for example, the phrase 'Digital Rights Management protections', which I came across recently.

The “words you can’t use” are back

Posted Thu, 11/29/2007 - 1:48pm by rernst

Howard Knopf over at Excess Copyright has a sarcastic article about using words that might, possibly, in some way, possibly be inferred to reference the Olympic Games in Vancouver (2010).

I've written about this sort of thing before in Airstrip OneLondon.

In addition to gagging on the irony, the 2010 Olympics mascot is called 'Sumi': Knopf makes fun of this (very deservedly) as well.

Battle of the Names

Posted Thu, 10/25/2007 - 1:58pm by rernst

The Boston Beer Company, owners of the "Samuel Adams' trademark, sent a cease and desist letter to the the registrant of a domain name for Mayor-to-be of Portland, Oregon because that's his name, too.

Wonderful.

Boston Beer's Helen Bornemann said she didn't know there was a real Sam Adams running for mayor when she sent the letter.
...

That ’skill-testing’ question

Posted Fri, 08/03/2007 - 1:12pm by rernst

I've always wondered why contests in Canada had that 'skill-testing question' at the end. Here's why:

In reality, the test is a hack of Canada's legal code by the promotions business. Canadian anti-gambling law makes it illegal to sell chances to win a prize, so promoters always offer a free method of entering each contest, and task every winner with a skill-testing question

If you ask me, the crown jewel is: