mike's web logmike pope's Web logRoundup- July 18, 2008 Mostly language-y stuff.Blackjack Mark Liberman asks about a playground rhyme he wasn't familiar with: "Blackjack, no tagbacks." The comments for the post involve a lively discussion of tagbacks, cooties, opposite day, and many other terms from the protocols of childhood. Fun even for non-linguists.1 three and a half things you shouldn't say to a mathematician. Plus a 4th one (4th-and-a-half) in the comments. via motivated grammarClear Writing Done Easy. "Inept writer" (Motto: "An inept...http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=2000 The green, green grass of home- July 17, 2008 Where I live, a homeowners association keeps tabs on your groundskeeping.1. They don't insist that you have a lawn, but if you do, you have to make sure that it's looked after. In the current issue of the New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert examines the lawn, its history, its upkeep, and its possible future. Such interesting things we learn.The stereotypical suburban lawn is a product of entirely unnatural horticulture. None of the grasses used for lawns are native to the US. If left alone, grass...http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=1999 Roundup- July 17, 2008 Randomer than the normal randomness.Word 2003 to Word 2007 interactive command reference guide. Flash-based tool to help you find Word 2003 commands in Word 2007. There's a Web version, or you can download and install.126 Key Innovations of the Last 20 Years. It's always arguable what should (and shouldn't) be on a list like this. But it's interesting to review the kinds of changes that we've seen in even the recent past. passive aggresive notes. Sort of like postsecret. Except for notes. That..http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=1998 Short and tweet: URL tinyfication and more- July 15, 2008 The 140-character limit in Twitter has brought out a lot of ingenuity in people. Some creative ways in which people are working within Twitter's character limit include recipes, poems, and stories (sometimes referred to as TwitLit).1 In fact, many people believe that constraints are a spur to creativity. Famously, for example, people believe that the sonnet form&151;a tightly structured format for verse&151;can result in some very fine poetry indeed:What Sidney, Shakespeare, Milton and our...http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=1997 Up, Up and Away- July 13, 2008 Many years ago, when I was turning 40, my kids asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I said "a balloon ride." They hadn't hit the double digits in age at that point, so that wasnt exactly practical. But they didn't forget, and a decade later they surprised me with, whaddya know, a certificate for a balloon ride. That certificate has been pinned to my wall for a while. But Seattle weather weather has turned balmy, finally, so I called them up. Not so surprisingly, when I told Sarah I was...http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=1996 Roundup- July 11, 2008 A Friday sorta collection.Vintage Car Logos. Gorgeous. Shot with an iPhone(!) via grow-a-brainHummer's Heyday Could Be Out of Gas. Speaking of vintage cars ... GM might discontinue the "iconic" (their word) Hummer brand. Handwritten Typographers. "The handwriting of typographers intrigues me because it raises so many questions, big and small: Do typographers exert some extraordinary control of the pen that laypersons don't Does a typographer's handwriting influence the typefaces they...http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=1995 Will the circle be unbroken- July 11, 2008 I can't believe that this still happens, but I guess there's always a new crop of folks.Someone mistakenly sends an email out to everyone in the company.Clueless Person 1 hits Reply All, says "Why did I get this Please remove me from this list!!!!!"Clueless Persons 2-n hit Reply All, say "Me, too!!!!!"1Helpful Persons 1-n hit Reply All, say "Stop hitting Reply All!!"Return to Step 3.1 A nice variant: "Remove me from this list and from this thread!" Sent Reply All, of course.http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=1994 The Golden 50s- July 10, 2008 The nostalgic spot that the good ol' 50s have in American culture has some economic justification. In some ways, it was indeed a golden age. Charles Morris, writing in The Trillion Dollar Meltdown:Birth rates dropped sharply during the Depression years, so the generation of men entering the labor market in the 1950s was an unusually small one and was much in demand. The pay gap between young workers and older workers therefore became unusually narrow, facilitating early marriage and family...http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=1993 Roundup- July 9, 2008 Book-y theme today. Purely "on" accident, as the kids say. 'sorted books' project. Nina Katchadourian arranges books so that their titles form little poems.The low-concept version of this is a Jack Dannism. See also.Via Kim25 New Classic Book Covers. (Warning, slow to load.) It's not obvious to me what sorts of criteria were used to select these. Some I find interesting, some ... not so much. If you like this, you might also like the Penguin Design Award shortlist, which features...http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=1992 Tag cloud control- July 8, 2008 I recently decided to implement a tag cloud. I'm not quite sure why this grabbed me; I don't pay that much attention to them my own self. But the idea of how to do it interested me, so I gave it a bash as an ASP.NET custom Web server control1. I don't need a tag cloud control, and I bet that if you need one, you already have one. Basically, this was just a fun exercise for me. Demo here: Tag Cloud Control DemoSource code here: TagCloud control source codeIn a tag cloud, the various tags are...http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=1991 |