Read up on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar, and how they called the first day of the month the "Kalends". You won't forget how to spell "calendar" after that.
Lynne Truss, author of "Eats, Shoots & Leaves", has a new book out in which she identifies, and rails against, a nefarious tendency in the modern world to off-load work onto other people. For example, if you had a problem in the old days with your telephone bill you could talk to a human being on the company switchboard who would connect you to the right department to sort out your problem. Nowadays you have to thread your way through a labyrinth of automatic touch-tone menus: "if you know your account number press 1; if your call is about broadband press 2" etc. What is happening is that YOU the user are doing the work of routing the call that was formerly done by someone in the phone company.
Careless spelling and grammar are another example of this. Because YOU THE WRITER don't check spelling and that sentences make sense, I THE READER have to do more work parsing and interpreting mis-spellings; in effect fixing up your prose as I read. The poster who talked about reading as a pipe-lining process is spot-on; bad spelling and grammar stall the pipeline and slow you down.
So can we please see an end to (at least):
* non-standard use of it's and its (come on, the standard is well-defined and well-known); * "loose" where it should be "lose"; * "to" where it should be "too" and vice versa
This isn't hard! Make a check-list for yourself. Spell-check it. Get someone else to read it over (a sub-editor?).
Well said that person. It's about time we realised that advertising is not just an irksome inconvenience but a BIG PROBLEM that's got to be addressed. Putting so much resource into pouring shit into people's ears and eyes to manipulate them is insane. We've got to stop doing it.
It's got to be stamped out. Somehow. Start by following the advice of the parent and boycotting it in all its forms.
Two men sitting at a bar, drinking.
First Man: Do you know, scientists have proved we only ever use two thirds of our brains?
Second man thinks about this for a while; takes a slug of his drink. Then
Second Man: What about the other two thirds?
My firm conviction is that advertising of all sorts is pretty much a scourge of civilisation and ought to be stamped out. I don't want anyone wasting my precious moments of consciousness on advertising. It's ugly and it's stupid and it's a 99.9999 % waste of everyone's time. It has to be resisted, somehow.
I doubt if these plans will reach the UK soon, but the moment any sort of advert hits my Tivo I will junk the Tivo and either find something without contamination or give up watching TV.
The first Man I saw was of a meager Aspect, with sooty Hands and Face, his Hair and Beard long, ragged and singed in several Places. His Cloathes, Shirt, and Skin were all of the same Colour. He had been Eight Years upon a Project for extracting Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers, which were to be put into Vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the Air in raw inclement Summers. He told me he did not doubt in Eight Years more he should be able to supply the Governors Gardens with Sun-shine at a reasonable Rate; but he complained that his stock was low, and intreated me to give him something as an Encouragement to Ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear Season for Cucumbers. I made him a small Present, for my Lord had furnished me with Money on Purpose, because he knew their Practice of begging from all who go to see them.
The most famous Mr Quelch was fat public schoolboy Billy Bunter's teacher in the (once) very popular series of stories by Frank Richards. See the 1950s TV show.
In the UK we have the Telephone Preference Service where you can register to avoid receiving direct marketing calls (also paper mail and faxes). They say
Under Government legislation introduced on 1 May 1999 It is unlawful to make unsolicited direct marketing calls to individuals who have indicated that they do not want to receive such calls.
When you register they send you a complaint form to use when you receive unwanted calls. Since I registered several years ago I very rarely get them.
Correction: the engineer received only ONE pound for his work, and that was only because US law stipulated that he had to receive something. His name was Desmond Sargent, and he still has the two 50 penny postal orders. See this article
Back when BT first mooted this (about a year, 2 years? ago) the British Guardian newspaper ran an interview with the BT engineer, now retired, who recommended the idea back in the '80s and, IIRC, wrote up the patent docs. He never made any money out of it, except for a tiny bonus cheque (of the order of about twenty UK pounds) that they gave him.
Slashdot Mirror
Read up on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar, and how they called the first day of the month the "Kalends". You won't forget how to spell "calendar" after that.
Let's hope so.
For me, spelling and grammar are PARAMOUNT.
Lynne Truss, author of "Eats, Shoots & Leaves", has a new book out in which she identifies, and rails against, a nefarious tendency in the modern world to off-load work onto other people. For example, if you had a problem in the old days with your telephone bill you could talk to a human being on the company switchboard who would connect you to the right department to sort out your problem. Nowadays you have to thread your way through a labyrinth of automatic touch-tone menus: "if you know your account number press 1; if your call is about broadband press 2" etc. What is happening is that YOU the user are doing the work of routing the call that was formerly done by someone in the phone company.
Careless spelling and grammar are another example of this. Because YOU THE WRITER don't check spelling and that sentences make sense, I THE READER have to do more work parsing and interpreting mis-spellings; in effect fixing up your prose as I read. The poster who talked about reading as a pipe-lining process is spot-on; bad spelling and grammar stall the pipeline and slow you down.
So can we please see an end to (at least):
* non-standard use of it's and its (come on, the standard is well-defined and well-known);
* "loose" where it should be "lose";
* "to" where it should be "too" and vice versa
This isn't hard! Make a check-list for yourself. Spell-check it. Get someone else to read it over (a sub-editor?).
Please.
Well said that person. It's about time we realised that advertising is not just an irksome inconvenience but a BIG PROBLEM that's got to be addressed. Putting so much resource into pouring shit into people's ears and eyes to manipulate them is insane. We've got to stop doing it.
It's got to be stamped out. Somehow. Start by following the advice of the parent and boycotting it in all its forms.
All marketing and advertising is spam.
The Leith police dismisseth us!!
Two men sitting at a bar, drinking. First Man: Do you know, scientists have proved we only ever use two thirds of our brains? Second man thinks about this for a while; takes a slug of his drink. Then Second Man: What about the other two thirds?
How about "Guyfaux"?
My firm conviction is that advertising of all sorts is pretty much a scourge of civilisation and ought to be stamped out. I don't want anyone wasting my precious moments of consciousness on advertising. It's ugly and it's stupid and it's a 99.9999 % waste of everyone's time. It has to be resisted, somehow.
I doubt if these plans will reach the UK soon, but the moment any sort of advert hits my Tivo I will junk the Tivo and either find something without contamination or give up watching TV.
*All* advertising is spam.
Here's a visiting journalist's report:
Full report here:
The most famous Mr Quelch was fat public schoolboy Billy Bunter's teacher in the (once) very popular series of stories by Frank Richards. See the 1950s TV show.
When you register they send you a complaint form to use when you receive unwanted calls. Since I registered several years ago I very rarely get them.
Correction: the engineer received only ONE pound for his work, and that was only because US law stipulated that he had to receive something. His name was Desmond Sargent, and he still has the two 50 penny postal orders. See this article
Back when BT first mooted this (about a year, 2 years? ago) the British Guardian newspaper ran an interview with the BT engineer, now retired, who recommended the idea back in the '80s and, IIRC, wrote up the patent docs. He never made any money out of it, except for a tiny bonus cheque (of the order of about twenty UK pounds) that they gave him.