Throughout our writing educations and careers we’ve been told that clichés are to be avoided. We’ve been given many reasons, but most reduce to: They dilute your message. Ok, fine, but how exactly? A hacker’s explanation What follows is a computer-centered explanation that I think will resonate with many: Good stories evidently activate the listener’s brain so that…
Most People Don’t Know What Irony Is
“A couple weeks ago he posted this thing saying he really loved the Dexter series finale, but it was weird—he kept calling the episode ‘great’ while detailing all of its flaws,” said reader Ryan Zalch, explaining his initial puzzlement with Edo’s sarcasm. “Then suddenly it hit me: This guy didn’t actually like the show at all. Somehow, he…
Misuse of the Word ‘Irony’
Irony is one word that has been getting massacred more and more lately–mostly because it’s become in-fashion to use it to appear intelligent. The way most people are using it now is to reference any sort of coincidence with negative outcomes or potential: First Person: “I was running late for work today when I had a really important…
A List of Different Case Types
Capitalization Writing the first letter of a word in uppercase, and the rest of the letters in lowercase. Title Case All words are capitalized, except non-initial articles like “a, the, and”, etc. Used for…um, titles. lowercase All letters in all words are lowercase. Sentence case Capitalization just like a standard English sentence, e.g. “The damn has broken.” Many…
Facism: “I Don’t Think That Word Means What You Think It Means.”
Many, especially in the blogsphere, are fond of saying, “This country is becoming fascist.” Or, “We’re on a path to fascism.” That sounds cool, and it certainly will get some attention, but I wonder if most using the word “fascism” actually know what it means. A Little About Facism First a test. What’s the difference between Facism and…
What Does OS X Say When You Ask it to Pronounce Itself?
In the tech world it’s easy to find debates about how to pronounce things. One of those things is OS X. Most people either say “Oh Es Ex” or “Oh Es Ten“. So which is it? As it turns out, it’s not a matter of preference like most claim — that is unless you simply prefer to pronounce…
This is How You Pronounce Ubuntu
It irks me when names are mispronounced—especially when it’s easy to figure out the right way to say it. Some examples include “line-ix”, “oh-es-ex”, or “you-bun-too”. The mispronunciation of Ubuntu is becoming more common now. As it gets more popular more are getting the opportunity to mangle it. When I first saw the name I proceeded to mess…
Shibboleths and Logical Fallacies
My friend Steven has some interesting things to say about, “begging the question”. In brief, it doesn’t mean to introduce a question, or to raise one. It is quite different from that, meaning most everyone is using it incorrectly. This is how I met Steven, actually. He corrected my misuse of it on the site here. He then…
The Definition Of Atheism, And Why It Is NOT A Belief
One of the common arguments from Christians is that atheism is a belief analogous to their own belief in God. The implication, of course, is that both are therefore equally reasonable. Unfortunately, the debate can’t even start without resolving the meaning of atheism itself. I don’t claim to be able to resolve this very complicated issue in a…
No More Clichés
Cliches are like assholes, everyone thinks theirs has a silver lining, but they’re really just full of shit. A while back while in a writing improvement phase a friend of mine gave me some excellent advice. Stop using clichés. The reason clichés are undesired is because they don’t stimulate people the same way “regular language” does. I initially…
Stop Freaking Out When People Use “Hacker” To Mean Computer Criminal
People who use the word “hacker” when they’re referring to computer criminals are not wrong. One can argue that they don’t know the whole story, or that they lack an appreciation for the “real” meaning of the word, but they aren’t wrong. We in the geek community know what the word really means, and we can continue to…
Learn Languages By Studying Accents
One of the best ways to learn to speak with a proper accent in a given language is to study the accent those people have when speaking your language. You’ll find that the mistakes nuances you hear in the way they speak English are precisely those that you’ll need to emulate to sound authentic in theirs. It feels…
A Hacker Is A Criminal
A Hacker is a bad guy—someone trying to break into computers with the intent of causing harm. Don’t argue with it, and stop fighting it. It’s time for those in the security community to stop with the stubborn romantization of the word and start accepting what it means today. [ NOTE: I don’t believe this argument anymore in…