Google "Street View" Online Maps

Have you heard abaout Googles "Street View" online mapping tool? Read about it at http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/06/01/google.candid.camera.ap/index.html. I think it's icky too. It wreaks of invasion of privacy, and I think we have enough of that already.

Hey, John, is that you I see on the street corner in Helena eating that Big Mac and fries! I thought you said you were on a diet. Oh, and Lori, is that you putting a nasty note on the car parked too close behind you. I saw you kick the tires! And, Susan, I saw you and Ron sipping a beer at that outdoor restaurant in Kalispell. I hope you didn't get in your car and drive home.

PULEEEEASE! Someone stop the madness.

The Helvetic Hegemony: How An Unassuming Font Took Over the World

You have to go to http://www.slate.com/id/2166887/ and see this slideshow about the Helvetica font. Veeerrrryyyy interesting... I'm switching to Helvetica for everything now.

Distorted Word Puzzles Commonly Used To Register on Web Sites

Have you ever wondered what they call those distorted word puzzles you have to type in when you go to a Web site? Well, they are called CAPTCHAs, short for "completely automated public Turing tests to tell computers and humans apart." Computers can't decipher the twisted letters and numbers, ensuring that real people and not automated programs are using the Web sites. Now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered a way to enlist people across the globe to help digitize books every time they solve these simple distorted word puzzles. These researcher say that instead of wasting time typing in random letters and numbers, we should be using the 150,000 hours every day to type in snippets of books to speed up the process of getting searchable texts online. To read the complete article go to http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/05/29/blather.to.books.ap/index.html.

Pet Peeve: E-mail without a Subject Line

I can't count how many e-mails I receive in a day without a subject line! When you receive 30+ e-mails every day, you need a method for determining which ones need to be responded to right away and which ones you can let sit for a while. Without a descriptive subject line, prioritizing e-mail can be a problem. So I have a rule: no subject line, no response.

"And another thing, buster...." I don't know why people think that they can throw all of the grammar, punctuation, and spelling rules out the window when they write an e-mail. Don't they know that e-mail can be used in a court of Law, so they had better take as much care with their e-mail as they do with any other litigious type of correspondence. Just ask Jeff Skilling and the rest of the Enron executives.

As protectors of the English language, let's unite against e-mail abuse and at least force our coworkers to include a subject line. Create a rule in Outlook to let the senders know that you require a subject line. We can deal with the content of the message later.

Help Stamp Out the Colon Epidemic

Susan's monthly news brief about the colon epidemic hit the nail on the head. I have also seen colons in the most superfluous places. I was told once that writers of all kinds are "the protectors of the English language." If anyone has any other examples of the colon placement problem, post them here. Let's have fun with this one: shall we! Oops!