"Lorem Ipsum" article on AOL reports Chrysler design competition

"Lorem Ipsum" is placeholder Latin text used to budget space for an article to be published.  It's been used in print publishing for decades, and the practice has made its way onto the Web.

Unfortunately, sometimes people publish the Lorem text instead of the actual article.  This could be because a writer or editor pushes the wrong button before the article is ready, or maybe a content management system burps during the editorial process.

This morning an AOL Auto article promised to tell about a competition for a new logo for Chrysler.  Instead we got the Latin filler text.

Later, it got better.

http://autos.aol.com/article/rebranding-chrysler/ 

At Staples you can't find the aisle with staples!

So I was looking to buy a new stapler at, as it happens, the local Staples. I much prefer them to the really big box stores such as Best Buy -- less crowded, and the salespeople in the computer section seem more knowledgeable. I went wandering the main aisles looking for which row might have staplers..

Finally I checked out an aisle labeled "Tape and Fasteners"...

See the word "Staples" or "Staplers" anywhere? But let's try row 20 and we find...

Hmmm....  Wouldn't you think they could do something clever on the sign with their own store name ???

The MakerBot: A Three-Dimensional Printer

Cool video demonstration of a 3-D printer:

Clever tech guy foils neighbors stealing his Wi-Fi signal

This is awesome!  A tech person discovered that his neighbors were stealing his Wi-Fi signal.  So he decided to thwart them by fiddling with their Internet experience.  For instance, he turns images in Web pages upside-down.  Take a look at an example:

Click screen shot for full-size image.

He uses software magic to turn all images in Web pages upside-down.  He also redirects links to http://www.kittenwars.com/.  The guy behind that site send him an e-mail to him saying that he gets mail from people who think kittenwars has been hacked and demanding that he improve his security!

This is just plain delicious.  The Wi-Fi owner could've just enabled WEP and the neighbors would never get the pass code.  Instead he decided to have some fun with the bandwidth thieves.  Bravo!

See http://www.ex-parrot.com/pete/upside-down-ternet.html for the full story.

"Intranet Focus" article mangles Internet history

Twice today I've run across this query on Twitter:

Just blogged on the first use of the term 'intranet'. Probably dates back to 1992, but who first used it? Do you know? http://bit.ly/8ePBrj

The compressed URL expands to http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=75 which mangles the history of the Internet.  If you were a professor and your student turned in a work with this many glaring errors, you'd award an F.  The author, Martin White, promotes himself as quite the information industry expert, so this is a tad surprising.  A quick reading reveals obvious errors:

• It's Marc Andreessen, not Andriessen. 
• Andreessen worked at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications at the University of Illinois -- not the University of Michigan.  (Huge gaffe with funny backstories which I will share if asked.)
• U-M did invent LDAP, and Netscape did adopt it for a product, though it's not clear what that has to do with anything.
• Andreessen wasn't just a "on the team that had developed the Mosaic browser" -- he and Eric Bina collaborated on the project.  History (perhaps unfairly) seems to give the former more credit than the latter. This historical marker seems accurate -- perhaps the ordering is alphabetical.
  

• The history of Netscape vs. IE is much more complex than described. Netscape never really successfully charged for their browser.  Microsoft didn't just offer Internet Explorer for free; they integrated it into Windows, and finally implemented halfway decent TCP/IP support.  This meant a brand new Windows computer could get you surfing the Web out of the box.  The alternative of installing Netscape was left for geeks.  In 1994, we had AOL Starter Disks -- getting on the Internet was not an easy thing.
• Robert Kahn was Vinton Cerf's collaborator on TCP/IP.  "The Wrath of Khan" was the best Star Trek movie with the original cast.
• Robert Metcalfe helped invent Ethernet.  Although a colleague of Cerf and Kahn when they were inventing what became the Internet, Metcalfe is not listed as an inventor of TCP.  He also founded 3Com Corporation, and once famously said that if he'd known that the San Francisco baseball team would have ever rename their field 3Com Park, he'd have called his company Candlestick.

Mr. Martin White's original query -- when was the term "intranet" first used, and by whom -- is perhaps interesting, at least to him.  But his hazy history of the Internet also fails to appreciate the very meaning of "Internet." Its creators were trying to solve the problem of how to build a "network of networks" -- how networks built on incompatible technology could talk to each other.  That's why we call it the Internet.  And they talked about "The Internet" as the global network of networks as well as "an internet" -- a self-contained network of networks -- gee, kinda like that "intranet" concept, right?

"Intranet" is a back-formation of "Internet", and, at least to me, not particularly important in history.

As for Mr. White's belief that use of the term "intranet" dates to 1993, that comports with my recollection, but so what?  The concept predates the term.  Corporate knowledge, or institutional memory, has been understood in some form for many years, probably centuries.  Mr. White might want to look up the term "CWIS" though I think not every bit of research is answered by a Google search.

And whatever conclusions Mr. White eventually ascribes to the wisdom of Twitterdom, I wouldn't trust his summation.  A guy who gets this many basic facts wrong is no source to believe.

Political campaigns. Take heed: 2010 E Michigan Ave vacancy

Need HQ for a campaign in Michigan? Space available @ 2010 E Michigan Avenue.  The storefront may not look exciting but the street address could be.

Hint: the street name and number are perfect for campaigns for election in the year 2010.  Whether it's a state legislative race, a Congressional race, or other, what address could be better suited for a Michigan campaign office in the year MMX?

Next to Emil's restaurant, a venerable Lansing purveyor of Italian food and multinational libation.

Across from the Gone Wired Cafe, where your overflow group of volunteers can enjoy plenty of room, free Wi-Fi, and yummy sammiches and sweets.

And across from the Everybody Reads bookstore, well-stocked in political rags and books for the reading pleasure of your staff, volunteers and supporters.  And if you're making news, pitch your story to the Lansing City Pulse, just down the block.

Name a sign Staples needs...

   Staples!     20 


For the aisle w staplers & staples...

"Fasteners"???  C'mon, why the euphemism?

Directv: poor wages!

Store at mall offers very low wages

Discover the new Kenneth Cole backpack with special "File" feature

I spied a nifty Kenneth Cole computer-friendly backpack at the local Staples, so I went online to see if they offered a decent price. Locating the same item at J and R, the NYC discounter, I double checked its features to be sure they were the same. The text bragged that the backpack sports a "File Folder" -- cool -- but why was "File" hyperlinked?

_________________________________________

Usually if a catalog hyperlinks a term of art -- say, part of an Amazon or Crutchfield item description -- they want to define what the term means, or offer links to products with similar features.

So what is a "File" folder in a backpack according to J and R?

Welcome to computer literacy, circa 1983!

About time

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.

-- Henry Van Dyke

When William Safire quoted me on e-mail etiquette

William Safire died today. I'm bummed. I've been wanting to write him about how frequently subject / verb agreement is no longer honored. I hear it most often on NPR -- probably because I listen to a lot of NPR. You'll hear things like:

Each of the experts we talked to say xxxxxx.

The subject "each" would agree with "says". But people tend to match the noun closest to the verb. When President Obama announced the secret nuclear processing plant in Iran, he said:

But the size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program.

Wrong, Mr. President. "Are."

Sadly I'll never be able to ask Mr. Safire to complain about this in his On Language column.

But I was quoted by William Safire back in 1983. He'd asked his Lexicographic Irregulars to help him with the etiquette of salutations in this new-fangled thing called electronic mail. I'd written an experimental mail system that was in use at Michigan State University, so I wrote in with my thoughts on the matter. His article was pretty prescient. It's obvious Safire was new to e-mail; he didn't give an e-mail address for people to answer him. And of course it's witty.

Here's the resulting article with my quotes; the parts where he quotes me are in bold:

November 27, 1983
ON LANGUAGE
By WILLIAM SAFIRE

My Dear Computer Ahoy!

That was the word Alexander Graham Bell chose to be the salutation for his telephone calls. That nautical variant of Hey! did not catch on with landlubbers or phonelubbers; most telephonists experimenting with the new device preferred the more conversational Hello ; thus, Ahoy! became A.T. & T.'s first divestiture.

Today we are searching for a salutation that befits a new form of communication. Old- fashioned ''physical'' mail - letters that fold into envelopes, postcards that have to be schlepped on human backs, even messages written on those pink ''While you were out'' pads - is obsolescent. While you were out, the world changed.

Oh, the Postal Service will linger on for a few generations, and absolutely-positively overnight delivery services will arrive breathlessly before noon in offices for years, but they know that the handkerchief fluttering on the horizon belongs to the computerized waver of the future.
The new (why ''high''?) technology of transporting words and ideas has us in thrall; those who hang back, writing ''Dear Whoozit'' on paper, will soon be off the screens of the marketing geniuses who have fashioned the oxymoron ''personal computer.''

Because these machines are in the word-process of revolutionizing mail, language must adapt. We must remember who is in charge: Language comes first; the method of communication comes second. With that firmly understood, we can cave in gracefully to the demands of electronic mail.

This department, ear tuned to the diode dialect, has advertised to Lexicographic Irregulars (Word-Process Corps) for an electronic etiquette. When reaching out across the ether through interminable terminals, how do we sign on to the human recipient? How do ''hackers'' bid each other an affectionate adieu? How do the rest of us affix the stamp of our human identity on our electronic messages?

''Most electronic mail systems automatically provide some sort of heading for you,'' explains Richard Wiggins, a systems analyst at Michigan State University's computer lab. ''If I were to send a message to you over the mail system I wrote, it might begin like this:

7 Message from: Richard Wiggins (Date. Hour. Minute. Second.) Lines- 22 Seen.
Re: Your column on electronic etiquette. Mr. Safire: ''

That's brisk and businesslike, I suppose, but it makes me feel like a cipher, especially since the closing includes a ''prompt'' of reply/ ignore/delete/output telling me to reply to the current message, skip it and feel guilty, delete it from my mailbox, or to out my put, whatever that means.

''Thus, the message is surrounded by a system-supplied header at the beginning,'' writes Mr. Wiggins, ''and a system query at the end. Still, people often do choose to supply their own greetings and 'signatures.' In my example message above, I chose to include Mr. Safire: as a sort of salutation. The type of salutation varies from user to user. Some people begin messages with Hi there , and others may put in the word Greetings .''

Not Dear, My Dear, or Dearest , because electronic mail is - at least in its embryonic stage - less formal than a letter. It is more akin to an interoffice memo or a friendly telephone call, and you do not begin those with Dear unless you want to stimulate gossip at the water cooler.

(Date, hour: minute: second)/ From: Tom McSloy/ To: William Safire/ TL 554- 4062/ Z35TOM at IPODOS/ SAFIRE at NYTIMES/. Beneath that heading, duly printed out by a typist whom I take to be named Daisy Wheel, is this message: ''Bill, this is what a piece of electronic mail sent to you might look like if you were on I.B.M.'s internal telecommunications network, VNET. All the gobbledygook at the top merely identifies sender and receiver, date and time. In my imagination, you are userid 'SAFIRE' at node 'NYTIMES.' ''

We userids get all our mail at this node. ''Since this is in memo format,'' continues Mr. McSloy at I.B.M. in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., ''I don't use the Dear salutation; but I soften the opening line of most memos I write by using the receiver's first name. I use your first name, even though we have not met, because in I.B.M. everyone from the C.E.O. on down is called by his or her first name.'' (Presumably, if both boss and office boy are named ''Bill,'' some process exists to differentiate them.)

Some correspondents see the mail of the future unadorned by any humanizing frivolity: (Date, time) safire 5556666 NYT neibauer 70365,770 Saw EMAIL article. I don't see any problem. off (time). The author of that chilling missive, Alan Neibauer of Philadelphia, envisions a marriage proposal similarly addressed and concluding Happiest person in the world if you ***DATA CARRIER LOST***ALL PORTS BUSY.

Do computer manufacturers and software creators feel the need for social graces in messages? Evidently so; user-friendliness is the jargon for the way to take the hard, mechanical edge off communication between and among people and machines. ''I tend to say Hello ,'' writes Peter McWilliams, author of ''The Word Processing Book.'' Herbert Cooper of Queens Village, N.Y., goes further: ''I feel electronic mail should be treated just like 'analogue mail,' '' he writes, using a new retronym. ''I always start my messages Dear So-and-so and end them Love, Herb . If my message is short (two sentences or less), I may write something like So-and-So - The system is down. - Herb. I feel there is no reason to develop special rules for electronic mail. Love, Herb.''

Barry Fellman of Miami disagrees: ''Since electronic mail is different from the stuff we've had before, I don't see why we should stick with the old rules of etiquette. Electronic mail should open with a greetbyte and close with a goodbyte .'' That's only the beginning: ''Since the computer uses one byte of memory to represent an alphameric character, the only logical choice for the opening greetbyte is O . The closing goodbyte should be C . Such brief openings and closings,'' argues Mr. Fellman, ''will eliminate the needless typing of extraneous words and the inevitable headscratching that comes when you can't figure out how to address your boss or how to choose between best regards and electronically yours .''

All right, everybody, here's a chance to flame like mad was a message sent out over ''usenet'' by Ellen Walker at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, alerting users, or usenetters, to my search. He didn't give an electronic address to send opinions to, so you'll have to use (yech) U.S. mail.

Perusing all this old-fashioned mail about the newfangled mail, I can conclude:

(1) Dear will not make the transition from paper to screen. (Sorry, Herb.)
(2) Ahoy! is not a suitable substitute.
(3) Neglect of any personal salutation makes people feel uncomfortable, and a salutation will emerge.
(4) Hi there! will not do for a rising tycoon, though it may suffice for a kid breaking into our early-warning radar system.
(5) Hello is nice, especially if connected to a first name, but is probably too closely identified with telephone communication.
(6) The leading salutation at the moment is the use of a first name at the start of the body of the message, following the formal name at the top of the address. Wise parents will stop naming children Bill or Mary and will choose Ebenezer or Abigail, setting them apart from all the other potential recipients of their mail.
How to conclude? Thirty , writes the old newshand. Love , writes Herb. Off , snorts Neibauer. Nothing, writes the man from I.B.M.

My own preference: REPLY/IGNORE/DESTROY.

Two Google failures in 2 days - Gmail loses contacts

Google probably has on payroll the strongest contingent of computer science brainpower on the planet. Google has created an incredible services base, with a global, self-healing file system. If you use Gmail, you don't know if you're connected to a server in the US or in China. You don't know where your mail resides. And you don't care. It just works.

So it was a surprise to see a red warning strip atop my Gmail home page, alerting me that Google can't load my contacts.

The issue becomes increasingly important as Google seeks to convince organizations as well as individuals to trust them not only with mail, but with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Google now goes so far as to advertise its service offerings on the Red Cedar Message Board, a place where fans of Michigan State University sports gather. Their pitch: it's expensive to run servers, so let us run servers for you.

A bold, aggressive proposition. But be careful what you ask for, Google; people get really upset when vital pieces of their lives vanish.