Tag Archives: WWW

Twittear y Textear and the OED

I tweeted yesterday:

Algo aprendí hoy (para Twitter o SMS): q = que, xq = porque o por qué, y xf = por favor. También, “twittear” y “textear” son hilarantes. :)

Googling a bit produced some folks more concerned with the neologisms not being in the dictionary rather than the fact they are already being used in the wild. And not just with the kids — witness the social buttons on muyinteresante.es:

Coincidentally, muyinteresante.es had this story today, “¿Existe algún diccionario que incluya la palabra ‘tweet’?”, asking if there is some dictionary that includes the word “tweet”. In fact, the OED is adding “tweet” in the contemporary sense:

The noun and verb tweet (in the social-networking sense) has just been added to the OED. This breaks at least one OED rule, namely that a new word needs to be current for ten years before consideration for inclusion. But it seems to be catching on.

We’ll have to see if twittear and textear wind up in the DRAE at some point. Ya veremos.

Recommendations for podcasts

I go through phases of listening to podcasts and not listening to podcasts. I am in a “listen” phase at the moment, and here is what I’m subscribed to. (I might not get to every episode of everything, but they are all good shows.)

Feel free to leave your own recommendations in the comments or via Twitter.

99% Invisible — A tiny radio show about design, architecture & the 99% invisible activity that shapes our world.
BBC Radio 5 Live: Outriders — Dedicated to exploring the frontiers of the web.
BBC World Service: Global News – The best stories, interviews and on the spot reporting from around the world.
The Bugle — Leaving no political hot potato unbuttered.
How Stuff Works: Stuff to Blow Your Mind (natural sciences) and Stuff You Missed in History Class (history).
KCET SoCal Connected: In the Studio and UpFront Reports.
KCRW: Good Food and Good Food on the Road — Discover great restaurants that you’ve never heard of, the politics of consumption, explorations of cultures through their food customs and some of the most interesting people who devote their lives to various elements of the food supply.
KCRW: LA Observed — Covers the week’s top stories in LA media, politics and culture, sharing breaking news when it’s available and tying up loose ends on the topics that Angelenos have been discussing all week.
KPFK: Bike Talk and Focus on Food.
KSPC: The Interchange – Connecting campus to community on KSPC 88.7 FM Claremont.
LA Foodie — Looking for the best eats in L.A. and usually finding them.
News in Slow Spanish — Weekly News, Spanish grammar, and Spanish expressions at a slow pace.
PRI’s The World: Global Hit and The World in Words.
Project Moonbase — The Historic Sound of the Future!
SpanishPod101.com: Learn Spanish I — Learn Spanish in the fastest, easiest and most fun way.
The Sporkful — It’s not for foodies, it’s for eaters.
The Thrilling Adventure Hour — A staged production in the style of old-time radio.
Welcome to Night Vale — Community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff’s Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.

Ars: “The secret to online safety: Lies, random characters, and a password manager”

Ars Technica: “The secret to online safety: Lies, random characters, and a password manager”

It’s time to ask yourself an uncomfortable question: how many of your passwords are so absurdly weak that they might as well provide no security at all? Those of you using “123456,” “abc123,” or even just “password” might already know it’s time to make some changes. And using pets’ names, birth dates, your favorite sports teams, or adding a number or capital letter to a weak password isn’t going to be enough.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help. We’re going to focus on how to use a password manager, software that can help you go from passwords like “111111″ to “6WKBTSkQq8Zn4PtAjmz7″ without making you want to pull out all your hair. For good measure, we’ll talk about how creating fictitious answers to password reset questions (e.g. mother’s maiden name) can make you even more resistant to hacking.

Myope prodding of the day, 8 Jun 2011

As with paywalls, I am not dogmatic about these things. I don’t think it’s incumbent upon the New York Times or The Wall Street Journal to allow all their content to flow freely through the infosphere with no restrictions. I do not pull out my crucifix when people use the phrase “Digital Rights Management.” If publishers want to put reasonable limits on what their audience can do with their words, I’m totally fine with that. As I said, I think the Kindle has a workable compromise, though I would like to see it improved in a few key areas. But I also don’t want to mince words. When your digital news feed doesn’t contain links, when it cannot be linked to, when it can’t be indexed, when you can’t copy a paragraph and paste it into another application: when this happens your news feed is not flawed or backwards looking or frustrating. It is broken.

From The Glass Box And The Commonplace Book (2010) by Steven Berlin Johnson.