Digg It

[peterbirks]

As part of my job I read a large number of newspapers online. I get to see the delightful standards of Indian journalism, indicating better than aything the way the Indian mind works. On many sites, I have the joys of reading stuff by junior reporters who clearly (a) know nothing about business and (b) don't want to be financial journalists anyway. I'm used to this on Radio Four but, amazingly, some of these people seem to be finding their way into Reuters and Bloomberg.

So, it takes a lot to surprise me when I see stuff online. But I was a little bemused to see the following at the bottom of a financial news story this morning:

Post this story to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

"Del.icio.us" ? "Digg"?

God help us. Particularly given the identity of the newspaper concerned. The UK's very own Daily Telegraph.


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Later:

Forgot to mention. I saw an SUV driving through Trafalgar Square a few days ago. On the number plate were five cards next to the number, just in case the viewer was unaware of the poker reference. And the plate number itself?

K4o LOL

Excellent.


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Headline on the BBC Business News This Afternoon:

Dubai pays $100m to buy the Queen Elizabeth 2 liner which will turn into a floating hotel.


Now, that is some serious balla stuff.


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It took a "C++ Visual Basic buffer overrun" signal when I tried to start up Rio Music Manager to make me realize that I hadn't actually run a virus check on one of my computers for many a moon. So long, in fact, that my version of Ad-Aware was seriously out of date. It foud two infections, so now I'm running a full "deep scan". If that fails to cure the problem with the Rio software, then I'm a bit puzzled.

And, yay, I found a malware file on the D drive. And, boo, still getting the buffer overrun error for Rio Music Manager. Weird, as it's run fine for a couple of years. A corrupted file when RMM scans the system would be the logical guess.

Perhaps some judicious deleting of files might be necessary.

One day, of course, someone in the computer world will prvide a solution to a problem that I have with a computer. Actually, that has happened. The guy in Hanoi mastered it. But that was actually AT the computer. I don't think that any instructions that I have followed online have ever worked.

Comments

[mrwarfrog.livejournal.com]

Delicious is a very useful tool. If you click the link it will add it to your delicious page which is liek you favourites from IE, but available on the web.

[wwhyte.livejournal.com]

I don't understand the point you're making with the Delicious and Digg comment. I respect you too much to think you're just being an old fogey but that's kind of how it's coming across...

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Hi William.

Although I have no objection to entering Grumpy Old Man status, both you and Geoff unwittingly support my point )which was referring to the signs rather than the signifieds).


Geoff completely misses it when he says that "Delicious" is a useful tool. It may well be, but it isn't called Delicious. It's called del.icio.us.

"Digg" may be a very useful tool, but it is not how you spell the word "Dig" and it can be of no help in educating children on how the word should be spelt (cue many arguments between six-year-olds and teacher).

Finally "Reddit" is not only a portmanteau, it also makes for a potential misspelling of the word "read". Actually, I'm not too fussed on this one, since "redd" would be a more efficient spelling, avoiding any confusions between "read" (present tense) "read" (past tense) and "red" (the colour).

The Daily Telegraph used to be a paper that cared about spelling. It is therefore somewhat ironic that its links at the bottom of the page are all misspelt.

Do I (in another sense of the phrase) really have to spell this out? Do people still confuse that which is signified with the signs? I thought that kind of mis-philosophy went out with Plato.

Now, if my objecting to this kind of misspelling elevates me to GOM, then I have to plead guilty. It annoys me. And it's not just IT companies, by the way. "More Th>n" is an insurance company, and the name is just moronic.

If you don't care about these things, I fear for the future of language, I really do. I noticed a newspaper report cited on 2+2 referring to "inequity" (should have been iniquity), and then someone commenting on it referred to a "counselwoman". Maybe I just shouldn't be bothered by this. But I am.

And now my rant has caused me to miss my train. Bugger

PJ

[jaybee66.livejournal.com]

It's all over the net. And caused by it. The BBC news website's grammar is awful. I can't remember the article I read yesterday but a verb used was in the plural whilst referring to a singular person. Technology makes people lazy.

Then there are the "shits" (Substituting Homophones on InterneT Sites) written by people who type too quickly and/or are too lazy to proof-read and use a spell checker.

Their is two much of that about. Your quiet write!

It's surprising how many dyslexic people are on the net these days. The stock answer you get when correcting someone is, "I'm dyslexic and you should be ashamed of yourself." In translation they mean to say, "I'm lazy and can't be bothered." Funny how dyslexic people type "their" instead of "there". I would have thought "f3@q*" is dyslexic for "there".

The other excuse you get is, "I aint got time m8. I right proper when I is righting on paper." I'm sure. With Crayolas.

Forget Reuters. It was half way down the hill when I left. I was in the editorial room in Grays Inn Road one day and was watching some fluff typing an article. Grammar and spelling all over the place. I wasn't even in editorial but on the Financial Data side and leant over to correct it all for her before her editor kicked her backside. "You were looking at me. I can't concentrate if people look at me!"

Well, I finally sold the options and now Thomson will kill off the Barony. The fault of Glocer and all the other Yanks. I read a technical document by a Sherman one day and it looked like a child had written it. Shits, poor grammar and it was hand written!

Come, friendly airliners. Fall...

Dun Reddin

[real-aardvark.livejournal.com]

Your point, if I understand it correctly, is still at least mildly obtuse.

In the *hawk, spit* world of the Wide Web, "Reddit," "Digg" and "Del.i.cious" are not merely signifiers, but also the signified. In the real world, of course, they are just silly names. I agree that, often enough, the standard of English language usage on the Web is lamentable, but I'm not sure about these three.

Part of the problem is that the available namespace on the Web has long been exhausted, with all reasonable names being sat upon. "www.dig-it.com" is therefore probably unavailable, for instance.

Even so, I agree, it would be possible to attach the URL for Digg to a text label titleing the site "Dig it!" or some such. But this misses the point. These are, basically, brand-names. Nobody expects brand-names to make sense, or to be literate.

Or am I misinterpreting you still?

In any case, it seems a little unfair to blame this on Indian journalists ...

[andy-ward-uk.livejournal.com]

I found a website about 18 months ago that had some classic number-plates like "A4 YBA" for sale.

I do hope the K4o guy bought his plate (or better still his car) from the proceeds of some pot where the villain overplayed that hand.