Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Tag: language

  • Skynet for school shooting prediction

    This sounds likely to be fraught with false positives. In particular, the language a student uses during an interview can help distinguish a high-risk teenager [shooter] from a low-risk one, according to previous research Barzman directed. That study concluded that the former was more likely to express negative feelings about himself and about the acts…

  • TED Talk: How language transformed humanity

    Language is our genes talking; getting things that it wants. … Social learning is visual theft.

  • How Not To Break a Frame

    Correct: <script language=”Javascript” type=”text/javascript”> if (top != self) { top.location = window.location; } </script> Incorrect: <script language=”Javascript” type=”text/javascript”> if (top != self) { top.location = “/webct/urw/lc18361011.tp0/logonDisplay.dowebct”; } </script> The problem with incorrect is the address used here is not the address in the location bar.  The one in the location bar has the values required…

  • Rhetoric

    When you think of “rhetoric”, do you think of… using language effectively to please or persuade or loud and confused and empty talk When I originally went with rhetoric in the blog name years ago, I was thinking with the latter to fall in with the already loud ones. Somewhere along the journey, I switched…

  • Firefox 3 and SSL Certificates

    Apparently LinkedIn.com let their SSL certificate expire this morning. Assuming they really let it expire, this is a big oops. Hopefully, someone in their Production Operations Group has been alerted to the problem and is working on getting a new one. The screenshot is from Firefox 3. In the old days, Firefox or Netscape used…

  • If a Learning Management System Was a Boat…

    I saw a CompSci.ca blog post for If a programming language was a boat… (through WIRED) and laughed at the descriptions of C, ColdFusion, Java, Perl, PHP, and Ruby. Java is a cargo ship. It’s very bulky. It’s very enterprise~y. Though it can also carry a lot of weight. Will carry a project, but not…

  • links for 2007-10-21

    NPR : Steven Pinker Comes to the ‘F’ Word’s Defense (tags: Psychology language) Cognitive Daily: Casual Fridays: What charity gimmicks are most effective? (tags: charity)

  • How are you doing?

    Good? Well? I used to say “fine,” but pessimists pretending to be optimists tried to psychoanalyze me. So now I say “good,” but people correct me with “WELL.” Yet… I’m not ready to say well. As a native of the south without much of the accent I need something to allow other natives to identify…

  • Turd Blossom

    LMAO The Decline and Fall of the Nickname – Newsweek Society – MSNBC.com: I’ll give President Bush credit for coming up with one decent nickname: he quite cleverly dubbed Karl Rove, his trusted adviser and top hatchetman, Turd Blossom. (Here’s how we know Bush came up with it himself: no one other than the president…