Who Needs Role Models?

If you’re asking me a question, and I reply saying “I don’t understand what you mean by this word.” Don’t reply saying “I just need information about the same word.” Last week I got an email that read:

I am a college student and I am having my thesis right now. I would like to propose a topic regarding CMS and my thesis should use an algorithm. Do you know any algorithms used for CMS?

So, I love my iPad, don’t get me wrong. I love it so much that I set up all my email to go there as a way to stay curent and up-to-date with my mail even when I’m not at the “big-big-computer” as Jaryth calls it. But holy spam insanity, Batman! All of my accounts have spam filters on them at the server level. And they work at about 3 different effectiveness levels:

My 27" iMac has a shiny screen that is remarkably similar to my iPad (if slightly larger). And in the box of goodies that it came with was a fancy black cloth for keeping it shiny. However, since I don’t touch my iMac screen nearly as often as I do my iPad (except when I forget that it doesn’t have multi-touch built-in), so it doesn’t have as many fingerprints. So I liberated the cloth and it now travels with my iPad (along with the iMac’s bluetooth mini-keyboard. I kept my full-sized one with number pad, even though it has to be plugged in, gasp!). One other tip: the multitouch still works through the cloth, so it’s best to turn off when shining the iPad.

I have been writing for the Web since 1995, and you’d think I would know by now not to engage the loonies, but every month or so I still attempt to interact with them. Today’s email gem was from a woman who found a typo/spelling error on my blog. A simple way to report a spelling error is to write: “I found a typo or spelling error on your site” and then point out the word and the URL where it was found. Short, to the point, doesn’t make any inane references. In fact, it’s hard to object to an email like that. When I get those, I typically respond with “Thanks! I’ll get that fixed as soon as possible.” But as you might have guessed, that’s not what she wrote. She informed me of the spelling error. Chastised me for not using a spell-checker, and then said that spelling errors like that bring into question all the facts presented on the site. I replied telling her that my spell checker (and I have two - one in the browser for blog posts and one in my editor where I write the blog posts first) did not object to my spelling of the word. But that I would fix it to her preferred spelling as soon as I could. I closed it with “Thank you for your feedback.” And I figured that was the end of it. I mean, I was polite in my reply, and I said I would fix it. What else could she want? Hahahahahaha! Apparently I wasn’t sufficiently cowed by her assessment of me so she replied to (in effect) call me a liar. She wrote, “I find it amazing how people don’t want to admit to their mistakes.” Then she wrote “look at the little red squiggly under the word, that means it’s misspelled.” And she closed with “I read your site every day and I daily find spelling errors on the Web.” Let’s take these one at a time: 1. admitting my mistakes: Yes, I don’t like “constructive criticism” but honestly, I don’t think her first email was all that constructive. It was rude and made implications about my abilities as a writer and fact checker. If she were my mother or my elementary grammar teacher, the tone would have been fine. But she’s neither. As far as I know, my only mistake was in using a spell checker that doesn’t conform to her dictionary. I did say I would fix it, even if I didn’t agree that it was an error. 2. looking at the spell checker. I told her in my first email that the “red squiggly” wasn’t there. If I accept her premise that I should use a spell checker, then I should trust its results, shouldn’t I? But in her world I must know what words the spell checker doesn’t know. 3. reading my site daily. If she really does read it daily, she would know that I don’t regularly make a lot of spelling errors or typos. And while I’d love to be “ruler of the Web,” that title has not been voted to me, so I can’t control the typos on pages that aren’t mine. As soon as I can, I’ll send electric shocks to writers who post spelling errors on websites. If you want to report errors to me, please do so. I appreciate it, And like most of my readers, I’m only human and do make mistakes. Just remember that even if you do read my site daily, we are not best friends, you aren’t my editor/mother/grammar teacher, and I don’t know you. Pretend you’re approaching a stranger in public when you write your email. Who knows, if you’re nice enough, you might even turn into a friend of mine (not making any promises). But if you’re rude, sarcastic, or mean, the best you can expect is a reply in kind. But I really should know better and not reply to you at all.

I am drawing my NGPA for a project for my Art class. And to stay inspired, I decided to also try out a challenge from Sue’s site: Out of Border It’s fun! [caption id=“attachment_48” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“NGPA Out of Border”][/caption] I think what would be even cooler is if I wrapped the text around the edge of the birdhouse, rather than having it appear above it. But this is definitely a start. Thanks, Sue, for the inspiration!

This is just too cool. So much easier to type on the iPad than the iPod. Plus it has all the help that the iPod has like the double space for a period and capital letter. Silly to be happy about that but I am. I’m trying a bunch of new apps for the iPad. I’ll have to give an update of all of them later. I’ve already watched a tv show, downloaded a book, and tried out a bunch of apps. I know, I’m gushing, but it really is just as cool as I thought it would be!!

So Mark found some analysis of possible prices for upcoming iPad apps and they are insane!! apparently they appear to be planning to charge anywhere from 2 to 4 times more for an iPad app as for the same app on the iPhone. TUAW is falling down by not reporting on this (or not asking in their interviews). They posted a “first look” at Polyhedra XL which I have the iPhone version. What a joke!

I was reading a post on the US Conservatives blog on About.com. As I read that post I was first nodding, then pausing, and finally gaping. It’s not that I disagree with the premise that people lose healthcare when they lose their jobs. But the statement that healthcare is guaranteed in this country just made me laugh. I suppose if you ascribe to the belief that people who lose their jobs and thus insurance will then only need medical care for ER type things. Things like Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and multiple myeloma. They’ll have their foot go gangrenous because of poor circulation and the ER will be enough care for them. By all means, let’s get more jobs with insurance. But let’s not use that argument muddy the waters of the need for a real healthcare system for anyone not wealthy. What astounds me more is that the writer doesn’t have insurance through his job writing for About.com. But maybe his wife does?

I was reading TUAW this morning, and they were talking about the Apple.com site and how some people were reporting that the Downloads section was gone. In a nutshell their article was just saying that no, it’s not, it’s just not on the navigation now because they needed room for an iPad tab. My favorite quote from the article* was:

“Fortunately you can easily locate the downloads section simply by typing the word “downloads” into the search box.“

Went to the vet with a limp, came home with terminal bone cancer. 9 years isn’t enough!!!