Just on the news: a harrowing warning to all users of WiFi networks.
A freely downloadable and easy to use program called Firesheep, allows felonious hacks to copy the inlog data of someone else on that network. Facebook and Twitter accounts are up for grabs and identities get stolen like there’s no tomorrow.
Eric Butler, who developed the program, submitted that his program would be a success only if it doesn’t work anymore. Until then: networkers beware! The program has been downloaded more than 200,000 times.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Confessions of a Lurid Logophile
Logophilia is a serious affliction, although its passions are easily satisfied. Words, after all, are ubiquitous.
Hence the logophile slithers in stealth through towns leaving townsfolk heedless of his urge to slurp their word straight from their street signs and bill boards. He’s got to! He’s a rain-coated, portal dwelling, window glaring logophile! Any message. Any language. Gimme, gimme!
Why there are people who love words straight up, without them being applied in a sentence, nobody knows. Saying you’re a logophile is like saying that you love musical notes, or bricks, or little squeezed out paint tubes, while ‘normal’ people like symphonies, architecture and paintings. But I am one, and I’m coming out. No more hiding. I’m going to tell the world why I love words.
To me words are little animals with their own little body and soul. Even when they’re not in some natural habitat such as a sentence or a dictionary, they are alive and have personality. Some words are as common as sparrows or grass, but other words are rare and when I see them I study the whole paragraph to see where they live and what they’re up to.
I positively thrills me to see a word that I haven’t seen before. Of many words I remember where I heard or read them first. Some words I’ve only read and never heard pronounced and I wonder how to say them. Some words are funny every time I see them. Take the word ‘buses’ for instance. To me that looks like the plural of ‘buse,’ and whenever I see it, I have to chant it: buse, buse, buse.
Some words are little sculptures with their own tiny structure. Words like ‘bob’ or ‘pip’ for instance, are delightful palindromic sprinkles that work excellently in sentences that are supposed to be funny. A word like ‘trinket,’ is a cute butterfly with i-wings. It works wonderfully in sentences that are meant to be staccato, for whatever reason. Words with z’s are zip-words. K-words are abrupt and sometimes a bit harsh on the pallet. W-words are soft and fuzzy. S-words should be avoided when it rains.
Some words are a lot of fun simply because they’re impossibly long, and you have to practice saying them before you can dazzle someone with them. I love the words rambunctious, facetious and bodacious for that reason, although the –ous part marks a special word-genre that usually indicates that the speaker doesn’t know what to say next and is only saying that word to buy some time.
Some words are fun because they’re constructed specifically for that reason. A word like discombobulated, for instance, is a made-up word without any clear etymology. But it’s fun to say, although you can only say it about once a year, or else you’re silly. I wonder where it came from, though. I’m guessing that it is rooted in an event in which someone purloined an item that rightfully belonged to a communications officer named Robert.
As odd as it may seem, some folks (including me) see colors in words. It’s a condition called synesthesia (a.k.a synaesthesia) and it’s a delight. To me, words that feature a royal helping of the letter ‘a’ seem red and warm. Double ‘e’- and ‘i’-words are cooler and bluish and sometimes yellow and pale. Z-words are grey. Words that start with a ‘q’ evoke in me the same kind of feeling as do those little wobbly caramel puddings. Any ‘x’ gives me the taste of chocolate chips on vanilla ice cream. Subsequent diphthongs, especially French ones, will top them off with a shot of cherry goo.
And because items are named different in different languages, my personality and world-perception changes when I switch between languages. To me, relationships in English are much more romantic than relationships in Dutch. But relationships in Dutch are much more practical. In fact, when I’m out engineering (I’m a maritime engineer) I speak either perfect Dutch, or English involuntarily with an accent like a log. But when I’m out composing poetry or high prose or otherwise pretending I’m some kind of academic, I speak English fluently with hardly a hint of Nether-Germanic contamination.
For some reason I always get furiously indignant at some point during a conversation in German. Excursions in any of the Slavic languages lead invariably to slurred redundancies. I’ve never had a Hebrew relationship, but once I tried to explain myself in Latin and got promptly send to the principle.
Discombobulative barbarians!
Hence the logophile slithers in stealth through towns leaving townsfolk heedless of his urge to slurp their word straight from their street signs and bill boards. He’s got to! He’s a rain-coated, portal dwelling, window glaring logophile! Any message. Any language. Gimme, gimme!
Why there are people who love words straight up, without them being applied in a sentence, nobody knows. Saying you’re a logophile is like saying that you love musical notes, or bricks, or little squeezed out paint tubes, while ‘normal’ people like symphonies, architecture and paintings. But I am one, and I’m coming out. No more hiding. I’m going to tell the world why I love words.
To me words are little animals with their own little body and soul. Even when they’re not in some natural habitat such as a sentence or a dictionary, they are alive and have personality. Some words are as common as sparrows or grass, but other words are rare and when I see them I study the whole paragraph to see where they live and what they’re up to.
I positively thrills me to see a word that I haven’t seen before. Of many words I remember where I heard or read them first. Some words I’ve only read and never heard pronounced and I wonder how to say them. Some words are funny every time I see them. Take the word ‘buses’ for instance. To me that looks like the plural of ‘buse,’ and whenever I see it, I have to chant it: buse, buse, buse.
Some words are little sculptures with their own tiny structure. Words like ‘bob’ or ‘pip’ for instance, are delightful palindromic sprinkles that work excellently in sentences that are supposed to be funny. A word like ‘trinket,’ is a cute butterfly with i-wings. It works wonderfully in sentences that are meant to be staccato, for whatever reason. Words with z’s are zip-words. K-words are abrupt and sometimes a bit harsh on the pallet. W-words are soft and fuzzy. S-words should be avoided when it rains.
Some words are a lot of fun simply because they’re impossibly long, and you have to practice saying them before you can dazzle someone with them. I love the words rambunctious, facetious and bodacious for that reason, although the –ous part marks a special word-genre that usually indicates that the speaker doesn’t know what to say next and is only saying that word to buy some time.
Some words are fun because they’re constructed specifically for that reason. A word like discombobulated, for instance, is a made-up word without any clear etymology. But it’s fun to say, although you can only say it about once a year, or else you’re silly. I wonder where it came from, though. I’m guessing that it is rooted in an event in which someone purloined an item that rightfully belonged to a communications officer named Robert.
As odd as it may seem, some folks (including me) see colors in words. It’s a condition called synesthesia (a.k.a synaesthesia) and it’s a delight. To me, words that feature a royal helping of the letter ‘a’ seem red and warm. Double ‘e’- and ‘i’-words are cooler and bluish and sometimes yellow and pale. Z-words are grey. Words that start with a ‘q’ evoke in me the same kind of feeling as do those little wobbly caramel puddings. Any ‘x’ gives me the taste of chocolate chips on vanilla ice cream. Subsequent diphthongs, especially French ones, will top them off with a shot of cherry goo.
And because items are named different in different languages, my personality and world-perception changes when I switch between languages. To me, relationships in English are much more romantic than relationships in Dutch. But relationships in Dutch are much more practical. In fact, when I’m out engineering (I’m a maritime engineer) I speak either perfect Dutch, or English involuntarily with an accent like a log. But when I’m out composing poetry or high prose or otherwise pretending I’m some kind of academic, I speak English fluently with hardly a hint of Nether-Germanic contamination.
For some reason I always get furiously indignant at some point during a conversation in German. Excursions in any of the Slavic languages lead invariably to slurred redundancies. I’ve never had a Hebrew relationship, but once I tried to explain myself in Latin and got promptly send to the principle.
Discombobulative barbarians!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
New Blog!
Abarim Publications has its own blog now. The blog that you're on now will feature only articles that don't fit on any of my other blogs...
For Scripture Theory, go to:
http://bibletheory.blogspot.com/
For Scripture Theory, go to:
http://bibletheory.blogspot.com/
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Some Really Shocking Things I’ve Learned From Looking at People’s Blogger Profiles
Google’s famous blog-service Blogger lets you reveal all about yourself on your profile page. You get to list your interests, favorite books, music and movies. And the fun of all this is that you can click on any of your interests to see who else has the same one. Here’s an exiting survey of how seriously common I am.
An army of 25,000 bloggers are, like me, interested in “science” but only 3,500 in “Bible.” I thought I’d be marvelously eccentric, but 5,000 likeminded bloggers favor Ghost World, a whopping 7,100 bloggers co-favor the movie Pi (one guy also likes “kicking puppies”) and an avalanche of 10,000 bloggers like Steel Magnolias (almost all females, some very pretty).
On the other hand, a measly 552 marked A Love Song for Bobby Long (I really don’t get that. What a film!). Only 59 remember Bar Fly, but 7,900 love Brazil! The amazing documentary Why We Fight is favored by a pleasing 301 bloggers, one is a fast-posting self-proclaimed drunkolexic called The Hangover Helper.
A disappointing 55,600 bloggers list the Bible among their favorite books.
There are 151 people in the world who are interested in “peace and quiet,” only three who like “rarity” (two guys, one lady, who is also the only one in the world who’s interested in “ample bosoms”). And while I’m at it: I’m one of eight people who have “Position Of The Day” in their fav-book list. And six of them are women! What’s up with that?
According to Technorati, the most popular not-mainstream-media blog belongs to a Chinese actress named Xu Jinglei. Somebody ought to buy her a bigger server because after two days I’ve given up trying to get in. The most popular blog at large is that of the Huffington Post. And isn’t that cute. I remember when they started. They were actively looking for supporting bloggers, as I recall. Do’h!
World-wide there are about as many blogs as there are people living in the US. About two-thirds of these blogs are considered inactive, but one may wonder how long you’d have to slack to get that predicate.
Math readers don’t seem to blog much. Only seven favor Mathematical Mysteries, a mere three like Fermat’s Last Theorem, but a comforting 39 like The Man Who Knew Infinity.
There are only 51 bloggers that list La Proulx’s Close Range. After Brokeback Mountain you’d figure more people would like it. There are only 59 bloggers that like Gulag! Outrage! And this makes me want to go quietly back to bed: there are only 3 fellow lovers of The Amazing Adventures Of Cavelier And Clay. Oh, wait, that’S Kavalier with a K. Ah, there are 821 blogger who know how to spell Kavalier. But I guess most readers of Pulitzer Prize winning literature don’t blog.
I’m the only one who favors Brown, Driver and Briggs, who is a Maritime Engineer, who’s interested in “struggling but serious writers,” “women named Anna” and “grace in all simplicity” (that’s a Shakespeare quote). I am also the only one who lists “Lieve Jongens” under favored books. That’s peculiar because it’s a famous book and the author died a few years ago (and there are 79,300 bloggers listed in the Netherlands).
Only one other person lists the very famous Dutch novel “Ik had een wapenbroeder.”
I would also be very interested in (the results of) a research project that looks at which kinds of literature and movies are favored by people who blog and what they write about. Wouldn’t that change the way we advertise our books? But they’re probably already doing that. I haven’t come up with an original idea since the urinal-incident of 1973.
And I would also like Google to create a feature that lists how much your profile and someone else’s are alike (check out Chainsaw Killer’s blog; he’s 98% like you!). That could easily spawn a Google-dating service!
An army of 25,000 bloggers are, like me, interested in “science” but only 3,500 in “Bible.” I thought I’d be marvelously eccentric, but 5,000 likeminded bloggers favor Ghost World, a whopping 7,100 bloggers co-favor the movie Pi (one guy also likes “kicking puppies”) and an avalanche of 10,000 bloggers like Steel Magnolias (almost all females, some very pretty).
On the other hand, a measly 552 marked A Love Song for Bobby Long (I really don’t get that. What a film!). Only 59 remember Bar Fly, but 7,900 love Brazil! The amazing documentary Why We Fight is favored by a pleasing 301 bloggers, one is a fast-posting self-proclaimed drunkolexic called The Hangover Helper.
A disappointing 55,600 bloggers list the Bible among their favorite books.
There are 151 people in the world who are interested in “peace and quiet,” only three who like “rarity” (two guys, one lady, who is also the only one in the world who’s interested in “ample bosoms”). And while I’m at it: I’m one of eight people who have “Position Of The Day” in their fav-book list. And six of them are women! What’s up with that?
According to Technorati, the most popular not-mainstream-media blog belongs to a Chinese actress named Xu Jinglei. Somebody ought to buy her a bigger server because after two days I’ve given up trying to get in. The most popular blog at large is that of the Huffington Post. And isn’t that cute. I remember when they started. They were actively looking for supporting bloggers, as I recall. Do’h!
World-wide there are about as many blogs as there are people living in the US. About two-thirds of these blogs are considered inactive, but one may wonder how long you’d have to slack to get that predicate.
Math readers don’t seem to blog much. Only seven favor Mathematical Mysteries, a mere three like Fermat’s Last Theorem, but a comforting 39 like The Man Who Knew Infinity.
There are only 51 bloggers that list La Proulx’s Close Range. After Brokeback Mountain you’d figure more people would like it. There are only 59 bloggers that like Gulag! Outrage! And this makes me want to go quietly back to bed: there are only 3 fellow lovers of The Amazing Adventures Of Cavelier And Clay. Oh, wait, that’S Kavalier with a K. Ah, there are 821 blogger who know how to spell Kavalier. But I guess most readers of Pulitzer Prize winning literature don’t blog.
I’m the only one who favors Brown, Driver and Briggs, who is a Maritime Engineer, who’s interested in “struggling but serious writers,” “women named Anna” and “grace in all simplicity” (that’s a Shakespeare quote). I am also the only one who lists “Lieve Jongens” under favored books. That’s peculiar because it’s a famous book and the author died a few years ago (and there are 79,300 bloggers listed in the Netherlands).
Only one other person lists the very famous Dutch novel “Ik had een wapenbroeder.”
I would also be very interested in (the results of) a research project that looks at which kinds of literature and movies are favored by people who blog and what they write about. Wouldn’t that change the way we advertise our books? But they’re probably already doing that. I haven’t come up with an original idea since the urinal-incident of 1973.
And I would also like Google to create a feature that lists how much your profile and someone else’s are alike (check out Chainsaw Killer’s blog; he’s 98% like you!). That could easily spawn a Google-dating service!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
What happens when you click “share to Facebook”?
I love little buttons everywhere but I never use them when I don’t exactly know what they’ll do. Maybe it’s a precaution I developed from working in engine rooms for two decades. You wouldn’t want to press a mislabeled self-destruct button, after all.
Still, I’m too curious to know what the “share to Facebook” button will do. Will it hurl my entire article onto my wall, or will it list a discrete first line and a snazzy invite to ‘read more…’?
There’s no other way than to try out. Here goes…
Still, I’m too curious to know what the “share to Facebook” button will do. Will it hurl my entire article onto my wall, or will it list a discrete first line and a snazzy invite to ‘read more…’?
There’s no other way than to try out. Here goes…
Monday, October 11, 2010
Regret
Actually, there’s one Triond article that I briskly deleted from their crypts that’s nothing short of brilliant! So I’m posting it here, even though it’s a movie review of two years old. At least it won’t go down the tubes. Maybe someone somewhere will accidentally stumble upon this blog and enjoy it…
Clean!
There! I did it! I finally deleted all my Triond articles and photos! I suddenly feel so clean…
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