Archive: May 18th, 2004

Please excuse me while I have a little grammar rant. In the space of one day I have seen the words "resource" and "author" used as verbs.

This is from the Brighton New Media mailing list:

"We have some PHP work available (maximum 3.5 weeks) that we need to resource."

For the record, the dictionary.com entry for "resource" lists five definitions, all of them nouns.

This is from Digital Web:

"Richard Rutter has authored a great post about How to size text using ems."

I’m not arguing about the claims of greatness for Richard’s post (he uses the same techniques as I do for defining font sizes). It is indeed a great piece of writing. That’s writing… not authoring.

While I’m on my soapbox, indulge me while I bring up another recurring annoyance.

The word "definite" is spelled D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E. There is no A in definite. Likewise, "definitely" has a complete paucity of the first letter in the alphabet.

I’ve noticed something recently that’s almost as annoying as seeing "definately" and that’s seeing the word "defiantly" in place of "definitely". See what happens when you rely on an automated spellchecker?

Finally, here’s a gentle reminder: "disinterested" means unbiased and impartial. It does not mean uninterested. For example, juries should be disinterested but not uninterested.

Curses! I’ve been tricked into using "not uninterested" in a sentence instead of "interested". That’s almost as bad as "not dissimilar". And now I’ve gone and used an exclamation mark. Not to mention starting a sentence with the word "and". Not to mention starting writing two sentences beginning with "not to mention".

I’d better proof-read this very, very carefully before I post it.

My last post might have given the impression that I’ve been doing nothing but programming lately. While it’s true that I have had some late nights, writing XSL files ‘till four in the morning, I also found the time for some R’n’R.

Last week I made an excursion to the pleasant village of Rodmell one evening. Jamie invited me out there to record some bouzouki for a new song his. The results should be available on his website before too long.

I also spent an evening in the company of fellow Brighton webmonkeys Andy and Richard. We met up in the WiFi-enabled Earth And Stars. We even managed to include Dunstan, late of San Francisco, in the conversation via iChat.

We talked, Richard and I browsed each other’s iTunes libraries, we drank the vaguely open-source sounding Freedom lager. It was this last activity that made me so susceptible to Andy’s suggestion of continued drinking at the (also WiFi-enabled) Spiegeltent.

As it turned out, I couldn’t get a WiFi signal inside. It’s not that I’m such a nerd that I wanted to surf the internet in the midst of drinking and dancing: it’s just that I wanted to iChat with Jessica to let her know why I would be late getting home. In lieu of iChat, I sent an SMS via bluetooth.

Jessica was very understanding. I hope Richard and Andy met with the same understanding when they got home.