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Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Online overload: we shall overcome?

Posted by Catie Holdridge

Our brains are being re-wired and overloaded with every click of the mouse, according to Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

Our innate love of the new has found a virtual wonderland online, but the scattered nature of our movements while there could be damaging our ability to concentrate and think creatively. ‘Our gadgets have turned us into hi-tech lab rats,’ says Carr, ‘mindlessly pressing levers in the hope of receiving a pellet of social or intellectual nourishment.’

And we will happily keep foraging, despite being only too aware that the worthwhile information may well be buried amid superficiality, conjecture and adverts for Viagra. Since every nugget of new possibility delivers a helping of the pleasure chemical dopamine into our brains, it’s hardly surprising that so many of us are – quite literally – addicted to our inboxes. A recent poll on business networking site LinkedIn revealed that the vast majority of participants (227 out of 409) checked theirs 21 or more times daily, with one person commenting that he checked at least 180 times a day.

The charge of addiction is even more convincing when people are first forced to do without. A recent study found that people asked to avoid all media contact for 24 hours experienced withdrawal symptoms associated with smokers going cold turkey.

For the experiment, called ‘Unplugged’, volunteers from 12 universities worldwide had to live without access to computers, mobiles, iPods, TV, radio and newspapers for one day. Participants’ diaries revealed they felt isolated, anxious or even afraid, and overwhelmed by the deafening silence of an iPod-less existence. But, for the majority, early panic was before long replaced by coping mechanisms like going for a walk and seeing friends (the old-fashioned 3D variety). With ears freed up, they were suddenly aware of birds singing and their neighbours’ comings and goings.

And presumably such quasi-religious, Awakenings-style moments could come to us all, if we just get off the hamster wheel once in a while. But, after we’ve smelled the roses, we’ll inevitably have to switch back on again eventually. So should we just accept being re-wired?

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Posted February 18th, 2011 in Online and social media, Technology | No Comments »

Censorship? They’ve got an app for that

Posted by Catie Holdridge

Apple has been awarded a patent in the US for a device to filter out ‘inappropriate’ language from text messages (otherwise known as ‘sexting’, apparently). Essentially, it is a way for parents to monitor and manage the content of their children’s texting. After all – as the patent tells us – ‘children may send or receive messages (intentionally or not) with parentally objectionable language.’

Messages containing words deemed unsuitable will be deleted or won’t send until the offending words are replaced.

But is this really likely to work? Is there an algorithm out there that can keep up with language’s adaptability?

One of the joys of English is how well it lends itself to puns and innuendo. Slang has an ever-changing vocabulary. And texting itself has spawned a virtual language of its own – one that parents already probably struggle to keep up with.

Hopeful parents may find that they’re not so much laying down the law as laying down a challenge. ‘Those interested in “sexting” will probably find some clever workaround,’ says technology website TechCrunch. Without being indelicate, we can probably all think of some words with provocative double meanings that wouldn’t ‘immediately set off the censorship sensors.’

Now Apple have (intentionally or not) thrown down a gauntlet, is NE1 w8ing 2 C jst hw cre8iv da msgs R gonna B?

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Posted October 15th, 2010 in Language abuse, Technology | No Comments »

Oxford English Dictionary to go online only (probably)

Posted by Catie Holdridge

The next edition of The Oxford English Dictionary probably won’t appear in print, according to the Oxford University Press (OUP), the dictionary’s owner. Instead, it is likely that the third edition will be accessible only electronically.

OED3 won’t be ready for at least another decade, and the decision is not yet final. But when asked if it would appear in print, OUP Chief Executive Nigel Portwood said, ‘I don’t think so [...] The print dictionary market is just disappearing.’

No surprise that this is down to the increasingly ubiquitous presence of the internet and the latest alternative ways to read and access information. The second edition of the reference guide – considered the world’s most definitive work on the language – was published in 20 volumes in 1989. It’s also been available online (by subscription) for over ten years, where it receives two million hits a month.

It seems inevitable that new technology like the iPad will revolutionise our reading habits, but how happy are we all about it? Are those of us sentimental about the feel of paper between our fingers just holding on to a fast-receding past?

Simon Winchester, author of The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, has come – reluctantly – round to that way of thinking. ‘Until six months ago I was clinging to the idea that printed books would likely last forever’ he said. ‘Since the arrival of the iPad I am now wholly convinced otherwise. And even bibliophiles like him are naturally evolving past pages. ‘I have two complete OEDs, but never consult them – I use the online OED five or six times daily.’

So it looks like the end of the printed word could indeed be nigh. Is it time, then, for techno-sceptics to stop wringing their hands over the demise of books in order to embrace this paperless future?

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Posted September 16th, 2010 in Online and social media, Technology | 2 Comments »

iPad 2.0 could herald the paperless office (at last)

Posted by Rob Ashton

Printer manufacturers must be getting a bit twitchy about the iPad. Or if they’re not, they should be – because it could well make a serious dent in their profits, writes Rob Ashton.

Generally, I’m in the ‘pro’ camp when it comes to technology. I’ve bought a fair few examples over the years. And although I discarded some once the novelty wore off, others became an integral part of my life. The iPhone could have been invented just for me.

I realise that not everyone’s like this. And even I admit that modern technology is often no substitute for more traditional devices.

But in business, technology tends to be adopted wholesale when there’s a sound financial reason for doing so. And that’s why I think we might see a dramatic reduction not just in paper usage but in printer-toner sales in the next few years.

It wasn’t so long ago that we used to send documents to each other in the internal mail. Now we’re much more likely to email them. Yet most people still tend to print them out to read them. Despite the cost and the terrible waste of paper, we still like flipping through the real thing.

But the business world may not be far behind the newspaper industry in seeking to cut the use of paper. This is because there are huge potential cost savings to be made if technologists could produce a way of reading onscreen that more people would accept.

Influential technology blog Silicon Alley claimed last year that printing the New York Times costs twice as much as sending every subscriber an Amazon Kindle e-book reader on which to read the electronic version. Now universities in the US are experimenting with delivering textbooks this way.

Just before the iPad’s launch, the technology was already there for ‘acceptable’ forms of electronic reading. The world’s biggest technology show in Las Vegas earlier this year was awash with electronic alternatives to paper.

Electronic paper or ‘e-paper’, as it’s inevitably being dubbed, helps overcome objections from people who prefer the look and feel of real paper rather than a chunky electronic device. And documents displayed in this way should be much easier to proofread.

But problems with lighting mean that, at present, electronic paper can display only black and white images, as can e-book readers such as the Kindle. Such technology relies on electronically magnetised ink, which also needs good lighting conditions to be readable.

The iPad’s colour screen and LED back-lighting get round these problems. And while some have commented that these cause eyestrain, ophthalmologists have disputed this.

What’s more, the iPad electronically reproduces the action of flipping through a document, bringing the experience a step closer to the real thing – but without the waste of printing.

If the iPhone is anything to go by, it will probably be the second-generation iPads that truly find popular appeal, once Apple have ironed out any post-launch teething problems.

But whether e-ink, iPad or iPad 2.0 wins the day, the paperless office may – at last – be just around the corner.

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Posted March 9th, 2010 in Technology | 1 Comment »

Is it a feathered sky-dwelling nest-builder? Is it an aerodynamic pan-destinational person carrier? No, it’s Sloganizer!

Posted by Catie Holdridge

Are you struggling to come up with a new nugget of corporate gobbledegook? Could your report benefit from some indecipherable doublespeak? Are you floundering from a lack of filler? Never fear. Sloganizer to the rescue!

The new application for the iPhone brings the old paper Sloganizer right up-to-date – and right into your office.

When it became obvious in the 1970s that ambiguous nonsense was the latest staple of boardrooms around Britain, Sloganizer was born. In its first incarnation, it was made of paper and offered up to 1000 random three-part combinations of meaningless business lingo, such as ‘decentralization of participative ambiguity’.

The latest downloadable version will reveal up to 375,000 internally interchangeable – and utterly incomprehensible – phrases with a simple shake of your iPhone. Some highlights include:

Multi-disciplinary bureaucratic strategy determination
Integral prognosis of fields of tension
Functional conservative alternative behaviour.

While the last one might well refer to David Cameron’s conduct and policies as he tries to elbow Gordon Brown out of the PM spot, we can guarantee that 99 per cent of the slogans will mean absolutely nothing. This is the jargon jackpot.

Please note: Emphasis and the makers of Sloganizer bear no responsibility for any loss of time, money or respect while using this product.

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Posted May 1st, 2009 in Jargon, Language abuse, Technology, Wordplay | 1 Comment »

I tweet, therefore I am

Posted by Catie Holdridge

Thinking about jumping onto this bandwagon. But where will it all end?

So might read my inaugural ‘tweet’ – by definition: an answer to the question ‘what are you doing?’ in 140 characters or fewer – on the micro-blogging site Twitter. And bandwagon begets bandwagon: those not tweeting are bleating about tweeting. The public is being divided into for and against camps; and perhaps the real question posed is: is there anything left now that is considered not appropriate to write about?

Twitter has seen some incredible successes in its young life. It is a popular medium for celebrities, who get to by-pass the media and connect directly with their fans. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign succeeded in large part because he embraced such types of social media. He updated subscribers via the site, keeping them up-to-date on his public appearances and decisions. No doubt this was key in working himself and his message into the nation’s psyche, while reinforcing his image as a modern man of the people.

The potential of Twitter from a marketing point of view is evidently enormous. And so it is working its way into schools and university curriculums. A recent book, by money-making strategist Joel Comm, teaches the ways of Twitter Power – How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time. Supporters predict a day when users will be able to search ‘the consciousness of the planet’ in real-time.

With a mere 140 characters to work with, Twitterers have no choice but to be succinct; and we Emphasisers are all in favour of keeping it short and simple.  What’s missing is content control. Granted, escape from Big Brother (in all its forms) is generally welcome. And of course people have the right to express themselves creatively. But we’re considering writing instructions for this exciting new toy.

The Daily Mail is using the service to send out nuggets of news to those for whom newspapers are just too darn heavy.

The BBC experimented with including Twitter updates in its coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks back in November 2008, in an apparent desire to be first with the news. This rather clumsy attempt to cover a fast-moving story with equally fast-moving technology caused a considerable backlash on their website, amid accusations of inaccuracy and lazy journalism.

Sky news rather glibly (and arguably massively inappropriately) sent tweets out from the courtroom where Joseph Fritzl stood trial for his horrendous crimes against his own daughter.

Of course, skill in writing has little or nothing to do with Twitter, barring perhaps the occasional impressive haiku. What does is the attitude that whether you’ve just survived a plane crash (see the Guardian’s article) or you’ve just sat down with a cup of Bovril, the immediate prevailing thought is to publish oneself.

Faced with this unrelenting, unverified barrage of thought bubbles, will we all have to become active editors of our own (and everyone else’s) lives? Or will we just be tweeting while Rome burns?

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Posted April 1st, 2009 in Online and social media, Technology | No Comments »

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