Categories
Interests

Press 1 for 1337, press 2 for English

Kids these days.  Spelling doesn’t matter, as long as the other person gets what you’re talking about.  If you don’t believe me, just ask my 17 year old son, he’ll tell you all about it.

Admittedly, I don’t think kids should be graded harshly for grammatical or spelling errors on math papers, computer program comments (I actually had a teacher that took off points for not having complete sentences in the comments for a program), physics, art, etc.  Now all bets are off when it comes to English class, because that’s what it is all about.

However, if you publish a game, write a paper about your physics experiments or create anything that is made for general population I would suggest making sure your grammar is correct in the final product.  Trust me, it’s tough for me and I’m just waiting for someone to point out a mistake on this post.

Prime examples of when it is important to use correct grammar:

  1. When you are trying to make a point or trying to sound intelligent.  See
    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=274685879861 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=260098416437
    and the list goes on I’m sure.  In fact I had great fun pointing that error out to my son when he joined the group “Parents call it talking back, we call it telling them there wrong”.
  2. When you are trying to sell something.  This is what originally prompted this post and I want to make it clear I have *nothing* against these guys or their site (notice I used the correct version there).  I was reading about Blue Collar Bobbers when I ran across this quote. “and ride into the sunset with there comrades”.  Now for some reason, this just glares at me.  Maybe it because I’ve struggled with it myself so I’m hypersensitive to the use of “there, they’re and their”.  Does that mean I won’t buy from them? No, but it does give a certain impression of the type of people running the store.  I’m also going to make the assumption that, based off of the design, they didn’t do the work themselves.  Chances are someone just wasn’t fully awake and didn’t catch the typo, let’s hope so because I’d hate to be paying someone for a finished product that wasn’t correct.

So, having said all that, I would suggest a remedial course.  If you don’t want to do that, how about spending a little time to get it straight in your head in whatever manner works best for you.  There’s even web sites out there to help.  I googled “there their they’re” and the top hit was a wikihow page, how convenient!

Up next is a rant about “you’re, your and yore”… no, not really, but I’m sure there are plenty of examples of that as well.

–servergoon

Categories
Academics

Virtual Addiction is REAL!

This really hit me today when I noticed a wall post from someone I know (in the real world).  They stated that they’d be gone for the weekend, but not to worry if anyone saw posts from them because they had asked someone to take care of their farm.  This is s VIRTUAL farm mind you.

So what is the importance of this? Well, I’m taking classes that are based on technology and education.  Part of those classes focus on social media and how the youth of today are more “wired” than ever.  With this wiring, comes this chance for addiction.  We are so concerned about drug and alcohol use in the youth of today, but what about internet use?

The youth of today run the very real risk of being socially dysfunctional when it come to interacting with with real people in real time.  They’ve all got lots and lots o’ friends online, but when it comes to preferences some would rather use the computer as an interface to interacting with their friends than face to face.  Of course, this is just based off of casual observations of my son and his friends.  Even when friends are over their interaction tends to be around the computer or game console.

And it’s not just the kids.  About a  year ago CNN published “Five clues that you are addicted to Facebook” http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/23/ep.facebook.addict/index.html and that’s not the only danger.  I’ve seen stories of kids being left alone while parents played online games.  Kids left alone to the point of being considered child neglect or abuse.

So, does that mean we should all become unplugged?  Nah, but if you can’t be “disconnected” for a day or two without starting to twitch, you may want to take a serious look at your usage.

–servergoon

Categories
Interests

FaceBook, the “new” news channel

There was a plane crash in the area last night.  I found out about it on FaceBook…  Great news and media outlet this FaceBook right?  Well, yes, I guess it is, as a way to keep up with friends and family and find out what’s happening in their lives that you might not normally know.

But the way I found out about this was by the status of a FaceBook Friend, it read “OMG i think there has been a plane crash n Albany“.  That’s news enough right?  Lets you know what’s going on.  There are couple of comments and then this person says “I am gonna go check it out I will report back” (first outlined comment).

Okay, now this is where I have the problem.  See, I left my Cub Reporter badge in the drawer when I realized that in cases where there are accidents, unless you are a trained professional or asked to help, chance are you are going to be in the road and more of a hindrance than a help.  [Subtitle Road Rage Part II cause you all know those people that practically *stop* as they go by an accident so they can, what? hopefully see blood?]  At any rate, this person who was safe and secure at home decides it is their duty to go and find out what’s going on.

Which leads to “Ok just got back…if you go out Washington Rd just past Albany that is where it happened…pretty much across from the airport. I couldn’t get close enough to see anything they closed the road and you had to turn around. I will listen to the scalnner for any updates” (the second outlined comment).  Now this comment just more or less proves my point really.  They had closed the road down, probably for safety reasons, something about aviation fuel and flammable perhaps?  So what did they manage to do?  Add to the congestion, cause potential blockage for emergency vehicles AND put yourself in danger.  But they got some great news right?  Some pictures?  Got a name?  Oh no, they didn’t because they “couldn’t get close enough to see anything”.  So what did they do?  They went back home to listen to the scanner and report any updates.  Now we know why most major cities have stared scrambling/coding the emergency radio traffic so they don’t have this problem in the first place.

I can understand human curiosity, and quite frankly, if the plan had crashed next to my house I would have been outside seeing what I could do the help.  But to leave my house, drive to another location just to see a wreck… not me, no thanks, and I’m sure the emergency responders thank me too, cause that’s one less person they have to watch out for.