The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Typos or The Keyboard Konspiracy


I hate and love typos. I hate them when I commit them and love them when others do. The internet is rife with them. I blame the keyboards, of course. It cannot be that we are all so klutzy that we just stumble them out. No, can't be that. Nor can it be that we are simply poor typists. It must be a conspiracy on the part of the Keyboards. I say that because certain typos are found all across the internet.

Certain typos are extremely common. I give you "teh", a typo so prevalent that it ought to become a legitimate spelling of "the". Its cousin is any word beginning with "th" at the start of a sentence. As in "THe quick red fox...etc." I notice, ironically, that I never typo the latter as "TEh quick red fox... etc." (I would add "ect" as a common typo but I think some people believe that is the correct abbreviation for "et cetera".)

Typos should not be confused with common misspellings. Typos are the result of minds operating faster than fingers. Misspellings are the result of minds not working. Or dyslexia. But I can't believe that every person who misspells words on a regular basis is dyslexic. No, there are people who are just too lazy to look it up or too arrogant to believe they cannot spell.

Some misspellings bug me greatly. Especially when they violate an easily remembered rule: "i before e except after c, or when sounding like a as in neighbor or weigh." (That would be "neighbour" for those of you in Canada, Australia, and the U.K.) The most common mangling of that seems to be "receive"; a word that is all too often written/typed as "recieve". I am reminded of a large type (as in font) instruction sticker on a printer in my office at work back in the late 70s. It had a line on it which stated:

Set the printer to RECIEVE


This sticker was on every printer hooked up to a phone line in our office. It was likely on every printer hooked up to a phone in offices all over California and parts of Nevada. They were certainly in Pacific Telephone offices throughout the region. yet it seemed I was the only one to notice.

Jsut had to get that off my chest.

9 comments:

Michael Horvath said...

Douglas,
I compltly unberstand where you'rt coming frpm.

The Jules said...

A bit off topic, but your pic reminds me of a friend who asked, in all seriousness, what MO75 meant on the drive outside a fire station, presuming it was some sort of fire-appliance directing code.

We pointed out she was looking at SLOW upside down.

Anonymous said...

Douglas you mean it isn't spelt teh? Wow...

That's a real gasent

Even a bigger gasent today I had a wordify cooks on a cooking blog.

AV
http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/
http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/

Douglas said...

Jules, she was a blond, yes?

The Jules said...

She is actually, and that's what she blamed it on.

By the way Douglas, I've nominated you for this one word meme thing if you've got a spare 5 mins.
http://gravelfarm.blogspot.com/2008/11/one-word-meme-sucker.html

Hope that's ok!

Michael said...

Oh crap. You've been nominated too. I'm peeking at the blog archive and I can't wait to see how 'My Last Meme' plays out.

Anyway, I try ever-so-desperately to use the English language correctly. The problem is that I only do this most of the time and I'm not one-hundred percent consistent.

The most annoying typo for me would have to be 'ahahah' instead of 'hahaha'. I know that's not really a word, but it annoys me because it essentially sounds like someone's been shocked three times... Or perhaps they're exclaiming in awe.

Michael.

'seeman' (Childishly humorous word or perhaps a coincidental link with the man who was in the Navy?)

Douglas said...

Michael, the wordifiers are clever little creatures who like to amuse themselves while confusing us.

The Jules said...

She is actually, and that's what she blamed it on.

By the way Douglas, I've nominated you for this one word meme thing if you've got a spare 5 mins.
http://gravelfarm.blogspot.com/2008/11/one-word-meme-sucker.html

Hope that's ok!

Argentum Vulgaris said...

Douglas you mean it isn't spelt teh? Wow...

That's a real gasent

Even a bigger gasent today I had a wordify cooks on a cooking blog.

AV
http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/
http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/