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I was browsing slashdot today, and saw a grouping of letters I was not familiar with... IANAL ... after reading further, I decided it meant: 'I am not a lawyer' ... I am always running across this sort of thing... IMHO I don't want to have to RTFM everytime I read /. ... sometimes I wish these people would STFU and actually type out the words... I realize this might not be right for the TechHumor forum on AO, but AFAIK I am not the only one annoyed by this... :D
wow...I loled all over myself :)
too fricken funny westin...
Good choice....tech humor...I laughed
and yes....I hate having to look things up all the time.....but I do it
Keeps me young ;)
Thanks for the giggle
MLF
I'm used to it... I can generally figure out what they mean by looking at the rest of the sentance or paragraph. context clues...
If it is legit, just open a new tab and throw it in your google toolbar.
http://www.answers.com/topic/shorthand has a pretty good list.
You can also install the answers toolbar for firefox. Then you just have to right click on the word and choose "look up on answers". I find that saves me a lot of time and is easy.
Then again, the more you read slashdot the more you will learn. They love to make up new ones just about everyday. They're of a different breed.
I love how in your rant about abbreviations/acronyms, you used 4 yourself.
I find the abrevs.. very interesting. Especially when the meaning changes frequently. Take for example: lol
Originally it was "little old ladies", then we started "laughing out loud", now we are "loling" all over ourselves. and soon we will start to "lol" ourselves....
:D
Quote:
Originally Posted by zENGER
5 if you count /. :)
You really could have improved on this... but cute (for lack of a better word) none-the-less..
Every acronym (they aren't abbr.) you used is rather common and fairly old... In fact, I cracked an IANAL joke at work just the other day.... With all the iPhone stuff going around one of my colleagues was registerig i<word> domains and I suggested "I Am Not A Lawyer"s Acronym.
The "newer" ones drive me up the wall.. TTFN and TTYL for example... People love to type these.... yet they never clue in that "bye" is shorter... Then again the elimination of the English language is even worse..
U, R. Wat's, Every1, etc... I remember speaking to a college English prof who said more and more students were handing in reports written like that... in "IM Speak" and that he figured the English language would evolve until those were acceptable in the business world.
I'm guessing that the average person on this site types somewhere between 120 and 160wpm (Yet another acronym)... and I'd say that 30-60wpm is the average for a "regular" computer user... So let's call it 50wpm as "average" (a little above the midway point for a "regular" user)...
Challenge: Get a tape recorder, or a microphone for your computer... Get a book... Turn to a random page and read it aloud. Read it at a pace that someone listening to you could understand and absorb the information... Those of you with children.. perhaps read at that pace... Then play back the recording... Time it and count the number of words. Then take a typing test somewhere... report back the results..
I want to know if the average person types faster or speaks faster (my assumption is types faster... must faster... "valley girls" may be an exception)... Basically, I want to know if the slaughtering of the English language is necessary to converse at a rate similar a verbal conversation or if society is simply becoming that much more impatient.
Btw (yet another) The answer is yes.... I enjoy turning Tech Humour threads into real threads.
OK HT~ I will take you up on this one............... My personal view is that you have not hijacked or damaged this thread. I saw that it was presented in Technical Humour, in a lighthearted manner, but, like yourself I also saw the serious aspect to it.
As for speeds, the average person speaks faster than they write, and writes faster than they type.
In support of this argument, I will mention "shorthand" which has been used by secretaries for years to take dictation.......... Pitman's is a classic example.
Secondly, might we examine the classic "QWERTY" keyboard? it was actually designed to make people type more slowly. Older members will remember the mechanical typewriter? it had a semi circular array of keys, and if you went too quickly, you would create a "birdsnest" or "logjam" with the type heads crashing into oneanother?
OK IANAL (:D) so I don't know how those Court Stenographers do it........... it obviously isn't a standard typewriter that they use.
Conversation is a whole different issue as I see things. It is an interactive process; and you don't know what you are going to say next, given that this will be dependent on other people's contributions.
I noticed your "challenge" and would suggest just taking your laptop to a lecture and trying to keep up............................ please remember that a lecturer is deliberately speaking rather slowly to allow the message to sink in?
I can understand that the current situation is mostly due to the IM environment. I suppose the very limited text capacity of early cellphones has contributed as well? It takes me back to the era of the "telegram" when you paid by the letter/word............ they had a certain "style" and you used a thing called "stop" to punctuate your rather terse sentences ;)
AS for acronyms and abbreviations, I have no real problem, as we have used them in scientific contexts (usually measurements) for years...... mph, kph, mps, fps, and so on.
Happy New Year to you and "she who must be obeyed" :D
HT: I realize I could have made this quite a bit better... but it was late and I had been drinking... *heh* ... after I posted I kept thinking of different acronyms :) I could have thrown in there... but I was not about to edit the original... that would just be tacky... :D however, I was wondering whether or not to call them acronyms or abbreviations... and I suppose I chose poorly... but like nihil said, it was a lighthearted post... you do make some interesting observations about typing/speaking speeds... and I appreciate the expansion of the original idea for this thread... I like speculation as much as the next guy... Cheers!
Westin
Actually, it was not designed to make people type slowly as much as to decrease the likelihood that consecutive keystrokes would be near each other on the keyboard, and hence with hammers that were near each other in the printing area. (Nearer ones have a larger portion of their arc where they could possibly collide.)Quote:
Originally Posted by nihil
In that sense, it's arguable that that QWERTY actually speeds up typing, because your other nine fingers can 'queue' keystrokes and preposition themselves for the next letter even as you're typing the first--the same principles which avoid mechanical metal from tending to collide also keep your fingers from all trying to work in a single "sweet spot" that's too small for the natural spread of your hands.
They don't actually type as much as take minimally-standardized shorthand which they're asked to decipher later. (details).Quote:
OK IANAL (:D) so I don't know how those Court Stenographers do it........... it obviously isn't a standard typewriter that they use.
Hmmm,
Thanks for the link on stenography. The fact that they use shorthand is further support to the suggestion that speech is much faster than typing.
The QWERTY keyboard was never designed with typing efficiency in mind. It is purely a legacy of the mechanical problem of manual typewriters, which was collisions between the hammers. The fact that it is not particularly efficient slows the typist down and further reduces the incidence of collisions.
Please remember that the QWERTY keyboard design pre-dates touch typing by at least 10 years. the envisaged typing style when it was invented was a two fingered "pick and poke"
You need to look at layouts such as Dvorak, for an ergonomic touch typing design. I believe that it still holds the World Record?
If you think acronyms are annoying, try looking at the military. There is an acronym for almost everything.
when i was first getting seriously involved in the world of computers, my uncle was explaining some concept to me and after about the third, "what does that stand for" he was like, if u havent noticed, we computer nerds like to use TLA's i looked at him for about 2 min. dumbfounded and then realized i had been had :)
I can tell you that I for one, write faster than I type.... I'm going to do my speaking test though because I'm pretty sure I type faster than I speak (In conversation anyways.... Partially due to the fact that I don't have to wait for the person to absorb my comments when typing.. they can reread at their leisure)..Quote:
Originally Posted by nihil
I agree there, but I'm still of the belief that typing is faster than writing (however this may be a generational gap... As my generation did far more typing than we ever did writing.. while with your generation the opposite would be true)Quote:
In support of this argument, I will mention "shorthand" which has been used by secretaries for years to take dictation.......... Pitman's is a classic example.
Terr has already addressed this... and I have to say I actually enjoy the QWERTY design... Also I could see it being a detriment if you already knew a keyboard (such as a QWERTY user today going to Dvorak). However in my case I haven't had to relearn a new keyboard.. it's always been this one. so I don't know that it slows me down.Quote:
Secondly, might we examine the classic "QWERTY" keyboard? it was actually designed to make people type more slowly. Older members will remember the mechanical typewriter? it had a semi circular array of keys, and if you went too quickly, you would create a "birdsnest" or "logjam" with the type heads crashing into oneanother?
I used to do Mock Trial in high school.. So I spent a lot of time in various court houses... In one of them they had a small "typewriter" that used paper that looked like a long roll of receipt paper... I believe this is what Terr is describing... However there were other court houses where saw the Court Stenographer using what I'll call a "reverse bullhorn"... Essentially she put the bigger opening over her mouth and there was no small opening and she just spoke into it while the trial was in progress.Quote:
OK IANAL (:D) so I don't know how those Court Stenographers do it........... it obviously isn't a standard typewriter that they use.
Of course there's a difference between conversation, lecture, etc... However as I mentioned... the fact that you don't have to pause for response while typing speeds the process up.Quote:
Conversation is a whole different issue as I see things. It is an interactive process; and you don't know what you are going to say next, given that this will be dependent on other people's contributions.
Most of my profs spoke at what I'd consider an average pace, although they would stop to allow things to sink in after they had said them... That being said.. the majority of my class types notes... and usually we'd have word for word (or close enough to it) notes.. The classes where I struggled to keep up were the classes where our laptops weren't allowed.Quote:
I noticed your "challenge" and would suggest just taking your laptop to a lecture and trying to keep up............................ please remember that a lecturer is deliberately speaking rather slowly to allow the message to sink in?
It's a number of things... IM, Cellphone and I suppose it could be equated to telegram times... but I still call it laziness for the most part.... IM is no excuse... cell phone was a fairly lousy excuse but telegram, way back when, was fairly valid.Quote:
I can understand that the current situation is mostly
due to the IM environment. I suppose the very limited text capacity of early cellphones has contributed as well? It takes me back to the era of the "telegram" when you paid by the letter/word............ they had a certain "style" and you used a thing called "stop" to punctuate your rather terse sentences ;)
I'm fine with them too... When they make sense... IT is filled with them.. but they are technical terms.. much as they are in science... using them in every day language is still nothing more than laziness..Quote:
AS for acronyms and abbreviations, I have no real problem, as we have used them in scientific contexts (usually measurements) for years...... mph, kph, mps, fps, and so on.
Same to you :)Quote:
Happy New Year to you and "she who must be obeyed" :D
Peace,
HT
Hmmm,
I am not sure that your speaking test is a fair comparison. I would have thought that conversation is more like IM, in that you wait for a response before typing your reply?
I do recall the days of audio typing though. That was when people dictated their text into a tape recorder (Dictaphone or whatever). The typist had foot controls to stop and start the tape (a bit like a sewing machine :D) That suggested to me that the spoken word was faster than typing.
I agree that there is something of a generation effect involved. Firstly, in my days at High School and College, ordinary people only had mechanical, manual typewriters. Naturally, the electric golfball, daisywheel and word processing packages are much faster. It should also be borne in mind that typewriters are fundamentally noisy, so are not particularly well suited to use in a traditional educational environment.
I forgot to mention it, but there was absolutely none of this IM speak when the TELEX machine was commonplace. My comment on the telegram needs to be considered in the light of the cost of the communication, rather than any deliberate laziness ;)
Another factor was that when I was in High School, your work HAD to be handwritten and with a fountain pen :eek:. At college, the emphasis was still on formal examinations where typewriters would be impractical. The only things that had to be typed were theses and dissertations.
Sure, we use a fair number of acronyms in IT and, like yourself, I find this acceptable. The way I was taught was that when you were preparing a business document you put the full phrase in brackets after the acronym the first time you used it. Also, one of the addenda to the document had to be a list of acronyms used and their meanings.
LOL (lots of luck).
For common ones,
List of Internet slang phrases
For complete slangs reference,
Here you go,
NetLingo
cheers:D
Inside info from the realm of the infamous Mrs|ce:
"The court reporter's typerwriter isn't a standard qwerty keyboard. In fact, it can't even print letters. What it does print is vocal sounds used to form words phonetically."
- there's a much smaller range of phonetics than there are letters, ergo one can 'type' at the speed of speech, which is pretty much impossible with qwerty (least I've never seen anyone who can do it, and I hit 140wpm myself) - |ce
Another reason could be that sometimes with recordings what has been said is not clear the first time you hear it and you have to listen multiple times to make out some of the words.Quote:
I do recall the days of audio typing though. That was when people dictated their text into a tape recorder (Dictaphone or whatever). The typist had foot controls to stop and start the tape (a bit like a sewing machine ) That suggested to me that the spoken word was faster than typing.
Personally I type a lot faster than I can write. This is perhaps because I'm left handed, and my writing sucks; after 2hr exams my hand feels like it's about to fall off!
ac