Bill Reed
I've gone off to find myself. If I should return before I get back, keep me here.
I've gone off to find myself. If I should return before I get back, keep me here.
Communities and Collections
Posts
Post is pinned.
A Spelling Rant
When I was young it always bothered me that when I made a spelling error, I was given the advice to :use a dictionary.” “How can I find a word in a dictionary if I don't know how to spell?” (This question is the model for the more modern question that a coworker once asked me: “So, how can the computer know what I word I mean if it doesn't know what I'm trying to say?” Well, I don't know!)
Of course, my spelling proficiency has improved since then and we now have spellcheckers … barring the occasional glitch when a similar sounding, but incorrect word inadvertently finds its way into my writing – my brain seems to file away words based upon their sound and is easily confused – and the result is anything from hilarious to catastrophic. The catastrophic aspect manifests mainly in texts – at the least convenient moment – instigating intense negotiations, back and forth, as I try to repair some spellchecker mediated social faux pas. (This happens to me more times than I care to admit.)
Another problem is that I have occasional problems spelling words in a way that is wrong but close enough to the correct spelling so that the spellchecker can find the word I'm struggling to spell instead of the obviously wrong alternatives it offers. (Here we cycle back to the last question of the first paragraph: “How can the computer know what I word I mean if it doesn't know what I'm trying to say?”)
Proofreading? Just don't get me started.
When I was young it always bothered me that when I made a spelling error, I was given the advice to :use a dictionary.” “How can I find a word in a dictionary if I don't know how to spell?” (This question is the model for the more modern question that a coworker once asked me: “So, how can the computer know what I word I mean if it doesn't know what I'm trying to say?” Well, I don't know!)
Of course, my spelling proficiency has improved since then and we now have spellcheckers … barring the occasional glitch when a similar sounding, but incorrect word inadvertently finds its way into my writing – my brain seems to file away words based upon their sound and is easily confused – and the result is anything from hilarious to catastrophic. The catastrophic aspect manifests mainly in texts – at the least convenient moment – instigating intense negotiations, back and forth, as I try to repair some spellchecker mediated social faux pas. (This happens to me more times than I care to admit.)
Another problem is that I have occasional problems spelling words in a way that is wrong but close enough to the correct spelling so that the spellchecker can find the word I'm struggling to spell instead of the obviously wrong alternatives it offers. (Here we cycle back to the last question of the first paragraph: “How can the computer know what I word I mean if it doesn't know what I'm trying to say?”)
Proofreading? Just don't get me started.
Add a comment...
A Skeptics Holiday
Make of this what you will, but it would seem that here Hume is rather tortured by the Skeptical conclusions of his Philosophy and found it a relief to dine, play backgammon and converse with his friends, to surrender to life as it were.
“Most fortunately it happens, that since reason is incapable of dispelling these clouds, nature herself suffices to that purpose, and cures me of this philosophical melancholy and delirium, either by relaxing this bent of mind, or by some avocation, and lively impression of my senses, which obliterate all these chimeras. I dine, I play a game of backgammon, I converse, and am merry with my friends; and when after three or four hours’ amusement, I wou’d return to these speculations, they appear so cold, and strain’d, and ridiculous, that I cannot find in my heart to enter into them any farther.” – David Hume (A Treatise of Human Nature, 1739)
Make of this what you will, but it would seem that here Hume is rather tortured by the Skeptical conclusions of his Philosophy and found it a relief to dine, play backgammon and converse with his friends, to surrender to life as it were.
“Most fortunately it happens, that since reason is incapable of dispelling these clouds, nature herself suffices to that purpose, and cures me of this philosophical melancholy and delirium, either by relaxing this bent of mind, or by some avocation, and lively impression of my senses, which obliterate all these chimeras. I dine, I play a game of backgammon, I converse, and am merry with my friends; and when after three or four hours’ amusement, I wou’d return to these speculations, they appear so cold, and strain’d, and ridiculous, that I cannot find in my heart to enter into them any farther.” – David Hume (A Treatise of Human Nature, 1739)
Add a comment...
Post has attachment
The Conspiracy Theorist That Cried Apocalypse
Add a comment...
Post has attachment
What is Category Theory?
“In mathematics, abstract nonsense, general abstract nonsense, and general nonsense are terms used by mathematicians to describe abstract methods related to category theory and homological algebra. More generally, “abstract nonsense” may refer to a proof that relies on category-theoretic methods, or even to the study of category theory itself.”
“In mathematics, abstract nonsense, general abstract nonsense, and general nonsense are terms used by mathematicians to describe abstract methods related to category theory and homological algebra. More generally, “abstract nonsense” may refer to a proof that relies on category-theoretic methods, or even to the study of category theory itself.”
Add a comment...
On “Civil” Discourse
No matter how hard you try to keep to the high road, someone will always insist on steering right for the gutter.
No matter how hard you try to keep to the high road, someone will always insist on steering right for the gutter.
Add a comment...
Is an “Orange” called an “Orange” because it doesn't rhyme with anything?
Add a comment...
Post has attachment
Mathematics for a Wibbly Wobbly World
Add a comment...
Post has attachment
… and your waist line thicker?
Add a comment...
The sole purpose for some arguments appears to be argument for arguments sake.
Add a comment...
“It is good to express a matter in two ways simultaneously so as to give it both a right foot and a left. Truth can stand on one leg, to be sure; but with two it can walk and get about.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Add a comment...
Wait while more posts are being loaded