Smallish Post: Even the Professionals Make Mistakes

Throughout my life, there have been many times where I have been reading a professionally published piece of literature with a typo.  The only issues that I can usually spot are spelling issues as my grammar has always left something lacking.  It makes me wonder how these works got through so many levels of editing and checking and no one noticed that that one particular word was wrong!  I don't know if there really is a solution to the problem as I'm sure that the editors are already doing their best to ensure a correct publication.  I think it is rather a funny and comforting item to note, that even the professionals make mistakes.  To analyze this from a more spiritual perspective, there truly isn't perfection in this world, even for those who are at the top of their game, so to speak.  The only thing that we can all do is strive for perfection and continue to better ourselves each day.

Strunk N White

The way we speak, write, or express ourselves is a large part of who we are and how we are perceived by the world around us. Accents, nuances, physical expressions, and mannerisms are all things that distinguish us as individuals for good or bad. How we write a resume could be the difference between a future career or not. As I read 'The Elements of Style' I was impressed at how many of the lessons are things that I personally err with. Something as simple as a comma can mean the difference between "Let's eat Grandpa!" and "Let's eat, Grandpa", which give very different messages to the world. In our age of tweeting and texting, I find that we have lost a respect for the use of the English language that would put us in quite a barbaric state in the wrong setting. As we write without eloquence, with our grammar strewn madly about the sentence, a certain negative impression is given to the world. In just the same way as stereotypes are given to those who may have the less than desirable proverbial "burger-flipping" job, a poor text can leave the reader with an undesirable impression of the writer. Just as the way we speak sends a message about who we are to the world, the way we write sends an equally powerful message in this digital age.

With such a predicament at our hands, what can we do to remedy the situation? How can we save our progeny from poor writing? It is something that I have pondered as I read through the book, "how can we influence the world to be better". We have such excellent reference material at our finger tips in this technological age, yet the epidemic rages on. While this post will end with these questions unsanswered, I believe that there is still something that we can do as individuals. If we all make an effort to do what we can to perfect the writing of ourselves and our posterity, there will be lasting positive effects.

General Conference Tweeting

Following twitter during conference was a surprisingly neat experience. I was able to see how talks were affecting lives in real time. I found it so neat that I kept it up throughout a few sessions. It is definitely something I will do in the future.

Current Event: Electronic Money

To truly appreciate this post, you should begin by looking at the following comic. http://xkcd.com/538/ Sweden is on the verge of turning away from using cash entirely. It would be an entire society where money would be insured by more than the fear of the looming $5 wrench. With credit card companies handling fraudulent charges, and banks always trying to be on the cutting edge of cyber security, there is no reason that we should have to use something as insecure as cash. If you get mugged and lose your wallet full of cash, chances are you are out of luck, but if cash was out of the picture, that fear would be subsided. The turn from cash could potentially stop, or at least hinder, entire branches of crime. It could affect currency forgery, money laundering, and even take it's toll on the drug/black market. The one concern that Sweden has is that this would negatively affect their elderly citizens, but as the article so quaintly puts it "admittedly that’s a short term problem to overcome." There is little security in this world, especially for a cash based society. With so much of what we have being volatile, should we not, as Sweden, do all that we can to protect that which can be protected? http://www.geek.com/news/sweden-may-be-first-country-to-eliminate-cash-1514483/

Current Event: Thanks, Yahoo!

What if I told you I would give you $1000 a minute to scrub the bathroom floor? Most people would be very eager to accept that offer. Now let us imagine instead of the cash, I allow you to take anything you find when cleaning the floor. Sounds like a grand ripoff compared to the first option. This is equivalent to the offer that Yahoo is making to those who find and report their bugs. While large companies like Facebook and Google offer substantial cash bounties for their bugs, Yahoo is offering next to nothing for theirs. In addition to the meager amount offered, it is being offered as in store credit on a specified subset of worthless Yahoo paraphernalia. I can't imagine why anyone would do this equivalent of floor scrubbing when such lucrative options exist elsewhere. Yahoo is apparently here to stay, but in order to compete with the other Goliath companies, they will need to take a look around and make some more compelling offers. Article: http://www.geek.com/apps/yahoo-rewards-vulnerability-reporting-with-a-12-50-discount-voucher-1572317/