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Whether you look to Miss Manners, the Cybercouth Tiger, Mother, or some other manners maven, they will all say that being polite will make people more receptive to your message. So, how can we hone our electronic communication skills to this degree? Let’s take a look at a few of the most egregious e-mail etiquette errors and discuss how certain situations should be handled. (more…)
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We have a special guest joining us this week, Ms. DigITal Entity. She is a computer chip with an extensive memory and a unique ability to communicate. We’ve all encountered situations where we wish we knew what our computers were thinking; well, DigIT, as she is known to her many friends and family, provides that insight.
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With the rise of smartphones comes the luxury of accessing our e-mail wherever we roam. These days, it seems that no matter where you go, you’re likely to hear the tap-tap-tapping of fingers across mini QWERTY keyboards and virtual keypads as people all around you type out those all-important e-mail messages.
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In the summer, frozen treats are a delight. I have to admit, when I hear the ice cream truck coming down the street on a hot day, I still scramble to gather up some money and run outside (usually in bare feet on the scorching pavement, but who has time to look for shoes?) to flag it down so I can enjoy an ice cream cone, some water ice, or maybe even a Drumstick.
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There is a wide range of music on my iPod: everything from classical to ’90s alternative. When I put the playlist on shuffle, anything goes. I might hear the soothing strains of Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” or the raucous refrain of Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping.” Um…everyone else has that on their iPods, right?
The other day, the song “Counting Blue Cars” by Dishwalla came on and I found myself singing along with the lyric: “We count only blue cars…”
Nerd that I am, I couldn’t help but immediately conjure up an Excel formula to help them out:
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There’s a joke by the late comedian Mitch Hedberg in which he recounts a transaction that he feels did not require any documentation: he got a receipt when buying a donut. As Mitch had stated in his trademark deadpan:
“I’ll just give you the money and you give me the donut…end of transaction. We do not need to bring ink and paper into this.”
This scenario might seem a bit ludicrous, even for those who prefer to document everything almost religiously. But with the increase in activity on social networking sites, the minutiae of everyone’s daily lives seems much more prevalent now than it was several years ago. (more…)
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The holiday season is upon us once again, and with it comes the importance of remembering that which truly matters most: cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.
Chocolate chips, snickerdoodles, and gingerbread men by the dozen. We humans have a tendency to celebrate various occasions with food, and I am by no means opposed to this time-honored tradition.
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Welcome back to the podcast! This week’s edition: Another Case of Formula Frenzy.
It was a dry and brisk November evening when I got the call. Sitting at my desk with the blinds cracked just enough to allow the last rays of sunlight from the dying day to creep through, the ringing of the phone shattered the silence like a brick through a pane of glass. The dame was one-half shrill hysteria, two-thirds livid frustration, and just a splash of hopeless desperation. The recipe for a typical batch of Formula Frenzy. Combine and shake well; serve chilled and aggravated.
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Welcome back to the podcast! This week’s edition: Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam!
In the world of geek, there are few things more humorous than a sketch by the famous British comedy team Monty Python. One of my favorites is the Spam sketch, in which a man and his wife go out to breakfast and nearly every item on the menu contains Spam. Most items contain Spam multiple times, such as “Spam, bacon, sausage, and Spam.”
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Welcome back to the podcast! This week’s edition: GPS For Your CPU.
One of the more thoughtful gifts I received recently was a GPS system. I am plagued by a complete lack of direction, so before acquiring this device, I had a keen ability to take two turns while driving and promptly find myself lost and very afraid.