In Defense of "LOL"

I've seen a number of bloggers recently (Kasia and Jeremy among them) take bloggers to task for their use of IM shortcuts in blog entries.  Initially I agreed with them but now I'm not so sure.  Here's an example from Kasia's blog that responds to Jeremy's post:

Yes! My [insert your favourite deity] is that annoying! I've seen some of my very intelligent and otherwise wonderful friends lapse into this teenagish (is that a word?) and infuriating habit.. Makes me want to reach out, grab their cell phones, blackberries, palm pilots and other assorted keyboardless devices and throw them into the nearest west-nile-virus-mosquito infested swamp.

 On the "Death to LOL" side of the fence are the traditional arguments for purity in language, a call for better writing, etc.  And I don't disagree with that.  But what these folks seem to be ignoring are the following:

1. We're all producing an increasing amount of text these days.  From email to IM to blog entries, we all produce lots more text than we did even just a few years ago.  Think about it, really think about it -- it's very, very true.
2. When you are producing more but doing so in the same time period then you look for shortcuts.  It's a lot harder to craft a sentence that expresses what LOL instantly conveys.  Sure it may be a bit early 90's AOL chatroom as Kasia says.  So ?
3. One of the best aspects of blogs is that they are *personal*.  They are *human*.  And if LOL makes it easier to express that humanity and saves the blogger some time, is that so bad?
4. We also all read more text than ever before.  As with the statement on writing a sentence that expresses LOL, it's a lot easier and faster to read just "LOL".

NOTE: I'm definitely not advocating blog entries like "ur hr. thx" but I do think that there is a middle ground that these writers are ignoring.  And I'm really not advocating IM syntax in homework assignments as Dan Isaacs refers to but language -- "it is a changing".

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An Actual .NET Application: Aggie

This is the first .NET application that I've even noticed.  It's a news aggregator that runs on your desktop and is AmphetaDesk compatible.  No idea how it is but I thought the curiousity of a .NET application was worth blogging.  More.  Note that you'll have to download not only a service pack update but also a 20 meg runtime (not a mistake, 20 megs). 

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Mozilla Improvements

If you are a Mozilla user (and if you aren't, you really need to think about it since Mozilla offers a solid, stable, advertising free, free alternative to Internet Explorer or Netscape 6+ / 7+).  Here are two cool things:

• Phoenix -- a faster version of the core Mozilla technology. 
• Multizilla -- a better version of the tabbed browsing feature in Mozilla. Tabbed browsing, a feature still not found in Internet Explorer, lets you avoid multiple browser windows by grouping them into "tabs".  Given how multiple Internet Explorer windows lead to resource leaks (well at least for me), this is a welcome improvement.  From CamWorld.

Both qualify as recommended but bear in mind that Phoenix is still really at the techie, geekie hacker stage.

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Marketing 101: Don't Be As Dumb As Dell

For the first time I now understand why Dell has designed their website the way they have, where you have to pick what type of customer you are (individual, business, small business, government, etc) before you can see their products  --- and my only comment is this:

DON'T BE AS DUMB AS DELL

In a true hobbesian fashion, this rant will be nasty, brutish and short.  Here's what happened:

1. A friend asked for advice on laptops.  Specifically "What laptop should I buy?".  I asked for criteria and they were this:
   • No more than 5 pounds
   • Integral CD-ROM
   • WiFi (on my advice)
   • 20 or more gigs of storage
   • NOT Windows ME (she has it already and loathes it with the passion of 1,023 angry, spitting llamas)
   • 256 megs of RAM
   • NOT huge in size
   • Not more than $1,300
   • Not a Thinkpad (my advice)
2. Did you know that finding a laptop meeting these criteria is actually hard?  Most laptops seem to be either 7 plus pounds w/ 15" screens or 1" thin and 12.1" screens.  That sweet spot of 4 - 5 pounds is sorely lacking. 
3. I ended up choosing a Dell Latitude C510.  And then the troubles began ...
4. When she called to order it, one of the first questions out of the sales rep's mouth was "What type of business are you?".  She replied "I'm an individual and I'd like to order a Latitude C510".  And the rep replied:
5. "I can't sell that to you since you aren't a business".  And the call ended.

Can you believe that?  I mean here you have someone who wants to spend money and on something that is legitimately a consumer product (we're not talking a terabyte sized disc array here) and Dell refuses to sell it to you based on how they perceive you as a customer.  That's just wrong.  And it's stupid.

Oh and the epilog: I ordered it for her since I am a "business" and she's happy with her new laptop.  But what kind of stupidity is this?  Oh and don't even get me started on that pathetic excuse for an "ecommerce" site that is Dell.  I've had better purchasing experiences at sites built by teenagers working from the proverbial parent's basement.  I'm normally a Dell cheerleader and I'm even a shareholder but this is shockingly disappointing.

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Photo of the Day

Who?  Me?

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Free TrueType Fonts!

Download them from www.fontz.de.  Thanks to www.slashdot.com for this one.  And you should note that I think some of these do have registration fees if you like them.

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