July 8, 2006
Google (tr verb): see search
On Thursday, Merriam-Webster and Oxford University Press announced the newest additions to their respective dictionaries. Among new science and technology words are agritourism, biodiesel, mouse potato, ringtone, spyware … and google.
The word google is defined as a transitive verb meaning ‘to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web.’ While the entry retains capitalisation in explaining the word’s etymology — ‘Google, trademark for a search engine’ — the verb google is lowercase.
The Oxford English Dictionary (‘OED’), which also released its quarterly update June on 15, added Google as a verb, but it retained the capitalisation. The OED also included a wide range of both quirky and commonplace tech terms that Merriam-Webster has not yet deemed dictionary-worthy. They include:
- adware (noun)
- codec (noun)
- cybrary (noun)
- digicam (noun)
- hacktivism (noun)
- mash-up (noun
- mesohyl (noun)
- nanobot (noun)
- pixelate (verb)
- rewriteable (adj)
- texting (noun)
- text message (verb)
- uninstall (verb)
Among other law-related additions are:
- 401(k) (noun)
- contingency fee (noun)
- covenant marriage (noun)
Oh, and let’s not forget:
- pitch invasion (noun)
- Plan A (noun)
- Plan B (noun)
- Plato’s cave (noun)
These additions follow the controversial selection of podcast as the OED’s ‘word of the year’ for 2005 and its subsequent inclusion in the Dictionary. Perhaps more questionable was the inclusion of chugger, Europop and Hinglish — what is this, Chambers? Whatever the case, it appears that more care has been taken to justify google’s recognition:
‘A noun turns into a verb very often. Google is a unique case. Because they have achieved so much prominence in the world of search, people have been using the word google as a generic verb now. Our main aim is to respond to the use of the language that we see. We consider ourselves very respectful of trademark [sic]. That [google as a lowercase verb] is really a lexicographical judgment based on the evidence that was analysed …’
Becoming synonymous with an invention may hold a certain amount of historic glory for a company, but ubiquitous use of the company’s name to describe something can make it harder to enforce a trade mark. Bayer lost Aspirin as a US trade mark in 1921 after it was determined that the abbreviation for acetylsalicylic acid had become a generic term. The trade marks Band-Aid, Kleenex, Rollerblade and Xerox have had similar issues.
The inclusion of Energizer bunny (noun) may prove particularly troublesome for a certain Australian battery manufacturer.
Nonetheless, it’s great to see some traditionally conservative dictionaries recognising technological neologisms as legitimate members of the English language. My scrabble scores will be much improved as a result.
Source: CNET News
Posted by Jaani at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2005
New Orleans Gets Free Wi-Fi; Amazon Sees Record Blanket, Pillow Sales
'New Orleans remains under a state of emergency, but the intrepid blogger can now enter the city to suck up an RSS feed, ping a trackback, or fiddle with a Wiki. That's thanks to a new, municipal Wi-Fi network which launched to the public today.'
Posted by Jaani at 2:33 PM | Comments (0)
October 6, 2005
Wind Farm Whips Up Gale of Fury
It's windy versus NIMBY as Cape Cod landowners try to block turbine towers proposed for Nantucket Sound. But a similar project to pluck megawatts from the sky off Long Island is breezing toward completion. By Will Wade.Posted by Jaani at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2005
By 2050, an Urban Planet
'Scientific American projects what the world will look like in 2050, and it is going to be a far different place for businesspeople to deal with.'
Worldwide population will be 9.1 billion, up from the current 6.5 billion. While that 40 percent increase looks drastic, it represents a substantial slowing in population growth. From 1960 to today, the number of people on earth more than doubled.
"From 2007 forward, urban people will outnumber rural people" for the first time in history, Joel E. Cohen writes. Indeed, virtually all the projected population growth "will happen in existing or new cities in developing countries." Here's another way to think of that: "In effect, the poor countries will have to build the equivalent of a city of more than one million people each week for the next 45 years."
The proportion of people living in developing countries versus developed ones will have increased. "In 1950, the less developed regions had roughly twice the population of the more developed ones; by 2050, the ratio will exceed 6 to 1."
The graying of the global population will not have proceeded uniformly. "In 2050 nearly one person in three will be 60 years or older in the more developed regions, and one person in five in the less developed zones."
Posted by Jaani at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)
Globalisation and the Legal Profession
Kevin Martin, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, has written an interesting piece about the rise of lawyers as an export commodity. He describes the expertise that international lawyers can bring to global transactions and the benefits this can have for countries playing host to them. However, he also notes several barriers to further expansion in these emerging legal markets:
And the law is one of international trade’s brightest stars. Exports of legal services from the UK — and to countries well beyond the Commonwealth — grew by more than 400 per cent in the decade 1993-2003 to top £2 billion. UK law firms have more than 450 offices in 70 countries across the globe.
The potential for further growth is significant. But there is a familiar obstacle in many emerging markets — protectionism. This includes the outright prohibition against any practice of law by a foreign lawyer — a prohibition that still exists, for example, in India, South Korea and the Philippines.
Although vested interests in restricting competition are part of the reason; fear and a misunderstanding of what the advent of foreign lawyers would mean also play a part. Concerns include the loss of jobs by local lawyers, poaching of the best local lawyers by foreign law firms, unscrupulous or ill-trained foreign practitioners fleecing unsuspecting consumers and worries about alien influence in the justice system.
What protectionists need to bear in mind here is that international lawyers aren’t really in competition with domestic legal practitioners — unless private international law (and not conveyancing or criminal law) really forms the mainstay of their practice! Global transactions are in an entirely different league, with disputes much more likely to be litigated in legally developed jurisdictions than local courts. The presence of an international legal community is thus unlikely to cause harm to the local profession. If anything, it’s going to catalyse development of the domestic legal system and increase the amount of available work for established practitioners.
Posted by Jaani at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)
September 2, 2005
New Orleans Legal Documents, Profession Devastated by Hurricane Katrina
In addition to its catastrophic impact upon New Orleans' inhabitants, infrastructure, and human values ('it's not looting, it's finding'), it looks as though Hurricane Katrina is having a significant effect upon the city's legal profession:
5 000-6 000 lawyers (1/3 of the lawyers in Louisiana) have lost their offices, their libraries, their computers with all information thereon, their client files -- possibly their clients, as one attorney who e-mailed me noted. [T]hey are scattered from Florida to Arizona and have nothing to return to. Their children's schools are gone and, optimistically, the school systems in 8 parishes/counties won't be re-opened until after December. They must relocate their lives.
Our state Supreme Court is under some water -- with all appellate files and evidence folders/boxes along with it. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals building is under some water -- with the same effect. Right now there may only be 3-4 feet of standing water but, if you think about it, most files are kept in the basements or lower floors of courthouses. What effect will that have on the lives of citizens and lawyers throughout this state and this area of the country? And on the law?
The city and district courts in as many as 8 parishes/counties are under water, as well as 3 of our circuit courts -- with evidence/files at each of them ruined. The law enforcement offices in those areas are under water -- again, with evidence ruined. 6 000 prisoners in 2 prisons and one juvenile facility are having to be securely relocated. We already have over-crowding at most Louisiana prisons and juvenile facilities. What effect will this have? And what happens when the evidence in their cases has been destroyed? Will the guilty be released upon the communities? Will the innocent not be able to prove their innocence?
As Zywicki notes, the fact that the destruction was so severe as to destroy both records and backups of records is all the more staggering, and many medical and financial records will also have been affected.
Posted by Jaani at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)
Katrina.com Becomes Hurricane Info Portal
'The Web site Katrina.com has been converted by its owner from a small-business site into a repository of information about the hurricane and its aftermath.'
A very charitable and useful thing to do -- there's nary an ad to be seen!Posted by Jaani at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2005
General Electric Wins Contract For Fuel Cell-Gas Turbine System
GE Energy has been selected by the US Department of Energy ('DOE;) to develop a highly efficient, multi-megawatt solid oxide fuel cell ('SOFC')-based power system operating on coal.
Posted by Jaani at 4:29 PM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2003
"Psst, Wanna Buy Some Moon Rock?"
A piece of moon rock is available for sale at a Dutch auction site, with bids starting at USD $50 000. At the time of writing, no-one seems game to put down the money for a 5kg chunk of rock geologically and chemically identical to a $1 piece of Arizonian desert boulder.
Then again, diamond dealers are also so concerned with authenticity as to reject the creation of Cd via any process other than slow geological heating and compression. Both enterprises sound like artificially inflated markets to me (though the lot does include a rather nice gift plaque from the good folks at NASA - there's a bit of a story behind this rock, after all).
Posted by Jaani at 2:14 PM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2003
US Looks Set to Re-Enter Nuclear Arms Race
Though hyping their recent destruction of chemical weapon supplies, the administration was rather less forthcoming about a meeting which brought together 150 of the United States' top nuclear scientists - of which no mention could be found in any US media. The meeting took place at Offutt air force base, Nebraska, and sought to establish a new generation of high-yield, low-payload nuclear weaponry for localised battlefield deployment.
Irony indeed. And in news not as unrelated as you might think, Arnold Schwarzenegger has officially embarked upon his campaign for the Californian gubernatorial elections. At present his campaign seems to consist solely of signing autographs and dodging the more important issues, but I wouldn't underestimate the power of celebreties upon that most discerning of electorates, California.
In an interesting twist, one month ago to this day Mr Bush was quoted as saying, "[i]magine a world in which [a] tyrant had a nuclear weapon." His recent moves to reignite the race for nuclear armament must be viewed with considerable scepticism; there is a fine line between world leader and tyrant.
I suppose the upshot of all this is that pretty soon the United States will not only have a president who thinks he's a movie star, but they'll also have a governor who actually is one, too.
Posted by Jaani at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)
August 8, 2003
Light Pollution
I'll admit that I laughed when I first saw this, but according to the author, light pollution represents a real and deadly threat to nocturnal moth populations everywhere.
Environmentalists aren't the only ones irked by Earth's increasingly luminaphobic tendancies. Astronomers, too, are worried that the darker regions of the sky will no longer be visible to the naked eye, while conservationists reflect upon the amount of fossil fuels used to power urban lighting.
Being a life-long city-dweller, a constant post-dusk glow is a fact of life. While I'd prefer utter blackness (compare this to this), I can't say metropolitan lighting bothers me that much. Of more concern (not so much for any environmental reason as for the sake of efficiency) are the increasingly glitzy inner-city advertising billboards - from giant LCD displays to random bursts of flame - which threaten to overtake the skyline in a Vegas-comes-to-Melbourne kind of way. This doesn't seem to bother the bats, though, which continue to swoop and screech ever-louder over my rooftop. Everyone has to complain about something though, don't they?
Posted by Jaani at 6:38 PM | Comments (0)
August 5, 2003
Woeful Spring
The first tidings of spring are upon us here in Melbourne, and I bemoan its untimely insurgance upon my cosy winter hideway. It encroaches slowly at first - a glimpse of sun or a day without frost - but then rapidly degenerates into a haze of allergies, heat, and overclocking worries.
I guess this means I'll no longer have any decent excuse to hide myself indoors, turn the ducted heating up to obscene levels, and laugh cheerily about the relative warmth of my immediate surrounds.
There's nothing nicer
Than sitting curled up in bed
Watching rain and snow
There, this insipid legerdemain has driven me to Haiku! But don't be fooled, people. Spring is not all what it seems. Are there any other winter-lovers out there?
Posted by Jaani at 6:22 PM | Comments (0)
August 4, 2003
Buzz Words
Buzz words - is there any greater evil? Throughout the brief but turbulent period in which the IT industry has been subjected to mainstream marketing and its bold visions of compulsive spending, we've seen the rise and fall of a number of catchwords.
Loosely speaking, one can chart the development of the tech industry with the buzz words used to market it - from relative obscurity in the early 90s, through the hype of the dot-com boom, to the bursting of the bubble and subsequent scramble by many a not-so-well-off company to reclaim its pre-1999 share price.
First there was ".com", which remains popular - to a certain extent - even today. Anything .com sounded grandiose, no matter how outrageous the business plan. Offline businesses, such as florists and boutique stores, started changing their names to .com and waiting for the big bucks to start rolling in! The sad thing is, investors scrambled for shares in the vein hope that once the Next Big Thing had floated on the stock exchange the company directors would actually care about their shareholders.
The oft-quoted Compuglobalhypermeganet comes to mind.
With the subsequent collapse of the industry, new buzz words needed to be found to coax potential investors back into what had become a shaky and disillusioned marketplace. Companies tried to differentiate themselves with such gems as "Client-focused", "End-to-end", "e-Solution", "Application Service Provider", "Information Architect" - and then there was that whole B2B cuffuffle!
Today, the market seems captivated by ".NET" and "XP". Both pioneered by Microsoft, every other company seems to be tacking an XP suffix onto their product line in some mad attempt to "stand out". I mean, why have 'Keyboard' when you can have 'Keyboard XP'! How long will it be before we see the washed up online florist flowers.com change their name to Flowers XP, (then change back to .com when it becomes popular again, in that 'see, I knew her before she was cool' kind of way).
Some say the next buzz word will be "nano". 'We've had our share of suffixes,' must have whirred the collective minds of countless swarms of marketing drones, 'so it's time for a prefix.' Revolutionary! I look forward to the day when nano, too, is applied to products completely unrelated to molecular nanosystems - I wouldn't put things like nano-refridgerator and nano-lipstick ("It'll nano-revolutionalise the way you XPerience life.com.au").
Of course, I'm going to pre-empt all the buzz word madness and register the domain that everyone will be squabbling over come next marketing season. Then, like the clever folks who nabbed Business.com (then sold it for USD $7.5 million before the dot-com crash), I can retire revered by advertisers everywhere!
Nanotechxp.com here I come!
Posted by Jaani at 8:43 PM | Comments (0)
