I must admit that my favorite part of participating in our wired world is discovering the kooky jargon that evolves and affords us the fodder to "word-drop" during party chatter or committee meetings or any situations in which we want to appear technologically savvy. Here are two terms that I recently added to my brain's virtual dictionary:
SIPS--which stands for statistically improbable phrases. It is actually a system developed by Amazon.com to compare all the books they index and to find phrases in each that are most unlikely to be found in any other book. For example, if you are interested in the phrase "global urbanization", Amazon's program helps you find books that use that phrase somewhere in the text. Scientific research programs are providing similar tools, referred to as "text mining" tools. Of course, librarians, always ahead of the curve, have long been using creative and original cataloging in their catalog subject headings to promote the finding of a unique subject.
Another word I recently discovered was googlewhacked. It's a term and game that have been around for awhile...which is why I emphasize that I just discovered it. Characterized by C/net.news as "the latest pursuit of legions of bored and increasing obsessed Web Surfers searching for the next big thing. " The googlewhack game begins by typing two words into Google's search bar. A googlewhacker's ultimate goal is to see the words "Results 1-1 of 1." It has become more and more challenging to find a googlewhack because of the enormous size of Google.
Gary Stock, who invented the term, humbly says that people have been searching for odd combinations for years. He likes to view googelwhacking, not as a waste of time, but as an incentive to get people to explore the Web.
Please share your favorite or just some fun tech terms with me. I'm going to a committee meeting and a soiree party soon and need some fresh buzz words to oh so casually drop into the conversation!
Lastly, I need a fresh tech web resource to compliment my Urban Dictionary. So recommend one to me if you please.
Patsy
searsp@montevallo.edu
No comments:
Post a Comment