Dan from Netflap.com has an article describing a problem that he calls the “related blame syndrome.” I think the problem can be best explained by an example. The other day, I helped someone import their photos into iPhoto. A few days later, the person I helped says, “you helped me with iPhoto but you broke my Internet Connection!” Dan says,

Why is it that when it comes to computers and technology, people want to immediately relate one problem with another. Even if there is virtually no correlation, users decide to create one.

He goes on to posit that there is some strange aspect of technology that causes people to make correlations between unrelated problems, driving “computer experts” nuts.

While I’m glad to see I’m not the only person who’s noticed related-blame syndrome, I disagree with the idea that it is a mysterious affliction limited to technical problems. Read More »

When you go crazy, do you loose your mind, or lose it? For many people these days, they loose it. How long it will be before “loose” becomes an acceptable spelling for “lose.” I’ve seen this misspelling so often, and yet each time it irks me. Call it a pet peeve. The distinction, according to the OED, is considerable:

Read More »

Picking a half-decent domain name for this site was a pain. Almost everything I could think of was taken. In fact, I came up with the following rules of thumb for .com domains:

Read More »