OT: A question for Role-Playing Gamers, Sci-Fi Addicts, and Internet Users

[Jamon Camisso]

Scott Elcomb wrote:
> One of the things that bugs me about communicating over the 'net is my
> spelling.  It's not that I don't know how, I just don't spell check. 
> ;-)


For most email, there isn't much reason to not use spell checking, 
especially with Thunderbird 1.5! Even Outlook Express can be set to 
check messages (if office is installed of course!) before sending them. 
If you use mutt and nano for email, a simple ctrl-t will do. Email 
spelling mistakes seem just plain inexcusable. Forums, perhaps less so.

> But that's got me thinking over the last few days of some things I
> used to read in novels, and experience during role-playing games when
> I was younger.
> 
> So here's my question - is 'net-speak developing into what used to be
> referred to (in said games and novels) as "common" speak?

Take the word podcast: I heard an interview with someone from the 
Canadian Oxford Dictionary on CBC radio a month or less ago who said 
that though the word only really appeared in late 2004, the dictionary 
would suspend its 5 year rule and induct "podcast" into the dictionary 
after just one year. Google maxes out at just over 90,000,000 hits, so 
in that respect,  I'd say that the answer to your question is a definite 
yes in a number of well known cases -- the word email being another for 
example...

Jamon

--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml