hugovk

hugovk has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 26 lists, listed 142345 words, written 586 comments, added 0 tags, and loved 0 words.

Comments by hugovk

hugovk commented on the word cyber-bombing

cyber-bombing, v.
The Register, 4 March 2016:
US defense sec: We're cyber-bombing ISIS

May 5, 2016
hugovk commented on the word surveywall

surveywall, n.
Matt Jones, 6 April 2016:
@Herring1967 annoying when the article you want to read's behind a surveywall but they omit the appropriate response https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfWnvvtXIAAwd-C.jpg

April 6, 2016
hugovk commented on the word bro hug

bro hug, n.
Waro, rec.motorcycles.harley, 6 September 2000:
Rich...if you got out behind that computer terminal and went out to the meets I don't think they would pound the shit out of you. They would probably give you one of those big bro hugs and tell you your a funny guy.

March 20, 2016
hugovk commented on the word vlogger

vlogger, v.
Jeff Jarvis, 31 December 2002:
And I’ll repeat what I said when I started this: Vlogging lets us online go up against our true competitors — not news organizations and reporters but commentators, especially on TV (on Sunday morning, on Fox, on 60 Minutes). Bloggers compete with columnists; vloggers compete with pundits.

March 20, 2016
hugovk commented on the word vlogging

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Vlogging: My first two vlogs: I created two new vlogs.
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http://buzzmachine.com/2002/12/19/note-please-use-this-address/
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Vlogging: How to vlog
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http://buzzmachine.com/2002/12/19/vlogging-how-to-vlog-i/
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At the same time, Jeff Jarvis has spent $99 on a new piece of software and is experimenting with video weblogging, or vlogging. He says: “The truth is, all you do to make TV is stare at a camera and read and say something: It’s easy. There’s no reason a blogger should not be the next Andy Rooney or Charles Grodin or Ann Coulter (easy marks, all!). I’d take any of their jobs, tomorrow.”
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http://weblog.blogads.com/2002/12/20/gawker-and-jarvis-populist-innovators/
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vlogging: collaborative online video blogging at tropisms.org
Luuk's work is all about vlogging -- that's shorthand for video blogging.
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https://boingboing.net/2002/12/26/vlogging-collaborati.html

March 20, 2016
hugovk commented on the word video blog

video blog, n.
Adrian Miles, 27 November 2000:
welcome. this is a video blog. don't know if there are lots around, or what they should be called. but if its ok to call a web log a blog then it this can be a vog. i guess. don't really know, since its my first blog of any description. I think it will have video for each posting, however irregular that may be. the video might be all the content, or it might just be illustration. don't know yet. have to test it out. maybe a video diary?

March 20, 2016
hugovk commented on the word vlog

vlog, v.
Jeff Jarvis, 19 December 2002:
Vlogging: How to vlog

March 20, 2016
hugovk commented on the word lifenthusiast

lifenthusiast, n.
Nigin's Blog, 7 March 2016:
The day before yesterday ConwayLife.com forums saw a new member named zdr. When we the lifenthusiasts meet a newcomer, we expect to see things like “brand new” 30-cell 700-gen methuselah and then have to explain why it is not notable. However, what zdr showed us made our jaws drop.

March 14, 2016
hugovk commented on the word botifesto

botifesto, n.
Fusion, 1 March 2016:
The people behind these artsy bots are a friendly, loosely-organized community of programmers, artists, journalists, and anyone else who feels like making bots. They’ve got hashtags, most prominently #botALLY; a roving Bot Summit which will take place in London this year; and a “botifesto” on Motherboard that describes the present and future state of bots.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word botsmith

botsmith, n.
Fusion, 1 March 2016:
Like other botsmiths I spoke to, thrice is ultimately pragmatic, and has no plans for “an estate that funds a server running into eternity where only the bot has the keys to the Twitter account.”

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word ladyblog

ladyblog, n.

Slate, 23 February 2016:

The saga began in 2008, when Rebecca Solnit published an essay called “Men Explain Things to Me.” Though Solnit didn’t use the word mansplain, she recounted an anecdote in which a man—“with that smug look I know so well … eyes fixed on the fuzzy far horizon of his own authority”—proceeded to enlighten her as to the contents of her own book. Soon, the term mansplain was kicking around in Livejournal comments and ladyblogs. It meant something like “to declaim, as a male and in a patronizing fashion, on a subject about which you know little, to a woman who knows more.” Jezebel gave mansplaining its own topic tag. Citizen Radio introduced “The Adventures of Mansplainer,” a boldhearted gent with the courage and acuity to set ladies straight on catcalling and workplace sexism. The Tumblr Academic Men Explain Things to Me carved out a safe space for “women to recount their experience being mansplained, in academia and elsewhere.” Gleeful meme-ophiles were treated to the suave paternalism and hard-bodied fatuity of “Mansplaining Paul Ryan.”

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word property technology

property technology, n.
The Guardian, 27 February 2016:
He seems happy with how things are going. “We’ve raised a few hundred thousand pounds, and now we’ll build our team. Prop-tech (property technology) is heating up in a big way.” I ask him if he feels he spends too much time at Second Home. “Well,” he says, “you can’t not go out and have a curry in Brick Lane sometimes.” He shows no sign of being about to do so, however. “You see,” he says, “I’m on a mission, so I’m always at work, and I’m never at work.” I ask what he means. “It’s not work,” he reiterates, slowly and carefully, “because it’s a mission.”

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word prop-tech

prop-tech, n.

The Guardian, 27 February 2016:

He seems happy with how things are going. “We’ve raised a few hundred thousand pounds, and now we’ll build our team. Prop-tech property technology is heating up in a big way.” I ask him if he feels he spends too much time at Second Home. “Well,” he says, “you can’t not go out and have a curry in Brick Lane sometimes.” He shows no sign of being about to do so, however. “You see,” he says, “I’m on a mission, so I’m always at work, and I’m never at work.” I ask what he means. “It’s not work,” he reiterates, slowly and carefully, “because it’s a mission.”

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word funky fit-out

funky fit-out, n.
The Guardian, 27 February 2016:
The Melbourne look is an early example of what a recent report by the British Council for Offices (BCO), entitled What Workers Want, calls “a funky fit-out”. It has become quite widespread in recent years. Mind Candy, which produces the children’s video game Moshi Monsters, has a gingerbread house in its London headquarters. Airbnb HQ has miniature apartments modelled on its listings around the world – so you can sit on a sofa even though you’re at work. The London office of Ticketmaster has a slide. Actually, this is such a common feature in tech workplaces (complete with fake grass to slide on to) that I imagine dozens of slides stacked next to the filing cabinets and desks in office supplies warehouses. Infantilism is a common theme, the idea being that staff might rediscover the imaginative playfulness they last exhibited aged about three.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word socialise

socialise, v. to email something around
The Guardian, 26 February 2016:
9am Someone suggests I “socialise” my documents. I decide to just email them round for people to review. When did we stop being able to use the words we want to? I don’t “start” a new phase, I have to “commence” it.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word mini-'slab

mini-'slab, n. a mini fondleslab, a small tablet computing device
The Register, 18 November 2014:
N1 mini-'slab to plop into crowded pond next year

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word sub flagship

sub flagship, n. and adj.

The Register, 22 February 2016:

Sony finally has a response to being left behind by value Chinese rivals. It's revived the Xperia X range with three new models, packing some top-end features alongside Sony’s hallmark design and long battery life. The Xperia X Performance is a metal-backed 5 incher (with Qualcomm 820 Snapdragon inside) and a 23MP main camera. The new X uses the Snapdragon 615 part, while the Xperia XA uses a cheaper 720 pixel display and MediaTek processor. Sony reckons a five minute fast charging top up adds two hours of life to the phones. Prices have yet to be confirmed for the “sub flagships”, which will hit the street in the Summer.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word smartie

smartie, n. a smartphone
The Register, 25 February 2016:
Around a dozen engineers were set to work on the CAT S60, with the goal of being the first smartphone to incorporate thermal imaging, previously the domain of industrial and military uses. The €649 metal-framed smartie has a dedicated FLIR thermal camera, as well as a 13MP underwater proof camera. The device is waterproofed and drop proofed up to 1.8 metres.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word sobriety tags

sobriety tags, n.
The Guardian, 25 February 2016:
Gove has also approved an expansion of a trial of the use of alcohol abstinence monitoring, or “sobriety tags”. The scheme is to be extended from south London to the rest of the capital.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word leaderless jihad

leaderless jihad, n.
The Guardian, 25 February 2016:
During this period, when it came to attacking western targets, Isis and other groups encouraged individuals to act alone. This strategy, which some analysts called “leaderless jihad”, was based partly on theories developed in the early 2000s by an independent militant strategist known as Abu Musab al-Suri. His adage was that extremist activists needed “principles, not organisations” and should be empowered to act as individuals, guided by texts they could find online, without necessarily belonging to any one group.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word indigenous rap

indigenous rap, n.
The Guardian, 25 February 2016:
When I was growing up, middle-class kids like me rarely admitted to understanding a native language, let alone speaking it. These days, things are different: it is uncool to have nothing but English in your language arsenal. Indigenous rap in Lagos has exceeded its expectations to the extent that some new rappers have been accused of class appropriation to sell their music. Brands are following suit, with ad campaigns in pidgin and local languages. TV programmes are doing the same.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word local rap music

local rap music, n.
The Guardian, 25 February 2016:
“Dialectical rap or local rap music has finally broken barriers because you don’t need to hear what we are saying,” Illbliss says. “There is the rhythm, there is the sway, there are the catchphrases and the slogans. It’s almost like I want my people to know your people. If I get on a song with say Olamide or Lil Kesh, it is a seamless exchange where I carry my culture to them and they bring their culture to me. Even our leadership has never unified Nigerians as much as music.”

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word dialectical rap music

dialectical rap music, n.
The Guardian, 25 February 2016:
But as Lagos has gentrified over the last decade, sprouting with trees and parks, street markets reincarnated as shopping complexes, intersections colonised by Domino’s Pizza and Cold Stone ice cream, there has been a new wave of indigenous or dialectical rap music – hip-hop that fuses street slang with native dialect.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word dialectical rap

dialectical rap, n.
The Guardian, 25 February 2016:
But as Lagos has gentrified over the last decade, sprouting with trees and parks, street markets reincarnated as shopping complexes, intersections colonised by Domino’s Pizza and Cold Stone ice cream, there has been a new wave of indigenous or dialectical rap music – hip-hop that fuses street slang with native dialect.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word counterspeech

counterspeech, n.
The Guardian, 22 February 2016:
Last autumn, Facebook launched a project with the thinktank Demos on what it calls “counterspeech”, providing alternatives to extremist narratives, and it has recently begun working with academics at King’s College London who specialise in jihadi propaganda. It doesn’t have all the answers yet, says Milner, but “what does work is the kind of thing Sheryl was talking about: humour and warmth”. If extremists seek to spread fear and shock, counterspeech might aim to make them look small and ridiculous. Facebook now plans to build a network of NGOs across Europe and beyond, cultivating a grassroots counter-narrative to jihadi propaganda. The question that it’s grappling with, says Milner, is almost “how do we enable empathy in a crowd as opposed to individuals?”

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word like attack

like attack, n.
The Guardian, 22 February 2016:
Lately, Facebook’s plans for promoting harmony have become significantly more ambitious. Last month, its chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, provoked raised eyebrows in Davos by suggesting users could help undermine jihadi propaganda with a concerted counter-offensive of what can only be described as organised niceness. She cited a recent “like attack” staged by German users, who swamped a neo-Nazi group’s Facebook page with messages of inclusivity and tolerance.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word persuasive design

persuasive design, n.
The Guardian, 22 February 2016:
It’s a classic example of what BJ Fogg, a Stanford-based behavioural scientist who specialises in the psychology of Facebook, calls persuasive design: if you want people to do something, don’t explain why, just show them how. Humans learn by imitation, which means modelling nice behaviour beats lecturing people to be nice.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word idgi

idgi, initialism I don't get it
MustardCreams, 22 February 2016:
That damn Daniel thing isn't even good idgi

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word genervacation

A quick search doesn't turn up much apart from that Guardian article: this undated travel blog and this talk title at the 3 Nov 2015 World Travel Market conference. It's possible travel firms are using it, but if so as internal jargon, and they're clearly not advertising with it.
This 25 February 2016 blog post, but then it's on the site of the travel firm whose research is mentioned in the 20 February 2016 Guardian article, and they have quite similar content...

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word Bremain

Bremain, n.
The Guardian, 20 February 2016:
Brexit is riskier than Bremain. This is incontestable. We know what it’s like being a member of the EU. We don’t know what it would be like outside.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word brexiter

Brexiter, n.
The Guardian, 20 February 2016:
Here’s how to argue with a Brexiter – and win

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word Forceback

Forceback, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
A key sequence in JJ Abrams’s blockbuster space opera reboot featured lead character Rey (Daisy Ridley) experiencing visions of the past – the segue has been dubbed the “Forceback” by fans – including Kylo Ren’s attack on Skywalker’s Jedi Academy and herself as a young child.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word double tap attack

double tap attack, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
MSF said on Thursday that a total of 94 airstrikes and shelling attacks hit facilities supported by the organisation in 2015 alone, in 12 cases leading to the total destruction of the facility. Some hospitals also suffered from “double tap” attacks, where a second airstrike targets paramedics and EMTs who arrive at the scene to rescue the wounded, between 20-60 minutes after the first bombing.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word double tap

double tap, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
MSF said on Thursday that a total of 94 airstrikes and shelling attacks hit facilities supported by the organisation in 2015 alone, in 12 cases leading to the total destruction of the facility. Some hospitals also suffered from “double tap” attacks, where a second airstrike targets paramedics and EMTs who arrive at the scene to rescue the wounded, between 20-60 minutes after the first bombing.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word bioinspiration

bioinspiration, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
But the same biomimetic approach means a drone could be mistaken for a bird, even by other birds: US military Raven drones were reportedly knocked out of the sky by hawks. In any case, rather than biomimicry, Rafael Palacios of Imperial College’s department of aeronautics and one of the researchers behind the new bat-winged MAV, prefers the word bioinspiration.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word biomimicry

biomimicry, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
But the same biomimetic approach means a drone could be mistaken for a bird, even by other birds: US military Raven drones were reportedly knocked out of the sky by hawks. In any case, rather than biomimicry, Rafael Palacios of Imperial College’s department of aeronautics and one of the researchers behind the new bat-winged MAV, prefers the word bioinspiration.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word ornithopter

ornithopter, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
Flapping wing drones or ornithopters may have the edge over aircraft-like designs, and there are drone projects that mimic the way birds find and ride thermals to gain height. Other researchers have developed drones that can perch on branches or wires with the feet based on the talons of a hawk.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word biomimetics

biomimetics, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
The new science of biomimetics has already produced a range of materials and technologies imitated from nature. This is a fruitful approach for flight, said David Hambling, author of a new book, Swarm Troopers: How Small Drones will Conquer the World.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word MAV

MAV, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
It flies like a bird, it was inspired by a bat and it could in every sense take off: a new British unmanned Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) can skim over the waves, splash down and take off and change wingshape in responses to the forces it encounters.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word micro air vehicle

Micro Air Vehicle, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
It flies like a bird, it was inspired by a bat and it could in every sense take off: a new British unmanned Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) can skim over the waves, splash down and take off and change wingshape in responses to the forces it encounters.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word terroristiness

terroristiness, n.
Ars Technica UK, 16 February 2016:
Given the complete set of metadata, SKYNET pieces together people's typical daily routines—who travels together, have shared contacts, stay overnight with friends, visit other countries, or move permanently. Overall, the slides indicate, the NSA machine learning algorithm uses more than 80 different properties to rate people on their terroristiness.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word game poem

game poem, n.
Austin Chronicle, 12 February 2016:
A game poem in its purest form, Charles Elwonger's Lost Thing rewards several play-throughs despite its unchanging plot. Lasting only a few minutes depending on the speed at which you digest the words, sounds, and imagery, that's not a tall order. The player interaction – holding down the space bar or mouse to continue to the next animated frame – might appear to be mere frippery, but like good poetry, every element is purposeful. Advancing the story involves inducing a short but clear breath sound. This gives the spare figure onscreen a sense of animation and helps players identify with the identity-challenged protagonist. The static-y visuals juxtaposed with crisp sound design imbues the short poem with a pleasantly contradictory sense of realism and surrealism, like a dream of something quotidian.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word pay what you wish

pay what you wish, n.
Austin Chronicle, 12 February 2016:
Mirror Lake
Katie Rose Pipkin
Pay what you wish
Available on browsers and for download

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word walking simulator

walking simulator, n.
Austin Chronicle, 12 February 2016:
Abandoning the idea of running, jumping, and shooting has opened up the world of gaming to relatively new genres like empathy games (see That Dragon, Cancer, and Depression Quest) and "walking simulators" (Proteus, Gone Home). Some designers have gone one step further by reconfiguring or tossing aside the notion of playing. Here are a few local examples of powerful, but minimally interactive, artworks.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word empathy games

empathy games, n.
Austin Chronicle, 12 February 2016:
Abandoning the idea of running, jumping, and shooting has opened up the world of gaming to relatively new genres like empathy games (see That Dragon, Cancer, and Depression Quest) and "walking simulators" (Proteus, Gone Home). Some designers have gone one step further by reconfiguring or tossing aside the notion of playing. Here are a few local examples of powerful, but minimally interactive, artworks.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word hybrid operations

hybrid operations, n.
Yle, 14 February 2016:
"In addition to seeing how a country's official bureaucracy and administrative system copes with migration, hybrid operations also gauge how a country's population reacts to dramatic events," Paronen analyses. "It's a matter of surveying the national mood."

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word grey phase

grey phase, n.
Yle, 14 February 2016:
Steering the flow of mass migration is a typical method in the arsenal of the so-called "grey phase" of hybrid warfare.
"The events of Salla and Raja-Jooseppi can be seen as methods of pressure consciously used by Russia," Paronen says. "It is still premature to use wartime terminology because other aspects of hybrid warfare such as conventional armed conflict have obviously not arisen."

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word hybrid warfare

hybrid warfare, n.
Yle, 14 February 2016:
Steering the flow of mass migration is a typical method in the arsenal of the so-called "grey phase" of hybrid warfare.
"The events of Salla and Raja-Jooseppi can be seen as methods of pressure consciously used by Russia," Paronen says. "It is still premature to use wartime terminology because other aspects of hybrid warfare such as conventional armed conflict have obviously not arisen."

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word austerity ailments

austerity ailments, n.
The Guardian, 14 February 2016:
That conclusion was also used in evidence by the pressure group Psychologists Against Austerity, represented by Laura McGrath of the University of East London and Vanessa Griffin of the University of Essex. They had formed their group to protest at what they saw as the advance of five stress-related “austerity ailments”: humiliation and shame, instability and insecurity, isolation and loneliness, being trapped or feeling powerless, and fear and distrust. The collective result of these ailments was that “Mental health problems are being created in the present, and further problems are being stored for the future.”

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word piss-pots

piss-pots, n.
The Guardian, 13 February 2016:
Self added: “This is part of a gathering campaign to resist what I call ‘piss-pots’, Public Space Protection Orders which are a kind of extension of the law into the very psyche of the urban stroller. This is non-trivial.”

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word public space protection order

Public Space Protection Order, n.
The Guardian, 13 February 2016:
Described as both a “public space intervention” and a “mass trespass”, the protest included a series of speakers defending the rights of urban residents as free-roaming citizens. Among them was comedian Mark Thomas, who attacked the coalition government’s introduction of the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) which allows councils to make illegal activities such as sleeping rough in an attempt to drive homeless people from town or city centres.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word PSPO

PSPO, n.
The Guardian, 13 February 2016:
Described as both a “public space intervention” and a “mass trespass”, the protest included a series of speakers defending the rights of urban residents as free-roaming citizens. Among them was comedian Mark Thomas, who attacked the coalition government’s introduction of the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) which allows councils to make illegal activities such as sleeping rough in an attempt to drive homeless people from town or city centres.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word public space intervention

public space intervention, n.
The Guardian, 13 February 2016:
Described as both a “public space intervention” and a “mass trespass”, the protest included a series of speakers defending the rights of urban residents as free-roaming citizens. Among them was comedian Mark Thomas, who attacked the coalition government’s introduction of the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) which allows councils to make illegal activities such as sleeping rough in an attempt to drive homeless people from town or city centres.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word mass trespass

mass trespass, n.
The Guardian, 13 February 2016:
Described as both a “public space intervention” and a “mass trespass”, the protest included a series of speakers defending the rights of urban residents as free-roaming citizens. Among them was comedian Mark Thomas, who attacked the coalition government’s introduction of the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) which allows councils to make illegal activities such as sleeping rough in an attempt to drive homeless people from town or city centres.

March 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word success myopia

success myopia, n.
The Register, 01 March 2016:
While we're defining new clever terms, here is one for Khosla and other very rich and successful people that imagine their experiences are relatable or teachable or expandable rather than the application of hard work and a huge helping of luck. It is called "success myopia."

Success myopia could best be explained by the fact that when talking about the world, those privileged enough to be in a position to pontificate about it will almost always focus on pre-existing successes. And focus on them as if they were foregone conclusions; then seek to explain and emulate them.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word liberal sciences

liberal sciences, n.
The Register, 13 February 2016:
That brilliance is swiftly put on display when Khosla coins his own new term and tells you he has just done so. It's "the liberal sciences" in place of "the liberal arts" and he even proposes a test for it: the ability to "understand and discuss the Economist, end-to-end, every week."

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word hard brick

hard brick, n.
Reddit, 12 February 2016:
Soft bricking might be a more correct term.

A soft brick is a brick that can be fixed via a complicated yet real method. It is opposed to a hard brick (paperweight).

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word soft brick

soft brick, n.
Reddit, 12 February 2016:
Soft bricking might be a more correct term.

A soft brick is a brick that can be fixed via a complicated yet real method. It is opposed to a hard brick (paperweight).

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word soft bricking

soft bricking, v.
Reddit, 12 February 2016:
Soft bricking might be a more correct term.

A soft brick is a brick that can be fixed via a complicated yet real method. It is opposed to a hard brick (paperweight).

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word bootloop

bootloop, v.
Reddit, 11 February 2016:
Can confirm that Jan 1, 1970 bootloops the device. iTunes will not recognize it in this state. Restoring in DFU (can't update in DFU, that option is unavailable) completes, but goes right back to bootloop. Updating in recovery mode has the same net effect.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word seven-day nhs

seven-day NHS, n.
The Guardian, 12 February 2016:
Hunt maintains that enforcing the contract is necessary in order to let hospital bosses recruit more junior doctors to work at weekends and usher in the so-called seven-day NHS. But the surgical colleges disputed his claim that doing so would reduce death rates among patients admitted to hospital at the weekend. “This contract alone will not resolve that issue, not least because most junior doctors already work at weekends,” they said.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word magic pocket-sized rectangle

magic pocket-sized rectangle, n. smartphone
Kottke, 9 February 2016:
Smartphones, Instagram, Snapchat, and generous data plans have closed that distance again in many ways...or more precisely, have made the distance less relevant. Interacting with 190 friends dozens or even hundreds of times a day probably feels a lot like being back in a hunter/gatherer band, socially speaking. Thanks to these magic pocket-sized rectangles, everyone you know in the world is never more than a few seconds away for more than a few hours.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word streak

streak, n.
BuzzFeed, 8 February 2016:
ELSBITCH: Streaks are the MOST important thing on Snapchat. Not just one streak — you need to have multiple.
I stopped her right there.
ME: What is a streak?
BROOKE: You don’t know what a streak is? It’s when you send a snap to one of your friends on consecutive days. You have to make sure to respond every day with a snap or you break the streak.
ME: OK. Neat.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word nonathletic regular person

Nonathletic Regular Person, n.
BuzzFeed, 8 February 2016:
ME: Wait. Really? I have like 30.
BROOKE: OMG!! 30?? Only NARPs have less than 150.
ME: What the hell is a NARP?
BROOKE: Nonathletic Regular Person. NARP.
ME: Ah. So…I’m basic?
BROOKE: Yeah.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word NARP

NARP, n.
BuzzFeed, 8 February 2016:
ME: Wait. Really? I have like 30.
BROOKE: OMG!! 30?? Only NARPs have less than 150.
ME: What the hell is a NARP?
BROOKE: Nonathletic Regular Person. NARP.
ME: Ah. So…I’m basic?
BROOKE: Yeah.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word MOBA

MOBA, n.
The Guardian, 29 February 2016:
Vainglory’s innovation lies in bringing one of the most hardcore game genres – multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) – to touchscreen devices. It works beautifully, too, with the fast response times and the frenetic action fans of the genre demand.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word multiplayer online battle arena

multiplayer online battle arena, n.
The Guardian, 29 February 2016:
Vainglory’s innovation lies in bringing one of the most hardcore game genres – multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) – to touchscreen devices. It works beautifully, too, with the fast response times and the frenetic action fans of the genre demand.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word grow-’em-up

grow-’em-up, n.
The Guardian, 29 February 2016:
Games exploring real-world issues include Endgame: Syria and Papers, Please and others splice together new genres, such as Framed, with its motion-comic puzzles, and ambient grow-’em-up Prune.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word furry

furry, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
“I do think ‘fursectution’ is real,” says Gerbasi (who does not identify as a furry), using a portmanteau term referring to perceived persecution of the fandom from outside elements. “And I think it’s because people are afraid of things they don’t understand.”

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word furries

furries, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
“Furry fandom is unique among fan cultures in that we are not consumers, but rather creators,” Kage explains. “Star Trek fans are chasing someone else’s dream. Furries create our own fandom.“

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word species identity disorder

species identity disorder, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
The parallels with gender identity disorder, upon which the hypothesis was modeled, were striking: much like some transgender individuals report being born the wrong sex, some furries feel a disconnect with their bodies, as if they were stuck in the wrong species. The condition, which Gerbasi et al labeled “species identity disorder”, had a physiological component too, with many reporting experiencing phantom body parts, like tails or wings.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word fursectution

fursectution, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
“I do think ‘fursectution’ is real,” says Gerbasi (who does not identify as a furry), using a portmanteau term referring to perceived persecution of the fandom from outside elements. “And I think it’s because people are afraid of things they don’t understand.”

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word yiff

yiff, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
Stereotyped as less innocent than they look by mainstream media, furries tend to get a bad rap. A 2001 Vanity Fair article brought up both bestiality and plushophilia (sexual attraction to stuffed animals), and defined furry fandom as “sex, religion and a whole new way of life”. The show Entourage presented a pink bunny fursuit as a sexual prop, and in CSI-episode Fur and Loathing in Las Vegas, furries are portrayed as fetishists mainly in it for the “yiff” – furry porn or sex.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word plushophilia

plushophilia, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
Stereotyped as less innocent than they look by mainstream media, furries tend to get a bad rap. A 2001 Vanity Fair article brought up both bestiality and plushophilia (sexual attraction to stuffed animals), and defined furry fandom as “sex, religion and a whole new way of life”. The show Entourage presented a pink bunny fursuit as a sexual prop, and in CSI-episode Fur and Loathing in Las Vegas, furries are portrayed as fetishists mainly in it for the “yiff” – furry porn or sex.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word fursuit

fursuit, v.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
“Cartoon animals have a universal appeal,” says Conway, who fursuits as ‘Uncle Kage’: a samurai cockroach. “A love of animals and a fascination with the idea of them acting as we do transcends most national, geographic and religious boundaries.”

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word fursuit

fursuit, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
New costume makers enter the market every week and fursuits gets ever more advanced: at an additional cost, jaws can move, tails wag and eyes light up with LED-lights. No two creations are alike, though most can be machine-washed and kept shiny with a few strokes with a pet brush.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word drynx

drynx, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
A spirit animal of sorts, the fursona can be just about any real or mythological creature the individual feels connected to. Dogs and big cats never go out of style, though hybrids like “folves” (fox + wolf) and “drynx” (dragon + lynx) are catching on.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word folves

folves, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
A spirit animal of sorts, the fursona can be just about any real or mythological creature the individual feels connected to. Dogs and big cats never go out of style, though hybrids like “folves” (fox + wolf) and “drynx” (dragon + lynx) are catching on.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word fursona

fursona, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
To this day, Dee has brought more than 300 “fursonas” (furry personas) to life – including Baltoro the Fox, realistic with taxidermy eyes, hand-molded silicon paws and muzzle and digitigrade hind legs; Zeke the Hyena, cartoonish with hand-stitched stripes and airbrushed abs; and Blaze, a vixen with flirty eyelashes and curvaceously padded chest.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word scritching

scritching, v.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
Menagerie Workshop, Dee’s one-woman fursuit empire, caters to the full furry spectra, from hobbyists content with a pair of ears or a tail to lifestylers who go all out with role play like “scritching” (scratching and grooming).

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word furry fandom

furry fandom, n.

The Guardian, 4 February 2016:

Furry fandom, an obscure subculture united in their passion for all things anthropomorphic, can be lucrative business – because artisanal fursuits are haute-couture.

February 29, 2016
hugovk commented on the word liquidmorphium

liquidmorphium, n.
, 25 February 2016:
Turing Phone is TRI’s first smart phone and entirely crowdfunded. The phone is made of liquidmorphium, an “amorphous “liquid metal” alloy tougher than either titanium or steel”.

February 26, 2016
hugovk commented on the word cypherphone

cypherphone, n.
TechCrunch, 25 February 2016:
TRI, the maker of the liquid-metal cypherphone, the Turing Phone, “the company foresaw the potential issues of data encryption and global government covert surveillance programs ever since mid-2013 and it made a decisive move to be established in Finland,” the company said in a statement.

February 26, 2016
hugovk commented on the word emojibot

emojibot, n.
Hugo, 25 February 2016:
Coupla emojibots: Why is there an emoji for that @butnoemoji for this? And tiny people waiting for the tiny bus at the @tiny_bus_stop!

February 25, 2016
hugovk commented on the word handhorse

handhorse, n.
Mikael Colville-Andersen, 25 February 2016:
Sometimes you need to ride with two bikes. This is me doing what we call in Danish a "handhorse". Håndhest. Like so many other things related to cycling, the word came from an equestrian angle. #copenhagen #VikingBiking

February 25, 2016
hugovk commented on the list words-i-stumble-across-2016

My 2016 list is here:
https://wordnik.com/lists/new-to-me--2016
2015:
https://wordnik.com/lists/new-to-me--2015

February 22, 2016
hugovk commented on the word silver traveller market

silver traveller market, n.
The Guardian, 20 February 2016:
While children at university are most likely to experience the rise of the genervacation, those in their late 20s and even early 30s are benefiting from the trend, which experts say has caught holiday companies by surprise. Many travel firms had believed that much of their future growth would come from the “silver traveller market” – parents holidaying together once their children had flown the nest.

February 21, 2016
hugovk commented on the word genervacation

genervacation, n.
The Guardian, 20 February 2016:
While the rise of what travel firms are calling the “genervacation” has been building for some time, it has received a turbo boost from pension reforms and soaring property prices.

February 21, 2016
hugovk commented on the word slab-book

slab-book, n. a 2-in-1 detachable, 2-in-1 PC, 2-in-1 tablet, 2-in-1 laptop, laplet, or 2-in-1
The Register, 3 February 2016:
As revealed last month, Microsoft claimed it received reports that cords for the first, second and third generation of the slab-book sold before 15 March could be faulty. It warned this was as a result of them being "wound too tightly, twisted or pinched over an extended period".

February 4, 2016
hugovk commented on the word syncs

syncs, n.

The Guardian, 30 January 2016:

Taylor has been in Slow Club for a decade now, having started in 2006 when she was still at school. She’s currently working on a solo project under the name Self Esteem, while working towards a fourth Slow Club album. Music is her full-time job. Between money coming in from royalties and publishing, merch sales and, crucially, money received from syncs – where their music is used for adverts or TV – Taylor and guitarist Charles Watson are able to pay themselves a monthly salary. It’s not much – you’d earn more working full time in McDonald’s – but it means she can get by.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word motorised doping

motorised doping, n. aka technological fraud, mechanical fraud, mechanical doping
CyclingTips, 02 February 2016:
More details emerge about motorised doping at cyclocross worlds

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word mechanical fraud

mechanical fraud, n. aka mechanical doping, technological fraud, motorized doping
CyclingTips, 02 February 2016:
“Our auditors made checks at the start and during the race in the pit and they have established mechanical fraud,” stated UCI coordinator Peter Van den Abeele to Sporza. “For the UCI this the first time that technological fraud is detected and for us this is a downer.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word technological fraud

technological fraud, n. aka mechanical doping, mechanical fraud, motorized doping
CyclingTips, 02 February 2016:
“Our auditors made checks at the start and during the race in the pit and they have established mechanical fraud,” stated UCI coordinator Peter Van den Abeele to Sporza. “For the UCI this the first time that technological fraud is detected and for us this is a downer.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word mechanical doping

mechanical doping, n. aka technological fraud, mechanical fraud, motorized doping
CyclingTips, 02 February 2016:
Motors scandal: Indications that Belgian Under 23 rider becomes the first to be caught for mechanical doping

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word sweetheart deal

sweetheart deal, n.
The Guardian, 22 January 2016:
People will be “sceptical” about what he said looked like a “sweetheart deal”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday, adding that HMRC seemed to have settled for a “relatively trivial amount of money.”

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word mile-eater

mile-eater, n.
The Brooks Blog, 25 January 2016:
Since it was established in 1911 by Cycling magazine, only a handful of cyclists have combined the physical stamina and psychological drive to take on the Year Record. The heyday of mile-eating was in the 1930s when bicycles and roads were much improved but the car had not yet taken over. In 1939 the Year Record was put ‘out of reach’ by Tommy Godwin, a British racing cyclist whose reputation as cycling’s ultimate mile-eater is unsurpassed. Not only did Godwin ride a unimaginably large distances (an average 205 miles a day with many days in excess of 300 miles) but suffered crashes, illness and two freezing British winters. He carried on through the outbreak of the second world war, air raids, blackouts, food rationing and the threat of being conscripted hanging over him. Godwin’s total of 75065 miles – 205 miles a day – that was the target for the two challengers who set out in January 2015.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word mile-eating

mile-eating, v.
The Brooks Blog, 25 January 2016:
Since it was established in 1911 by Cycling magazine, only a handful of cyclists have combined the physical stamina and psychological drive to take on the Year Record. The heyday of mile-eating was in the 1930s when bicycles and roads were much improved but the car had not yet taken over. In 1939 the Year Record was put ‘out of reach’ by Tommy Godwin, a British racing cyclist whose reputation as cycling’s ultimate mile-eater is unsurpassed. Not only did Godwin ride a unimaginably large distances (an average 205 miles a day with many days in excess of 300 miles) but suffered crashes, illness and two freezing British winters. He carried on through the outbreak of the second world war, air raids, blackouts, food rationing and the threat of being conscripted hanging over him. Godwin’s total of 75065 miles – 205 miles a day – that was the target for the two challengers who set out in January 2015.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word halo

halo, n.
The Guardian, 25 January 2016:
Formula One drivers are calling for a new safety device to be installed in their cockpits from 2017, hoping the so-called halo will prevent serious injury from flying debris.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word full-susser

full-susser, n. full-suspension (mountain) bicycle
BikeRadar, 25 January 2016:
The Boardman MTB Pro FS; one of the UK’s favourite full-sussers just got better

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word prestige series

prestige series, n.
The Guardian, 24 January 2016:
Netflix’s prestige series are all two-season wonders: Jessica Jones, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, even globetrotting period drama Marco Polo, which was critically disliked and quickly forgotten (and cost $90m to build, among other things, 6,000 custom-made historically accurate 13th-century costumes) are booked for two seasons’ worth of viewing.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word prestige television

prestige television, n.
The Guardian, 24 January 2016:
If 11/22/63 succeeds, credit will be partially due its main competitor: Hastings, programming head Ted Sarandos and others at Netflix made prestige television not merely appealing but vital for the internet age. Decades of rising cable subscriptions gave traditional networks the time and budgets to develop modern hits such as Battlestar Galactica, Breaking Bad and Archer, but also helped drive people into the arms of Netflix.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word direct-to-series

direct-to-series, adj.

The Guardian, 24 January 2016:

Sources say Hulu, the biggest competitor to Netflix’s pioneering business model, had to order two seasons of the forthcoming Hugh Laurie drama Chance to keep it from being sold elsewhere. And production budgets have risen: Netflix’s first big hit, House of Cards, cost a reported $100m for its initial order of two seasons. Across TV, direct-to-series orders are coming thick and fast as prices balloon – there are, after all, more places than ever to sell your script.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word project crime

project crime, n.

The Guardian, 23 January 2016:

Scroll forward to Easter 2015. A break-in at a Hatton Garden security deposit centre. How much stolen? £100m? £200m? Think of a number and double it. But whodunnit? Imaginative theories were rife, as were movie references. A spectacular “project” crime planned in detail is much like a film script, with roughly the same chance of coming off.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word down rounds

down rounds, n.
The Guardian, 22 January 2016:
The last few months have been hard on Silicon Valley startups, as a series of “down rounds” across the tech world chop established companies in half and stock collapses move billionaires back to millionaires. There’s a sense that San Francisco’s excess is peaking; investors asking for their money back, house-flipping seminars popping up across Facebook, and gold-flaked pizza signal the end of times.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word Planet Nine

Planet Nine, n.
The Guardian, 20 January 2016:
If the researchers have their sums right, the mysterious new world is 10 times more massive than Earth and up to four times the size. Nicknamed Planet Nine, it moves on an extremely elongated orbit, and takes a staggering 10,000 to 20,000 years to swing once around the sun.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word mishap rate

mishap rate, n. expressed in decamicrocrashes per hour
Washington Post, 19 January 2016:
The Reaper’s mishap rate — the number of major crashes per 100,000 hours flown — more than doubled compared with 2014. The aircraft, when fully equipped, cost about $14 million each to replace.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word mishap

mishap, n. military euphemism for a terrible crash
Washington Post, 19 January 2016:
Driving the increase was a mysterious surge in mishaps involving the Air Force’s newest and most advanced “hunter-killer” drone, the Reaper, which has become the Pentagon’s favored weapon for conducting surveillance and airstrikes against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other militant groups.
...
These accidents are categorized by the military as Class A: mishaps that destroyed the aircraft or caused at least $2 million in damage.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word autonomous spaceport drone ship

autonomous spaceport drone ship, n.
The Guardian, 16 January 2015:
The intention was to land the nearly empty first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket on the ship (labelled, in suitably grand terms, the “autonomous spaceport drone ship” by the company). Typically, the first stage of rockets are single-use, splashing down into the ocean after they’ve burned out and experiencing damaging atmospheric burn on the way down. The Falcon 9 was instead intended to control its descent with left-over fuel and hydraulically operated fins – and it nearly did.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word RUD

RUD, n. Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly
The Guardian, 16 January 2015:
Private spaceflight company SpaceX has released new pictures of its Falcon 9 rocket attempting to land on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean before undergoing what its chief executive, Elon Musk, euphemistically referred to as “RUD” – that’s “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly”.
In other words, it blew up.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word droneship

droneship, n.
The Guardian, 18 January 2016:
This year’s landing went much better, relatively speaking. The rocket landed vertically, and three of the four legs were successfully locked into place. Unfortunately, the fourth did not. Musk shared a video of the landing and subsequent explosion, adding: “Falcon lands on droneship, but the lockout collet doesn’t latch on one of the four legs, causing it to tip over post landing. Root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff.”

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word drone ship

drone ship, n.
The Guardian, 18 January 2016:
To that end, SpaceX has been attempting to land the rockets back safely on a stable surface, rather than letting them drop into the ocean as is typical for launches. It has a purpose-built unmanned “drone ship” built for the purpose (named “Just Read the Instructions” in honour of the science fiction author Iain M Banks) and the rockets are armed with small thrusters to control their descent.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word rapid unscheduled disassembly

rapid unscheduled disassembly, n.
The Guardian, 18 January 2016:
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has experienced another example of “rapid unscheduled disassembly” – which is Musk jargon for “my rocket exploded”.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word analogue phone

analogue phone, n. a retronym for a non-smart digital phone, a dumbphone, a feature phone
The Indepenent, 12 January 2016:
For a while. Redmayne says his experiment worked. “I love the idea of a more analogue phone in theory,” said the actor. “During the day, I felt far more alive.”

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word lmk

lmk, initialism let me know
Darius Kazemi, 17 January 2016:
Relatedly if anyone wants to grab tea in SE Portland this evening lmk

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word Generation Smartphone

Generation Smartphone, n.
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
My disposable camera pics always came back plastered with those oval “Quality Control” stickers. There should be an iPhone app for that. You’re right about boredom – that’s when daydreams happen and creativity germinates. I worry about Generation Smartphone always being “on”. A new survey found that time spent working out of hours on phones and tablets averages 29 days per year – more than most annual holiday allowances. Freckly thesp Eddie Redmayne recently revealed that he’s swapped his smartphone for a retro housebrick handset in a bid to stop constantly checking emails and start living in the moment.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word retro housebrick handset

retro housebrick handset, n. not a smartphone
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
My disposable camera pics always came back plastered with those oval “Quality Control” stickers. There should be an iPhone app for that. You’re right about boredom – that’s when daydreams happen and creativity germinates. I worry about Generation Smartphone always being “on”. A new survey found that time spent working out of hours on phones and tablets averages 29 days per year – more than most annual holiday allowances. Freckly thesp Eddie Redmayne recently revealed that he’s swapped his smartphone for a retro housebrick handset in a bid to stop constantly checking emails and start living in the moment.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word bleeping attention-sponge

bleeping attention-sponge, n. a smartphone
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
I’m not asking for jolly chats over the counter. I don’t feel too jolly in most shops, so shudder to think how the poor staff feel. Just some eye contact, pleases and thank yous would restore my faith in human nature. I’m aware I sound like Prince Charles/the Dowager Countess/my own nan but just fear we’re beginning to prioritise Mr I Phone (his first name’s probably Ian) over our fellow citizens. Couples go out for dinner and spend the entire time with their heads bent in silent supplication to the glowing god. People – of all ages, agreed – choose the bleeping attention-sponge over the friends sitting next to them.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word Mr I Phone

Mr I Phone, n. a smartphone

The Guardian, 16 January 2016:

I’m not asking for jolly chats over the counter. I don’t feel too jolly in most shops, so shudder to think how the poor staff feel. Just some eye contact, pleases and thank yous would restore my faith in human nature. I’m aware I sound like Prince Charles/the Dowager Countess/my own nan but just fear we’re beginning to prioritise Mr I Phone (his first name’s probably Ian) over our fellow citizens. Couples go out for dinner and spend the entire time with their heads bent in silent supplication to the glowing god. People – of all ages, agreed – choose the bleeping attention-sponge over the friends sitting next to them.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word glowing god

glowing god, n. a smartphone
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
I’m not asking for jolly chats over the counter. I don’t feel too jolly in most shops, so shudder to think how the poor staff feel. Just some eye contact, pleases and thank yous would restore my faith in human nature. I’m aware I sound like Prince Charles/the Dowager Countess/my own nan but just fear we’re beginning to prioritise Mr I Phone (his first name’s probably Ian) over our fellow citizens. Couples go out for dinner and spend the entire time with their heads bent in silent supplication to the glowing god. People – of all ages, agreed – choose the bleeping attention-sponge over the friends sitting next to them.

February 2, 2016
hugovk commented on the word manner mode

manner mode, n.
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
In Japan it’s considered polite to switch your phone to “Manner Mode” (an excellent way of describing what we might think of as “silent”) when using the metro, so that other passengers aren’t subjected to ringtones galore as they travel.

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word the human ellipse

the human ellipse, n.
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
The theory, if counterintuitive, is also pretty compelling. Think about it. It’s all very well keeping one side of the escalator clear for people in a rush, but in stations with long, steep walkways, only a small proportion are likely to be willing to climb. In lots of places, with short escalators or minimal congestion, this doesn’t much matter. But a 2002 study of escalator capacity on the Underground found that on machines such as those at Holborn, with a vertical height of 24 metres, only 40% would even contemplate it. By encouraging their preference, TfL effectively halves the capacity of the escalator in question, and creates significantly more crowding below, slowing everyone down. When you allow for the typical demands for a halo of personal space that persist in even the most disinhibited of commuters – a phenomenon described by crowd control guru Dr John J Fruin as “the human ellipse”, which means that they are largely unwilling to stand with someone directly adjacent to them or on the first step in front or behind - the theoretical capacity of the escalator halves again. Surely it was worth trying to haul back a bit of that wasted space.

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word escalumps

escalumps, n.
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
We might be bad at dancing and expressing our feelings, but say this for the British: when we settle on a convention of public order, we bloody well stick to it. We wait in line. We leave the last biscuit. And when we take the escalator, we stand on the right. The left is reserved for people in a hurry. In Washington DC, those who block the way are known as “escalumps”; here, they can expect the public humiliation of a tutting sound just over their shoulder. “Passengers just don’t like having these things changed,” says Celia Harrison, a Transport for London (TfL) customer strategy analyst, and one of the key people responsible for this heretical deviation from the norm. “I’ve worked on stations for many years. So I was aware that whatever we did people weren’t going to be comfortable about having their routine disturbed.”

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word Stockwell syndrome

Stockwell syndrome, n.
Matthew Ogle, 14 January 2016:
So @jhedelstein just coined "Stockwell Syndrome", for when pieces like this make us unexpectedly homesick for London http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/12/wrong-kind-of-sunlight-delays-southeastern-trains-london

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word courier cloud

courier cloud, n.
The Guardian, 11 January 2016:
There are diverse asides – on how tall buildings are constructed and her love life, for example – which take the reader away from the teeming streets and slow the pace: to use a cycling analogy, they felt like a rim rubbing on the brake. She is particularly sensitive to the solidarity that exists among the unlikely crew of mavericks, artists, economic migrants, PhD students, people between careers and incurable outsiders that make up what she calls the “courier cloud”.

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word courierhood

courierhood, n.
The Guardian, 11 January 2016:
I desperately wanted to read a book about the “courierhood” then. Wait 25 years and three are printed at almost the same time. Jon Day’s lucid essay Cyclogeography came out last July. The long-distance cyclist and campaigner Julian Sayarer’s Messengers is published this January, as is Emily Chappell’s beautifully written debut.

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word fuckboyism

fuckboyism, n.
The Wesleyan Argus, 26 March 2015:
Some have attributed the word’s popularity to the sound itself.
“It has a certain ring to it, ‘fuckboy,” Bass-Krueger said. “There’s a mystery, an enigma behind it where you try to parse fuckboyism. It just gets more confusing the further you go. It’s best not understood.”

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word blaccent

blaccent, n.
Salon, 03 January 2016:
There’s something that’s linguistically interesting about it. Most Americans know you can usually hear that a person is black even if you can’t see them and even if they’re not using any slang. I sometimes call it the “blaccent.” The blaccent is mostly about the coloring of a few vowels – the “a” in cat and the “o” in hot. It happens that these two vowels are the two in “black bodies.”

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word smart bra

smart bra, n.
The Guardian, 05 January 2016:
This year, 3,200 vendors will take over Las Vegas for a week for the technology industry’s pre-eminent trade show, offering the clearest window into a future in which everything, from your washing machine to your bra, has a computer chip. And there really is a vendor pitching a “smart bra”.

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word holiday-shame

holiday-shame, v.
The Guardian, 04 January 2016:
Barbados or bust? Why we shouldn’t holiday-shame public figures

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word BDFL

BDFL, n. Benevolent Dictator For Life

Brett Cannon, 02 January 2016:

And at least for me, the fact Guido prefers GitHub means something. While Guido himself would say I shouldn't really worry about his preferences since he is only an occasional contributor at this point, I believe that it's important that our BDFL actually like contributing to his own programming language rather than potentially alienating him because he finds the process burdensome.

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word chickenshit minimalism

chickenshit minimalism, n.
Maciej Cegłowski, 01 February 2016:
These Apple sites exemplify what I call Chickenshit Minimalism. It's the prevailing design aesthetic of today's web.
I wrote an essay about this on Medium. Since this is a fifty minute talk, please indulge me while I read it to you in its entirety:
"Chickenshit Minimalism: the illusion of simplicity backed by megabytes of cruft."

January 31, 2016
hugovk commented on the word Best Rapper Alive

Best Rapper Alive, n.
Complex, 05 January 2016:
But there is one debate that every rap fan not only loves to have but ought to have. A debate that considers both the short-term and long-term implications of an artist’s impact. A debate that pits a rapper in their prime against any and all competitors. A debate that gawks at the cultural landscape and plucks out the one who stands alone: the debate about who is the Best Rapper Alive. Being the BRA is sort of like being the MVP—even though rap doesn’t follow a rigid cultural calendar quite like major sports seasons—because it only requires looking at the current crop of active artists and picking a winner. You can confidently declare the Best Rapper Alive in any given year without having to consider previous decades, the same way you can say LeBron is an MVP even though you’ve never seen Jerry West play.

January 11, 2016
hugovk commented on the word BRA

BRA, n.
Complex, 05 January 2016:
But there is one debate that every rap fan not only loves to have but ought to have. A debate that considers both the short-term and long-term implications of an artist’s impact. A debate that pits a rapper in their prime against any and all competitors. A debate that gawks at the cultural landscape and plucks out the one who stands alone: the debate about who is the Best Rapper Alive. Being the BRA is sort of like being the MVP—even though rap doesn’t follow a rigid cultural calendar quite like major sports seasons—because it only requires looking at the current crop of active artists and picking a winner. You can confidently declare the Best Rapper Alive in any given year without having to consider previous decades, the same way you can say LeBron is an MVP even though you’ve never seen Jerry West play.

January 11, 2016
hugovk commented on the word Greatest of All Time

Greatest of All Time, n.

Complex, 05 January 2016:

The favorite rapper discussion is cool and all, but the coveted distinction in hip-hop is still being named the GOAT (Greatest of All Time). The GOAT discussion is reserved for the chosen few; no rookies or new jacks qualify. It’s strictly for the catalog artists, people who have shifted the culture in previously unmovable ways, artists whose music has permeated and resonated over an extended period of time. It’s rap’s imaginary Hall of Fame, existing only within the abstract conversations we have about it. Since it has to consider the entire canon of hip-hop, the discussion ought to be reserved for more refined debate among only the most informed parties.

January 11, 2016
hugovk commented on the word GOAT

GOAT, n.
Complex, 05 January 2016:
The favorite rapper discussion is cool and all, but the coveted distinction in hip-hop is still being named the GOAT (Greatest of All Time). The GOAT discussion is reserved for the chosen few; no rookies or new jacks qualify. It’s strictly for the catalog artists, people who have shifted the culture in previously unmovable ways, artists whose music has permeated and resonated over an extended period of time. It’s rap’s imaginary Hall of Fame, existing only within the abstract conversations we have about it. Since it has to consider the entire canon of hip-hop, the discussion ought to be reserved for more refined debate among only the most informed parties.

January 11, 2016
hugovk commented on the word golden table

golden table, n.
The Guardian, 6 January 2016:
Every restaurant has a "golden table" apparently, where they seat the coolest looking, most attractive customers, so they can give off a message about the place. Yes, I believe I'm quite familiar with the golden table, having been fortunate enough to have often been swiftly ushered there in a number of establishments. In a cosy corner towards the rear, right? Intimate, not too bright, very handy for the loo, classy.

January 8, 2016
hugovk commented on the word tpoc

tpoc, n. trans person of colour

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word woc

woc, n. woman of colour, as opposed to a white woman

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word poc

poc, n. person of colour, as opposed to a white person.

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word ambient computing

ambient computing, n.
Slashdot, 25 December 2015:
Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, is one of the biggest investors in technology. In an interview with The Telegraph, he spoke about how he envisions the future of computing. It's essentially an extension on the idea of the "Internet of Things." He thinks mobile phones will begin to be replaced in just 10 years. "The idea that we have a single piece of glowing display is too limiting. By then, every table, every wall, every surface will have a screen or can project." Within 20 years, he expects most new physical objects to have some sort of chip implanted within them. "The end state is fairly obvious — every light, every doorknob will be connected to the internet." The term for this is "ambient computing." There will obviously be a transition period — perhaps the so-called internet of things is just an early phase of that transition. But with powerful chips and sensors becoming incredibly cheap, Andreessen's scenario seems possible. I guess it's time to get cracking on those security and privacy concerns.

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word womb bearer

womb bearer, n.
The Guardian, 9 October 2015:
Another student told me she was banned from her feminist society because the flyers she distributed outlining the threat to women’s reproductive rights referred to “women” rather than ‘“womb bearers”, which was deemed transphobic.

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word no platform

no platform, v.
The Guardian, 9 October 2015:
Another emailed me recently explaining how she had been at the meeting at a London university that decided to “no platform” me from a debate on whether or not prostitution is harmful to women.

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word whorephobe

whorephobe, n.
The Guardian, 9 October 2015:
When several of the female students said they wanted to hear the debate, the white, male leader of that society started shouting that they were all “transphobes” and “whorephobes” for supporting me, so everyone shut up. I don’t blame them. I have had 11 years of this hostility because of one article I wrote, and they do not want the same treatment.

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word transphobe

transphobe, n.
The Guardian, 9 October 2015:
When several of the female students said they wanted to hear the debate, the white, male leader of that society started shouting that they were all “transphobes” and “whorephobes” for supporting me, so everyone shut up. I don’t blame them. I have had 11 years of this hostility because of one article I wrote, and they do not want the same treatment.

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word swerf

swerf, n.
The Guardian, 9 October 2015:
At a talk I did earlier this year on feminism, several students turned up to hear me, with one telling me a heartbreaking story about being cast out by her feminist group because she was a “terf” (trans exclusionary radical feminist) and a “swerf” (sex worker exclusionary radical feminist). Her crime had been to circulate an article I had written about the disgracefully low conviction rate for rape in the UK.

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word terf

terf, n.
The Guardian, 9 October 2015:
At a talk I did earlier this year on feminism, several students turned up to hear me, with one telling me a heartbreaking story about being cast out by her feminist group because she was a “terf” (trans exclusionary radical feminist) and a “swerf” (sex worker exclusionary radical feminist). Her crime had been to circulate an article I had written about the disgracefully low conviction rate for rape in the UK.

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word safe space

safe space, n.

The Guardian, 26 December 2015:

I’ve thought about some of these dilemmas a lot this year, because of all the banging on about “<b>safe spaces</b>” at university. The fact of Christmas tension illustrates than even the bosom of the family home is not a guaranteed “<b>safe space</b>”. Our family Christmases were “safe” neither for me nor for my parents, because we had competing ideas about the world.

And I’m very glad that university didn’t provide me with a “safe space”, one where I might have felt entitled to learn nothing about how so many of the assumptions my upbringing had fostered were wrong. Do I regret lecturing my parents about sexism, racism and homophobia? No. I only regret that I did it so gracelessly, so badly, so self-righteously.

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word no platforming

no platforming, v.

<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/26/christmas-not-safe-space-nor-should-it-be">The Guardian, 26 December 2015</a>:

This generation of students has grown up fully in that space, and sometimes it seems to me that they want to make their universities as unchallenging as they can make their Twitter feeds, muting, blocking and reporting anyone who doesn’t accept their gospel in the real world as completely as they are able to in the social media world. No-platforming is blocking, IRL.

January 1, 2016
hugovk commented on the word blended home

blended home, n.
The Guardian, 27 December 2015:
There are therapists aplenty kept in business by the trials and tribulations of blended families. I’m surprised there aren’t more interior advisory services for “blended homes”, since levels of angst are often raised equally high by the torturous process of marrying our belongings.

December 31, 2015
hugovk commented on the word blended family

blended family, n.
The Guardian, 27 December 2015:
There are therapists aplenty kept in business by the trials and tribulations of blended families. I’m surprised there aren’t more interior advisory services for “blended homes”, since levels of angst are often raised equally high by the torturous process of marrying our belongings.

December 31, 2015
hugovk commented on the word blended families

blended families, n.
The Guardian, 27 December 2015:
There are therapists aplenty kept in business by the trials and tribulations of blended families. I’m surprised there aren’t more interior advisory services for “blended homes”, since levels of angst are often raised equally high by the torturous process of marrying our belongings.

December 31, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Bobhead

Bobhead, n.
Vulture, 6 November 2015:
But something happens when we get to what became the Blonde on Blonde sessions, first in New York and then, much more fruitfully, in Nashville, the first of several albums Dylan recorded there. Suddenly, the arrangements are beginning to shift shape nearly every time — the kind of thing that Bobheads have been extolling since the bootlegs started coming. Perusing Paul Williams’s Bob Dylan: Performing Artist Volume One, a close 1991 reading not just of Dylan’s albums but available live performances and bootlegs, part of me was allured and part deeply skeptical: Does anyone deserve this kind of scrutiny? A surprising number of Blonde on Blonde outtakes do — three songs in particular.

December 31, 2015
hugovk commented on the word bot o'clock

bot o'clock, n.

Katie Rose Pipkin, 7 December 2015:

As a side effect, I would catch off times on twitter, where everyone but the bots were asleep. These timelines of automation had a striking effect. I was particularly fond of the bot chorus around the turn of the hour- bot o'clock, as some call it.

December 31, 2015
hugovk commented on the word credit-card touring

credit-card touring, n.
The Bike Show, 7 October 2015:
So if you're looking for a bike that'll do a lot of different things, whether it's commuting, road riding at the weekend, a little bit of credit-card touring, or very lightweight bikepacking-type adventures, this is the bike that fits the bill in a way, not necessarily this particular bike but this kind of bike.

December 31, 2015
hugovk commented on the word dumb weapons

dumb weapons, n.
The Guardian, 4 December 2015:
n a blog post, Cole said: “While airstrikes using precision-guided sometimes called ‘smart’ munitions are undoubtedly much more accurate than ‘dumb’ or unguided weapons, the idea that such weapons hit their target accurately every time unless there is a human-induced error is merely the stuff of Hollywood.”

December 31, 2015
hugovk commented on the word smart munitions

smart munitions, n.
The Guardian, 4 December 2015:
In a blog post, Cole said: “While airstrikes using precision-guided sometimes called ‘smart’ munitions are undoubtedly much more accurate than ‘dumb’ or unguided weapons, the idea that such weapons hit their target accurately every time unless there is a human-induced error is merely the stuff of Hollywood.”

December 31, 2015
hugovk commented on the word accuracy

accuracy, n.

<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/04/is-uk-claim-zero-civilian-casualties-iraq-airstrikes-credible">The Guardian, 4 December 2015</a>:

There is confusion over the way the military uses terminology. “Precision means you can hit the object you wanted to hit and nothing else. Accuracy means that the object is indeed what you thought it was,” Joshi said.

“You can have a very precise strike on a suspected truck carrying militants, but it would be inaccurate if it turned out to be carrying civilians. Missiles can be precise, but only intelligence and surveillance can bring accuracy. This distinction is being lost.”

December 31, 2015
hugovk commented on the word precision

precision, n.

<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/04/is-uk-claim-zero-civilian-casualties-iraq-airstrikes-credible">The Guardian, 4 December 2015</a>:

There is confusion over the way the military uses terminology. “Precision means you can hit the object you wanted to hit and nothing else. Accuracy means that the object is indeed what you thought it was,” Joshi said.

“You can have a very precise strike on a suspected truck carrying militants, but it would be inaccurate if it turned out to be carrying civilians. Missiles can be precise, but only intelligence and surveillance can bring accuracy. This distinction is being lost.”

December 31, 2015
hugovk commented on the word backscroll

backscroll, n. When revisiting a Slack chat group, the backscroll contains the old messages you've not read since your last visit.

A Slack user, 13 November 2015:

O people in backscroll discoursing about IPA and accents and dialects and such, some of you might like to see this: http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=find&language=english

December 30, 2015
hugovk commented on the word substore

substore, n.
Wikipedia, 30 December 2015:
On 1 November 2015, a Bleep.com substore gave the public the ability to purchase and download the album. On 8 December 2015, the AE_STORE_ page for the album was updated to include 5 more tracks.

December 30, 2015
hugovk commented on the word variable data printing

variable data printing, n.

Creative Review, 18 December 2015:

Designers Nick Relph and Matt Cooper used variable data printing and an extensive library of visuals to create a unque cover for each copy of Hot Chip’s sixth album, Why Make Sense? The pair devised a simple design before creating hundreds of pattern variations and 501 colour swatches, resulting in hundreds of thousands of possible combinations.

<b>Variable data printing</b> allowed elements of the design to be adapted with each pass of the printer, enabling customisation on a mass scale. “Nick was interested in the idea that some of the variations would be quite subtle,” says Cooper. “We’ve got hundreds and hundreds of different colours, so some of the variations are very close in colour and tone, a little like the small variations you get in traditional print methods at the beginning and end of a print run, or flecks of dirt, or other vagaries of the print process,” he adds. “The graphic’s vertical lines are static, but the angled lines’ orientations alter. Sometimes, lines are almost vertical, while others cross the design at nearly 90 degrees.”

December 30, 2015
hugovk commented on the word performance-shamed

performance-shamed, v.
The Guardian, 20 December 2015:
The next video stars a sloth called Delilah, who wears a blue bow perched atop her brow to signify her assigned gender. She is being performance-shamed in class for failing to complete an exam.

December 30, 2015
hugovk commented on the word words correspondent

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/11/philip_pullman_interview_the_golden_compass_author_on_young_adult_literature.2.html

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word digital detoxing

digital detoxing, v.
The Guardian, 15 November 2015:
But what about the consumer? Eleanor Aldridge, a senior editor at Rough Guides, the travel guides publisher, questions whether we are ready for this type of technology, especially because “digital detoxing” – holidaying without smartphones or connections to the internet – is very popular.

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word smart luggage

smart luggage, n.
The Guardian, 15 November 2015:
Your suitcase is the latest product to be given a technology makeover, with in-built GPS tracking and messaging. That means bags will be able to pair with your phone and send you a text about where they are, when they have been taken off a plane or if someone opens them without your consent.
But is “smart luggage” fulfilling a user demand?

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word I can't

I can't, phrase Shortening of 'I can't even'
pirta ☆NEBULA FART☆, 29 December 2015:
THEY'RE HOLDING HANDS I CAN'T

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word dormcore

dormcore, n.
The Guardian, 21 December 2015:
The television-watching look seems to me the most important overlooked sartorial issue of this time of year. We are at saturation point with novelty jumpers; we have, surely, reached peak office-party-jumpsuit. Close readers of our coverage will have noticed that we on the Guardian fashion desk have lately made the bold move, essential for the blossoming of any nascent trend, of championing a silly name for it. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you dormcore.
Dormcore is the love child of normcore and Grace Coddington in pyjamas. It is staying-in clothes as statement fashion; not-trying-too-hard as a badge of honour. It is partywear for the post-FOMO generation who make social arrangments knowing, even as they tap out the “can’t wait” text, that they will cancel the night before and stay in. After all, staying in no longer takes you off radar: you need a good look for that sofa selfie, right?

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word liveread

liveread, n. A reading.
The Guardian, 20 April 2014:
Director's new script, revealed during a liveread featuring Bruce Dern, Kurt Russell and Samuel L Jackson, harks back to his early work, says John Patterson

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Bitterites

Bitterite, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2015:
“As the leader, he has earned the right democratically to lead the party,” said the former Labour deputy prime minister on the Murnaghan show on Sky News. “But there are some people in the party, who I call the Bitterites, who want to continue the war that they lost.”

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Bitterite

Bitterite, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2015:
“As the leader, he has earned the right democratically to lead the party,” said the former Labour deputy prime minister on the Murnaghan show on Sky News. “But there are some people in the party, who I call the Bitterites, who want to continue the war that they lost.”

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word kilobots

kilobot, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2015:
As I explore the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, I realise that each glass-partitioned wall surrounds another ethical dilemma. The drones, so helpful when monitoring climate change. Tiny swarming “kilobots”, inspired by ants, modelling future ideas for cancer treatment. The too-realistic human head, with its soft skin and unfinished skull. Here there is a feeling of scholarly possibility, fuelled by earringed men, large coffee cups. In one cubicle, knee-height Nao robots feature in an experiment in which Professor Alan Winfield,part of a British Standards Institute working group on robot ethics, asks: “Can we teach a robot to be good? But when the research goes public and outgrows this hangar-sized lab, each robot will inevitably be reshaped depending on who acquires it.

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word kilobot

kilobot, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2015:
As I explore the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, I realise that each glass-partitioned wall surrounds another ethical dilemma. The drones, so helpful when monitoring climate change. Tiny swarming “kilobots”, inspired by ants, modelling future ideas for cancer treatment. The too-realistic human head, with its soft skin and unfinished skull. Here there is a feeling of scholarly possibility, fuelled by earringed men, large coffee cups. In one cubicle, knee-height Nao robots feature in an experiment in which Professor Alan Winfield,part of a British Standards Institute working group on robot ethics, asks: “Can we teach a robot to be good? But when the research goes public and outgrows this hangar-sized lab, each robot will inevitably be reshaped depending on who acquires it.

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word sociobot

sociobot, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2015:
Robots are evolving fast. They were invented in Bristol in 1949 by William Grey Walter, who was investigating how the brain works. It is fitting then, that down a wooded slope on the University of the West of England campus, the Bristol Robotics Laboratory is today considered a world leader in its field. The lab covers an area of 3,500m2, its vast yellow-lit space divided into glass sections littered with hard drives and disembodied prosthetic limbs. In the centre is a house. This is their “assisted living” smart home, where researchers are testing systems that could help people with dementia and limited mobility. By the sofa is a “sociobot” that can respond to facial expressions. The most human-looking of the systems, over by the dining table, is a robot called Molly. She has a tablet in place of a chest, for displaying photographs, and “She’ll say, for instance,” my guide explains: “‘Do you remember Paris?’” In that echoing space I found myself suddenly breathless.

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word teledildonics

teledildonics, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2015:
Teledildonic. The word rolls around the mouth like a Werther’s Original. While there are a variety of romantic tech-sex developments appearing weekly – from the ocean of Oculus Rift possibilities to an invisible boyfriend who lives on your phone, each new development rich as a Miranda July story but as doom-laden as one of Margaret Atwood’s – it’s teledildonics that are exciting not just the porn industry, but scientists too. Long hyped as the new wave in erotic technology, these are smart sex toys connected to the internet. And while they started life as vibrators that could be operated remotely, today the term has expanded to loosely include the new generation of robotic sex dolls.

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word tech-sex

tech-sex, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2015:
Teledildonic. The word rolls around the mouth like a Werther’s Original. While there are a variety of romantic tech-sex developments appearing weekly – from the ocean of Oculus Rift possibilities to an invisible boyfriend who lives on your phone, each new development rich as a Miranda July story but as doom-laden as one of Margaret Atwood’s – it’s teledildonics that are exciting not just the porn industry, but scientists too. Long hyped as the new wave in erotic technology, these are smart sex toys connected to the internet. And while they started life as vibrators that could be operated remotely, today the term has expanded to loosely include the new generation of robotic sex dolls.

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word smart sex toy

smart sex toy, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2015:
Teledildonic. The word rolls around the mouth like a Werther’s Original. While there are a variety of romantic tech-sex developments appearing weekly – from the ocean of Oculus Rift possibilities to an invisible boyfriend who lives on your phone, each new development rich as a Miranda July story but as doom-laden as one of Margaret Atwood’s – it’s teledildonics that are exciting not just the porn industry, but scientists too. Long hyped as the new wave in erotic technology, these are smart sex toys connected to the internet. And while they started life as vibrators that could be operated remotely, today the term has expanded to loosely include the new generation of robotic sex dolls.

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word teledildonic

teledildonic, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2015:
Teledildonic. The word rolls around the mouth like a Werther’s Original. While there are a variety of romantic tech-sex developments appearing weekly – from the ocean of Oculus Rift possibilities to an invisible boyfriend who lives on your phone, each new development rich as a Miranda July story but as doom-laden as one of Margaret Atwood’s – it’s teledildonics that are exciting not just the porn industry, but scientists too. Long hyped as the new wave in erotic technology, these are smart sex toys connected to the internet. And while they started life as vibrators that could be operated remotely, today the term has expanded to loosely include the new generation of robotic sex dolls.

December 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word democratorship

democratorship, n.
The Guardian, 12 December 2015:
Tens of thousands of people marched through Warsaw on Saturday to protest against what they called the “democratorship” of the month-old conservative government, as Poland remained locked in a constitutional crisis. Waving Polish and European Union flags, the protesters chanted: “We want the constitution, not a revolution”, demanding that the government respect the rule of law.

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word adult fan of Lego

adult fans of Lego, n.
The Guardian, 11 December 2015:
In the queue for the Brick exhibition, a discombobulatingly large room full of Lego through the ages, are Louis Wilby, 30, and Kerry-Anne Webb, 32. If you heard the phrase “adult fans of Lego” (AFOL), this is the couple you’d picture. “I don’t really get involved,” Webb starts. “I don’t let her,” Wilby interjects. “But I like watching him build. He’s so happy when he does it.”

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word adult fans of Lego

adult fans of Lego, n.
The Guardian, 11 December 2015:
In the queue for the Brick exhibition, a discombobulatingly large room full of Lego through the ages, are Louis Wilby, 30, and Kerry-Anne Webb, 32. If you heard the phrase “adult fans of Lego” (AFOL), this is the couple you’d picture. “I don’t really get involved,” Webb starts. “I don’t let her,” Wilby interjects. “But I like watching him build. He’s so happy when he does it.”

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word AFOL

AFOL, n.
The Guardian, 11 December 2015:
In the queue for the Brick exhibition, a discombobulatingly large room full of Lego through the ages, are Louis Wilby, 30, and Kerry-Anne Webb, 32. If you heard the phrase “adult fans of Lego” (AFOL), this is the couple you’d picture. “I don’t really get involved,” Webb starts. “I don’t let her,” Wilby interjects. “But I like watching him build. He’s so happy when he does it.”

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word black box society

black box society, n.

The Guardian, 6 December 2015:

So far, so understandable. But there is a direction of travel here – one that is taking us towards what an American legal scholar, Frank Pasquale, has christened the <b>“black box society”</b>. You might think that the subtitle – “the secret algorithms that control money and information” – says it all, except that it’s not just about money and information but increasingly about most aspects of contemporary life, at least in industrialised countries. For example, we know that Facebook algorithms can influence the moods and the voting behaviour of the service’s users. And we also know that Google’s search algorithms can effectively render people invisible. In some US cities, algorithms determine whether you are likely to be stopped and searched in the street. For the most part, it’s an algorithm that decides whether a bank will seriously consider your application for a mortgage or a loan. And the chances are that it’s a machine-learning or network-analysis algorithm that flags internet or smartphone users as being worthy of further examination. Uber drivers may think that they are working for themselves, but in reality they are managed by an algorithm. And so on.

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Internet of Wrongs

Internet of Wrongs, n.
The Register, 2 December 2015:
Lord (@stevelord) says the tool will feature in his presentation at the Kiwicon conference in Wellington, New Zealand, next week. The Wi-Fi-blocking gadget is among a bunch of gizmos he's crafted and dubbed the Internet of Wrongs; they are designed "solely to antagonise people."

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word terrorist sympathizer

terrorist sympathizer, n.
Steven Poole, 1 December 2015:
"Terrorist sympathizer": one who makes frightening unsolicited expressions of emotional solidarity to strangers.

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word terrorist sympathiser

terrorist sympathiser, n.
Laura Kuenssberg, 1 December 2015:
PM urged his MPs not to "walk through the lobbies with Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers"
Mike Byrne, 1 December 2015:
Cameron accuses Corbyn of being 'terrorist sympathiser' http://gu.com/p/4eyb9/stw - and Dave's Saudi allies are what?

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Li-Fi

Li-Fi, n.
The Register, 30 November 2015:
We've talked about Li-Fi – using modulated LEDs as data channels – before at The Register, but last week's announcements warrant revisiting the idea.

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word hypegasm

hypegasm, n.
The Register, 30 November 2015:
Estonian vendor sparks Li-Fi hypegasm with gigabit demo http://reg.cx/2j2F

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Wife Acceptance Factor

Wife Acceptance Factor, n.
The Guardian, 29 November 2015:
In a proper hi-fi dealer, Richer Sounds included, you can buy a good system of parts from various manufacturers for as little as £1,000. The bits won’t match, though – heaven forbid they should look nice. None of it will have what hi-fi men call WAF – Wife Acceptance Factor.

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word WAF

WAF, n.

The Guardian, 29 November 2015:

In a proper hi-fi dealer, Richer Sounds included, you can buy a good system of parts from various manufacturers for as little as £1,000. The bits won’t match, though – heaven forbid they should look nice. None of it will have what hi-fi men call WAF – Wife Acceptance Factor.
...
And finally: never be put off by hi-fi nuts who sneer at beautiful hi-fi by Bang & Olufsen. Design- focused and high street it may be, but it still sounds great. As well as having lashings of <b>WAF</b>.

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word pod

pod, n.
Steve Raikow, 29 November 2015:
New tech jargon spotted in the wild: Pod, noun, a podcast episode. Ex: "Today's pod is brought to you by squarespace." #jargonwatch #ugh

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word AECD

AECD, n.
The Guardian, 26 November 2015:
Audi, which is based in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, has said it failed to notify authorities in the US of three so-called auxiliary emissions control devices (AECD) in luxury models, one of which is classified there as a banned “defeat device”.

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word phygital

phygital, adj.
James Nash, 25 November 2015:
Is #phygital a thing?

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word signed-out

signed-out, adj.
The Guardian, 19 November 2015:
YouTube – and Google – tracking the online behaviour of children is a can of worms, to say the least. That’s why YouTube is so keen on stressing that YouTube Kids is a “signed-out” experience: children don’t sign in with their own or a parent’s Google/YouTube account, and it does not collect any personal data.

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word digital babysitter

digital babysitter, n.
The Guardian, 19 November 2015:
The phrase “digital babysitter” crops up regularly in comments about children and YouTube. It’s often framed as a criticism of parents: leaving their children in the corner of a room with an iPad doing the parenting.

December 28, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Twixtmas

Twixtmas, n.
The Guardian, 27 December 2015:
Maybe that's why we need these empty days. Days that don't even have a name. (I am deliberately avoiding the fact that someone recently coined the term "Twixtmas"). Unspoken for, they allow us to refill our lives with the important things. Talking, walking, thinking. Perhaps to challenge ourselves. On Christmas Eve I woke before dawn to swim in the sea. The waves were lashing the sea wall, great white luminous fingers reaching up to the sky. I was the only one on the beach - save for a woman runner who dashed past in a blur of neon Lycra, shouting her approval of my naked madness: "Fantastic!"

December 27, 2015
hugovk commented on the word slamming

slamming, v.
The Guardian, 22 November 2015:
Dangerous liaisons: users ‘slamming’ at a Chemsex party.

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word pozzing up

pozzing up, n.
The Guardian, 22 November 2015:
Chemsex is identified in the film as the habit of engaging in weekend-long parties fuelled by sexually disinhibiting drugs, such as crystal meth, GHB, GBL and mephedrone. These parties involve multiple people and are mostly facilitated online. The testimonies in the film from people involved in the subculture directly link chemsex to alarming rates of HIV infection. In London four new positive diagnoses are currently made daily. There is candid talk on film about “pozzing up”, the practise of knowingly becoming infected with the virus. Meth, meph and G create a potent cocktail enabling extremes of behaviour, which carries significant risks for the sexual and mental health of habitual users.

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word chemsex

chemsex, n.
The Guardian, 22 November 2015:
Chemsex is identified in the film as the habit of engaging in weekend-long parties fuelled by sexually disinhibiting drugs, such as crystal meth, GHB, GBL and mephedrone. These parties involve multiple people and are mostly facilitated online. The testimonies in the film from people involved in the subculture directly link chemsex to alarming rates of HIV infection. In London four new positive diagnoses are currently made daily. There is candid talk on film about “pozzing up”, the practise of knowingly becoming infected with the virus. Meth, meph and G create a potent cocktail enabling extremes of behaviour, which carries significant risks for the sexual and mental health of habitual users.

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word runway

runway, n.
Bryan Boyer, 21 November 2015:
The funds we raised were nearly a 1:1 match with our expenses up to the point of opening doors, which means that we were left with almost nothing in terms of runway. In the first month, with very few members, we were already making additional loans to the business to keep it afloat. In the beginning this was a calculated decision based on the belief that our original modeling of the business was still plausible. Within three months of being open we realized that the growth rate was going to be much slower than we projected based on the SF experience, and at that time we ramped up our events program with corporate partners, using our event production fees to cover the gaps in membership income.

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word drip marketing

drip marketing, n.
Bryan Boyer, 21 November 2015:
One thing we did not do was inundate people’s inboxes. Maybe we should have. A dear friend of mine who runs a successful company in Seattle said we were crazy not to use drip marketing. Instead we stuck to a once-a-month newsletter schedule. We didn’t want to be a business that spams people. For what it’s worth, we found much more advice about marketing for contemporary online business than we did for contemporary brick and mortar business. They’re related but ultimately different.

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word grey zone

grey zone, n.
The Guardian, 20 November 2015:
The grey zone is where I want to live. Islamic State hates it, that place between black and white, where nothing is ever either/or and everything is a bit of both. Those who have studied the organisation tell us “the grey zone” – Isis’s phrase – is high on the would-be warriors’ to-eradicate list, along with all those other aspects of our world that so terrify them: women, statues of the past, the pleasures of the present.

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Coybytrons

Coybytrons, n.
Robert Webb, 19 November 2015:
There's probably more to it than that & maybe I'll try to write about it next time I feel going 10 rounds with the Corbytrons (3/4)

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word fun police

fun police, v.
Geoff Lemon Sport, 12 November 2015:
Massive response to this. People are sick of being ripped off and Fun Policed at live sport. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-12/for-the-crowds-to-come-back-the-cricket-must-be-cheaper/6935088

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word teachnology

teachnology, n.
Matt Gordon, 28 October 2015:
I get the "webinar" hate, but its terribleness as a portmanteau word pales in comparison to "teachnology"

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word vulvanomics

vulvanomics, n.
The Guardian, 26 October 2015:
The conference kicks off again at 9am on Sunday. I start with Vulvanomics, a session on what exactly we should call our ... bits. We all groan as the speaker, Professor Emma Rees, reveals that the Oxford English Dictionary defines the clitoris as a kind of inferior penis.

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word dotcom dinosaur

dotcom dinosaur, n.
The Guardian, 18 October 2015:
Now what I find really strange, baffling, and I have to say depressing, is that that brave new world of the 50s and 60s, where women were an equal part of this exciting technology revolution, has changed and become something quite different. Even me, someone described the other day as a “dotcom dinosaur”, even I thought – aged 25 in 1997 – when we started Lastminute.com, that this was going to be an incredible revolution, that part of the power and the excitement of the internet was that it was going to be a whole load of new voices, a whole lot of different people, a democratising force, something that could perhaps put equality of all kinds at the heart of its new and rapid industrial rise.

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word shitstormery

shitstormery, n.
The Guardian, 16 October 2015:
Like so many foreign policy realists, I am still hoping to wake up and discover that the past decade and a half of Middle East shitstormery was all just Carrie Mathison’s bad dream – some kind of psychiatric episode brought on by a dispensing error with her meds.

December 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Shx

Shx, n. Shakespeare
Eric Johnson, 15 October 2015:
Coming soon: the largest collection of primary sources documenting Shx's life and work. http://www.shakespearedocumented.org/

December 25, 2015
hugovk commented on the word NB

NB, adj. non-binary
Nora
Reed, 21 December 2015
:
yay! there are a lot of other bot-makers that are women
and NB in the #botALLY crowd as well

December 25, 2015
hugovk commented on the list a-silent-letter-radio-alphabet-to-annoy-call-centre-staff

Thanks, updated!

I like the czar, Saar, tsar triple.

December 17, 2015
hugovk commented on the word ZWJ

Zero Width Joiner, n.
Emojipedia, 11 December 2015:
ZWJ Sequences. Zero Width Joiner sequences are a strange beast. They basically come into the world when a vendor decides to introduce one, and with no formal approval required, what we have seen in 2015 has been: * Apple releases an iOS update with new ZWJ emojis

December 13, 2015
hugovk commented on the word ZWJ sequences

Zero Width Joiner, n.
Emojipedia, 11 December 2015:
ZWJ Sequences. Zero Width Joiner sequences are a strange beast. They basically come into the world when a vendor decides to introduce one, and with no formal approval required, what we have seen in 2015 has been: * Apple releases an iOS update with new ZWJ emojis

December 13, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Zero Width Joiner

Zero Width Joiner, n.
Emojipedia, 11 December 2015:
ZWJ Sequences. Zero Width Joiner sequences are a strange beast. They basically come into the world when a vendor decides to introduce one, and with no formal approval required, what we have seen in 2015 has been: * Apple releases an iOS update with new ZWJ emojis

December 13, 2015
hugovk commented on the word to create time and distance

to create time and distance, v.
San Francisco Police Department, 03 December 2015:
As the situation was developing, a supervisor from Bayview Station gave instructions via police radio that, if possible, officers should attempt to create time and distance from the suspect. As the suspect had already demonstrated that he was a danger to others by having stabbed an earlier victim, the officers could not allow him room to harm anyone else.

December 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word badaption

badaption, n. portmanteau, from bad adaption

The Guardian, 30 November 2015:

<b>Badaptations</b>: a brief history of controversial book-to-screen transitions

December 1, 2015
hugovk commented on the word radiobait

radiobait, n.
scarfmemory, 29 November 2015:
i guess it's that this was radiobait, by making shorter and more conventional songs they get more radio play so people have heard them more so they like them more just from recognition.

November 29, 2015
hugovk commented on the word efauxji

efauxji, n.
The Atlantic, 11 November 2015:
Finland's emoji, then, are not real emoji. They are something far more nefarious: Efauxji. They are mere images masquerading as glyphs, pretenders to the emoji throne. ... Let us foreclose the word "emoji" off to companies seeking to make emoji more commercialier than they already are. Let us call these efauxji by their real name: fake AIM icons.

November 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word cw

cw, n. Used to warn about the contents of a link
(cw violence)

November 21, 2015
hugovk commented on the word fun-size terrorists

Drone operators refer to children as “fun-size terrorists” and liken killing them to “cutting the grass before it grows too long,” said one of the operators, Michael Haas, a former senior airman in the Air Force.
https://theintercept.com/2015/11/19/former-drone-operators-say-they-were-horrified-by-cruelty-of-assassination-program/

November 20, 2015
hugovk commented on the word grayzone

grayzone, n.

Iyad El-Baghdadi, 14 November 2015:
ISIS's goal from their own publication. A black & white world. What they call "grayzone" is our coexistence zone.

Iyad El-Baghdadi, 14 November 2015:

Eliminating the grayzone - the zone of coexistence - and rendering a world as black & white as their own flag. That's what ISIS wants.

November 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word reverse-spelunkering

Mountaineering.

November 13, 2015
hugovk commented on the word smart ring

smart ring, n.
Yle, 10 November 2015:
On October 1st, Apple filed for a smart ring patent. The tech giant is the latest to move into ring-top digital devices, which have recently been launched by start-ups from Japan to the US and the Nordics.

November 11, 2015
hugovk commented on the word wrist-top

wrist-top, adj.

Yle, 10 November 2015:

As startups gather in Helsinki for the annual Slush event, one of the fastest growing areas on the scene is the health and wellness sector. Within that growing category, digital health and wellbeing wearables are shifting from wrist-top to ring-top, with two Finnish companies poised to make their mark.

November 11, 2015
hugovk commented on the word ring-top

ring-top, adj.

Yle, 10 November 2015:

As startups gather in Helsinki for the annual Slush event, one of the fastest growing areas on the scene is the health and wellness sector. Within that growing category, digital health and wellbeing wearables are shifting from wrist-top to ring-top, with two Finnish companies poised to make their mark.
On October 1st, Apple filed for a smart ring patent. The tech giant is the latest to move into <b>ring-top</b> digital devices, which have recently been launched by start-ups from Japan to the US and the Nordics.

November 11, 2015
hugovk commented on the word serendipity

serendipity, n.
Erin McKean, The joy of lexicography, TED 2007:
Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for, because finding what you are looking for is so damned difficult.

October 27, 2015
hugovk commented on the word nbd

nbd, phrase no big deal
Matthew Ogle, 23 October 2015:
Oh nbd just celebrating the end of my birthday w/ a card from PLUTO (thx @kraykray)

October 23, 2015
hugovk commented on the word electronic writer

electronic writer, n.

The Guardian, 5 July 2011:

The problem is that the artist/writers who can be said to
be “electronic writers” are coming at it from different angles.
Some have emerged from what is often called the “art world,” even
though the most salient example of this, the artist group Young-Hae
Chang Heavy Industries, turned to Flash (their preferred programming environment) and the internet merely as a way to get their writing out. YHCHI first started posting their works to the web in the early ’00s, when the 56k modem was the norm, and the speediness with which their lightly animated texts zinged over the web — in contrast to the often image-heavy work of other net artists — along with the humor of their work (“Cunnilingus in North Korea” is the title of one of their more notorious pieces), the caffeinated jazz soundtracks they used, and the general good writing of their work soon brought them gallery and museum commissions.

October 17, 2015
hugovk commented on the word new media writing

new media writing, n.

Brian Stefans, 5 July 2011:

I’ve been working for the past several years to find a way
to discuss what has come to be known as “electronic literature” — it’s a creaky phrase that doesn’t survive parsing, hence the wavering
between this term, “new media writing,” “digital literature,”
etc. — in a way that is neither naively celebratory, presuming that
computers will change writing the way DNA testing has changed crime television, nor overly technical, branching off into deep theoretical territory that seems, long before hindsight, to have nothing to do with literature or digital technology, not to mention graphic design, information architecture, film/photography, and video games, all of which at times seem to be relevant discourses.

October 17, 2015
hugovk commented on the word defeat software

defeat software, n.
The Guardian, 15 October 2015:
Volkswagen confirmed to the Associated Press on Tuesday that the “auxiliary emissions control device” at issue operates differently from the “defeat” software included in the company’s 2009 to 2015 models and revealed last month.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word auxiliary emissions control device

auxiliary emissions control device, n.
The Guardian, 15 October 2015:
Volkswagen confirmed to the Associated Press on Tuesday that the “auxiliary emissions control device” at issue operates differently from the “defeat” software included in the company’s 2009 to 2015 models and revealed last month.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word digital literature

digital literature, n.
The Guardian, 13 October 2015:
But more aggravating even than this are the forums, summits, breakout sessions and seminars on “digital literature” run by exceedingly well-meaning arts people who can talk for hours about what the future might be for storytelling in this new technological age – whether we might produce hyperlinked or interactive or multi-stranded novels and poems – without apparently noticing that video games exist. And they don’t just exist! They’re the most lucrative, fastest-growing medium of our age. Your experimental technological literature is already here; it’s the noise you’re trying to get your children to turn down while you pen your thoughts about the future of location-based storytelling.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word chief content officer

chief content officer, n.
The Guardian, 13 Octber 2015:
The chief content officer of the magazine, Cory Jones, said the magazine would be more accessible and more intimate, admitting: “Twelve-year-old me is very disappointed in current me. But it’s the right thing to do.”

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word SHTF

SHTF, n.
Vice, 11 October 2015:
"The times speak for themselves and growing increasingly more dangerous," says another. "Where else can we go when the inevitable SHTF?" (SHTF means "shit hits the fan," prepper slang for a doomsday scenario.)

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word fusion paranoia

fusion paranoia, n.
Vice, 11 October 2015:
Behrens sees America's preppers as a new twist on apocalyptic fears of the 1950s brought on by the threat of nuclear war. He believes that American policies and economic trends, along with the proliferation of social media—where the like-minded can easily network—are stoking new end-times obsession. What he describes resonates with a term coined in the 90s by journalist Michael Kelly that is coming back into vogue: "fusion paranoia," where conspiratorial worldviews get cobbled together from a mishmash of sources from across the political spectrum. Prepping can also be linked to the rise of libertarian strains of thought in American life that hold that the government is unable to properly address social and ills, or that any attempt on its part to do so would qualify as tyranny. It's a philosophy that at its most stark replaces love thy neighbor with a mystical faith in self-interest. Hiding in a bunker as the rest of humanity falls apart because they failed to prepare as you did is, in some ways, the ultimate libertarian fantasy.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word prepper

prepper, n.
Vice, 11 October 2015:
Those who make it their business to equip themselves for a civilization-ending mega-disaster—a.k.a. preppers—are sometimes stereotyped as wild-eyed tinfoil hat wearers who live outside of society, but Vicino caters to survivalists whose fears are backed up by money. The San Diego businessman is gunning to be the vanguard of a multibillion-dollar industry. If we're to follow the entrepreneur's logic, the rich don't live on the same scale as ordinary people in today's society—why should that change after the end of the world?

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word liveliness checks

liveliness checks, n.
TechCrunch, 11 October 2015:
The system simultaneously performs “liveliness checks” that prevent the spoofing of a photo or video animation of a face. Within milliseconds, results are returned with a significant degree of accuracy and confidence.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word pay with your face

pay with your face, n.
TechCrunch, 11 October 2015:
The generation that brought the obsession of snapping facial photos, uploading to social media channels and terming it “selfies” has unknowingly launched a new platform of cyber security for the world, a kind of biometric termed, “pay with your face.” This is a fitting legacy for millennials, who impart knowledge one click at a time.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word standup

standup, n.
The Guardian, 12 October 2015:
In the explosive business of controlled demolition, a building that doesn’t go down in the way it was supposed to is known as a “standup”. And on Sunday, Glasgow got a double act as mortifying as the Krankies when thousands gathered to watch as the six remaining tower blocks of the historic Red Road flats were razed to the ground. As the dust settled and the two-year clear-up was pondered, it became clear. Two were still partially standing.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word charge rage

charge rage, n.
San Jose Mercury News, 22 January 2014:
PALO ALTO, Calif.—An increasing number of electric-vehicle driving employees at Silicon Valley companies are finding it hard to access car-charging stations at work, creating incidents of "charge rage" among drivers...
Some Valley companies have already taken steps toward alleviating charge rage in the workplace.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word EV

EV, n. electric vehicle
San Jose Mercury News, 22 January 2014:
Silicon Valley sees shortage of EV charge stations...
The company is drafting guidelines for EV-driving employees.
ChargePoint, which operates a large EV-charging network, says companies should provide one charging port for every two of their employees' electric vehicles...
So, the company set up an EV user distribution list and a shared calendar for booking time at the charging stations.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word plug-in hybrid

plug-in hybrid, n.
The New York Times, 11 October 2015:
The competition has led people to judge one another’s cars and which ones deserve charging priority. Owners of all-electric cars see themselves as most entitled to the chargers, since they have no Plan B. One rung down are “plug-in hybrids,” which use electricity but also can use gas, followed by hybrids, and then two groups for which the owners of pure electric cars reserve particular disdain: gas cars and, perhaps surprisingly, Teslas. (The 00,000 Teslas, as much as three times the cost of other plug-ins, have a range of several hundred miles and so, theoretically, do not need the charge spots.)

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word ICE holes

ICE holes, n.
The New York Times, 11 October 2015:
The rudeness is not just among drivers of electric cars. By many accounts, owners of gas-powered cars often take up desirable parking and charging spots that companies and cities reserve for electric cars. This habit has inspired the spread of a nickname: ICE Holes. (ICE stands for internal combustion engine.)

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word range anxiety

range anxiety, n.
The New York Times, 10 October 2015:
Most people charge at home (using an electrical outlet) but also want to use public chargers, in part because the cars have a limited range — typically 80 miles. On top of this “range anxiety,” as it is called, drivers like the idea of getting a free or low-cost charge at a public station.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word cheatware

cheatware, n.
The Register, 10 October 2015:
Top VW exec blames car pollution cheatware scandal on 'a couple of software engineers'

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Tesla Graveyard

Tesla Graveyard, n.
Elon Musk interviewed in Handelsblatt, 25 September 2015:
Apple just hired some of Tesla’s most important engineers. Do you have to worry about a new competitor?

Important engineers? They have hired people we’ve fired. We always jokingly call Apple the “Tesla Graveyard.” If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word cockocracies

cockocracies, n.
The Guardian, 9 October 2015:
Watching the Fifa cockocracy fall to pieces is a beautiful game in itself...

Luckily, no real ladies are involved in any of this – Fifa has long served as one of Earth’s leading cockocracies. Blatter hasn’t yet tried to argue that the US attorney general, Loretta Lynch, should wear tighter shorts while indicting him, but the ratio of male to female parts in this drama is 50:1. Or 1:3000, if you count the prostitutes.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word cockocracy

cockocracy, n.
The Guardian, 9 October 2015:
Watching the Fifa cockocracy fall to pieces is a beautiful game in itself...

Luckily, no real ladies are involved in any of this – Fifa has long served as one of Earth’s leading cockocracies. Blatter hasn’t yet tried to argue that the US attorney general, Loretta Lynch, should wear tighter shorts while indicting him, but the ratio of male to female parts in this drama is 50:1. Or 1:3000, if you count the prostitutes.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word 10x'd

10x'd, v. Verb form of 10x from 10x engineer.
Interconnected, 7 October 2015:
Jack and I developed our workshop patterns in 2007, and they were 10x'd by Matt Jones when he joined in 2009.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word skater-hater

skater-hater, n.
The Guardian, 7 October 2015:
A battle of wills is being played out on Bristol’s ledges and benches. Skatestoppers – or “skater-haters”, as they are sometimes called – are metallic knobs attached to a city’s street furniture to prevent skateboarders from using them for tricks. Originating in America, they began appearing in Bristol more than 10 years ago. A leading manufacturer markets them as devices that prevent urban spaces from becoming “a practice ground for disruptive and destructive activity”.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word skatestopper

skatestopper, n.
The Guardian, 7 October 2015:
A battle of wills is being played out on Bristol’s ledges and benches. Skatestoppers – or “skater-haters”, as they are sometimes called – are metallic knobs attached to a city’s street furniture to prevent skateboarders from using them for tricks. Originating in America, they began appearing in Bristol more than 10 years ago. A leading manufacturer markets them as devices that prevent urban spaces from becoming “a practice ground for disruptive and destructive activity”.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Hillenials

Hillenials, n.
Paul Ford, 6 October 2015:
Has anyone called young prospective Hillary voters “Hillennials” yet?
Hila Arbell, 9 August 2015:
Spotted at the #Hillennials house party #Hinthewild #Hillary2016 @HillaryforIA

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Corbynmania

Corbynmania, n.
The Guardian, 5 October 2015:
Addressing a rally in Manchester alongside Corbyn to coincide with the Conservative party conference, Terry Pullinger, deputy general secretary of Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), said Corbynmania “almost makes you want to celebrate the fact Labour lost the election”.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word engine-control unit

engine-control unit, n.
The Guardian, 4 October 2015:
So how did Volkswagen pull it off? Simple: it inserted what programmers would call a “neat hack” into the engine-control unit (ECU) of its cars. The ECU is a purpose-designed computer that controls the engine. (All cars have them nowadays: analogue motoring is so yesterday, don’t you know.) Since 2009, VW’s ECUs have been running software that monitors movements of the steering wheel and pedals.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word ECU

ECU, n.
The Guardian, 4 October 2015:
So how did Volkswagen pull it off? Simple: it inserted what programmers would call a “neat hack” into the engine-control unit (ECU) of its cars. The ECU is a purpose-designed computer that controls the engine. (All cars have them nowadays: analogue motoring is so yesterday, don’t you know.) Since 2009, VW’s ECUs have been running software that monitors movements of the steering wheel and pedals.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word ik

ik, n. I know
Be(hemo)th, 3 October 2015:
my hair is fabber
way fabber 😎
and yes ik fabber isn't a word shh

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word transcribathon

transcribathon, n.
The Recipes Project, 2 October 2015:
A seventeenth-century recipe book. Twelve hours. 208 pages. And transcribers from around the world.

Our goal? Using the Folger Shakespeare Library’s online transcription platform, we’ll collaboratively produce a searchable transcription of Rebeckah Winche’s recipe book in twelve hours.

On 7 October, please join the Early Modern Recipe Online Collective (EMROC) for our first annual Transcribathon.

October 15, 2015
hugovk commented on the word lookupable

lookupable, n.
Wordnik, 15 September 2015:
At Wordnik we believe that every word of English deserves to be lookupable!

October 10, 2015
hugovk commented on the word non-linear TV

<b>non-linear TV</b>, <i>n.</i>

Away With Words - Word of the Week: Linear TV, 1 June 2015:

<blockquote>Linear TV: A television service that requires the viewer to watch a scheduled TV program at the particular time it’s offered, and on the particular channel it's presented on. Synonyms include time-and-channel based TV, appointment-based TV, and traditional television. (Source: ITV Dictionary.) Non-linear TV comprises on-demand formats as well as programs that don’t emanate from a network channel, also known as web TV and digital media.</blockquote>

October 10, 2015
hugovk commented on the word free-range definition

free-range definition, n.
Wordnik, 15 September 2015:
Sometimes we call these self-defining, explanatory sentences "free-range definitions", or "FRDs" (pronounced "freds").

October 8, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Schrödinger's code

Schrödinger's code, n.

Reginald Braithwaite, 7 October 2015:

Schrödinger’s Code:

Code that has been written, but not tested, and is in a state of neither working nor failing until it is observed.

October 8, 2015
hugovk commented on the word bespoke bot

bespoke bot, n.
Agent, Droid, Infobot: the texty Twitter robots Tully Hansen has known and loved, 6 October 2015:
We might instead term these accounts bespoke bots; quite often such bots are coded, created and credited to an individual creator, and frequently may be distinguished (contra spam bots) by their novelty – in subject matter, behaviour or technique. After Tolstoy: 'Spammy bots are all alike; every unspammy bot is unspammy in its own way.' These bespoke Twitter bots may trace a lineage to earlier works of computational media such as Joseph Weizenbaum's 1960s software psychotherapist ELIZA and her descendants, designed for humans to engage with their software through (typed) conversation. These bots enact personality, often attempting or playing at 'passing' for human.

October 6, 2015
hugovk commented on the word microhood

microhood, n.
The Bold Italic, 22 July 2011:
Most consider our Tenderloin neighborhood to be a vast black hole of no-go in downtown San Francisco.
Truth be told, there are certainly a couple of blocks full of downright nasty that neither you nor I should make a habit of frequenting. But beyond those unfortunate social potholes, the Tenderloin is a rich neighborhood with a great wealth of small areas each with their own character.
Since The Bold Italic popularized the term “microhood,” it's only fitting to break down the Tenderloin by the sum of its parts. So, presented here is the “Tenderloin Microhoods Map.” While some of it is just for fun, a whole lot of it is most definitely true. Read up and come on down and grab a drink in The Gimlet! There’s sure to be some tasty dining in Delicious Fields afterward.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word instabuy

instabuy, n. An instant purchase of an application upgrade
Tully Hansen, 2 October 2015:
PSA: @Tweetbot 4 for iOS is out. #instabuy https://appsto.re/au/p-TS8.i

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word jandals

jandals, n.
TKDancer:
First.. There wete Jorts... Then.. Came the Joots.... Now.. Brace yourselves for... Jandals

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word menu

menu, v. to put on a menu
Food Management, 17 September 2015:
Beefsteak menus bowl-based meals emphasizing grains and vegetables.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word geohash

geohash, n. pl. geohashes
Mapzen:
We live in two worlds at once. There’s a human world where we call places by their addresses and names. Then there’s another world for computers in which every place is represented through geographic coordinate systems like latitudes & longitudes or geohashes. Dozens of times every day we cross that boundary between the world of names and the world of coordinates and it’s all facilitated by a process called geocoding. In the coordinate world, it’s easy to do things like find things nearby, measure distances and correlate data, but to get there takes a leap through a boundary—and every time that boundary is crossed there’s a little toll paid. Do it enough and it adds up. But it also comes with all manner of restrictions of how you can see the world.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word nerd sniping

nerd sniping, v.
Alby, 26 September 2015:
Nerd sniping of the highest order. Know what I'm doing tomorrow now.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word hog-whimpering drunk

hog-whimpering drunk, adj.
The Guardian, 25 September 2015:
Reflecting some of this history, the Oxford student dining club that bore Gaveston’s name had honorary positions that included Catamite and Master of Debauchery. Membership of the society was limited to 13. In 1981, none of my informants mentioned this week’s fantastical disclosures about dead pigs’ heads and an initiation ritual that required a new member, David Cameron, to stick his penis into one. Nevertheless, porkers were a part of the Oxford student conversation 35 years ago. A favourite phrase was “hog-whimpering”, as in “hog-whimpering drunk”.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word hog-whimpering

hog-whimpering, adj. hog-whimpering drunk
The Guardian, 25 September 2015:
Rupert Soames, for example. He was my most joyous interviewee and a splendidly unguarded one (see panel), so much so that a merchant bank ended its interest in hiring him soon after the piece appeared. It was Soames who introduced me to the phrase “hog-whimpering” and Soames who, in a few simple sentences, delivered a beautifully compressed history of the recent changes in Oxford values. (He was, after all, Churchill’s grandson.) “You see,” he said, “students went through the 60s thinking the world was organised in a bad way and that they could do something about it. Absolutely wrongly, as it turned out. Now people take themselves less seriously, which is very, very attractive. Oxford’s a charmed existence before you go out into the world and take a job of high responsibility. Also, it’s a wonderful place to meet a wife. There are so many lovely and clever girls about.”

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Netflix and chill

Netflix and chill, phrase
The Guardian, 29 September 2015:
In 2014, when the euphemistic nature of the phrase was being established, gender lines began to form. Guys tweeted pictures of smug faces alongside captions such as, “When she says Netflix and chill”, while girls tweeted pictures of shocked, dismayed faces with captions such as, “When you find out what Netflix and chill means”.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word bantwagon

bantwagon, n.
The Guardian, 24 September 2015:
But wait, ladies! There is one female DJ: Hattie Pearson, who is let on air at 1am, presumably giving her time to do Moyles’s ironing beforehand. Actually, that’s unfair. To say that Radio X excludes women is to say that having a womb prevents you from listening to Foo Fighters, Courteeners or Muse. Radio X’s problem isn’t that it’s a sexist shed of a station, it’s that riding the humourless bantwagon is just such a mind-numbingly boring experience.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word ladbantz

ladbantz, n. lad banter
The Guardian, 8 September 2015:
As a dated brand with declining figures, Xfm was long overdue a top-to-bottom rethink. Radio X is still a few weeks off launch and we’re yet to establish the full extent of its on-air ladbantz. But while it might make good commercial sense, the station’s blokes-only policy is already a guaranteed turnoff for many.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Corbynomics

Corbynomics, n.
The Guardian, 22 September 2015:
Yet the main thing people level at Corbynomics – that it relies wholly on tax, and is therefore nothing more than a throwback to the 70s language of squeezing the rich till their pips squeak – doesn’t stand up to even the most cursory act of reading. A much more important element is people’s quantitative easing, which is based on the idea, put simply: it’s time to give up on financial assets; it’s time to invest in stuff. The government would print money – for social housing, for rural broadband, for green infrastructure – and invest it.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Corbynista

Corbynista, n.

The Guardian, 18 September 2015:

Mitford’s infinitely more humourless heirs – rather oddly, given what I imagine they’d think of her – can be found in the angrier fringes of the various new politics firms: the Kippers, the cybernats, the Corbynistas. They may be divided in their beliefs, but they are united by a mania for pigeonholing. We now have New, and non-New. All public statements, all things in the world, and most especially all people, must be deemed either for them or against them, and worshipped or demonised accordingly. There is no appeals procedure.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word cybernat

cybernat, n.
The Guardian, 18 September 2015:
Mitford’s infinitely more humourless heirs – rather oddly, given what I imagine they’d think of her – can be found in the angrier fringes of the various new politics firms: the Kippers, the cybernats, the Corbynistas. They may be divided in their beliefs, but they are united by a mania for pigeonholing. We now have New, and non-New. All public statements, all things in the world, and most especially all people, must be deemed either for them or against them, and worshipped or demonised accordingly. There is no appeals procedure.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word AdBlockalypse

AdBlockalypse, n.
Tully Hansen, 18 September 2015:
That said, I’m betting @mkramer has a good take on the whole AdBlockalypse.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word white space

white space, n.
The Guardian, 13 September 2015:
“It was about one customer feeling like she belonged in that space – it’s kind of like that term they use: ‘white space’,” Johnson, an author, told the Guardian at her home in Antioch, about two hours’ drive from Napa. “And then wine train staff bought into that and used their power to take away our ability to enjoy ourselves and have a good time. I do think it was based on the colour of our skin because everything was great before we arrived at the station. There was a phone, we were invisible … but then we show up – 11 black ladies, one white lady – it was like, ‘Oh’.”

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word selfie soldier

selfie soldier, n.
Mashable, 8 September 2015:
Now, Russia's so-called "selfie soldiers" are uploading photos of themselves in war-torn Syria, where they are supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ailing regime.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word selfie soldiers

selfie soldiers, n.
Mashable, 8 September 2015:
Now, Russia's so-called "selfie soldiers" are uploading photos of themselves in war-torn Syria, where they are supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ailing regime.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Internet-famous

Internet-famous, adj.
Neil Freeman, 14 September 2015:
The crowd around the entrance to the new 34th-Hudson Yards includes an Internet-famous dog cutting a ribbon with novelty scissors.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word cybertwee

cybertwee, n.
Broadly, 6 September 2015:
If cyberpunk had a cute kid sister that was secretly better at coding, cybertwee would be it.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word fortress Europe

fortress Europe, n.
The Guardian, 4 September 2015:
For years our politicians have piggy-backed upon Christian morality for electoral advantage. We should “feel proud that this is a Christian country”, said Cameron earlier this year (pre-election, of course), in what some might uncharitably see as a call to maintain a Muslim-free view from his Cotswold village. But there is no respectable Christian argument for fortress Europe, surrounded by a new iron curtain of razor wire to keep poor, dark-skinned people out. Indeed, the moral framework that our prime minister so frequently references – and to which he claims some sort of vague allegiance – is crystal clear about the absolute priority of our obligation to refugees. For the moral imagination of the Hebrew scriptures was determined by a battered refugee people, fleeing political oppression in north Africa, and seeking a new life for themselves safe from violence and poverty. Time and again, the books of the Hebrew scriptures remind its readers not to forget that they too were once in this situation and their ethics must be structured around practical help driven by fellow-feeling.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word deconfliction

deconfliction, n.
The Guardian, 29 September 2015:
It raises questions about whether the Russians will use their air presence to attack the few anti-Assad forces whom the US is training to battle Isis – a program that has come under review after it has failed to produce the ground army the US administration promised last year would roll back Isis gains – much as the new “deconfliction” channel raises the prospect of Russian attempts to stop US flights on behalf of Assad’s enemies.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word deconflict

deconflict, v.
The Guardian, 1 October 2015:
A day after the Pentagon announced that Carter was establishing a communications channel with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoygu, to “deconflict” any overlapping airstrikes, Russian officials told US diplomats in Baghdad that the Americans should avoid Syrian airspace during a Russian operation of uncertain duration. US officials rejected the demand.

October 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Clos topology

Clos topology, n.
UKNOF32 - Google datacentre networking - Phil Sykes, 22 September 2015:
Clos topologies: Accommodate low radix switch chips to scale nearly arbitrary by adding stages

September 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word merchant silicon

merchant silicon, n.
UKNOF32 - Google datacentre networking - Phil Sykes, 22 September 2015:
Merchant silicon: General purpose, commodity priced, off the shelf switching components

September 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word clean diesel

clean diesel, n.
Wired, 22 September 2015:
The big “advance” from VW was the “clean diesel” technology that supposedly made the whole urea thing unnecessary on its smaller cars, like the Beetle, Jetta, and Audi A3—the very models being recalled because they don’t meet emissions standards under real-world driving conditions.

September 24, 2015
hugovk commented on the word defeat device

defeat device, n.

The Guardian, 18 September 2015:

<blockquote>The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday accused VW of installing illegal “defeat device” software that dramatically reduces nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions – but only when the cars are undergoing strict emission tests.</blockquote>

September 24, 2015
hugovk commented on the word kiloslab

kiloslab, n. A kilogram block of cheese
Egan Richardson, 14 September 2015:
First kiloslab of cheese I've seen here that trumpets non-Finnishness. #monikultuurisuus

September 16, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Corbynomics

Corbynomics, n.
Felix Cohen, 14 September 2015:
You might not believe in Corbynomics but he's already turned £20 into this for me.

September 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the list new-to-me--2015

See also https://www.wordnik.com/lists/words-i-stumble-across-2015 for another list plus a list of lists.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word TIFU

TIFU, Today, I fucked up
reddit, 31 August 2015:
TIFU by letting my brother take advantage of my yugioh card addiction

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word TILY

TILY, things I learned yesterday

Erin McKean, 28 August 2015:

TILY: (from @trielly): AV crews call the handheld "next slide" clicker "the pickle"

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word wbu

wbu, What 'bout you?

@MustardCreams, 27 August 2015:

Ehhhhh "i watch alotta documentaries about serial killers wbu"

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word shade ball

shade ball, n.
The Guardian, 11 August 2015:
Shade balls fill reservoir to conserve water in drought-hit LA

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Amhole

Amhole, n.
New York Times, 16 August 2015:
Recruiters, though, also say that other businesses are sometimes cautious about bringing in Amazon workers, because they have been trained to be so combative. The derisive local nickname for Amazon employees is “Amholes” — pugnacious and work-obsessed.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Amabot

Amabot, n.
New York Times, 16 August 2015:
Company veterans often say the genius of Amazon is the way it drives them to drive themselves. “If you’re a good Amazonian, you become an Amabot,” said one employee, using a term that means you have become at one with the system.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word managed out

managed out
New York Times, 16 August 2015:
In 2012, Chris Brucia, who was working on a new fashion sale site, received a punishing performance review from his boss, a half-hour lecture on every goal he had not fulfilled and every skill he had not yet mastered. Mr. Brucia silently absorbed the criticism, fearing he was about to be managed out, wondering how he would tell his wife.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word misogynoir

misogynoir, n.
Model View Culture, 23 July 2015:
Moreover, it states that “being unable to understand why someone holds a viewpoint doesn’t mean that they’re wrong.” Except it sometimes does mean they are wrong when that viewpoint is “women shouldn’t code” or that a black woman contributor shouldn’t be offended by misogynoir in the project’s Slack channel.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word wackaging

wackaging, n.
The Guardian, 14 July 2015:
It’s not just that the Google doodle, the corporate-branding equivalent of dress-down Friday, has that naff novelty air about it: all those cute animated Thanksgiving turkeys, faux silent films and puzzle-piece Nietzsches. Or even that, presumably driven in part by Google employees’ hobby horses (“How about Giambattista Tiepolo’s 318th birthday?”), they feel like textbook “wackaging”; the ingratiating, infantilising tone that has been smeared all over marketing for the past decade.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word legacy media

legacy media, n. books and films (as opposed to apps)
The Guardian, 27 June 2015:
he problem with Apple’s attitude to games isn’t just that it treats them differently to books and music, though. After all, there are undeniable differences between them: no book can hack your device, no song can download pirated content, and no movie can abuse in-app payments. All of those factors necessitate some sort of review process above and beyond what legacy media needs.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Graccident

Graccident, n.
The Guardian, 22 June 2015:
Greek crisis summit: eurozone leaders urged to avoid 'Graccident'

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word chumlink

chumlink, n.
The Awl, 4 June 2015:
Clicking on a chumlink—even one on the site of a relatively high-class chummer, like nymag.com—is a guaranteed way to find more, weirder, grosser chum. The boxes are daisy-chained together in an increasingly cynical, gross funnel; quickly, the open ocean becomes a sewer of chum.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word chumvendor

chumvendor, n.
The Awl, 4 June 2015:
The chumboxes were placed there by one of several chumvendors—Taboola, Outbrain, RevContent, Adblade, and my favorite, Content.ad—who design them to seamlessly slip into a particular design convention established early within the publishing web, a grid of links to appealing, perhaps-related content at the bottom of the content you intentionally came to consume.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word chumbox

chumbox, n.
The Awl, 4 June 2015:
This is a chumbox. It is a variation on the banner ad which takes the form of a grid of advertisements that sits at the bottom of a web page underneath the main content. It can be found on the sites of many leading publishers, including nymag.com, dailymail.co.uk, usatoday.com, and theawl.com (where it was “an experiment that has since ended.”)

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word a11y

a11y, n. accessibility
James Callan, 3 June 2015:
#A11y experts: Is there a way to identify in Google Analytics people who use assistive technology to browse your site?

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word linear TV

linear TV, n.
Away With Words - Word of the Week: Linear TV, 1 June 2015:
Linear TV: A television service that requires the viewer to watch a scheduled TV program at the particular time it’s offered, and on the particular channel it's presented on. Synonyms include time-and-channel based TV, appointment-based TV, and traditional television. (Source: ITV Dictionary.) Non-linear TV comprises on-demand formats as well as programs that don’t emanate from a network channel, also known as web TV and digital media.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word commoditised news

commoditised news, n.
The Guardian, 31 May 2015:
It is not just the number of individual pieces but possibly the nature of the content that may hold the key to the rise. The Guardian since its inception has always sought to break stories but the retreat of what is now termed, in another ugly phrase, “commoditised news”, ie those stories that can be got everywhere, has led to an even greater emphasis on investigations and breaking news.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word DYK

DYK, n. did you know
Wordnik, 3 September 2015:
DYK 'zombie' is still available to adopt? Shuffle/run (depending on what type of zombie you are) & adopt it today! https://www.wordnik.com/words/zombie

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word microhood

microhood, n.
Who's On First - Mapzen, 18 August 2015:
Venues! Building!! Microhoods!!! Empires!!!!

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word plonkable

plonkable, adj.
The Guardian, 24 August 2015:
His team’s aim is to produce CSP technology that will be cheap and quick to install. “We are developing plonkable heliostats. Plonkable means that from factory to installation you can just drop them down on to the ground and they work.” So no costly cement, no highly-trained workforce, no wires, just two workers to lay out the steel frames on the ground and a streetlight-style central tower.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word wedge salad

wedge salad, n.

The Washington Post, 4 August 2015:

Here’s a wedge salad plan of attack. Stab the fork at the bull’s-eye and extract the dense, yellow-white, bigger-than-bite-size chunk of iceberg lettuce in the center. If that piece isn’t covered with a swath of dressing, a modicum of blue cheese and a crumble of bacon, maneuver your knife to make that happen. If you can manage to get diced tomato into the equation, so much the better. Move your head closer to the plate, bring the fork to your mouth and stuff it in. Revel in the satisfaction of the cool crunch mixed with tang, creaminess, fat and smoke. Repeat with the rest of the salad.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word health halo

health halo, n.
The Washington Post, 23 August 2015:
Call something “salad,” and it immediately acquires what Pierre Chandon calls a “health halo.” Chandon, professor of marketing at INSEAD, an international business school in Fontainebleau, France, says that once people have the idea it’s good for them, they stop paying attention “to its actual nutritional content or, even worse, to its portion size.”

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word SDN

SDN, n.
Wired, 17 June 2015:
People call this software-defined networking, or SDN, and it provides a more nimble way of building, expanding, and reshaping computer networks.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word software-defined networking

software-defined networking, n.
Wired, 17 June 2015:
People call this software-defined networking, or SDN, and it provides a more nimble way of building, expanding, and reshaping computer networks.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word fanservice

fanservice, n.
Wikipedia, 4 July 2015:
The show is done in a simplistic art style, and its sexual content is played for laughs rather than for fanservice.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word brown bag release

brown bag release, noun
Alex Clark, GitHub, 7 June 2015:
If an issue does occur, we release a new point release and repeat the process. I'd like to avoid creating and uploading binaries for "brown bag" releases, if possible.

September 3, 2015
hugovk commented on the word save-water

http://www.sallysavewater.com/sally-save-water-says/did-you-know-this-about-sally-save-water

June 12, 2015
hugovk commented on the word wiggletail

wiggletail, n. the larva of a mosquito. chiefly South, South Midland, Texas, Oklahoma (from DARE).

June 2, 2015
hugovk commented on the word pocket litter

pocket litter, n.
The Guardian, 24th May 2015:
Rigby has a BBC lanyard that he picked up in a BBC gift store, which he wears slung around his neck with the empty ID holder tucked discreetly in his inside jacket pocket. He also collects lapel pins – from the Equity actor’s union, the National Union of Journalists and so on. The espionage community, he points out, calls all this “pocket litter”.

May 27, 2015
hugovk commented on the word cutthroat

cutthroat, n., a cutthroat compound
Brianne Hughes, 6th May 2015:
Difficulties in Identifying English Cutthroat Compounds
Cutthroats are agentive and instrumental exocentric verb-noun V+N compounds that name people and objects by describing their function (i.e., a cutthroat is a person who cuts throats). They are composed of a transitive verb and its direct object. Cutthroats are freely productive in Romance languages, which have a V.O. (verb-object) structure and are left-headed. English, which is V.O. and right-headed, has slight native productivity (Clark et al, 1986) that has been amplified and augmented by French borrowings (e.g., coupe-gorge and wardecorps). English has been slowly producing new cutthroats since the 1200s up through 2015, mainly in the form of nonce personal insults. Most cutthroats are obsolete slang, but about 40, including pickpocket, pinchpenny, rotgut and spitfire, are commonly known in Modern English.

May 27, 2015
hugovk commented on the word cutthroat compound

cutthroat compound, n.
Brianne Hughes, 6th May 2015:
Difficulties in Identifying English Cutthroat Compounds
Cutthroats are agentive and instrumental exocentric verb-noun V+N compounds that name people and objects by describing their function (i.e., a cutthroat is a person who cuts throats). They are composed of a transitive verb and its direct object. Cutthroats are freely productive in Romance languages, which have a V.O. (verb-object) structure and are left-headed. English, which is V.O. and right-headed, has slight native productivity (Clark et al, 1986) that has been amplified and augmented by French borrowings (e.g., coupe-gorge and wardecorps). English has been slowly producing new cutthroats since the 1200s up through 2015, mainly in the form of nonce personal insults. Most cutthroats are obsolete slang, but about 40, including pickpocket, pinchpenny, rotgut and spitfire, are commonly known in Modern English.

May 27, 2015
hugovk commented on the word eventing

eventing, v.
The Guardian, 24th May 2015:
Rigby’s hobby is attending events where there is free food and booze. Later tonight he’ll drop in at a nearby mixer for networkers, and then, if he fancies it, a talk at the University of the Arts London. He calls what he does “ligging” – which means gatecrashing with intent to snack. “The French would call me a pique-assiette,” Rigby says as we approach the bar. It translates roughly as “one who picks from others’ plates”. Others on the scene prefer “eventing”. Rigby estimates there are 50 regular liggers in London, mostly middle-aged single men. He’s on nodding terms with about six of them.

May 27, 2015
hugovk commented on the word thisclose

thisclose, n. Very close.
The Atlantic, March 2015:
They chase him, shoot him, and both get thisclose to being fatally stabbed/hatcheted.

May 27, 2015
hugovk commented on the word eventer

eventer, n. A gatecrasher, a smellfeast, a lickdish
The Guardian, 24th May 2015:
Eventbrite is your bible. This site is an indispensable tool for the modern eventer. Set the price filter to "Free".

May 27, 2015
hugovk commented on the word futurecast

futurecast, noun
Paul Lamere, 27 January 2015:
The weather guy on our local TV must cringe every time he has to say 'futurecast'. For consistency they should call the news 'Pastcast'

May 27, 2015
hugovk commented on the list a-silent-letter-radio-alphabet-to-annoy-call-centre-staff

A work in progress.

April 26, 2015
hugovk commented on the word supervoid

supervoid, n.
The Guardian, 20 April 2015:
Astronomers have discovered what they say is the largest known structure in the universe: an incredibly big hole.
The “supervoid”, as it is known, is a spherical blob 1.8 billion light years across that is distinguished by its unusual emptiness.

April 21, 2015
hugovk commented on the word kidtech

kidtech, n.
The Guardian, 5 March 2015:
Here are a handful of “kidtech” kits to get the family learning about coding, robots and electronics at home.

April 20, 2015
hugovk commented on the word empty-chair

empty-chair, v.
The Guardian, 6 March 2015:
BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky welcome prime minister’s ‘final offer’ but move could result in PM being ‘empty chaired’

April 20, 2015
hugovk commented on the word empty-chair

empty-chair, v.
BBC - The Editors, 30 March 2007:
His film had been an exhortation to programmes like Newsnight aggressively to empty-chair politicians who refuse to debate.

April 20, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Fear of Going Out

Fear of Going Out, n.
Vanity Fair's Fashion Department, @VFstyle, 18 April 2011:
@detailsfashion there are also those among us who suffer from FOGO-fear of GOING out, usually after a bout of FOMO led to regrettable events

April 19, 2015
hugovk commented on the word FOGO

FOGO, n.
Vanity Fair's Fashion Department, @VFstyle, 18 April 2011:
@detailsfashion there are also those among us who suffer from FOGO-fear of GOING out, usually after a bout of FOMO led to regrettable events

April 19, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Fear of Going Out

Fear of Going Out, n.
Alexis Swerdloff, New York Magazine:
I believe that I have developed the opposite of FOMO, in fact: I have a case of FOGO, or Fear of Going Out. Okay, well not literally a fear of going out. I still love a party. Always have and always will. But I have an active non-desire to attend the mass-Instagrammed events that clog up all my social-media feeds on several-week-long intervals throughout the year. And I am not the only one. Last year, around this time of year, Lena Dunham tweeted: "Whatever the opposite of FOMO is, that's what I have about Coachella." Someone I know recently tweeted: "Not going to SXSW is the new getting off Facebook."

April 19, 2015
hugovk commented on the word FOGO

FOGO, n.
Alexis Swerdloff, New York Magazine:
I believe that I have developed the opposite of FOMO, in fact: I have a case of FOGO, or Fear of Going Out. Okay, well not literally a fear of going out. I still love a party. Always have and always will. But I have an active non-desire to attend the mass-Instagrammed events that clog up all my social-media feeds on several-week-long intervals throughout the year. And I am not the only one. Last year, around this time of year, Lena Dunham tweeted: "Whatever the opposite of FOMO is, that's what I have about Coachella." Someone I know recently tweeted: "Not going to SXSW is the new getting off Facebook."

April 19, 2015
hugovk commented on the word crowdsmashing

crowdsmashing, v.
Paul Ford, New York Magazine, 21 December 2012:
Due to popular hatred, the University of California has withdrawn its new logo. This is no cause for tears; the proposed image, a stylized C emblazoned upon a U, looked like a plus-size strapless dress smeared with unicorn poop. The outrage, however, is noteworthy for its place within a bigger phenomenon. If crowdsourcing builds things, here we see the emergence of crowdsmashing: the Gap Logo Debacle of 2010, the London 2012 Olympics Hot Pink Logo Fussquake, the Syfy Brand Identity Conundrum. Something about logos and rebranding can just piss a mob right off.

April 19, 2015
hugovk commented on the word crowdsmash

crowdsmash, v.
Managed Print Services Association @Your_MPSA, 1 September 2011:
HP TouchPad at COMEX 2011 draws huge (angry) crowd by VR-Zone.com http://vr-zone.com/articles/hp-touchpad-at-comex-2011-draws-huge-angry-crowd/13460.html … Me: crowdsmashing in singapore for TouchPad huh?

April 19, 2015
hugovk commented on the word smartstrap

smartstrap, n.
readwrite, April 2015:
Smartstraps are basically hardware extensions to the smartwatch that can augment its capabilities or provide brand-new ones. The concept is pretty simple—think of a watchband equipped with, say, GPS sensors, Wi-Fi radios, extra batteries or other sensors. These smartstraps can plug into the magnetic charging port on the back of the Pebble Time, which doubles as a data connection.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word payable

payable, n. usually plural
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, January 2015:
Wearables, hearables, nearables and payables will be some of the buzzwords of 2015 as the mobile revolution takes the next great leap. Mobile and social trends will continue to drive technical, product and content innovation with subscription and rental models increasingly driving digital revenues.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word nearable

nearable, n. usually plural
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, January 2015:
Wearables, hearables, nearables and payables will be some of the buzzwords of 2015 as the mobile revolution takes the next great leap. Mobile and social trends will continue to drive technical, product and content innovation with subscription and rental models increasingly driving digital revenues.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word hearable

hearable, n. usually plural
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, January 2015:
Wearables, hearables, nearables and payables will be some of the buzzwords of 2015 as the mobile revolution takes the next great leap. Mobile and social trends will continue to drive technical, product and content innovation with subscription and rental models increasingly driving digital revenues.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word earable

earable, n.
readwrite, May 2014:
Earable computers, or earables, will look like existing audio accessories—earbuds, headphones, and the like. The inexorable trend towards miniaturization and wireless connectivity will mean that these devices will soon untether themselves from smartphones and connect us to news, entertainment, and people on their own.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word eyeable

eyeable, n.
Stowe Boyd, Gigaom, September 2014:
But smart watches won’t be the only companion devices. Yes, Google has moved firmly into the glass form factor — eyeables — which has drawn a great deal of backlash for personal use. But there are great use cases in business for that approach (see What can we expect from Google Glass in the enterprise), so it will catch on in medicine, construction, security, military, and many other sectors. In a few years, it will seem commonplace for your dentist to peer into your mouth wearing something like Glass.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word earable

earable, n.
Stowe Boyd, Gigaom, September 2014:
And last week, Motorola offered another take on wearables: Motorola Hint is an earable. Hint is a bluetooth earbud that can cooperate with smart phones through voice commands, or perhaps more grandly, a means to remain connected to the world without manually fiddling with devices, but simply using your voice.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word rideable

rideable, n. Smart-tech on bicycles, usually plural
9TO5Google, July 2014:
After wearables, Samsung explores rideables in technology tests on Trek bicycles

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word rideable

rideable, n. Usually plural
The Verge, November 2014:
I first heard the term a few weeks ago during an email exchange with Ben Forman, one of the creators of the ZBoard — and it's perfect. A rideable is something you ride on. It has an electric motor that's powerful enough to use as a commuting device, and it’s small enough to take into the subway or office with you.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word there-able

there-able, n.
naveen, April 2014:
There-ables infer identity based on how you interact with them. There-ables know it’s us because, well, they are smarter: Nest knows our heat signature. Withings knows our body composition. There-ables have fewer power restrictions; they’re often just plugged right into the power grid and, therefore, don’t need to have batteries charged everyday.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word embeddable

embeddable, n.
Andy Goodman, Fjord, 2013:
Embeddables will have significant consequences for the delivery of digital services as monolithic screen-focused devices start to be enhanced with distributed computation. A more ambient kind of experience in which sensors capture information about us and feed that information into systems quietly working away in the background will emerge. Use in initial domains such as healthcare and fitness will extend further to information, communications, entertainment, socialising, learning, work, self-actuation. Virtually any human activity we can think of is going to be modified and amplified with an invisible mesh of data and processing that we will drift through obliviously.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word awareable

awareable, n.
Wired, March 2015:
Awareables: The Technology of Superhumanism

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word embeddable

embeddable, n.
Federal Communications Commission:
Embeddables are miniature devices that are actually inserted under the skin or deeper into the body. A heart pacemaker is one kind of embeddable device. In the future, embeddables may use nanotechnology and be so tiny that doctors would simply “inject” them into our bodies. Some promising applications in this area could help diabetes patients monitor their blood sugar levels reliably and automatically, without the need to prick their fingers or otherwise draw blood.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word ingestible

ingestible, n.
Federal Communications Commission:
Ingestibles are broadband-enabled digital tools that we actually eat. For example, there are smart pills that use wireless technology to help monitor internal reactions to medications. Or imagine a smart pill that tracks blood levels of medications in a patient's body throughout the day to help physicians find optimum dosage levels, avoid overmedicating, and truly individualize treatment. Also, miniature pill-shaped video cameras may one day soon replace colonoscopies or endoscopies. Patients would simply swallow a “pill,” which would collect and transmit images as it makes its way through the digestive system.

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word awareable

awareable, n.
Wearables TechCon, January 2015:
Intel at CES: The Future of Wearables is 'Awareables'

April 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word spinning rust

spinning rust, n. A computer hard disk, specifically one using magnetic storage, as opposed to a solid-state drive (SSD).

erics, 16 March 2015:

Apparently it wrote those 11gigs _after_ I moved 10 gigs of email archives to spinning rust this morning.

March 18, 2015
hugovk commented on the word non-binary

The Guardian, February 2015:
The only problem was that Van der Goot – who is non-binary and goes by “they” – hadn’t written the tweet.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word hearable

The Guardian, February 2015:
Wearables, hearables and nearables won't dethrone smartphones
...
Hearables – smart ear devices featuring 3D audio notification – may prove a more accurate, less obtrusive sub sector of health and fitness wearables. Proximity to blood vessels within the ear mean that products such as Valencell’s heart rate earphones allow users to precisely and continuously measure weak blood flow signals during extreme physical activity. This provides a highly accurate picture of heart rate, respiration rate, and other blood flow parameters, while allowing them to still listen to music while they train.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word self-photograph

An attempt to avoid the word selfie, especially as used by an official body who can't quite bring themselves to use such a "common" word.
The Register, February 2015:
The USA's National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB's) investigation into a 2014 light plane crash has come to the conclusion that the pilot may well have been distracted by selfie-taking passengers.
...
The flight took place at night, one factor in the disorientation. But NTSB investigators also found a GoPro camera among the wreckage and were able to retrieve files from its memory card. Those files did not depict the fatal flight, but did show flights from the day of the accident and the previous day in which “... the pilot and various passengers were taking self-photographs with their cell phones and, during the night flight, using the camera’s flash function during the takeoff roll, initial climb, and flight in the traffic pattern.”

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word supertweetee

The Atlantic, January 2015:
At their best, supertweets like Banks’s work like trump cards or mic drops. They prevent the indicted individual from being able to reply without compromising themselves, and in so doing they carve out new room for the supertweeter in a landscape purportedly overgrown with the supertweetee’s largess. Just like the political opponent can’t reply to the accusation, “I do not know if my opponent in this race is a crook” without repeating (and thereby affirming or at least directing attention to the fact that he or she might be a crook), so the supertweetee cannot address the accusation or indictment without proving that the power differential proposed really does exist, and that he or she is unwilling or unable to allow other voices to weigh in on the matter without attempting to re-take control of the conversation.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word supertweeter

The Atlantic, January 2015:
At their best, supertweets like Banks’s work like trump cards or mic drops. They prevent the indicted individual from being able to reply without compromising themselves, and in so doing they carve out new room for the supertweeter in a landscape purportedly overgrown with the supertweetee’s largess. Just like the political opponent can’t reply to the accusation, “I do not know if my opponent in this race is a crook” without repeating (and thereby affirming or at least directing attention to the fact that he or she might be a crook), so the supertweetee cannot address the accusation or indictment without proving that the power differential proposed really does exist, and that he or she is unwilling or unable to allow other voices to weigh in on the matter without attempting to re-take control of the conversation.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word supertweet

The Atlantic, January 2015:
Given that both the equivocal, indirect tweet (“I see it’s jerk day at The Atlantic”) and the direct kind (“Ian Bogost is a jerk”) are both apophatic in their own way, we need a way to distinguish them. If the first is a subtweet, a speech act that subordinates itself to the original, then perhaps the latter is best named a “supertweet.”
The subtweet is apophatic in the beat-around-the-bush manner. It’s a private whisper shrouded in “I didn’t say anything” innocence. But the supertweet is direct in its apophasis, like the politician’s insult. The subtweet doesn’t want you to know what it’s talking about unless you do already; the supertweet wants its meaning to be clear to everyone, but to feign concealment from its target.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Nearable Technology

A proposed development of the internet of things, when smartdevices are no longer needed in smartphones or wearables, but become an integral part of our surroundings.
Demos Helsinki, January 2015:
Get Naked with Nearables
...
When most objects and services have a name and a means to communicate with them, we will not need smart phones or wearables anymore. The information and communication technology becomes an integral part of our surroundings. It becomes Nearable Technology.
It probably goes without saying that this is not a commonly used term just yet. While typing this, my autocorrect changes, quite fittingly, the word “nearable” to the word “bearable”. This is pretty much the point: calm technology is embedded in our lives so that it improves our wellbeing and capabilities without stressing us or constantly demanding our attention (Although using the Internet does not stress us – using Facebook does).
After the widespread introduction of Nearables our world will become a different place.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word nearable

A proposed development of the internet of things, when smartdevices are no longer needed in smartphones or wearables, but become an integral part of our surroundings.
Demos Helsinki, January 2015:
Get Naked with Nearables
...
When most objects and services have a name and a means to communicate with them, we will not need smart phones or wearables anymore. The information and communication technology becomes an integral part of our surroundings. It becomes Nearable Technology.
It probably goes without saying that this is not a commonly used term just yet. While typing this, my autocorrect changes, quite fittingly, the word “nearable” to the word “bearable”. This is pretty much the point: calm technology is embedded in our lives so that it improves our wellbeing and capabilities without stressing us or constantly demanding our attention (Although using the Internet does not stress us – using Facebook does).
After the widespread introduction of Nearables our world will become a different place.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Brexit

British exit from the EU.
The Guardian, October 2014:
““Brexit” is shorthand for British exit from the European Union – a possibility that is looking more realistic by the day. Ukip, after all, are in the midst of a seemingly endless political summer, while senior Conservative politicians such as Boris Johnson talk optimistically about life outside the clutches of Brussels. Should they win next year’s election, the Tories are pledged to follow a renegotiation of Britain’s membership with an in/out referendum that will supposedly materialise by the end of 2017. Meanwhile, a debate rages between two sides that do not just seem to be from opposed political traditions, but different planets.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Grexit

Greek exit from the EU or euro.
The Guardian, January 2015:
“Grexit is unthinkable,” said a second senior Brussels policymaker involved in the negotiations. “It would be extremely bad. Europe is about irreversibility. If you start doubting that, you start pricing in the risk of fragmentation and soon you have no monetary union. The only chance of Grexit is if Greece defaults on its payments. Morally, that would be saying they want to leave.” A default would trigger a run on the banks, capital flight and capital controls.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word 10x engineer

Shanley Kane, September 2013:
I was a 10x engineer for 7 months and then I was a 0x engineer for a year and a half. You burn the candle at both ends. You end up with alcoholism and depression. You’re talking about a very small subset of people. And they might end up in divorce and financial ruin. When people think you’re a 10x engineer, they think you have skills that you don’t. You invariably let people down. — Anonymous

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Sforzian Background

For example, the 'Mission Accomplished' sign behind George Bush on the USS Abraham Lincoln.
greg.org, October 2003:
Since before Elizabeth Bumiller came up with the term for the Times, I was a fan of Sforzian Backgrounds, the news-manipulating slogans created by Scott Sforza, a key member of the White House's advance scenery and production team, for just about every public appearance of George W. Bush.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Sforzian

Adjective, originally from the Sforzian Background, such as the 'Mission Accomplished' sign behind George Bush on the USS Abraham Lincoln.
greg.org, October 2003:
Since before Elizabeth Bumiller came up with the term for the Times, I was a fan of Sforzian Backgrounds, the news-manipulating slogans created by Scott Sforza, a key member of the White House's advance scenery and production team, for just about every public appearance of George W. Bush.
Sforzian is now generally applied to a stage-managed, news-manipulating, political display, such as the image of world leaders marching shoulder-to-shoulder with millions in the Charlie Hebdo unity rally, except really the leaders were on their own down a sealed-off side street.
greg.org, January 2015:
Paris Marching In Place: The Sforzian Montage
...
A montage to make us believe they are. Instead of simply crafting a single, standalone image, make a photo-op that blends seamlessly into the broader visual narrative of the event. I believe this colonization of a montage represents an advance in Sforzian technique which warrants more investigation. Stay tuned.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word af

Abbreviation of "as fuck".
@OgChrisCat__, January 2015:
Tbh I hate the word "angry". Like it sounds dumb af. Why can't people use mad or pissed off.

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word roverware

Software used on an extraterrestrial automated motor vehicle.
The Register, January 2015:
All being well, the Mars roverware 5.0 will be a big step forward

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word livebrag

To show off about being at an event by livelogging/livetweeting.
@iamdanw:
I can livebrag it

March 4, 2015
hugovk commented on the word dot-thing

dot-thing, or dot-thing gTLD. One of the new generic top-level domains, such as .coffee, .club, and also ones including non-Latin script such as Arabic or Chinese.
Used by The Register, October 2014:
If you want to get higher up Google's search rankings, it turns out that using a new dot-thing domain – such as .guru or .ninja – may give you the edge.
Two recent studies into the impact of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) have claimed that, far from Google's official position, using the right domain ending can bump you up an extra place or two in the rankings.
The Register, January 2015:
Get coding or you'll bounce email from new dot-thing domains
Expansion in DNS means you may struggle to handle email from Chinese or Arabic domains

January 16, 2015
hugovk commented on the word PARSNIP

<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/14/pigs-textbooks-oup-authors-pork-guidelines">The Guardian, January 2015</a>:

But according to authors, the guidelines are well-known and widely used by educational publishers, encompassing a range of “taboo” subjects in addition to pork, with publishers keen to avoid offending potential markets for their books abroad. There is even an acronym, PARSNIP, to remind authors of topics to be avoided: politics, alcohol, religion, sex, narcotics, isms (communism for example) and pork.

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word cit

Slate, January 2015:
The electronic system was created in 1983 but paper citations, or “cits,” were also generated until 2009.

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word cripping up

Frances Ryan in the Guardian, January 2015:
We wouldn’t accept actors blacking up, so why applaud ‘cripping up’?
...
But is this as harmless as mainstream audiences seem to see it? While “blacking up” is rightly now greeted with outrage, “cripping up” is still greeted with awards. Is there actually much difference between the two?

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word doodleware

The Register, January 2015:
Local zero day vulnerabilities have been disclosed in Corel applications, potentially affecting more than 100 million users.
The holes were dropped by Marcos Accossatto of Core Security after the doodleware company did not respond to his private disclosure.

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word do-ocratically

Noisebridge, December 2014:
Do-ocracy: If you want something done, do it, but remember to be excellent to each other when doing so. An important part of being excellent is documenting your change. Write a note on Noisebridge's ChangeLog, or leave a note on what you do-ocratically did.

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word Do-ocracy

Noisebridge, December 2014:

Do-ocracy</b>: If you want something done, do it, but remember to be excellent to each other when doing so.

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word autoclave

Personal Weblog of Joe Clark, Toronto, January 2015:
I re-read Matthew Debord’s piece in the L.A. Times about the Aspergerian male compulsion to efficiently load the autoclave, or, as non-male non-Aspergerians call it, the dishwasher.

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word smartclothing

The Guardian, January 2015:
The popularity of fitness-tracking wristbands will wane in the next 12 months, according to market analysts, as consumers opt instead for more versatile smartwatches and new smartclothing.

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word smartclothes

The Guardian, January 2015:
Forget smartwatches - smartclothes are the future, analysts say

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word shovelware

The Guardian, January 2015:
The top end of laptops is a world of brushed aluminium and fancy features. The bottom end is a world of crappy plastic and shovelware, with computers shipped full of borderline spyware in order to pad out the minuscule margins earned by their manufacturers.

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word straightwashing

David Shariatmadari in the Guardian:

<b>Straightwashing</b> at the movies: the Pride DVD shows gay people still make the film industry nervous

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the word emo mode

- the new gnome-terminal seems to default into a new "Emo mode" (aka "Dark Theme"). I don't know who thought it was a good idea to make a terminal application have its own depressed theme different from all other applications, but I'm guessing they spend their days cutting themselves and listening to death metal, and thinking they are "cool".
Linus Torvalds on the new dark theme for a Linux command terminal.

January 14, 2015
hugovk commented on the list outcasts

Inspired by this, I've written a similar script to search Twitter for "X is my favourite word" and add it to a Wordnik list.

http://www.wordnik.com/lists/twitter-favourites/
See also:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/twitter-favorites/
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/twitter-faves/

I must share the code for it too.

October 10, 2013
hugovk commented on the list twitter-favourites

bilby: spatulaless, the state of having no spatula after your friend steals your spatula.
https://twitter.com/tequilasombrer0/status/383910704258220032

September 30, 2013
hugovk commented on the list twitter-favorites

bilby: I checked the logs and you're right, up wasn't a favorite word, it should have been catch up. I'll fix the list. I expect there will be a few more false hits like this, but not many. The script doesn't attempt to find double-word words. Perhaps it should only get (single) words at the start of a tweet, or a start of a sentence.

March 20, 2013

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vendingmachine commented on the user hugovk

Thanks for all the great additions today, hugovk.

May 5, 2016