Alison Fish: Isn't There a Word for This?

The Merriam-Webster Toolbar

Fri, 18 Oct 2002 19:52:02 GMT

I am absolutely loving this browser toolbar. I installed it about a month ago. You can use it to look up definitions or synonyms with the Thesaurus.

It caches your lookups, viewable by clicking the arrow of the drop-down box. This is really useful when composing a post in Radio's WYSIWYG editor - the definitions pop up in a small separate window, so you don't lose your place.

Sorry Mac users, IE 5.0+ on Windows required.

Another bonus: a reverse dictionary for those moments when you find yourself asking isn't there a word for this?

Term Help: "Where does history end and recent history begin?"

Sat, 28 Sep 2002 07:48:19 GMT

Time doesn't flow at a constant rate for anybody, that's a given. How can people express their relative metrics for different eras? Inessential.com searches for the right word:

"But what I’m thinking about today is a different though related sense of time. I don’t have a good term for it.
It’s the sense of recent history. Where does history end and recent history begin?
It’s different for every person."

A good vocabulary can make one an effective an efficient communicator. After all:

"...people’s senses of what is recent history don’t match, and this is a source of misunderstanding, confusion, and disagreement."

One could also ask, "what does green look like to you?"

Reentry: Good Word

Tue, 27 Aug 2002 06:51:53 GMT

Reentry. I got into the habit years ago of never really taking a vacation. I'd stay loosely tethered in order to make the friction of reentry tolerable. ...
[Jon's Radio]

What a good word to describe this condition. So timely, since three days from now I depart for my ten day trip, which will be the longest vacation I've had in ten years? Could that be right?

Excercise: May be More than a Fad

Fri, 23 Aug 2002 07:20:19 GMT

I have been bicycling to and from work to prepare for my Ireland trip. Around yesterday I started to feel the positive effects: more color in my face, sitting up straight, stronger overall muscle tone. I am almost afraid to post this because months from now I will deny it.

It is said so frequently (there's gotta be a word for this) that exercise has all of these positive effects. Everyone knows it to be true. But every so often, when you experience something, you accept the truth on an entirely different level.

Dave Winer must be having this same experience with his smoking cessation program. It's like, once you do something, it seems so obvious, you wonder why you didn't do it before. There's gotta be a word for this.

Isn't There a Word for This?

Wed, 14 Aug 2002 04:05:18 GMT

There must be a word out there that describes this:

When you have something new, this is especially common with gadgets, there is a lopsided histogram path of enthusiasm towards that thing. When one is riding the left taller part of the curve, one has no crediblity to give recommendations. It's almost like a conflict of interest, but not quite.

Example: I caught up with my friend Sylvia this summer. The last time we had met we were struggling with the Tomcat-Apache configuration files on her machine ("just work, damn you!"). This time she informed me that she hired some whiz kid down the street to iron it out for her. He also had set up Ant.

"Have you tried Ant?" Sylvia asked me. I had seen 'Ant' mentioned all over the java google groups. No, I told her I hadn't tried it but am curious as to what Ant is.

"What is Ant??? ANT, my friend, is absolutely anything you want it to be. AND, on top of THAT, if you don't make Ant into something - [now she is whispering] there is the Default Ant which already does everything for you."

Sylvia was too new to Ant to give a credible recommendation. Ant is very cool, by the way.

I bring this up because I am consciously keeping my lips buttoned when the subject of weblogs or personal websites or (god forbid) Radio Userland comes up in face time conversation. I am still riding the upper curve of the lopsided histogram. If someone were come up to me right now and ask if I find that this k-log or weblog or thing called Radio useful for knowledge management, this would be my reply:

"Is it useful? Oh absolutely. You see: klogs...or generally keeping a weblog, - it makes you smarter than you really are."

Credibility: blown. Better wait a couple months to start evangelizing.

[Update]: BJ, my coworker, says he is super close to an Ant configuration that brews him a cup of tea.

First Entry in the Isn't There a Word for This Category

Tue, 13 Aug 2002 02:24:34 GMT

"So I'm off to the dentist today for a major upgrade of the architecture....I wonder if there's a metaphor, or an axiom, in this situation -- like, maybe, do it the strongest way the first time..."

Upgrade, Dental Variety [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]