News: Annoying & Outstanding
Thursday, 2 October 2014 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jesse_the_kI got scammed on the internet by an effective combo of wholesale scraping of publicly available data, search engine optimization, before-dinner drowsiness, and sneaky screen design. Only out $4.19, thank heavens.
I like to think that I'm "smarter than that," evidently not.
Moral of the story: if a site advertises a "free service" or a "free trial," and also asks for your payment info, run screaming to pictures of silly dogs on YouTube. Have a meal. Use the toilet. If possible, sleep on it. If not possible, go back and read everything, even the mouseprint.
I attended a meeting tonight where someone advocated "handicap" is a bad word because it comes from "cap in hand," as a beggar. I know better, but I wanted to get the cites to prove it. I know my Uni library has the online service, but I thought I'd poke at the Oxford University Press site just in case they'd decided to make The Dictionary free.
Almost as good: they have two logins at their front page
http://www.oed.com/
one for individual subscribers (only US$300/year), and another for "Library Card Login." I plugged my South Central Library Service card number into the slot and fuckity wow! I was in.
(Around 1650 - 1660, "handicap" described a complex game with an umpire and two competitors. The latter two stuck one hand each in a cap and the ump decided who got money. The meaning bled to "something to even out the unfair differences between horses in a race or golfers." First use in U.S. English was the October 1888 issue of the American Annals for the Deaf: "The handicap of deafness is a perpetual one." In this case a hearing person "flips the script," using handicap as a disability epithet. The deaf person is described elliptically as someone who has been given an extra burden to handle. Read a more coherent, thoughtful, and funny explanation from s.e.smith)
I like to think that I'm "smarter than that," evidently not.
Moral of the story: if a site advertises a "free service" or a "free trial," and also asks for your payment info, run screaming to pictures of silly dogs on YouTube. Have a meal. Use the toilet. If possible, sleep on it. If not possible, go back and read everything, even the mouseprint.
I attended a meeting tonight where someone advocated "handicap" is a bad word because it comes from "cap in hand," as a beggar. I know better, but I wanted to get the cites to prove it. I know my Uni library has the online service, but I thought I'd poke at the Oxford University Press site just in case they'd decided to make The Dictionary free.
Almost as good: they have two logins at their front page
http://www.oed.com/
one for individual subscribers (only US$300/year), and another for "Library Card Login." I plugged my South Central Library Service card number into the slot and fuckity wow! I was in.
(Around 1650 - 1660, "handicap" described a complex game with an umpire and two competitors. The latter two stuck one hand each in a cap and the ump decided who got money. The meaning bled to "something to even out the unfair differences between horses in a race or golfers." First use in U.S. English was the October 1888 issue of the American Annals for the Deaf: "The handicap of deafness is a perpetual one." In this case a hearing person "flips the script," using handicap as a disability epithet. The deaf person is described elliptically as someone who has been given an extra burden to handle. Read a more coherent, thoughtful, and funny explanation from s.e.smith)
(no subject)
Date: 03/10/2014 03:08 am (UTC)(Amusingly, my Seattle Public Library card works; my King County card doesn't. Anyone eligible for either of those is eligible for the other.)
(no subject)
Date: 05/10/2014 09:35 pm (UTC)Huh, why parallel systems?
(no subject)
Date: 05/10/2014 10:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 03/10/2014 04:42 am (UTC)Hooray for Shibboleth (the protocol that enables that, not the Old Testament business.)
(no subject)
Date: 05/10/2014 09:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 03/10/2014 05:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 05/10/2014 09:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 05/10/2014 08:49 pm (UTC)Also, isn't OED access amazing?
(no subject)
Date: 05/10/2014 09:23 pm (UTC)Is this a thing that's happening at public libraries in many US places? Mr Franklin would be delighted.