I know it sounds crazy but I’m afraid of the telephone

Posted by John Lampard on Wednesday, 3 March, 2010 to the comment subset

The Oatmeal’s guide to the ten types of telephone callers.
My line of work renders me too busy to take phone calls. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

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Some guidance as to whether or not to opt out of chain messages

Posted by John Lampard on Monday, 1 March, 2010 to the trends subset

I think this leaves little doubt as to what to do.

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How do you speak to geeks and how do they speak back?

Posted by John Lampard on Friday, 5 February, 2010 to the comment subset

Understanding why geeks, or “nerds and other highly-smart technical people”, can come across as being overly analytical, or are intent on presenting what they see as facts clearly and fully.
Non-geeks might perceive such behavior as rude and arrogant, like the geek is trying to show his smartness and be a “‘know-it-all”. In fact, the [...]

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Eradicating CamelCase compound words by slicing them open

Posted by John Lampard on Tuesday, 22 December, 2009 to the comment subset

For instance WordPress becomes Word Press if camel-case compound words can be split apart. Alternatively WP could also be spelt as Wordpress.
When all the elements of a camel-case compound are words that could stand on their own, slice it open: Master Card, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Word Perfect. When some elements are letters or word [...]

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In 50 years time no one will speak Latin, not even Latin people

Posted by John Lampard on Friday, 18 December, 2009 to the trends subset

Half of the world’s 6500 languages are expected to have vanished by the end of the century says Dr Mark Turin, of the University of Cambridge, who is embarking on a project to record as much as possible, of as many as possible, of the world’s threatened languages, in order to help preserve them.
“The [...]

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Have Christmas cards been rendered obsolete by social networks?

Posted by John Lampard on Wednesday, 16 December, 2009 to the trends subset

The role of Christmas cards in supplying friends and family with an annual update of one’s life has all but been supplanted by the always-on, constant, status updates of social networks and blogs.
Christmas cards used to be the annual connection with friends who had drifted away. But in a texting, Skyping, e-mailing, e-networking world, [...]

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Read my… shoelaces, how CIA agents used to covertly converse

Posted by John Lampard on Wednesday, 2 December, 2009 to the comment subset

A manual of sorts giving operatives of US intelligence agency the CIA instructions on how to smuggle people, exchange documents discretely, and even string shoelaces in ways that conveyed different messages.

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Online we have eight, rather than the usual three, vices

Posted by John Lampard on Tuesday, 24 November, 2009 to the trends subset

From tumblr to Gmail, eight vices of the internet age.

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Whales don’t twitter, rather converse politely among themselves

Posted by John Lampard on Wednesday, 28 October, 2009 to the comment subset

Whales seem to understand that conversation is as much about listening as it is talking…
Natalia Sidorovskaia of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and colleagues have discovered that whales change the intervals between these echolocating clicks in a way that seems to prevent cluttering the echoes from these calls. “In other words, whales are [...]

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Third edition of The Age of Conversation is on the way

Posted by John Lampard on Wednesday, 7 October, 2009 to the trends subset

Gavin Heaton, aka the Servant of Chaos, has assembled 300 social media savvy writers to contribute to the third edition of The Age of Conversation.
Much has changed in the last two years. New platforms, tools and approaches have been tried. Some remain, many have fallen by the wayside. Businesses, public and private organisations [...]

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