The Banished Words of 2004! And 2003, and 2002, and 2001, and...

Grok Headline matches for The Banished Words of 2004! And 2003, and 2002, and 2001, and...

"2004 List of Banished Words"

"2004 List of Banished Words" 01/04/2004 09:35 AM

Linguists Release Banished Words for
2004 (AP)

Linguists Release Banished Words for
2004 (AP) 12/31/2003 01:17 PM
AP - Calling all metrosexuals: Get rid of that bling-bling — or at least find another word for it. In its annual compilation of language irritants, Lake Superior State University singled out 17 words and phrases that it says ought to be banned as overused, trite, euphemistic or just plain inaccurate. The 2004 losers were chosen by a university committee from more than 5,000 nominations from around the world.

Banished Words List :: 2005

Banished Words List :: 2005 01/01/2005 04:29 AM
New Year's Tradition: Banishing Words .. LSSU's Banished Words List for 2005 .. Banned phrases in 2005

lssu.edu/banished/current.php
track this site | 4 links

Banished Words List: Lake Superior
State University

Banished Words List: Lake Superior
State University 01/02/2004 05:57 AM
Words and phrases banished from the Queen's English for Mis-, Mal-, or Over-Use, as well as General Uselessness .. Banished Words List: Lake Superior State University .. 2001-word/phrase

lssu.edu/banished
track this site | 3 links

Top Searches of 2003, A Dave Odyssey,
Banned Words for 2004

Top Searches of 2003, A Dave Odyssey,
Banned Words for 2004 01/01/2004 03:25 AM
Slashdot Jan 1 2004 2:17AM ET

Top Searches of 2003, A Dave Odyssey,
Banned Words for 2004

Top Searches of 2003, A Dave Odyssey,
Banned Words for 2004 12/31/2003 11:59 PM

Veritas Restates Its 2001-2003 Results
(AP)

Veritas Restates Its 2001-2003 Results
(AP) 06/14/2004 01:28 PM
AP - Veritas Software Corp. Monday restated its financial results for 2001, 2002 and 2003, significantly increasing its 2003 earnings due to a tax settlement stemming from its acquisition of Seagate Technology four years ago.

"yourDictionary.com • Top Ten Words of
2003"

"yourDictionary.com • Top Ten Words of
2003" 12/27/2003 08:57 PM

yourDictionary.com • Top Ten Words of
2003

yourDictionary.com • Top Ten Words of
2003 12/27/2003 06:40 AM
"Embedded" just beat out "blog" for the top word of 2003

yourdictionary.com/about/topten2003.html
track this site | 4 links

"list of 2003?s mis-used, overused, and
useless words."

"list of 2003?s mis-used, overused, and
useless words." 01/04/2004 03:53 AM

"CBS News | Saddam's Ouster Planned In
2001? | January 10, 2004 12..."

"CBS News | Saddam's Ouster Planned In
2001? | January 10, 2004 12..." 01/10/2004 10:13 PM

2004 in Words

2004 in Words 12/26/2004 02:56 PM
The NY Times covers 2004 in words.  Now the great conduit is the blogosphere, both a neologism itself and an uncharted space that, the more we map it, looks more and more like our collective unconscious. It dreams up the...

Outlook 2003/2002 Add-in: Notes
Connector

Outlook 2003/2002 Add-in: Notes
Connector 04/12/2004 11:20 PM
Outlook Connector for IBM Lotus Domino enables you to use Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2002 to access your e-mail messages, calendar, address book, and To Do (task) items on an IBM Lotus Domino Release 5.x or Release 6.x server.

Python and XML: Gems from the Mines:
2002 to 2003

Python and XML: Gems from the Mines:
2002 to 2003 03/14/2005 05:43 PM
Uche Ogbuji's Python and XML column returns with a recurring theme: mining the archives of the Python XML SIG list for lost and hidden gems.

Banned Words: 2004

Banned Words: 2004 01/03/2004 07:06 AM
FreeTacoHere

freetacohere.manilasites.com/2004/01/02#a1097
track this site | 3 links

Excel 2003/2002 Add-in: MSN Money Stock
Quotes

Excel 2003/2002 Add-in: MSN Money Stock
Quotes 02/12/2004 01:20 AM
This add-in for Excel 2003 and Excel 2002 allows you to get dynamic stock quotes from the MSN® Money™ Web site. The tools and features found in Excel are particularly well suited to analyzing financial data such as stocks. This add-in allows you to easily gather and study the stocks of interest to you, refresh your quotes when you want, and readily change or modify the quotes gathered.

2003 Bluetooth chipset shipments doubled
on 2002 - report

2003 Bluetooth chipset shipments doubled
on 2002 - report 05/07/2004 10:24 AM
DMeurope.com May 7 2004 2:37PM GMT

Linguists Suggest Banned Words for 2004
(AP)

Linguists Suggest Banned Words for 2004
(AP) 12/31/2003 08:28 PM
AP - Calling all metrosexuals: Get rid of that bling-bling — or at least find another word for it. In its annual compilation of language irritants, Lake Superior State University singled out 17 words and phrases that it says ought to be banned as overused, trite, euphemistic or just plain inaccurate. The 2004 losers were chosen by a university committee from more than 5,000 nominations from around the world.

Many of the defining moments of 2003
spawned their own words and phrases. Now
in its fifth year, the E-cyclopedia
again takes stock of these additions to
the news lexicon

Many of the defining moments of 2003
spawned their own words and phrases. Now
in its fifth year, the E-cyclopedia
again takes stock of these additions to
the news lexicon 01/01/2004 07:54 AM
*

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3357885.stm
track this site | 4 links

BioMS Medical Corp. narrows annual loss
in 2003 to $7.6M from $7.8M in 2002

BioMS Medical Corp. narrows annual loss
in 2003 to $7.6M from $7.8M in 2002 05/06/2004 01:11 PM
National Post May 6 2004 4:56PM GMT

Blue Worx releases Powerbacks® 2002-2003
PowerPoint® Template Collection

Blue Worx releases Powerbacks® 2002-2003
PowerPoint® Template Collection 12/02/2003 11:04 AM
Think it will be hard to find that difficult office gift? Blue Works has just released its compilation CD of the past two years of acclaimed presentation template designs.

CNN.com - Bill Cosby has more harsh
words for black community - Jul 2, 2004

CNN.com - Bill Cosby has more harsh
words for black community - Jul 2, 2004 07/03/2004 08:47 AM

Will Paid Inclusion Be Banished?

Will Paid Inclusion Be Banished? 07/19/2004 01:23 PM
Source: DMNews.com - Nate Elliott, a Jupiter Research analyst, said paid inclusion still has a bright future because search engines simply cannot refresh their indexes quickly enough to offer the best possible search results. Jupiter expects paid inclusion spending to...

Banished from the American dream

Banished from the American dream 04/26/2004 07:31 AM
The Kesbehs were a hardworking immigrant family with a successful business and deep roots in Houston. But after 9/11, the U.S. kicked them, along with thousands of other Arab and Muslim families, out of the country. Now, in a land the children barely know, they wonder why their life has been shattered.

Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line
(ADSL) continues to grow, with almost
1,850,000 ADSL subscribers in Latin
America in 2004, up from 360,000 in 2001

Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line
(ADSL) continues to grow, with almost
1,850,000 ADSL subscribers in Latin
America in 2004, up from 360,000 in 2001 07/21/2004 02:32 AM
Research and Markets are delighted to announce the addition of 2004 Latin America - Internet and Broadband Market to their offering [PRWEB Jul 21, 2004]

Army: 27 Detainees Killed From 2002-2004
(AP)

Army: 27 Detainees Killed From 2002-2004
(AP) 03/25/2005 05:18 PM
AP - Twenty-seven detainees were killed in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan in suspected or confirmed homicide cases between August 2002 and November 2004, the Army said Friday in its first comprehensive accounting.

Access 2003/2002 Sample: Using
Parameters with Queries and Reports
Sample Database

Access 2003/2002 Sample: Using
Parameters with Queries and Reports
Sample Database 04/20/2004 12:25 AM
This sample Microsoft Access database provides example forms, queries, and reports that demonstrate using query parameters, as well as using a custom form to supply parameters to a query or report.

Improvements in Word 2002/XP and Word
2003 for Legal Users

Improvements in Word 2002/XP and Word
2003 for Legal Users 02/01/2005 09:56 PM
This document lists changes made to Word 2002 (XP) and Word 2003 that are of interest to the legal world. Changes listed include: document stability and recovery; security; document management; track changes and compare; formatting; and research.

PPC FAQ: Differences in LED flashing
functionality between Pocket PC 2002 and
Pocket PC 2003

PPC FAQ: Differences in LED flashing
functionality between Pocket PC 2002 and
Pocket PC 2003 09/02/2004 07:30 PM

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 security
Bulletins, Patches and Updates (for 2002
– 2004)

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 security
Bulletins, Patches and Updates (for 2002
– 2004) 12/26/2004 12:42 PM

"Imagine living in a world without
words. Then imagine getting pregnant,
perhaps as a result of rape, giving
birth alone, being arrested - and not
having the words to explain, or to
understand what is happening."

"Imagine living in a world without
words. Then imagine getting pregnant,
perhaps as a result of rape, giving
birth alone, being arrested - and not
having the words to explain, or to
understand what is happening." 04/13/2004 03:29 AM

Goodbye 2003 Hello 2004

Goodbye 2003 Hello 2004 12/31/2003 10:51 PM
I want to Thank all of the editors that have contributed to Geek News Central this year. As I alluded...

2003 round-up yet (as at 1/1 2004)

2003 round-up yet (as at 1/1 2004) 01/01/2004 07:54 AM
2003 Year-End Zeitgeist .. Zeitgeist

google.com/press/zeitgeist2003.html
track this site | 4 links

EIOffice 2004 vs. MS Office 2003

EIOffice 2004 vs. MS Office 2003 05/28/2004 02:10 PM

CNN.com - 10 technologies to watch in
2004 - Dec. 24, 2003

CNN.com - 10 technologies to watch in
2004 - Dec. 24, 2003 12/25/2003 08:07 AM
10 ª©†ˆ„ˆ˜Œ ©‡ §„ ¢Š†‡ …Š„§Œ § ¨‡ ‡ ‡ˆ …Œ † .. 10 technologies to watch in 2004 .. cnn

cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/12/23/bus2.feat.tech.towatch/index.html< br />track this site | 5 links

EIOffice 2004 Vs MS Office 2003

EIOffice 2004 Vs MS Office 2003 05/27/2004 06:00 AM

Top 25 Censored Media Stories of
2003-2004

Top 25 Censored Media Stories of
2003-2004 09/06/2004 05:55 PM

Cowards of the Year: 2003-2004 Edition

Cowards of the Year: 2003-2004 Edition 09/13/2004 05:15 AM
This flock of chickens is really something to cluck over.

Security Threats: Bad In 2003, Worse In
2004?

Security Threats: Bad In 2003, Worse In
2004? 12/30/2003 11:00 AM

Grok Description matches for The Banished Words of 2004! And 2003, and 2002, and 2001, and...
GrokA matches for The Banished Words of 2004! And 2003, and 2002, and 2001, and...

War words top useless terms list
(Reuters)

War words top useless terms list
(Reuters) 01/01/2005 01:03 AM
Reuters - The U.S. presidential campaign, the Iraq war and television broadcasts have all provided words and phrases that feature on a year-end list of misused, overused and generally useless terms compiled by a Michigan university.

can't see useless

can't see useless 10/28/2003 11:08 PM
I want to tell the story of the powerless man who watches his wife cry herself to sleep at night. The man who can't provide for his family, the man who can't protect them from the Bogeyman. The man who wanders his empty house at night, looking for the joy he knows once lived there. The man who waits for exhaustion to claim him in the deep of night, and give him a brief reprieve from his sadness.

Useless Question Of The Day

Useless Question Of The Day 05/18/2004 10:47 PM
Why is the metal interface of iTunes on Windows so much better-looking than QuickTime Player on Windows?

In the (useless?) polls

In the (useless?) polls 09/24/2004 04:10 PM
It's been said that the 2004 election would be a challenge for pollsters, and today's polls are a fine demonstration. Put simply, side by side they make little to no sense.

Why IP banning is useless

Why IP banning is useless 02/10/2004 02:38 PM

Many proposals for eliminating comment spam are focused on banning or throttling comments from the IP address of the spammer. This is fundamentally flawed because it assumes IP addresses are both unique and hard to come by.

Banning an IP address can have severe consequences. Many ISPs (including AOL) and companies use a proxy server that makes it appear as if all users are coming from a single (or a handful) if IP addresses. By blocking an IP address, you might be preventing a substantial portion of AOL users from commenting. Depending on your point of view, eliminating AOL may not be a great loss; however the same thing would happen to millions of users behind other proxy servers.

The other problem is that IP addresses are very easy to get or fake for spammers who care about such things. There are hundreds of thousands of open proxies that will let anyone direct Web traffic through them. When I’m using an open proxy, my IP address is effectively masked. And I can use simple software to switch to a different open proxy (and thus a different IP address) every few minutes. So my spamming activity isn’t tied to a specific IP address.

Hypothetically speaking, if the problem of open proxies were to disappear overnight, there are two other mechanisms that provide a limitless set of IP addresses to spammers: dialup and spoofing.

Most dialup ISPs provide a different IP address each time you dial in. If a spammer were to find that their IP address had been banned, they could simply disconnect and redial. It would be trivial to automate the process of dialing in, spamming, disconnecting, and dialing back in.

IP addresses are easy to fake as well. The design principles of TCP/IP allows the sender of a packet to specify its IP address. The message will still be routed to its destination using the fake origin address. Return packets would be mis-routed, however, because TCP/IP would send responses to the true location of the IP address rather than where it actually came from. This means that IP spoofing is ineffective in situations where you need to interact with a remote server, but very effective in a one-way conversation. I can’t retrieve a Web page using a spoofed IP address because I need to make the request and then have the server send me the page. But I can send requests all day long if I don’t care about the response.

Posting a comment (or TrackBack) doesn’t require interaction. I can send a comment in a POST or GET message and not worry about the response if I don’t care about receiving acknowledgment that it was successful.

Why IRC is crap, yet useless

Why IRC is crap, yet useless 06/07/2004 05:57 AM
After several (well, since 1989 anyway) years of experience on IRC, I still probably can count the useful hours I've spent there using one hand only. (Then again, I can count in binary.)

But the reason why IRC is interesting is that it functions as a collective subconscious. On some channels certain things pop up constantly, even though nobody really cares about them. For example, on #go.fi people talk about EGF rating points. These have no significance for any player whatsoever, unless you are a very strong. But they are a slightly-better-than-randomized way of evaluating performance. So everybody has some interest. On #joiito, most of the discussion is completely incomprehensible, yet those people feel a strange connection, and gather together at conventions.

IRC is like a common subconscious, where thoughts come and go, tucking in different directions, yet never converging. Most of the discussion on any channel is bullshit. Pure and honest crap. Nothing but the equivalent of waving your lips in the wind in the faint hope a meaningful sentence will appear, if you keep producing syllables just long enough.

But it's common crap. That crap which binds us together, and builds communities. Some people have this odd notion that "social activity" is the same as sitting in a pub, drinking beer and talking horseshit. Fine. The important thing is "crap".

All of social software is mostly about crap. This is what the CSCW folks never realized - they thought it was important to increase productivity and get more achieved through computer-assisted work. The social software phenomenon (weblogs, Orkut, LinkedIn, IRC, chats, bulletin boards, ...) is built on the notion that people wish to talk crap. They enable you to use your time idly, do nothing, because conscious thoughts (and the inevitable good ideas) rise from the subconscious soup of crap. I think that's why Wikis haven't really flown is that they are not that good places for crap: the community deletes anything that is not considered to be in line of the other contents of the wiki. They don't allow the subconscious simmer of thought in the same way as IRC. It remains to be seen how much crap will surface on Orkut or Friendster, and whether that amount is enough to allow them to survive. (I've noticed I don't use Orkut anymore, even though I am listed. There's just so little point.)

The Finnish IRC service IRC-galleria, is really a place for IRC regulars to post their picture and have comments appended to it. However, there are now many young people, who put their pictures on the IRC gallery, and then "go ircing" on it - meaning posting comments on other peoples pages on the IRC gallery, creating large amounts of anger among those who know what IRC really is. I think this is a wonderful example of "crap in action" - if you build a way for people to discuss, they will come.

The societies are built on crap. The internet is built on crap.

Crap is good. Keep talking bullshit, and while the world may not be better, at least it will be a far more interesting place. :-D

The Useless Hysteria over Mydoom

The Useless Hysteria over Mydoom 01/29/2004 01:59 PM
Business Week Jan 29 2004 5:49PM GMT

90% of All Usability Testing is Useless

90% of All Usability Testing is Useless 06/16/2004 10:11 AM
lane's stint in jakob's headline writing classes has really paid off

useless miscellany Returns, Too!

useless miscellany Returns, Too! 01/16/2004 11:28 AM

Excellent - not only is Library Techlog back, but so is ...useless miscellany! Welcome back, Eric!

This is one of the great things about RSS. Both Matthew and Eric had taken a hiatus from blogging for several months. If I still checked web sites manually, they would have dropped out of my daily/weekly routine, and I wouldn't know that both had new content today.

But with RSS, I just left my aggregator subscribed to them, patiently waiting for their return, and today they magically appeared. Three cheers for RSS!

GPRS considered useless

GPRS considered useless 12/08/2003 05:57 PM
I've played with my GPRS connection for a few days now. It really doesn't work very well at all, at least not here in Los Angeles or with my phone or with my usage. And yes, the phone is reporting decent coverage when GPRS doesn't quite work. Sometimes ssh works alright (with the ~1 second lag), but sadly it's not very consistent. Packet loss has occasionally been 20-30%, enough to combined with Other Factors make ssh not able to even...

CAN-SPAM Law: Even More Useless Than We
Thought

CAN-SPAM Law: Even More Useless Than We
Thought 12/28/2004 01:24 AM
Information Week Dec 28 2004 5:19AM GMT

Custom error handlers are useless

Custom error handlers are useless 12/02/2002 01:17 PM

Enough With The Useless Enterprise
Software Upgrades

Enough With The Useless Enterprise
Software Upgrades 07/09/2004 11:41 AM
For Techdirt Corporate Intelligence, we've used Quickbooks to keep track of our bookkeeping. It's a decent, though not spectacular program. We bought a copy of Quickbooks Pro 2001 about the time it came out and have used it ever since. There was never any reason to upgrade, because the product worked fine as is, and none of the upgrade features were worthwhile. Our accountant, always looking for ways that we can save money, specifically recommended that there was absolutely no good reason to upgrade. However, at the end of April, Intuit "sunset" the product. This is fair. It makes sense for a company to eventually stop supporting old products. What is not fair, is that the product suddenly lost features because of this. We weren't worried about it being sunset, because we had never needed support from Intuit. However, starting in May, when we went to email out our customer invoices, the software said that it could no longer send emails because the product was sunset and we needed to upgrade. In other words, they didn't just sunset support for the product, they sunset features of the product and held our invoices ransom until we would pay for an upgrade. I called up Intuit and was told repeatedly that they needed to do this in order to give "the best support possible." I explained repeatedly that I understood the need to sunset support of products, but could not understand the need to sunset features that worked the day before. I had been a happy Intuit customer until the day they decided to hold my invoices for ransom, and now I was being forced to upgrade. The Intuit customer service rep promised to "escalate" the issue, and insisted I would hear back within a week. "Within a week" apparently means "never" to people at Intuit. Over at News.com, Charles Cooper is noting that companies are increasingly tired of the forced enterprise software upgrade path, which only helps the enterprise software company. He points out that these companies are reaching a point where they're simply not going to accept it any more, and software vendors need to realize this -- or someone else is going to come along who does things better. In the meantime, does anyone know of a good alternative to Quickbooks? So far, investigations into their main competitors suggest every one is just as bad. It's no fun going with the best of a terrible group. There must be a better solution out there, and if there isn't, shouldn't that represent an opportunity for someone to do things right?

The Return Of Useless Expensive
Conferences

The Return Of Useless Expensive
Conferences 05/14/2004 01:32 PM
About a year ago, I got annoyed at some of the pointless "big thinker" conferences that were showing up and wrote up a random essay about the conference I wanted to attend, which was basically playing off the idea that the only useful time at a conference was at lunch, when you actually got to talk to others. I also wanted to force people at the conference into seeing things from the side of people who opposed them, just to make the conversation a little more interesting. Unfortunately, it appears that, with the economy starting to comeback, conference organizers are pushing more of these useless "big thinker" conferences. Charles Cooper over at CNET is making a similar point to the one I made after getting invited to yet another of these pointless conferences that wants to charge a few thousand dollars (he doesn't say, but the conference in question is Web 2.0). Basically, they're putting the same people on stage and expecting everyone to pay thousands of dollars (though, to make this one even worse: it's "invite only" - but you can request an invitation to pay $2,000, which seems particularly obnoxious) to listen to people say what you already know they're going to say. As Cooper points out: "It is not long before at least half the attendees slip into the corridor, where the conversation is infinitely more interesting. Plus, there's coffee." All that for between $1,695 to $2,790. No thanks.

Two-factor login not totally useless

Two-factor login not totally useless 04/15/2005 03:29 PM
Blog: Security expert Bruce Schneier recently criticized two-factor authentication, which is designed to improve security by pairing...

Amazon and Ebay would be useless without
an ontology

Amazon and Ebay would be useless without
an ontology 12/02/2003 01:05 AM
Clay Shirky is continuing to set himself up as the anti-semantic web guy. Its an easy target and good for...

Shark Tank: Sure, it's useless -- but
what a success rate!

Shark Tank: Sure, it's useless -- but
what a success rate! 11/19/2003 12:29 AM
Making better steel is the top goal of this steel company in the early 1980s. And for an IT pilot fish working there, that means upgrading the quality-control system.

The most useless video card features of
our time

The most useless video card features of
our time 06/24/2004 04:14 PM

A Useless Cure For A Harmless Smartphone
Virus

A Useless Cure For A Harmless Smartphone
Virus 06/21/2004 04:21 AM
Last week news quickly spread about a so-called smartph one worm that had been "discovered." Of course, what most of the stories left out is that you would have to be pretty stupid to actually get the worm. It seems that, once again, the announcement of a vulnerability is just being used by a company to get themselves more publicity, whether or not there's a real risk. This time, an Australian anti-virus firm is claiming that they're the first to come up with software to get rid of this nasty threat, ignoring that plenty of others have pointed out how to get rid of it if you're so stupid as to get it. In the meantime, over in South Korea they seem to be preparing for a more serious phone virus outbreak, as SK Telecom is now offering anti-virus software for phones. Of course, it's unclear how the anti-virus program works. If no phone viruses exist, the definition file must be pretty small.

New Anti-Spyware Coalition Hopes To Be
Less Useless Than The Last One

New Anti-Spyware Coalition Hopes To Be
Less Useless Than The Last One 06/05/2005 11:57 PM
Just a few months after an anti-spyware coalition fell apart after it admitted known malware creators to the group, a new group has formed that promises it won't meet the same fate. They say the original group tried to do too much -- though, really the problem was just that they let the fox into the hen house. In the meantime, this more "narrowly focused" group plans to start out by "defining spyware." Good luck. People (politicians, mainly) have been trying to define spyware for quite some time, witho ut much luck. The problem with defining such things is that you never know what the unintended consequences are -- and there are some actions that may be perfectly legit in some programs, but a serious problem in others. It's still not clear why existing fraud laws can't cover the problems caused by most malware. Besides, as we've seen with CAN SPAM, it wouldn't be surprising if many malware makers figure out ways to follow the letter of the law, but not the spirit -- or, failing that, to ignore it completely.

UK Government Slams Useless Anti-Virus
Industry

UK Government Slams Useless Anti-Virus
Industry 03/06/2004 02:05 AM
It appears the UK government has caught on to what a lot of people have been noticing lately: most anti-virus software hasn't done anything to stop viruses. In fact, they found that, while 99% of companies were using anti-virus software, 68% were still infected with viruses. It makes them (and lots of others) wonder what good anti-virus software is at all. It seems clear that the tide is turning towards more proactive anti-virus methods, though there seem to be very few of these on the market. Of course, as with any new solution, in the mad dash away from the "non-working" solution, it appears that not everyone is thinking about any sort of unintended consequences of a proactive solution. Proactive solutions are much more likely to create "false positives" (something reactive anti-virus solutions rarely do). It also means that virus writers are likely to change tactics, and look to somehow piggyback new viruses on processes that look legitimate. I do think that more proactive means are necessary - but being aware of the consequences, and being prepared for them is also important. Right now, it's not clear if those pushing for proactive solutions have thought it through completely.

adaptive path » 90% of all
usability testing is useless

adaptive path » 90% of all
usability testing is useless 06/16/2004 06:16 PM
When done right, usability testing will improve your Web site and your development process, but the current culture surrounding Web site usability testing is such that it rarely benefits the design

adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000328.php
track this site | 4 links

Exercises in Futility Part 2: Repairing
Permissions is Useless

Exercises in Futility Part 2: Repairing
Permissions is Useless 06/05/2005 10:55 PM

This is a rant I've wanted to write for an extremely long time. However, I prefer to let my anger/annoyance with some topics sit in the stew that is my soul and slowly boil until it is like you dropped a tea bag into a cup of very hot water housed in a smooth glass container that you just stuck in the microwave for 10 minutes. Yes, doing that will cause the water to spontaneously explode, leaving horrible burn marks all over your face (just be glad it wasn't maple syrup or something else that could stick to human flesh). 

Companies Feeling Obligated To File For
Useless Patents

Companies Feeling Obligated To File For
Useless Patents 10/30/2003 11:46 PM
Eolas responded today about the W3C's request for their patent to be invalidated. That's not very surprising or particularly interesting. However, this article about the response includes the quote from a software developer saying that they were so shocked that Eolas won such a patent with so much prior art that they now feel obligated to file for their own ridiculous patents - just as a defensive measure against the next silly patent claim that might cover something that they do. This isn't how the system is supposed to work. This isn't encouraging innovation. This is slowing down innovation, and encouraging litigation.

VA Ditches Half A Billion Dollar Useless
Computing System

VA Ditches Half A Billion Dollar Useless
Computing System 07/28/2004 04:22 AM
Last week, we noted some of the probl ems the Federal Technology Service was having getting their very expensive computer system to actually work (it had something to do with not actually training people to use it) that was causing all sorts of delays and problems (including crying employees). Not surprisingly, this isn't the only example of completely wasteful spending on large computing systems from government agencies. The Department of Veterans Affairs has now announced plans to ditch their $472 million computer system that was designed to be used in VA hospitals across the country. Luckily, it appears that they have not yet spent all of that money, as this particular installment was just a test at one location in Florida. Now, however, the hospital is switching back to their old computer system. Problems with the system meant a shortage of surgical supplies and delayed operations (ouch). Once again, a lack of real training seems to be part of the problem. Even worse, there are reports that BearingPoint, who build the system received an extra $200,000 for finishing the project "on time." Of course, in order to finish it on time, they skipped that whole pesky training part. Just one example of poorly designed "incentives" for projects.

Apple mini store 'EZ Pay' stations
remain useless

Apple mini store 'EZ Pay' stations
remain useless 01/03/2005 01:44 AM
ifo Apple Store notes that the "EZ Pay" self-checkout stations in Apple's new mini stores are still not being used by customers...

New Jersey Adds Absolutely Useless
Internet Component To Lottery

New Jersey Adds Absolutely Useless
Internet Component To Lottery 12/23/2003 02:44 AM
You may remember the New Jersey Lottery website because of their slightly disturbing practice of requiri ng your mother's maiden name to sign up for a "VIP membership" online. Now, however, they've gone a bit further in misunderstanding the point of the internet. Apparently, after reading all the stories about how online gambling is the big thing these days, someone at the NJ Lottery decided it was time to add an "online component" to their offerings. Of course, whoever decided to do so didn't seem to spend much time figuring out what that internet component should be. If you buy a certain instant lottery ticket in New Jersey, you get a "second chance to win!" by going online and playing a silly game that isn't a game at all, because the results are predetermined. Even better: you don't have to go online at all. You can just ask the guy who sold you the ticket to scan it and see if you're a winner. Also, you can't buy the tickets online, or claim your winnings online - you have to go back to the store for that. In other words, the online component is completely meaningless. It's just there so you can go online and watch a little game blip across your screen. Of course, for the privilege of nothing in particular, the tickets cost $4, which seems a bit steep.

RSS Reader is a life raft saving us from
getting lost in a sea of useless
information

RSS Reader is a life raft saving us from
getting lost in a sea of useless
information 09/03/2004 01:33 PM
WebDevInfo Sep 3 2004 5:43PM GMT

Useless Longhorn build on sale for $1.58
- trade slow in pirate coves?

Useless Longhorn build on sale for $1.58
- trade slow in pirate coves? 12/02/2003 10:00 AM
Nothing better worth stealing, apparently...

The Banished Words of 2004! And 2003, and 2002, and 2001, and...

The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry: misused, overused and generally useless statements editing "useless words"