ath3na's talking points

So it's been a while - I know. That's what I get for being a bit of a workaholic. On with the tech...

So I've been in search for way to have multiple signatures in Gmail. Those of you that have kept up with my blogging, or know me at all, know that I absolutely love Gmail - and pretty much all things Google. Google is in the process of creating what you may call Gmail "addons" through Gmail Labs; but even labs does not provide the ability to have mutliple signatures. Now you may ask - why is this so important? Well, I currently have 5 email accounts automatically forwarded to my primary Gmail account, and I've set up the ability to email "from" those accounts within that primary Gmail account. With that being said, I have a lot of comings in and out from that account, and I don't want a professional email signature on my personal emails and so forth. Hopefully this all makes sense.

In my search I found one such Firefox addon that does a pretty nice job of allowing me to have multiple signatures depending on the address I choose to mail from. The Blank Canvas Gmail Signatures Firefox extension is still considered "experimental" by Mozilla, but its usability makes it far from experimental in my book. Create your signatures for each email address you mail from, and voila... now every time you select that email address to mail from, the signature will automagically be inserted into your email for you. And as a bonus - the Blank Canvas Gmail Signatures has full HTML support for your signatures.

It's one of the few extensions that I couldn't do without. More on that later... for now, go download the Blank Canvas Gmail Signatures Firefox extension... if you have as many email accounts forwarded to one as I do... and a need for signatures for all of them... you'll love this extension!

Also - I should say that this extension is far better than the bookmarklets that I posted about last time. Bookmarklets are still pretty awesome... but as for signatures, this extension is the best solution around. See how long I've been in search for such greatness though?!

Wikipedia:

So it's been a while since my last post. And by while, I mean.... like 6 months (give or take a week or two). I could name many reasons for my delay in posting... and I think I shall name a few:

1. It gets a little discouraging when you feel like no one reads your blog, or is interested in anything you have to say. I suppose this isn't the best reason in the world, because by stopping posting, I've inevitably caused those people that did read to now stop reading...
2. I was particularly busy in the spring months, what with Michele graduating and my best friend and another good friend moving to town and my service calls on the side, in addition to my nearly 35 hour (yes, I'm still part-time though) work week. Sure, I guess you could say this isn't the greatest reason either, but it's a reason nevertheless. I was busy, no joke.
3. There's really not a 3, because the first two really covered many different reasons, so I'm just gonna leave it at that. Besides, you can't really have a list without having at least 3, imho. Been busy, been technically/bloggingly (yes, I'm perfectly aware this isn't a word... but you understood it didn't you?) discouraged. End of story.

So there's your reasons for my not posting until now, and I will understand if you don't read this until a month for now, or even a few months from now, since I essentially did that to you, if you were in fact a reader before. Hopefully in the future though I will have plenty for you to enjoy. Hit me up in the comments should you want some words of wisdom on a particular subject, after-all the comments are what keeps me going. ;)

I'm sure you've noticed... I haven't posted recently, mostly due to the many many things going on here at the holiday's. I just thought I'd drop a note saying that it may be at most another week to week and a half before I post again. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, and a wonderfully Happy New Year!

Take care! I'll be back to the nerdiness soon, soon, soon. ;P

I know that I've already posted on the fact that the Merriam-Webster's word of the year was "w00t," but I ran into this article while stumbling today and just had to share. Because of its length I was able to post the entire link here, but to view the original in all its glory, please visit tinyurl.com/yt4ktq.

Did you hear?! w00t has been named the word of the year by Merriam-Webster! I wish I had some sort of short exclamation I could use to express my joy! Oh wait, I know: HOORAY!

As a side note, this marks the first time a word comprised partly of numbers (the O’s are traditionally zeros) has been put into the Dictionary since 2003’s inclusion of “Sk8r Boi.” The Definition? “(N.)-One who wasn’t good enough for her / But now he’s a superstar / Slammin’ on his guitar / Does her pretty face see what he’s worth?”

In all seriousness, I’ve got to say this is something of a troubling sign. I’m all for gamer slang; anything that keeps a barrier of understanding between them and me is all right in my book. But the fact that it’s gaining mainstream acceptance gives the linguophile in me a shiver of fear, and a vision of a day when l33t is the U.S.’s official language.

To be fair, Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is chosen by Internet ballot, so it makes sense we’d be seeing things like “truthiness” and “blog” start making the rounds. But is that really what we want? Do we really want the same folks who create entire online encyclopedias just to chronicle their “hilarious” labyrinthine subculture deciding the direction the English language is going in?

And by “hilarious,” I mean roflcopter lolcat zomg kekeke!!!1!!one!!I’m hilarious!!!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live in a world where when I drop a bag of groceries while walking home from the store, there are good odds that someone walking by will mutter “you just got RickRoll’d.” Sure, it sounds cool now, but trust me; it’d get old REAL quick.

To that end, I hereby nominate a word of my own creation for the 2008 word of the year:

Roflrift-(N.) The point in human history at which language becomes so fractured by subculture slang and the rapid invention of new words that no human being is capable of communicating intelligibly with another, and the world is thrown violently back into the Dark Ages.

And believe me, The Roflrift is coming.

Again, thank you Michael Swaim from Cracked.com for sharing. =)