Learning to be '133+?

[unixronin]

Goose checked out a book from the library today that, as far as I can tell from every glance I've gotten at it, appears to be composed entirely of simulated AIM transcripts.  It's even laid out so each page looks like the author's idea of an AIM window.  I have a creeping dread that by the time she finishes this "book" -- I hesitate to even call it that -- she'll be attempting to communicate entirely in acronyms and emoticons.

Comments

[claire.livejournal.com]

This post made me snortlaugh in a most undignified manner.

[robbat2.livejournal.com]

Just out of interest, what's the title and author?

I know some of the recent sci-fi/cyberpunk literature have psuedo-IRC and email content. But they definetly don't comprise any significent fraction of the book even.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The author, I don't remember. The title is "ttyl" (yes, in lower case, sans quotes).

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

(Got her to bring me the book)

Lauren myracle (yes, like that on the cover, copyright Lauren Myracle)

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

omg rolf wtf?

I did a contract gig transcribing test sms messages for a company that was working on voice recognition software (yeah, I was hard up). The shit people wrote and the complete abuse of the English language made me hate the world for about 3 weeks.

Death to the emoticon users!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Emoticosn have their place. :) What bugs me more is the IM weenies who can't use a properly-spelled English word on principle, even when they have a full-size keyboard, and speak almost entirely in acronyms (frequently parodied on the Sunhelp geeks/rescue lists as "OMGWTFBBQ"). Beween them and the leetspeakers, I can almost imagine the 'net dividing into IM and leet subcultures both of whom have forgotten how to actually speak, type or read English, and are completely unable to communicate intelligibly with each other or normal people.

(oh, wait ..... hasn't that already HAPPENED...?)

[databeast.livejournal.com]

yes, yes it has, but has been recetnly saved by bluknight's creation of an actual OMGWTFBBQ, (and yep, he works at Sun Enterprise support and named it from that) otherwise known as one of the best pork barbeque sandwiches I've had in a long time.

[databeast.livejournal.com]

dammit now I'm really fucking hungry

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Kevin said he was going to have to learn the abbreviations and use them so he could communicate with his daughter. I begged him not to. It annoys me to no end that people will type u which is only two letters shorter than you and r which is only two letters shorter than are.

I understand using BRB, BTW, WRT, LOL, and IIRR (IOW, phrases :-) but abbreviating a word to one letter bothers me.

Emoticons are shortcuts and as such have their places. It's like when someone asks if you are having fun and instead of saying yes you turn around and flash them a quick smile/grin.

[bbullock.livejournal.com]

The only time I abbreviate words is when I'm sending a phone text message to my wife; it's a pain to tap a key three times to get the word you want (and word-projection programs are useless).

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Not to mention up to four times to get each LETTER ...

[bbullock.livejournal.com]

Pardon; that's actually what I meant: "Lets see... 'a,' 'b'... now, 'r' and... shoot, backspace, backspace..."

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

This is one thing that tempts me about the Treo -- you can get it with a small, but real, QWERTY keyboard.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Emoticosn have their place.

And so do emoticons ..... :-p

#include <rants/wanted/comment-editing-feature.h>

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

i loathe that crap, i take the time to spell out and punctuate my IMs only to have the cretin on the other end use alphabet soup. now it doesn't matter how many times i ask, istillask what the letters mean. i've had the worst offender quit chatting with me. no big loss.
my biggest bitches;
u for you
4 for four
2 for to, or too
people are lazy nowadays.

~hops off his soapbox and kicks it into the corner~

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

sorry about the glaring typo, my spacebar is fucked!

[jilara.livejournal.com]

Aaah, acronyms! I read this and "AIM Transcripts" called to mind a political dialog. (I actually had to look up what AIM this meant, because the one I think of stands for American Indian Movement.)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Huh. The cardinality of the set of three-letter actonyms is lower than the cardinality of three-word phrases. Or, in other words, acronym overloading! ;)

(Hmm, we have overloading, we have inheritance, we have "data hiding" ....)