You know the Joneses, right? They’re the socialite/neighbor/competitor who always seems to have the newest version of everything. The newest car, the hottest handheld technology, even the most current version of WordPress.

Our culture constantly pushes us to keep up; to buy, newer, better, and faster whenever possible. This can place a great drain on our attention and resources. Eventually it becomes necessary to ask, “just how important is this latest update?”

This is especially true of software.  Programs like WordPress, can come out with updates as frequently as once a fortnight. Recently, one of our longtime clients …

Predictions for the New Year
2011 promises to be an interesting year in the world of the internet. A number of developing trends are nearing their crest, soon to break upon the population as a whole, while mergers and legal proceedings stand to reshape the way in which the internet works.
1. HTML 5.0 will become the de facto language for new websites
The time is right for the change to HTML 5.0. Over the past two years iPhones and iPads have been pushing mobile internet users towards non-Flash animation solution, and with the upcoming release of Internet Explorer 9 the …

App was voted Word of the Year for 2010. (App being the abbreviated form of the noun application, software for a computer or phone operating system).

Each year, the American Dialect Society votes for the “vocabulary item” (it needn’t be a single word) that was  “…newly prominent or notable in the past year…” .  In 2009, it was Tweet. For 2010, it’s App.

Let’s take a look at some of the contenders:
Most Creative

spillion An immense number, calculated out of the gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf. Leading to spillionaire, someone made rich through the spill cleanup fund.

Most Euphemistic…

Drat the Internet! Post resolutions in January 2010 and they live on as proof of non-compliance.

Let’s examine what I planned to do in 2010, and how I’m …uh, adjusting my goals for 2011:

2010: Re-re-read The Elements of Style… [and several other worthy books on writing and grammar.]

2011: Read books. This year I’m heading into the classics. “Deep” reading is the term. Not necessarily deep literature, but a few things I haven’t read in a while (The Wind in the Willows) or ever (Huckleberry Finn), with enjoyable re-reads of Austen and maybe (only maybe) something of Dickens. The fact is, reading …