The Pluperfect or Strunkenwhite Virus


Bob Hirschfeld featured a satire on his blog about an imaginary computer virus, Strunkenwhite. The virus, also called The Pluperfect Virus, prevented an infected computer from sending grammatically incorrect eMail. People began forwarding his post as if it were a virus alert. Some thought the Strunkenwhite Virus was a hoax, but many also believed it.
I first learned about it recently while reading the humorous bestseller about punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss.
Here’s an excerpt, but I recommend the whole post:

Strunk & White’s “The Elements of Style” is a good book to have on your shelf for writing prayer letters, blog posts and for whenever you need to refresh your English skills. Where do you go for answers to your grammar questions? Continue reading The Pluperfect or Strunkenwhite Virus

A Visual Look at the Internet


This visualization of the internet was used near the end of the TED Talk, “We Are All Cyborgs Now,” which was featured on e4e a few weeks ago. The Opte Project created this map in 2003.  The colors show internet activity in these locations: Red – Asia Pacific Green – Europe/Middle East/ Central Asia/Africa Blue – North America Yellow – Latin American and Caribbean Cyan – local area networks White – unknown They also created other maps using file extensions like mil, net, edu, org, et cetera.  That is, they visualized internet activity for the military, education, and other organizations … Continue reading A Visual Look at the Internet