et cetera, et cetera 英文人行道: gobbledygook, typing-expansion software,

2013年10月27日星期日

gobbledygook, typing-expansion software,

In the early 1960s, even as tens of millions of Chinese starved in a brutal famine, Mao Zedong was reluctant to import grain. Now, though, China is deeply integrated into global commodity markets. Yet official policy in China still calls for 95% of China's grain demand to be met by domestic production. To many economists, the very idea is nonsensical http://econ.st/17iz5GG

Goodbye, Gobbledygook
By ASHLEE VANCE
To increase sales, makers of personal computers are promoting what their products can do, not what hardware is inside.

My life depends on typing-expansion software. I type "pl," and I get "problem." I type "wv," I get "Windows Vista." Over the years, as I recognize more words that I type often, I've built up quite a list -- hundreds of abbreviations:
t -> the
y -> you
th -> that
ts -> this
bs -> because
ie -> Internet Explorer
ff -> FireFox
mx -> Mac OS X
w7 -> Windows 7
cp -> cellphone
cps -> cellphones
ty -> thank you
hth -> Hope this helps! --David
…and on and on.
It helps, of course, that I do a lot of writing, and in a particular field; so much of my e-mail, and so many of the terms I use, involve the same concepts.
On the Mac, programs like TypeIt4Me, Typinator and TextExpander do this job. (TypeIt4Me is also available on the iPhone.) On Windows, it's programs like AutoHotKey, ActiveWords and Texter.
Of course, you can get the same effect within Microsoft Office (Mac and Windows), using its AutoCorrect feature. That arrangement has one profound advantage: the expansion happens even when you're editing. That is, I can click just after a "w" I typed earlier; if I add a "v," it expands to "Windows Vista." With the shareware programs, by contrast, you have to type the whole thing at once, *followed* by a space or punctuation so it knows you're finished with the abbreviation.
But Microsoft's AutoCorrect has a big downside, too: it works only in Office. I want my expansions to be system-wide. I want it to work in my e-mail program, browser, sticky-notes app, word processor, spreadsheet, on the desktop, and so on.
That's why I've gone the shareware/freeware route. This much is for sure: because I've got these programs installed, I can type *much* faster than a normal person (because I've got so much less to type). I don't worry about typos nearly as much. And I can rip through e-mail much more efficiently, since I can re-use so many words and phrases.
There are all kinds of other perks, too. AutoHotKey is also a wonderful macro program, meaning that you can define keystrokes to perform special functions on your PC. Hit Ctrl-W to fire up Microsoft Word, Ctrl-F to open Firefox.
TextExpander can shorten long Web addresses as you type. Just copy some huge address, for example, and then type "/bitly" into any program; TextExpander pastes in a tiny URL (like http://bit.ly/6EYLj) without your having to open your Web browser and visit a URL-shortening site. It's fantastic if you use Twitter, where every character counts.
Typing-expansion programs are so fast and effortless that I can't understand why everybody's not using them. Surely, at the very least, you type your address over and over again (or pieces of it, when you fill out Web order forms). Surely you've got various standard signoffs for e-mail, like "xoxo, Chris" or "Respectfully yours, Christianne."
The only time auto-expansion gets in my way is when I use somebody else's computer, where there's no expansion software installed. Inevitably, there's a moment of frustration, bafflement and gobbledygook as I type, "T pl is th y use wv" --and get only "T pl is th y use wv."
But now that I've shared my secret with the world, it won't matter. You'll know exactly what I meant.

Gobbledygook

also n.
Unclear, wordy jargon.

[Imitative of the gobbling of a turkey.]

Gobbledygook or gobbledegook (sometimes gobbledegoo, gobbledeegook^[1] or other forms ^[2]) is an English term used to describe nonsensical language.