.::REALITYRECALL::.

As Wayne Gretzky passes one of life’s significant signposts and turns 50 Wednesday, his accomplishments and milestones remain virtually untouched, increasing appreciation for the man most consider the greatest hockey player in history.

Of course, being Time Magazine’s Person of the Year isn’t all roses, Chuppahs, and long distance wedding invitations. It also means the occasional Facebook Fan Page hacking. Yesterday someone apparently hacked into Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page (we all assume), leaving the following truly bizarre note,

Let the hacking begin: If facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn’t Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a ‘social business’ the way Nobel Price winner Muhammad Yunus described it? [Link redacted] What do you think? #hackercup2011

TechCrunch caught wind of the bizarre posting and noted that, after a few minutes, 1,800 people liked the thing, commenting 500 times,despite the fact that it pretty clearly didn’t come from Zuckerberg himself–unless, of course, the executive had his Network moment for all the world to see.

Samsung has sought to take market share from all manner of iProducts over the years, and it seems the company is now shooting to steal Apple's MacBook thunder in 2011. Sammy sold ten million laptops in 2010 — only 150,000 less than Jobs & Co. through the first nine months of the year — and purportedly plans to move between sixteen and seventeen million portable machines in 2011. That is a massive increase in sales, but if the Korean company's 9 Series is an indication of what’s to come, we can’t say it’s a completely unrealistic goal. Whether they move more product than Apple is still to be determined, but given its record Q4 earnings, there’s no indication that the Cupertino crowd will be slowing down any time soon. Game on, fellas.

Samsung takes aim at Apple’s notebook crown, projects 60 percent increase in laptop sales in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sometimes computers just get the best of us. Of course, if computers were easy, nobody would read How-To Geek, so we can’t complain too much!

City planners in China are hoping to turn the nine cities in the Pearl River Delta into a single, humongous megacity the size of Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire combined. Its population: 42 million. More »

They often seem disreputable, like sullen idlers loitering in a public thoroughfare, but they actually do a lot of hard work and are usually persnickety about the tasks to which they are put. They are interjections — one class of them, anyway: those lacking etymological origins but packed with meaning.

But how do you know how to distinguish similar ones — or spell them, for that matter? Here’s an incomplete inventory of interjections (not including variations of actual words such as yeah for yes or onomatopoeic echoes of externally produced sounds like boom):

Ack communicates disgust or dismissal.

Ah can denote positive emotions like relief or delight (generally, pronounced with a long a).

Aha signals triumph or surprise, or perhaps derision.

Ahem is employed to gain attention.

Argh, often drawn out with additional h’s, is all about frustration.

Aw can be dismissive or indicative of disappointment, or, when drawn out, expressive of sympathy or adoration.

Aye denotes agreement.

Bah is dismissive.

Blah communicates boredom or disappointment.

Blech (or bleah or bleh) implies nausea.

Boo is an exclamation to provoke fright.

Boo-hoo is imitative of crying and is derisive.

Boo-ya (with several spelling variants) is a cry of triumph.

Bwah-hah-hah (variously spelled, including mwah-hah-hah) facetiously mimics the stereotypical archvillain’s triumphant laugh.

D’oh is the spelling for the muttering accompanying Homer Simpson’s trademark head-slapping self-abuse.

Duh derides someone who seems dense.

Eek indicates an unpleasant surprise.

Eh, with a question mark, is a request for repetition or confirmation of what was just said; without, it is dismissive.

Er (sometimes erm) plays for time.

Ew denotes disgust, intensified by the addition of one or more e’s and/or w’s.

Feh (and its cousin meh) is an indication of feeling underwhelmed or disappointed.

Gak is an expression of disgust or distaste.

Ha expresses joy or surprise, or perhaps triumph.

Ha-ha (with possible redoubling) communicates laughter or derision.

Hamana-hamana, variously spelled, and duplicated as needed, implies speechless embarrassment.

Hardy-har-har, or har-har repeated as needed, communicates mock amusement.

Hee-hee is a mischievous laugh, while its variants heh and heh-heh (and so on) can have a more derisive connotation.

Hey can express surprise or exultation, or can be used to request repetition or call for attention.

Hist signals the desire for silence.

Hm, extended as needed, suggests curiosity, confusion, consternation, or skepticism.

Hmph (also hrmph or humph) indicates displeasure or indignation.

Ho-ho is expressive of mirth, or (along with its variant oh-ho) can indicate triumph of discovery.

Ho-hum signals indifference or boredom.

Hubba-hubba is the vocal equivalent of a leer.

Huh (or hunh) is a sign of disbelief, confusion, or surprise, or, with a question mark, is a request for repetition.

Hup, from the sound-off a military cadence chant, signals beginning an exerting task.

Hurrah (also hoorah, hooray, and hurray, and even huzzah) is an exclamation of triumph or happiness.

Ick signals disgust.

Lah-de-dah denotes nonchalance or dismissal, or derision about pretension.

Mm-hmm, variously spelled, is an affirmative or corroborating response.

Mmm, extended as needed, conveys palatable or palpable pleasure.

Mwah is suggestive of a kiss, often implying unctuous or exaggerated affection.

Neener-neener, often uttered in a series of three repetitions, is a taunt.

Now (often repeated “Now, now”) is uttered as an admonition.

Oh is among the most versatile of interjections. Use it to indicate comprehension or acknowledgment (or, with a question mark, a request for verification), to preface direct address (“Oh, sir!”), as a sign of approximation or example (“Oh, about three days”), or to express emotion or serves as a response to a pain or pleasure. (Ooh is a variant useful for the last two purposes.)

Oh-oh (or alternatives in which oh is followed by various words) is a warning response to something that will have negative repercussions.

Olé, with an accent mark over the e, is borrowed from Spanish and is a vocal flourish to celebrate a deft or adroit maneuver.

Ooh, with o’s repeated as needed, conveys interest or admiration, or, alternatively, disdain.

Ooh-la-la is a response to an attempt to impress or gently mocks pretension or finery.

Oops (and the jocular diminutive variation oopsie or oopsy and the variant whoops) calls attention to an error or fault.

Ouch (or ow, extended as needed) signals pain or is a response to a harsh word or action.

Oy, part of Yiddish expressions such as oy gevalt (equivalent to “Uh-oh”), is a lament of frustration, concern, or self-pity.

Pff, extended as needed, expresses disappointment, disdain, or annoyance.

Pfft, or phfft, communicates abrupt ending or departure or is a sardonic dismissal akin to pff.

Phew, or pew, communicates disgust, fatigue, or relief. (Phooey, also spelled pfui, is a signal for disgust, too, and can denote dismissal as well. PU and P.U. are also variants.)

Poof is imitative of a sudden disappearance, as if by magic.

Pooh is a contemptuous exclamation.

Pshaw denotes disbelief, disapproval, or irritation or, alternatively, communicates facetious self-consciousness.

Psst calls for quiet.

Rah, perhaps repeated, signals triumph.

Shh (extended as necessary) is an imperative for silence.

Sis boom bah is an outdated encouraging cry, most likely to be used mockingly now.

Tchah communicates annoyance.

Tsk-tsk and its even snootier variant tut-tut are condemnations or scoldings; the related sound tch is the teeth-and-tongue click of disapproval.

Ugh is an exclamation of disgust.

Uh is an expression of skepticism or a delaying tactic.

Uh-huh indicates affirmation or agreement.

Uh-oh signals concern or dismay.

Uh-uh is the sound of negation or refusal.

Um is a placeholder for a pause but also denotes skepticism.

Va-va-voom is an old-fashioned exclamation denoting admiration of physical attractiveness.

Whee is an exclamation of excitement or delight.

Whew is a variant of phew but can also express amazement.

Whoa is a call to halt or an exclamation of surprise or relief.

Whoop-de-doo and its many variants convey mocking reaction to something meant to impress.

Woo and woo-hoo (and variations like yahoo, yee-haw, and yippee) indicate excitement. (Woot, also spelled w00t among an online in-crowd, is a probably ephemeral variant.)

Wow expresses surprise.

Yay is a congratulatory exclamation. (Not to be confused with yeah, a variant of yes.)

Yikes is an expression of fear or concern, often used facetiously.

Yo-ho-ho is the traditional pirates’ refrain.

Yoo-hoo attracts attention.

Yow, or yowza, is an exclamation of surprise or conveys being impressed.

Yuck (also spelled yech or yecch) signals disgust. (Not to be confused with yuk, a laugh.)

Yum, or yummy, is a response to the taste of something delicious and, by extension, the sight of an attractive person.

Zoinks is an expression of surprise or amazement popularized by the cartoon character Shaggy, of Scooby Doo fame.

Zowie, often in combination following wowie, a variant of wow, expresses admiration or astonishment.

Original Post: 100 Mostly Small But Expressive Interjections
Your eBook: Click here to download the Basic English Grammar ebook.

A Saskatchewan woman now has the distinction of being the oldest known living Canadian.

Posted by Manu Cornet, Software Engineer

When you’re visiting sites other than Gmail, it’s easy to find out how many unread messages are in your inbox by glancing at the title of your Gmail tab or window. However, if you have a ton of tabs open, or if you use Chrome’s “Pin Tab” feature that hides everything except the tab’s icon, it can be tricky to figure out without switching tabs.

If you’ve ever found yourself in this situation, you may like the new Unread message icon we just added to Gmail Labs. It embeds the number of unread messages you have right into the Gmail icon itself, like this:

To turn it on, go to the Labs tab in Settings, enable this lab, and click the “Save Changes” button at the very bottom of the page. Note that it’ll only works in Chrome (version 6 and above) and Firefox (version 2 and above).

RIM is set to unleash the next version of BlackBerry Messenger soon – one of the major updates to eventually happen is the addition of an integrated music platform. Today some leaked info surfaced online thanks to Indonesian blog KomBB. They state that the features below will be included in the BBM 6.0 upgrade. Lots of […]

Related posts:

1. BlackBerry Messenger version 5.0.1.45 gets leaked online
2. BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac leaked online!
3. Windows Live Messenger iPhone app now available

Take it from a lady: Nothing gets a gal’s heart racing like longing, hand-written missives, promising sweet nothings and slipped into hands or lockers, bags or under doors. Or, you know, a 160-character text message drunkenly sent at 3 a.m.

Apparently, lovelorn romantics of the digital age no longer sit up all night on the phone, draining the battery on the cordless and then sneaking into Mom’s room while she’s asleep to fetch the old banana phone to keep chatting, hoping that she won’t wake up. (Typical teen experience, right?) Instead, they just text. While this isn’t surprising news, a poll conducted by American Media’s Shape and Men’s Fitness magazines has determined that oft-texted, heavily “poked” (yes, we went there) lasses are more likely to hop in the sack.

Continue reading For Women, Text Messages Mean More Sex

For Women, Text Messages Mean More Sex originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On January 25, 1921, the word "robot" was introduced to the world in Karel Capek's play "R.U.R." (Rossum's Universal Robots). The play premiered in Prague in the Czech language, but it later came to New York in 1922 in English, and the term robot took off. 

Although Capek used the introduced the word in his play, he gives the actual credit to his brother, Josef Capek. The word stems from the Czech word robota meaning forced labor, drudgery, and servitude. In the play, Capek's robots, which resemble humans and can think for themselves (so, today, they'd probably be called androids?), were created as a means of cheap labor. Eventualy, they rise up, kill all of the humans, and take over the world–that idea also took off: The Terminator, I, Robot, Transformers, etc.

Well, robotics have definitely come a long way since 1921 (and the fear that robots will take over the world has probably increased). We now have the ASIMO, BigDog, the Kawada HRPs, Roomba, and Pleo, and it just wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t call them “robots.”

Happy 90th Birthday, Robot!

See more by Dueling Analogs!

Yesterday, both Mozilla and Google introduced new browser features capable of preventing third-party advertisers from tracking Firefox and Chrome users, respectively. And, while both services aim to give users greater control over their online information, they operate in noticeably different ways.

Mozilla’s new system alerts third-party advertisers and companies whenever a Firefox user doesn’t want to be tracked. Once a user activates the feature, every third-party service attempting to track his behavior will receive an alert, in the form of a ‘Do Not Track HTTP Header.’ As a result, users will get a steady diet of more generic, less personalized ads. The only caveat, however, is that Mozilla’s mechanism relies upon the cooperation of third-party tracking companies.

Continue reading Google, Mozilla Adding New ‘Do Not Track’ Features to Browsers

Google, Mozilla Adding New ‘Do Not Track’ Features to Browsers originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A tiny group of users is responsible for the great majority of BitTorrent activity, according to Spanish researchers.

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Back in November last year, we wrote that the “IPCalypse” is only 100 days away. At the time, this seemed like a long time, but the IPcalypse is coming early, with current estimates that IPv4 addressing will run out in the next 9 days.

As of writing, Hurricane Electric reports that…

Hey, can everyone please stop talking about the iPad? RIM’s been skirting around Apple’s tablet, saying only that its upcoming PlayBook slate would have “comparable” battery life, but now it’s dropped all pretense and called the iPad out by name. Specifically, the Canadian company’s senior business marketing VP Jeff McDowell has promised that the PlayBook will offer “equal or greater” battery endurance to Apple’s device, while using a smaller cell size. The latter part isn’t hard to achieve, considering Apple filled most of its slate’s innards with Li-Pol juice packs, but the promise of matching its autonomy from the wall socket is a big claim to make. Many people consider that to be among the iPad’s foremost strengths, so RIM is surely aiming high by pledging to not only match it, but potentially better it. The PlayBook we saw in person wasn’t quite up to that level yet, but there’s still time until that March launch for RIM to turn bold words into a beautiful reality.

RIM: PlayBook battery life will be ‘equal or greater than the iPad with smaller battery size’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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