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Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Do you get Internesia?

In keeping up with the latest style guide additions for The Gregg Reference Manual – Goff & Howard’s main go-to for style questions – we came across a glossary of computer terms.

Among the 25 pages of terms were entries like blog (technically called Web log), multimedia, browser, and spam that most computer users are familiar with. Then there were the occasional few that enlightened us:

Dead-tree edition. The paper version of a publication available online.
Dot-bomb. A dot-com that fails to stay in business is referred to as a dot-bomb. Internet surfers who spend a lot of time in the .com domain are sometimes referred to as dot communists.
Internesia. Forgetting where one obtained a piece of information on the Internet.
Kluge (pronounced klooj). An expedient (but often inelegant) way to solve a problem when time is of the essence.
Mouse elbow. A repetitive strain injury (similar to tennis elbow) that is caused by repeatedly using a mouse.
Mouse potato. A person who sits glued to a computer screen.
Netiquette. A set of guidelines for formatting and composing e-mail messages.
Netizen. A “citizen” of the Net; an active participant in the Internet community.
Shouting. The use of all caps in e-mail. This practice is considered a violation of netiquette and is actively discouraged.
Word of mouse. Gossip spread by e-mail.

All definitions courtesy of William A. Sabin, The Gregg Reference Manual, “Glossary of Computer Terms,” 10th Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2008, http://www.mhhe.com/business/buscom/gregg/glossary.htm.