Accomplishments and stuff!

So, things at That Place Where I Work have been painfully slow, as we hold our collective breaths to see if we survive 2008. I’ve been productive, though, adding two new sections to my BDSM page and one new section to my poly page, updating my grammar page, and tracking down Russian virus writers.

I’ve also started tinkering with a new toy, a server-side RSS feed aggregator. I’m trying to sharpen some of my (rather weak) PHP skillz and learn about RSS and feed aggregation, and being (as I may have mentioned in the past) a seasoned, veteran pervert, thought what better way to do it than to create a Web portal for syndication of sex blogs?

Right now the only thing on it is Whispers…which I will once again encourage anyone on my flist to contribute to. You can see what I have so far here.

Right now it’s just a toy and kind of a learning experiment, but I’d like to make it into something interesting. Anyone out ther who has a LJ sex blog, RSS feed, or other blog or whatever about sex or sexuality, and is interested in seeing it listed, drop me a comment or email me at tacitr (at) aol (dot) com. Eventually, I hope to turn this into a true multiuser sex-blog aggregator. Why? Because it’s fun, and after all, what else is teh Internets for?

54 thoughts on “Accomplishments and stuff!

  1. Just read through your grammar page, and I wanted to add a voice against your pronunciation of forte. As far as I’m aware, “forte” does come to us from Italian, particularly through fencing manuals of the 16th century such as DiGrassi (1570)

    • That particular meaning for forte, referring to the strongest part of a sword or foil, is in fact pronounced for-TAY. The word “forte” meaning “a person’s strongest skills” has a completely different etymology, though, and there’s considerable debate about its pronunciation. Early reference works say the correct pronunciation is “fort,” though in modern English usage it’s pronounced “for-TAY” at least as often, and some dictionaries now list “for-TAY” as an acceptable alternative.

      Dictionaries have to walk a fine line between descriptive and prescriptive pronunciation guides, and I fear that “for-TAY” is going to win in the end. That makes me sad.

      • I guess it comes down to a question of whether we really need two words with almost identical meaning (strongest part) that are spelled the same, but pronounced differently.

        I’m usually in favour of maintaining historical usage, but that’s one battle I’m not going to bother with. It doesn’t even make me sad, for that matter.

  2. Just read through your grammar page, and I wanted to add a voice against your pronunciation of forte. As far as I’m aware, “forte” does come to us from Italian, particularly through fencing manuals of the 16th century such as DiGrassi (1570)

  3. Another comment on your grammar page: You said that i.e. is Latin for “id est” and e.g. is Latin for “exempli gratia”. I disagree. I think i.e. is an abbreviation for “id est”, which is Latin for “that is”, and similarly e.g. is an abbreviation for “exempli gratia”, which is Latin for “for the sake of example”.

  4. Another comment on your grammar page: You said that i.e. is Latin for “id est” and e.g. is Latin for “exempli gratia”. I disagree. I think i.e. is an abbreviation for “id est”, which is Latin for “that is”, and similarly e.g. is an abbreviation for “exempli gratia”, which is Latin for “for the sake of example”.

  5. I <3 your grammar page.

    I wish I knew how to make a feed aggregator. It would be very handy for a project I'm trying to get done at work, but alas, my tech skillz are not l33t. Or something like that.

    • If you have access to a Web server with PHP and MySQL, it’s surprisingly easy. Create a database (your Web host will no doubt have a control panel for this), download and install Gregarius, and you’re done. Its default settings work quite well.

      I’ve done some tinkering with the source code and rewritten the CSS and HTML for the output, but none of that is necessary. In its “normal” configuration, it’s quite usable.

  6. I <3 your grammar page.

    I wish I knew how to make a feed aggregator. It would be very handy for a project I'm trying to get done at work, but alas, my tech skillz are not l33t. Or something like that.

  7. That particular meaning for forte, referring to the strongest part of a sword or foil, is in fact pronounced for-TAY. The word “forte” meaning “a person’s strongest skills” has a completely different etymology, though, and there’s considerable debate about its pronunciation. Early reference works say the correct pronunciation is “fort,” though in modern English usage it’s pronounced “for-TAY” at least as often, and some dictionaries now list “for-TAY” as an acceptable alternative.

    Dictionaries have to walk a fine line between descriptive and prescriptive pronunciation guides, and I fear that “for-TAY” is going to win in the end. That makes me sad.

  8. If you have access to a Web server with PHP and MySQL, it’s surprisingly easy. Create a database (your Web host will no doubt have a control panel for this), download and install Gregarius, and you’re done. Its default settings work quite well.

    I’ve done some tinkering with the source code and rewritten the CSS and HTML for the output, but none of that is necessary. In its “normal” configuration, it’s quite usable.

  9. I guess it comes down to a question of whether we really need two words with almost identical meaning (strongest part) that are spelled the same, but pronounced differently.

    I’m usually in favour of maintaining historical usage, but that’s one battle I’m not going to bother with. It doesn’t even make me sad, for that matter.

  10. The mispronunciation (and spelling) that invariably makes me cringe (apart from “nucular”, of course) is “asterick” for asterisk. English has a “soft c” but not, as far as I know, a “hard s“.

    Conversely, it’s fun to intentionally mispronounce ck like sk.

  11. The mispronunciation (and spelling) that invariably makes me cringe (apart from “nucular”, of course) is “asterick” for asterisk. English has a “soft c” but not, as far as I know, a “hard s“.

    Conversely, it’s fun to intentionally mispronounce ck like sk.

  12. I would be delighted if you’d add my blog! You can find it here, and it has a link to the RSS feed and Livejournal feed just to the left on the sidebar.

    xx Dee

  13. I would be delighted if you’d add my blog! You can find it here, and it has a link to the RSS feed and Livejournal feed just to the left on the sidebar.

    xx Dee

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