Cyberclutter - the garbage that fills up our mailboxes, and usually gets deleted. What a waste of bandwidth!

Cyberclutter
Love it - just spent ages going through my redundant (but don't tell them) Hotmail Account - pages and pages of junk - added all to junk senders etc etc but still expect more (no "I love yous" though - perhaps no-one does)

I thought this was a word that I had coined, until I entered it in my favourite search engine:

http://www.google.com

I find eleven sites containing the word! I have no connection to any of them!

This leads me to think that the notion of "universal consciousness" is in operation here. Or is it pure coincidence?

Anyone want to comment?

some concepts are universal, some words inevitable; to wit:
cyberchondriac - (after "hyperchondriac") a user who always thinks there is something wrong with his computer.

cybercrud - 1) the computer equivalent of bureaucratese 2) incomprehensible stuff embedded in e-mail

So what is the word for an upgrade junkie (I married one).

>>(no "I love yous" though - perhaps no-one does)<<
Well, Jo, I love you, but if I send that message by e-mail,
you might think I was a virus!
I've thought of two words, though surely someone has used the first one already: cyberphobic, and then:
hyperlative--I have no idea of what that could mean, but I
rather like the sound of it. Tsuwm, any ideas, or are you
going to tell me this is well-used already?
"Upgrade junkie"=a hyper cyber/cypher? If I think of
something better I'll post it. That was pretty lame,I know.

>Tsuwm, any ideas, or are you going to tell me this is well-used already?

well, far be it from me to suggest such a thing -- I would only suggest that you try doing a 'google' search for hyperlative (or cyberphobic (or even cyberclutter), for that matter).

http://google.com

I was thinking that the latest software could be described in cyberlative terms. Just a little cyberbole (that one has been googled).

>>that one has been googled<<

Googled! The first use of URL-as-verb?

'googled' gets 35 hits (at google.com). :-D

And I thought I'd made it up all by myself!

Oh to have lived in the days before Everest had been climbed, when no-one had been to the North Pole or had crossed the Atlantic by balloon. Our ambitions seem so small now, just a teeny weeny word that no-one has ever said before.

Did you hear that the Internet had finally disproved the idea that if you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, one day one of them would write "Hamlet"!

>>Did you hear that the Internet had finally disproved the idea that if you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, one day one of them would write "Hamlet"!

drat! another core belief debunked... next you'll be telling me that there can be identical snowflakes.

All right, I give up! It's a noun and a verb and I still don't know what it means. What is a google search? I've heard of google as a mathematical term, some sort of very large number I believe, but that doesn't really help.

Nor it seems does the AWAD spell-check. It thinks I mean goose, or is it trying to tell me I am a goose?

Bingley

... and what a humiliating way to get promoted from stranger (so unfriendly, Anu, dear) to newbie.

If I take too long to get my next promotion, will I become an oldbie?

Bingley

Sorry - to save you looking back through hours and hours of A Word A Day, there was a strand where twusm suggested that we stopped asking silly questions that could be looked up easily by typing in http://www.google.com. We've all been (sorry, some of us have been) taking his advice since then - a very good search engine it is too!

If anyone finds us refering to old strands a quick way to find things is via the search form at the top of the page.

Good luck!

> I've heard of
google as a mathematical term, some sort of very large number I believe, but that doesn't really help.

Bingley,

A googol is the mathematical term for a million million or a million squared. Close though.

What we used to call a billion in fact.

Bingley

No it is even bigger

http://public.logica.com/~stepneys/cyc/g/googol.htm

I checked it out recently whilst estimating my vocabulary!

jmh, I'm sure you're being overly modest.

Bingley

> What we used to call a billion in fact.

Duuuuhhhhhh! I feel not unlike a fool. Let me get my facts straight. a thousand million in North America is a billion. Everywhere else (presumably) it is a million million.

A googol is 1 followed by a hundred zeros.

Yes, that seems to make sense.

google = the # of hits you get at google.com on the word 'fool'...

I think I read somewhere that we had withdrawn our claim to a billion being 1 with 12 zeros and had acceded to American superior thinking on this point. (I think people just got fed up of explaining that our billion was different and we needed a term for Richard Branson – he’d never be a billionaire if we didn’t change the meaning of the word.)

Two things, Jo: 1.)who is Richard Branson? (Well, I just
got through saying in another thread that I am ignorant of
many things!) Is he your-all's counterpart to Regis?
2.) Sorry, but we don't ALL google-search. I never have, and
had no idea of what it is. Clearly I missed the significance of Tsuwm's post.

Ok

(i) Richard Branson is the man behind Virgin Airlines and lots of other Virgin things (records, trains etc). I was just trying to think of an example of a rich Brit. He's a long way from Bill Gate's squillions but doing quite nicely thank you.
(ii) I've amended the mention of google to say that some of us have been googling (it is very good though).

If it comes to that, Jackie, who is Regis? A pet name for the erstwhile President?

Bingley

Looking at the pictures I think that Richard Branson has a much nicer beard. I did read somewhere that it is impossible to be successful in the USA if you have a beard.

Own up those who proudly possess a beard. Rubrick? Twusm (I think not), David 108 ....

http://tvtalkshows.com/regisandkathielee(Have they both had face lifts?)
http://www.execpc.com/~shepler/branson.html

Ahem! says I sheepishly.

>Twusm (I think not)

I have had a beard continuously since 1973; it has gone in and out of fashion numerous times -- it was the former when I first grew it.... :-{)>

Regis Philbin, in addition to his years of hosting a talk
show, began last summer, I believe, as the host of a new
game show, the talk of which has swept the U.S.:
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

>>) Richard Branson is the man behind Virgin Airlines and lots of other Virgin things (records, trains etc). <<

Man, I'd read that before! Geez! One of the great many things that seem to slip into and out of my one brain cell,
leaving no discernible trace.

My guesses:
paulb's beard=artsy
tsuwm's= rebellious

Feel free to correct me, guys (as though you needed my permission!).

It was only a guess!!!

Now I need to know is it a bushy beard or a restrained beard. I'd be surprised if it were one of those goatee ones, I'm not sure they were so popular in 1973, I'd have thought that you were around twelve then - was it allowed at school????

Ahem , noted.

variable... I trim it at least as often as I have my hairs cut.

are you a pogonologist??

(I can hear the questions now: what is pogonology?

choose one:
a) the study of fog
b) the study of pogs
c) the study of beards
d) the study of comics
e) the study of lipography
f) the study of jumping?!)

>>Own up those who proudly possess a beard<<

No beard here - in fact I seldom see them here in Aotearoa.

There is a Maori custom where men and women have their faces (and bodies) tattooed. Men can look quite fearsome, with full-face tattoos - women's seem to be more restricted to the lower lips and chin

http://www.mala.bc.ca/~soules/media112/zine99/tasha/maori.htm

I'd like to go with fog but I suspect there is more testosterone involved in this question. I noticed there was a book which had a female in the title - would that be getting warm?

Sorry, Jackie, just a fear of shaving (is there a word for that?). OK, OK, I grew it on our honeymoon in 1964 and my wife and I kinda got used to it. My kids were always kidding me about my pre-marriage photos -- Hey, mum who's the cool dude with the beard? And it has nothing to do with one of my favourite movies, the Marx Bros' A night at the opera!
Isn't there a saying: "Hirsuteness is next to godliness"?

I don't know about that but I've heard that:
"Kissing a man without a mustache is like eating an egg without salt."
(Mustachioed newbie here. Grew it when Groucho died, shaved it briefly when Elvis died.)
BTW, I think that Virgin guy is a heck of a lot more fun than Gates, with round-the-world ballooning attempts, transoceanic speed record attempts, etc. I do have the right fellow, don't I?

>>'d like to go with fog but I suspect there is more testosterone involved in this
question. I noticed there was a book which had a female in the title - would
that be getting warm?<<

it wasn't a trick question (maybe that threw you off? ;) -- pogonology is the study of beards. now, what's all this about a book....

>now, what's all this about a book....

The only place I could find it when I googled was in the web site shown below. I wondered if you were trying to imply anything!!!

http://www.hillstreetpress.com/ToCS99-2.html

Just a final word on numbers...

>googolplex

well, lets see... how do i explain it.

just like a googol is 1 followed by 100 zeros,
a googolplex is 1 followed by a googol zeros.

In other words (read numbers....),
like googol=10^100 (^= raised to the power of)
googolplex=10^(10^100).

sorry if it's a but technical. Just a clarification.

as I recall, back in the days when the UK still treated a billion as 1 plus 12 zeros, "milliard" was Brit-speak for 1 plus 9 zeros.

> Looking at the pictures I think that Richard Branson has a much nicer beard. I did read somewhere that it is impossible
to be successful in the USA if you have a beard.

Own up those who proudly possess a beard. Rubrick? Twusm (I think not), David 108 ...

Whoa! I just stumbled on this now (I've been away since June 20th). Nope. No beard - never have and probably never will. Just some occasional stubble from lack of regular shaving. Every girlfriend I have ever had has disliked beards so I humoured them and kept a clean jaw. I suppose that's incentive for never growing one in the future!!!

Rubrick

I'm so-oo disappointed. Even worse - wrong on evey count!

Apparently this thread has twisted into beards...

At any rate, here is one point where Jo and I disagree:
keep thyself unshaven, 'Brick Dear. The better to be seen and caressed!
I have, on a few occasions, kissed a
bush-face--most unpleasant!! Prickly!! Ick.

i have a beard
william

no beard have i
annastrophic

AnnaStrophic (note the respectful capitals)

from whence your wisdom?!

i have a beer
william

good

No beard have I, but of another's beer would I willingly partake.

How did we get so far from cyberclutter?

david108
must apologize for dragging this noble discussion into the realm of beers. but you must admit beer is MORE ENJOYABLE when strained through a generous hirsuteness/hirsutity
one of these words must be a coined one, which returns us to the original discussion, does it not?

>How did we get so far from cyberclutter?

what's this, then?
-Ron Obvious

>>i have a beard
william<<

Then I shall blow you a kiss 'round the world, Dear--
prepare thy (presumably non-hirsute) forehead!

And, David--weren't you going to bring a slab to paulb's
party??

No beard have I and beer I detest. Even the smell of it makes me feel ill.

Bingley

>>No beard have I and beer I detest<<

Great minds think alike, Dear!
Prepare any part of thy face thou wouldst prefer to
receive thy kiss upon, and I shall blow one in
thy direction as well!

>you must admit beer is MORE ENJOYABLE when strained through a generous hirsuteness/hirsutity<

Well, no, I don't see why I must admit that at all.

If I am drunk enough that I can't keep my hair (or indeed anyone else's hair or beard!) out of my drink, I am drunk enough!

Although apparently it works the other way round and beer makes very good hair conditioner.

Oh, Bridget, that's funny! Yep, I'd have to be way far
gone to drink anything through someone's beard!

And william, you sure do have a way with words! First
hises, and now hirsutity! Are you writing your own
dictionary, O hairy one?

i'm afraid, jackie, any dictionary i might write would be incomprehensible to anyone but myself and my beard.
william

>cyberchondriac - (after "hyperchondriac") a user who always thinks there is something wrong with his computer.

Er, do you mean hypochondriac? a person who is neurotic about bad health? I looked up hyperchondriac, but couldn't find anything. hypochondriac means below the breastbone cartilage, and is a referent to the abdomen, which the Romans considered the seat of melancholy.

Hyperchondriac might be a person who is neurotically certain that he's in good health when in fact he's not.

>Did you hear that the Internet had finally disproved the idea that if you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, one day one of them would write "Hamlet"!

Actually, a computer has produced a sequel to Hamlet, Hamlet II. In its entirety:

Herald enters stage right.

Herald: Where the HELL is everyone?

exit stage left.

>hypochondriac means below the breastbone cartilage, and is a referent to the abdomen, which the Romans considered the seat of melancholy.

Hyperchondriac might be a person who is neurotically certain that he's in good health when in fact he's not.<

As it's above the ribcage, I take it he's also a pain in the neck ;)

<exit stage left>

pursued (no doubt) by a bare [sic] stage!

>pursued (no doubt) by a bare [sic] stage!

I was gonna take a picture, but I couldn't decide among my Kodiak, my Brownie, and my Polaroid. What a grizzly tail!!!!

Ok, guys--
Kodiaks, browns, polars, and grizzlies all have tails, but
please, what is a bare's tage?

>please, what is a bare's tage?

Glad am I that you asked that question. Our Industrial Age, Iron Age, Bronze Age, Stone Age, was preceded by the period before Man made clothes. Yes, it was the Barest Age of all.

Ted, I love you!

First of all.
We have a saying that goes: “El hombre y el oso, cuanto mas feo mas hermoso”. Roughly: “Man and bear, the uglier, the better”.
Once said that I've got to admit that I wear a beard and my wife loves it although my younger son refuses kissing me because of it.
I started wearing it some eons ago when I got married, I’m so lazy that shaving myself every morning was a torture for me so wearing a beard delivered me of this chore.
Five months ago I discovered that I could stop combing myself by cutting my hair very short so that’s the way I wearing it.
Right now I’m considering getting neutered to avoid taking a shower every morning.


Juan Maria.

>>Right now I’m considering getting neutered to avoid taking a shower every morning.

Er--well--I, um, was wondering if any of these threads would ever return to the gutter. Now I know.
I suppose then you'd want to wear your debutante gown!
But I think I might just decline the party invitation.

Following your sequel to Hamlet - here are a couple of showstoppers:

"Oh there's Goddot!"

"I'm looking for three sisters, they ordered a taxi to Moscow"