Category: Language
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Use ‘%%’ to indicate a percentage change of a percentage?
“40% of people clicked through when the button was blue. When we changed it to green, the click-through rate increased by 20%!” We all know that the above statement is ambiguous; we can’t be sure whether the writer intends to let us know that the final percentage is 60% (40% + 20%) or 48% (40%…
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Schrödinger’s Laugh
Schrödinger’s Laugh [shroh-ding-ers laf] -noun The strong expression by one that paradoxically may be either laughing or wailing, this being tied to an earlier random event. It creates an awkward period during which the observer does not know which and thus how to properly react.
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bebooper
bebooper [bee-boo-per]: beep + boop + computer -noun Those things in movies that look like computers, but beep or boop every time something is clicked on, whir whenever there’s a progress bar, or ever show an “ACCESS DENIED” message in a 36 pt. or greater font size. These devices are often also likely to be…
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WREST (Website REST)
WREST [rest] = Website + REST -noun A RESTful API service that is made available to its own website. The distinguishing behavior from a regular RESTful API is that calls coming from the client are identified the same way as other calls made by the client’s browser (viz., the client’s cookie(s)) rather than by API…
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haircro
haircro [hair-kroh]: hair + Velcro -noun When hair is cut very short (using, say, #2 on clippers), the hair holds hoodie hoods on like it’s Velcro — but it’s hair!