Bill Bennett
Going by last night’s game, it’s only a matter of time before Ireland beats New Zealand in the cricket. Heaven knows it was traumatic enough when they beat the All Blacks.
I’m sure every freelance or contractor has reliable, predictable clients who are easy to deal with. The ones from left field can be another story. Just had one woo me for days, then reveal at the last minute they refuse to pay more than half the going rate.
It's best to use said when reporting someone's words
When reporting someone’s words, it’s best to use said in most cases.
Newspaper and other style guides disagree over whether to use past tense (said) or present tense (says).
It doesn’t matter which. Pick one and stick with it. At times you may need to write someone says this now, but said something different in the past.
While you can use said even with written words - if you are quoting what someone wrote in a mail or in tweet - it is better to make it clear the person wasn’t talking at the time.
Alternative verbs are mainly pompous or value-laden. I once worked with a journalist who sprinkled his copy with words like averred or commented because he thought said was too dull.
Neither word adds useful information. The pompous language may frighten off some readers. To me it read like something from Edwardian times.
##Not using said sows seeds of doubt
Your readers may interpret any alternative to said as suggesting the speaker is lying, misinformed or doesn’t know what they are talking about. Think of claimed or according to.
It is perfectly OK to used claimed or according to when you want readers to understand there may be some doubt.
One alternative I allow myself is the verb ask. This only works when someone is clearly asking a question.
##How about when writing fiction?
Fiction writer Elemore Leonard has another perspective on this. In his excellent Ten rules of writing he said:
Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with “she asseverated,” and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.
Leonard wrote fast-paced fiction with terrific dialogue, if sticking with the one word was good enough for him, it is good enough for the rest of us.
Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed I wrote: Elmore Leonard said not says. The writer died in 2013, that’s definitely past-tense.
I always file my bi-monthly GST return and personal income taxes on time, but because my registered company is a one-man band and all the profits are paid as salary I never remember to file the business income tax return on time - it’s always zero.
On the whole the move from using Gmail for my own domain email address to using iCloud Mail has gone well. The only problem is some persistent spam is not picked up by iCloud while the more marketing-oriented yet legitimate incoming mail gets sent to the spam bin.
Google News can be frustrating to deal with.
Because I run a one-person site, news stories on my site don’t qualify for Google News.
But I syndicate my stories to Scoop, where they are picked up by Google News, I don’t get the link, Scoop does.
PimEyes, Chorus fast fibre, fake photos, telecoms merger
On Thursday I was on RNZ’s Nine-to-Noon programme talking about technology.
Segment covers fears of Pimeyes, a service that can find people’s photos on the internet and has an ethically troubling business model.
Also talk about people being more comfortable with fake faces than the real thing.
Cover Chorus' move to introduce 25 Gbps fibre broadband and the merger that means 2degrees is able to challenge the telecoms market leaders.
I don’t want to be a person who tells a call centre worker I’ll move my account if I don’t get satisfaction. But our broadband has been unreliable for two months and it is starting to hurt my ability to earn a living.
They tell me WiFi is the problem, but I can show it is not.
So it turns out the Google Docs file I spent a day working on and thought was lost was stored in a different client’s workspace. I only two clients who use Gsuite and forget to log-in and out of accounts at the right moments. Is there a workaround for this problem?
Today I filed my GST and paid the largest amount of tax since before Covid, which, if you stop to think about it, is actually a good sign. It means my freelance writing business is getting back to normal.
Apple’s voice recognition struggles with my accent.
I’m a pom who has lived in New Zealand for 25 years, was in Australia for 10. The British version doesn’t get me at all. The New Zealand option does better, but the Australian works best of all.
No. I can’t explain it either.
DIgital subscriptions that autorenew claim to be ‘convienent’ for customers. Yeah right.
On the other hand they are super convienent for the companies if their customers don’t keep a close eye on renewal dates.
Was hoping 2022 would be the year I could get away with not renewing the Microsoft Office subscription. I only use it in emergencies. But my household senior management says she needs it for her work.
Zoom works first time every time when I’m invited to a video conference meeting. Microsoft Teams generally requires a software reinstall and a MacOS reboot before a meeting can get underway.
Project for when I don’t have a work backlog to deal with: change my email signature to point people at my newsletter instead of at my website.
It used to be a struggle getting coffee after 3pm in New Zealand. Since Covid, the cut-off time at many cafes is now closer to 2pm. Makes it hard for later-in-the-day business meetings that really should not involve alcohol.
Noticed that my iPhone turned off WiFi Calling during this week’s software update. Didn’t miss any calls at home but did suffer a few with ropey reception.
⚽️This could be one of those English Premier League seasons where one of the clubs that will be relgated doesn’t really deserve to drop. Norwich and Watford are fair game, but it would seem harsh if Leeds went down.
One curious, unexpected side effect of Covid: not wanting to drink alcohol.
I’m not a huge drinker and rarely touch anything stronger than wine, but most days I can’t even face that at the moment. Not every day though.
I switched to iCloud mail hosting because I can use my domain name.
On the whole everything works well, it’s at least as smooth as Gmail.
Except for spam. GMail is so much better at spotting spam. iCloud Mail misses half of it and censors too much genuine mail
Yeserday I was thinking “I haven’t had post-Covod brain fog for days now, perhaps it has gone for good”…
… no such luck.
Those ‘crypto fraud’ news stories are not going away.