Items tagged with Text Messages
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added a set of acronyms from text message speak into its compendium of the English language. WTF? Among the new inclusions are LOL, OMG, and FYI. With those additions, we can now freely toss those terms around anywhere we like. The OED calls these "initialisms." As much as these terms are associated with SMS messages or IM, the OED found some interesting information during its research: As such usage indicates, many people would consider these recent coinages, from the last 10 or 20 years, and associate them with a younger generation conversant with all forms of digital communications. As is often the case, OED’s research has revealed some unexpected...
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Computers have reached the point where they can beat chess champions. So is it hard to believe that a chess champion might cheat by using a chess program and an elaborate scheme using text messages? That's what happened last year in Siberia, during the 2010 chess Olympiad. At least, that is what authorities believe happened last year in a scandal that involved up-and-coming French chess grandmaster Sebastian Feller, 20; Cyril Marzolo, 32; and French captain Arnaud Hauchard, 39. All have been suspended by the French national chess federation. How did it work? Marzolo watched Feller's match from a livestream online. He then enter the moves into Firebird, open-source chess software developed by...
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Voice usage on mobile phones is going down, as more people migrate to texting, emailing, and social networking apps on their smartphones. It's particularly evident among younger people, and the FCC isn't blind to it: the FCC is reportedly looking into the possibility of allowing the public to send SMS messages and even stream video from their devices to emergency centers. The FCC said the following in a press release: “The technological limitations of 9-1-1 can have tragic, real-world consequences. During the 2007 Virginia Tech campus shooting, students and witnesses desperately tried to send texts to 9-1-1 that local dispatchers never received. If these messages had gone through, first...
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As any readers of the comic strip Zits knows, text messages are the bane of parents of teenagers. However, it's also increased the amount of repetitive stress injuries people get (in their thumbs anyway), created new (and lame) ways of firing people, and even contributed to fatal accidents. At any rate, the SMS or text message celebrated its 15th anniversary earlier this week.Airwide Solutions, which helped pioneer the technology, claims it was the first message to be sent via the mobile GSM airwaves. 15 years ago in the first week of December, Airwide engineer Neil Papworth sent the test message to Vodafone's Richard Jarvis.Now, according to the BBC, British people are sending SMS messages...
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