Meryl's Notes Blog

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It’s stuff like this that steer me away from fancy words whether or not I know what they mean. Say what? The title of the paper in question, “Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy.” The article says, “But the four-page send-up, laced with confounding graphs, was accepted by an international conference that itself sounds like a spoof: ‘The Ninth World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics.’”

And this is the reason why say those with a PhD are not necessarily the best professors or authors in the world — “The reason something like that can slip by editors without an eye blink is that a lot of people in academia think, speak, and write that way — and they’re hardly alone.”

Some of the best professors I had in college didn’t have PhD by their names just an MA, MS, or MBA. Years ago, I had a boss who was a PhDer. Boy, did she give the most boring talks! She’d read the presentation slides word for word and add pointless commentary. It’s folks like this who led Edward Tufte to get tough on PowerPoint.

PowerPoint is not the problem. The people using it are. Can’t tell you how many managers asked me to “put it all in there” where I was forced to shrink the font so the audience will have to squint and discover new wrinkles. They probably don’t hear a word the presenter says since they’re working overtime to read the slides. I tried advising otherwise, but pointless battle.

I like them Bullfighter folks. I take them over White Smoke hands down. I didn’t have to download White Smoke to see what a load of bull it is. This screen shot comes from the splash presentation where only the last sentence passes muster. The company is blowing smoke… not a good company name, ya think?

I decided to try out the program to see what it does. I took many screen shots of its “suggestions” that I need to extend this entry. Guess what? It made suggestions on its own material! I copied and pasted the extended entry to use as the example.

(start of WhiteSmoke test) I went ahead and downloaded the trial to see if it lives up to the bull. I expected to fill out a form before downloading, but why should I have to share my profession and my country? You can easily track countries using Web stats. At least, I don’t have to share my name and age.

This is the second time I’ve come across a case sensitive form. You have to enter your email address twice. Roboform does it the first time and in all caps (Why? I don’t know.) and I had to do the second one and I often do email in lower case. The form said they didn’t match.

The program and Web site often use the word “enrichment.” That would go on my bull list. I wouldn’t want such a word in my slogan, mission, or vision. It’s hoity toity and so is the use of “did not” instead of “didn’t.” One of the questions asks, “How do I enrich my text?” That’s not how most people would ask that.

Check out the answer to What is WhiteSmoke? (Notice its own spellchecker doesn’t recognize the product’s name.)

WhiteSmoke has created a unique technology, providing the first context-related all-in-one solution for improving writing. This patent-pending technology is the result of years of development by a leading team of software, algorithm and Natural Language Processing experts.

For the first time ever, users can enhance their writing skills with WhiteSmoke. This revolutionary writing tool instantly analyzes the complete text (in e-mail or Word documents) and provides context-based recommendations to replace words with synonyms, add adjectives and adverbs, check spelling and verify proper grammar use.

In today’s competitive and demanding environment, a smart solution for high quality writing is essential.

I guess I am in “critic” mode today. (End of WhiteSmoke test)

Click either of the above images to see results showing the markup of the text. Red is a misspelled word and blue has suggestions for other words.

Notice at the bottom, there’s no way to see the rest of the “suggestions?” I can’t scroll anymore. I tried toggling full screen mode, but I couldn’t access it. It appears in the task bar, but click on it does nothing. Can’t resize the window either.

This costs $49.95 PER year??? The program also adds a toolbar to Microsoft Word and it didn’t fare better than the previous example. It also adds a toolbar to Outlook and Outlook Express, but these require a reboot (Word doesn’t). I got a follow up email from the company (follow up is good… but the first sentence is awful…)

“We hope your evaluation period of WhiteSmoke software is according or better than expectations.” Yeah, sure. I’ve uninstalled it. Thanks, I’ll stick with the free and better program, Bullfighter.

The following images show the program’s “suggestions.”

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