Google showtimes search now works in Canada. Specifically it works in Lethbridge. See [the descent lethbridge ab] for an example.
Author: Kim Siever
I am a copywriter and copyeditor. I blog on writing and social media tips mostly, but I sometimes throw in my thoughts about running a small business.
Follow me on Twitter at @hotpepper.
Using em dashes
Em dashes—those honking big dashes people use to introduce a break in thought—are not preceded or followed by spaces. Nor does using two hyphens –– count as an em dash. For the record.
MySQL character set for ISO-8859-1
Our web server’s character set is ISO-8859-1. This has caused some problems when persons input accented characters or other non-ASCII characters into our database. Well, actually the problems occurred when the information was parsed to a webpage. I’ve tried fixing this several times, but could not figure out how to set the character set on… Continue reading MySQL character set for ISO-8859-1
Methodology
If you are using ‘methodology’ as a replacement for ‘method’, please stop. Not only does it sound pretentious, but to those of us who actually know that ‘methodology’ means ‘the study of working methods’, it reeks of illiteracy. Just say what you mean. Why complicate everything?
Standards in form fields
As I mentioned in a previous post, I wish there was some standard or convention or consensus on what values to attach to the name attribute of common input elements. I thought it would be a good idea to open up a thread to devote to this very thing, so feel free to add your… Continue reading Standards in form fields
Rebranding
Since the start of the year, my full-time position has been evolving. A previous employee in our department was charged with fraud last fall. As a result, many of the policies in our department needed to change. Our department is a small (four employees) IT department in one of the faculties at the University of… Continue reading Rebranding
Reply by chat in GMail
Google has released a new feature in GMail: reply by chat. I have wanted to do this numerous times. On the surface it looks cool, to be able to see someone who has sent you email is online. There’s more however; it also groups the resulting chat log in with the email conversation. Very cool.
Standards in form fields
I wish there was a consortium for setting standards on form fields. I fill out a lot of forms. As such, I assume that by now I can fill out a basic form asking for contact informaton and I should be able to use my browser’s auto-complete features. Yet, it doesn’t always happen. And it… Continue reading Standards in form fields
Names in forms
Is it better to create a name field that allows the users to type in their names anyway they want, or should the first and last names be separated into different fields for better data management?
Lunch and Dinner
When I was growing up in urban Saskatchewan, we often referred to the midday meal as dinner and the evening meal as supper. It seems now that whenever I use the term dinner, everywhere I go people ask me “Do you mean lunch”. Is this usage no longer common in Canada?