I’m not stupid, but: how do semicolons work?
Punctuation lovers are always complaining about the decline of the semicolon. It seems to be gradually disappearing from the printed word entirely, being replaced by the comma, which serves a related but different purpose. Sadly, the distinction between the comma and the semicolon is a really useful one for comprehending sentences correctly the first time. The rule for when to use a semicolon is actually really straightforward; once you know it, you’ll probably never confuse it and the comma again. Use a semicolon when you want to connect two strongly related phrases that could stand on their own as sentences. Here’s an example I saw on the Manchester Metrolink tram the other day. When a stop is announced, an LED marquee displays something like the...
I’m not stupid, but: what’s with “and I”?
Did you ever have an exchange like this with your parents when you were growing up? Me: “Me and Mark had a great idea.” Parent: “You mean, Mark and I had a great idea.” This “and I” meme is stuck in the heads of many of our generation, and all over the place I see people applying it as though it’s a hard and fast rule. It’s not. First, let’s deal with the order. Why is it “Mark and I” and not “I and Mark”? There’s no grammatical reason for this order at all, except that it sounds better to put the nouns before the pronouns. But here’s the awkward bit. Sometimes it’s “Mark and I” and sometimes it’s “Mark and me”. In fact, the grammatical...
I’m not stupid, but: what is https about?
Any tech-geek followers of my blog will probably know this inside out, so this one is for the rest of you. My next entry in the I’m not stupid, but… series is about the difference between http and https in web URLs. We’re all told https is more secure, but there’s a shroud of mystery about what this actually means. In a nutshell: https prevents anyone but you and the owner of the web site reading your communications. At a public internet connection, not using https means anyone in that same location can steal your login sessions at any sites you visit while there. The certificate proves the owner of the site you are visiting is who they say they are. When you visit a web site, you are communicating with a computer somewhere else in the...
The Yes vote needs you!
The opinion polls are showing the “No” vote in the upcoming referendum on whether to adopt AV for parliamentary elections as being a dead cert. The “Yes” campaign needs as many votes as it can possibly get! Please get to a polling station on 5th May and cast your vote. Don’t waste it because you think the voting system doesn’t matter. Here are the reasons you should vote “Yes”, in a nutshell: Under the current system, an MP can be elected when a huge majority of the voting population votes against that candidate. Here’s a perfect example using beer and coffee to illustrate this. In a real decision-making situation like this, people would say “well, 70% of us want beer so let’s pick the pub we most...
Leeds-based non-binary nerd and sewist. I won't break my streak on Duolingo for anyone. 
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