Professional Text Messaging

Calling all uber-geeks!

The world’s first text messaging competition will be held in Los Angeles this coming Saturday.

According to a recent Reuters’ story, “Players will compete in groups to see who can text set phrases quickest and without errors, with the winner getting a $10,000 prize and advancement to the finals in New York City on April 21.”

Once again parents have been proven wrong. Teenage text messaging addicts can now get paid to get their frenzied digital fix.

Can an ESPN competition be on the horizon? Stuart Scott has definitely got the lingo and the flair for it.

Perhaps I will ask my kids for text messaging lessons so that I can earn some money on the side in order to buy the latest speed-text-messaging gear.

Instead of watching television or playing video games, my family can spend our quality time texting each other in order to build our speed and endurance.

Maybe one of us will even become a Professional Text Messager, or as any true uber-geek would call us, a PTM.

Apparently, anything is possible.

Journalist Gets it Wrong

Do you know the difference between a file and a folder?

If you are even mildly computer savvy, you probably know that you create folders to store your files. Even Homer Simpson would consider this a no-brainer.

A recent Reuters story outlines a 12-step addiction program designed to cure addicts and free them from the shackles of e-mail. One of the 12-steps is, “Create files where you can put Inbox material that needs to be acted on.”

DOH! E-mail addicts should create FOLDERS for their Inbox materials.

More than five years of technical support has made me fairly tolerant of computer users who are not very computer savvy. I understand that the average person isn’t as knowledgeable about their computer as I am. That’s why I have a job.

But my tolerance stops with a professional writer who is writing about technology. Not only is this a blatant disregard for facts, but it could confuse people who are trying to cure themselves of an e-mail addiction.

Perhaps there should be a 12-step program for journalists who are too busy to get their facts straight and proofread their work. If not, then I'm sure that there a few thousand Computer 101 and E-mail 101 courses available.