![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sep. 15th, 2005
Em-dash vs. Horizontal Bar.
Sep. 15th, 2005 01:21 pmSince I've started thinking about writing, I've been noticing things while I've been reading lately that I never noticed before. One of them has to do with the use of dashes.
I was taught that the em-dash (—) was used in two ways, to emphasize a parenthetical comment — like this one — or to break off a sentence like in the following dialogue:
"Where are you going?"
"I was just—"
"Oh, no you aren't! You have work to do!"
However, yesterday I was reading a (british typeset) book where the second type of dash was signifigantly longer than an em-dash. My best guess is that it was what the typsetters call the Horizontal Bar or U+2015 (―), which on my browser is the same length of an em-dash but is usually represented in ASCII as three hyphens (---) while an em-dash is usually two (--).
So, was this a strange typesetting fluke, a difference between British and North American usage, or is there some other explanation of which I am unaware?
I was taught that the em-dash (—) was used in two ways, to emphasize a parenthetical comment — like this one — or to break off a sentence like in the following dialogue:
"Where are you going?"
"I was just—"
"Oh, no you aren't! You have work to do!"
However, yesterday I was reading a (british typeset) book where the second type of dash was signifigantly longer than an em-dash. My best guess is that it was what the typsetters call the Horizontal Bar or U+2015 (―), which on my browser is the same length of an em-dash but is usually represented in ASCII as three hyphens (---) while an em-dash is usually two (--).
So, was this a strange typesetting fluke, a difference between British and North American usage, or is there some other explanation of which I am unaware?
I'll be heading to my regular Transhumanism meetup at 7:00 pm tonight, but I think I'll be heading into town signifigantly earlier than that. The rush-hour buses are far less crowded if I catch one at 3:00 pm rather than 6:00 pm.
So, does anyone want to get together and do something from around 4:00 pm onwards, or shall I just sit in a cafe and read?
So, does anyone want to get together and do something from around 4:00 pm onwards, or shall I just sit in a cafe and read?
Gate's foot in mouth.
Sep. 15th, 2005 01:50 pmThere's a telling comment in this interview with Gates. In the CNET interview Gates gives a very interesting response to one of the interview questions.
Google's slogan, of course, is "Don't Do Evil."
Even if Gates was instead referring to Google's mission statement, which is:
CNET: So that would be the philosophical difference between Microsoft and what Google is up to at this point?
Gates: Well, we don't know everything they are up to, but we do know their slogan and we disagree with that."
Google's slogan, of course, is "Don't Do Evil."
Even if Gates was instead referring to Google's mission statement, which is:
To make the world's information universally accessible and useful.It would be bad enough.