
Archive for the 'NerdWords' Category
September 7th, 2009, 8:00 am by Jayson Peters
Note: This post originally appeared on Sept. 1, 2008.
In honor of Labor Day, today we salute the redshirts: those thankless legions of faceless Starfleet security officers who boldly go in front of their captain … and usually pay the price. Very early in the episode.
As the Klingons say: “Today is a good day to die!”
Paramount image
Posted in: Holidays • NerdWords • Star Trek | Post a Comment »
July 1st, 2009, 1:14 pm by Jayson Peters

Gamers are furious that Blizzard Entertainment’s upcoming real-time sci-fi strategy game Starcraft II will have no LAN support. They’ve been storming the message boards to express their displeasure with the decision, and, as reported by Wired’s Game Life blog, some have even started an online petition to implore Blizzard to reconsider. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Blizzard • Gaming • Nerd rage • NerdWords • PC • Piracy • LAN • StarCraft II | Post a Comment »
June 20th, 2009, 11:36 pm by Jayson Peters
British educators are being told to throw out one of the most widely recognized rules in English spelling: “I before E except after C.”
BBC News and The Associated Press reported this weekend on a U.K. government document that argues the rhyming device simply has too many exceptions to be worth teaching. Some experts agree, but others say it’s still broadly applicable. Every little bit helps, right?
“If you change it and say we won’t have this rule, we won’t have any rules at all, then spelling, which is already terribly confusing, becomes more so,” a senior English lecturer at King’s College London told the BBC.
What the esteemed language lords are forgetting is that all mnemonic devices will soon be obsolete in a world where the predictive text technology of mobile devices lets us spill our guts about meaningless crap with the barest proficiency in spelling — or vocabulary.
c u l8r
Posted in: Nerd rage • NerdWords • BBC • English • Spelling | Post a Comment »
June 15th, 2009, 3:00 pm by Jayson Peters
Ah, canon. It can be such a tricky thing in a genre that takes itself so seriously. Take this update on the official Web site for the upcoming online roleplaying game Star Trek Online:
You may be curious to know how the new Star Trek movie affects Star Trek Online. Wonder no further, as we’ve put together a handy-dandy graphical timeline for your perusal. Also included is a written explanation that explains exactly how the movie and STO can coexist. Give it a look here.
Basically, Star Trek Online was in production before the recent Star Trek feature film, and now game developer Cryptic/Infogrames/Atari is in the position of having to make their futuristic universe make sense when viewed in context of the galaxy-shaking events of the movie. When this happens, whether in film, comics, novels, games, what-have-you, the resolution usually involves a major cop-out, or things become so complicated as to make one wonder how anyone is supposed to have any fun anymore. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Gaming • NerdWords • PC • RPGs • Sci-Fi & Fantasy • Star Trek • Cryptic • Star Trek Online | Post a Comment »
May 11th, 2009, 9:31 pm by Chris "KeL" Adams
Video games and the Internet have already made huge impacts on modern society and all of our lives. Now it may happen in a new way. Always one of gaming’s most beloved and over-used terms, “noob” is set to become the one millionth word added to the English language. “Noob,” short for “newbie”, is a derisive name applied to anyone less skilled or experienced than yourself.
Numerous media outlets are crediting the Global Language Monitor, an organization that tracks such things, with the prediction. According to the GLM, a word become officially recognized when it has been used 25,000 times or more. I’m not exactly sure how they keep track of that, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if they were to look at any number of gaming message forums, that number would be vastly exceeded already. As terrible as this is, I have to be thankful. At least it’s not “lolz“.
Posted in: Gaming • Internet • NerdWords | Post a Comment »
March 20th, 2009, 12:01 am by Jayson Peters

Frak! Battlestar Galactica’s much-hyped final episode airs tonight. To mark this bittersweet occasion, I give you a list of 10 fake swear words that have each, to some extent, bled into the fan vernacular from science fiction. Feel free to employ any or all as the show’s grand finale can’t possibly live up to your expectations.
Warning! Fake profanity and the use of people’s imagination follow! Read on at your own risk.
And they are:
- Frak (Battlestar Galactica) — Probably the most famous (and most thinly veiled) substitute profanity on television, it originated in the original 1978 version of Battlestar Galactica, when it was spelled “frack.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Battlestar Galactica • Books • Lists • NerdWords • Sci-Fi & Fantasy • Star Wars • Television | 3 Comments »
September 1st, 2008, 9:37 am by Jayson Peters
In honor of Labor Day, today we salute the redshirts: those thankless legions of faceless Starfleet security officers who boldly go in front of their captain … and usually pay the price. Very early in the episode.
As the Klingons say: “Today is a good day to die!”
Paramount image
Posted in: NerdWords | Post a Comment »
July 7th, 2008, 5:41 pm by Jayson Peters
“New” words you’ll find in the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary: fanboy (a boy who is an enthusiastic devotee of such things as comics or movies) and Texas hold ‘em (the poker game).
Also making the cut: netroots (like grassroots, but online) and subprime (like the mortgage).
Source: CBC News
Posted in: NerdWords | Post a Comment »
May 18th, 2008, 3:28 pm by Jayson Peters
Now, this one is a little tricky …
To pwn: to wipe the floor with your opposition, usually in a multiplayer PC or next-gen console game.
The legends behind the coining of the term pwn are many, as are the pronunciations (”own” and “pawn” being among the most popular). The story usually involves a typo of the word “own” (referring to dominance in the gaming arena), and this making its way into common usage despite — or perhaps because of — the obvious error.
[Source: Urban Dictionary]
Posted in: NerdWords | Post a Comment »
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