From here, I found such a sentence: This Gem won’t cover hardware details… Besides, I also found a book named: GPU Gems I could not look up the meaning of “Gem”. What’s its meaning in this context? Answer I have investigated and Robin seems to be right. The Gem is referring to a book called … Read more
In John Dewey’s How We Think, there is an example of someone reflecting on the purpose of a particular part of a boat: Projecting nearly horizontally from the upper deck of the ferryboat on which I daily cross the river, is a long white pole, bearing a gilded ball at its tip. It suggested a … Read more
This is one of the New York Times writing rules.I don’t know exactly what “zombie nouns” and verbs mean here. Can someone give some examples? Rule 6: Write With Non-Zombie Nouns and Verbs Delve into Strunk and White’s fourth style reminder “Write with nouns and verbs” by reading about what Helen Sword calls “Zombie Nouns”: … Read more
For instance, biologists these days like to say that the word “dinosaur” is inclusive of modern birds, since birds are descended from dinosaurs. This is consistant with biologists’ tendency to categorize things monophyletically — that is, if it is descended from something, it “is” that something. A bird is descended from a dinosaur, so it … Read more
There’s a term for taking leftover budget funds in one calendar year and using them the next year, in the context of government budgeting. I am having a brain freeze and can’t remember it or find it on google. I know it’s a reasonably short word (my guess is in the 5-9 letter range, 2-3 … Read more
Bit is a portmanteau of binary digit. A byte is 8 bits. A nibble is 4 bits (half a byte). Is there a word for a pair of bytes? Answer It is word which is 16 bits. They are (in order of increasing size) BIT, NIBBLE, BYTE, WORD, DWORD, FWORD, QWORD, KiloByte, MegaByte Please note … Read more
I had encountered the phrase, “racing cert”, the other day, and I had to go look it up. The only definition I immediately found was one from UD: English colloquialism. Born from gambling talk and used to indicate a statistical or logical outcome that appears to be a foregone conclusion. It seems to be mostly … Read more
So, the correct plural form of medium is media. Of course, there are exceptions, and the words have taken on new usages (such as adding a definitive article “the” to media, making it singular), but isn’t the word multimedia redundant? What you are really trying to say is multiple mediums — or just media. I … Read more
On lists of nautical flag meanings (one and another), the letter U means you are standing into danger. I am familiar with the phrase from a sailing point of view – it means something like “if you keep doing what you’re doing, something bad will happen.” Like if you’re headed for a reef or something. … Read more
What is a right word to describe Content/Performance? It is about best and effective content that form a complete artefact. The example text as below: 5.4.1 Content/Performance This is about a better user experience, the effectiveness of the artefact and the context of the contents. It is part of the critical component for target users … Read more
