Notes here by @tealtan:

"unusual contexts in writing / reading text

“In a hyperliterate society, the vast majority of reading is not consciously recognized as reading.”

“What readers expect is more important than what readers want.”

Bill Buxton: “every tool is the best at something and the worst at something else”

skills, path-dependency, learning effects

“…we actually like constraints once we're in them.”"

And notes from @litherland:

"11:40: “I do things like … just obsess about weird little details. So, for instance … like, how do you do text entry in a Netflix app on the Wii? You know? I think about this a lot.” Your many other talents notwithstanding, Tim, you may have missed your calling as a designer. /

18:30: “I think it’s a tragedy that we have not been able to figure out a good interface for pen and ink on reading devices.” Holy grail. My dream for years. I would give anything. I would give anything to be smart enough to figure this out."

"Today on the Best of Q, we revisited the Great Spaces Debate.<br />
<br />
We asked, after writing a sentence, should we use one space or two?<br />
<br />
(To avoid bias, this post is being separated by lines, not spaces).<br />
<br />
Slate technology columnist Farhad Manjoo argues that history says one space is correct, typographers agree, and it just looks better.<br />
<br />
Engineer and the blogger behind Manifest Density Tom Lee says he thinks two spaces look nicer, we should be entitled to our beliefs, and there's mathematical beauty and information-richness in allowing more space.<br />
<br />
Take a listen to the debate, and let us know where you stand!"

"Spanish speakers will have to get used to a host of new spelling rules, including writing Irak instead of Iraq & Catar instead of Qatar, under proposals to modernize the language expected to be adopted this month…<br />
<br />
The Spanish Royal Language Academy said Friday the new orthographic guide for world's second-most spoken tongue is to be ratified by the language's 22 international academies when they meet Nov. 28 in Guadalajara, Mexico.<br />
<br />
"It's the fruit of detailed & very reasoned research," said Salvador Gutierrez, a Spanish academic who helped coordinate the work. "The aim is to have coherent spelling & avoid linguistic dispersion."<br />
<br />
The proposals include referring to the letter "y'' as "ye" instead of the Greek "i'' as it's been known for as long as anyone can recall.<br />
<br />
The guardians of the language also decided that speakers in Latin America should no longer refer to "b''s & "v''s as long & short "b''s, respectively, but instead call them "'beys" & "ubeys" as Spaniards do."

"The 6+1 Trait® Writing analytical model for assessing and teaching writing is made up of 6+1 key qualities that define strong writing. These are:

"To help you better understand the conventions of academic and professional writing, we have identified the twenty error patterns (other than misspelling) most common among U.S. college students and list them here in order of frequency. These twenty errors are likely to cause you the most trouble, so it is well worth your effort to check for them in your writing.

"There are many ways to approach learning math, we do not have to all use the standard drill. As the above shows, you can even more or less ignore math for years and not harm a child’s ability to calculate or learn higher math concepts. But, for some reason, many unschoolers worry about whether or not their children will learn math properly. There is some idea that the math curriculum is so logical, so necessarily step-by-step, and so demanding that it must be approached piece by piece in the most carefully orchestrated manner or the student will become helplessly lost. This is conventional wisdom that just isn’t true."

"I’ll examine a couple of these inferior Web design conventions and expose their flaws. I’ll then suggest more effective alternatives to these conventions and explain why they work better...3 Columns Done Wrong; How Deep is My Silo?"

best quote "we sell to correctional facilities and schools"