Dept. of Minor Observations
A repository of bulletins, field reports, working papers, and notices concerning small thoughts, odd details, internet archaeology, abandoned drafts, and gentle critiques of modern digital culture. Items are classified, stamped, and filed accordingly.
Notice regarding the word "Seamless"
The Department wishes to formally register its concern with the continued use of the word "seamless" in product documentation, marketing materials and "compulsory" training.
Upon investigation, the Department has found no product, integration, or experience that has been, in any clearly verifiable sense, seamless. The word is used in all cases as aspirational language, functioning less as description and more as institutional prayer.
The Department does not object to prayer. It objects to prayer being mistaken for a product specification.
This notice is now filed. No further action is anticipated.
Notice on the Retirement of Blinking Text
The Department formally acknowledges the passing of the <blink> tag, deprecated by the major browsers in 2013 and removed entirely in Firefox 23.0.
The blink tag was widely condemned as an accessibility hazard, a visual irritant and a crime against aesthetics. These criticisms were entirely founded and correct. We do not mourn the blink tag.
The Department notes, however, that it was the only HTML element that communicated urgency without any form of irony. Everything that has replaced it communicates urgency with considerably more subtlety and considerably more effectiveness. Whether this is an improvement is a question the Department has left open.
Filed. No revisitation planned.
Notice on the redundancy of "ATM Machine"
The phrase "ATM machine" contains the word "machine" twice, as ATM
stands for Automated Teller Machine. Similarly: "PIN number,"
"ISBN number," "LCD display," "GPS system," and "HIV virus" all
contain their final word twice, already embedded in their acronym.
These represent RAS syndromes — Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndromes.
A category that is suitable named with the
redundancy that it describes.
The Department has no recommendation. Language accommodates its own
contradictions with remarkable patience, and the Department has learned
to extend the same courtesy. Filed with no further comment.
Notice regarding the ellipsis in menu design
The Department draws attention to a convention so established it has
become invisible to scrutiny. The ellipsis following a menu item.
"Save As…" means this action requires further information before it
can proceed. "Save" means the action will happen now. The ellipsis is
a small promise of more beyond. That you will
be consulted further before it does something useful.
The convention is old, precise, and almost entirely ignored by software
produced in the last fifteen years, where "Delete" and "Delete…" are
treated as interchangeable and the difference between acting and
asking has been quietly retired.
Filed. The Department does not expect further improvement in the situation.