August 22, 2005
Verizon DSL
I'm switching my DSL provider to Verizon in order to save some money.
I just got the notification from Verizon that my DSL connection is ready. So I plugged everything in, but when I ran the Account Setup program, it complained that I don't have administrative rights (do too!) and refused to do anything.
Wait time on Verizon's phone support is over 30 minutes. I guess I'll try again tomorrow.
The problem is almost certainly something specific to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. I really don't need to run Verizon's software, but I need to somehow create an account so that I can connect.
Update: I did get this resolved.
August 14, 2005
How About Ducked Tape?
Via Michael Quinion's World Wide Words newsletter for 13 August 2005 comes this bit of information about duct tape:
Q. Is that universal sticky tape stuff that everyone has in their
garage toolkit called duct tape or duck tape? I've seen and heard
it both ways. [Jonas Wetherell]
A. It's possible to make a case that either is right. The story
behind the stuff is confusing enough to require some sorting out.
Bear with me while I trace the evidence and the contrary opinions,
though I must warn you that I come only to a tentative conclusion.
The first example of "duct tape" I found is from an advertisement
in a newspaper in Wisconsin in September 1965. There are lots of
earlier examples of "duck tape" in the same archive that date back
to the early 1940s (and the Oxford English Dictionary has found one
from 1902), which might suggest that it's the older form. But that
is misleading. This duck tape isn't the triple-layer, tearable,
silver, sticky-backed stuff but plain cotton tape. The material has
been called duck for four centuries, though it was originally made
from linen, not cotton. It was a lighter and finer material than
canvas, often used for seamen's trousers and sometimes for sails on
small craft. Duck tape was widely used at one time for the vertical
binding tapes of venetian blinds.
The usual story about the origin of the adhesive material is that
it was developed by the Permacel division of Johnson & Johnson in
1942 for the US Army as a waterproof sealing tape for ammunition
boxes. The tape proved immensely versatile and was used for all
sorts of repair purposes on military equipment. These facts come
from Johnson & Johnson's historians, so ought to be accurate. But
the story goes on to say that because the fabric backing was made
from cotton duck and perhaps because it repelled moisture "like
water off a duck's back", it became known to soldiers as "duck
tape". However, there's no known use of "duck tape" in any document
of the Second World War that anyone investigating the matter has
looked at, which suggests this story about the origin of the name
is just a folktale.
Some time after the War, it is said, engineers begin to use the
tape to seal the joints in air-conditioning ducts. This tape was
manufactured in the same way, though to match the ducting it was
coloured silver rather than the green of the Army version. Because
of this use, it became known informally as "duct tape".
"Duck tape" is a trademark of Henkel Consumer Adhesives, dating
from 1982, who sell it under that name in several countries. John
Kahl, the CEO of the firm, has been reported as saying that his
father chose the name after noticing that "duct tape" sounded like
"duck tape" when customers asked for it. (The collision of the two
"t"s in the middle of "duct tape" causes the first one to be lost
by a process called elision.) The term "duct tape" has never been
trademarked, though several compound terms that include it have -
it looks as though it had become generic before anybody thought of
registering it. Apart from a one-off instance in the Oxford English
Dictionary of "duck tape" from 1971 (which looks like a case of the
"duct" - "duck" elision), I can't find "duck tape" in the adhesive
sense until the 1980s.
My view is that the original name was "duct tape", given informally
to it by heating engineers post-war, and the "duck tape" version is
elision in rapid speech, later capitalised on by a manufacturer.
But, as things stand, nobody knows for sure.
August 13, 2005
The Aristocrats
I was planning to go see The Aristocrats as soon as it was released in this area, but I think I'll wait a few days...
Broken Apple
Anybody know of a good landscaper in this area? The guy I usually use isn't answering his phone right now and I have a wee bit of an emergency...
Penn and Teller DVD
Mark Evanier, who always has something interesting to say about just about anything, mentions the forthcoming DVD of Penn and Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour. I haven't seen it, but I enjoy just about everything they do, so I've already added it to my Amazon shopping cart.
