Moody computer

I’ve been having some problems with Firefox which I tried to resolve a couple of weeks ago. It might have helped a little - Firefox doesn’t seem to be unresponsive quite as often after the computer has been asleep. On the other hand, the computer doesn’t always go to sleep, for some reason. And when [...]

First lecture!

I attended my first lecture as a PhD student this Thursday! The subject of the course is Phonology and Morphology, and at least the Phonology part feels familiar. You know you are a language nerd when you feel at home when you look at the IPA chart…

Dialogue systems with autism

I went to see my supervisor on Friday, and we talked some about dialogue systems, which he does a lot of research on. He told me this interesting thing: when you sum up the mistakes a dialogue system makes, you end up with a list which more or less describes the communication problems that children [...]

A thousand words - or a few?

“A picture says more than a thousand words”. I think most of us have said or heard this, but maybe without giving it much thought. The implicit meaning is the more words you convey, the better. Is that always true?
Persons with communications impairments often need some sort of augmentative or alternative communication (AAC). Spoken language [...]

Language and personality

I’m reading Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks, and came upon this quote:
We are a linguistic species — we turn to language to express whatever we are thinking, and it is usually there for us instantly. But for those with aphasia, the inability to communicate verbally may be almost unbearably frustrating [...]

Good old Firefox

I did as suggested by Rille who commented on my previous post and deleted my Firefox profile, and now I’ve created a new one. Hopefully this will get Firefox to behave!
Flock was ok, but not really what I need. I guess I’m not that social, haha…

Web browser

I’m trying to decide which web browser to use. I’ve been using Firefox for a couple of years, but recently it has started behaving weirdly. When I restart my computer after it has been “asleep” I have to restart Firefox, which means that I have to close all tabs. I have tried to set it [...]

Courses

My first course begins in less than two weeks, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m taking three courses this semester: Phonology & Morphology, Pragmatics and History of Linguistics.

Mathematics in sign language

I met a sign language teacher (my fiancé’s brother’s girlfriend’s brother’s girlfriend… the other day and she told me about a problem with the national math exams.
All children here have to take the national math exams. Children whose first language is sign language have a right to get the questions translated to sign language, [...]

Scrabble - what do you need to win?

I was thinking about which abilities you need to be good at Scrabble. Presumably you would need a rather good vocabulary and a good ability to re-arrange letters in your mind. Also you should need some strategical skills and logical thinking. But if you possess these qualities, will you immediately be good at Scrabble?
I found [...]