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Re: Free book - GNU/Linux Advanced Administration



On Thu, 4 Feb 2010 15:18:21 -0500 (EST), Kent West wrote:
> Okay, you persuaded me to go take a look.
> 
> Why, oh why, don't "professionals" proof-read their material?
>
> On the first page, in the first paragraph:
>> The GNU/Linux systems have reached an important level of maturity,
>> allowing to integrate them in almost any kind of work environment,
>> from a desktop PC to the *sever* facilities of a big company.

The *sever* facilities of a big company?  Is that where they keep
the guillotines?  Is that where they chop off the heads of the
boss' political opponents?

That's the trouble with spell checkers.  They can tell you if you
used a word that's not in the dictionary, but they can't tell you
if you used the wrong word!

I once worked for a company that was merging with another
company of about the same size.  The employees of both companies
were nervous about losing their jobs.  The CEO wrote what was
supposed to be an upbeat article for the company newsletter
about the coming merger to try to boost morale.  The first
sentence of his article was supposed to be

   This is an exciting time for all of us!

But he misspelled exciting.  He left out the "c".  So the first
sentence of his article was

   This is an exiting time for all of us!

The spell checker didn't catch it, because "exiting" is a word.
To make matters worse, the cover of the newsletter had a
picture of a man running a race!  Needless to say, the boss
did not accomplish his objective.  But he did, accidentally,
tell the truth.  Thousands of employees lost their jobs within
a short time, including yours truly.


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