LET'S COMMUNICATE 
Ag Communication Newsletter 
March 2002, No. 75

CONTENTS 

WRITE THE RIGHT WORD 
HELPFUL COPYRIGHT WEB SITES 
DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU? YES! 
WEB COOKIES

 

WRITE THE RIGHT WORD

"English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgement and education--sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street."--E.B. White

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Some Trained Professional Watch observations. The first one isn't really fair, because it comes from a magazine that, although nationally distributed, has no editorial staff. In a freelance article about moving a large barn, the writer says the workers were impressed by "...the SHEAR HULK of the structure." Let's ponder. "Shear" means to trim closely, as in to shear a sheep. The writer meant "SHEER," one definition of which is unqualified or absolute. "Hulk" could be correct. One definition is impressively large or massive. But a better choice might be "BULK," referring to dimension or magnitude. So that gives us "sheer bulk."

***

The second came from a sports columnist in a metropolitan newspaper, calling supporters of athletic programs at a major university "WELL-HEALED" donors. Just maybe these contributors were recently cured of some disease and moved to philanthropy out of gratitude to the university's medical school. But I think not. He obviously meant "WELL-HEELED," or having plenty of money. This could be just a typographical error, which of course a spell checker would happily ignore.

HELPFUL COPYRIGHT SITES

Copyright issues are always a concern, and with the proliferation of electronic publishing in all its forms they get increasingly complex. There are many copyright resources on the Web, some useful, some not. Following are just four credible sites.

You can go right to the source, the U.S. Copyright Office site. Contrary to stereotypes about government information, it is a very useful and readable site. It includes a section on copyright basics as well as more complete legal information and a good frequently asked questions section.

http://www.loc.gov/copyright/ 

The highly regarded site from Stanford University contains a wealth of information, especially on fair use. It tends toward case law and is not necessarily for the casual browser. It includes a fair use reminder for Stanford faculty from Condoleezza Rice, former Stanford provost.

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/ 

The "10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained" site explores things commonly believed about copyright but wrong. This is basic non- legal, non-academic commentary, possibly less credible than some of the others but useful

http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html 

This "crash course" on copyright issues is from the University of Texas system, created for its faculty and staff. It approaches copyright from a university point of view and addresses many questions educators have about copyright.

http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm 

DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU? YES!

We might know what NDSU, REC, CSREES, EFNEP, CRIS and other initials and acronyms mean, but we cannot assume that all those we communicate with do.

"North Dakota State University" appears on our letterhead and most business cards. Staff are encouraged to use the full name of the university on first reference, especially to remind stakeholders of the connection between the university and field offices.

All acronyms should be fully written out the first time they're mentioned. Think about it. How many of us know what all five of the above examples mean?

Agnes Vernon and Becky Koch

WEB COOKIES

Cookies were a good thing, in the beginning anyway. A Web site can develop a cookie that contains information about you and store that cookie on your computer. The next time you access that Web site it would look for that cookie and "remember" you. The site would then provide you with information or bring you to a page that it knows you are interested in. The basic intent was to personalize the Web site based on your needs - a good thing. But there have been individuals/companies that have taken advantage of this information.

The default setting of most Web browsers like Netscape is to accept all cookies. You can set your preferences to accept all cookies, accept no cookies or be warned before a cookie is copied to your computer. To change your cookie preference go to:

Netscape: 
v3 Options/Network Preferences/Protocols 
v4 Edit/Preferences/Advanced

Microsoft Internet Explorer: 
v3 Internet Options/Advanced 
v4 View/Internet Options/Advanced 
v5 Tools/Internet Options/Security

You may have hundreds of these cookies stored on your hard disk drive and not know it. Most of these cookies should be deleted as you may never visit some of the Web sites that planted the cookie again. Deleting a cookie planted by a site you visit regularly may require you to answer some questions before a new cookie can be constructed - but no harm done.

Use a cookie manager like Karen's Cookie Viewer to see what cookies are on your computer. The viewer can search your entire hard drive and list the folders where cookies are found. You then can view individual cookies to see where they came from and decide if you want to keep or delete them. Go to: http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptcookie.html to download this freeware product, then be a real Cookie Monster and raid the cookie jar!

Dave Rice NDSU Ag Webmaster