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Halo multiplayer reveal1/7/2024 ![]() ![]() The number one rule of multiplayer game design is – everything is fun against a friend. "This makes you feel more important and more succesful as a player than you actually are. "If you've ever played Geometry Wars on the Xbox, it shows you the top 10 players in the whole world – who are also your friends," he said. O'Connor was more specific in an interview later with the Guardian. "We're providing a brand new experience for you and your friends to play, in a way you've never played Halo before." ![]() "We're really changing the experience surrounding multiplayer," he said. It's been carefully considered."ĭuring a press briefing, Holmes also hinted that the infrastructure of the multiplayer mode is likely to evolve too, with changes to the lobby and matchmaking systems that suggest a more socially connected title. We'll explain our decisions at a later date. I'd like to tell people to be happy and confident and look forward to it, but I can't control that. ![]() "The balance system has been considered as an intrinsic part the Halo feel. "The community should have some confidence that it's been thought through as a Halo game," said franchise development director Frank O'Connor. The move toward a full character progression system will no doubt be controversial with Halo fans, and will be viewed as a shift in style toward first-person shooter rivals such as Call of Duty and Battlefield. It gets back to how do we allow players to choose the thing that supports the play style that makes them the most successful." "When we look at our multiplayer, one of the things we've explored is, because Halo is about the sandbox, about people playing how they want to, how do we push that even further? How do we really support different play styles in Halo 4? There's always been a lot of choice in Halo, but it's about pushing that even further. And if we've seen some interesting design elements, even if they weren't successful in another game, they may have sparked interest for us. "Whether it's first-person multiplayer or third-person – some very interesting things have happened there. In an interview with the Guardian later on, executive producer Kiki Wolfkill explained that 343 Industries had been looking at trends in the first-person genre, and had recognised the need to provide a more adapable and personalised multiplayer experience. This allows you to customise load outs and gives you gameplay enhancements that can be unlocked through the progression system." For the first time in a Halo title, you can actually change gameplay-impacting components. Speaking at the Xbox Showcase event in San Francisco last week, creative director Josh Holmes told reporters: "You, as a player, have the ability to customise all aspects of your Spartan warrior – and not just cosmetically. The familiar pulse weapon looks set to be restored to its powerful specifications from the first Halo titles. Fans of the series may also be interested to note that the classic Battle rifle is back. ![]()
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Best pinball machines for sale1/7/2024 ![]() ![]() An average sale price for 2021 of $7,431 is at the very high end of what most pinball machines sell for, and Pinpedia, the Pinball Encyclopedia, shows only three going up for sale for the whole of 2021. It is not only one of the most attractive pinball machines ever made, but is also one of the most sought after.Įven though 3500 units were produced, it is rare to see Fathom at shows or in auctions. It had excellent gameplay and an assortment of features that entertained for hours. FathomĪ truly stunning playfield adorns Fathom, the 1981 release by Bally that features a scuba diving, underwater-themed 80s classic. However, it continues to stand out thanks to its quality and longevity and will likely remain the best pinball machine of the 80s. With 3700 machines made by legendary pinball maker Bally, this classic from the 1980s remains a fan favorite and having one in your collection is considered a major coup.ĭespite its 5-ball multi-ball with four ways to activate it, Centaur does not have all the features of pinball machines from the end of the decade. With an average sale price of $3,930 in 2021, Centaur still holds exceptional value. As each scoring feature is highlighted a speech card verbally identifies each feature by name, something pinball machines in the 70s could only dream of. Although, the backglass displays a warning light and if the player tilts again, the game ends.Īnother excellent feature of Centaur is that during the game-over mode, tapping either flipper causes each of the features to be highlighted across the playfield, one at a time. As well as a standard in-play tilt, Centaur has the option for the player to have two tilts per game. It features a stunning playfield and a backglass that has a post-apocalyptic feel to it. A solid-state electronic game like most new machines of the 1980s, Centaur has a Gothic Fantasy theme to it. Centaurīoasting a sinister playfield and with amazing sounds for a game made in 1981, Centaur is a popular classic among pinball fans thanks to its amazing gameplay and design. The 10 Best Pinball Machines Of The 80s 1. Below we will take a look at some of the best pinball machines of the 80s and see why this decade was so popular. With the advantage of the 80s electronics boom, as well as an influx of ready cash into kids’ pockets, pinball machines became increasingly popular and exciting to play. The 10 best pinball machines of the 80s are: The best pinball machines of the 80s turned arcades into goldmines. The artwork, sound systems, and video graphics turned pinball machines into excitingly loud, innovative games. The 1980s brought a huge shift in pinball architecture and design where electronics became prevalent in most machines. ![]()
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![]() Those videos are similarly paced to the "classic" Aerials from Apple, so they just look right at home in Aerial. More than 4 hours of video content, all in 4K, mastered to both look great and take as little space as possible. ![]() Not on Mac Signal for Windows Signal for Linux. On top of the 20 videos that Joshua Michaels & Hal Bergman gifted to Aerial, they are also releasing new video sets from Monterey, New York and the American Southwest. To use the Signal desktop app, Signal must first be installed on your phone. New overlays are available to be displayed, including support for both Apple Music and Spotify, to see what's currently playing in the background while your screensaver is playing! More overlays! Including Apple Music and Spotify Just specify the same location on each, and you are good to go! This includes internal drives, external drives and network shares!Īnd if you have multiple users on the same computer, you can finally share the same cache. Thanks to Apple's changes to macOS Monterey, Aerial can now again let you pick where you want to store your cache folder. Support for storing your videos pretty much anywhere Want to see videos from Iceland and Patagonia? Two clicks will do it now! You can quickly change what you want to see and Aerial will react to it, updating your cache as needed. All options are directly accessible now, and more importantly, you can make multiple selections of things you want to watch. ![]() A simplified yet more powerful UIĪerial 3 refines the UI introduced previously by simplifying it. ![]() After that, stick the USB into your Mac, and you can install the system.The latest videos from tvOS 15 are now available in Aerial 3.0, including videos from Patagonia, Grand Canyon, Scotland and Iceland. Additionally, you can run it on any virtualization platform you like:ĭownload macOS Sonoma 14.1 ISO for Virtual Machines or Mac PCsĬlick the button below to put the image file you downloaded onto a USB stick for your computer. You can use this image to update, upgrade, or install it fresh on your primary Mac computer. As a result, you can download the image file you created for your PC with peace of mind. This situation is delicate, especially if you need to familiarize yourself with the terminal tool. Then, we ensured it had all the latest updates from Apple by checking with the terminal console.Īfter that, we downloaded the latest available version, 14.1, and converted it to an ISO format in the same manner to prepare it for you. We created this ISO file using a computer with the older macOS Ventura version. How Did We Prepare the Sonoma 14 ISO File? 13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports.13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports.13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports.In short, let us list these devices for you below: Supported Devices to Receive macOS Sonoma UpdateĪpple has officially published the list of supported devices for macOS Sonoma 14 on this page. You can access all the new stuff from the presentation page that Apple has published. Now, you can see shared locations in the app, making it easier for people to interact.Įspecially with the search filters, you can easily find things in your past chats. This way, you can make groups like friends, students, or family and share passwords within those groups.Īpple further improved the Messages app even better in macOS Sonoma 14. Among these fantastic options, you will also discover slow-motion videos.Īnother cool thing is sharing passwords with family or groups. This way, your login photos will appear more apparent and more appealing.Īlso, the screensavers with macOS 14 are excellent and fun. The Sonoma system shifted down the spot where you type in your password on the login screen. ![]() This feature helps you play games with lots of graphics more smoothly on your M series Mac computer, which needs a lot of processing power. The graphics quality of some games you play may be high, so Apple introduced a new feature called Game Mode. In addition, you can place web applications in the dock and run them like macOS software. Also, you can have different profiles for work and personal stuff in Safari. Now, you can lock private browsing pages before you close them. So, they added a notification that says “Currently Sharing” to let everyone know you’re sharing your screen smoothly. This casual way lets people ask questions more freely. You can make screen sharing faster and quicker between M series Apple Mac computers.įurthermore, you don’t have to ask for permission from others to share your screen in video meetings anymore. Click Update and the latest version will. Once the new macOS beta is installed Software Update will check to see if there are any updates. Similarly, if you give two thumbs up, you’ll see fireworks! Double-click on the dmg file and the installer will run. And when you make a heart shape with your hands during a video call, hearts will appear in the background. You can also use the Presenter Overlay in apps like Zoom, Webex, or Teams. ![]()
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Strawberry lime margarita1/7/2024 ![]() ![]() To make a lime round, cut a thin slice of lime and then cut upward from the edge towards the center but just shy of the center because once you hit that it’s likely the lime will split and won’t stay on the glass! Use a different kind of tequila – Swap blanco tequila for reposado or any other kind - whatever your preference isĪdd a lime wedge, lime round, some fresh strawberry pieces, fresh sprig of mint, and/or a salt rim!.If you don’t have a muddler – the back of a wood spoon will work just fine!.Blend the strawberries – another route for this easy strawberry margarita recipe is to blend the strawberries until smooth and then add the other ingredients!.It just might be a little light on the strawberry flavor! Keep it chunky or strain – I like to keep the strawberry and mint pieces in the drink for added flavor, but if you’re really adverse to that then you can strain them out.If you made it in a glass then add some ice! Tips and tricks If you made it in a cocktail shaker then pour over a cup of ice. ![]() To the muddled mixture add the tequila, lime juice, orange liqueur, and agave. In a cocktail shaker, a mason jar, or directly in your glass, muddle the strawberries and mint together until the strawberries release their juices and the mint is very fragrant.Ģ. This muddled strawberry cocktail is super easy to make in just a few quick steps!ġ. Agave nectar: to add just a hint more of sweetness to bring out the strawberry flavor.Orange liqueur: such as triple sec or cointreau - adds a bit of bitterness and herbal/citrusy notes that are in a classic margarita.Lime juice: fresh squeezed lime juice, always!.Tequila: blanco tequila is best for margaritas. ![]()
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Frequency of middle c1/7/2024 ![]() ![]() A complex tone composed of two sine waves of 10 Hz may sometimes be heard as up to three pitches: two spectral pitches at 10 Hz, derived from the physical frequencies of the pure tones, and the combination tone at 200 Hz, corresponding to the repetition rate of the waveform. When the actual fundamental frequency can be precisely determined through physical measurement, it may differ from the perceived pitch because of overtones, also known as upper partials, harmonic or otherwise. The pitch of complex tones can be ambiguous, meaning that two or more different pitches can be perceived, depending upon the observer. In most cases, the pitch of complex sounds such as speech and musical notes corresponds very nearly to the repetition rate of periodic or nearly-periodic sounds, or to the reciprocal of the time interval between repeating similar events in the sound waveform. There is evidence that humans do actually perceive that the source of a sound is slightly higher or lower in vertical space when the sound frequency is increased or reduced. ![]() The exact etymological history of the musical sense of high and low pitch is still unclear. At least in English, it is just one of many deep conceptual metaphors that involve up/down. Despite that, the idiom relating vertical height to sound pitch is shared by most languages. That is, "high" pitch means very rapid oscillation, and "low" pitch corresponds to slower oscillation. Since pitch is such a close proxy for frequency, it is almost entirely determined by how quickly the sound wave is making the air vibrate and has almost nothing to do with the intensity, or amplitude, of the wave. Īccording to the American National Standards Institute, pitch is the auditory attribute of sound allowing those sounds to be ordered on a scale from low to high. Complex and aperiodic sound waves can often be assigned a pitch by this method. Pitches are usually associated with, and thus quantified as, frequencies (in cycles per second, or hertz), by comparing the sounds being assessed against sounds with pure tones (ones with periodic, sinusoidal waveforms). The oscillations of sound waves can often be characterized in terms of frequency. However, this does not necessarily mean that people will not agree on which notes are higher and lower. Pitch is the subjective perception of a sound wave by the individual person, which cannot be directly measured. Frequency is an objective, scientific attribute which can be measured. Pitch is closely related to frequency, but the two are not equivalent. Pitch is an auditory sensation in which a listener assigns musical tones to relative positions on a musical scale based primarily on their perception of the frequency of vibration ( audio frequency). Historically, the study of pitch and pitch perception has been a central problem in psychoacoustics, and has been instrumental in forming and testing theories of sound representation, processing, and perception in the auditory system. Pitch may be quantified as a frequency, but pitch is not a purely objective physical property it is a subjective psychoacoustical attribute of sound. Pitch is a major auditory attribute of musical tones, along with duration, loudness, and timbre. Or more commonly, pitch is the quality that makes it possible to judge sounds as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies. Pitch is a perceptual property of sounds that allows their ordering on a frequency-related scale, E melodic minor descending: E D C B A G F ♯ EĮ major modes ( diatonic scales).Perceptual property in music ordering sounds from low to high In musical notation, the different vertical positions of notes indicate different pitches.E melodic minor ascending: E F ♯ G A B C ♯ D ♯ E.See pitch (music) for a discussion of historical variations in frequency.ĭesignation by octave Scientific designation When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of Middle E (E 4) is approximately 329.628 Hz. It has enharmonic equivalents of F♭ and D (D-double sharp), amongst others. E is the third note and the fifth semitone of the C major scale, and mi in fixed-do solfège. ![]()
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For android instal Logic Pro1/7/2024 ![]()
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![]() To do this, you need a way to review your images directly on the card, preferably with great performance. Some photographers like to throw away the trash before they even copy their images from their cards. Available both from the Importer and a new dedicated Cull view, you can benefit from zero-delay browsing, group view of similar images, star ratings and color tagging, zoom to 100%, filtering, and the ability to change capture time. Capture One Pro 23 comes with new features to make the culling process faster, easier, and more enjoyable. Faster culling and upgrades to the importerĬulling thousands of images can be a tedious task. Learn more about automated photo editing here 2. If you need the same values between images, you can copy/apply them instead. This also means that Smart Adjustments will not provide exact identical values in the adjustments between images, even if the images are almost the same. It’s designed this way to make sure the results look natural. Smart Adjustments will try to match the light and color of faces while taking the environment into account. Instead of matching adjustment values, it matches the desired result. Smart Adjustments will help you greatly in these cases. ![]() You might be shooting outside, where the light can change from one shot to the next, or inside a poorly lit room. But some images do not fit this description. This could for example be studio portraits with controlled lighting setups. One-click batch edit: Why not just copy/apply adjustments?Ĭopy/apply can work perfectly fine for your images if they are shot under the same conditions and have the same starting point. Depending on your editing habits, reference, and images, you will be able to finish 70-100% of your editing in a single click by using a Smart Style.įour images edited with a Smart Style to get a consistent look. This allows you to make one-click Styles that will adapt White Balance and Exposure to your image – if you’re photographing people. You can, for example, make a Smart Style that simply fixes White Balance in your portraits that you can apply directly during import.īut why stop there? Smart Styles can include any other adjustment as well. This allows you to save your reference as a Smart Style for future use by including Smart Exposure and/or Smart White Balance. Save your reference as a Smart StyleĪs you will see, the Smart Adjustment tool has a “Save Style…” button as well. Smart Adjustments will then try to match the look of your selected images to the reference image. Then select one or multiple images and hit “Apply”.īy default, both Exposure and White Balance will be adjusted but you can set this yourself using the tick marks. A thumbnail will now indicate that the reference is saved.Ĥ. Find the Smart Adjustments Tool in the Adjust Tab.ģ. Edit one image to your liking with Exposure and White Balance.Ģ. So how do you use Smart Adjustments? Simply follow these steps:ġ. With Smart Adjustments, these can now be automatically tuned to match a reference image of your choosing. The most critical adjustments for achieving a consistent look are Exposure and White Balance. The new tool, which has been designed for portrait, wedding, and event photographers, uses faces and skin tone as guidance to determine which adjustments to make to your photos. Smart Adjustments are here to help automate that part of your workflow. Getting a consistent look across many images can be difficult and time-consuming if they are shot under different lighting conditions. ![]() ![]() Get the right look with Smart Adjustments Here’s a rundown to get you excited to work faster, together, and, ultimately, less. Capture One Pro 23 offers a bunch of new tools and functionalities to make your workflow more efficient and flexible. ![]()
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Everspace tips1/6/2024 ![]() #6: Balance the concurrent use of boost-dodging and weapon-firing, as doing so is a strain on energy reserves. The default key binding for Action Freeze on PC is ‘Z’. This is especially useful in scanning for mines your ship could trigger while weaving through the tight spaces around space derelicts and debris fields. #5: Use Everspace 2’s photo mode, dubbed ‘Action Freeze,’ as a reconnaissance tool. Elites are the primary source for these keys, and the Subroutine ship upgrades gained can greatly enhance your ship’s capabilities, with armor bonuses and weapon damage boosts. #4: One thing you definitely should hoard early in the game though, are Access Keys for derelict Colonial Stations, and one of sixteen (seventeen if you Kickstarted Everspace 2) Subroutine enhancements located within. Be wary of quick reinforcements jumping in immediately after destroying the Okkar faction’s Corvettes and Frigates. The individual turrets on Colonial Warships can be targeted and destroyed, but these final wave ships themselves cannot, so lower their priority. Another use of pause time would be to strategize and determine your targeting priority for large groups of enemies: Drones first, since they deal high damage, but are relatively weak. The only exception is one very specific sector (1-6) in Hardcore mode, where menu pausing is one of two selectable handicaps. #3: And make effective use of the ability to pause time in the equipment menus to craft those secondaries and consumables, even in the midst of battle. While total annihilation isn’t necessary, you could lose out on potential profits from failing to dismantle everything you encounter, so balance your risk/reward assessment. Focus instead on eliminating your opposition as quickly and efficiently as possible. ![]() #2: Don’t be tempted to hoard your secondary weapons and consumables–they’re easy to craft, and resources are plentiful. Points of interest are also a trigger for Outlaw and Okkar faction ambushes. #1: The longer you linger in a zone, the more likely you are to be ambushed by multiple waves of ships, including Drones, Fighters, Interceptors, Corvettes, and Frigates, finally culminating in mostly indestructible Colonial Warships jumping in at this point you should definitely tap out and jump out. Here are the ten best tips and tricks aspiring pilots need to know from grizzled veterans. ![]() Music, poetry, and video editing are some of his other big passions, and he’s been known to dabble in all of them from time to time.Everspace 2 has been in Early Access for just over two years, and finally hit version 1.0 on April 6th 2023. Whenever he’s not writing or playing video games, Jason loves to paint Warhammer 40K miniatures and often spends an ungodly amount of time trying to perfect his techniques. Jason strongly believes that content should be written in the service of the reader and is thankful to everybody who takes the time to check out his articles. Even though he seems to grow more cynical by the day, he always tries his best not to let his personal views get in the way of objective criticism. After spending the better part of the past decade freelancing for various websites - both gaming and no-gaming alike -, he finally found a place he can call his home here at DualShockers.Īn Evergreen content specialist, Jason tends to focus on guides and listicles but doesn’t shy away from the occasional feature or review. Jason is a classic jack-of-all-trades writer who loves to cover most topics, though gaming has always been his strong suit. ![]()
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Underrail walkthrough drill rotor1/6/2024 ![]() ![]() For example, i can say that you need to visit foundry first because there are plenty of quests that don't need much combat and if you are going for oddity and have stealth and lockpicking you can get at least 2 levels there without putting yourself in the danger. Which is a completely arbitrary suggestion. And I suppose most players will clear the DLC prior to finishing the main quest.Ĭompleting - yes, but nothing prevents you from going there and doing their quests much earlier. Originally posted by dglivramento:Evidentelly the DLC doesn't make Tchort Institute harder, but unless something changed completing that area dumps you in the Deep Caverns (and thus the end of the game) which is why I lumped them together. I'm offering a game progression route that upon completing a certain area you will be at that level if you pick up most oddities and complete all quests. And I suppose most players will clear the DLC prior to finishing the main quest.Īlso those levels I put are not there to show that you NEED to be at that level to clear the area. If you know what you are doing and have the right gear you could probably do beast at level 10, on dominating (which would actually be hard to do because you would probably have to artificially restrict yourself from leveling up to only be level 10 and have access to this quest).Īs I stated it was my opinion, there is no fixed path in this game as we all know, it was just a suggestion for new players.Įvidentelly the DLC doesn't make Tchort Institute harder, but unless something changed completing that area dumps you in the Deep Caverns (and thus the end of the game) which is why I lumped them together. Institute, for example, didn't magically get harder because the expansion came out (so there's no reason to believe you should be higher level than previously existed in order to do it). The levels people are assigning seem completely arbitrary. Originally posted by happybjorn:Sorry, but it's pretty much as carashi said, and for the reasons he said as well. I really only have experience playing a heavy on stealth game on oddity experience, so level isn't that important if you know what you need to do. Originally posted by dglivramento:It really depends on playstyle and how well you planned your build. LEVEL 18į) Arena, Completion of Oligarch questline, Junkyard Gang War, Occulus stuff if so inclined, Free Drones/Protectorate if so inclined as well - LEVEL 20-21 LEVEL 16Į) Core city all the way up to finishing the first 3 oligarch quests. Also, this whole area awards you with a ton of XP. Dan's plasma sentry wil help a lot here as well in the last fight. LEVEL 12ĭ) Foundry: only difficulty here is killing the bladelings, but since they are immune to criticals you don't need to be a high level where you have all critical boosts in place, just need a good weapon/skills to deal (again) with heavy mechanical resistance. ![]() If you have good stealth by this point (good equipment+high AGI+investment in skill) you can even do the whole dude quest right now. In my opinion (normal difficulty and with stealth/oddity playstyle in mind) and the level you'll probably be at upon completion:Ī) Everything up to finishing Depot A (no choice here) - LEVEL 8ī) Everything to the east of SGS (battery plant and camp hathor) - LEVEL 10Ĭ) Rail crossing (you won't be fighting the faceless head on in this playstyle, the only real issue is the warehouse robots - where you find the pulse thingie to fry the plasma sentries the faceless have around the shop- but by now you have the means to deal with heavy mechanical resistence enemies). It really depends on playstyle and how well you planned your build. ![]()
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Good names for chatbots1/6/2024 ![]() In 2009, when I started ShortFormBlog, I decided it would be a clever idea to create a mascot for this site, which I named Julius after my middle name, which I’ve never been a fan of, as a way to take ownership of this thing I never really liked. I mean, even I’m a little guilty of this. And I bet you if Sydney Pollack was still alive, he would be pissed that Microsoft decided to give its search engine’s chat engine the nickname Sydney. I’m sure everyone named Alexa must hate that when someone calls their name at home, a bot is competing for the actual person’s attention. ![]() I’m sure the legendary triathlete Siri Lindley cursed a little the day she found out that there was going to be a chat assistant on everyone’s phone named Siri. I mean, if a chatbot is coming to steal my name, I wouldn’t be the first. ( Everyday basics/Unsplash) Why must we humanize the names of our chatbots? This gradually led to less formal name structures, which have over time become more common. ![]() (Another effect of this, which is not the case for Ernie, is that the push to make names work better in poetry would lead to names with fewer syllables, like Michael to Mike.) Ernest does not lend itself to an easy rhyme, but a name like Ernie, which ends on a long “e” sound, ends as many other words do. Other well-established nicknames which were arrived at as a result of the same sort of ludic process include Dick from Richard, and Peg from Margaret, though in these two cases other complications came into play.īy that logic, it’s easy to see how we got Ernie. Other hypocoristics of this type included Bob from Robert via Rob, Bill from William via Will, and Nell from Helen. They clearly resulted from a playful process which involved speakers in taking an abbreviated one-syllable hypocoristic name and replacing it with some rhyming syllable. Nicknames like Ted have been in use ever since the Middle Ages and it is intriguing to think about how these particular hypocoristics came into being. The linguist Peter Trudgill has noted that strongly formal names like Ernest likely evolved into their less formal forms, like Richard to Dick, or Edward to Ed to Eddie, to help support poetic rhyming schemes.Īs Trudgill wrote for The New European back in 2020:īut there is another interesting development which can occur in the case of names like Edward: Edwards very often get called, not Ed but Ted-or even Ned. These phrases have a tendency to evolve over time, much as the English language itself has. By not calling me Ernest, you’re showing a sign of appreciation towards me. Now you might be wondering: Why do people shorten this name from Ernie to Ernest? (Or, in Sheryl Crow parlance, why is it that when his name is William, is she sure it’s Bill or Billy or Mac or Buddy?) That’s because of the concept of the hypocorism, a Greek-derived term that essentially means “pet name.” Yes, we not think of it as such, but Ernie is a pet name, a sign of affection in nomenclature. (As far as I know, I’m the only Ernie Smith that is a modern-day journalist, though I haven’t looked closely.) I know of at least three separate successful musicians named Ernie or Ernest Smith, numerous athletes, and at least two generations of Ernies that came before me. The Wikipedia disambiguation page for Ernie Smith lists seven separate Ernie Smiths, none of which are me, while the related disambiguation page for Ernest Smith has 13 entries. Glenroy “Ernie” Smith, a Jamaican reggae musician, is. Today’s Tedium looks at the roots of Ernie, and considers why Baidu might have found it a fitting name. Maybe writing something might offer a reasonable shield. Crap, I thought (though I didn’t say “crap,” instead uttering another four-letter word). I just learned that Baidu, the second-largest search engine in the world, is about to launch an AI chatbot, and it’s named Ernie. But it’s that unusual nature that leads it to be used in unusual ways-as you might have heard, one of the most famous Muppets on Sesame Street shares my first name-and it’s perhaps for that reason that I’m writing about it now. ![]() (Only the “i” pokes its head out, like an alphabetical periscope of sorts.) It’s a weird name, I fully admit, which makes it somewhat memorable. I inherited my name, a two-syllable dynamo that, in lower-case form, barely expands beyond the x-height of the fonts that display it. Today in Tedium: Unless you’re Elton John or Lady Gaga or Elliott Smith, you generally don’t get to choose your name. ![]() |