In Kansas circa 1989, some of the Dillons stores were still converting over to checkstand scanners and automatic pricing via UPC (universal product code). In order to assuage the customer's fears about all of that technology taking the place of real price stickers, they instituted a "price guarantee." If the scanner gave the wrong price,
Office 2007 Professional Plus Key, the item was free. (In point of fact, all states have consumer protection laws about mis-scanning of prices, but generally the law is just that the price difference must be refunded.) Now it turns out that scanners were much more correct statistically than the cashier manually entering the price from the sticker. Sure, there were the odd cases where the store had the wrong UPC data, but it was much more common for an under-slept high school student like me to mistype the sticker price on the 10-key pad. Mistyping was only one small source of error. When you rely on price stickers, and the price of an item changes, you have to find all of the items and re-sticker them. In a store there are about 5,000 item price changes each week. When the price of a six-ounce tube of toothpaste changes,
Microsoft Office 2007 Standard, the store employees would have to find every one of those whether they are on the shelf, in the re-stock bin,
Office 2010 Pro Plus Key, out on the floor for replacement stock, in the back room waiting to be rolled off the palette, etc. With price stickers there are dozens of places where human error can be introduced. The UPC pricing system helped reduce all of those errors to one centralized price authority for an item. (In 1996 and 1998 the FTC conducted studies of checkout scanner accuracy, noting an improvement between the two studies probably due to awareness. They did not, unfortunately, compare scanner accuracy to the accuracy of a completely manual system.) The point of this story is that technology can significantly lessen mistakes - if we choose to use it. English is a tricky language,
Windows 7 Serial, trickier than typing on those 10-keys. We know how to say "you're welcome" but we sometimes write "your welcome." We know the difference between trying to "loose" a knot and trying not to "lose" our car keys, but we sometimes type loose anyway. With this introduction, you probably know it's time for some spelling and grammar mistakes from the web. I must admit, I have fun finding these (and special thanks go to Jeanne who has pointed out dozens to me). It's even more fun to share them. Today's focus: the all-too-common "right of passage". Right, as a noun, is a power or privilege to which you are entitled - such as voting rights. Rite is a noun which means a ceremonial act or practice. So there may be cases - such as traveling through international waters - where you may indeed have a right of passage. In the common usage of the phrase however, you are typically referring to the ceremonial act of transitioning from one phase of your life (youth) to another (adulthood). When the fingers are flying across the keyboard it's not always easy to get it write - I mean right. Take this example, where I'm sure Stewart knew what he meant. Too bad the reporter typed it up incorrectly: Thankfully,
Windows 7 Enterprise Key, Word can help you pass safely, in all of the ways you are entitled, if you let its contextual spell checker do the work: Surfing the web, I happened across Paul Brians' very helpful list of common errors, including mention of the accident under discussion in this post: Right of Passage. Kudos go to Paul for trying to help students in Pullman and beyond with his handy reference guide. Technology helps us avoid mistakes and it continues to improve. If it could only have been employed to help me avoid some of those horrible wardrobe mistakes I made in junior high. Miami Vice made a lasting impression on me. Too bad I embraced it all the way down to the huarache sandals. Chris Bryant
Learn more about the wiles of Word from our Word blog. <div
Microsoft Office 2007 Standard The rite of writing
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