Article Mistake corrections

[DJ...]

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Hardware/5611.html

Paragraph 3:

And while ever-increasing storage capacities for very little money are good news storage junkies, the face of disk drives are about to change, thanks to the growth in solid state drives, or SSDs.

...is good news for storage junkies

Paragraph 6:

The other advantage of SSDs is that they, typically, consume less power than mechanical drives and run lot cooler.

1 - Both commas are unnecessary
2 - run a lot cooler or run much cooler.

Paragraph 7:

SSDs do have disadvantages, however. For a start they are still only available in, relatively, limited capacities and are still expensive.

Not sure why this line should be read with the commas as in my opinion neither are necessary.

Last paragraph:

Netbooks will undoubtedly be the first line of PCs that will benefit from SSDs as makers trim down own battery usage

...trim down on battery usage

 

[Shake&Bake]

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Hardware/5611.html

Paragraph 3:

And while ever-increasing storage capacities for very little money are good news storage junkies, the face of disk drives are about to change, thanks to the growth in solid state drives, or SSDs.

...is good news for storage junkies

I reckon it should stay as it is, without your edit.
Why?
It feels more like Sarel Seemonster telling a story to storage junkies

But if that was the case, it should read:

And while ever-increasing storage capacities for very little money is good news storage junkies

Ok I'm bored

/end derail

 

[rwenzori]

I reckon it should stay as it is, without your edit.
Why?
It feels more like Sarel Seemonster telling a story to storage junkies

But if that was the case, it should read:



Ok I'm bored

/end derail

Our one platoon sergeant was Sarel Seemonster LOL!

You are right. "Capacities..are". Plural with plural.

The next bit is mush though - "the face of disk drives are about to change". "Face" is singular, "are" is plural. It is such supa-kewl journalistic lingo, and because most disk drives don't have faces I can't see an easy fix. Maybe "the face if disk storage is", if you really must.

It seems the forum needs a full-time sub-editor!

 

[DJ...]

You are right. "Capacities..are". Plural with plural.

Capacities might be plural, but the "good news" being referred to is singular. The plural (capacities) in this case refers to a singular piece of good news. In other words, there is only one benefit. The way I read it, the good news is being referenced as a whole (and in this case there is only one piece of good news), not the word 'capacities'.

Let me change the noun and the context to explain from my perspective:

"And while dogs becoming louder are good news for storage junkies"
"And while dogs becoming louder is good news for storage junkies"

I might be wrong, but I doubt the first line would make the grade grammatically...

 

[rwenzori]

Capacities might be plural, but the "good news" being referred to is singular. The plural (capacities) in this case refers to a singular piece of good news. In other words, there is only one benefit. The way I read it, the good news is being referenced as a whole (and in this case there is only one piece of good news), not the word 'capacities'.

And while ever-increasing storage capacities for very little money are good news storage junkies, the face of disk drives are about to change, thanks to the growth in solid state drives, or SSDs.

To have it your way one would have to turn the sentence around like:

"good news for storage junkies is...."

As the sentence stands its subject is "capacities", which would take the plural form of the verb.

 

[Shake&Bake]

<start derail v2.0>

Sorry, but Google just gave me some intersting info.

Did you know that Clive Bruce was the voice of Sarel Seemonster?
Go figure!

<end derail v2.0>

Anyways - DJK and rwenzori for sub-editors then

 

[DJ...]

To have it your way one would have to turn the sentence around like:

"good news for storage junkies is...."

As the sentence stands its subject is "capacities", which would take the plural form of the verb.

OK, I concede. Removing the "for very little money" makes a little more sense. I see now. I consider myself grammatically sh@t out...

 

[rwenzori]

<start derail v2.0>

Sorry, but Google just gave me some intersting info.

Did you know that Clive Bruce was the voice of Sarel Seemonster?
Go figure!

<end derail v2.0>

Anyways - DJK and rwenzori for sub-editors then

LOL! WTF is Clive Bruce? Sounds a bit of a soutie??

Back to the rails.....

 

[DJ...]

The next bit is mush though - "the face of disk drives are about to change". "Face" is singular, "are" is plural. It is such supa-kewl journalistic lingo, and because most disk drives don't have faces I can't see an easy fix. Maybe "the face if disk storage is", if you really must.

A little personification never hurt anyone...

 

[rwenzori]

OK, I concede. Removing the "for very little money" makes a little more sense. I see now. I consider myself grammatically sh@t out...

Noooo! No sh1tting out happening!

I'm still trying to figure out your dog example which is interesting. I think there you are creating a singular concept which in a language like Afrikaans would be concatenated - "dogs-becoming-louder".

Anyway! Time to get up.

 

[rwenzori]

A little personification never hurt anyone...

It still gets the numbers wrong!

 

[DJ...]

Noooo! No sh1tting out happening!

I'm still trying to figure out your dog example which is interesting. I think there you are creating a singular concept which in a language like Afrikaans would be concatenated - "dogs-becoming-louder".

Anyway! Time to get up.

I changed the context to confuse you. A correct, analogous sentence would read:

"Louder dogs are good news"
"Louder dogs is good news"

 

[rwenzori]

I changed the context to confuse you. A correct, analogous sentence would read:

"Louder dogs are good news"
"Louder dogs is good news"

LOL! Having come from the East Rand, I'd go with the latter every time!

Try "The ever increasing loudness of dog barking is/are good news."

 

[rwenzori]

Licensing on hold, again

This in turn has yet again put a halt on the already overdue license conversions and consequently stifling competition in the telecoms market.

Maybe "...and is consequently...". You can't say "This....consequently stifling...".

 

[rwenzori]

Would someone please explain to me the point of this thread, and why I should bother poring over articles to correct them, when the errors posted are ignored?

Shoddy use of English ( and believe me, many articles in this section sin in this regard ) implies shoddy thinking. Shoddy thinking means that the article author either does not fully understand the subject or is making use of bogus arguments. The credibility and authority of what is written thereby becomes questionable.

Alternatively, is this thread merely to correct the most blatant singular/plural cockups and glaring spelling errors so beloved of the MyBB article authors?

 

[bdt]

Would someone please explain to me the point of this thread, and why I should bother poring over articles to correct them, when the errors posted are ignored?

By my (biased, personal) count, that's now the second time I've seen this question asked. It didn't get answered when I asked it, here's hoping that it will get answered this time (but I am NOT about to hold my breath waiting!) Oh, I'm also curious as to how these corrections, specially the more egregious ones, get taken by the authors whose copy gets shredded.

Shoddy use of English ( and believe me, many articles in this section sin in this regard ) implies shoddy thinking. Shoddy thinking means that the article author either does not fully understand the subject or is making use of bogus arguments. The credibility and authority of what is written thereby becomes questionable.

Alternatively, is this thread merely to correct the most blatant singular/plural cockups and glaring spelling errors so beloved of the MyBB article authors

Maybe it's a sop to the "lexiconaartjies" (sic) (my own term, it's so much better than "grammar nazis" , and encompasses more than just grammar which, frankly, isn't all that often the offence we're picking up on) to get us to focus and fret on bad copy instead of being fractious at each other/lesser mortals who mispost in forums. Or (and) maybe it's a thinly veiled plot by rpm et al to get the articles read more than they were although, practically speaking, the 'naartjies are few in number compared to the vast readership that is MBB members. Or maybe I'm just being paranoid here...

 

[rpm]

Hi guys

Thanks for the feedback. Will discuss this with Alastair (he is the news editor) and post the feedback here. We certainly find the feedback of value - just have to find a way to incorporate all of this in our editorial schedule.

 

[DJ...]

Hi guys.

Thanks for the feedback. Will discuss this with Alastair as he is the news editor, and post the feedback here. We certainly find the feedback of value, but have to find a way to incorporate all of the corrections in to our editorial schedule.

It just felt right to fix it up a little...

 

[bdt]

In A closer look at HD TV: for a start, the title should be HDTV!

Then, in the body:

“Consumers are constantly bombarded with technical jargon that often seems meaningless, however, this is one buzz- word that as a consumer, you need to pay attention to.

“HDTV is an acronym for high-definition television and it is a digital broadcasting system with a significantly higher resolution than traditional formats.

“This ultimately means that your screen at home will be able to display images so clear that they have a lifelike look to them.

“Your television will even have the ability to sing out in digital sound that you have only heard in movie theatres,” Coetzee said.

There is a succession of open quotes (the “ character) but no closing thereof per paragraph: is this a (valid and correct) style choice or should they each be closed?

At "he standard television set at home has a resolution of about 640x480, which means that there are 640 resolution lines by 480 pixels (dots)." my teeth start to grind; SDTV is *NOT* 640x480, the PAL signal we get is (likely) 720×576

In "He said while South Africa may often be behind in terms of technology , as the World Cup Soccer host for 2010 it is being forced to fast forward a little." the "fast forward" makes for a nonsense sentence, that should be fast-forward.

 

[bdt]

In Neotel pricing under fire, could someone explain (or perhaps correct) "When it comes to the case of the high cost of a dedicated 2Mbps fibre connection, Neotel said that they unfortunately did no know exactly what services and solutions were quoted on so could not comment." ..mayhap that should be "not know"?