mike's web log/comments

Colleague David found a real, live example today of what has been termed the "Cupertino effect." This refers to "runaway spellcheckers" that suggest some pretty wacky alternatives for what the spellchecker thinks is a misspelled word.

This is from an article in today's online version of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Moon decided on the tactic after reading on misplace about a boy who claimed he regularly drove 100 mph on Interstate 5 and avoided detection by knowing how to spot patrol cars, relying partly on whether the plates were in-state, Hullinger said.

In case they get around to updating the version online, here's a graphic of it:

Can you tell what they actually meant to say? I didn't get it right away, but almost certainly they meant MySpace. David did the legwork and reports that for MySpace, "Word 2003 suggests my space and misplace". (He also notes: "Word 2007 suggests MySpace and my space. Moving with the times, is Office.")

Moral: check your spell checker's checks. Which of course you already do, right?