November 25th, 2005

This video universally gets one of two reactions

When I show someone this web site and the videos they put together on how Microsoft main campus could be serviced by a system of self-driving overhead personal vehicles, I get one of two reactions.

  1. “That’s so cool!”
  2. “That’s so stupid!” (Or words to that effect. Use your imagination.)

Yet another of their web sites writes

The small PRT tracks are only three feet across, and compliment modern office architecture.

Psst, the word you want is “complement” with an “e”. If you “compliment” (with an “i”) something, you praise it. If you “complement” (with an “e”) something, then you complete it. (In the realm of aesthetics, things that complement each other mutually enhance each other.) Mnemonic: “complement” = “complete”.

The comma is incorrect as well. This is a conjunction of predicates, not of clauses, and therefore demands no comma.

[Raymond is currently away; this message was pre-recorded.]

Author

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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