[Sigia-l] Category label and context

[Bill DeRouchey]

On Sat, 8 Jun 2002, Michael Angeles wrote:

> When doing controlled vocabularies, parenthetical qualifiers are often
used
> to disambiguate homographic terms such as your term Macintosh, so that
> these two terms can exist without creating confusion for indexers.
>
>     Macintosh (coat)
>     Macintosh (apple)
>     Macintosh (computer operating system)
>
> This is a funny example, because I'm not sure in what kind of vocabulary
all
> occurrences of the terms below might co-exist. I'd be interested in
hearing
> how the term might be used out of context, such that it would create
> confusion in the user. Perhaps in an alpha listing of some sort?


Another rainy June afternoon out on the Washington orchard, and I'm
fighting network glitches. I stare at the screen and hear the rain fall.
Ever since I added the Macintosh G4 to the network, my Windows 98 local
network went cranky. They all can access the Internet but now the Windows
boxes won't talk. Too frustrated, I decide to tackle a different problem.

I left the shovels outdoors up in the orchard, unprotected in this sudden
downpour. I lace up the boots and grab my Dad's old Macintosh he wore in
Britain. Sure, I've got all the Columbia and North Face gear, but for a
good northwest rain, nothing beats my 30-year old knee-length Mac.

I trudge up past the Red Delicious and Braeburns and reach the shed out
back by the rows of Macintosh. Pickin time's coming soon. As I put the
shovels back in the shed and secure it, I glance at the gate and realize,
could ZoneAlarm be blocking IP addresses?

________________________________

Bill DeRouchey, Flume
bill at flume.com

Making information flow.