John Lamansky

In the July 2005 issue of PC Magazine, I found three big “boo-boos” within eight pages. All three errors were within an article about notebooks written by Bill Howard, Sean Carroll, and Cisco Cheng (just so we know who to blame ;-)).

1. Page 90: A review of the Apple PowerBook G4 showed a screenshot of the notebook running… Office PowerPoint 2003?!
2. Page 93: In the “Notebook Accessories” side section, there is a review of the “Etymotic ER6″ earphones that reads, “These great sounding phones form a snug fit in the ear canal using foam or silicone tips and reduce outside noise by about 30 dB. Just make sure to carry spare tips with you because these detach easily.”
3. Page 98: In a review of the Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513, the writer said, “The 48-Wh battery, on the other hand, lasted a dissapointing 1 minute 59 seconds.”

A friend of mine thought that was hilarious when I first said it.

But just plain-old “greetings and salutations” got kind of plain and old eventually, so I came up with a few variations:

• Greetings and Ovations! (something you’d say to a performer)
• Greetings and Activation! (what Windows does when you start it up for the first time)
• Greetings and Solicitations! (the basic script of a telemarketer)

These phrases are just the ticket if you’re a photographer who wants to capture some really weird facial expressions.

So may I repeat to you: “Greetings and Salutations!” Welcome to my blog!