2010 Techie Slang: There's More to Learn Than" iPad"

We're just 35 days into 2010 and I keep running into terms that aren't just new to me; they're opaque.

Most of my new vocab words refer to the Net. I'm not saying that each of these words is brand-spankin' new to the planet, only to me. I figured I'd share them with you because, well, isn't that what a Communications Goddess is supposed to do? Aren't any of them new to you, too?

mi-fi: A friend on Twitter wrote about her new "mifi" (no hyphen), and there's an earlier post about my determined search, with pursed lips and narrowed eyes, to figure out what the heck it was.

I learned that mi-fi is your own little "hot spot", a place where more than one computer (generally no more than 5) is able to latch on to the Net at the same time. Verizon and Sprint offer mi-fi services -- there's more out there, I'm sure.

paywall: This term started popping into my line of vision after The NY Times announced that next year its website will charge a flat fee for unlimited access (a certain number of articles will be free each month). Basically, it's self-defining. You visit a website, you click and you click and suddenly a box pops up stopping you from surfing anymore until you cough up some green. You hit a wall, and you darn well are gonna pay to get around it.

epic fail: I think this is the one that let me know whatever coolness I had has either left me completely or just reformatted to fit a different criteria. In my defense, there's not a tween nor a twenty-something in my household to keep me even vaguely aware of the latest slang.. I have The Daily Show for remedial study.

Meanwhile, my collegiate goddaughter and her brother helped me see that when something goes toilet paper-stuck-to-your-shoe wrong, it is epic fail. Really bad clothing choices -- think female guests on The Jerry Springer Show -- can be epic fail, too.

podiobook: Serialized audiobooks (Ah, ah, ah. You weren't about to translate "audiobooks" into "books on tape", were you? Are there really any of those left?)

Let's try again.

Serialized audiobooks are presented in podcast format with subscribers downloading a new chapter each week. I'm told that mysteries and science-fiction do particularly well as podiobooks. Podiobooks.com is a major resource, and I believe that once a book is completed, the site acts as a repository of the whole thing. Books are free, though donations are gratefully accepted. Authors provide their material to the site free of charge in hopes of building audience, getting feedback or just for fun.

hot key: I can't believe I hadn't heard this one before. It's simply another way to say "keyboard shortcut." PC users will recognize Alt +Cont + Delete to end a program; a Mac user has a difference combination to Force Quit. Each of those is a hot key.

Finally, my favorite new word. It's one you think you know.

Britney: As in Spears. In the new usage, Britney is an adjective. Can I use it in a sentence? Sure.

"Don't go all Britney on me just because your boyfriend broke up with you."

[Hey Anonymous! Thanks for the grammar check!]