Dangers of spelling correctors

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Gene Spafford <spaf () cerias purdue edu>
Date: Sun, 08 Dec 2002 14:12:53 -0500
To: dave () farber net
Subject: For IP? Dangers of spelling correctors

So, in one of my many editorial positions, I sent something out for
review to several colleagues.   One question I asked was "Is this
paper significantly different from the same authors' workshop XYZ
paper?  If not, then we will not publish it again, as a matter of
editorial policy."

One of the reviewers returned a review that was negative but
insightful.   However, it ended with:
    " I think that the paper published in XYZ Workshop is a core
part of this paper,
    although the authors did add some new excrement results."

Well, I think that sums up the rest of the reviews I have seen about
the paper, but perhaps a bit more candidly than usual! :-)


I asked (politely) if something else had been intended and a
transcription error had occurred.  I got as a response:

    "Very Sorry!! It should be "experiment". It's a typo. MS
Outlook corrected it as
    "excrement" when it checks spelling and I didn't pay attention.... Very
    embarrassing, but it's all Bill Gates' fault."

Yet another reason I don't use Outlook.....


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