Skip to main content

Emoji, blogosfear, and more tech lingo you need to know

emojis
Image used with permission by copyright holder

DT’s tech lingo lesson is back after a post-SXSW hiatus! We’re sorry about that. Hopefully not too many crazy tech things happened that you fell behind in your vocabularies. In honor of April Fool’s day, let’s talk about a few silly words you’ve definitely seen floating about the Web and gain a better understanding of what they mean.

Dongle

An original definition of a dongle refers to a mobile device that connects to a laptop computer to allow access to protected material. These days, dongles refer to most things that can be plugged into a computer USB port to add functionalities, such as a Bluetooth dongle which can enable Bluetooth connections or extend range, or a car dongle which adds GPS location reporting. The word dongle has recently surfaced in tech’s forefront after a female developer tweeted about two men who were making sexual jokes using the term, resulting in one of the men getting fired from his job.

Recommended Videos

“The Boxee dongle adds live TV capacity to my laptop, so why bother buy a full-sized television?”

Hackivist

A portmanteaus of the would “Hacker” and “Activist,” a hackivist breaks into Web security systems for the greater good. Hackivists use their skills to promote human rights, political issues, free speech, or to uncover information from large corporations that are not being transparent.

“Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old hackivist who founded a campaign against Internet censorship, took his own life in January 2013.”

Emoji

A Japanese word for emoticons, or picture icons used in text and instant messages to convey facial expressions. In recent, emojis have evolved past the usual happy or sad face, and now includes icons like notebooks, bullseye, tear drop, clapping, bomb, cash, animals, trees, rockets, and fruits. Why there was a need for these extensive mini photos are beyond us, but they sure make communicating confusingly fun.

“Am I reading a riddle or do I just not know enough emojis to understand the context of this girl’s text?”

Blogosfear

No, not blogosphere as in the world of blogs. Blogosfear, with an F, is a fear of being talked about in someone’s blog or post. The word was recently made Urban Dictionary’s Word of the Day, so if you know a notorious blogger who has a large following, try not to mess or you might be turned into tomorrow’s Internet trash talk.

“Sally became overwhelmed with blogosfear after she realized she had revealed some confidential information to a gossip blogger in their drunken night out.”

Natt Garun
An avid gadgets and Internet culture enthusiast, Natt Garun spends her days bringing you the funniest, coolest, and strangest…
Topics
6 things you didn’t know Apple Homekit could do
Apple HomeKit app on smartphone.

"Hey, Siri" is a phrase we have all come to know, whether from using it in our daily lives or via a parody of voice assistants. Siri has some great features that we may not utilize daily, one of which is controlling our smart home via HomeKit.

HomeKit is Apple's version of its underlying smart home tech, similar to Google's Home and Assistant and Amazon's Alexa. While HomeKit may not have as many features or accessories as Google Home or Amazon Alexa, there are some fantastic ways to use HomeKit that you may not be using now.

Read more
Why you need to buy LG’s Cordless Vacuum while it’s $300 off
LG CordZero cordless stick vacuum charging in a vertical charging stand..

This content was produced in partnership with LG.
It might not seem like the most exciting thing to spend a lot of money on but honestly, investing in a great vacuum cleaner makes a ton of difference. After all, whether you like it or not, we all have to regularly clean up our homes, right? Break it down to how frequently you pull out your vacuum cleaner (and triple it if you have young children) and you'll realize you spend a surprising amount of time around that gadget that you almost certainly grudgingly spend money on. The LG CordZero All-in-One Cordless Stick Vacuum is going to remind you why spending more is almost always worth it. It simplifies your life, making vacuuming so much easier than before. Sure, you may still never look forward to the process but when it's this simple and straightforward, it'll definitely take up less time once you pick up the LG CordZero. It's currently on sale at $300 off at LG bringing it down to $699 with promo code LGVac. That's still a lot for a cordless vacuum but it's a price you'll be willing to pay once you consider it as a valuable investment.

Buy Now

Read more
The smart alarm clock you didn’t know you needed is $20 today — $50 off!
lenovo smart clock 2 deal december 19 2022

If you know someone super techy and want to get this a weird and creative gift for the holidays, this is an unexpected option. Normally you'd consider something like a smart alarm clock an unnecessary, extravagant purchase, but right now it's only $20, down from $70. That price makes it worth the investment, and you might be surprised how much use someone can get from it. Read on to hear why the functionality makes the $20 price tag a steal.

BUY NOW

Read more