New words and phrases get circulated via e-mail and the Web with the same level of contagiousness of a cold virus in a preschool. Six years ago, those words were still unknown to most average Americans, and now they're absolutely household words. Merriam-Webster added those words to its lexicon in 1998. When the Oxford English Dictionary officially acknowledges such words, that means it's time for all you technophobes out there to get wired. This Internet thing is not just a fad.
Tech talk cuts across all races, ages and boundaries.
As geek speak makes its way into the mainstream in all its incarnations, it, like the English language itself, brings its own quirks and conundrums. You can have one sheep or several sheep. But it's a different kind of animal elsewhere in the world. If you've met many mean and despicable people, you've met many louses. You haven't necessarily met many lice.