I work at a printing plant that does a lot of electronic prepress and digital composition. I help out with the proofreading department from time to time and I started noticing that a common misunderstanding is the usage of “mutts”, “nuts”, and “hyphens” in everyday writing.

The dash is a punctuation mark. It is similar to a hyphen but a dash is slightly longer and is used differently. The average person typically uses hyphens for dashes in everything they see fit, but little do they know, each type of dash has their own appropriate usage.

Em Dashes
The em dash (called a “mutt” in printer’s lingo) is used as a sharp pause and for parenthetical passages.
PC: ASCII code “Alt + 0151″
Mac: Option + Shift + [-] key

Stop – don’t set an em dash like this!
Don’t do this either- -it’s for manuscripts only.

This is right—see?

En Dashes
An en dash (also known as a “nut”) is half the width of an em dash and is used in ranges such as date, time, or numbers when you might otherwise use to.
PC: ASCII code “Alt + 0150″
Mac: Option + [-] key

Don’t set page range from 15 to 25 like “15-25″.
The proper way is with an en dash like “15–25″!

To show range in time use 8:00–8:30 a.m.

Hyphen
Hyphens are mostly used to break single words into parts, or to join ordinarily separate words into single words. A “simple” compound used as an adjective or a modifier is also written with a hyphen.

Mother-daughter relationship.
High-priority task.
Taft-Hartley Act.
Two-thirds majority vote.

Check out Wikipedia for more information about dashes and hyphens.

From the same developers who brought Super Search 60 to the iPhone, Doodle Find is incredibly similar to its predecessor with some differences.

Doodle Find can be classified as a hidden object game only at its most basic level. But instead of showing you a cluttered screen full of objects, you’ll be shown a grid layout filled with what appear to be hand-drawn doodles, and are asked to find a particular object, whether by its lonesome, or in multiples.

Doodle Find starts out with the most casual of gamers in mind, by at first offering a grid that is full of open spaces before filling them in as time elapses. The goal is to find the most objects within the game’s time limit. Think “Bejeweled” meets “Where’s Waldo” in 90 seconds.

You can also compete against your friends and the world via online leaderboards powered by Facebook Connect. Doodle Find is the best iPhone app that requires little concentration and great for passing the time.

Doodle Find is available from the AppStore for free!

Visit the developer’s website for more information at KlickTock.com.

TinEye is a search engine that lets you find where a particular image has been used on the web. I know you’re probably thinking, “Duh! I can use Google image search for that!” But TinEye is a entirely different kind of beast. While Google image search uses text to search for associated images, TinEye uses an image as a query for searching. Google can’t do that — at least, not yet.

Similar to how Google indexes all the web pages it crawls, TinEye creates a digital signature or ‘fingerprint’ of the images using sophisticated pattern recognition algorithms. Once you query using an image, TinEye instantly analyzes and compares the ‘fingerprint’ of your query image with the images in its search index. TinEye also can pull up the modified versions of the image, as long as the images are alterations of the same query image.

The thing is, TinEye doesn’t actually see the image, in the sense that if you upload the image of a dog, it doesn’t see it as a ‘dog’ and fetches you images of other dogs. It only finds the location where the same image has been used, even if altered or modified. TinEye orders the results by most similarities, meaning that altered images are found towards the end of the search.

To search using TinEye, you can either enter a URL to a image on the web or upload an image from your computer. Another way is to install the TinEye browser plugin for Firefox or Internet Explorer. With the plugin installed, you can right click on any web image to search for it using TinEye.

Visit TinEye for more information or to begin your search!

I’ve seen many of Christopher Nolan’s films and have gained a huge understanding for his work. His love for the anti-hero is obvious, and his desire for dark stories has been evident from the outset. He’s a smart filmmaker who understands the medium and knows how to use it to the advantage of his stories. With that said, here are my top five Christopher Nolan films…

5. Batman Begins (2005)

I’ve never been a fan of any of the Batman TV series or movie franchises because I found it cheesy and lacking depth but after watching this film in preparation for The Dark Knight, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it! Nolan did a great job with character development and the cinematography was awesome.

Trailer: Batman Begins

4. The Dark Knight (2008)

The Dark Knight is probably considered the greatest superhero movie of all-time by many people and without looking too deep I’d say I am among the many. The Dark Knight is sheer entertainment and I can’t get over how great Heath Ledger was as The Joker.

Trailer: The Dark Knight

3. Inception (2010)

I watched Inception yesterday and I was thoroughly impressed. I couldn’t stop replaying every part of the movie in my head to try and look for more clues to figure out the puzzle. Definitely a movie that needs to be re-watched because Nolan is a genius when it comes to hiding answers in the little details.

Trailer: Inception

2. The Prestige (2006)

Out of all of Nolan’s films, watching The Prestige offered probably the biggest surprise for me. I’m a fan big of magic and illusions so watching a film that surrounded this theme was a great delight!

Trailer: The Prestige

1. Memento (2000)

Memento was Nolan’s first breakout film, and, in my opinion, still his best. I’ve watched this film maybe a dozen times and I’m never disappointed. Talk about getting mind-fked, this is nothing but Nolan’s best at messing with your head.

Trailer: Memento

Every month, I will start sharing some of the iPhone wallpapers I’ve collected. Here are a few, enjoy!

Full credit goes to the image authors.