Hey, have you ever had one of those days? Me too.

I tend to pride myself on being a good speaker or writer when going off the cuff. And, as my peeves along this page attest, I can be a bit curmudgeonly and opinionated. It’s one of those things that makes my personality what it is.

But, as with any loud, brash person, I sometimes tend to talk out of my ass a bit, and speak about things for which I have insufficient knowledge. Like, oh, say… Internet Explorer Smart Tags.

Suffice to say, I ranted before I read. And I commented before I researched. I could defend myself by saying that I’m not a journalist, which is now abundantly clear. But instead, I’ll just say that I overreacted, and I didn’t have my facts straight. Microsoft has changed the way Smart Tags work in Internet Explorer since the documentation I read was published. Walt Mossberg emailed me demanding an apology, which he clearly deserves. And he was even kind enough to be polite about it.

Here’s what I told him, in part:

My post was founded on a knee-jerk reaction and an embarrassing absence of facts, and you’re a credible journalist who deserved more respect than I showed.

I apologize for my brevity, as there is, as ever, more to the story of my mistake than would be immediately apparent. But suffice to say, There will be an apology and retraction at least as public as my original post, and I hope that you can see past this one glaring lapse.

I’m a good guy, really.

Thanks for your understanding.

So, yeah, it’s official: I’m a jackass. Boy, am I embarrassed.

[Discuss](javascript:viewComments(3982162)) how cool I look with my foot in my mouth. ( echo commentCount(3982162); ?>)