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Whatever your own personal definition of the term 'enemy' may be, it's useful meaning has been pretty well understood for at least a millenia (or two)...

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/enemy?view=uk

[I don't generally participate in offtopic discussions but seeing as I have no mod points today...]

Spelled.

Spelt.

Webster's can't even be counted on for correct spelling. Here is the definition of the English word.

Werd.

From all of the Quake-clones, only a few really stand out. Unreal branched to make their own engine, (recently licensed by EA Games, in fact--NOTE: link downloads PDF file) so did Half Life (the first). (partly responsible for the industry movement to "skeletal" modeling) Of the two, Source engine is truly the more powerful. (even if not the more ubiquitous)

Steam resembles a constant hack-in-progress, and the "Content Servers" are what get my goat every time. (2 megabit pipe and I'm still downloading at 80kbps?!?!) Let's join hands and pray for it's quick emergence into robustitudity. (yes, I made that up... what, you don't invent any words?)

In all, it only amounts to the partly-bruised banana in an otherwise delicious arrangement of delights in the gaming industry.

'click' ... purchased ... 'click' ... installed ... 'click' ... start game -- nobody else has that

So if 10^12 is a (long) billion, then isn't 10^15 a billiard?

According to the comment at the bottom of this page, it's valid. Although it hardly matters. 10^15 rarely comes up, even when talking about the US national debt.

Yes this means the we New Zealanders must be idiots for allowing this. However, the English language has already turned to crap.

Yes this means the we New Zealanders must be idiots for allowing this. However, the English language has already turned to crap.

Your explanation isn't quite right. They are collective nouns in US English. For US English, one should use the singular verb form when the collective noun is acting as a single entity and the plural verb form when the collective noun's components are acting individually. This appears to be the same as UK English, according to Oxford Dictionaries, except "in some contexts it is natural and idiomatic to use a plural verb with a noun which is singular in form".

So basically UK and US English have the same rule on this matter. The difference being that UK English makes exceptions to the rule.

It is very hard to make this estimate, particularly as many words reached English, for example, from Latin by way of Norman French. However, the result of a computerized survey of roughly 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd edition) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973). They reckoned the proportions as follows:

        * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24%
        * French, including Old French and early Anglo-French: 28.3%
        * Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and Dutch: 25%
        * Greek: 5.32%
        * No etymology given: 4.03%
        * Derived from proper names: 3.28%
        * All other languages contributed less than 1%
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/abouten glish/proportion?view=uk

It is very hard to make this estimate, particularly as many words reached English, for example, from Latin by way of Norman French. However, the result of a computerized survey of roughly 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd edition) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973). They reckoned the proportions as follows:

        * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24%
        * French, including Old French and early Anglo-French: 28.3%
        * Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and Dutch: 25%
        * Greek: 5.32%
        * No etymology given: 4.03%
        * Derived from proper names: 3.28%
        * All other languages contributed less than 1%
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/abouten glish/proportion?view=uk

Your bottom line is, "It's expensive!"

But your alternative is a free market, in which fairness somehow emerges from an absence of law. Please. Fairness in this world is only as likely as our ability to enforce it.

I note you said you want to withdraw from this debate even without answering the questions that have been raised. However, this is an excellent opportunity to present a logical counter-argument to the many SMALL business owners like me who are following this discussion. If you have a good counter-argument, don't be shy -- reply and post it here!

As a footnote, let me explain that when I very briefly skimmed your website before posting my earlier comment, I misread "patent engineer" as "patent lawyer" and gave a not unreasonable earnings estimate for a good one. I didn't have time to read your website properly and anyway I have a visual disability which was worse than normal because my eyes were painful at the time. It was an honest mistake. I suggest you have the decency to accept my sincere apology and stop slanderously calling people names. I stand by my comment that you have a vested interest. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a vested interest means a personal stake in an undertaking or state of affairs You certainly have a stake in the outcome of the debate about software patenting because if the outcome is what you want, there will be greater demand for your services.

In British English, the use of -ise rather than -ize is more popular, but both are valid.

American English uses -ize as a standard.

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutsp elling/ize

Parenthetical can be used as a noun or an adjective.

Not in English. Here are two references.

Our pedantry is probably pointless when we don't speak the same language.

Or if you're the Oxford English Dictionary.

But then, who on Earth would consult a dictionary to find out whether something is spelt correctly or not? Obviously just stupid ACs.

I'm sorry but water is not a beverage.

from Dictionary.com
Beverage
        Any one of various liquids for drinking, usually excluding water.

from the Compact Oxford English Dictionary
Beverage
  noun a drink other than water.

From OED.
Beverage
1. Drink, liquor for drinking; esp. a liquor which constitutes a common article of consumption.
2. A 'draught' which has been brewed, and must be drunk...

Yup, even the Oxford dictionary agrees there: http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/mosquito?view =uk

Just to be a pain, over here in Holland (and several other European countries), it goes:

million -> milliard -> billion -> billiard -> trillion -> trilliard.

It would be correct to use billiard and trilliard in the UK as well, though it's not used.

Reference: http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwo rds/billion

A fact is only as good as it's source

There are three parts of censorship. Part one is having an agenda of some sort. Part two is becoming empowered by the state to carry out that agenda through censorship. Part three is to find items and have them removed from circulation on the grounds that they violate that agenda.

Rubbish. Despite the desire of some Slashdotters to redefine censorship as necessarily involving government action, that is not true.

AskOxford - censor, verb: suppress or remove unacceptable parts of (a book, film, etc.).

Merriam-Webster Online - censor, transitive verb : to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable

Where did you get your definition from?

Snuck is considered poor or uneducated English, Look it up.

I believe the poster meant "sneaked".

--x

I know, I know...off topic, but I had to . . .

Main Entry: whistle-blower

Pronunciation: -"blO(-&)r

Function: noun

: one who reveals something covert or who informs against another

whistle-blower noun informal: a person who informs on someone engaged in an illicit activity.

Sounds like he's a whistle-blower to me!

The application of Super is perfectly valid

super-

      combining form 1 above; over; beyond: superstructure. 2 to a great or extreme degree: superabundant. 3 extra large of its kind: supercontinent. 4 of a higher kind (especially in names of classificatory divisions): superfamily.

    -- ORIGIN from Latin super 'above, beyond'.

  http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/superx?view=u k

You just can't trust somethign that calls itself "American Heritage"

Try The Oxford English Dictionary :

robot /robot/

      noun a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer.

    -- DERIVATIVES robotize (also robotise) verb.

    -- ORIGIN from Czech robota 'forced labour'; the term was coined in K. apek's play R.U.R. 'Rossum's Universal Robots' (1920).

Perform another search of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary

You won't read the wikipedia article, so I shall provide you with something shorter:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=free%20ma rket
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/freemarket?vi ew=uk
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/free+market
http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/free%2520market .html

"trading without government control: an economic system in which businesses operate without government control in matters such as pricing and wage levels"

Any questions?

[sic]

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Also... some fun reading on -ise vs. -ize. Being Canadian, I have very little doubt that colour, favour, neighbour, centre, litre, metre, judgement, and travelling are the correct spellings, but due to our mixed French-English heritage, I accept that when it comes to -ize vs. -ise, there's probably (like perl) more than one way to do it.

For me, en français, c'est une organisation, but in English it's an organization... but -ise does look prettier, I'll give it that ;-)

Frankly, I speak English, and this half-arsed corporatisation of American colloquia needs to stop. It's not attractive, and it makes British ears very unhappy.

Not for nothing, but this verbization* of words by damn British colloquia hurts my sensitive American ears.

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/gift

English. From England. Dickwad.
(Replying to the parent post who said "English. From England. Dickwad")

gift

noun 1 a thing given willingly to someone without payment; a present. 2 a natural ability or talent. 3 informal a very easy task or unmissable opportunity.

verb 1 give as a gift, especially formally. 2 (gift with) endow (someone) with (an ability or talent). 3 gifted having exceptional talent or ability.

According to several American dictionaries, the plural of octopus can be octopuses or octopi (not octopii.) However, I was taught long ago that octopi is actually wrong, and octopuses is correct.

Well, I looked it up on AskOxford and it turns out that octopi is wrong and octopuses is customary, but neither are correct. The most correct plural is octopodes, but I've never heard anyone use it.

I used to dive (haven't in awhile) and I have yet to meet an octopus, but I have heard great stories about how curious they are of divers.

AskOxford says:

tomorrow adverb and noun
Spell tomorrow with a single m and a double r.
Tip: tomorrow morning, rise refreshed.

Sorry this mnemonic doesn't cover your a.

Don't worry, I hate me too.

"Vouch" has two different meanings (see either American Heritage Dictionary or Oxford English Dictionary), but only one of them implies an element of personal assurance. Since the poster wrote in the potential form, " can vouch", it is merely a claim that vouching could be provided but the claim itself is not an act of vouching.

This is from http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutsp elling/learnt?view=uk

These are alternative forms of the past tense and past participle of the verb learn. Learnt is more common in British English, and learned in American English. There are a number of verbs of this type (burn, dream, kneel, lean, leap, spell, spill, spoil etc.). They are all irregular verbs, and this is a part of their irregularity.

Now you learnt something else: Google is not an answer to everthing.

Effect can also be used as a noun as in:

The demolition of the wall was effected by the detonation of a charge of dynamite.

See AskOxford. In this example, we mean that the detontation of the charge brought about the demolition of the wall.

I guess the distinction is slightly blurred, depending whether you're speaking to a cook, scientist or farmer.

Bananas are herbs and tomatoes are fruits according to this website.

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutot her/banana

See dictionary.com, or the Compact Oxford English

I do not see any reference to that here. Coercion doesn't require anything but that threat of harm is used to persuade. That's it.

coerce /koerss/

      verb persuade (an unwilling person) to do something by using force or threats.

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/coerce?view=u k

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/bollocks?view =uk

Well, it has not made it into the Oxford Compact Dictionary, nor anywhere else on their AskOxford site.

Probably in the same way that 'hoover' is what any vacuum cleaner is often called.

http://www.askoxford.com/results/?view=dict&freese arch=hoover&branch=13842570&textsearchtype=exact

No, it shouldn't.

Regarding the dictionary definition, it's true, I didn't scroll down past three entries, each of which did not include that definition, to find the one that did. It seems the new meaning has gained enough traction to be listed in WordNet. For what it's worth, I read the first definition as also excluding the idea of reality as perception; it's worded slightly differently in the OED, which explicitly excludes "notional ideas".

it's impossible to make an objective observation

No, but it's possible to eliminate errors due to single-source bias, by having multiple observations using different methods by different people. For instance, some people observe Mars by looking through telescopes, others observe Mars by sending probes that record pictures and transmit them back to Earth. The chance of perceptual bias affecting the way we determine the reality of Mars is vastly reduced this way.

So for all practical purposes reality is perception, and vice versa

No. You have argued that our knowledge of reality is limited by our reliance on imperfect perception. That is entirely different to arguing that reality and perception are the same thing. See my earlier example of jumping off a tall building and believing you can fly by flapping your arms. If you hallucinate, it might seem real to you, but it's not real. If you are hypnotised into perceiving something, that doesn't make it real.

Objective reality may arguably be a goal, but it is never achievable and our subjective realities are often a good enough substitute.

Why are you talking about goals? Objective reality isn't a goal, it just is. I'm not saying that perception isn't a good enough substitute for practical purposes, I'm just saying that perception and reality are two very different things.

It doesn't particularly matter which way you spell the word or where you are. See http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutsp elling/ize

What's wrong with my grammar? I sure hope you're not refering to my use of the word 'learnt'..

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwo rds/cows

Not sure why you bring up french.

The 40 Immortals are why. Pretty much it's a group of 40 people who have been tasked with keeping the French language "pure" for the past ~375 years.

Side note, you do realize French (along with Spanish and Italian) is decended from Latin, right?

For most non-American speakers of English (as well as many Americans), the Oxford English Dictionary is the reference for the spelling of English words. Well, the OED lists the -ize spellings as the primary spellings for most words (but not analyze/analyse). Here is a link for you.

On a related note, the word 'soccer' was introduced by the British, as well. It seems that the move towards "-ise" and football are attempts by the Brits to appear more like the French.

I had a theory about this, so I checked it out with this frequency table and Gnumeric.

In the Qwerty layout, more of the most commonly-used letters are located under the left hand. Taking the limit as T, G, B, you can hit about 57% of letters by frequency. If you include occasional jumps as far as U, J, N (within reach of my relatively small hand), it's nearly 73%. Thus, it's more useful to keep the left hand on the keyboard. You can of course argue that one could move the right hand across, but the left hand starts from an advantageous position for one-handed typing.

refugee - (noun) a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

Do you have access to the actual OED? If so, could you please post the citation, and that for 'displaced person' - I would like to see how they differ.

Regardless, I hold fast to the Wikipedia as the definitive source for /. purposes ... its transparency and timeliness alone give it greater credence in my daily life. (There is just nothing geeky about the OED ...)

BTW, if you don't tell us you're quoting the OED, how are we to take your appeal to authority seriously?