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I was going to buy it just to play around with it. It's totally ludacris to say it can't be copied.

I'm not really sure what Ludacris would say about this protection, but I bet he'd think that it couldn't be copied, and would jump on the bandwagon as well. Oh, wait, you meant ludicrous.

• Polypropylene
• The Telephone
• Rubber
• Vaccination
• Penicillin
• Velcro

I presume you're not talking about Sprint's Integrated Network System Interface Terminal Equipment, eh? I'd recommend "insight".

Alex Bischoff

Hmm. Are you sure you know what a follicle is?

This is just like MS settling with Apple on it's win95 ripoff cases three years after MS gained %90 of the market. It's moot.

http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=noo ne

Perhaps you meant "no one"?

If you look at the definition here you will see that there is a definition for everyone's argument, but the fact that there is a definition that suits the article, means they're not wrong. I'm not trying to prove everyone else wrong, but that Dorm's right in what he says. Stop being so competative.

Explain bullshit, scumfucker.

Gladly, troll. I'm clearly using it as a noun here, and according to dictionary.com:

bullshit Vulgar Slang
n.

1. Foolish, deceitful, or boastful language.
2. Something worthless, deceptive, or insincere.
3. Insolent talk or behavior.

Either of the first two applies.

In the future, if you don't understand a word, you should try the services of Dictionary.com. They aren't perfect, but they're better than having to ask on public message forums.


-

Guns are designed as lethal weapons? All guns? Some guns? Which guns?

Guns that are designed to fire little pieces of metal can be considered lethal. Little pieces of metal, when they collide with fleshy matter at high speeds, tend to destroy said matter.

It would be hard to claim that all guns are designed to be lethal weapons. There are a multitude of non-lethal water guns, blackhead guns, and radar guns that are still in production. Just wait until they make you start registering the damn things!

The problem with this stems from the fact that not everyone assigns the same value to content. Let's say Joe finds a piece of info on the Internet and he's willing to pay $10 for it, Jack finds that same piece of info but only thinks it is worth $2, and Jill finds the information not useful at all. Now if the information provider sets the value of that piece of information at $5, he's lost 2 customers, not one.

And how is this different from any other type of publishing? Magazine publishers need to set the appropriate price for their publications. Same with newspapers, book publishers, music labels.... If the price is set too high, they lose sales. Too low, they don't turn a profit. It sounds like the same problem to me. So why is this an issue? What's different?

To my mind, the answer is perception. The Web is perceived as being this huge, egalitarian town square, where everyone has a voice, and everyone has equal access to what's being said. Nice dream, but it's just not true. Being connected costs money, for the content provider and for the content viewer. But these costs are hidden for the most part - I can easily see that the book I hold in my hand required resources and effort to produce. The end results are here, physically in my hands, and I have no problem paying for it.

But I can't hold web content in my hand (unless I print it, using my own toner and paper). The costs of the web server or hosting service are hidden from me. I'm already paying for my ISP, my PC, the software that I'm running to get on the web. Isn't that enough?

I think that is the true problem here. People don't understand the publishing costs on the web, because the costs are intangible. And while that's true, I think it will be very difficult to get people to pay for content on a regular basis.

Oh, for the record, I would have no problem paying a small monthly or annual subscription fee to sites that I find particularly useful (like Slashdot). And the micropayment schemes mentioned a while back in Bob Cringely's columns here and here make a lot of sense to me.

And how much toilet paper did he use to wipe his ass while he was at work, and how much time did he spend in the bathroom anyway?

Confused? Read this.

-- flossie
http telnet

Let's go ahead and put Japanese on the list of "bastard" languages that "steal" from others. At least you know what you're getting with Japanese. Loan words are written in a special alphabet called Katakana. It's phonetic (similar to Hiragana, which is a phonetic alphabet for pronouncing Japanese words), and when you see a word written in it you know it's a loan word. Or some gaijin's name. It doesn't have all the sounds from other languages, so some words morph. Just ask my brother-in-law, Rars...er...Lars, who lived in Tokyo for a year. Japanese has borrowed from many languages, including Chinese, Portuguese, and English (including my favorite, hottoke-ki = pancakes). Of course, English has returned the favor, borrowing sushi (which sounds so much better than uncooked fish) and a host of other words.

As long as I remember, vaporware refers to products announced and feature lists trumpeted, when the product itself is nothing more than marketing and imaginations. No software product is ever completed, however Visual Studio has been available in betas for over a year now. I would hardly call it vapourware.

Ah. More brilliance brought to us by way of "the nation's #1 on-line service, America On-Line!"

You're a stooge. Here's why:

Acme Rent-A-Car was told that they could not extort money from their customers and justify these actions with a poorly worded contract. This court decision doesn't exonerate speeders in way, they are still subject to the same laws and enforcement that they have always been subjected to.

Liberals love scoundrels, cheats, con men and liars.

Conservatives eat babies, don't pay their taxes, smoke crack, and eat at IHOP.

It's obvious that you have no real argumentative abilities, so you're trying to turn this into right-wing vs. left-wing politics. I'll bet you stole this garbage verbatim from late-night AM radio. Your partisan rambling does not apply here.

If liberals so identified with cheats, they would be backing Acme Rent-A-Car here, as they were the only ones who were doing any cheating through this whole ordeal.

The obvious solution will be for private citizens to be armed in their cars. [...] The Left Wing's answer is...to force everyone else to be a vulnerable... (gun control being one example).

The reason that there is gun control legislation on the books is to keep trigger-happy maniacs such as yourself from owning a firearm.

There are over 40k traffic fatalities a year. You have no right to put my life in danger just because you are too much of a brat to obey the law. I, on the other hand, have a perfect right to defend myself...

No, you don't have the right to "defend yourself" against the possibility of being injured on the highways, especially if doing so endangers other drivers. If you have a problem with the way everybody else drives, get off the road.

The trouble you're having is you.

There's absolutely NOTHING to push against in space (last I check, there's no air to push up against there).

actually the sun sends alot of hydrogen ions into space. these are more commonly known as solar wind. these travel very fast, and i would suspect that it would be possible to use the natural resonance of the solar wind to power the ship.

use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that

it's not spelled "ashphalt" because it's not pronouced "ashphalt" either.

I offer my services freely and expect no renumeration for my time, effort or bare cheek.

That's just as well, because it doesn't exist:
http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=r en umeration

ITYM remuneration .

(I know, I know, it was a joke, but it's one of those things like then/than and we're/were/where that annoys me and it's hot today with no aircon in this office.)
--
the telephone rings / problem between screen and chair / thoughts of homocide

-Legion

I see a few issues here: I used to be a traffic cop.

I see one, too. Bias.

Acme was probably doing this in order to whore karma with their insurer.

There's no proof of this. The only thing that we can be sure about is that the contract was poorly worded, and it is likely this was done intentionally to keep the renter from putting a certain two contractual obligations together, allowing the company to reap the benefits of the increased income by way of the "violation fee". (See below for the article quote.)

It's just a civil claim that the customer behaved unlawfully or dangerously with rented property, in violation of a rental agreement.

No, the fines were not "civil claims", they were undisclosed charges against the renter's credit card that cannot be disputed. Acme Rent-A-Car was not operating in the legal system to collect these fines.

No biggie if someone can take the three minutes to actually read the contract before signing it.

The problem is that Acme was not forthcoming with this information. You would known this if you had read the article...

On its contracts, Acme states that "vehicles driven in excess of posted speed limit will be charged a $150 fee per occurrence. All our vehicles are GPS equipped." Turner, and many other customers, didn't connect the two statements, and paid for it later.

Clearly, Acme was doing noting more than trying to harvest revenue by cloudily wording their contract to sucker renters into the $150 fee.

To The Consumers: The quickest way to halt these invasive practices is to boycott the companies that attempt to implement them. Vote with your dollar to save your privacy.

thesaurus.com

Or, for the lazy...

synonyms for "artist"

And...

definition of "trademark"

<caveman>
Adobe no GPL! Adobe no Linux! Adobe for profit! No like Adobe!
</caveman>

No, you can trademark common names. Ford is a trademark (and a passing), Apple is a trademark (and a fruit), Adobe is a trademark (and a dwelling)...

I think you mean "abode". An adobe is a type of mud-brick, or a building made from them.

No, you can trademark common names. Ford is a trademark (and a passing), Apple is a trademark (and a fruit), Adobe is a trademark (and a dwelling)...

I think you mean "abode". An adobe is a type of mud-brick, or a building made from them.

try his then

adobe

Dictionary.com search on miata...
No entry found for miata in the dictionary.

And now lets try illustrator
illustrate (l-strt, -lstrt) v. illustrated, illustrating, illustrates v. tr. To clarify, as by use of examples or comparisons: The editor illustrated the definition with an example sentence. To clarify by serving as an example or comparison: The example sentence illustrated the meaning of the word. To provide (a publication) with explanatory or decorative features: illustrated the book with colorful drawings. Obsolete. To illuminate. v. intr. To present a clarification, example, or explanation.

Why, what do you know! it's already in the English language.

This gives me a great idea. I'm going to create some software and call it It. I should be able to sue LOTS of people then! Perhaps a whole suite including The for Windows, If database querying, and And collaboration software!

Dictionary.com search on miata...
No entry found for miata in the dictionary.

And now lets try illustrator
illustrate (l-strt, -lstrt) v. illustrated, illustrating, illustrates v. tr. To clarify, as by use of examples or comparisons: The editor illustrated the definition with an example sentence. To clarify by serving as an example or comparison: The example sentence illustrated the meaning of the word. To provide (a publication) with explanatory or decorative features: illustrated the book with colorful drawings. Obsolete. To illuminate. v. intr. To present a clarification, example, or explanation.

Why, what do you know! it's already in the English language.

This gives me a great idea. I'm going to create some software and call it It. I should be able to sue LOTS of people then! Perhaps a whole suite including The for Windows, If database querying, and And collaboration software!

A quick visit to Dictionary.com yields the following:

terrorism n

The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

Vandalism n

Willful or malicious destruction of public or private property.

While both are techically correct, terrorism seems to be the more precise term for what happened, wouldn't you say?

FF 2 and 3 (4 and 6) were both censored by Nintendo for American audiences. Anyone remember "YOU SPOONY BARD!"?

To Take:

To get into one's possession by force, skill, or artifice

You now have that intellectual property in your possession when you should not have, how is that not 'taking'?

Anyway, at a more basic level... the term in question is 'copyright theft'. If you take a copy of someone else's copyrighted work, You *have* denied them of their ability to make the copy for you, under their terms. Surely then then that is theft, even by your definition?

One definition of theft is 'the act of stealing'. If you then look up stealing, you find

To take (the property of another) without right or permission.

Seems like the owner of the intellectual property is being stolen from, if you ask me.

The creator or owner of the media should be compensated for the effort, time and money that went into creating it. To just ignore that is selfish in the extreme.

Oh, and I find your insinuation that those who consider copyright infringement theft are somehow Nazis utterly pathetic. People always seem to try and make a link to the Nazis whenever their argument is failing... ("Oh, Hitler was a vegetarian, you know..." etc.)

One definition of theft is 'the act of stealing'. If you then look up stealing, you find

To take (the property of another) without right or permission.

Seems like the owner of the intellectual property is being stolen from, if you ask me.

The creator or owner of the media should be compensated for the effort, time and money that went into creating it. To just ignore that is selfish in the extreme.

Oh, and I find your insinuation that those who consider copyright infringement theft are somehow Nazis utterly pathetic. People always seem to try and make a link to the Nazis whenever their argument is failing... ("Oh, Hitler was a vegetarian, you know..." etc.)

Distrube: a combination of distribute, rude, rube, and ruse, emphasizing DIS-ing the user and making reference to a Rube Goldberg device.

The creative brainpower astounds.

Distrube: a combination of distribute, rude, rube, and ruse, emphasizing DIS-ing the user and making reference to a Rube Goldberg device.

The creative brainpower astounds.

Distrube: a combination of distribute, rude, rube, and ruse, emphasizing DIS-ing the user and making reference to a Rube Goldberg device.

The creative brainpower astounds.

Distrube: a combination of distribute, rude, rube, and ruse, emphasizing DIS-ing the user and making reference to a Rube Goldberg device.

The creative brainpower astounds.

after all it's "percent" when talking about % (percentages), not "per cent" which would be talking about how much on the dollar.

percent also per cent... adv. Out of each hundred; per hundred.

n. 1.pl. percent, also per cent One part in a hundred: The report states that 42 percent of the alumni contributed to the endowment. Also called per centum.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/

From dictionary.com:

vagary n : a sudden desire; "he bought it on impulse" [syn: caprice, impulse, whim]

Look at the definition of RISC. First thought to look it up in the jargon lexicon but to my surprise RISC/CISC weren't included.
But then, I probably have been trolled?

This article is from the "Wanker Desk" at Ars Technica:
http://new.arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/

Ummm, WANKER DESK??? Does anybody know why it's called that? Do they just not know what wanker means?

It actually refers to a type of special magical charm

Inde =Azure, a bright blue color. Note the relation to the word "Indigo"

Pendant = a variety of common meanings, including an ornament worn on a necklace, etc.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

It actually refers to a type of special magical charm

Inde =Azure, a bright blue color. Note the relation to the word "Indigo"

Pendant = a variety of common meanings, including an ornament worn on a necklace, etc.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Technically, blocking those isn't censorship. It's simply following the law.

Since when are law-following and censorship mutually exclusive? In China, for example, failure to censor is illegal. In the US, look up the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which made it illegal to criticize the government. So, again, censorship was following the law.

Even now, censorship is following the law. The Communications Decency Act, when it was in effect, was a legal censor. Legal censorship is not even always "bad": one could argue (correctly, I think) that anti-child-porn statues are a form of censorship, but I'm inclined to agree that preventing the exploitation of children to young to know what they're doing is worth the limits these laws place on freedom of expression.

"Stupidest" is the most stupid thing I've heard in a while.

Note that fact that stupidest is a perfectly valid adjective, modifying the noun "thing".

Do not call out RM/101 on grammar issues. You'll just embarrass yourself.

--

Try doing a lookup of 'democracy' at www.dictionary.com. I quote:

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
2. A political or social unit that has such a government.
3. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.
4. Majority rule.
5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.

Succinctly? Indeed.

Hypocrisy: Duplicitous behavior.

(Much respect.)

---

Oh, I meant to write 'inapt.' As in

inapt (n-pt)
adj.
Inappropriate: an inapt remark.

So the word "money" descends from latin words for 'mint' or coin, which implies metal. The word "money" has evolved in recent years to mean anything which says "this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private". Sorta like how the meaning of "driver" evolved - a "driver" used to be someone who operated a stage coach, limosine, taxicab, etc, for hire, now it [commonly] refers to anyone who's behind the wheel of a "motor vehicle".

---

I don't even use linux, I'm somewhere between a 'techy' and a 'computer illiterate', and I'm more driven by politics than computers, so I doubt I have the patience to figure it out.

That said, you completely missed the point. I doubt you read what I linked, and you obviously don't understand the difference between a monopolized market and 'competitive capitalism'. Let me try it this way:

AOL/TW vs. Microsoft = Plutocratical

Speakeasy DSL vs. Carolina Broadband = Capitalistic

If you can't see the difference, let me expand on my point: the first group accounts for over 25% of ALL MEDIA in the country; including TV, radio, newspapers, movies, music, software, and the internet. They have no competition because they control the medium through which their competitors would normally be advertising. Once the practice in that story spreads, in places like Charlotte North Carolina (where I live), you won't see any commercials that advertise any product that competes with any product sold by AOL/TW -- because Time Warner provides the ONLY Cable TV service.

And why the hell are you so motivated to be against diversity of choice?? No one here is trying to change the laws from what they were; the Telecommunications Act did that by changing what the laws HAD BEEN FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY. The people who ARE trying to change them, are doing it to put them back the way they were SUPPOSED to be.

No you weren't. ;)