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DES MOINES, Iowa (Dow Jones)--McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD - News) characterized a published report that it plans a massive digital song giveaway promotion as "pure speculation."

It's "pure speculation". Notice they didn't say anything against/for it. Speculation is a very neutral term. Merriam Webster says:

Speculation: an act or instance of speculating

And speculating means: to meditate on or ponder a subject

McD is still WORKING ON IT! Doesn't mean they've decided one way or another, it's just that they're thinking about IT! Before /. issues a retraction, try RTFD (Reading the F**king Dictionary). Can we set up some kind of dictionary fund for /. editors? Like this or this?

DES MOINES, Iowa (Dow Jones)--McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD - News) characterized a published report that it plans a massive digital song giveaway promotion as "pure speculation."

It's "pure speculation". Notice they didn't say anything against/for it. Speculation is a very neutral term. Merriam Webster says:

Speculation: an act or instance of speculating

And speculating means: to meditate on or ponder a subject

McD is still WORKING ON IT! Doesn't mean they've decided one way or another, it's just that they're thinking about IT! Before /. issues a retraction, try RTFD (Reading the F**king Dictionary). Can we set up some kind of dictionary fund for /. editors? Like this or this?

Main Entry: nuclear Pronunciation: 'nu-klE-&r, 'nyu-, /-ky&-l&r Function: adjective Date: 1846 1 : of, relating to, or constituting a nucleus 2 a : of or relating to the atomic nucleus b : used in or produced by a nuclear reaction (as fission) c (1) : being a weapon whose destructive power derives from an uncontrolled nuclear reaction (2) : of, produced by, or involving nuclear weapons (3) : armed with nuclear weapons d : of, relating to, or powered by nuclear energy usage Though disapproved of by many, pronunciations ending in \-ky&-l&r\ have been found in widespread use among educated speakers including scientists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, U.S. cabinet members, and at least one U.S. president and one vice president. While most common in the U.S., these pronunciations have also been heard from British and Canadian speakers.

Nothing like a digitally altered portrayal of the poifect woman, and best of all should this flop out they may be able to try to pitch a digital art gallery!

Forget Vogue ladies, THIS is how we want you to look!

-1 Overrated (Too many big words for me to comprehend)

Have not seen movie yet, and I know this is nitpicking, but--

You mean "amphibologies", right?

Our machine is in a server park. Of course spammers operate from such places. The SPEWS argument that you block thousands of innocent users to get at one guilty one is just plain immoral,

SPEWS blocks the ISP, not the clients. There's a word you might want to look up in the dictionary

Imaginary place? You haven't been living in Patriot Act America for the last for years, have you partner? We have U.S. citizens held on U.S. soil without charges and access to lawyers all on the say-so of the Selected President* declaring them enemy combatants. We have hundreds of foreign nationals detained on a off-shore base for an undefined period of time, declaring them to not be prisoners of war so that they receive none of the protections of the Geneva Convention. And we have the Ashcroft "Justice" Department figuring out new ways of taking the measures of the Patriot Act and applying them to non-terrorist prosecutions.

Nice rant, but it all relies on semantics and is a straw-man argument. You've taken a single definition of "addiction" and used it to discredit a lot of things that use a different definition.

From Merriam-Webster, addiction is defined as a "compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal". It specifically mentions drugs with "chemical dependency" and directly refers to withdrawal.

So your arguments are pointless. The TRUTH commercials are not full of shit, they are using "addiction" to mean the same as "chemical dependency", which is a common usage. At worst, they are inaccurate with their terminology, but it's the same context as the general public would understand.

From Merriam-Webster: "3 a : a system of signals or symbols for communication"

A code is a way to transmit information. Just because HTML is a code which describes meta-data about how the information in a document should be displayed does not render its language any less a code. Calling someone who writes HTML a coder is perfectly apropos; they use a code (HTML) to tell someone (web browsing client software) what something means (Wherever you see "<B> or <b>", make the text 'bold', whatever that means for your client).

Merriam Webster's definition of capitalism.

capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.

The use of "anti-capitalist" in my post wasn't meant to refer to the so-called capitalism we know is practiced in modern-day America. There are other capitalist models around the world that fit the traditional definition of capitalism a lot better than the U.S.'s.

Of course he refutes it. He's been lying about it ever since he did it. He's certainly not going to change his story now that he makes his fortune partially on the PR value of having put the Jargon File in bookstores with his name on it.

And his behavior is worse than SCO's, as he appropriated public property and defrauded a trusting community, while SCO owns what SCO bought and SCO deserves to be compensated for those who stole it from them.

>Assuming that by referencing "Hell", you are believing the tenants of a religion that has such a concept

If he's atheist (like many here), you assume wrong. You'll need to use the dictionary definition:

2 a : a place or state of misery, torment, or wickedness (source: Merriam Webster)

Which seems to fit perfectly fine.

Yes, IHBT. Oh well.

The plural of "virus" isn't "virii." There is no such word. The plural of "virus" is "viruses."

Here's a good explanation from cdknow.com, quoted here in its entirety because the people who most need to read this won't click on a link.

The correct English plural of virus is viruses. Please consult any good dictionary before making up words.

For the purists, in Latin, there is a rarely-used plural form:

virus, viri (neuter)

(Forms: almost always restricted to nominative and accusative singular; generally singular in Lucretius, ablative singular in Lucretius)

The point of this is that even in Latin the form "viri" is rarely used. The singular form is used in most every instance. (This is from the Oxford Latin Dictionary.)

So, when considering the Latin: "virii" is incorrect and "viri" was almost never used.

Despite the fact there was little use for the plural form, there is another reason why "viri" was rarely used. The most common Latin word for "man" is "vir" with "viri" being its plural in the form used as the subject of a sentence. Thus, since "men" as the subject of a sentence would be used far more often than "venoms" (virus means venom) the "viri" word was most commonly seen as the plural of "man."

Bottom line: Don't try to make up words using a false Latin plural form. Since the word virus in its English form is now used then the English plural (viruses) should be used.

More plural-of-virus resources:

perl.com, the canonical and exhaustive source
Jonathan de Boyne Pollard's Frequently Given Answer
Merriam-Webster's "Word for the Wise," January 20, 2000.

The plural of "virus" isn't "virii." There is no such word. The plural of "virus" is "viruses."

Here's a good explanation from cdknow.com, quoted here in its entirety because the people who most need to read this won't click on a link.

The correct English plural of virus is viruses. Please consult any good dictionary before making up words.

For the purists, in Latin, there is a rarely-used plural form:

virus, viri (neuter)

(Forms: almost always restricted to nominative and accusative singular; generally singular in Lucretius, ablative singular in Lucretius)

The point of this is that even in Latin the form "viri" is rarely used. The singular form is used in most every instance. (This is from the Oxford Latin Dictionary.)

So, when considering the Latin: "virii" is incorrect and "viri" was almost never used.

Despite the fact there was little use for the plural form, there is another reason why "viri" was rarely used. The most common Latin word for "man" is "vir" with "viri" being its plural in the form used as the subject of a sentence. Thus, since "men" as the subject of a sentence would be used far more often than "venoms" (virus means venom) the "viri" word was most commonly seen as the plural of "man."

Bottom line: Don't try to make up words using a false Latin plural form. Since the word virus in its English form is now used then the English plural (viruses) should be used.

More plural-of-virus resources:

perl.com, the canonical and exhaustive source
The alt.comp.virus FAQ
Jonathan de Boyne Pollard's Frequently Given Answer
Merriam-Webster's "Word for the Wise," January 20, 2000.

Perhaps it is a SLAPP suit, but I think there's a better word for it:

barratry
3: the persistent incitement of litigation
SEE ALSO: MPAA, RIAA, Metallica

The plural of "virus" isn't "virii." There is no such word. The plural of "virus" is "viruses."

Here's a good explanation from cdknow.com, quoted here in its entirety because the people who most need to read this won't click on a link.

The correct English plural of virus is viruses. Please consult any good dictionary before making up words.

For the purists, in Latin, there is a rarely-used plural form:

virus, viri (neuter)

(Forms: almost always restricted to nominative and accusative singular; generally singular in Lucretius, ablative singular in Lucretius)

The point of this is that even in Latin the form "viri" is rarely used. The singular form is used in most every instance. (This is from the Oxford Latin Dictionary.)

So, when considering the Latin: "virii" is incorrect and "viri" was almost never used.

Despite the fact there was little use for the plural form, there is another reason why "viri" was rarely used. The most common Latin word for "man" is "vir" with "viri" being its plural in the form used as the subject of a sentence. Thus, since "men" as the subject of a sentence would be used far more often than "venoms" (virus means venom) the "viri" word was most commonly seen as the plural of "man."

Bottom line: Don't try to make up words using a false Latin plural form. Since the word virus in its English form is now used then the English plural (viruses) should be used.

More plural-of-virus resources:

perl.com, the canonical and exhaustive source
Jonathan de Boyne Pollard's Frequently Given Answer
Merriam-Webster's "Word for the Wise," January 20, 2000.

Dammit man, whatever happened to Mad Dogs and Englishmen.

With Britons complaining about miniscule temperature variations, it's no wonder the Empire has gone to hell.

There seems to be something absurd about wanting to block copying of broadcasted material (from m-w.com):

Main Entry: broadcast
Pronunciation: 'brod-"kast
Function: adjective
Date: 1767
1 : cast or scattered in all directions
2 : made public by means of radio or television
3 : of or relating to radio or television broadcasting

Copying broadcast materials only allows wider distribution. But, I guess CBS wants the right to make us pay attention to commercials.

I was quite literally amazed to learn of your pet peeve.

Releax dude literally does mean virtually/actually also. Or I was actually amazed, or I was virtually amazed. Hmm sounds about the same to me.

actually at Merriam-Webster

1 : a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning -- called also Socratic irony

2 a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c : an ironic expression or utterance

3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play -- called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

So, technically, the part where the plane is crashing, and the man says Well, isn't this nice is irony. However, as far as I can tell, that is the only ironic statement in the entire song.

I've been debating the definition of irony for the last couple of weeks. It's one of the most incorrectly used English words, and one of the ones that annoys me the most.

It is not the same thing as bad luck, happenstance or coincidence.

Umm... your examples don't correspond to the .sig, since radii is actually the plural of radius (check this link if you don't believe me)

Most of the fanboys seem to think that dislike of windows for technical reasons is evidence that MS is evil, and that the fact that Windows is ahead in the "desktop war" means that Windows is terrible. No wonder so many people don't take you guys seriously, if you don't understand that those connections aren't logical.

Evil

1 a : morally reprehensible : SINFUL, WICKED b : arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct
2 a archaic : INFERIOR b : causing discomfort or repulsion : OFFENSIVE c : DISAGREEABLE
3 a : causing harm : PERNICIOUS b : marked by misfortune : UNLUCKY

Don't you mean, "numbnuts, eh?"

it was a joke.

>Even mozilla becomes slow.

What do you mean, even Mozilla? From m-w:

Main Entry: slowasallhell
Pronounciation: sla:h'heall
Function: adverb
Etymology: English, spoofed from Japanese.
Date: 21st century
1 : Mozilla

From M-W.com's:

One entry found for personal computer.
Main Entry: personal computer
Function: noun
Date: 1977
: a general-purpose computer equipped with a microprocessor and designed to run especially commercial software (as a word processor or World Wide Web browser) for an individual user

Macs seem to be "general purpose", have a microprocessor, and designed to run especially commerical software. Word, Photoshop, iTunes, etc.

So acording to the dictionary definition, Apple computers qualify as "PC's".

Look up hypocrite
YAW. HTH. HAND.

AC, Why yes indeed it does mean recurrent. But it also means long duration or always present.
I provide this reply as a service just so you don't have to live life misled on this point.
Try looking it up: Mirriam-Webster or dictionary.com

As some wise person once said, "Don't taunt the "happy fun ball."

In recent decades the definition of what is considered music has evolved quite significantly. The current Merriam-Webster dictionary defines music as:

a : the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity b : vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony

Therefore, rap is msuic - despite what many traditionalists would like to think. What is apparent, however, is that the sound of an executable file is not music; it is noise.

I... don't... know...

Hmm. Like the low entrophy value of a pulsar maybe?

You may find this enlightening.

Yes, definitely. I just started college, and my roommate brought a dictionary with him. I stopped and realized that I'd never even considered bringing a dictionary or thesaurus with me because I've got M-W.com and even a second opinion with Dictionary.com, and then some non-words that should be at PseudoDictionary.com. It simply never occurred to me to bring a hard copy of a dictionary, because I've grown so dependent on those websites.

As far as encyclopedias go, Google has basically redefined the concept of an encyclopedia for me. With a little query-practice one can find a huge number of resources for just about anything imaginable. Google's almost like an encyclopedia to a library of encyclopedias.

Later,
Patrick

a : the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity b : vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony.

It's not?

Please see the definition of friggin' (frigging).

I truly hope that it wasnt a downright battle of friggin' wits.

I do not think that word means what you think it means. You know, I really think it is sad that so many slashdotters use reference.com as a dictionary when a real dictionary is available. Reference.com has never produced a decent definition of a word as far as I can tell, and seems to have less authority than any other random wiki.

Merriam Webster has the following for "frigging":

Main Entry: frig
Pronunciation: 'frig
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): frigged; frigging
Etymology: Middle English fryggen to wriggle
Date: 1598
usually vulgar : COPULATE -- sometimes used in the present participle as a meaningless intensive

In other words, it is a less vulgar form of "fucking" and is used in all the same senses of that word, though I would personally say it is rarely used in the literal sense. (Such as "Tom fucked Shirley." You never hear "Tom frigged Shirley." ) Masturbation? Whatever.

why don't you look it up?

RUN COWARD! I HUNGER!

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Yes they do.

According to Merriam-Webster:
democracy: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.

I'm sick of people whining "We live in a republic, not a democracy." Our government is a mixture of both dammit. If we lived in a pure democracy, then we wouldn't have a federal congress or state & local assemblies representing us; we would all cast individual votes on all issues. If we lived in a pure republic, we would never vote directly for any measures or propositions; our elected representatives would do all the voting for us.

By taking the ISP's cutomers hostages .... in real life taking hostages is a crime, and should be so in cyberspace as well !

So, if I boycott somebody, I should buy from them?

From the article:
Processors should affine to one CPU and will not bounce between CPUs.
Affine is not a verb!

Main Entry: irregardless
Pronunciation: "ir-i-'grd-l&s
Function: adverb
Etymology: probably blend of irrespective and regardless
Date: circa 1912
nonstandard : REGARDLESS
usage Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that "there is no such word." There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.

Main Entry: irregardless
Pronunciation: "ir-i-'grd-l&s
Function: adverb
Etymology: probably blend of irrespective and regardless
Date: circa 1912
nonstandard : REGARDLESS
usage Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that "there is no such word." There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.

According to the Merriam-Webster OnLine Dictionary we discover:

dynamic : 2 a : marked by usually continuous and productive activity or change (a dynamic city)

operating: 4 : to follow a course of conduct that is often irregular (crooked gamblers operating in the club)

company : 2 a : a group of persons or things (a company of horsemen)

So, they are a bunch of crooks that continually attack others. That wasn't so hard now, was it?

unless it's a formal conference for the discussion of public affairs

I love how the overly-cautious Reuters reporters, used to avoiding libel claims by saying "x CLAIMS y", or "ACCORDING TO x, y", say things like "ACCORDING TO THE LAWSUIT this", or "the lawsuit CLAIMS that". This is a simple matter of FACTS! One kilobytes is 1,024 bytes. One megabyte is 1,024 kilobytes. One gigabyte is 1,024 megabytes.

I wish the reporters who wrote this story would look the word 'gigabyte' up in the dictionary.

Saying moronic things about how it's being "claimed" that a gigabyte isn't 1,000,000,000 bytes is like... well, it's like if a car's maximum speed is really 60mph, but the car manufacturer considers 3960 feet to be "a mile", so they advertise the maximum speed as 80mph...

Duh:

used derisively to indicate that something just stated is all too obvious or self-evident

Redundant:

characterized by or containing an excess; specifically : using more words than necessary

I like the "derisively" part of "duh" better. ;-)

Duh:

used derisively to indicate that something just stated is all too obvious or self-evident

Redundant:

characterized by or containing an excess; specifically : using more words than necessary

I like the "derisively" part of "duh" better. ;-)

1 a : marked by ease and informality : NONCHALANT b : showing little forethought or preparation : OFFHAND <glib answers> c : lacking depth and substance : SUPERFICIAL <glib solutions to knotty problems>