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Man this is going to suck for people who like to link a lot.

I took a picture on public procurement and open orifices that you might want to share with your readers.

This is on topic! Definition of "procurement" courtesy M-W: "1 b : to get and make available for promiscuous sexual intercourse"

"1: characterized by slinking : stealthily quiet <slinky movements>

2: sleek and sinuous in movement or outline; especially: following the lines of the figure in a gracefully flowing manner <a slinky evening gown>"

So, if it moves sinuously or wears an evening gown, there's no doubt.

I too was curious about this -- I have seen a number of "ArsXYZ" sites lately, so I did some searching. I assumed that "Ars" was latin, and I was right. A search on Mirriam Webster for ars produces two latin phrases: ars est celare artem (it is (true) art to conceal art), and more interestingly, ars longa, vita brevis (art is long, life is short).

From this, I have concluded that the suffix part of "ArsXYZ" names is a phony latinization of an obvious english word, and so the names come out to something like "The art of Digital", "The art of Technical", etc.

Of course, I don't know squat about latin -- this is just my best guess. Does anybody out there with a passing knowledge of latin know if my theory is correct?

Not philisophically different then ack/nack on port 80 to see if it can http?

• to represent or give an account of in words <describe a picture>
• to represent by a figure, model, or picture DELINEATE

('tip 'handle 'middle)

Nope. You've described agnosticism. Look it up.

Atheism is disbelief. Not lack of belief. Disbelief.

Agnosticism is the belief that God's existence is not known.

People who are agnostic but call themselves atheist ('cause agnostic sounds too wishy washy) have been trying to redefine the term by introduction notions of "weak" atheism (really agnosticism) and "strong" atheism (real atheism).

Just because some people want to redefine a word doesn't mean I have to buy into their "claptrap".

Nope. You've described agnosticism. Look it up.

Atheism is disbelief. Not lack of belief. Disbelief.

Agnosticism is the belief that God's existence is not known.

People who are agnostic but call themselves atheist ('cause agnostic sounds too wishy washy) have been trying to redefine the term by introduction notions of "weak" atheism (really agnosticism) and "strong" atheism (real atheism).

Just because some people want to redefine a word doesn't mean I have to buy into their "claptrap".

You know, I initially thought that was the spelling too, but I checked at Merriam Webster's and it isn't in the dictionary.

If Encarta was $1000 (and you could argue the price should be that high), I'd simply copy it. That's REAL capitalism.

You have a gross misunderstanding of capitalism. In *real* capitalism, you would simply do without Encarta. Perhaps you would purchase a competing product that you found to have a more reasonable price, perhaps not. But *stealing* is certainly not a part of, nor is it justifiable by, capitalism.

... stealing involves tangible items....

You also have a gross misunderstanding of the English verb `steal'. Perhaps you are not a native Enlgish-speaker, in which case this is forgivable. I suggest you look the word up in any of the sundry dictionaries available on-line. In particular, if you choose to consult Webster, pay close attention to definition 1c.

If you haven't heard much about this case, there's several sites about it here [dmoz.org].

Excellent karma whoring... Here, let me try:

If you don't understand any of the more difficult words in the backgroud articles, you can find the definitions here

Better yet...

"Ants will find a hole in the wall to get the bread."

hmmm...

ant = "any of a family (Formicidae) of colonial hymenopterous insects with a complex social organization and various castes performing special duties"

Thats to good for spammers... i think they sound more like cockroaches:

"any of an order or suborder (Blattodea syn. Blattaria) of chiefly nocturnal insects including some that are domestic pests."

Websters

that's spelled "witty", you illiterate freak

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Diction ary&va=seemless

The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the Dictionary search box to the right.

Suggestions for seemless:
1. seamless
2. smells
3. smalls
4. salaams
5. seedless
6. stemless
7. smellers
8. samlets
9. smelts
10. samlet
11. smalts
12. smallest

Get the Word of the Day e-mailed every morning. It's free! Click here.

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Diction ary&va=seemless

The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the Dictionary search box to the right.

Suggestions for seemless:
1. seamless
2. smells
3. smalls
4. salaams
5. seedless
6. stemless
7. smellers
8. samlets
9. smelts
10. samlet
11. smalts
12. smallest

Get the Word of the Day e-mailed every morning. It's free! Click here.

The grammer doesn't make any sense to me, it not as logical as Java and even Perl is simpler by comparison , and I don't mean that as flamebait.

Anyone can use AppleScript, but it's a lot of pain and greif to make it do something really useful. IMO, it's worth speding 2 weeks getting familer with Perl as you'll be able to do much more much faster.

No wonder you are having trouble with this. Grammar makes no sense to you, and you not only forgot the apostrophe in it's but forgot the "s" as well. To save others pain and grief in reading your posts, perhaps you should be spending those two weeks getting familiar with the English language (or at least a dictionary.

...Arthur Firstenberg deemed an insufferable pratt, and residents of Mendocino, CA, to be suffering from the same condition.

Film at 11.

Cleaver. Noun. A big huge knife used for cutting animal carcasses into joints or pieces (picture)

Cleaver. Proper Noun. The family surname in the tv show "leave it to beaver".

Clever. Adjective. marked by wit or ingenuity

Cleaver. Noun. A big huge knife used for cutting animal carcasses into joints or pieces (picture)

Cleaver. Proper Noun. The family surname in the tv show "leave it to beaver".

Clever. Adjective. marked by wit or ingenuity

I didn't notice any mention of good and/or evil in the post... There are several meanings for the phrase 'sell out' - why not assume that they mean "1 : to dispose of one's goods by sale; especially : to sell one's business"?

/. is not censoring.

If you're going to quibble with definitions don't be supprised when people start throwing dictionaries at you .

Censoring:
transitive verb
to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable

The posts were not deleted, but they WERE suppressed. Suppressed down to -1, where they were invisible to almost everyone.

Even if you use a different definition for censorship, it still stinks. Expecially considering that one of Slashdot's favorite passtimes is denouncing censorship. I think it's pretty hypocritical.

remember that the Debian project is not Linux, but a GNU operating system.

Bullhockey! The name of the operating system is "Linux". The name of the distribution is "Debian". As the distributor, Debian could call the OS any damn thing they want. They could have called it "Fred", but they chose "GNU/Linux" because that involved the least amount of bloodshed on the Debian mailing lists.

A few definitions are in order:

Operating system: "software that controls the operation of a computer and directs the processing of programs (as by assigning storage space in memory and controlling input and output functions)" [Merriam Webster]. This specifies a kernel and some bits of surrounding infrastructure (such as a filesystem, init scripts, etc). Everything else is extra. They are not part of the operating system.

The GNU System: An operating system created as part of the GNU Project. The FSF very clearly refers to GNU as "an operating system". Unfortunately, the FSF doesn't really know what an operating system is. They talk about games and mail clients and all sorts of stuff that aren't part of operating systems. It really seems that they aren't describing an operating system, but an overall collection of software that just happens to include an operating system.

Until Debian releases "Debian GNU/Hurd" in a finished state, there will be no GNU System.

is your confusion between masseur and masseuse. Or maybe it wasn't confusion? Not that there's anything wrong with that....

is your confusion between masseur and masseuse. Or maybe it wasn't confusion? Not that there's anything wrong with that....

A method to induce narcosis in recalcitrant neonates via the application of manual pressure spikes to the posterior glutei maximi.

Depends how you define propietary. Merriam Webster defines it as: one that possesses, owns, or holds exclusive right to something; or something that is used, produced, or marketed under exclusive legal right of the inventor or maker;

While there are other OS's you can install on a mac, the only company that has the right to produce Mac hardware is Apple. That sounds pretty exclusive to me.

Beside with no 's' is a positional statement: The phone is beside the monitor. Rob was right to use besides as the correct way to suggest "in addition to." Honestly, people, you're Internet users, Merriam-Webster has this stuff out there for your spare-time education or quick checks before you introduce an error.

I suppose as long as I'm here, you didn't fix PC which fits back to Rob's correct form, PC that fits. I'm sure Rob's happy enough with his current errors not to have every self-ordained grammar teacher attaching riders.

Webster's definition seems to agree with the rest of the world - if you (as an individual) are physically stopped by authorities and cease to be capable of your exercise of freedom of movement (even for a brief duration), you have been arrested. You con't even have to be put into a vehicle or taken to a place of detention to be arrested. You don't have to be charged or indicted to have been arrested.

or is there something more "sinister" going on that I missed?

Yes, there is! Yahoo is requiring you to click on all of the links with your Left Hand!

No, a democracy is a much broader term than that; it simply means government by the people, through majority opinion, whether that's through direct vote or through representation. A republic can often be used synonymously, but is usually somewhat more specific, referring to a state run by an elected official. You can check any print or online dictionary (here, here, and here for example.

I'm not sure why so many people on slashdot set such narrow definitions for these two words.

Opps, though it probably derives from misuse.

ubiquitous, that word, I do not think you know what that means.
Flame me if I'm wrong, but I thought being ubiquitous meant being everywhere, like telephones. Perhaps you meant pervasive, or perhaps most Final Fantasy followers haven't amassed the necessary grasp of the language with their 10th grade education.

ubiquitous, that word, I do not think you know what that means.
Flame me if I'm wrong, but I thought being ubiquitous meant being everywhere, like telephones. Perhaps you meant pervasive, or perhaps most Final Fantasy followers haven't amassed the necessary grasp of the language with their 10th grade education.

GNU was never really finished -- if the HURD kernel is ever final, it will be the last piece. But when you clone a highly modular system like Unix, you end up with a lot of bits and pieces that are useful as separate products. So GNU's libraries, utilities, and (most of all) compilers developed a life all their own. Personally, I've never been impressed with the quality of GNU software, but it does have functionality that closed-source venders always seem to overlook. So GNU products are almost ubiquitous in the Unix world, and have a fair following on other platforms.

So time passes. It's 1991. People are still waiting for an alternative to paying fees to whoever owns Unix. (It changed hands several times.) One cheap alternative is minix a sort of toy Unix that sells for $100. But a certain Finnish grad student can't even afford even that much. He decides to write his own Unix kernel. He gives away copies to a few friends. Who give it to a few friends... All of a suddent, lots of people are using this kernel to run all the GNU software. Which means there's now a free alternative to Unix! Project GNU has succeeded! It's just not complete.

And since the final piece of the puzzle is a non-GNU program, that program ends up being the name for the whole conglomeration! Much to the disgust of Stallman. Maybe he's just testy because Torvalds doesn't like EMACS.

Well, it turns out it's Italian, not Latin. Still, according to Mirriam-Webster, franca means Frankish (i.e. French), not free.

Cow orker said...

...from other cow orkers

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "ork" thusly:

Main Entry: Ork
Function: abbreviation
Orkney

From this definition, I can only assume that by "cow orker" you mean "a cow from Orkney Island, Scotland."

What have they got you working with "coos" for? How does a hoofed beast use the mouse? Do you have problems with those long hairs getting stuck in the keyboard? How do you clean up after their back ends?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm being a pedantic bastard, but according to webster it doesn't specifically mean that. Where are you getting your definition from? Maybe I'll learn something..

My favorite underused word. You can find it on Merriam-Webster's site, if you're really bored.

these things are neat

Sarcasm.

Check out this link

(All definitions from Merriam-Webster)

Editor: someone who edits especially as an occupation

Edit:
1 a : to prepare (as literary material) for publication or public presentation
b : to assemble (as a moving picture or tape recording) by cutting and rearranging
c : to alter, adapt, or refine especially to bring about conformity to a standard or to suit a particular purpose
2 : to direct the publication of

I don't see anything about editors opinionizing. It is a newspaper convention to offer opinion, often written by the editor. But this opinion is (ideally, anyway) always clearly marked as such. Not slipped in among news stories.

Avatar is a *real* word. Its definition is:
Function: noun
Etymology: Sanskrit avatAra descent, from avatarati he descends, from ava- away + tarati he crosses over -- more at UKASE, THROUGH
Date: 1784
1 : the incarnation of a Hindu deity (as Vishnu)
2 a : an incarnation in human form b : an embodiment (as of a concept or philosophy) often in a person
3 : a variant phase or version of a continuing basic entity
From Miriam Webster online.
It predates SF and is just recycled like many other terms.

I spoke with Uncle Isaac on several occasions regarding his favorite stock pick, MSFT. He explained that from day one, he knew that Microsoft was one of the most nimble companies that ever existed. Pointing out their rapid turnaround in the browser wars and in internet integration, he said that with billg at the helm, Microsoft would always prosper.

"What about .Net," I asked. "Do you really expect that thing to succeed?"

".Net will put Microsoft in a position more powerful than any other company in the nation." When I pressed for details, he explained what Microsoft was planning to do:

.Net is not just about replacing web servers with web services. .Net is about promoting Passport. But what does Passport have to offer users? Maybe a little convenience, but most users won't think the tradeoff is worth it.

Passport, in fact, is going to be marketed to web site owners. Sure, personal information is sometimes fun to have, but that isn't the main attraction. Microsoft plans to offer Passport up as a system to facilitate micropayments. They are targeting the owners of the many unprofitable information sites that are being propped up by venture capital (and pathetically meager ad revenues) today. This will force users to use Passport and pay for the information they receive off the web, with Microsoft taking a cut every time. Microsoft will become the largest middleman in the world, and multinational banks will look on in envy.

As a technical matter, this isn't a very difficult thing to do, but it needs a strong, reliable company with a good name, like Microsoft, to hold it up and to fund it during tough times. Microsoft has shown itself to be willing to subsidize many unprofitable ventures (such as IE and Bob) in order to attain a stronger position in the market, so it should come as no surprise that Passport will work the same way.

And, after Passport has taken over, there will be no more need for Linux/Apache on commercial sites. Microsoft can't compete with us directly, so they will destroy our market share by making the economics favor their product. We can give them Free software but Microsoft can sell them a big profit.

We, as the open source community, need to come together to stop this plan dead in its tracks. We can't rely on our government to do it for us, so we need to innovate and find ways to stop Microsoft. Maybe a bunch of open source hackers can get together and start producing macro virii and IIS worms nonstop, so that users are more aware of the poor security afforded by Microsoft products and services. Perhaps frequent DDoS attacks on Passport-compliant web sites are in order. Or maybe something completely different. Either way, we need to do something, so that Microsoft does not use Passport to take the internet away from us.

df

I spoke with Uncle Isaac on several occasions regarding his favorite stock pick, MSFT. He explained that from day one, he knew that Microsoft was one of the most nimble companies that ever existed. Pointing out their rapid turnaround in the browser wars and in internet integration, he said that with billg at the helm, Microsoft would always prosper.

"What about .Net," I asked. "Do you really expect that thing to succeed?"

".Net will put Microsoft in a position more powerful than any other company in the nation." When I pressed for details, he explained what Microsoft was planning to do:

.Net is not just about replacing web servers with web services. .Net is about promoting Passport. But what does Passport have to offer users? Maybe a little convenience, but most users won't think the tradeoff is worth it.

Passport, in fact, is going to be marketed to web site owners. Sure, personal information is sometimes fun to have, but that isn't the main attraction. Microsoft plans to offer Passport up as a system to facilitate micropayments. They are targeting the owners of the many unprofitable information sites that are being propped up by venture capital (and pathetically meager ad revenues) today. This will force users to use Passport and pay for the information they receive off the web, with Microsoft taking a cut every time. Microsoft will become the largest middleman in the world, and multinational banks will look on in envy.

As a technical matter, this isn't a very difficult thing to do, but it needs a strong, reliable company with a good name, like Microsoft, to hold it up and to fund it during tough times. Microsoft has shown itself to be willing to subsidize many unprofitable ventures (such as IE and Bob) in order to attain a stronger position in the market, so it should come as no surprise that Passport will work the same way.

And, after Passport has taken over, there will be no more need for Linux/Apache on commercial sites. Microsoft can't compete with us directly, so they will destroy our market share by making the economics favor their product. We can give them Free software but Microsoft can sell them a big profit.

We, as the open source community, need to come together to stop this plan dead in its tracks. We can't rely on our government to do it for us, so we need to innovate and find ways to stop Microsoft. Maybe a bunch of open source hackers can get together and start producing macro virii and IIS worms nonstop, so that users are more aware of the poor security afforded by Microsoft products and services. Perhaps frequent DDoS attacks on Passport-compliant web sites are in order. Or maybe something completely different. Either way, we need to do something, so that Microsoft does not use Passport to take the internet away from us.

df

At least, spell checkers should catch things like "cant"

No, that would be grammar checkers. Cant is a valid word, although nobody ever seems to use it.

Look it up yourself, if you don't believe me.

Besides, if I wanted to contribute to entropy through my language, this like write would I. Yoda I am not.

And why must you disparage Eris? Someone had to put all that chaos there!

I don't know what version of the English language you're speaking, but according to Merriam-Webster, piracy can be defined as "the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright." Just because you can't accept a definition doesn't mean that's not the way it is.

From www.m-w.com

Main Entry: capitalism
Date: 1877
: 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

There is nothing in that definition that says only one individual may benefit. Indeed, it's already been pointed out that private individuals in a capitalist system already voluntarily cooperate for their mutual benefit. Capitalism just means that individual decide rather than the state.

A better political comparison would be between a robot team where each robot has control over its own robot body, and a robot team with a central master control, telling each robot what to do. Indeed, its interesting that his robots evolve individually where there is a sort of distributed intelligence, rather than under some central authority as in socialism or communism.

Just for comparison,

Main Entry: socialism
Date: 1837
1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society in Marxest theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

I think its interesting that the third definition allows for unequal distribution of goods and pay.

Also look at http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/docum ent/PROGRAM.htm for one historically influencial socialist group and their platform.

That's why you should grow them acephalously so it won't be an issue.

I want my tanks of acephalous clones for spare parts. What the hell is the holdup?