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Google might very well have been a reference to googol, but the first time I heard of it I thought it was much more like ogle or goggle and I know I'm not alone (perhaps a statistically meaningless sample, but not a solitary one). So it might have a reference to all the massive number of webpages available through their service but I thought it was more that you could look at the web through their service.

That being said, whether I'm right or you are (or perhaps both), it has some reference to what the service does. Bing on the other hand is just the name of a roommate I had in college.

I think Tubal-Cain's choice of the spelling on the word implies its disambiguation. "Replicaters" contains "caters" as in:

caters
intransitive verb
1 : to provide a supply of food
2 : to supply what is required or desired (catering to middle-class tastes)
source: merriam-webster

By that reasoning, it would be reasonable to imply that it means the Replicators of the Star Trek variety.

Try again...

[Citation
cited]

Are you trying so say, 'until what range does the .223 Remington maintain it's muzzle velocity?'

No, GGP isn't trying to say anything like that. But you're saying that you desperately need to have a look at a dictionary:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/range

They maintained no clearinghouse, they published a list of possibilities and maintained a little black book of IP addresses to whom you could go for those files (which may or may not be available).

Back to the dictionary:

2: a central agency for the collection, classification, and distribution especially of information ; broadly : an informal channel for distributing information or assistance

clearing house

If I tell you who I think the local drug dealer is, do I go to jail for selling you drugs?

You are the pimp and not the prostitute. You make a business out of steering clients to the woman.

That is your crime.

Well then it's a good thing TPB guys didn't download anything.

The ordinary meaning of infringement is "an an encroachment on the rights or privileges of others." infringement

In plain English, if you maintain a clearing house for the illicit P2P trade you are as guilty as the traders themselves.

This is not exactly a novel principle in civil and criminal law - and the geek might usefully ask himself if he really wants to see it eroded.

just make sure your bribe is big enough to get your personal law enacted...

I would like to introduce a modest compliment to Godwin's Law:

When the geek launches into a rant on the theme of bribery, all hope of intelligent discussion has ended.

Free isn't even the correct English word for 'free of charge'
Sorry to pick on you grammer nazi but if your going to do it right you should follow your own advice look it up...

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/free%5B1%5D

See number 10 'not costing or charging anything'

That is FREE as in *NO* cost. There are other meanings of free, not just your narrow minded ones. I am with the original guy if I had a choice between OO and MS Office for free as in no cost (which he apparently has). It is not even a contest, I would take ms office. If you are saying otherwise you are either deluded, maniacal, brainwashed, or a liar.

Here is what it comes down to. Yes I can get at the code. But guess what *I DO NOT HAVE TIME*, or inclination to do so. I have the capability, I also could really care less. I just want to use my programs in peace. I will use whatever I think is the best of breed. FOSS does not always mean that. In my experience it is usually mediocre. Sorry if I offend anyone but it is true. Some people seem to think because it is free that is better. There are real gems out there (such as winmerge, firefox) that I use every day. Other times such as with OO it is a 'good effort' but does not measure up. FOSS is getting there in quality. But it is slow going...

I will give OO a try again (have since 2.x days). It might be better this time. It might stack up ever since that crazy 2007 ribbon bar from office came out. I doubt it.

S-O-L-D-E-R, not soldier.

You know what's worse? I've seen it in actual dictionaries.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fish

Hawk:

hawk
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: back-formation from hawker
Date: 1713

: to offer for sale by calling out in the street ; broadly : sell

the influenza virus manages to dysregulate the immune system, allowing other infections to thrive in the body

Is this some veiled commentary on deregulation of the financial industry? ;)

Deregulation causes swine flu!

Apparently dysregulate and its derived terms are perfectly cromulent.

Um, yes. As you yourself said, "badly designed machines" are not meant to be run with the lid closed. Some laptops are badly designed. QED.

This is what the frontally-lobed call a tautology.

More seriously: many decent laptops were just not meant to run closed. This was more of a problem in the old days, but it was a problem even with iBooks, for one example. I don't think the iBook was a terrific design, but I think they were at least OK in general.

i hate to rain on your grammar nazi parade but:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally

Main Entry:
        literally
Pronunciation:
        \li-t-r-l, li-tr-l, li-tr-l\
Function:
        adverb
Date:
        1533

1 : in a literal sense or manner : actually (took the remark literally) (was literally insane)
2 : in effect : virtually (will literally turn the world upside down to combat cruelty or injustice -- Norman Cousins)

usage Since some people take sense 2 to be the opposite of sense 1, it has been frequently criticized as a misuse. Instead, the use is pure hyperbole intended to gain emphasis, but it often appears in contexts where no additional emphasis is necessary.

I'm not making a political argument, just a pedantic one...if I display something, and then remove it from view for some reason, I am censoring myself (as a poster above said).

Seriously, I'm looking for a word that describes what happened, and failing to find a more approprate one. It may or may not be censorship in the legal sense, I have no idea...I suppose it depends on whether they ask TSG et. al. to remove links to it, as well, but in the literal sense it definitely is.

From Merriam-Webster:

to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable <censor the news> ; also : to suppress or delete as objectionable <censor out indecent passages>

If you choose to not put the link on your site, then no, that's not censorship. If you have the link on your site and then remove it, then yes, it's censorship...just not the government kind we often talk about, and sometimes see.

I'm not doing semantic gymnastics, you are arbitrarily redefining terms.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism

A government providing for the welfar of its citizens is following a social agenda. A government that aims to own most of the means of production and distribution of goods and services is following a socialist agenda.

It doesn't mean that the state has (or necessarily will) devolve into some sort of communist / fascist dictatorship (in the North Korean / Cuban sense), but you cannot claim that what you're defining as "social states" is in fact the blending of socialist policies into those societies.

None of the states I would consider "social states" are following or even considering a policy where the government owns most of the means of production. In fact, sufficient economic freedom is essential for their social policies, since that's the only way to actually fund these policies.

Taser has a right to defend their trademark. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see if they can defend a word that has become synonymous with stun gun.

Merriam-Webster gives as a definition:

Function:
        trademark

--used for a gun that fires electrified darts to stun and immobilize a person

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/taser

Contrast that definition to another (real) common word that has been trademarked (windows). Neither Microsoft nor trademark appear at all.

What good is a rootkit in a VM? It'll be open just as long as the user needs to open some legacy app, won't have access to their file system, except what documents they choose to copy over temporarily and may or may not have internet access.

The OP was joking about the rookits, you moron. Here, read about it

Terrorist acts need not generate terror.
Part of the definition is that the acts can be designed to intimidate or cause fear.
Actions that don't fit your 9/11 definition of terrorism are still considered terrorism.

That's odd... the Merriam-Webster dictionary lists "terrorism" as "the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion"... M'self, I'd be more likely to call this "hooliganism".

...and while we're on the subject, what would YOU consider to be the difference between "fear" and "terror"?

a perfect example of why many of were taught in school NOT to use an encyclopedia (of any sort) as primary source.

In what way is that a perfect example? How exactly does the wikipedia entry differ from the dictionary definition?

Expecting your due, based on social or other contract is not "entitlement".

Well, yes it is. Look at the definition again ("a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract").

Anyway, what contract did Google enter into when they used open source software. GNU places no limitations on the use of software, only the redistribution of it. And it is not as if you haven't received any benefit from it either, since I am sure that you have used Google products.

References for the difference between weather and climate:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weather
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/climate

References for the difference between weather and climate:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weather
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/climate

It is a word: educative.

I'd quote the OED as well, but I'm too lazy to start up my VPN and interrupt the torrents.

Besides, pedagogical would have more to do with the method of teaching. "Educational" would probably have been the best choice.

Educative is apparently a word:

http://www.answers.com/educative
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/educative

Personally, I would go with educational (pedagogical would mean related to teaching, rather than learning, so I don't think it works as well here).

Re:GRAMMER POLICE

Grammar.

Oh, and does that really count as poor grammar as opposed to simply bad proofreading?

The defamation part is in publishing information that might harm the person's character. Nothing there about truth.Really? How about http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/defamation

"the act of defaming; false or unjustified injury of the good reputation of another"

Or

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/libel

"2 a: a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression"

(Emphasis added for the benefit of the hard of understanding)

When the laws specifically stipulate the printed word, and given that the internet is not printed, libels laws do not cover the internet in most states I've seen. But what would I know? I only work for a newspaper and took two years of journalism classes.

Did those classes teach you the part about using a dictionary? The word "print" is not limited to ink-on-paper. Words that are stored, transmitted, and displayed electronically are indeed printed, by definition.

(In most jurisdictions, however, it's my understanding that slander and libel are treated equally as torts, and often lumped together as defamation.)

Again, you are using statistics speak when there is no basis for it. You say "probably" but you have no basis for that other than that is your opinion.

You say that I have no basis, but that's just, like, your opinion, man. Where's your research?!

This is a fucking Internet message board, not a scholarly journal. It is perfectly appropriate for me to propose the possibility of a correlation between these various factors. Further, any reasonable person would come to the correct conclusion that by "probably" I mean that I don't, in fact, have research to back up my statement, but that I would expect such research to do so.

I'd be fascinated as to why this use of language in this context is so surprising, and apparently upsetting, to you.

A correlation only exists if one thing has an effect on the other.

You just couldn't be more wrong. Please consult a dictionary. A correlation exists if two things are statistically related. Often they both proceed from a common cause. But even if no causal mechanism can be identified, a correlation is nothing more or less than a statistical relationship.

Here's a fine example. The Redskins predict election results. No one sensible would suggest there is any causal relationship here. But there is a highly improbable statistical relationship. Which is to say a clear correlation. (And it is not only likely, but necessary that if you start arbitrarily comparing big lists of measurements there will be uncanny correlations, which are absolutely meaningless.)

Before you criticize others you should really check your facts, and consider twice if the other person's position is reasonable.

-Peter

"Compared to existing technology (magnetic platters), the $/GB is still quite high."

Um... so it is, but it seems to me that your statement is kind of a non sequitur. My post is all about the pace of change, the the slope, how fast things change from "new" to "old". Not the current state.

You just don't get it, do you? What the post you are replying to is saying but you are missing is that creating that stuff you "invent" in order to make Google the evil lock-in overlord, is that THAT WOULD BE A SUPERSET OF JAVA, ie http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/i.e. IT'S NOT A PURE SUBSET OF JAVA ANYMORE! Now, get your medication.

Missiles aren't even necessarily weapons.

A missile is always a weapon, by definition

Historically, they referred to any projectile in airborne motion. Pretty much all sub-orbital, orbital, and super-orbital spacecraft are launched on large missiles. Modern usage usually refers to a propulsion device with a warhead, but the fact is that any projectile technically qualifies as a missile.

Missiles aren't even necessarily weapons.

A missile is always a weapon, by definition

and look up "literal" in the dictionary.

Here we go again.

literally - 2 : in effect : virtually - Merriam Webster

However, as we read in the article, the first and more popularly accepted definition is, in fact, correct:

literally - 1 : in a literal sense or manner : actually

If you think Gimp is even close to the same as Photoshop, you are smoking crack

You fail reading comprehension.

While these applications are (to be honest) still far behind their commercial counterparts...

Blender vs the other guys? I dont know, I tried blender for about 30 seconds before giving up and playing around with the student editions of the big-boys stuff

30 seconds? You honestly believe you can learn a 3D modelling program in 30 seconds? If you gave up that quickly you didn't even try. A computer illiterate friend of mine who is an artist managed to learn it. It tooks a while to get used to for him but the difference between $2000+ and free is significant enough motivator to learn Blender.

Apache, Lighttpd and my current favorite nginx are awesome, but they dont have the close integration with their development tools and operating system that IIS does.

Considering Apache has a significant lead in marketshare over IIS I don't think lack of integration with development tools is an issue for anyone actually implmenting a web server and really why should it be?

there is no open source equivalant of Visual Studio

Yes there is.

There is no common way to install and remove software

Installing software on a mobile phone is actually pretty similar to installing software through a package manager and people don't seem to have any issues when it comes to that.

There is no stable base to write drivers (thus no hardware support)

Kernel developers write drivers and even offer to write drivers for any company that delivers specs. Linux supports a ton more hardware then Windows and Intel has developers working on kernel code for their devices. Stating that Linux has "no hardware support" is the overstatement of the century.

There are too many distros with too many proprietary ways of doing things. Too many proprietary repositories, too many proprietary package systems, to many proprietary filesystem layouts.

None of the things you mentioned are proprietary. It's impossible to create a proprietary GPL application.

Gimp is *not* Photoshop. Sorry. I know I mentioned this, but I'll repeat it again. You insult people who actually use Photoshop by making this claim

He didn't make that claim. You just made that up.

Agnostics believe that neither the existence nor the non-existence of God can be proven.

"Agnostic" comes from roots meaning "not knowing", but its use in the sense of "not having an opinion about" is well-established.

But honestly, would it KILL you to learn what these words mean before you use post them on a widely read public forum?

Would it kill you to check a dictionary before trying to go all vocabulary-Nazi on someone? :-)

It's not multiple cuts. It's just two cuts

You've just contradicted yourself.

1 : consisting of, including, or involving more than one

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/multiple

Unless someone has changed things, I'm pretty sure two is more than one.

Do you know what "ostensible" means?

Of course it isn't, because gulible is only spelled with one 'l'.

Wrong, Captain Pedantic.

Without being too picky (just helpful, hopefully):

my Lightwave 8.5 Licence (+ books 'n stuff)

That should be "books 'n' stuff" (see here for explanation). Also, license not licence.

that little Project is closing in on us

The word project is not a proper noun as used, it should be "project".

Blender is a scaring thing

Should be "scary".

My english is better than most other people's german,...

English and German should both be capitalized. Your English is also better than many other people's English.

Bias in the Vostok data is actually good exercise for you to work through, which helps enforce the fundamental flaws in your research so you can fix it.

Yes sir, thank you for helping me with that exercise. It never would've occurred to me that maybe I should think critically about my research. What a revelation! I'll have to get to work fixing all those fundamental flaws, which I've been ignoring since the day of my birth.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly were the flaws that you noticed in the Petit paper? Clearly, you understand all this much better than I do, so maybe you can help me spot problems in the analysis.

Brevity is not your goal. Conciseness is your goal.

Yet again, your boundless intellect exposes even more flaws in my devious plot to take over humanity through my scheme to use language sloppily. At first, I was confused by the fact that Merriam-Webster defines brevity as "shortness or conciseness of expression" and conciseness as "marked by brevity of expression or statement."

Then I realized that they must be part of the conspiracy too!

Bias in the Vostok data is actually good exercise for you to work through, which helps enforce the fundamental flaws in your research so you can fix it.

Yes sir, thank you for helping me with that exercise. It never would've occurred to me that maybe I should think critically about my research. What a revelation! I'll have to get to work fixing all those fundamental flaws, which I've been ignoring since the day of my birth.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly were the flaws that you noticed in the Petit paper? Clearly, you understand all this much better than I do, so maybe you can help me spot problems in the analysis.

Brevity is not your goal. Conciseness is your goal.

Yet again, your boundless intellect exposes even more flaws in my devious plot to take over humanity through my scheme to use language sloppily. At first, I was confused by the fact that Merriam-Webster defines brevity as "shortness or conciseness of expression" and conciseness as "marked by brevity of expression or statement."

Then I realized that they must be part of the conspiracy too!

Jesus, even the dictionary contains the definition I was using:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascist

2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

You seem quite distressed over the whole issue. Perhaps you feel I've cheapened your ideology or something. Sorry. How about "totalitarian" instead?

And also once you publish it, you can't file for a patent on it outside the US, and you can only file for a US patent within a year.

Regarding "publishing": just to point out that the word publish in this context means:

"1 a: to make generally known b: to make public announcement of" (link)

not necessarily to produce something in the printed form.

So, once your idea gets into the public domain at all (regardless of any non-compete/non-disclosure agreements, even), that starts the patent-process clock ticking. Show it to a friend, and you have begun...

As nweaver notes, you'll have one year to begin filing for the patent process thru the USPTO, or you'll lose your patent rights.

Full public disclosure, and most importantly, a way to prove when that took place will establish prior art for anyone who would like to contest a patent application filed after that date.

No, IANAPL, but I have paid money to them for the understanding I have passed along here. ;)

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pantywaist

One facet of Webster's importance was his willingness to innovate when he thought innovation meant improvement. He was the first to document distinctively American vocabulary such as skunk, hickory, and chowder. Reasoning that many spelling conventions were artificial and needlessly confusing, he urged altering many words: musick to music, centre to center, and plough to plow, for example. (Other attempts at reform met with less acceptance, however, such as his support for modifying tongue to tung and women to wimmenâ"the latter of which he argued was "the old and true spelling" and the one that most accurately indicated its pronunciation.)

Wikipedia does not support your claim either:

After the Norman Conquest, the termination became -our in Anglo-French in an attempt to represent the Old French pronunciation of words ending in -or,[22] though color has been used occasionally in English since the fifteenth century.[23] The -our ending was not only retained in English borrowings from Anglo-French, but also applied to earlier French borrowings.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences#-our.2C_-or

In case you missed it, the Norman Conquest was in 1066, but the American continent was reached by Columbus over 4 hundred years later, so "the US retained the original form" does not compute!

You missed the point

Hello pot.

This is a discussion about an operating system, not a gaming platform. You don't use Vista as a computer

You seem to be confusing your definition of a computer with the actual definition. Computers do lots of things, in general, they run programs. Some programs happen to be games.

Your posting in the wrong story. Look for the Mario Brothers logo, or whatever it is on Slashdot these days that indicates games, and your posts might matter.

Your apparent hatred of Windows is what's irrelevant to the discussion. Game support is a feature of an OS. It is not an essential feature in that it is required to have a computer you can interact with and run programs on, but some people still base their OS choice on it.

you don't know the difference between "then" and "than"

AND

Your posting in the wrong story.

As long as we're being pricks about grammar, it's "you're" not "your".

Nope. From Merriam-Webster atheism atheism Pronunciation: \-th-i-zm\ Function: noun Etymology: Middle French athéisme, from athée atheist, from Greek atheos godless, from a- + theos god Date: 1546 1archaic : ungodliness , wickedness 2 a: a disbelief in the existence of deity b: the doctrine that there is no deity
Sounds like faith to me...

You're an idiot. That word dates back to the 15th century.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/denier

So..somebody is wrong.

Um... That would be you. Saying that there is a 20-fold increase means that it was 20 times larger, not 2^20 times larger. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/-fold)

coward
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French cuard, from cue, coe tail, from Latin cauda
Date: 13th century
Definition: one who shows disgraceful fear or timidity
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coward

anonymous posters have no reasonable expectation of privacy

anonymous
Function:
        adjective

Date:
        1631

1 : not named or identified
2 : of unknown authorship or origin
3 : lacking individuality, distinction, or recognizability

Merriam-Webster