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Mid 20's here. It was drilled into my head up through high school that you always put 2 spaces after periods. The cited source of all of these rules was the MLA formatting guide (there are multiple guides, each with different rules, but my district used MLA). So I decided to go back to the source to see exactly what they say. Seems they have changed their mind on this one since I was in school, but are still pretty non-committal either way. This makes me think back to the dreaded "Senior Paper" everyone had to write during our Senior English class. This was supposed to be the culmination of everything we learned in English since elementary school, including proper formatting. MLA formatting was being enforced and counted towards your grade. The teacher would literally bust out a ruler to check spacings, margins, tabs, everything. I had to plead to my English teacher that MS Word was automatically putting in a page break at the end of one of my pages due to a new paragraph starting on the 2nd to last line and no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to stop. She let it pass only because my paper was already well within the page number requirements, and the extra line breaks were not a way for me to cheat.

Regardless of the official rule, it would be very hard for me to not put in two spaces after a period, just because I am so conditioned to do it.

Macmillan is in academic the publishing market, but does not advertise those books under their "trade" label ("Macmillan", formerly "St. Martin's Press" and "Holtzbrinck"). They publish academic stuff under their "college" imprints: "Freeman & Worth", "Bedford/St. Martin's", "Nature", etc. Trade-side publishing is indeed as fickle as you say, but college side is emphatically not. Reputation is important in academics, and so the college side can't afford to be careless. Mistakes happen now and then, but every attempt is made to correct them (e.g., MLA updates).

Good points, even if I remain unconvinced. Regarding China's cultural taboo (perhaps too strong a term, in retrospect) against privacy, I've been able to find very little on the internet directly relevant to the topic. Yet the presumption pervades all writings about Chinese culture, and to a lesser degree other East Asian cultures. Here's some pages I've found that obliquely reference the difference between Western and Chinese cultures in attitudes towards privacy:

"Some attractive concepts become undesirable in Chinese. For example, privacy refers to something that one doesn't want others to know about, something almost evil." -- Annie Wang

Lots of goodies

"In China, American teachers ... are confronted with attitudes toward the self; ... toward concepts of freedom, privacy, individualism, ... all of which also emphasize how essentially American the teachers are."

Finally, the Economist ran an article recently arguing that China's notions towards privacy and private space are only now beginning to approach Western conceptions of the same, as floor area ratios go up, family sizes go down, and interaction increases with Western-influenced media and their inherent value systems. Naturally, I can't find the article now that I want to reference it, but I remember it was just a couple weeks ago if you want to look for it.

Actually, he gave you credit for it, though he didn't properly cite it according to MLA specification. I think that makes it copyright infringement for copying it without permission instead of plagarism. Don't worry; it's better for you this way: if you assume that by posting it to slashdot he reproduced it several hundred thousand times without permission, you can make a good $150,000 times 100,000 equals $150 billion. =)

Ah crap. Now you can sue me too.

It's a stock swap. No money is involved. This is typical of how mergers often work. The companies agree to merge, and they agree what the company being acquired is worth, do some math, and convert the shares of the acquired company into shares of the new company. The math is much like doing a stock split, though the ratio usually involves a number of decimal points. (The accounting for the investors is also much like a stock split.)

The real question in this case is why is Mandrakesoft's stock worth enough for Conectiva investors to consider this to be a worthwhile deal (as opposed to grabbing on to a sinking ship). I haven't looked at the business side of either company, so I can't comment there.

Actually, he gave you credit for it, though he didn't properly cite it according to MLA specification. I think that makes it copyright infringement for copying it without permission instead of plagarism. Don't worry; it's better for you this way: if you assume that by posting it to slashdot he reproduced it several hundred thousand times without permission, you can make a good $150,000 times 100,000 equals $150 billion. =)

MLA Style Guide. Of course, unfortunately for me, it ain't on the net.

...there is no central committee that says what English can and cannot 'do'.

The Modern Language Association comes pretty close.

"What's wrong with licence? From the OED, 2nd ed,: "

Please don't cite a reference you don't understand.

If I see one more person saying something is proper simply because it appears in the OED, I will track them down, put them in the Clockwork Orange chair, and make them look at the goatse.cx man for 24 hours straight.

Items are in the OED simply for historical reference. "Ain't" is in the OED. The OED says that 'they' has been used as a plural. These are NOT ENDORSEMENTS OF SAID USAGE. It simply says the words were used/used in this manner. The OED is not a GRAMMAR REFERENCE.

Think of it this way: The OED could be used as a rosetta stone by an alien race in 1000 years, to deceipher our written works. But if they read MLA's Essentials of MLA Style, they would find that 'they' is always plural, and using "ain't" makes you look stupid.

Oh, I get it...
You're being clever and demonstrating one of the "problems" that could arise in a cell network: choppy, confusing, garbled words that only barely resemble any modern language.
Now let's see if I can interpret your message correctly:

West-coast rox0rs,
Hmmm... West coast of India... That must be the India/Pakistan border! "rox0rs" must refer to a mountain or other large rock formation...

east-coast is teh suxx
I'm stumped here. I'm going to assume though that "east-coast" refers to India's eastern portion on the Indian Ocean, but you most likely thought that India borders the Pacific, so we'll take that into account. But then you say that it "is teh suxx". I have no clue what this means, however, I will venture so far as to say it is a negative comment towards afformentioned "east-coast." Thus, you do not think highly of the Pacific Ocean

California love
I'm lost. I give up. In the future, I reccomend you either consult the MLA or take a beginner's English (or any other language for that matter) course at your local community college.
Done.

">> There's no such word as "anymore."
Yes there is (OED): [...]"

Crap! :-P

I suppose I must side with the defense that "ain't" is in the dictionary these days, but I think the MLA probably still denounces it.

In addition to the MLA guidelines mentioned by FatherBusa, there is a "Call for Action on Problems in Scholarly Book Publishing" by the president of the MLA. The president's letter looks at the problem of scholarship from the opposite angle: it's becoming more difficult for young PhDs to publish the traditional monograph (books are expensive and academic presses are selling fewer of them), this problem is systemic and threatens to damage the careers of otherwise promising, tenurable scholars.

Not only should hacking be considered a form a scholarship, it (along with online publishing) may be the only option available for disseminating one's ideas.