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Nope, Nowadays we have pi on tap

Other countries seem quite happy to move into the vacuum being left by the US's policies on visas and visitors. For example, at my university a number of "study in China" scholarships have recently been announced. China is also aggressively pursuing research collaborations within Australia.

Rudyard Kipling covered this already. Why don't they learn?

Kipling would be proud.

Wild animals are only subject to the law of the jungle.

The defenition of law of the jungle at which says anything goes, or Rudyard Kiplings version which says never kill man? Either standard would give the animal no expectation of protection from death. Common sense would dictate that if animals are protected by the law of man that their protection is subject to the restrictions of that law. Man or beast, if you are in the process of killing people, lethal force may be used against you. Even if they teased you.

And they came to the Gate within the Wall where Peter holds the keys.

"Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high"

"The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die-- "

Sit down, sit down upon the slag, and answer loud and high

"The harm that ye did to the Sons of Men or ever you came to die."

http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/ KiplingRudyard/verse/p3/pictsong.html

Danegeld
IT IS always a temptation to an armed and agile nation,
        To call upon a neighbour and to say:--
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
        Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
        And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
        And then you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
        To puff and look important and to say:--
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
        We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
        But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
        You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
        For fear they should succumb and go astray,
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
        You will find it better policy to say:--

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
        No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
        And the nation that plays it is lost!"

http://www.asktog.com/TOI/toi06KeyboardVMouse1.htm l

Another excerpt:

It takes two seconds to decide upon which special-function key to press. Deciding among abstract symbols is a high-level cognitive function. Not only is this decision not boring, the user actually experiences amnesia! Real amnesia! The time-slice spent making the decision simply ceases to exist.

The key error of this study: assuming such comparison remains constant; there's a learning curve. As others noted, this was an article written in 1989, back when the mouse was a relative novelty, and computers were a novelty to almost everyone. The decision of which keys to press takes less and less time the more you use a particular function, much reminiscent of computer cache memory. The neural network of the human brain eventually learns that "paste" means press "<control-v>", and requires no more thought than pressing "p-r-e-s-s-i-n-g" does to type the word "pressing"... and less time. On the other hand, going up to the top menu to select "Edit -> Paste" also requires time... to shift cognitive attention, move the mouse into position, move it again, and shift cognitive attention back to the original focus. The minimum time for an experienced mouse user is always higher than that for an experienced keyboard user on such constantly-used tasks, especially for subjects with bad hand-eye coordination and/or ADD tendencies. That is, "geeks".

Not all strokes are for all folks. Most windows users will find it easier to select "Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt" than to type "<Windows-R>cmd<ENTER>", simply because of that time delay of remembering how it's done... if they've ever even heard of that trick. Because of heightened security awareness, most of the PC users I support now know that you can "lock" a WinXP system by <Windows-L>, and prefer it to the GUI approaches.

I'm pretty happy with things the way they are. Mostly, I use the Editor Of The Beast, since I learned ed back in elementary school over a 300 baud modem, and the transit to vi is relatively simple from there. (Nifty trivia: vi still supports much of the "s/foo/bar/g" syntax of ed.) Since I am less often having to edit C-code, and more often having to use a VT-102 emulated terminal session over dialup to VPN into a DSL connected machine focused on running bittorrent (I've seen 150 baud effective within the past year), vi makes more sense. For others who do more C++ than weird network maintenance, emacs is probably more sensible. For those doing word processing, Word (or Openoffice) is better choice than either.

Remember: There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, And—every—single—one—of—them—is—right!

...No indeed! We are not strong,
        But we know Peoples that are.
Yes, and we'll guide them along,
        To smash and destroy you in War!
We shall be slaves just the same?
        Yes, we have always been slaves,
But you--you will die of the shame,
        And then we shall dance on your graves!

from "A Pict Song" by Rudyard Kipling
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/ KiplingRudyard/verse/p3/pictsong.html

You can read Orwell's essay here.

For the past two years, I've been a teaching assistant in college humanities classes. Some of my students came back to college after working in business. These students are usually highly motivated, but some of them have trouble writing clearly because the business world has taught them to write in Newspeak instead of English. I've found it helpful to show such students the Ecclesiastes example from Orwell's essay.

That's an old solution to the problem, and a very effective one I might add. A helpful distraction.

THE Camels hump is an ugly lump
Which well you may see at the Zoo;
But uglier yet is the hump we get
From having too little to do.
Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo,
If we havent enough to do-oo-oo,
We get the hump
Cameelious hump
The hump that is black and blue!

We climb out of bed with a frouzly head
And a snarly-yarly voice.
We shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl
At our bath and our boots and our toys;

And there ought to be a corner for me
(And I know there is one for you)
When we get the hump
Cameelious hump
The hump that is black and blue!

The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or frowst with a book by the fire;
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And dig till you gently perspire;

And then you will find that the sun and the wind.
And the Djinn of the Garden too,
Have lifted the hump
The horrible hump
The hump that is black and blue!

I get it as well as you-oo-oo
If I havent enough to do-oo-oo
We all get hump
Cameelious hump
Kiddies and grown-ups too!

from How the Camel Got His Hump , Rudyard Kipling

Prior art. It's called Cavorite.

You should read The loaded dog By Henry Lawson.

George Orwell mentioned in a column (http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/O /OrwellGeorge/essay/tribune/AsIPlease19441103.html ) that melons grew freely in England between 1600 and 1650, and asks whether the climate could have changed that much in three hundred years since they wouldn't do that in 1944.

We might be returning to the way things were, instead of having an Unprecedented Catastrophe.

An illusion can become a half-truth, a mask can alter the expression of a face. The familiar arguments to the effect that democracy is 'just the same as' or 'just as bad as' totalitarianism never take account of this fact. All such arguments boil down to saying that half a loaf is the same as no bread. In England such concepts as justice, liberty and objective truth are still believed in. They may be illusions, but they are very powerful illusions.The belief in them influences conduct, national life is different because of them. In proof of which, look about you. Where are the rubber truncheons, where is the castor oil? The sword is still in the scabbard, and while it stays there corruption cannot go beyond a certain point. The English electoral system, for instance, is an all but open fraud. In a dozen obvious ways it is gerrymandered in the interest of the moneyed class. But until some deep change has occurred in the public mind, it cannot become completely corrupt. You do not arrive at the polling booth to find men with revolvers telling you which way to vote, nor are the votes miscounted, nor is there any direct bribery. Even hypocrisy is a powerful safeguard. The hanging judge, that evil old man in scarlet robe and horse-hair wig, whom nothing short of dynamite will ever teach what century he is living in, but who will at any rate interpret the law according to the books and will in no circumstances take a money bribe, is one of the symbolic figures of England. He is a symbol of the strange mixture of reality and illusion, democracy and privilege, humbug and decency, the subtle network of compromises, by which the nation keeps itself in its familiar shape.

http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/O/ OrwellGeorge/essay/politicaandenglish.html

"It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts."

"This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing. As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed"

"... Am I missing something here?"

Yes, you are. From How to Ask Smart Questions, "We've found by experience that people who are careless and sloppy writers are usually also careless and sloppy at thinking and coding (often enough to bet on, anyway). Answering questions for careless and sloppy thinkers is not rewarding; we'd rather spend our time elsewhere.

So expressing your question clearly and well is important. If you can't be bothered to do that, we can't be bothered to pay attention. Spend the extra effort to polish your language. It doesn't have to be stiff or formal -- in fact, hacker culture values informal, slangy and humorous language used with precision. But it has to be precise; there has to be some indication that you're thinking and paying attention.

Spell, punctuate, and capitalize correctly. Don't confuse "its" with "it's", "loose" with "lose", or "discrete" with "discreet". Don't TYPE IN ALL CAPS, this is read as shouting and considered rude. (All-smalls is only slightly less annoying, as it's difficult to read. Alan Cox can get away with it, but you can't.)

More generally, if you write like a semi-literate boob you will very likely be ignored. Writing like a l33t script kiddie hax0r is the absolute kiss of death and guarantees you will receive nothing but stony silence (or, at best, a heaping helping of scorn and sarcasm) in return."

Personally, poor grammar and frequent errors in spelling cause an obscure form of mental anguish. I reflexively correct people online, which causes no end of irritation, but i really don't care. Sloppy expression is tied up with sloppy thought, which makes getting work done nigh upon impossible.

Orwell talks about this a bit, actually, if in a tangential fashion. Read Politics and the English Language for more.

Funny you should mention books versus cigarettes; George Orwell wrote an essay on exactly that.

And Rudyard Kipling wrote about it best.

Dane-geld
(A.D. 980-1016)

IT IS always a temptation to an armed and agile nation,
To call upon a neighbour and to say:--
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:--
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray,
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to says:--

"We never pay any one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost,
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!"

- Rudyard Kipling

Anyone willing to try their hand at "updating" this to fit online extortion? This could be lots of fun :)

In a 'regional' area like Newcastle you'll have a hard time finding a guy who can install Debian. ("Debbie who?")

Um, this is just plain dumb? Have you ever been to Newcastle? It's a fair sized city - or are you suggesting the people in these user groups haven't heard of Debian? Newky Uni Group, Central Coast UG

GOLD is for the mistress--silver for the maid--
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade."
"Good!" said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
"But Iron--Cold Iron--is master of them all."

Kipling.

You forgot to credit the original author of that piece - who was, of course, Rudyard Kipling.
The original is recorded here.

Adam Cadre's Photopia is one of only two works (the other is Kipling's The Light That Failed) which has ever made me cry when first I read it. An absolutely amazing example of art: it is a must for anyone who considers himself a student.

Here's your link again without the /.-induced space in it.

>"I could care less", in the context of disinterest, is some kind of threat to care less about something, which ironically matters little to an adversarial opponent.

Immediately, no. Assuming the opponent wants you to care more, your attitude would be considered far more displeasurable than someone who is already at their bottom of caring about something, wouldn't it? Which is the point, right?

Which bugs you more? Someone saying they'll continue to care even less in the future about something you love, or someone who says they are caring, right now, as little as they believe possible?

>Either way, reversing the sense of the well understood "I couldn't care less" is no way to obtain emphasis of the original sense.

Which is well understood depends heavily on where you are... the alt.usage.english FAQ explains this best:

The idiom "couldn't care less", meaning "doesn't care at all" (the meaning in full is "cares so little that he couldn't possibly care less"), originated in Britain around 1940. "Could care less", which is used with the same meaning, developed in the U.S. around 1960.

(No, they don't conclude which is "right", leading one to assume that what's right depends on where you are located when speaking the phrase).

>love/hate and time are two dimensions

Again, how do you view love/hate? To you, is hate a zero-gain emotion, and love a positive emotion, without a neutral? Or is hate a negative emotion, and love a positive, with a neutral state (and many others) between?

To have a negative requires a double-ended scale, and that means two dimensions (a point on a line,) rather than a simple on/off decision (you either love it or you hate it).

To me that implies two dimensions: A love dimension, and a hate dimension. And, yeah, in my world, you *can* love and hate something; both at the same time. I love honey dip donuts with sprinkles, but I hate the way they always end up stuck in my teeth.

Although, I suppose it's all just nitpicking, really. :-)

>Only in some kind of tightly closed society would the phrase "I couldn't care less about cars" mean that abstruse superposition of states.

Hey now... are you trying to say Americans are better, or worse, than everyone else (or just no opinion at all?) Hmmm... I'm Canadian. I guess I get to decide which is right (why the hell does he go to so much trouble, and yet not clear this up?!) Thank God for not being mentioned.

If that's Eurasia, then what constitutes Eastasia?

The idiom "couldn't care less", meaning "doesn't care at all" (the meaning in full is "cares so little that he couldn't possibly care less"), originated in Britain around 1940. "Could care less", which is used with the same meaning, developed in the U.S. around 1960. We get disputes about whether the latter was originally a mis-hearing of the former; whether it was originally ironic; or whether it arose from uses where the negative element was separated from "could" ("None of these writers could care less...") Meaning- saving elaborations have also been suggested; e.g., "As if I could care less!"; "I could care less, but I'd have to try"; "If I cared even one iota -- which I don't --, then I could care less."

An earlier transition in which "not" was dropped was the one that gave us "but" in the sense of "only". "I will not say but one word", where "but" meant "(anything) except", became "I will say but one word."

Other idioms that say the opposite of what they mean include: "head over heels" (which could mean turning cartwheels, i.e. "head over heels over head over heels", but is also used to mean "upside- down", i.e. "heels over head"); "Don't sneeze more than you can help", (meaning "more than you cannot help"; "help" here means "prevent"); "It's hard to open, much less acknowledge, the letters" (where "less" means "harder", i.e. "more"); "I shouldn't wonder if it didn't rain"; "I miss not seeing you"; and "I turned my life around 360 degrees" -- not to mention undisputedly ironic phrases like "fat chance", "Thanks a *lot*", and "I should worry".

source

Orwell (although obviously living in the 20th century) had one of those "classical educations" you refer to. It doesn't sound very appealing at all -- mindless memorization and physical abuse were what it mostly consisted of. You can read Orwell's famous essay Here

I think it's out of copyright, and it may be considered an inappropriate reference to sowewhere so close to Finland; but the attached is a reasonable analysis of the situation to my mind Danegeld

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

Depending on your definition of 'invent', you can go as far back as 1880 (finding that radio waves reflect) or 1924(first succesful radio ranging) for the invention of radar.

Practical radar systems were first built in 1935 by Watson-Watt.

AFAI can determine, Loomis didn't get into the radar business until 1939, when he copeid all the information the British had.

I've been a Mac user for years'n'years'n'years, and believe you me, I can feel your pain w.r.t. Mac OS X's window management.

The trick I'm using to keep them under control is to download Youpi Key, which is an automation tool, and configured it to hide all other applications with command-space. It's not perfect, because there are some apps I'd like not to hide, like DesktopConsole.

One final thing to note: Many of us (including Apple) would appreciate it if you could send this feedback to Apple here. If you could clearly explain your problem (and your post, as is, is mostly there), and then make clear suggestions on what exactly would help you, I'm sure they'll give it serious consideration. Their recent track record seems to support my belief that they are more customer-focused these days.

This isn't an entirely new phenomena - back in the days of the Commodore 64, there was a program available that would knock the heads of the 1541 disk drive to the tune of "Daisy, Daisy". And now, in the days of emulators and MP3's, you can get both the program and hear the music at The amazing disk drive music page.

1) This is not 'one of the few cases'! As far as straight (civil) libel goes, existing 'cyberlaw' goes back to the 80's, with mailing lists and BBSs and has definitely been upheld internationally. "international" is important, because you can be sued in jurisdiction where the 'damage' occurs or where the 'victim' resides. Here are some cases/sources:

• Here's a Richmond Law Review (Va.) article suggesting unified approaches to cyber-defamation.
• Here's a Harvard Law Review article on cyberlaw.
• Here's a Georgia State review article of Alabama cyber defamation law (for details and contrast with Utah)
• Blakeley v. Continental Airlines is a 1999 case involving a private company-only BBS
• Rindos v. Hardwick was a famous case where an American was successfully sued in Australian courts for defamation on a e-mail list. [Summary] [Judgement]
• A CyberLibel FAQ -- primarily non-US 'British tradition' (Australia, Canada) useful as a basis for further understanding.
• Here's a 1994 Australian review of Defamation laws in cyberspace.
• Here's a course reading list (with links to cases and other resources embedded in the course outline) for a comparison of in the US and Australia with references to other law (Roman, English, Dutch, etc.) It hits some very relevant points in vey few words.
• Here's a review of British cyber-defamation law (incl. BBS and e-mail)
• Similar US Criminal Libel cases against students have been reported widely in the media for years (names are not cited, because they are minors): [Colorado, 1997 (ACLU) and verdict, 1998]
• Nervous? maybe you should be Here's a (English language, published in Denmark) peer-reviewed law journal article on 'Defamation Havens' ('peer-review' is when articles are reviewed by experts before publication)

2) Do a websearch for "criminal libel" and you'll find that its primary use worldwide, historically and currently is against journalists . One of the 'Inciting Abuses' that contributed to the American Revolution was a (then British) court verdict that a newspaper was guilty of defaming the reputation of the Governer-General of New York by (accurately) revealing his corruption.

• Criminal Libel use.abuse is often cited in the annual US State Department Human Rights reports on each country. [Gabon, 1999]
• In Ireland, journalistic websites get away with a great deal that print journalism can't.

3) To address another of Katz's points, here are mini-case studies in dysfunctional human behaviour on the net

Katz was on my 'exclude list' for a few months, not because I dislike his writing, but because his loose use of facts and analogies leads to a sloppy, infuriating discussion. A profesional writer should investigate his facts and limit his speculation to what those facts support; If he doesn't, the readers will certainly go hogwild. This is the first Katz article I've read in a while. I am not pleased.

Try this:

http://www.cs.newcastle.edu.au/~c95117 13/sesem