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Since my friend pronounces Linux as "Loonix," it's surprising that it's users aren't all fish-eating, web-footed birds.

Itanium doesn't rhyme with Titanic any more than bizooty does.

> Memorandum is an INFORMAL collection, in the US corporate world, minutes
> of a meeting are quite formal, and legally required in some cases. Referendum
> is generally accepted as a popular vote, as in of the people. This term is
> equally incorrect. Memorandum does come closer. But only slightly.

Let's see what the dictionary says about "minutes".

Merriam-Webster:
4 a : a brief note (as of summary or recommendation)
b : MEMORANDUM, DRAFT
c plural : the official record of the proceedings of a meeting

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:
6. A note or summary covering points to be remembered; a memorandum.

JURIST's browsable dictionary of basic U.S. legal terminology and Legal Dictionary:
Memorandum of a transaction or proceeding.

Sounds close enough for non-lawyers.

Literacy is on the wane, it seems.

Or is this interesting meshing of unequivocal and irrevocable actually new English? Dictionary.com begs to differ.

iqu :D

There are no such words in modern proper English as "Quoth", "Boxen", or "Ummm..."

boxen - \Box"en\ (b[o^]ks"'n), a. Made of boxwood; pertaining to, or resembling, the box

> Not everyone speak English natively on slashdot, so those that don't know
> exactly what that means: minutes means a referendum of a meeting

Isn't it ironic that a post about the English language is moderated "informative" by
people who do not know the difference between a referendum and a memorandum?

> Not everyone speak English natively on slashdot, so those that don't know
> exactly what that means: minutes means a referendum of a meeting

Isn't it ironic that a post about the English language is moderated "informative" by
people who do not know the difference between a referendum and a memorandum?

as words: basically, government of the people.

No, that is simply not the definition of republic.

"Res publica" is vacuous too, and in any event, pulling out Latin roots provide the definitions of English words. If that were the case, then "agnostic" would mean "not believing in Gnosticism", when instead it means "undecided as to the existence of deities"

Any statement such as "republic/democracy == good/bad" is rather vacuous.

No. "Republic = good" and "republic = bad" are flat-out false, while "democracy = good" is true and "democracy = bad" is false.

doesn't mean what you think it does.

Indemnify means to protect or compensate for damage, injury or loss. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=indemnify

All I read was indemnify, not assume liability. Could be a significant difference depending on exactly what they mean by indemnify. It might mean if you defend a lawsuit and the judgement is against you, MS will pay the judgement. Still part of a big FUD campaign though.

anthropomorphization

The Incredible Hulk had fun with his halloween decorations but that's a warmup for his christmas lights where he plays RoShamBo when not helping out Google Compute.

I do not know what you are talking about.

I do not know what you are talking about.

I do not know what you are talking about.

I do not know what you are talking about.

I do not know what you are talking about.

I do not know what you are talking about.

I do not know what you are talking about.

I do not know what you are talking about.

I do not know what you are talking about.

You probably mean "Gesundheit".

Hope that helps. Have a nice day!

"The W3C is the de facto standards body for internet standards."

No, the W3C is an *actual* standards body for Internet (Web, actually) standards. IE is the "de facto" standard browser, despite not being standards-compliant. Confusing? Indeed. Kinda like the early 1990s, when "alternative" music became meainstream.

I'm not normally this pedantic (here, anyway :-) ) but when the intended meaning is exactly opposite the expressed meaning, I'll chime in.

PS: great post otherwise. I'll even flesh out point #1 for you, with Microsoft's help: "...an attacker could run programs on your computer while you view a Web page. This affects all computers with Internet Explorer installed (even if you don't run Internet Explorer as your Web browser [emphasis added])."

International Obfuscated C Code Contest (I think).

This groups releases a challenge each year that the entrants have to solve using the most obfuscated C code possible. They judge tne entries and award prizes to the best of the worst. Previous entries have used the precompiler to do much of the work, eliminated brackets and spaces, hacked the stack, and generally used many other tricks to complete the challenge.

Oh, hah-hah. How droll. What is it with the trolls around here anyway? I never said "subtle naunces" (sic). It's just nuance. The subtle is already implied.

Also, I happen to like my user name. What's yours?

It only takes a second or two check, which also lists the correct word if you got it wrong.

It only takes a second or two check, which also lists the correct word if you got it wrong.

It has many, many established churches.

Dictionary.com lists the following definition of "establish" wrt religion: "To make a state institution of (a church)." None of the religious institutions in the United states can be considered a state institution, in the sense that the Church of England is established in the United Kingdom, or the Greek Orthodox Church in Greece.

In addition, any democracy may be considered to have a state religion when its electoral majority votes in accordance with their clergy.

That doesn't make it a "state institution." The church and state are still free to operate entirely independently of one another, the fact that they may at times choose not to do so notwithstanding.

Thank you for the bit of pedantry and interesting factual tidbit. However, upon reading it I of course decided to look it up.

Yes, you are correct in it's use. Or should I say it's original use. It is now accepted usage to use it as mentioned in the article. It's general meaning now is to kill or destroy a large part of.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=decimate& r=67

Now, about that spell check feature that needs to be added to slashdot...

Well, sandboxed code isn't arbitrary in at least one sense of the word arbitrary.

Learn to spell. L O S E R.

Asimov did NOT invent the word robot.

link for the unbelievers

HawkingOS?

Hawking: To peddle goods aggressively, especially by calling out.

HawkinSOS?

SOS: a distress call

SOS: Sack Of Stuff (polite form)

SOS: Same Old Story

SOS: Same Old Stuff (polite form)

Take your pick...

It's a good thing we only trust dictionary.com. http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary& va=mistruths So please go fuck yourself

Get help somewhere.

...Chris Stone, a respected open source advocate and the man often sited...

tr.v. sited, siting, sites
To situate or locate on a site: sited the power plant by the river.

tr.v. cited, citing, cites
To quote as an authority or example.

Do it now, before it's too late.

You averaged 2.4 misspellings per paragraph. Not a record on /., but pretty embarassing all the same. Ever think about getting some education? Or at least a spellchecker? Kudos on "axiom" and "deterministic", I guess, but maybe you want to start on "completely"?

Embarrassing indeed.

nessiary = necissary
nessisarly = necissarily

Sorry, better luck next time. That's all the time we have for today's episode of Slashdot Grammar Trollbusters. Be sure to tune in tomorrow's exciting episode!

The above mentioned, Kevin McBride, is brother to Darl McBride acording to this Computer Shopper News article.

So even if Darl fails in his quest to sue every sentient being (and SCO dies), he will have kept lots of money in the family.

If it is biodegradable, doesn't that mean it won't last that long? I'm worried about it biodegrading like that.

The problem with almost all of these tests is that they generally only catch sociopaths, not psychopaths...

The problem with this distinction (which I had always made as well), is that apparently sociopath is synonymous with psychopath. Apparently sociopath is just a new term to distance the medical condition from the nasty 'psycho' slang. IANAP, however.

~ I'd have got up to make a coffee or had a p break ~.

Frequent urination is a warning sign for diabetes.

Caffene is a diruetic, so that could explain it, especially if he's drinking mass quantities.

Probably more than most. Sadly, that's not what proffered means.

It was proffered a long time ago. The news is that it doesn't work. May I suggest punctured?

Oh, there's a lot of correlation, just not so much causation

Sorry to pick on you, especially if it was just a slip of the tongue (which it looked like), but I see these two words mixed up more than I'd really like to.

Oh, there's a lot of correlation, just not so much causation

Sorry to pick on you, especially if it was just a slip of the tongue (which it looked like), but I see these two words mixed up more than I'd really like to.

Like it or not, the people have spoken and they came down decisively on the side of the Bush crowd. I don't hate him, you, or anyone else. We're all brothers on the same side. If you haven't yet realized that the issue isn't me against you, but us against them, then you haven't been paying attention.

There is no "us" and there is no "them". Yes, we were attacked by a few terrorists on 9/11. It has happened before, it will happen again. NOTHING can stop that - not Bush, not Kerry, not anything. Will something on the magnitude of 9/11 happen again? No one knows - we definitely hope not. But terror & fear are a part of life.

By using the "us vs them" rhetoric, you simply reinforce the Bush administration's fear-based agenda. Keep the public afraid, keep them ignorant about Iraq and the real threats this country faces (for their own good, of course), and people will continue to give you power.

I'm really starting to admire the wisdom of our [non-Christian] founding fathers and their well-founded fear of mob-rule (aka "democracy") and demagogues.

Personally, I do think it is odd to include the Dakotas, but hey, these are relatively reliable references, so I'm prepared to accept conventional wisdom on the matter.

Anyway, my understanding was that the term midwest was from one of two origins. A) It was the geographical counterpart of the middle east (i.e. the middle of the North American continent) Or B) it was far (considering the travel methods of the time) west of the colonies, but nowhere near as far as the west coast.

I've always had a picture of the midwest being primarily mid to northern states, as the linked pages describe. It's what I was taught all the way through school. (Ohio would definitely be the absolute easternmost border though. No PA.) South of Missouri I've alwasy considered "the south", having it's own western and eastern sub-parts, and not being at all part of the mid-west. Never really had a name for that region between the bordering rectangle points of Minnesota, Washington, California, and Missouri.

Anyway, I'd say at least 99.9% of Wisconsinites consider Wisconsin and Illinois as definitely being in the midwest, and would be appalled, as I was, to hear someone contradict that. And I'd feel quite confident saying ,b>at least 75% would accept the definitions I linked to. I don't know where you grew up that you were taught any different.

So if team X scores 36 runs in the first game of a seven game series and then doesn't score a single run in the next six games they should win the series? That's insane.

/me smacks pbaumgar with a Bambino sized clue stick.

So Mr. Kerry: why the long face?

plurality

most

plurality

most

Your stanse wreaks of a of prejudice and hatred...

For someone criticizing another poster's writing skills, I'd say your stance reeks .