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There are several different definitions of the word "republic". Please don't pretend that your favorite definition is the only one.

You folks seem to be using definition 1 for "republic" and definitions 3 and 5 for "democracy", which is fine. Most slashdoters seem to use definition 2 for "republic" and 4 for "democracy, which is also completely correct.

You might as well say "it's wrong to call the killer 'volatile', because he doesn't evaporate easily" - pretending other definitions don't exist is intellectually dishonest.

You folks seem to be using definition 1 for "republic" and definitions 3 and 5 for "democracy", which is fine. Most slashdoters seem to use definition 2 for "republic" and 4 for "democracy, which is also completely correct.

You might as well say "it's wrong to call the killer 'volatile', because he doesn't evaporate easily" - pretending other definitions don't exist is intellectually dishonest.

You folks seem to be using definition 1 for "republic" and definitions 3 and 5 for "democracy", which is fine. Most slashdoters seem to use definition 2 for "republic" and 4 for "democracy, which is also completely correct.

You might as well say "it's wrong to call the killer 'volatile', because he doesn't evaporate easily" - pretending other definitions don't exist is intellectually dishonest.

It's not that they have propretary formats. It's just that they cling to them too tightly.

Is that not the definition of proprietary? I do believe IT IS!

I'm not saying I disagree with your mentality, just the terminology ;)

Sure the PS3 costs $600, but add a couple of games on top of that, another controller or 2, then it starts to add up. Then again, havent you heard of a http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hyperbole hyperbole?

I know 1 person with a HDTV, not only do tehy cost a ridiculous amount, IMO they make TV look bad because of the faults in the original recording, which are blurred out in low definition. I probably won't buy one until the price comes crashing down, and the old technology is phased out. God bless CRT.

you can tell I'm from the vinyl age, still calling them "albums"

A set of musical recordings stored together in jackets under one binding

A recording of different musical pieces

...the people as they are the ones who elected the governemnt
Sorry, that's not the way elections work here (can you say electoral college?). And there are so many things wrong with the idea that America is a true democracy and the government represents it's people that I really don't have time (or intereest) to detail them all.

oh and
Considering that the American government is a democratic one (so much so that it thinks it right to "impose" its democratic vision to other countries)
You're saying that the nature of a highly democratic government is to impose it's vision on other countries? Please reference http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=democracy for further assistance.

CAN versus MAY

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=can
Scroll down to USAGE

$PERSON is almost certainly physically capable of any acts described above, without regard for the legal or ethical* considerations that might pertain to such acts.

* "Legal" and "ethically acceptable/required" have no well defined mapping..

You can only play by playlist. No way to sort by genre, artist, or album. Fortunately, there's a solution to that: create a "smart playlist" for each missing sort mode you want. Yep. That's "easy to use".

I assume you're familiar with the term 'bullshit'? Or flamebait? Or troll?

4G, 60GB color iPod. Click on Music. Then click on 'artists' or 'genres' or about seven or eight other things.

Plus it doesn't support popular media formats. Want to play music from non-Apple online stores? Tough. No FLAC, no Ogg, no WMV, nothing but Apple or MP3.

I'm more disappointed in the S-Mart players that don't play the popular format used by the world's largest online music retailer.

http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Banqiao_Dam

"How does this new email stop virii? It won't." Maybe because there are no such things as virii? You mean viruses: http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/ v/virus.html

1. dipshit

   n.

   A foolish or contemptible person.

   Not an oxymoron at all.
2. Meaningless pop psychology
3. Welcome to the entire fucking debate. What you think is a suitable definitive closing statement to simply spit out, the rest of us call 'the topic at hand'.

Lets ask Silverman about to look up "Dignity" in the dictionary.

Well, Goodness, it IS still in the dictionary. And not just the PETA dictionary, it's in the real life HUMANS dictionary. In case he's reading, I'll make it easy for him.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dignity

Grammar tip: "Effect" is a verb. "Affect" is a noun.

Affect and effect have no senses in common. As a verb affect is most commonly used in the sense of "to influence" (how smoking affects health). Effect means "to bring about or execute": layoffs designed to effect savings. Thus the sentence These measures may affect savings could imply that the measures may reduce savings that have already been realized, whereas These measures may effect savings implies that the measures will cause new savings to come about.

Every time you misuse the word "angst," God kills an emo-kid. Please, think of the emo-kids.

If its 100% true, its not libel is it?
Libel only exists when you tell a lie about someone and it damages their reputation.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=libel

Technically, an investment is "Property or another possession acquired for future financial return or benefit" - one of the benefits is that you get to enjoy it.

Now whether it is a good or poor investment, is a different kettle of fish. ROI is _not_ simply about money!

All the other issues with this (that others have mentioned) don't even matter because video games aren't sports to begin with!

Oh really?

sport (spôrt, sprt)
n.
3. An active pastime; recreation.

Please read the dictionary before making ridiculous, inaccurate assertions about the meaning of words.

Someone with little or no industry knowledge would probably welcome a marketing strategy that provides a clear distinction between the casual games that they are interested in and the dirth of bestselling (traditional gaming) titles that line store shelves.

Not to be a vocabulary or spelling nazi, but I think you spelled the word wrong, and I don't think it means what you think it does:

people who spell "fantastical" should attend to english lessons

"Fantastical" is a word.

What a douche.

Where, where?

Yes it is (see no. 2).

re-de-sign
To make a revision in the appearance or function of.

As long as you don't get the diuretic meal...

How about laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation)

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dependant

At the bottom:

"dependant
adj 1: contingent on something else [syn: dependent, qualified]"

Although the company name is now illusive, elusive, and delusive ( http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=phantom ), that $69 million of debts is still quite real.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=irony

Please see 2a.

Excellent points. On the 'expensive' issue, though.. GEnie was charging up to $36 per hour for dial-up connections for "prime time gaming". At it's worst, AOL only extorted $6 or so per hour.
I remember having to explain the $300+ monthly bills until I took an in-game "job" with SimuTronics (now Play.net ) so they would pay my net bill.

The purpose of a corporation is generally to do pursue (usually economic) activities beyond the scale of what individuals or small groups can accomplish. To do so, coporations need to have some legal rights and responsibilites to operate in society as an entity, as such they are a "virutal individual" in the legal sense. Corporations can be for-profit or not-for-profit. Shielding owners from liability is somewhat inconsequential, and in fact only very specific types of corporations shield their owners from legal or financial liability. See references here and here.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=publican

• Web Version 2.0 (if Hitachi doesn't mind)
• WWW 2.0
• Web II, or Web II Punctum Nihil, or continuing on the Latin theme 'EbWay 2.0'
• Entanglement 2.0 (and other fun from a thesaurus)

At any rate, their "the web is buzzing" dismissal-phrase isn't helping. Bees buzz. People have a glut of ebWay 2.0 conferences to choose from (not to mention the 1/1000 priced ad-hoc conferences that Web TwoPtOught tech makes possible), so bad publicity isn't going to help the conference. All its going to do is make web 2.0 seem so web 1.0. or 1999 2.0.

Didn't they think to run this application by a mailing list or two? Does O'Reilly not have a panel of no-men: a group of folks comfortable with saying "dude, that sux" to Tim if he needs to escape the echo-chambers of normal CEO-hood?

'Which means that unless I'm talking to the government, there's no reason they should be listening.'

'Is talking to someone in my house private because the house effectively carries the encryption concept?' ... 'Application of encryption doesn't necessarily mean something is private.'

'I have an inalienable right to live at the moment. However there are laws on the books disallowing people from impeding that right.'

'The existence of the agreement may just mean that they recognize that there are people who don't respect that rights of personal privacy'

'The salesman has an agenda... either he thinks I might need a vacuum, or he thinks he can make me thing I do.'

'I'm concerned about my privacy and I hoped that he may become concerned as well and support legislation to keep things in proper check.'

Prostitution is an industry that decided to "literally" screw its customers.

1. A pathological condition of a part, organ, or system of an organism resulting from various causes, such as infection, genetic defect, or environmental stress, and characterized by an identifiable group of signs or symptoms.

2. A condition or tendency, as of society, regarded as abnormal and harmful.

You are obviously a dilettante (hint: scroll down for the WordNet definition).

Real users actually produce something, and value their time.

The kind of people who spend hundreds on Photoshop is because it lets them do useful and possibly profitable work.

The cost of a computer and programs is not the value, it is something that enables them to produce value.

Losing that value to a [virus|worm|whatever] (and you are 12 years old if you think backups are a guarantee against that) and losing the time that they could be doing useful work is actually a big deal to them. You know, them, real computer users.

Of course I'm following this entire discussion closely as I have friends with MS-Windows PCs and a strong need for something better than Norton.

Hmmm, although I don't produce value from computers, I use computers to help others produce value and retain that which they've produced. Interesting, a geek with a niche.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=territory

Definition 1: "An area of land; a region."

Did you frequently fail vocabulary tests when you were young? Do still have trouble reading words with more than two syllables?

I suggest you follow this link to the definition of democracy. You will find that the United States is a democracy by defition #1: "Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives." Please stop denying it's a democracy merely because does not satisfy the "majority rule" definition. It makes you sound like an idiot. In the future, try making your subtle points without including patently false statements.

You know, that game Civilization has a lot to answer for, chiefly confusing people as to the meaning of words... Try looking up the words "Republic" and "Democracy". You'll see that they are pretty much orthogonal concepts.

I take "Republic (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=republic /) to mean a country where the head of state is not a monarch.

I take Democracy (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=democrac y/) to mean a country where the people elect their government.

Thus, the UK is a democracy and not a republic, China is a republic and not a democracy and the USA is both.

You know, that game Civilization has a lot to answer for, chiefly confusing people as to the meaning of words... Try looking up the words "Republic" and "Democracy". You'll see that they are pretty much orthogonal concepts.

I take "Republic (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=republic /) to mean a country where the head of state is not a monarch.

I take Democracy (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=democrac y/) to mean a country where the people elect their government.

Thus, the UK is a democracy and not a republic, China is a republic and not a democracy and the USA is both.

Alot?

ALOT?

Not feelin ya, broheem.

This resource, which does not reflect any official university policy

Definition: In an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else's language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source.

If you take content from an article and credit it, that's not plagiarism. Dictionary.com (from WordNet) describes plagiarism as: "the act of plagiarizing; taking someone's words or ideas as if they were your own". If you stick someone else's name on it, it's clearly not your own! (Of course, the web is Content + Markup, so depending upon how the citation is visible or not is a whole other discussion...)

Small excerpts of text are usually considered "fair use". Large excerpts or wholesale copying is usually considered "copyright infringement". If you profit by taking someone else's content, properly citing it, and putting it on your blog, you will be guilty of copyright infringement[1], not plagiarism.

All of the profs in college said the same thing: If you cite your references, you'll never get in trouble with the Honor Code (i.e. College's plagiarism/cheating policy). You [the student] may get no credit if you use JUST other people's work, but you'll never get in trouble for plagiarism.

-- Qubit

[1] Assuming that the person retains full copyright and doesn't use a Creative Commons license or similar...

Plagiarism: n 1: a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work 2: the act of plagiarizing; taking someone's words or ideas as if they were your own. [emph mine]

If only the Atlantic were so symmetrical. "Span" is described only as archaic when it's the past tense of spun, and not mentioned anywhere else, not even when listing conjugations of "to spin". Any citation of span as "past spin", so I don't sound archaic even elsewhere than America?

If only the Atlantic were so symmetrical. "Span" is described only as archaic when it's the past tense of spun, and not mentioned anywhere else, not even when listing conjugations of "to spin". Any citation of span as "past spin", so I don't sound archaic even elsewhere than America?

1) Be born into a family rich from oil
2) Get elected Governor of Texas
3) Become President by hook or by crook
4) Start a war in the part of the world where there's lots of oil?
5) PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT!!! Gosoline is three times what it cost when Adolph Oil Man acquired the West Wing.

It's bad enough Bush took power to further his own slimey lucre, but trashing our very way of life (exactly what the terrorists wanted) falls under "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Forget the misdemeanors, I want Bush and all his henchmen (like Gonzales and Ashcroft) tried for treason, conviced, sentanced, and put in front of a firing squad.

TREASON.

1. Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.
2. A betrayal of trust or confidence.

democracy Pronunciation Key (d-mkr-s)
n. pl. democracies

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
2. A political or social unit that has such a government.
3. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.
4. Majority rule.
5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.

from: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=democracy

I'd say the USA was a democracy under more than one of those definitions. Being a republic dosn't stop you from being a democaracy as well.

You mean, so they don't have to do their job any more? What the heck's wrong with spelling tests? How about vocab flash cards? Maybe we should just take away skill saws from carpenters because they mess up too many beams by not learning how to measure. Tools do not create handicaps, poor teaching does. And by the way, here is the link to how to properly spell handicap... http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=handicap The thing that separates man from beast is the ability to create, use, and adapt tools.