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It is amusing to imagine the reaction here if it was Microsoft doing this. You wouldn't be able to breathe for the phrase "convicted monopolist" as though that was all that mattered.

Apple is a monopolist; it just hasn't been convicted yet. Case in point: can you name the close substitutes for an iPod touch? (In the context of an article about an app store, close substitutes include an app store that is more than a token app store, and I've been told AppsLib on Archos 43 is just that.)

> It certainly allows for information to be transmitted faster then 'c'. See what Einstein called "Spooky Action at a Distance."

Einstein, so far as I know, didn't like the idea of quantum entanglement (hence the SPOOKY part), and thought it was probably impossible. He proposed the EPR paradox to try and show that quantum theory was inconsistent. He hated the idea of quantum information traveling faster than light. It turns out that he was wrong- entanglement happens- but you can't transmit classical information via entanglement.

>Your confusion is assuming Fate and Free Will are mutually exclusive.
I didn't say anything about that; how does this follow from saying "nothing travels faster than light"?

> a) You are assuming that Causality is some sort of "Law", and
Well, yes. Sort of. If you can travel faster than light, you can travel back in time (or send information back in time). If you can do that, you can break causality. Eg: the grandfather paradox. This is the paradox generated with the Tachyon pistol thought experiment I referenced earlier. If I can send a signal faster then light, then it will arrive before it was sent. What if I fire a deadly tachyon pistol at my own head? I'll be dead before I pulled the trigger! That makes no sense- if I'm dead, who pulled the trigger? There's no "law" saying nonsensical things can't happen, but life would sure get interesting if we worked out FTL communication.

> b) You and/or the author doesn't seem to be aware of, or understand the concept of time lines,
Furthermore, Time is not absolute, it is relative. FTL doesn't break causality.

A time line? I could tell you what a "world-line" is (in the context of special relativity), it's the path of an object, describing every time and space coordinate where it's present. Time indeed isn't absolute, you can (for example) dilate time if you move faster. But this is special relativity again, which requires nothing to travel faster than c... so it's not much help to your case.

Here's what I mean by a paradox. If I can measure someone's intuitive reaction to a stimulus before it happens, what happens if I set up the following test protocol?
1. If subject appears to be intuiting stimulus A, computer shows stimulus B.
2. If subject appears to be intuiting stimulus B, computer shows stimulus A.

Subject intuits stimulus A. What does the computer show? If it shows B, then the subject's intuition was wrong. If it shows A, then the subject must have intuited stimulus B, which (s)he didn't.

As to the Einstein quote: I find it odd that you're using "intuition" to mean knowing things before they happen. Wiktionary defines it a Immediate cognition without the use of conscious rational processes. It's immediate cognition, not "precognition". So I find it hard to believe that Einstein took intuition to mean uncanny pre-knowledge of future events.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/contrary

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quash

Brought to you by the letter I and a spelling nazi ;)

I left out the extra i intentionally because it results in a more proper spelling which also looks more like a real element name, such as titanium or germanium, whereas there are no real element names which end in ainium. The "correction" you suggest is actually an alternate form.

I'm afraid you'll have to turn in your spelling nazi license now. ;)

Brought to you by the letter I and a spelling nazi ;)

I left out the extra i intentionally because it results in a more proper spelling which also looks more like a real element name, such as titanium or germanium, whereas there are no real element names which end in ainium. The "correction" you suggest is actually an alternate form.

I'm afraid you'll have to turn in your spelling nazi license now. ;)

Why do we, as customers, take this?

Who's "we"? I don't have any apple products...

Clearly he meant "we" in the combined first and third person, not the combined first and second. It doesn't have to include you. If you're not familiar with common usage for the word "we", I suggest you look it up.

Wiktionary: Funny

2. strange or unusual, often implying unpleasant

But then you already knew that, you were just being resentful about the correction. (It's ok, it's standard geek fare)

Actually I found the correction a tad overzealous, though this was skillfully veiled. That's also standard geek fare, well except for the skillfully veiled part. While your assumption concerning the character of a complete stranger is noted, no resentment is required to make that point. I used humor instead.

My thanks was genuine, incidentally. It does not benefit me to hang onto wrong notions.

Wiktionary: Funny

2. strange or unusual, often implying unpleasant

But then you already knew that, you were just being resentful about the correction. (It's ok, it's standard geek fare)

Snarky

snark + -y; 1906, as “irritable”, from 1866 snark (“to snort”)

Terror: Something that causes intense fear.
-ism: a principle, belief or movement.

I think Terrorism is a belief in something that causes intense fear.

-ist: One who follows a principle or system of belief.

I think that Terrorists are those that promote and follow a belief in things that cause fear; You know, like your local evening television news anchors.

The people that blow stuff up illegally usually fall into two categories: Psychopaths or Activists.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Indeed. Who among us is afraid of a terrorist attack? To those that choose to live in terror, please consider that you should be more afraid of dying due to a car accident or heart attack than from a terrorist attack (given that the odds are much lower for the latter).

Some say that terrorists are those that use terror to oppress others. I agree, our political system is full of Terrorist; Look at all the freedoms we no longer enjoy thanks to all of the "Remember the Terrorists" acts/laws & procedures that have been imposed upon us.

The smiling politicians and faces of the media can be just as much terrorists as those planting bombs on a buss; Their effects may not be as dramatic, but are felt more broadly and for a much longer period of time.

Diluted terror is still terror. Choose not to live in fear, and don't believe everything you hear on the "news".

Terror: Something that causes intense fear.
-ism: a principle, belief or movement.

I think Terrorism is a belief in something that causes intense fear.

-ist: One who follows a principle or system of belief.

I think that Terrorists are those that promote and follow a belief in things that cause fear; You know, like your local evening television news anchors.

The people that blow stuff up illegally usually fall into two categories: Psychopaths or Activists.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Indeed. Who among us is afraid of a terrorist attack? To those that choose to live in terror, please consider that you should be more afraid of dying due to a car accident or heart attack than from a terrorist attack (given that the odds are much lower for the latter).

Some say that terrorists are those that use terror to oppress others. I agree, our political system is full of Terrorist; Look at all the freedoms we no longer enjoy thanks to all of the "Remember the Terrorists" acts/laws & procedures that have been imposed upon us.

The smiling politicians and faces of the media can be just as much terrorists as those planting bombs on a buss; Their effects may not be as dramatic, but are felt more broadly and for a much longer period of time.

Diluted terror is still terror. Choose not to live in fear, and don't believe everything you hear on the "news".

Terror: Something that causes intense fear.
-ism: a principle, belief or movement.

I think Terrorism is a belief in something that causes intense fear.

-ist: One who follows a principle or system of belief.

I think that Terrorists are those that promote and follow a belief in things that cause fear; You know, like your local evening television news anchors.

The people that blow stuff up illegally usually fall into two categories: Psychopaths or Activists.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Indeed. Who among us is afraid of a terrorist attack? To those that choose to live in terror, please consider that you should be more afraid of dying due to a car accident or heart attack than from a terrorist attack (given that the odds are much lower for the latter).

Some say that terrorists are those that use terror to oppress others. I agree, our political system is full of Terrorist; Look at all the freedoms we no longer enjoy thanks to all of the "Remember the Terrorists" acts/laws & procedures that have been imposed upon us.

The smiling politicians and faces of the media can be just as much terrorists as those planting bombs on a buss; Their effects may not be as dramatic, but are felt more broadly and for a much longer period of time.

Diluted terror is still terror. Choose not to live in fear, and don't believe everything you hear on the "news".

Hehe, caught me. "chewn" is a word you'll find in the Urban Dictionary as opposed to Wiktionary.

The nuttiest thing about this is that "facebook" is a common noun. It's not used in all areas as a synonym for "yearbook", but it is in some.

Before Facebook, a facebook was simply a compilation of pictures of members of a class to allow them to get to know each other.

Basically, if you have money, there is a different (self-made) law for you. It's basically might makes right, but with only the threat of violence as opposed to actual bloodshed.

eg.
zappy
zealous
zesty
zoomy
zygomatic

Take your pick: http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Category:English_adjectives&from=z

Ridiculous. FTFY.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ridiculous

Actually, the word comes from bio- and -ic, which means "like" or "akin to." Bionic is really just a synonym for mimicry, although its usage in medicine is not necessarily the same.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bionic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bionics

(transitive) To review in order to remove objectionable content from correspondence or public media, either by legal criteria or with discretionary powers

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/censor#Verb

Censorship can be by a government, or it can be by a private party. In the latter case, arbitrary censorship is usually OK. For governments, they usually have to meet some reasonable constitutional or judicial standard.

How exactly do you divine the sales trajectory from a single data point. Please explain this to me. Comparing it to other platforms is what TFA is trying to do, but they're comparing monday sales to first weekend sales to first 6 months sales and somehow drawing a conclusion from this.

From wikitionary: "An phenomenon that generally occurs in advance of an important phenomenon, aiding in its prediction." Opening day sales is a leading indicator; it's not always 100% accurate, and it's not the only one. But without omnipotence, those who look analyze these things have to look at numbers. One analyst however noted that Monday is not a good day for a launch. I agree that the first six months sales is not really a good comparison. Opening weekend sales are closer but exact. We will have to wait and see for more data.

For a product you need to sign a 2 year contract for, yes, I think this is a valid assumption if you're buying it without ever using it or knowing someone who has used it. Further, timing is especially important for phones. To buy a new phone on contract, you have to either be just getting out of your contract, or specifically waiting off contract to buy this phone. Since the probability that any given person just got off his contract on Monday, it's more likely that the people who bought the phone have been waiting specifically for it and are therefore fans.

I think you're missing a key group in that analysis. You're assuming that all customers are either just out of contract and looking for a new phone. Or specifically waiting for this phone. I know many people who have been out of contract (for a while) but neither looking or waiting. They simply didn't get a new phone when their contract expired. They might get a Windows/Android/Blackberry/iPhone phone if they happen to see a feature they like. Or they'll keep using their current phone until it breaks. MS unfortunately have launched their product in an economic downturn.

Also you're assuming that someone won't break contract and pay a fee to get this phone. Some people do that to get new models. These people might be fans or early adopters but the two are not mutually inclusive. Some people are just attracted to $LATEST NEW THING$.

Zune never had a massive amount of advertising, especially compared to iPod. In iPod's heyday, there would be an iPod silhouette advertisement every commercial break on some channels, on prime time television. The only Zune ads I ever saw were at 11:00 on adult swim.

Compared to the iPod no, but estimates put for the first six months of 2007, MS spent $17 million on advertising the Zune alone. The problem I saw with the Zune ads were MS was trying to be obscure (therefore 'cool' in their minds) and advertise the product at the same time. I think they forgot the some basic rules of advertising in that you should identify what you're selling and what it does. Those first Zune commercials could have been selling soda and no one would have noticed.

Need I say more?

Since "libre" means, essentially, "free," in several languages other than English, and its meaning is "With very few limitations on distribution or improvement; including source code" according to the Free Software Movement (as indicated by the same Wiktionary page), LibreOffice might be a much more appropriate name than a typical English-is-my-first-language American like myself might realize.

With the name LibreOffice, it might garner a more worldwide user base, but I guess only time will tell.

Damn that's insightful. I know of no better metaphor. In fact it may be more than a metaphor, the literal truth.

From wiktionary:

2. Anything of no real benefit which nevertheless makes people feel better

The force that holds the ultimate power is not the elected government, but those that control the economy.

"give me convenience or give me death!)

One day a Google or Bookface program is gonna misread that and think, "Jeezuz...that poor dude really needs a crap!"...and a

plumbing supply rep will be knocking on your door in no time flat."

Ok...you COMPLETELY lost me on this one. What does what he said even remotely have to do with a plumber?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/convenience See 4th meaning.

Virgin birth among reptiles [...] may be far commoner than ever expected.

The words you are looking for are "more common". A commoner is a "common person", the riff-raff, the rude[1] folk, etc.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/commoner

[1]http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rude#Adjective, #4.

Virgin birth among reptiles [...] may be far commoner than ever expected.

The words you are looking for are "more common". A commoner is a "common person", the riff-raff, the rude[1] folk, etc.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/commoner

[1]http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rude#Adjective, #4.

WTF??!!

Geeks are by definition NOT mainstream.

Next you'll tell me Joe Sixpack is a geek!

Get off my lawn!

Much like Decatur's "My country, right or wrong", which most blindly quote without the rest of the idea, later articulated by Sen. Carl Schurz: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/my_country,_right_or_wrong

There is also Empty Quiver. Very bad.

Except that you're answering the above question after I have made explicit what I meant by it (my layman's understanding of genetic drift).

If you were responding to that question, then why did you post the response to that question>, rather than to my post with the link to genetic drift in it?

Maybe you should look up the word disingenuous as well?

[1]

American men have large, pendulous breasts too

I believe those are called pecs, as in hen pecs.

No, libre is not a Latin word. Be careful making assumptions about Latin based on French or Spanish. Those languages have diverged significantly from Latin in both spellings and pronunciations. The modern language that is closest to Latin is Italian, and its word is "libero".

With regard to the meaning of liber, you're both right, and those aren't the only two meanings for the word, either. The word liber has different meanings in Latin depending on context and usage. As a noun, it is a form of the word for "book" (liber, genitive libri, etc.) from the Proto-Indo-European language. As an adjective, it means "free", from Greek. (The adverb form of this is "libere", hence the French/Spanish word "libre" came from dropping the first "e" from the adverb form. The noun form of this word is libertas.) As a verb, liber is an inflected form of the word libo, meaning "to spill".

And you thought English was a messy language.

Fitting, though, that the same Latin word can mean both "book" and "free". The pen is mightier and all that.

My sarcasm detector is little off today (perhaps due to that nasty fall I had this morning...) so...

Why do you think they call them "Cardinal" Sins? Because all of the Cardinals commit them.

...than just "that church guy with a red robe and a funny hat, who is not the pope... yet".
Not that any of that changes the truthiness of the quoted statement in any way.

At least according to Wiktionary.

Either that or it is Scottish. At least that fits better than the people who can't spell leer and are making jokes on that.

Welcome to slashdot, where people incorrectly think there can be only one correct spelling for a word.

Reeking havoc

Given that we're talking about industrial processes, the room may smell bad after the havoc in question, but the term is wreaking havoc. Wreak, pronounced "reek", and although the equipment may be wrecked, it's not "wreck".

Sorry, pet peeve of mine.

I don't mind so long as it's possible to earn the awards through play. There are times when I have more free time to play, other times my free time is non-existent. If I'm enjoying a game, I don't want to fall behind just because we have a few busy weeks at work, if I can offset that by laying out some cash then I see that as a reasonable alternative to grinding. I agree that the ones where cash buys equipment that's not otherwise available are evil, simply because I'd rather buy a game outright and know what I'm paying than be sucked into some complex confusopoly of micro-payments.

Fair enough; "ass" is a proper prefix.

But what about terms like "bisexuality" that get censored as soon as you enter "bisex"? How many words starting with "bisex" that are NOT related to bisexuality are there? Checking Wiktionary, for example, it appears that there's none.

Also, here's the current first page of results for "bisexuality", and as you can see, it does NOT contain any porn:

* Bisexuality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisexuality
* Welcome To The American Institute Of Bisexuality - www.bisexual.org/
* Bisexual FAQ - https://www.msu.edu/~alliance/faq/faqbisexuality.html
* Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited - New York Times - www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/health/05sex.html
* Bisexuality: A unique sexual orientation - www.religioustolerance.org
* The Bisexual Index | What is Bisexuality? - www.bisexualindex.org.uk/index.php/Bisexuality
* Bisexual Resource Center - Supporting Bisexual Community - biresource.net/
* Bisexuality - Wikiquote - en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bisexuality
* Bisexuality 101: Am I bisexual? - National Bisexuality | Examiner.com - www.examiner.com/bisexuality-in.../bisexuality-101-am-i-bisexual
* WHAT IS BISEXUALITY? By Kathy Labriola - www.cat-and-dragon.com/stef/Poly/Labriola/bisexual.html

So, what is the justification for censoring this term, given that A) there is no unrelated topic that you could be searching for when you type "bisex", and B) none of the results are offensive in any way, anyway?

Spelt is a valid and common spelling. I'm not from North America.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spelt#Etymology_1

Also, my take on the translation. "Rua" on Wiktionary.

Unlike Facebook, the Diaspora network is planned to have more than one server operator. Some might offer ad-free accounts to subscribers. Others might be run by a company that offers ad-free accounts to its employees, a school that offers ad-free accounts to its students (echoing the original meaning of the word "facebook"), or a church or other non-profit club that offers ad-free accounts to its members.

Someone should tell wiktionary.

Is that supposed to be 'post humourously' or the Lebanese version 'post hummusly'?

I guess it's more related to this word.

"Cough" doesn't come from German, it comes, ie. is inherited, from *Germanic*. Apparently cognate words exist in Dutch and German. You're right about the probable Old English pronunciation, with a guttural "kh" sound. Also, nearly all words with "gh" pronouned as [f] or mute had such a sound originally.

cough on etymonline
cough at Wiktionary

Is it spelled potahto or potayto? Cah or car or core or cower? Chimney or chimbley? Wash or warsh? Unlike Spanish, the regional dialects of American English put the kibosh on your idea.

That's a good argument against "phonetic spelling reform" because *whose English would you base it on*? It would be inconvenient to some if "marry", "merry" and "Mary" were spelt identically. Personally, I'd get rid of some quirks, like "debt" instead of "det" or "dette".

satire: A literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. Humour is often used to aid this.

If you agree with that definition, burning the Koran is definitely a way to ridicule extremist Muslims because it shows how powerless they are in the modern world of mass media and internationally differing freedoms. I think it's also meant to provoke change, if you believe what the pastor says about a new way to confront terrorism.

Personally I think it would be an awesome message for moderate Muslims to join in the Koran burning to show that they really are moderate. Someone who cries or gets terribly upset (but not violent) at the sight of an insult to their religion is pretty damn far from moderate imho.

Tragedian. The internets agree... Although demagogue or fearmonger or "Certifiable" come to mind too...

And ad hominem isn't a noun. So you don't call something an ad hominem; you call it ad hominem.

Wrong.

how can you justify making the game completely unavailable to them?

I'm not sure if you use this expression in the US, but soldiers playing Medal of Honour strikes me as a busman's holiday. Maybe Gamestop just think it won't sell?

It's voilà. How hard is it to not look like a moron?

Just because Star Trek did it ("to boldly go") does not mean you should split infinitives, especially when bagging on someone else's intelligence.

Just sayin'...