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Analogy.

The use of a similar example or model to explain or extrapolate from.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/analogy

You have the correct answer. I'm explaining why that is before it is asked why. I tend to find the people who aren't listening or don't care by doing this.

I.E, YOU.

From TFA:

Fifty-one million years after the dinosaurs became extinct, Carcharocles megalodon trolled the Earth's seas as an apex predator

Great, as if trolls on Slashdot weren't enough...

Yeah, that's just plain bad editing. I'm pretty sure the word they were looking for is trawled which is a homophone as it is pronounced the same as "troll." Having done a lot of fishing in my youth this is a common mistake and I actually thought that internet 'trolling' was called that because it's like fishing for a response in the open waters of the internet. I know that's not the case but it seems a more appropriate origin than some fantasy description of a grotesque creature.

Oh well, I've never read Wired for their editing. Heck with their layout and ads I don't read them much more at all. I suppose that's just personal preference though.

He was asked if he had sexual relations with Lewinsky, not just sex.

here's a definition

sexual relations = the act of sexual intercourse

stupid troll. I hope your wife gets real pregnant from all the oral congress she's been having.

Technically, there's no plural of the word 'virus'. It's a 'mass noun' which has no logical plural meaning. English convention tends to accept 'viruses', so one might argue that this is slightly less incorrect than virii...

See: latin words ending in us and virii

If you're going to pick nits, you should pick well.

First of all, the use of "sic" was wrong, even to the point that it was placed in brackets rather than parenthesis.

"The term sic is most often used in quoted material (usually in square brackets, and sometimes italicized)" —Wiktionary

It doesn't belong.

This is correct, though. I spent a few seconds scratching my head trying to figure out what kind of grammatical construction the gp was going for.

ARG A PREPOSITION AT THE END OF MY SENTENCE *melts*. (It's funny, laugh.)

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sentience The state or quality of being sentient; possession of consciousness or sensory awareness. Cows are sentient.

Sarcasm

A form of humor that is marked by mocking with irony, sometimes conveyed in speech with vocal over-emphasis. Saying something that is opposite of what is intended to be meant.

You're welcome.

In fact, you can barrow someone's 64 bit disk ...

Barrow:

A mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves.

Your plan to put 64 bit copies of Windows in the ground and cover them with grave stones and dirt intrigues me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

LOL. I think you mean "whittled" not "widdled". Whittling is shaving something down in size. You know, to make it widdler than a big one.

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

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=widdle

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

I'm sorry for being a grammar cop but I couldn't resist.

LOL. I think you mean "whittled" not "widdled". Whittling is shaving something down in size. You know, to make it widdler than a big one.

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

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=widdle

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

I'm sorry for being a grammar cop but I couldn't resist.

Common language and legal definitions are not the same. I totally agree that murder means something very specific in the courtroom.

Fortunately, Slashdot is not a courtroom.

I've also heard the term used lately referring to consumption of beverages and food. Good lucking finding that in the law books or an outdated dictionary.

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

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=murder

4. murder
What annoying, whiney, and probably unemployed vegetarians call eating meat or wearing fur.

I've read a lot of old books, so my syntax tends to be old-fashioned and/or idiosyncratic

I've had people look at me funny after I've used "must needs" in a sentence... so I know what you mean.

If the app in question is indeed based on Wiktionary, then it's full of goodies like: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Dirty_Sanchez

Sadly, dirty sanchez is not in dictionary.com or m-w.com, so kids stranded with those conformist sources (or their printed equivalents) are missing out!!

Having an armored transport car cracking open and leaking in the middle of the city would make the city uninhabitable for a quarter of a million years.

That is the most ridiculous thing I've heard this week. Is your definition of a city 10x10 meters or something? Even so, with a city that small, you could just dig up all the polluted land and shove it in another barrel.

And why the hell would an "armored transport car" even a) transport nuclear waste and b) transport nuclear waste through a city!

And to top it off, if the American "documentaries" (with periodic action sequences, scary narrator and annoying background music) that I've accidentally been exposed to are any indicator, I'd say you're better off reading wikipedia or something. Hell, I'll even copy paste a section for you:

In the United States, the acceptability of the design of each cask is judged against Title 10, Part 71, of the Code of Federal Regulations (other nations' shipping casks, possibly excluding Russia's, are designed and tested to similar standards (International Atomic Energency Agency "Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material" No. TS-R-1)). The designs must demonstrate (possibly by computer modelling) protection against radiological release to the environment under all four of the following hypothetical accident conditions, designed to encompass 99% of all accidents.:

* A 9 meter (30 ft) free fall on to an unyielding surface
* A puncture test allowing the container to free-fall 1 meter (about 39 inches) onto a steel rod 15 centimeters (about 6 inches) in diameter
* A 30-minute, all-engulfing fire at 800 degrees Celsius (1475 degrees Fahrenheit)
* An 8-hour immersion under 0.9 meter (3 ft) of water.
* Further, an undamaged package must be subjected to a one-hour immersion under 200 meters (655 ft) of water.

So in the future, please refrain from opposing/supporting something just based on what you've seen on some television show. It's called the boob tube for a reason and that reason is not because they have female breasts on it.

I know slashdot is big on the groupthink, and apple is evil yadda yaddah, but has anyone bothered to look up words and see the different treatment of them?

• fisting, versus fisting
• rim job, not in dictionary.com.
• fucktard, not in dictionary.com.
• cumbucket, not in dictionary.com

Now I'm not saying that words per se are bad things (they're not, although I personally prefer to keep them out of regular usage for impact), but I can see how this dictionary might include many more vulgar words and expressions than a regular dictionary. I can also see how a parent could object to their kids downloading a dictionary with such an extensive ouvre of modern vulgar slang.

Let's say you're a parent, and your 10 year old (yeah you spoiled them a bit by buying them an iPhone, whatever, they did their chores, got good grades and are working it off mowing the lawn) asks you if they can download a dictionary app. Would you not be a little concerned if the dictionary was so heavy on modern swearwords? Would you expect this from a "dictionary app"? Wouldn't you expect that the urban dictionary app have a bit of a warning that it might be really offensive, racist, etc.?

Sure they'll learn all these things in due time, but I don't think innocence is such a horrible thing that needs to be stomped out. Kids should allowed to be kids.

I know slashdot is big on the groupthink, and apple is evil yadda yaddah, but has anyone bothered to look up words and see the different treatment of them?

• fisting, versus fisting
• rim job, not in dictionary.com.
• fucktard, not in dictionary.com.
• cumbucket, not in dictionary.com

Now I'm not saying that words per se are bad things (they're not, although I personally prefer to keep them out of regular usage for impact), but I can see how this dictionary might include many more vulgar words and expressions than a regular dictionary. I can also see how a parent could object to their kids downloading a dictionary with such an extensive ouvre of modern vulgar slang.

Let's say you're a parent, and your 10 year old (yeah you spoiled them a bit by buying them an iPhone, whatever, they did their chores, got good grades and are working it off mowing the lawn) asks you if they can download a dictionary app. Would you not be a little concerned if the dictionary was so heavy on modern swearwords? Would you expect this from a "dictionary app"? Wouldn't you expect that the urban dictionary app have a bit of a warning that it might be really offensive, racist, etc.?

Sure they'll learn all these things in due time, but I don't think innocence is such a horrible thing that needs to be stomped out. Kids should allowed to be kids.

I know slashdot is big on the groupthink, and apple is evil yadda yaddah, but has anyone bothered to look up words and see the different treatment of them?

• fisting, versus fisting
• rim job, not in dictionary.com.
• fucktard, not in dictionary.com.
• cumbucket, not in dictionary.com

Now I'm not saying that words per se are bad things (they're not, although I personally prefer to keep them out of regular usage for impact), but I can see how this dictionary might include many more vulgar words and expressions than a regular dictionary. I can also see how a parent could object to their kids downloading a dictionary with such an extensive ouvre of modern vulgar slang.

Let's say you're a parent, and your 10 year old (yeah you spoiled them a bit by buying them an iPhone, whatever, they did their chores, got good grades and are working it off mowing the lawn) asks you if they can download a dictionary app. Would you not be a little concerned if the dictionary was so heavy on modern swearwords? Would you expect this from a "dictionary app"? Wouldn't you expect that the urban dictionary app have a bit of a warning that it might be really offensive, racist, etc.?

Sure they'll learn all these things in due time, but I don't think innocence is such a horrible thing that needs to be stomped out. Kids should allowed to be kids.

I know slashdot is big on the groupthink, and apple is evil yadda yaddah, but has anyone bothered to look up words and see the different treatment of them?

• fisting, versus fisting
• rim job, not in dictionary.com.
• fucktard, not in dictionary.com.
• cumbucket, not in dictionary.com

Now I'm not saying that words per se are bad things (they're not, although I personally prefer to keep them out of regular usage for impact), but I can see how this dictionary might include many more vulgar words and expressions than a regular dictionary. I can also see how a parent could object to their kids downloading a dictionary with such an extensive ouvre of modern vulgar slang.

Let's say you're a parent, and your 10 year old (yeah you spoiled them a bit by buying them an iPhone, whatever, they did their chores, got good grades and are working it off mowing the lawn) asks you if they can download a dictionary app. Would you not be a little concerned if the dictionary was so heavy on modern swearwords? Would you expect this from a "dictionary app"? Wouldn't you expect that the urban dictionary app have a bit of a warning that it might be really offensive, racist, etc.?

Sure they'll learn all these things in due time, but I don't think innocence is such a horrible thing that needs to be stomped out. Kids should allowed to be kids.

The dictionary was based on Wiktionary. So I would imagine it could quite possibly contain the fabled seven words and many others. Regardless, it's disingenuous to say that you aren't censoring apps and that the developer did it voluntarily, when the actual truth is you were rejecting the app and the developer had the choice of waiting for an undetermined amount of time (till you actually implmented the partenal controls) or 'self-censoring'.

That's like saying, "No, we didn't force a confession out of him, we just kept hitting him till he felt like talking."

Perhaps GP should have spelt things out thus: Whoosh.

ClamWin is a tweaker's paradise [...]

Yeah, those meth addicts sure like their antivirus software.

Since the author of NinjaWords submitted it to AppStore, I think he wants to makes some money from it.

This is quite unethical, because it's basically a dump of wiktionary: http://en.wiktionary.org/
(the dumps can be downloaded freely)
and frankly, it's not the best dictionary on the Web (see for example http://www.tfd.com/ )

A free offline Wikipedia already exists for the iPhone:
http://collison.ie/wikipedia-iphone/

So, I really don't see the point of this application.

Is it so lame that it needs so much PR ?

Apple should not even allow such applications to be sold !

Wiktionary gives asomewhat better answer:
1. A vessel used for churning.
        a butter churn
2. (telecommunications) The time when a consumer switches his/her service provider.
3. (telecommunications) The mass of people who are ready to switch carriers, expressed by the formula Customer Quits/Customer base.

I wonder how the etymology on that is explained.

Is that you GLaDDOS?

Can't help with the cable mess, just wanted to point out that the proper plural of NAS is not NASes, it's NASen.

I don't recall the "in-" prefix means "lots" so I checked my dictionaries, I have 4, as well as OneLook. With OneLook I checked the first 10 links to the definition and not one gave "lots" as a definition. Now "in" as in into and "towards" was given as well as other definitions but not "lots". Can you give an example of it used that way?

I'll feel real stupid after you give one.

Falcon

sporange

Well, whatever humor might have been in my post has long since bled out, so I might as well finish it off.

You said that an advantage to distributed power generation is that "brownouts don't effect huge populations because power is local". Effect as a verb means "To make or bring about; to implement" [1]. How do you make or bring about a huge population? It seems to me that procreation is the most logical and straightforward means to that end.

Arguably, other approaches include relocation, either forced or voluntary. Forced relocation is a rather negative concept; at least for me, it's pretty strongly linked to other concepts such as "war crimes" or "internment". Voluntary relocation does make sense, and I suppose you could make a case that areas that are less affected by brownouts would be more attractive to potential residents, which would encourage people to move there. However, it seems less likely, because as I understand it, power reliability is not generally a factor people take into account while finding a home; it's just assumed.

Plus, "brownouts make neighborhoods unappealing" isn't as funny as "people have more sex when the power is out". But maybe that's just me.

They should call it skulk ...

-i think the two of -us differ in opinion. Look it up, it's viruses.

Child Protective Services is the first definition that I, as an American, thought of.

"Ironically", it is also the first definition listed at http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/CPS. How any non British reader would know to skip it in favor of the fourth definition, Crown Prosecution Service, is beyond me.

Crown Prosecution Service (American's can call this a district attorney, they're the prosecution)
Feel free to mod me up.

Ironically, you can look this up at http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/CPS. I also knew this before having to look it up, so I can say it's actually accurate.

Google is your friend, if those are serious questions for you.

I accept your opinions at face value; but now that you have expressed them, if you are intellectually honest, you will never again attempt to placate someone who is concerned about proprietary (pwned, ha!) software by implying that they have nothing to fear from an "ISO/IEC standard" (or ECMA, etc).

> Last year the earth cooled ALLOT

So, was that a random allotment that the earth cooled, possibly made by casting lots, or was it a deliberate allocation, perhaps by law? And, while we're at it, where was this allotment? I thought the earth was in general warmer than the surrounding space, so it warmed it up.

> And unless we get allot more sunspots soon, we be PRAYING for a little global warming.

So who's allotting them, and again, randomly, perhaps by casting or drawing lots, or by design? Whoever it is, is certainly God, to be powerful enough to allot sunspots, if it is indeed by design. So praying indeed would be appropriate.

Or maybe the "AllOt" company has something to do with all this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allot

Well, that's my alloted time for this post, as I've a lot of other comments to read, but before I go, let me leave you with these links. It's only three links. Really not a lot...

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

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

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

(FWIW, thanks to the guy, whoever it was, that posted the mistaken use, I think here on /., that prompted someone to leave a comment clarifying the difference for me, at that time simply a lurker. I'm just passing it on, hopefully clarifying the difference for someone else.)

> Last year the earth cooled ALLOT

So, was that a random allotment that the earth cooled, possibly made by casting lots, or was it a deliberate allocation, perhaps by law? And, while we're at it, where was this allotment? I thought the earth was in general warmer than the surrounding space, so it warmed it up.

> And unless we get allot more sunspots soon, we be PRAYING for a little global warming.

So who's allotting them, and again, randomly, perhaps by casting or drawing lots, or by design? Whoever it is, is certainly God, to be powerful enough to allot sunspots, if it is indeed by design. So praying indeed would be appropriate.

Or maybe the "AllOt" company has something to do with all this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allot

Well, that's my alloted time for this post, as I've a lot of other comments to read, but before I go, let me leave you with these links. It's only three links. Really not a lot...

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

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

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

(FWIW, thanks to the guy, whoever it was, that posted the mistaken use, I think here on /., that prompted someone to leave a comment clarifying the difference for me, at that time simply a lurker. I'm just passing it on, hopefully clarifying the difference for someone else.)

> Last year the earth cooled ALLOT

So, was that a random allotment that the earth cooled, possibly made by casting lots, or was it a deliberate allocation, perhaps by law? And, while we're at it, where was this allotment? I thought the earth was in general warmer than the surrounding space, so it warmed it up.

> And unless we get allot more sunspots soon, we be PRAYING for a little global warming.

So who's allotting them, and again, randomly, perhaps by casting or drawing lots, or by design? Whoever it is, is certainly God, to be powerful enough to allot sunspots, if it is indeed by design. So praying indeed would be appropriate.

Or maybe the "AllOt" company has something to do with all this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allot

Well, that's my alloted time for this post, as I've a lot of other comments to read, but before I go, let me leave you with these links. It's only three links. Really not a lot...

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

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

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

(FWIW, thanks to the guy, whoever it was, that posted the mistaken use, I think here on /., that prompted someone to leave a comment clarifying the difference for me, at that time simply a lurker. I'm just passing it on, hopefully clarifying the difference for someone else.)

Personally I don't mind that much, I haven't attended a LAN party is years. However I can definitely see how this will anger SCORES of people.

score: n. Twenty, 20 (number).

'Scores' huh? Well I'd say it's safe to bump up your estimates of angering 40-80 people considering the article said:

So furious that over 7,000 fans have signed a petition to Blizzard to add Lan support.

The word you were searching, is "kaputt".

It's a word used in chemistry, surface science and materials engineering. In that context, it means "add a functional group." http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/functionalize

What do you think the "cap" part of "cap and trade" means?

cap:

Verb, "To set an upper limit on something"

ration:

Verb, "To portion out, especially during a shortage of supply."

Saying "any given vehicle must get 10 miles or more to the gallon on EPA tests" is different from saying "you have 5 gallons of gasoline a month to use, use wisely." The AP faq does not use the word "ration" once and I am beginning to believe that you are concerned with spreading fear and misinformation in regards to this bill.

What do you think the "cap" part of "cap and trade" means?

cap:

Verb, "To set an upper limit on something"

ration:

Verb, "To portion out, especially during a shortage of supply."

Saying "any given vehicle must get 10 miles or more to the gallon on EPA tests" is different from saying "you have 5 gallons of gasoline a month to use, use wisely." The AP faq does not use the word "ration" once and I am beginning to believe that you are concerned with spreading fear and misinformation in regards to this bill.

"Research has involved exposing multiple generations of animals to microwave radiation of this or higher intensity, and no health issues have been found."

[Citation]

On a side note, this is for you.

Right, you intentionally used an archaic word that nobody uses in that sense and which only definition comes from the Webster of 1913 and that most dictionaries don't even list. Even the Meriam-Webster doesn't list it anymore. Not to mention that the definition you found doesn't make any sense for the word in the sentence you said.

Good trolling, but here's what really happened : http://lol.i.trollyou.com/LOL-I-TROLL-YOU.png

Or to put it into words, you said idiocracy when you meant idiocy because of the movie, I laughed at you, so you went looking for a rare and obscure definition that would make you look less like a moron, you had a good laugh thinking you'd get away with it. Yeah, nice try, honestly, but you're still the moron who confuses such a common word as idiocy with a neologism from a movie.

If someone that you know (and allowed access via your cell) was downloading kiddie porn on their phone, I guess that when the rozzers come knocking, you tell them who has had access to your cell, and they arrest your friend. After all, if you scan your network traffic and see kiddie porn, what are you going to do? Tell your friend to stop, or call the cops? Unless you are prepared to shop your friend to the authorities, you can't avoid being inconvenienced at her majesty's (or Obama Kenobi's) pleasure just by knowing about it.

Moderators, please correct the unfortunate rating of the parent post, from "interesting" to "desperately overrated at 0". The comment is not interesting, it's actually facile. The electric grid does need to be modernized to handle millions of scattered wind turbines, each generating a relatively quite small amount of power, with substantial fluctuation over time scales of seconds, minutes, and hours.

A few hundred scattered hydroelectric dams, generating enormous amounts of power, consistently over human-manageable-by-making-phone-calls-and-pulling-levers time horizons like days and weeks, is not anywhere near a sufficient analog to be considered worthy of an up-mod in this discussion.

The parent isn't even aware of the most basic information about the problem of the electric grid, which has been widely discussed in recent years in places geeks read. The path to enlightenment on this issue begins here: Electric Power Transmission.

J++ (their 'Standard' microsoftian Java)

I can't help but associate that word with Lovecraftian.

Hah, I read your complaint. I wasn't too offended, but ultimately, I guessed right :)
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apocalypses

Foolish Earthicans can't even agree on how to name themselves. :-D

The rest of slashdot is busy making up goals to be met by any service before they will stop pirating, crazy goals, mostly unobtainable goals, just so they can justify their piracy to themselves.

The rest of Slashdot would like a word with you, the word is cluebat.

Perhaps after you have stopped attributing what you worry may be your own failings to others you can jump down off that high horse and appreciate that what you're saying has diddley squat to do with the issue at hand. Do you really think that the vast majority of people who buy music do so out of the goodness of their hearts? I mean, attributing peoples motivations to their use of money says a lot about your own priorities and not a lot about their own. If I may abuse generalisation in a manner you seem so good at, a lot of anti file-sharing people I hear would rather people boycotted an artists music than didn't pay for it. I'd be pretty pissed if I sold some poetry and someone started telling people they shouldn't read them because they could not afford to buy a copy or disagreed with where the money was going.

As an aside, I tend to spend money on music which is in a format I want (pretty much just Nine Inch Nails at this point) or by indie artists whose entire back catalogues I already probably have downloaded in FLAC format but have no hope of going to see a show for. This way the money I am spending is supporting a product I want to see more of (FLAC) and artists who will actually see most of the money from iTunes or whatever where there aren't any alternatives. What I wouldn't do is tell everyone that they should do the same thing I am doing, because I am at least marginally less arrogant than you.

If I browse adult stuff at work on works PC and Internet connection, work can be held libel.
If I browse adult stuff on the iPhone at work using my own Internet connect, it is less likely that work can be held libel.

I think you mean liable. Libel is something different entirely.

In any event, it's easy for corporations to disable USB and Bluetooth use. Having a phone with tethering capability is a non-issue.