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>> AMD just dropped its new Catalyst Omega driver package

> Is this a new meaning of the word drop, that I was until now unaware of? To my ears it sounds like they're not releasing anything.

An instance of dropping supplies or making a delivery, sometimes associated with delivery of supplies by parachute.

(transitive, slang) To impart. "I drop knowledge wherever I go. Yo, I drop rhymes like nobody's business."

(transitive, music, African American Vernacular) To release to the public.

(intransitive, music, African American Vernacular) To enter public distribution.

Source: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drop

Charlie Stross, of all people, should know that science fiction isn't and has never been, about the future. It's about today, told in a way that makes it easier for people to examine the hot button issues without getting too emotional. Or it's put escapism, and it just doesn't matter whether the details are right or wrong.

Really, mostly this has just served to ensure that regardless of how attractive I find the covers (front and back) for his books, I'm not going to spend time or money on them.

Plus, anybody who makes up a word like "enculturation" should be beaten with a stick.

It's actually from social science with the meaning "the process by which an individual adopts the behaviour patterns of the culture in which he or she is immersed." Typically it applies only to when you're gaining your native culture, with acculturation used for later cultures. (There are differences between the two.)

That said, I'm not sure I'm not sure Mr Stross knows what the word means, which is actually kind of ironic given his complaint here...

You gave a detailed explanation of "ni" and "ma" but the most important word "cao" was briefly explained. Whoever's interested, check out the etymology of "cao". :)

And "Bing"?

It would be absolutely ludicris

Ludacris

Ludicrous

Learn to use a dictionary.

Dox the trolls. Pierce their pseudonymous veils. Find out who they are and where they live, and expose them. Turnabout is fair play.

But according to Wikitionary, "Ars" meant "burn" in ancient french.

It makes also sense after all.

Has anyone mentioned that your sig includes a common misconstruct of a popular phrase?

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

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

Has anyone mentioned that your sig includes a common misconstruct of a popular phrase?

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

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

Nothing to argue about, see
item n. 7 or ask google.

If Lucchesi practice the other meaning too much is not really my business.

What's a freetard?

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki...

I'm sorry your vocabulary is lacking.

and is certainly a lot harder than for the very limited Western alphabet.

Just a guess, but maybe Chinese writing is a lot more consistent between different people. The complexity of the characters probably means they have to be drawn quite precisely to be readable.

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

Wiktionary is your friend: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/...

My first instinct was to reply to you with a dismissive expletive - thus having shown in my reply as much critical thought as you did in your post.

But I realized that I too once came from the Stephan Decatur school, and should be gentle with a previous self. You see, as one grows older and the rose colored glasses begin to loose their tint, one realizes that one may be patriotic AND critical simultaneously. Couple that with the growing realization that the country which we love has almost certainly committed crimes against her own people, and it becomes a moral imperative for her citizens to wake from their stupor and attempt to regain the power over government and basic human freedoms so eloquently elucidated in our Constitution.

Did Snowden break the law? Certainly. Was the law Constitutional? Not if the Executive Orders were being used to shield malfeasance (and despite Tricky Dick's assert actions, simply because a President does it does not MAKE it legal). Should you, as a responsible citizen you loves his country stop to think on his own for once instead of making a knee jerk assessment? For the sake of the Republic, I hope so,

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki...

yerk?

Ok, I'll bite. The necktie is also called cravat in Englisch, cravate in French, krawaat in Dutch and Krawatte German. This is derived from "Croat" or "hrvat" (as the croatic word for Croat). See Wiktionary: cravat.

Does our use of Hindu-Arabic numbers conversely make the Indians and Arabs superior to us?

I'm not sure it should - even if we're talking about the perception of superiority (given that this is all there is, no actual superiority making any sense in the light of what we know), which is what the superstrate-substrate relationship is about. It's a pretty fundamental thing, but that also makes it very basic, one of many basic things we see around us. The suits, of course, are also very basic, and also one of many basic things around us. But here's the difference between business suits and number systems:

* The positional number system hinges on the fundamentals of mathematics. Much like prime numbers, it's not arbitrary - it had to be discovered, and once it was discovered, it made perfect sense to adopt purely on its own merits. In addition, individual achievements like these hardly matter for any perception of superiority because smart people get born everywhere, even if they don't get the right opportunity in many places.

* The suits are cultural. There's no rational reason why they should be preferred to any other kind of clothing. The adoption of cultural items by another culture is not strictly utilitarian - it's generally a matter of (perceived) prestige. They might not even be *practical* in India. But even in Western cultures, they're not universal and it's a similar case along the social axis - not everyone wears business suits because he wants to but some people feel either forced to conform or find it otherwise useful (I personally avoid them like the plague).

Does that get the message across that I consider your argument about superiority of a culture (as demonstrated by influence) impacting on a space program

I made no such argument. I didn't even mention any space program in the first place! And I don't see how culture could affect the Indian space program because the technicalities of the Indian space program are dictated by their manufacturing capabilities and their technological experience.

as misleading, and to be frank, incredibly fucking racist. IMHO this "we are the masters of everything just because of where we were born" thing is straying damn close to Godwin territory.

This is obviously a mindless drivel of yours, because you're putting into my mouth things I never said. It is also hilarious considering that I live in a Central European country that hadn't been a master of anything ever since 14th century, after which it got swayed by currents of history, molested by the Austrians, the Germans, the Russians. I sure as hell have no feeling of being a master of anything.

Climate change is a fallacy. Climates have been changing for as long as there has been climates.

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

If you have a friend or acquaintance who can read, have that person explain it to you.

Per se, not 'per-say'. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/...

At school in the UK, I wrote a story which involved the grisly death of my English teacher - struck by lightning before falling through a glass skylight of a warehouse roof. Sensibly, I changed the character's name and profession - but the physical description matched.

Surprisingly, I got a good mark for it - but said teacher queried my spelling. I WAS CORRECT.

Both are acceptable herpity derp derp. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/...

Wiktionary is just as bad. They have a whole category devoted to words that exist but seemingly don't. If you want to put the kangamangus on those dotnoses, ozay; head to urban dictionary instead.

I had vaguely known there was some other historical use, but like cretin , imbecile and moron, it's become a common derogatory word. I suspect that it is a regional thing. English speaking nations all have their unique slang terms after all.

The derogatory meaning associated with nimrod appears to be an exclusively American slang .

I find it highly amusing that this form of usage likely originates from Bugs Bunny cartoons!

1. Censorship only applies to governments.

No. It doesn't. "censor...To review in order to remove objectionable content from correspondence or public media, either by legal criteria or with discretionary powers".

Please stop spreading the mis-definition that claims that private interests with control over information flow cannot engage in censorship.

A website or a store deciding that they do to carry a product is not.

If they decide "we won't carry this because our customers won't buy this", it's not censorship. If they decide "we won't carry this because we object to it", it is censorship.

Sorry, but I'm going to have to dispute your statement. "decimated" is the past tense of "decimate", referring to applying capitol punishment to one out of ten men in a legion. With them losing 30% of their testers they went well beyond decimating.

Wow... that's so close to something else at first I thought the name was a joke... given the context where "Sieg Heil" was popularly used...

He spelled Hubble as "Hubbel", german way. Hubbel is also a german word meaning "bump".

I love these USofA stories where people are caught lying and then nothing changes. Next a lot of people say how this should not be allowed and is even illegal and nothing changes. Later some people will quote the consititution and then finaly nothing happens at all. Perhaps some likes on facepalm or an octothorpe will do something.

Anybody working with kids or dogs knows that unless there are consequenses for bad behaviour, the bad behaviour will not change. Instead it will become more persistant.

PS, if you clicked the link, hand in your geek card.

The whole country is whistling past the graveyard. Most of us know in some way that we're going down the tubes. We have a captured political system that is unresponsive to the vast majority of citizens. We have an economic system that can't provide for a huge swath of the population. We have an intelligence and law enforcement community that is interested in keeping closer and closer tabs on what everyone is doing, and arrogating unaccountable power. We have a media establishment that just delivers propaganda and entertainment and cannot take on serious subjects that might ruffle any feathers. We, as a society, can't seem to respond to problems like climate change and the need for clean, renewable energy.

We know we're hanging from a cliff, and we're afraid to look down and take in the magnitude of the height we are at. If we just keep pretending everything is okay, maybe it will all just work itself out. Things will have to get worse before they get better, because reality will have to hit us in the face hard enough that we cannot pretend it doesn't exist.

...miniscule is too a word, stupid spellbot...

'minuscule', (with a 'u'), is the original spelling, and is still preferred: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/...

I love these USofA stories where people are caught lying and then nothing changes.
Next a lot of people say how this should not be allowed and is even illegal and nothing changes.
Later some people will quote the consititution and then finaly nothing happens at all.
Perhaps some likes on facepalm or an octothorpe will do something.

Anybody working with kids or dogs knows that unless there are consequenses for bad behaviour, the bad behaviour will not change. Instead it will become more persistant.

PS, if you clicked the link, hand in your geek card.

I'm sorry sir, we have no records of a geek card purchase. We don't have any geek cards.

I love these USofA stories where people are caught lying and then nothing changes.
Next a lot of people say how this should not be allowed and is even illegal and nothing changes.
Later some people will quote the consititution and then finaly nothing happens at all.
Perhaps some likes on facepalm or an octothorpe will do something.

Anybody working with kids or dogs knows that unless there are consequenses for bad behaviour, the bad behaviour will not change. Instead it will become more persistant.

PS, if you clicked the link, hand in your geek card.

Why the fuck should we work for free for Google, or do some one's homework for them? Why should I do it unpaid and also have to put up with a bunch of know nothing fuckwits at the same time?

Because we all get something useful if we all pitch in a little effort?

This should help you grasp the concept: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/volunteer#Verb

Etymology[edit]

From Latin innocuus (“harmless”).

Adjective[edit]

innocuous (comparative more innocuous, superlative most innocuous)

1.Harmless; producing no ill effect. [quotations ]

2.Inoffensive; unprovocative; not exceptional. [quotations ]

I agree with you that it might not be the best choice of a word. I thought it meant "harmless" only. Thank you!

The Great Apes are in the same Family as humans and we can't have a meaningful conversation with them.

Depends on how you define that. We know a bit of the vocalized language of some apes, but one problem here is that within one species there is no single, unified language.
It's the same with humans: I can't have a meaningful conversation with a Chinese person in Cantonese (and have little doubt I ever will). Even two random Chinese likely don't understand each other, since there are so many dialects.
But despite this, we have successfully communicated with apes that were reared from infancy. They seem to understand our spoken language to some degree, and talk back using sign language or a lexigram board.
Some may not call that a real conversation, but their handlers and I would disagree.

What if they are silicone based and live for thousands of years.

I for one welcome our long lived rubbery overlords.

angry fruit salad

Because they don't need any of the former, but low and behold, a half million of the latter.

lo and behold means look and observe this amazing thing. Low and behold means to be close to the ground and observant, not unlike a squirrel.

Sry /. and unicode... can't give you the IPA here, but only link to it.
IPA for goat.
IPA for Götze.
The ö in Götze is pronounced like the u in hurt, and not oa in goat.

PS: beta has broken unicode support, classic still can handle umauts, yet another reason to use classic!

Speaking of that, my favorite "contrary to public opinion" was the term MGTOW. Men going their own way
This MGTOW motto is the main motto picked up by most mens rights groups. The MGTOW page was deleted multiple times by feminists who said it wasnt notable, even though it was referenced in main stream press and published books and then the numerous websites and groups. But still deleted, over and over and over.
So what did the feminists do? They created page called MGTOW for maximum gross take off weight that is just a REDIRECT to mgtow. The actual term is MTOW in aviation, so why the redirect and fight in the talk page? Politics.

This was almost 10 years ago since this happened, and still happens today.

History only goes back to 2009, but this MGTOW war is good example of the feminists of wikipedia fighting mens rights. Lucky now that enough mens rights groups and non profits using the term, almost 600,000 websites returned with a simple google search.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:MGTOW
Limited history due to many deletions. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maximum_takeoff_weight&offset=&limit=500&action=history

There are more wikipedia censoring going on than this one topic, but I'd say this is the perfect example of editors censoring. Also why I think they dont deserve government money with these oppressive and biased editors that seem to be backed by the foundation.

I think my favorite comment by an editor on wikipedia was "we dont have the room for a mens rights page, we cant have a page for everything". Amusing when every episode of very popular shows does.

The more you know!

viola! Nerdgasm.

Nerds get off on stringed musical instruments?

Think "vo-ee-la" when spelling the term you were trying to use.

In common usage, "incentivize" is somewhat neutral, wheras "incite" has connotations of hatred and/or violence.

Hence the joking use of "inciteful" to refer to a comment that is both insightful and flamebait.

Wiktionary's sense #5 is "Continuing over a long period of time, long-term."

If you pay more attention to history instead of criticizing others for your own lack of it, you would discover ...

* The standard usages are: TNSTAAFL, TANSTAAFL, and TINSTAAFL

* TANSTAAFL was first used in 23 November 1854, in "Wide West"
* TINSTAAFL was used in 1952 by Professor Alvin Hansen in the journal "Ethics."
* TANSTAAFL was again used in 1966 by Robert Heinlein's novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."
* TNSTAAFL is attributed to the economist Milton Friedman in 1975

References:

  * http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/...
  * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
  * http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02...
* http://mahalanobis.twoday.net/...

For the record "incite" and "incent" are two different words. And "incentivize" is indeed a word. [1] [2]

[1] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/incentivize
[2] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incentivize

-phobia
-phobia
1. Used to form nouns meaning fear of a specific thing.
e.g. claustrophobia
2. Controversially used to form nouns meaning hate, born out of fear, directed towards a particular type of person.
e.g. homophobia
3. Controversially used to form nouns meaning political or religious organizations or viewpoints concerned with limiting or restraining a specific thing or idea.
e.g. erotophobia

Some European languages use a cognate of "infant" for much older children. In French, for example, enfant means "child".

I was just pointing out that they're considered minors as opposed to infants, in the UK, I don't believe they even use the word minor, instead opting to call them 'underage' or simply 'child'

As for Europe, well they don't seem to follow any particular standard for pretty much else.

Some European languages use a cognate of "infant" for much older children. In French, for example, enfant means "child".

I didn't get what he meant by "Whyd"

Typo for why'd, a contraction of "why did".

In May 2008, Barack Obama's political opponents tried to discredit him by claiming that they had a tape of Michelle Obama calling President Bush the racial slur "Whitey". The tape never surfaced, and what evidence we do have is that it was actually the question "Why'd he?".

Let me explain. There were five Star Wars films. Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi were made first. Years later, Lucasfilm made Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, which should be watched as a flashback between Empire and Jedi . After Darth Vader's identity is exposed at the end of Empire (it's not a spoiler if you speak Dutch), we see how the situation was set up, and then we see how it ends. Just skip the cash-in that was The Phantom Menace.