Slashdot Mirror

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/principal.html

I have to wonder if the department of education surveys included state colleges.

From my experience, these places have pretty wretched security in the departments despite pretty good security on the residence hall networks (at least at my college).

I recall back in the day that EDU sites were always first choice hacks because the entry was seldom noticed quickly and the bandwidth was near unlimited.

Even still, unsecured and poorly controlled forum and wiki software is fairly common.

Behold this porn-spam-filled forum on WSU's Spokane campus:
N entirely SFW

Posting AC from work for a state college.

Sure the little brats will see it as a victory, right up until they get a new headmaster and loose access to myspace on the same day.

Common errors in english + FF 2.0 auto-spell

Common errors in english + FF 2.0 auto-spell

Common errors in english + FF 2.0 auto-spell

1) timezones run east-west, Canada and the US run north-south... get the joke? turn on the humour detection unit for today

2) "an European"? read the excellent site in your own sig...when the following word definitely begins with a consonant sound, you need "a"

The article says: "The finding, made by Michael Wysession, a seismologist at Washington State University in St. Louis, and his former graduate student .."

I think that should be Washington University in St. Louis, not Washington State University in Pullman.

Minor correction to the article: Washington University is in St. Louis, Missouri. Washington State University is in Pullman, Washington.

http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/its.html. Dumbass.

http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/care.html

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/lose.html

Actually, that was a variation on a quote attributed to Winston Churchill. More info here.

Copied Winston Churchill perhaps Yoda did.

That's "free rein", not "free reign". It's a metaphor from horses (reins) not kings (reigns). See here.

Thank you for piping up with your comment, we are all very glad you had the opportunity to share.

Next time, however, please pay closer attention to what is actually being said. Misunderstanding someone's remarks so you can make snobbish comments isn't nice and makes you look an idiot to anyone whose brain functions surpass that of simian (shame on the moderators who modded you up!).

The gp was saying it was awkward, not that there was anything wrong with it. And he was modded funny. For a reason.

Oh, and if you want to throw your superior knowledge around, try to actually have superior knowlege.

Carry on. I'll jump in if I notice any more errors.

lets make sure we don't loose all the rights this country was founded

Yes, let's worry about losing our rights that you are setting loose.

Lose/Loose

P.S. Welcome back

with the dubious exception of China

http://lug.wsu.edu/

The logo is a transparent png with the filter applied to IE browsers versions 6 and 5.5. It appears correctly when viewed with ie7 installed via ies4linux.

It's "it's your uncle" and not "its your uncle", and now you're no longer in need of correction, either. :)

It's all so confusing!!

It's "it's your uncle" and not "its your uncle", and now you're no longer in need of correction, either. :)

It's all so confusing!!

2006 is coming to a close, and all anyone can think about (in regards to Apple, at least)

• "Business English is deadly enough without scrambling it. "As regards your downsizing plan . . ." is acceptable, if stiff. "In regard to . . ." is also correct. But don't confuse the two by writing "In regards to.""

http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/regards.html - Patentmat

This is an age-old question, and one that will never be answered, I'm afraid. Is it better to give up privacy rights for the sake of better communication and collaboration between law enforcement agencies? How is this different than local police creating their own database of case files? What does it mean to have the right to privacy? These are questions that have never fully been answered, I'm afraid. The first problem is that the US Constitution currently does not , and yet it's the one right that we constantly want protected.

The other problem is that, even if the Constitution guaranteed the right to privacy, it would only guarantee that right to it's citizens. If someone chooses to break the laws governing the citizenry, they are then rejecting the citizenry. Does that mean that they are no longer citizens? Socrates felt so, as outlined in Plato's The Apology of Socrates. But is that so? Has that been determined? I am unaware of any court case or legislation that guarantees the citizenship of convicted criminals, nor of any that revokes their citizenship.

I think the first thing that needs to be done with regards to privacy concerns is to amend the constitution to allow for the right to privacy. Once this is complete, then the privacy advocates will have a platform on which to base their objections that is rooted within the Constitution. From there, other concerns can be addressed, such as the citizenship status of convicted criminals.

That being said, I support any collaboration between law enforcement agencies in protecting the citizenry, and do not see any abuses that have not already been in place since Government has been in place. The question is, are there any statistical evidence to support the collaboration in the apprehension and conviction of law breakers vs. the eventual mistakes and abuses that are feared?

A gambit is merely a move or ploy, usually at the start of a game or battle. I guess you could run a gambit in the same sense as you'd run an executable, but I certainly wouldn't phrase it like that - if only to avoid making people think I was a tard who confuses it with gamut (or gauntlet).

Whereas a gamete is something else, of no relevance at all to us here on /.

The moment you even elude to denying the holocaust

The word in this context is "allude".

To all slashdot grammer/spelling nazi's: It's a blog not a term paper, book, or essay. So get over it!

There shouldn't be an apostrophe in "Nazis" either, and additionally, "Nazis" should be capitalized.
Also, the word is spelled "grammar."

He has cow-towed to the religious right.

I think you mean Kowtow, not cow-tow... nothing to do with towing cows at all... see here. Kowtowing is making a grand abasement to a superior officer... prostrating yourself touching your forehead to the ground

Japan is basically a prototype of America - it is very good at taking other people's culture and technology and modifying it to fit into their society. The only difference is the desire for racial purity

Ah but Japan isn't really racially pure. Those who are considered Japanese today aren't really anymore native Japanese than the descendents of Europeans who settled in the New World, the Americas. The predominate Japanese of today did much the same to the original inhabitants of the Japanese islands, the Ainu amoung them as the European settlers did to the American Indians.

(eg: the party making the accusation should be the subject of the sentence)

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/affect.html

amount of idiots

Excellent post. Just wanted to correct a little fault in your English, the phrase is "for all intents and purposes", not "for all intensive purposes".

Wait just a second... by definition, to be a different species, interbreeding must be impossible. If the big brain theory is true, that pretty much settles the argument between closely related sub-species of modern humans vs. collateral line of late Homo erectus.

> Ten commandments?

The Egyptians had them first, in the "Egyptian Book of the Dead", Spell 125
1. BotD
2. BotD

> Is pretty clear to me. Although apparently it wasn't to Christianity.

The exact Hebrew in Ex 20:13 for "murder" is "lo tirtzach" (It is derived from H#7523 ratzach / ratsach.) Dr. Reuben Alcalay's (modern Hebrew Scholar) Complete Hebrew/English Dictionary says that the word tirtzach, especially in classical Hebrew usage, refers to "any kind of killing," and not necessarily the murder of a human being.

Aside: If God is a God of Love, why isn't he contradictory and a hypocrite for commanding to kill every man, woman, and child in Ex 32:27 or 1. Sam 15:2?

--
What did Paul hear, that he was not allowed to tell others when he had his OBE in 2 Cor 12:4

It's interesting that anyone that says "per say" when they mean "per se" feels comfortable in calling anyone else a "Dumb @ss".

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/perse.html

Is this *really* a quantum leap?

Yeah, no kidding!

begs the question: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/begs.html

irregardless of size

The word you're looking for is regardless.

For some reason, in the past couple of years (by my observation), people have started referring to the carrot as some sort of reward, and the stick as some sort of opposite.

Past half a century, at least.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/carrot.html

Nice theory, but it doesn't seem to necessarily be correct:

E.g. this guy
"I imagine that the original image in the minds of those who developed this expression was a donkey or mule laden with cargo rather than being ridden, with its master alternately holding a carrot in front of the animal's nose (by hand, not on a stick) and threatening it with a switch"

Not does wiki, for what that's worth

Here's a better source "Combining a promised reward with a threatened penalty"

This is closer to your ideas
: CARROT AND STICK - Yes, this phrase has been discussed here previously. I thought the origin of this expression was pretty clear. But it turns out there are two schools of thought - 1. carrot ON a stick (a carrot dangling on a string on a stick before a stubborn mule) and 2. carrot and/or stick (alternating punishment and reward).

You are school 1 obviously, but 2 seems valid too, and the way I have mostly heard it used.

I see too many people, including the submitter, use myself where me or I should be used. Hey, you don't sound more professional when you use myself in places it doesn't belong, you actually sound like a moron.

Here are some resources for anyone still confused about this.

The authors of that webpage note that development of resistance can be countered by changing the phages. This means that whoever produces that Listeria killer would have to keep changing it.

It also states that bacteriophages are extremely bacterium-specific. Therefore I conjecture that we may see a mutant strain, or possibly another bacteria altogether, profit from the ecological niche created by the absence of Listeria and the (I feel) to-be-expected drop in hygienic standards and quaity control.

For a description of how bacteria swap genetic material, see: http://www.slic2.wsu.edu:82/hurlbert/micro101/page s/Chap9.html

Grammar/spelling nazi mode on On a side note, you don't need to use apostrophes with acronyms when showing the plural form and the market for games on Macs is nonexistent, not inexistant. Carry on. Grammar/spelling nazi mode off.

Mr. Grammar Nazi, you are wrong on both counts. My english is far from perfect but when you wish to correct someone's grammar, it helps if you are writing proper English yourself. Both the items you attempt to correct in my post are proper English (with a capital 'E').

I direct you to the following dictionary entry from Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) : http://dict.die.net/inexistent/

Inexistent \In`ex*ist"ent\, a. [Pref. in- in + existent: cf. F. inexistant.] Not having being; not existing.

And it is perfectly OK to use an apostrophe with an acronym to separate the plural form. As a matter of fact, it is MORE proper to do so. However, some people have an aversion to the proper usage of apostrophes with acronyms due to the fact that it violates the rule that apostrophes are not used before an S indicating a plural. Alas, proper English has many exceptions to the rule and here is one of them, esoteric as it may be. For example, why doesn't "i before e except after c" apply to weigh or neighbor? Anyhow, I direct you to the following site at Washington State University: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/acronyms.html

God I hate being right all the time. (Just Kidding!)

I look forward to your apology and if I ever should meet you in the real world, I will expect you to buy me a beer. In the meantime, I am glad to have enlightened a Grammar Nazi's understanding of English so that he may refrain from grammar-bashing poor fellows writing proper English in his future.

Affect as a noun means "emotional bond" I think. As a verb it means "has effect on" sorta.

You can look it up here (cause I didn't): http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html It's a list of common errors in English. Good stuff.

... because I would of had a good case ...

Aaargh, that hurts to read. And english isn't even my first language. Back to school for you!

"but all to(TOO) often it turns into a pitched battle..."

    You learned the difference between to and too back in elementary school. You used to know better. Now you don't? That cannot be an accident, you've thus CHOSEN to appear ignorant and uneducated.
    See http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/to.html for a concise explanation, far more polite than ignorance will get from me.

players actualy hunt down the farmers and disrupt there(THEIR) trade. I would like to see a WoW player care that much about the health of there(THEIR) game.

    -See a clear, concise, (and far more polite than I'm inclined to be) para explaining the what/why/how of this issue at the following URL.
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/their.html

I learned better in elementary school, but maybe it's 'kewl' or 'l33t' these days to write like you're nearly illiterate. Sure, we ALL make some mistakes, but things like the misuse of there/they're/their, or to/too, or you're/your are just inexcusable, and makes the writer appear to be an IDIOT.

And perhaps this grammar nitpicking will end. But probably not.

By the way, at English Non-Errors you'll see that the third entry indicates that it is acceptable to begin a sentence with a conjunction.

And have a nice day.

Honestly, I'm not a Grammar Nazi, as you can probably tell from this sentence, but I am a budding Phrase Nazi and I have to point out that you wreak havoc, you don't wreck it.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/reeking.html

No batch processing that I could see, but it does look like a reasonable graphics editor, FOSS style called Paint.NET

http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/

Other options include Inkscape for some very cool ideas, and perhaps starting with Gimp. It's not necessarily counter-intuitive to everyone. Gimp does things more towards the X style, instead of Windows, which does make it different.