Slashdot Mirror
Princeton Hacks Yale, Harvard Not Surprised
Semji Rkim writes: "Yale Daily News is running a story of several occassions in which Princeton officials entered the Yale Online website and viewed admissions decisions. Princeton officials claim they were simply researching security for their own website. Reportedly the website, on initial log-in, would show applicants either a congratulatory fireworks display or a rejection notice. Princeton officials informally mentioned that they had accessed students' records on Yale's admissions site at an Ivy League deans' conference. The Yale website apparently used names, birth dates, and social security information as unique identifiers to allow access to the site. They are considering adding a PIN in the future."
ESR's authority to "deprecate" the meaning of the word for his or anyone else's little ego reasons.
The correct term is amelioration - the changing of the definition of a word to a better connotation. Happens all the time in the world. ESR doesn't have the authority, but users of the language do. The opposite is pejoration. Examples of amelioration are praise (originally a synonym for appraise), knight (originally a servant), and earl(originally just a man). More examples of amelioration and pejoration are left as an exercise for the student.