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BayStar Sets Lawyers on SCO
myster0n writes "According to The Register: 'SCO's attempts to rescue its relationship with BayStar, its biggest backer, have come to naught. On Friday morning, Eastern time, SCO announced that the stock buyback deal it agreed with the unhappy investor had closed. Two hours and five minutes later, Baystar issued a statement saying that a) no it hadn't and b) we'll see you in court, matey.'" Thanks to The Reg for the write-up.
"Ha ha!" (Nelson)
so it should be "we'll see you in court, eh."
...I'd advise drawing from this is to avoid business relationships with either of these companies.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
what goes around comes around
Looks like SCO is about to finally see the damage they cause when they burn bridges via litigation. The less "business partners" SCO has, the shorter their life expectancy, which doesn't seem to consist of more than suing everybody, will be.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
is the following paragraph:
'SCO maintains that it has been a paragon of virtue and transparency throughout, and that everything it said publicly and privately is true. But, and this should come as no surprise, it won't had over the documents BayStar wants to see. It says this is to "protect the confidential and proprietary nature of the information" and to "avoid fostering speculation regardng its SCOsource business".'
Darl: Paragon of Virtue, Lifter of the Downtrodden, Scooper of the Pooper - He needs an action figure!!!!
The five minutes to draft their response, I can understand. What was the two hours for? Laughter, rage, a few more holes of golf?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
The fools, or the fools that back them? It's a tough question, eh?
This still doesn't represent any real threat to SCO because it is just a maneuver by BayStar to get the terms they want. SCO can't afford to have a protracted fracas with BayStar, so almost certainly there will be a settlement soon. This is all just pre-resolution chest thumping. S.O.P.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
....as SCO's stock skis ever downwards.
The Army reading list
as an attempt to shut down the SCO fiasco before any really harmful judgements are handed down that prevent further Microsoft-funded FUD against Linux.
Obviously there are regulatory hurdles on the way to Longhorn. Slowing Linux adoption is clearly in the best interests of Redmond, and sowing doubt through litigation is pretty much the only strategy they have left that will work.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
What goes around comes around.
SCO??? Going to court? Impossible! That never happens.... go buy your lottery tickets today!
Proudly supporting the Libertarian Party.
It takes a big man to cry, it takes an even bigger man to laugh at that man.
Jack Handey
Trolling is a art,
From the second article:
SCO maintains that it has been a paragon of virtue and transparency throughout
Maybe a paragon of Corporate Virtue and Transparency . . . an oxymoronic (or simply moronic) statement in itself. But most definitely that group has been anything BUT virtuous or transparent.
It is not OK just to copy and paste the article text in your article submission. You can say something like 'The Register writes " ..."' but you can't just take credit for it. And come on, Hemos, can't you RTFA before you post it?
I can't think of one offhand, even Microsoft by implication is their enemy, (if a friend of a friend is now an enemy of your friend, they are your enemy too, no?), congrats SCO you're probably now one of the most loathed companies in America. Lower than Microsoft, lower than Diebold, lower than the Nigerian Asset Transfer consortium that always wants my money, you get the picture...
...in bed
I see the vultures circling over...
And I bet there won't be too much rotting flesh left on that carcass when they're done feeding.
Baystar sics lawyers on SCO. It's only a matter of time before SCO sics lawyers on Baystar.
Please, oh, please, let there be no survivors.
When all you have is an axe, everything looks like a grindstone.
When those dueling press releases were issued friday July 23, 2004 only long time SCO2 watchers Stephen Shankland of Cnet "SCO, BayStar resume squabbling" and Eweeks Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols "BayStar Threatens to Sue SCO" reacted to the PR releases of SCO and Baystar (the later with a good double feature), joint by USA Todays Tech Investor "SCO says BayStar deal closed; BayStar disagrees".
7 26_0528 39.html
Today a second wave of Bad PR build up, starting with two refrubished Stephen Shankland
articles in Australia, followed by Tom's Hardware Guide noting that SCO2 is in a "FiaSCO - SCO's war on Open Source about to be fought on six fronts" (notice that this is the same side that debunked Darl's Naked German Shorts before the last conference call was over)
http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20040
Next was Londons The Register to notice that "BayStar sets lawyers on SCO"
When daylight crossed the atlantic, SCO2 tried to build a dam agaist the wave of bad PR and issued two press releases at 8 o'clock US east cost time in a desperate move to cover the bad news at the top of their news heap, to scroll it off the screens like a Troll posting bogus messages. Let't get some popcorn and see if it holds.
To quote Dave Chappelle...
:)
OH SNAP!!
I was kinda having a crappy day until I saw this story
~ Segfault
You've got to wonder how much longer they can stand this abuse.
Looking at their quarterly income and cash flow statements, one can only draw one conclusion; SCO will be out of cash in roughly three to four quarters without a significant cash injection from an interested party.
Their stock price sucks, their product sucks, their management sucks, and they have NO customer good will. They have no prospects for income and roughly $60M in cash. At $12M+ losses per quarter, they will barely make it to the close of FY05.
I would hate to work there.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
You can see the real effect of the decline if you look at the two-year chart. They're almost back to where they were before they started the FUD campaign.
BayStar ABSOLUTELY MUST do this! Otherwise, IBM and the others will be able to get the information about the link to Microsoft (read the Halloween Memos if you don't know what I'm talking about). They ONLY way to keep that information secret (and protect Bill) is to get it wrapped up in a lawsuit with "confidential" terms and a confidentiality agreement.
This has NOTHING to do with getting back the money they were instructed to channel to SCO.
So while we are all sitting around laughing at SCOX Baystar is definitely pulling a fast one to COVER THEIR investor's ASS(ETS).
SCO to countersue!
May the Maths Be with you!
This article is missing the foot icon, as it was the first one today that made me laugh.
SCO not only just killed themselves, but they ensured a VERY steep decline. Baystar did this just right, issuing a press release on a Thursday. It ensures a huge drop today.
Since its founding in 1998, BayStar has never before sent a letter to a company seeking its money back, as it has with SCO.
SCO's stock price, which fell 38 cents yesterday to $6.80 a share, has dropped 30 percent since last Thursday, the day BayStar sent its redemption letter.
"Keep riding" for those that got on early.
I assume South Park picked up 'aboot' from somewhere, but I'll be damned if I know where.
It sounds more like it comes from a Scottish accent than anything else.
Wouldn't it be great if Google went took some of that IPO money and ended this whole fiaSCO? Google is one if not the biggest Linux house there is. With SCO's stock price down it would chump change for google.
Google... Buyout SCO and release all UNIX IP to the public!
Zoid.com
I believe that deep in my heart I am a calm and balanced person but it is amazing how angry this whole thing makes me. It really scares me how satisfiying it is to see them get what they deserve. SCO really did a great job in getting all the worst feelings from the techcommunity.
"myster0n writes 'SCO's attempts to rescue its relationship with BayStar, its biggest backer, have come to naught. On Friday morning, Eastern time, SCO announced that the stock buyback deal it agreed with the unhappy investor had closed. Two hours and five minutes later, Baystar issued a statement saying that a) no it hadn't and b) we'll see you in court, matey.'"
Nope, The Register writes.
If you're going to plagiarize, at least try to make it a little less obvious than a cut-and-paste of the article's opening paragraph.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Exactly. And this is why SCO will settle.
Keep in mind also, SCOs propensity to drag lawsuits out. Do you think BayStar really wants to get into a 2 or three year legal hassle only to get nothing when SCO craters into the moon after bankrupsy death spiral? This is all just a dance.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
An appropriate price, I think, given what they're smoking over at SCO.
Buy the President
demonstrating their amazing abilities to stick their foot in it over and over, all whilst portraying themselves as great enforcers of the american way , and upholders of the capitalistic lifestyle that we all hold so dear. I smell an oscar. Maybe Darl will want to take his newfound fame and fortune to the next level, by becoming a rockstar too.
Speak for yourself.
Um, that's how many canadians say "about." I don't really know why they say it like that, but it's a pretty well known regional pronunciation difference.
I assume South Park picked up 'aboot' from somewhere, but I'll be damned if I know where.
The first "aboot" reference/joke I can remember was in Chasing Amy, where Banky says he watches Degrassi High because "I got a weird thing for girls who say "aboot.""
Not saying that's where they got it from though, just the first time I can recall hearing it.
I see we're now in the "SCO becomes laughing stock of the IT industry" part. In fact, I think we're about to enter the "SCO shareholders gather to file a class-action lawsuit against Darl and his clique" part.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
It sounds to me like SCO is no more. They are out of money and are being taken to court by their own investors. Never mind the fact that no one believes their claims anymore. I think we can safely ignore SCO news now.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Damn I misread the title. I thought it said "Baystar sets lawyers on fire on SCO"
Really given SCO's history of statements, does this come as surprise to BayStar?
It's sorta like on Springer when a wronged boyfiend/girlfriend/spouse comes on to complain how their partner has cheated on them. It's ironic though if the guilty party says something like "Babe, how do you think we met? I was cheating on so and so with you! Babe, you knew how I was before we started dating."
I pray that Darl doesn't wind up on Springer wearing a wife-beater. The usual pattern is that by the end of the show he's stripped down to nothing. [shudders]
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
"So does SCO even have any friends now?"
Of course they do:
1. Microsoft.
2. Sun.
3. Satan.
Microsoft and Sun have invested in SCO's efforts via licenses, so it's unlikely they'll ever sue SCO.
Satan, on the otherhand, is a lawyer. They really don't want to piss him off. With SCO's track record, I suspect it's only a matter of time though.
If you lie down with dogs, you might wake up with fleas.
--
$tar -xvf
It won't be long before the SCO stock is so low they GIVE me money to accept the keys to the building. :) I just don't know what I'd do with it afterward... what do you do with such a huge pile of hot steamy doo-doo?
This is more or less standard in business. We don't hear about it most times because most cases of this nature are not high profile. It is posturing. SCO is a big old machine that's at the end of it life; everything is shaking, and soon it will just fall apart.
And this is exaclty why the suit will never happen, BayStar knows that in the end, with a law suit they will only help bring down SCO before they get any money at all. The threat of a law suit (and that's all it is right now) is BayStar's way of saying "look here, SCO, do what we want or else". In the end, it will probably work.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
I don't believe SCO has any UNIX 'IP' to be released anyway.
---
We spoke for about a half an hour. I don't recall a thing we said. - Colorblind James Experience
"You two, fight to the death." -- Stewie
'SCO2' is not a valid ticker symbol. I think you mean SCOX.
SCO can't afford to have a protracted fracas with BayStar
Really? Just wait, I read somewhere that Microsoft is going to need some Unix(tm)(r)(patent pending) technology to replace all those open source parts of Microsoft(r) Services For Unix(r). I'm pretty sure Microsoft is not going to mind if the price is a little bit higher than the going rate.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
Look, SCO is already dead. Kaput.
Baystar are the people who funded this whole debacle, and I'd like to see them spanked hard. The only way to do that is if they lost their *ENTIRE* stake in this dubious venture.
People, vote for SCO in this one. Suck Baystar dry.
Perhaps BayStar just plans to acquire SCO (and thereby its claims to Unix rights) so that they can pursue the rest of us more effectively ?
Call your broker if you don't believe me. its not possible with SCO.
FYI, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is the Canadian investor you're thinking of. They originally bought in for $30 million, while Baystar's stake was $20 million. RBC sold their stake to Baystar for a substantial loss.
Here's a link to a ZDnet article about RBC fleeing the SCO fiasco.
Well, as a Canadian who lives in Toronto (one of the country's largest population centres), I haven't heard ANYONE say 'aboot', EVER, except when quoting South Park. 'Eh?' plenty of times, and I even catch myself saying it once in a while, but 'aboot' never. Perhaps the Newfies say it that way, but I'd want a Newfie to confirm it. Have you ever travelled in Canada and heard 'aboot' yourself, or had someone you know directly (not a friend-of-a-friend) tell you they heard it?
They changed the article text. On the front page, it did not atrribute the text, as the parent was objecting to.
:' ...". And there is no notice that this change occured.
On the story itself (thank you, tab browsing), it starts "According to The Register
Microsoft is loathed.
SCO is amusing.
When you fight a war with sharks keeping the waters clear for you, you have to beware of when the sharks decide that you are a better meal than the scum you're letting float by.
My reality check bounced.
Darl's really a Gua? Did Nostradamus say anything about this?
Well, as a Canadian who lives in Toronto (one of the country's largest population centres), I haven't heard ANYONE say 'aboot', EVER, except when quoting South Park. 'Eh?' plenty of times, and I even catch myself saying it once in a while, but 'aboot' never. Perhaps the Newfies say it that way, but I'd want a Newfie to confirm it. Have you ever travelled in Canada and heard 'aboot' yourself, or had someone you know directly (not a friend-of-a-friend) tell you they heard it?
I grew up in Maine. Plenty of visiting Nova Scotians said "aboot". We have one at work here who says it.
rage, rage against the dying of the light
SCO is the most loathed company to the Linux world.
I don't even need to list the M$ FUD and Swiss Cheese software they've unleashed on us all.
Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing. -- Albert Einstein
Last I heard, smallfoot was based on Linux. And they just released it last month. They're tricky on their site about saying "UnixWare is a trademark of blah blah blah" on the same page, but that doesn't mean smallfoot is based on UnixWare. Does anyone know if something else is in place of Linux under smallfoot now, or does SCO continue to support (by releasing) GPL'ed software?
Strangely enough I was raised in BC and don't have a scottish accent but I was in the US once and had my American friends bugging me nonstop about how I pronounce that word.
I think we Canadians just don't pronounce it with the accent Americans are used to so it sounds funny to them.
In the immortal words of Moe Berg:
:o)
"You're going down..."
heh, now I can't get that song out of my head.
I was on a flight from LA to Melbourne, sitting next to a Canadian woman, who most certainly said "aboot." Of course it's not exactly the same sound as, for example, "boot", but it's not far away.
What SCO had coming... on my stapler ;)
Maybe it's a YMMV thing but, I visited washington state over the summer and heard "aboot" without even having to cross the border!
"Personal ownership is a hallmark of conservative capitalism. And I don't believe I am entitled to anything that I did n
wow, it took less than a minute for someone who loves SCO news to mod that as troll
is a distant echo of a toilet flush and the water swirling around the drain...
Down and down they go. What a beautiful picture.
SCOX
I am surprised. No matter how much you try, you can't avoid learning something new once in a while.
It is not in Microsoft's interests to buy SCO. When SCO's lawsuit crashes and burns (it will take a while but it is inevitable), SCO will become a HUGE liability. IBM, RedHat, Novell, as well as any other Linux company, could then go after Microsoft for damages and put a significant dent in their $50 billion warchest. That is why Microsoft want to keep SCO at arm's length and downplay its involvement in the scam.
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
Do you get CBC over there? Pretty much every new broadcast and commercial uses the "aboot" pronunciation. It's pretty much everywhere in Vancouver, and even stretches south of the border a bit (where I live).
Anyone who believes that Baystar is SCO's biggest backer is forgetting about a little company in Redmond.
The things that SCO is doing are blatantly suicidal and correspond in time with activity on the part of others, such as Ken Brown. I'm not a big conspiracy theorist, but give me a break. I'd be willing to bet my balls that Microsoft is funding not only SCO, but also all the other groups that have all of a sudden started attacking Linux and open source in general.
They may not be alone either. The other player that I suspect is Sun. Linux has hit them FAR harder than it has Microsoft. For the most part Microsoft has limited the ability of Windows to penetrate the server market, at least without becoming a much better product. Sun on the other hand, has directly lost market share to Linux, and not just a little bit either.
Ever find it funny how SCO went out of their way to declare that Solaris was "ok?" This was said in multiple PR notices. This makes me very suspicious of Sun. They have a LOT more to lose than Microsoft does. Their bread and butter is the server room, not the secretary's desktop, and that is exactly where Linux is kicking butt and taking names. This isn't just a matter of Solaris vs. Linux either. Its a matter of Linux on commodity hardware vs. Solaris on fabulously expensive proprietary hardware. Sun is behind the eight-ball in both regards. When Sun wants 100k for a quad processor system when you can easily buy an far faster Opteron based quad processor system for 1/5th the price, it makes you wonder what it is that Sun is smoking and why they haven't passed the bong.
I personally think that Sun is toast. If all they sold was an OS, then things wouldn't be so bad for them. But as it is they are stuck having to field both an OS AND the hardware it runs on. This isn't something that a struggling company can do well.
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
As a brit who works with Canadian colleagues (Ontario), I can tell you that aboot is pretty common.
... in splits after i read the groklaw article. "REPORT 1, from eggplant37:...." onwards was such a delightful read! especially the part where they say we dint run it for the last 7 years. i wish the sco lawyer and our old friend (fiend ?) darl...had all of 7 ears to get an earful of that. i can listen to the daimler guys yelling ..."eat that scum, we aint running no crappy sco! "
Really, there will be a sad end to all of this... The fact that Daryl will be able to walk away with millions from his previous endeavors saying, "Ah well, we gave it a shot anyway..."
That's right, after all the lying and cheating he will walk away... When he should be in jail.. All because when big businesses make pulic claims they are just "stating their opinion" and aren't held accountable for what they proclaim.
Sco keeps on making press releases in order to keep their stock price up but they they are still free falling Scox on NYSE in the lower part you can see 2 press releases this morning.
This is totally insecure, but very convenient.
of the Register you're seeing. :-D
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
It probably does come from a Scottish accent originally, but is now more noticed by US folks in their Canadian neighbours. Parts of Canada also have a thriving Celtic music scene, certainly rivalling that in Scotland and Ireland, and I believe there are still some pockets where Gaelic is spoken, which highlights the extent of historical emigration from Scotland to Canada.
On the other hand, most US folks rarely hear a broad Scottish accent of any kind (no, Mel Gibson in Braveheart doesn't count (though Mike Myers in So I Married an Axe Murderer is closer). When they do hear a broad Scottish accent, the majority will fail to realize that the speaker is talking English at all, so they don't notice the different pronunciation so much.
Listening to Canadians, though, enough of the accent is similar to typical US pronunciations, so the few differences stand out more. The Aboot sound isn't uniform across Canada, but it is pretty common...
Once again these folks shoot themselves in the foot. They need to take their ball and go home.
There isn't 50M to get back. RBC converted 10,000 preferred shares into approximately half the face dollar value of common shares. Baystar bought back the other 20,000 shares which leaves them with a total face value of $40 million. However, if Baystar successfully invokes a redemption, SCOX will owe a 20% penalty, which totals at $48 million. Which is very close to $50 million, but when the numbers are so easy why not get them right?
Never been to Canada, but I can say with certainty that at two Canadians I know say "aboot." They are from the central part of the country, and tell me it is a regional thing. Hell, even THEY know about it, and laugh about it too.
You may not like it, but that's how they say it. Strangely, they say "out" normally. I wonder though about "rout" and "scout."
Should read: In Soviet Russia... bleh bleh bleh
Bwaaaaaa haaaaaa haaaa haaa haaaa
I love the smell of corporate litigation in the morning.
I wonder what the epitaph will read?
Here lies SCO
I wonder why
They had to hire
that bastard guy.
A note to all
who pass them by
Their last words
"Why did we even try...."
INSERT INTO comment VALUE('Doh!') WHERE user='you';
I'd ask a Newfie, but I can't understand a damn word they say! I guess I'm just 'ard of 'earin'.
I have a friend from Canada and he used to say 'aboot'..but I think we teased the 'aboot' out of him. He says 'about' now, just like the rest of us.
Next time I see him, I'll be sure to ask where in Canada he's from.......but I'm sure this thread will be ancient history by then.....
"Lame" - Galaxar
Remember that SCOX has an announced stock buyback plan. So the support is, we have to assume, by SCO itself, spending its own money to keep the stock price up. Unsuccessfully. Support at $4 will probably be about as successful as the previous support attempts at $15, $10, and $5.
Kinda makes one wonder what Darl's future looks like after SCO, doesn't it. >>------> Microsoft?? Hmmmm...
Well, as a Canadian who lives in Toronto (one of the country's largest population centres), I haven't heard ANYONE say 'aboot', EVER
:)
Yes you have, you just didn't realize it because the difference isn't as pronounced as the parady in the South Park movie. I too, used to think it was just an old wive's tale, and that the pronounciation was identical, but a couple of months ago, there was a special on CBC called "Talking Canadian," which examined the regional dialects, inflections, and differences in our language.
They demonstrated the slightly different pronounciation of several words, most famously, "about." Like you, I used to think that the joke was that Canadians said "aboot", as in, "look at my foot, I'm wearing a boot." Since I personally don't pronounce it that way, and have never heard anyone else say it like that, I thought it was just a myth. But in fact, we do pronounce it differently than USAmericans, just not that strongly. If you listen, you can hear it.
Canadians pronounce it as "a-bout," like a wrestling "bout". Think of how you'd say, "I'm going out." That's the sound Canadians (and me too, I realized" employ when we way "about." I incorrectly assumed that that was how USAmericans say it, too. But the CBC special opened my eyes, and now I notice it when watching USAmerican media, too. They don't say it like we do. They say it like "a-bowt." The sound is more like we'd say if we stubbed our toe: "Ow!" Say it to yourself, "Today, the US President talked abowt the upcoming election..." Doesn't it sound surprisingly accurate?
There were other fascinating differences they highlighted, too. Like "stocking/stalking." Canadians pronounce them identically, but USAmericans put more of an "aw" sound in "stalking" than they do in "stocking." It was a pretty cool special.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
It looks like the people who were buying into this whole traveshamockery are starting to wake up. If this keeps up, it looks like SCOX will be in the toilet by the end of the year. The sooner this is all over the better.
"I think you mean SCOX"
Yes, because SCO2 implies that there was a SCO1, so I prefer it to "ex-Caldera" or "counterfeit SCO", just for those who confuse Darl's little litigation company with the former software seller The Santa Cruz Operation. In stock abbr. it is SCOC vs. SCOX
The SEC would never allow Microsoft to purcase SCO on the off chance they were victorious, it would squash competition in the market. Everything MS purchases now pretty much has to go through an SEC review.
Shop smart, Shop S-Mart.
Well, sounds to me that if the SCO execs were trying for a pump'n'dump, yesterday would have been a good day for it :-) Now there is probably no way they can.
Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
That baystar and RBC haven't been sued by their stockholders for not doing their due diligence. I mean, come on. I don't know if baystar is publicly traded or not but I'd be surprised of RBC wasn't.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
That's exactly what it means. Your potential gain is limited to $1,000,000. Shares of a pubically traded company can't go below zero, so that's the mathematical limit of your gain. On the other hand, if SCO wins their lawsuit and the price skyrockets (unlikely I admit), your potential liability is limitless. Obviously, when we're talking about gain/loss, we're talking fractional, like your investment went up 10%. Of course you could make more by simply investing more, but when people talk about limited gain, we're not talking about investing a different amount of principal.
To sum up: Normal stock = loss limited to principal, unlimited potential, as stock can only go to zero but can go up arbitrarily. Shorting = exact opposite. If the stock goes up a ton, you have to buy enough shares to cover your position.
Perhaps those in one of the tiny Maritime provinces or those of (Scott/Ir/Engl)ish descent. Canadians without accents influenced by the UK don't say "aboot".
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
We Canadians say "about". It's Americans who say "abaht"
What is the robbing of a bank, compared to the founding of a bank? -- Bertolt Brecht
"Well, as a Canadian who lives in Toronto (one of the country's largest population centres), I haven't heard ANYONE say 'aboot', EVER, except when quoting South Park."
And as somebody who has visited Prince George Canada, I can tell you I have heard aboot. Interestingly enough, though, it seemed to be the older generation of people saying it. Didn't seem so popular to the teenage peeps I met.
Just so this is understood, the whole point of that South Park movie scene wasn't to make fun of the stereotypical Canadian accent, it was making fun of us US peeps who make fun of people for having differing accents. The funny part of that scene wasn't the guy saying aboot, it was the Americans that thought that was just a little too funny. As an American, I can say "Point taken, amusingly delivered". I think a few Canadians missed the point of it, though.
"Derp de derp."
US folks rarely hear a broad Scottish accent of any kind (no, Mel Gibson in Braveheart doesn't count...
Ever see the movie Chicken Run? Mel Gibson voices the chracter of an American rooster, who cannot believe that the techie-nerdy hen, prattling on about something technical in a Scots brogue, is actually speaking English. I don't know if the joke was a reference to Bravehart, but the scene was quite hilarious.
But the Reg is a British publication, so you can't hold it against them, can you?
What is the robbing of a bank, compared to the founding of a bank? -- Bertolt Brecht
"Julian, what the fuck is all this Starbay and stuff about? Sounds fuckin stupid to me."
...
"Don't worry about it Ricky, it has to do with the Internet."
"The what?"
"The Internet, Ricky. You know, the Internet?"
"Where the FUCK is Corey and Trevor? I told those fuckin idiots to be back here an hour ago. My fuckin weed plants need to be guarded and the cats have all run away. Fuckin idiots."
"Ahh fuck, here comes Lahey. Who the FUCK is that in the car with him? That's not Randy."
"Hello, gentlemen. My name is Darl. Apparently you are using linux here in the trailer park, and I want to talk to you about our intellectual property rights, and how they might be applicable to you."
"What the fuck is he saying, Julian?"
"I dunno, Ricky. Bubbles?"
"No fuckin idea, but I don't like the looks of him."
"Me neither, Bubs. Ricky, you have permission to do whatever you want to this sheister."
"You fuckin heard the man, Darl. Julian said."
WHAMMO!!
"How's that for pintoflectual flights!!"
Canadians without accents influenced by the UK don't say "aboot".
If your accent wasn't even INFLUENCED by the UK then what you're saying wouldn't be recognisably English. Nobody's suggesting that Canadian accents are that bad.
Well, as a Canadian who lives in Toronto (one of the country's largest population centres), I haven't heard ANYONE say 'aboot', EVER, except when quoting South Park.
Sure, and there are probably Americans who will swear blind that they've never shot anyone but realistically they probably just don't notice themselves doing it.
Other enhancements to the SCO OpenServer 5.0.7 update include:
Mozilla Web browser 1.6 adds new features including tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, and PDF support
User-Level threads increases application availability
Squid Web Proxy Cache 2.5STABLE5 with expanded authentication schemes, optimizes searching, SSL gatewaying, and more
DVD/CD recording and enhanced printer support
Perl 5.8.4
Supplemental graphics, Web and X11 libraries
Apache HTTP Server 1.3.31
OpenSSH 3.8p1
BIND 8.4.4
Yes, it would, actually. The Latin alphabet is used by most European languages, and many pronunciation rules are the same or similar across languages. A German saying "sister" or "brother" or "mom" or "dad" or "car" or "dog" or "penguin" or "Linux" or "beastie" using German's own pronunciation rules would be speaking very recognizable English. Just food for thought. It's amazing how much we think our own language is special or unique, even though the evolution of languages never happens in a vacuum. :-)
They were using Microsoft Word to write the briefs.
Clippy kept popping up with things like "It looks like you're preparing to sue one of Microsoft's business partners, are you sure you don't want to reconsider" and escalating to "You are making Uncle Bill VERY unhappy."
It finally crashed and sent an "Error Report" with the full text to Microsoft headquarters.
In the end they just installed OpenOffice and finished.
Most of the two hours was downloading the OpenOffice install.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
My minor was Linguistics and I took more than my fair share of classes in dialects and if someone tells you they "don't have an accent", they're full of it. While the eh and aboot jokes abound, Canadians are pretty easy to pick out by the "shape" of their vowels in a LOT of places other than "about". Many Canadian vowel pronounciations are further forward and higher in the mouth than their American counterparts. Of course, to say there's only 1 American pronounciation for anything is patently ridiculous as well.
Many Canadians jump to defend their pronounciations, indicating that "not every Canadian" says it that way. Well, of course. Do you think that someone from Minnesota sounds the same as someone from Louisiana? That difference is probably greater than the difference between Minnesota and Manitoba.
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
So following that assumption, the code that the courts had determined as SCO's proprietary property would have to be removed and replaced.
I think that's a rather simplistic vision of an unlikely, yet possible aftermath. What about the code that was written on top of the copyrighted code? Does that need to be removed, or once the offending material has been removed, do the enhancements made on top of that have any value? Were these contributions made recently, or a long time ago, and constitute a base on top of which most of the rest of the code has been written? Would the entirety of the system belong to SCO, thereby putting all users in copyright infringement?
Who will conduct these audits? How will admins certify that they're running "clean" code? How far would this set back the open source movement, and would it ever recover?
The effects of an outright SCO win would be devastating to the (at least the US) economy. These are the questions to be asking, and potentially planning for.
- passion
I am a Canadian and the first time I heard "aboot" was in a movie made in US.
Slashdot anagrams to "Sad Sloth"
In A.D. 2004 War was beginning. BayStar: What happen ? Investor: Somebody set up us the SCO share. BayStar's Lawyer: We get phone call. BayStar: What ! BayStar's Lawyer: Main phone turn on. BayStar: It's You !! Darl: How are you gentlemen !! Darl: All your share are belong to us. Darl: You are on the way to bankruptcy. BayStar: What you say !! Darl: You have no chance to survive make your trade. Darl: HA HA HA HA ....
BayStar: Take off every lawsuit !!
BayStar: You know what you doing.
BayStar: Move lawsuit.
BayStar: For great justice.
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d
I'm just trying to find an explanation, that's all.
Yes, it would, actually. The Latin alphabet is used by most European languages, and many pronunciation rules are the same or similar across languages. A German saying "sister" or "brother" or "mom" or "dad" or "car" or "dog" or "penguin" or "Linux" or "beastie" using German's own pronunciation rules would be speaking very recognizable English.
The latin alphabet is used to encode the pronunciation of words. Pronunciation precedes spelling. Of course people reading back words encoded in a Latin alphabet are going to come up with similar pronunciations.
In any event, the route of derivation is still via the UK. I'd agree that English pronunciation by Canadians, Americans, British, Australian etc. etc, has been influenced by the Germanic roots of the language and by Latin, amongst other sources. By the same token, however, any pretense that the UK hasn't provided a key influence on pronunciation by those people is absurd.
Great sig ;o)
is it just me, or does anybody else find it funny that SCO (and by extention Microsoft) are in court trying to fight Novel, IBM and now a bank.
What happened to pick on the poor ones who cant defend themselves?
of all this is that as long as all these companies are busy, squabbling amongst themselves, Linux has free reign to continue growing. Lose the initiative, and you've lost the war.
Civil wars tend to mire down a keiretsu...
...it would've been, "We'll see you hosers in court, eh?" but Baystar is from Cali, dude.
I doubt it would set any precedent. There's been far too much media exposure now... I think this is a one-shot, passing phenomina we're observing here, it'll be an academic curiosity for a long time after it's over with, but nobody will ever be able to pull off another boondoggle like this in the I.T. industry again.
...is because you live in Toronto.
In my experience (I'm Canadian, and have visited seven provinces and over thirty US states), Toronto is the most "American" city in the whole country--the city looks American, has American-style freeways, and by and large the citizens of Toronto speak like residents of the mid-western US. Even Calgary is less American in that regard (Calgarians--and most Albertans talk with a stronger Canadian accent--Listen to how Joe Clark says "about" for example--and Preson Manning as well).
It's quite ironic, because although day-to-day life in Toronto is the most American-like of anywhere else in Canada, Torontonians tend to regard themselves as the "real, true Canadians". Politics is really the sole major difference--Toronto leans much more left than most of the US, and is also where most "anti-American" sentiment resides.
I'd say if you wanted to see or experience the most interesting, unique cultural and historical aspects of Canada you'd want to head a bit outside Toronto. Start by heading out to areas lite Collingwood, etc. Ottawa is a beautiful, friendly city and seat of government. Montreal and Quebec City both have incredible historical districts and unique culture (Montreal in particular). It's quite "european"-like
Besides the Ottawa region, New Brunswick is the only other truly, official bilingual region of the country--and it is even quite distinct from next-door Maine. Overall the Maritimes has a very distinct culture--the Acadians share their ancestry with the Cajuns in Louisiana, and there is a strong gaelic influence not just in language but overall culture. Nowhere on earth will you find better lobster than in Nova Scotia. And speaking of accents, just try to understand what a Cape Bretoner is trying to say--not only is the accent waaay out there, they have their own slang entirely.
Not enough central Canadians visit Western Canada either. There is NO decent skiing anywhere in Ontario (and if you say otherwise you haven't been skiing in the Alberta/BC rockies). Vancouver is like LA without smog, earthquakes and violent crime. The Calgary Stampede truly IS the greatest outdoor show an earth, and Edmonton hosts the best Fringe Festival on the continent (and the West Ed Mall totally kisk ass on the "Mall of America"--which incidentally is owned by the same Edmonton family-run corporation). You can even go to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and see where Al Capone secretly operated his bootlegging operation during prohibition. Yes, history in the west is intertwined with that of the US but is still very unique and interesting).
Sorry, but when I hear another Canadian who lives in Toronto say something like "I live in Toronto and can tell ya that Canadians are like such-and-such" I can't help but think that they need reminding that Canada is much more than Toronto--it's like saying New York is the US when it clearly is very different from Chicago, or LA, or Atlanta etc.
Is it buys purely as a conspiracy by scox to prop up the stock price, or automated buys by investors (including scox) to buy when the stock dips below 4?
I can see it now, SCO's office, with only Darl left sitting at a desk in an otherwise empty building, Darl is writing out refund checks to everyone who paid the SCO Linux fee and saying: "...Six hundred and ninety nine dollars and NINETY NINE CENTS"! "I don't need Baystar... or... or... Microsoft... or... Sun!!! All I need is my thermos"! ;P
Un-news
l'Académie Française... l'Alliance Française is something completely different *blush*
:-)
Being English I'm still none the wiser about the difference between USA and Canadian pronounciation because I'd pronounce both the examples given in exactly the same way.
John
Being in Maryland, when my Canadian friends from Ontario come down, we can hear a "aboot" and "oot" in their accents. Our accent probably has more of a twang. And those of us born in the capital of the United States say "Worshington" rather faintly.
Nyekulturniy... Proudly confusing readers and editors since 1981!
Given how little you understand investing, it's probably a good thing that you never short a stock.
Catastrophic attack on a givernment has a limited number of ways to recover ... emergency infrastructure, keep some officials separate at all time, etc.
...what if a door falls off, a wheel, the engine comes loose, the body breaks in half ...
There is no reasonable outcome where SCO can win. Any possible outcome where they win is so bizarre that you can think of any number of equally bizarre improbable ways for SCO to win, zillions of them, because none of them make any sense. You may as well drive down the freeway and imagine all the possibilities
There is no point trying to work out contingency plans for all the possible bizarre SCO-wins scenarios.
Infuriate left and right
Where do you live in vancouver??? I've never heard it in vancouver or montreal. I suspect it's more of a redneck thing. You watch CBC???
haha, don't worry. We always laugh at how the americans think they're God's shitz.
Rocky Loses.
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
If you're going to bitch at someone, at least try to make sure that you are right.
I find myself wondering how a Canadian says 'bout' as in a wrestling bout. Typical Americans pronounce it the same way as the second syllable in 'about'.
The phrases 'they had a bout' and 'they had about' usually come out sounding almost exactly the same (except for the few people who enunciate well, when the 'a' in the former will be more distinct or short).
Perhaps the Newfies say it that way, but I'd want a Newfie to confirm it.
No, we don't.
TFOAE
My point was that there is folly in declaring unilaterally that England is the sole dictator of what is English, both in writing and in speech, and that anything that doesn't follow their example has no resemblence whatsoever to English, and is in fact alien and unrecognizable.
I agree with this point and I am certain that nobody in this thread has said anything that even sounds vaguely likely a contrary position. I was under the impression that you were disagreeing with someone. I now suppose that you were not.
Bob and Doug Mckenzie episodes on SCTV.
That's where I first heard it.
You bed down with the dogs, you get fleas.
Why do I have this? I don't smoke.
Say nothing about the province (snickers), but a Saskatchewan teacher of mine said "aboat" (or is that abote?). And yes, they do say aboot on Newsworld International, a CBC station which I get Stateside.
"[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
Check out this InternetNews article for more background information on the BayStar - SCO lawsuit.
SATAN? Well, isn't THAT special?
---
IMHO, of course.
May the SOURCE be with you.
Hmm, that's interesting and I think I'm starting to understand what the Americans are talking about. However, I think 'aboot' is a gross overexaggeration that isn't even accurate.
If I understand correctly, Americans pronounce both vowels in 'about' (ow-u) where as Canadians pronounce the vowels as one sound (ow). Similar to Detroit (de-troyt or de-troy-it)
Also, it may be possible that Americans have a slight accent on 'boot' making it sound more like 'bout', which, to them, would make it sound like we were saying aboot.
I wonder if the same thing exists in words like house, doubt, etc.
I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
As a person who has spent numerous years in Newfoundland and even has a parent from the place, I can confirm that I've never a newfie say 'aboot'.
I've heard that Colorado is where most talk radio guys used to be required to live for a few years as they have a very neutral Amreican accent. I've noticed a few interesting changes in my own pronunciation over the past few years, grew up in Washington school in the midwest, lives in Montana.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
strange, I'm an American, and I prounce about like wrestling bout, or I'm going out. But in all 3 words ou is pronounced ow. So out and about is a rhyming phase. How do Canadians prounce out?
This FUDsuit demonstates how the licensing terms for proprietary software are actually rather abusive. Microsoft does not want us to see the downside of these licenses. I think this is why Microsoft would like to pull the plug on this fiascot.
Religion is the main cause of atheism.
Novel's initial move for summary judgment was successful, but the judge gave SCO a second kick at the can.
IBM's motion for summary judgement is currently pending, and expected to be heard little while. If it succeeds, it will mean that SCO isn't just wrong, but that they're blatently wrong (I understand that it's rather rare for summary motions this early in the trial process to succeed).
Summary motion success would mean that even if you accepted SCO's versions of all the facts, they'd still be in the wrong. That's a pretty hefty burden of proof to get over.
Daimler Chrysler succeded on everything but the question of whether or not two months was too long to lay on the floor laughing.
AutoZone and RedHat are currently awaiting the (expected) thrashing at the hands of Novell and IBM, but Red Hat is chomping at the bit for a chance to take a good byte out of Darl & co.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Immediately upon reading this, the image of two toothless, inbred hicks duelling with banjos came to my mind - What's really sad is that this mental image may not be that far from the truth of things with SCO ...
Additionally, how do they pronounce "boot"? Maybe that's part of the problem with understanding how Americans hear it?
I know I've heard Canadians (sorry, no idea where in Canada they were from) say "about" in a noticeably different way. Of course, with the South Park exaggeration in mind, it made it sound a lot funnier than it would have otherwise.
I am waiting for SCO to go out of buisness. Just so I can see this
When rats leave a sinking ship, they aren't supposed to use their teeth first!
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
In other news, Baystars legal team "ain't gettin' on no plane!"
Ding dong the witch is dead!
quis custodiet ipsos custodes - Juvenal
To an Australian ear,at least, many New Englanders also say something that sounds a fair bit like 'aboot'. Perhaps a bit more like 'aboat', but still rather odd-sounding.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
SCO has a market cap of $61.8M and cash on hand of $61.35M which means that investors are valuing the business itself (software plus the shakedown racket) at only about $500K. In reality, they may have spent a bit more cash since last 10Q report, but still the point is that the company is given little value beyond its cash holdings. The great news is that they are burning cash pretty fast so that at the current pace they will be bankrupt in a couple of years without any other residual value :)
At least I no longer need subtitles to understand Billy Connelly (must be living with an Australian that's improved his English ...)
What a long, strange trip it's been.
Yeah, it's always sounded more like "a boat" to me, too.
As a British Columbian, I pronounce about like 'out', or 'bout'. I never understood why "aboot" was funny, because boot doesn't sound anything like bout. About pronounced like "bow" (as in, bowing in front of an audience) sounds a little too thick. Or maybe I just have to hear someone with a different Canadian accent.
Ouit of curiosity how do you pronounce penguin? pen-gwin, or pangwin?
Minnesotans, Wisconsin folks, and similar denizens of the region west of the Great Lakes,both north and south of the border say it, as well as "ey" and "there y' go," which my wife insists my family uses in a very differnt manner. My dad and grandparents were from Ontario and used "ey" rarely, and you could barely catch the oddity of the vowels in "about." To me it has always sounded more like "a boat" than "a boot."
------ The only greater hazard to your liberty than n politicians is n+1 politicians.
SCO/Microsoft Announce Intention To Sue BeUnited
What it might have to hide is a rescue package based around an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) if/when it's current strategy fails. However based upon leaks in the past and the direction they pointed, SCO and it's partners might have very good reasons for keeping as much as possible hidden for as long as possible.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
the majority will fail to realize that the speaker is talking English at all
I can directly realte to this - when working in Japan, I (an Aussie) had to act as a "translator" between my Scottish colleague from Glasgow and our boss who was from the U.S. It used to really piss off the Scottish guy - but it was the only way my boss ever understood what he was saying. Of course the scottish guy didn't need my help to understand the boss. Go figure. That said, I have seen them put subtitles on the screen here in Aus when showing an interview with someone with a thick accent from say, Wales or Yorkshire, so I guess some people just don't have an ear for understanding different accents.
I am also from Glasgow, and spend a lot of time working with Americans, so I can empathize...
;-)
I spent a couple of years working in England, which forced me to learn to slow down when I was talking, and to speak more clearly. Without that, I would struggle.
One of my colleagues was complimented on "speaking English real good for a second language", which he is quite proud of. I don't think he had the heart to explain that it was actually his first language.
I think everyone with strong regional accents is so exposed to other accents (particularly American ones) through TV, movies, and music that they can understand others pretty well. It just doesn't change the way we speak
Many? I'll give you "some"
That's the best response you could come up with? How many samples have you taken? What makes you so sure you're right about it only being some? And what is the quantitative difference between "some" and "many" tell me pease.
Better yet, shut up.
Interesting town, Glasgow.
I had a chance to visit it when I was in the UK for a while, when I was kicking around Scotland for a few weeks. After all those tall tales by my Glaswegian mate, I somehow felt dissaponted that no-one ever tried even once to glass me, give me a "Glasgow Kiss", slap my cheeks with a pair of razor blades between their fingers or kick me in the shins with razor boots. In fact, everyone was downright friendly...
You know what, you need to stop playing God, you sick bastard. You give someone else a +1 who is on the EXACT SAME TANGENT and then give me a -1 for being off-topic? Get off your high horse.
The phenomenon that produces what Americans think is 'aboot' is called Canadian Raising. It becomes incredibly clear that there is a difference if a Canadian says "about boots".
Wikipedia has an article and this site has sound files. Particularly interesting, I find, as a Canadian, is the way Torontonians drop the second 't' in Toronto.