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Why Apple Denied the Google Latitude App
awyeah writes "A recently revealed Apple patent looks remarkably similar to the functionality of Google Latitude, which Apple relegated to WebApp status earlier this year. Obviously if Apple is working on their own version of Google Latitude (or owns the IP rights to this functionality), they'd be hesitant to put an app with the same functionality on their devices from another company."
I agree that that is what "beg the question" meant originally, and that is what it should mean. Unfortunately the incorrect use has become so widespread that it is even mentioned in the dictionaries. From the New Oxford American Dictionary:
beg the question:
1 (of a fact or action) raise a question or point that has not been dealt with; invite an obvious question.
2 avoid the question; evade the issue.
3 assume the truth of an argument or proposition to be proved, without arguing it.
It is sad, but to the "incorrect" use appears first and the original use appears last.
Words and phrases change meaning over time. It's a fact of life. Just look at the phrase "The exception that proves the rule". People today take that to mean that an exception to a rule somehow makes it even stronger, which is nonsensical. The meaning of "proves" in that phrase was "to test". You showed something was true by proving it, but you could also show something as false by proving it. The word "prove" itself hasn't changed a whole lot, but it did not have the automatic affermative conotation it has in modern usage. I.e. if you said you proved something, it did not automatically mean you proved it true, you could just have easily proved it false. In other words, the phrase meant something like "The exception that tests the valididity of the rule". Obviously that means something much different than what people take it to mean today.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
Go ahead and google that. I'm sure you'll need to.