yes, you make a good point - my comment was a bit of a smart-arse comment and i agree that counting copyright from the date of first publishing makes much more sense than counting it from the death of the author - it's simply unfortunate that the length of time has been extended by so long in the usa
indeed, with the practice of counting from the date of the death of the author one can imagine writing a fan letter such as:
dear author,
i enjoyed your book so much that i am hoping you die soon
btw, i looked at a few author decease dates after reading this story and noticed that a.a. milne died in 1956 so winnie-the-pooh will be availble copyright free in australia in 2006 - i wonder how disney (who negotiated some sort of exclusive license with the milne estate) feel about that - i myself feel very happy as i find the disney portrayal of winnie the pooh abysmal and would like to see it balanced by other people having the right to present alternative interpretations of winnie the pooh to the public
this reminds me of the choice you are presented with when downloading the debian cd iso's from sites outside america (like my own country, australia)
for the first cd you are given the choice of two versions - disk1, and disk1-non-us (labels not exact here)
one's initial reaction is to think - hey, i want what all those lousy american bastards are getting, i'll go with the standard disk1
however a little more reading shows you that the non-us cd actually contains lots of goodies that those lousy american bastards are unable to legally obtain - mostly security and encryption stuff
same with this page - those ppl fortunate enough to be living in america - 'land of the free' - are unable to obtain these books due to their government making a pact with the corporate devil sometime in the late 70s early 80s
those of us living having to make do with living outside the borders of the 'leader of the free world' are however able to access them
thanks for your comment - i found it interesting and informative
i was the submitter of this story, and i was hoping for more comments like yours on the taiwan-china aspect which is discussed in the article. i've spent some time in taiwan (though none in china) and i find this relationship very interesting. unfortunately any mention of china seems to provoke some sort of blind response in a large number of americans and most of the comments prior to yours were disappointing 'china is an evil regime that exploits it's own ppl and is getting bigger all the time and we are scared' type diatribes that add nothing of value to the discussion
(first came across it in levy's hackers book, did a quick search on google and came across this page which relates the story)
the story takes up from just after the arrival of the first PDP-1 at MIT (1961)
The PDP-1 was installed in the "kludge" room, which was the room next door to where the TX-0 was housed. The hackers wasted no time in converting over much of the TX-0 software to the PDP-1, and in fact they wasted no time in writing new programs.
One of the most interesting and innovative was actually done as a prank. Hacking a connection between the PDP-1 and the TX-0, they created a "chat" program of sorts. They then called in Professor John McCarthy (legendary artificial intelligence pioneer and creator of the Lisp programming language) and told him they had created a new chess playing game on the PDP-1. They then called in another professor, told him the same thing and sat him in front of the TX-0. The two proceeded to send chess moves back and forth to one another, each thinking the other was a chess program. That is, until McCarthy noticed the movements were coming in one letter at a time, and sometimes lagging in between each move. Noticing the wire, he followed it to the next room and the prank was up. However, this prank was to be the first networked computer game.
thanks for making the effort to write such an insightful and hard-hitting comment - you made many good points, i'll focus on just one to add a few quotes
your line:
Because the GNU/GPL sphere goes against the grain in balking authority from outside itself, it isn't the instinctive choice of anybody- it's giving up your power to something bigger than you.
i like a lot and here are some relevant quotes:
Lord Shiva said:
"You are judged on your actions, and this determines your future. Never seek power. It is the fastest way to fall."
RMS is truly a great visionary - i find that everything he has written about free software has been truly prescient, and penetratingly insightful.
Again, on the matter of BitKeeper, as far as i am concerned he is completely right. It's not a question of 'best tool for the job' - the creed of the technocrat - but the best tool if and only if that tool respects the user's freedom.
Interestingly, the movement to downplay RMS's role in the free software movement and his instigal role in the development of the GNU/Linux system is mirrored many times in history where the true visionaries and revolutionaries are brushed aside by later-comers who sell-out on the founding principles of a movement - and Linus Torvalds for all his strong contribution towards the linux kernel is rapidly coming into danger of falling into this camp.
As an example, and one i hope you do not find to off-topic, i ask this mainly american audience on slashdot to tell me who was america's first president?
If you answer george washington you are incorrect - george washington was the leader of a counter-coup after the first revolution.
As my supporting documentaion i give you this from the introduction to the brilliant alternative history of america called the Tribes and the States (written by william james sidis, on several objective grounds considered america's greatest genius of the 20th century).
There are other points of difference from the established text-book view of history, such as: picturing America as a country where popular revolts have been the rule rather than the exception, and even as the origin and inspiration of such revolts throughout the world;
describing George Washington, not as the hero of the American Revolution, as he is ordinarily considered, but rather as one who had little sympathy with democracy, and finally overthrew by conspiracy the republic the Revolution established; the existence of a First Republic (John Hancock being its first president) representing the American Revolution, and a Second Republic representing a political counter-revolution; [my emphasis] the pre-revolutionary co-operative factory and civil disobedience systems in Massachusetts; or the various peculiar theories of economic and political functions and development as presented here. All these will doubtless be difficult for the average reader to swallow. And to this, let it merely be said, that what is being presented here is merely a new version of what happened, partly based on legends and traditions of what claims to be the continuation in modern America of the tribal organization of a nation of the old Indians of New England; so that even the existence of contradictions in the story as here presented would not be at all surprising. But let us also hope that the new point of view will make the reader "think it over"that it will excite his interest, and make him reconsider much that he has taken for granted about his country.
Don't stand by and let our new john hancock (RMS) be replaced in history by the new george washington (torvalds).
Thus, for example, when I said that limited should be read like "limitThus, for example, when I said that limited should be read like "limited edition print," Justice Souter interrupted to say that this was a different kind of case (not a contract, etc.), and I said, yes, but we are simply showing you that there is a plain meaning of the term "limited" that actually produces a limit. He's a very careful justice; he got the point, as did the court by the end
I think the example of the use of the word limited as in 'limited print edition' is a good one.
To spell it out:
someone produces 100 prints in a 'limited edition'
sometime later they say this is still a limited edition but we are going to produce another 100 prints - now it is a limited edition of only 200 prints
again, further down the road they produce another 100 prints but maintain it is still a 'limited edition'
seen in this way their use of 'limited' is obviously bogus - and the analogy carries directly to how the congress is interpreting the use of the term 'limited' in the copyright clause
The Gracehoper was always jigging ajog, hoppy on akkant 22 of his joyicity, (he had a partner pair of findlestilts to supplant 23 him), or, if not, he was always making ungraceful overtures to 24 Floh and Luse and Bienie and Vespatilla to play pupa-pupa and 25 pulicy-pulicy and langtennas and pushpygyddyum and to com- 26 mence insects with him, there mouthparts to his orefice and his 27 gambills to there airy processes, even if only in chaste, ameng 28 the everlistings, behold a waspering pot. He would of curse 29 melissciously, by his fore feelhers, flexors, contractors, depres- 30 sors and extensors, lamely, harry me, marry me, bury me, bind 31 me, till she was puce for shame and allso fourmish her in Spin- 32 ner's housery at the earthsbest schoppinhour so summery as his 33 cottage, which was cald fourmillierly Tingsomingenting, groped 34 up. Or, if he was always striking up funny funereels with Bester- 35 farther Zeuts, the Aged One, With all his wigeared corollas, albe- 36 dinous and oldbuoyant, inscythe his elytrical wormcasket and 1 Dehlia and Peonia, his druping nymphs, bewheedling him, com- 2 pound eyes on hornitosehead, and Auld Letty Plussiboots to 3 scratch his cacumen and cackle his tramsitus, diva deborah (seven 4 bolls of sapo, a lick of lime, two spurts of fussfor, threefurts of 5 sulph, a shake o'shouker, doze grains of migniss and a mesfull of 6 midcap pitchies. The whool of the whaal in the wheel of the 7 whorl of the Boubou from Bourneum has thus come to taon!), 8 and with tambarins and cantoridettes soturning around his eggs- 9 hill rockcoach their dance McCaper in retrophoebia, beck from 10 bulk, like fantastic disossed and jenny aprils, to the ra, the ra, the 11 ra, the ra, langsome heels and langsome toesis, attended to by a 12 mutter and doffer duffmatt baxingmotch and a myrmidins of 13 pszozlers pszinging Satyr's Caudledayed Nice and Hombly, 14 Dombly Sod We Awhile but Ho, Time Timeagen, Wake! For if 15 sciencium (what's what) can mute uns nought, 'a thought, 16 abought the Great Sommboddy within the Omniboss, perhops an 17 artsaccord (hoot's hoot) might sing ums tumtim abutt the Little 18 Newbuddies that ring his panch. A high old tide for the bar- 19 heated publics and the whole day as gratiis! Fudder and lighting 20 for ally looty, any filly in a fog, for O'Cronione lags acrumbling 21 in his sands but his sunsunsuns still tumble on. Erething above 22 ground, as his Book of Breathings bed him, so as everwhy, sham 23 or shunner, zeemliangly to kick time. 24
Grouscious me and scarab my sahull What a bagateller it is! 25 Libelulous! Inzanzarity! Pou! Pschla! Ptuh! What a zeit for the 26 goths! vented the Ondt, who, not being a sommerfool, was 27 thothfolly making chilly spaces at hisphex affront of the icinglass 28 of his windhame, which was cold antitopically Nixnixundnix. 29 We shall not come to party at that lopp's, he decided possibly, 30 for he is not on our social list. Nor to Ba's berial nether, thon 31 sloghard, this oldeborre's yaar ablong as there's a khul on a khat. 32 Nefersenless, when he had safely looked up his ovipository, he 33 loftet hails and prayed: May he me no voida water! Seekit Ha- 34 tup! May no he me tile pig shed on! Suckit Hotup! As broad as 35 Beppy's realm shall flourish my reign shall flourish! As high as 36 Heppy's hevn shall flurrish my haine shall hurrish! Shall grow, 1 shall flourish! Shall hurrish! Hummum. 2
The Ondt was a weltall fellow, raumybult and abelboobied, 3 bynear saw altitudinous wee a schelling in kopfers. He was sair 4 sair sullemn and chairmanlooking when he was not making spaces 5 in his psyche, but, laus! when he wore making spaces on his ikey, 6 he ware mouche mothst secred and muravyingly wisechairman- 7 looking. Now whim the sillybilly of a Gracehoper had jingled 8 through a jungle of love and debts and jangled through a jumble 9 of life in doubts afterworse, wetting with the bimblebeaks, drik- 10 king with nautonects, bilking with durrydunglecks and horing 11 after ladybirdies (ichnehmon diagelegenaitoikon) he fell joust as 12 sieck as a sexton and tantoo pooveroo quant a churchprince, and 13 wheer the midges to wend hemsylph or vosch to sirch for grub 14 for his corapusse or to find a hospes, alick, he wist gnit! Bruko 15 dry! fuko spint! Sultamont osa bare! And volomundo osi vide- 16 vide! Nichtsnichtsundnichts! Not one pickopeck of muscow- 17 money to bag a tittlebits of beebread! Iomio! Iomio! Crick's 18 corbicule, which a plight! O moy Bog, he contrited with melan- 19 ctholy. Meblizzered, him sluggered! I am heartily hungry! 20
He had eaten all the whilepaper, swallowed the lustres, de- 21 voured forty flights of styearcases, chewed up all the mensas and 22 seccles, ronged the records, made mundballs of the ephemerids 23 and vorasioused most glutinously with the very timeplace in the 24 ternitary not too dusty a cicada of neutriment for a chittinous 25 chip so mitey. But when Chrysalmas was on the bare branches, 26 off he went from Tingsomingenting. He took a round stroll and 27 he took a stroll round and he took a round strollagain till the 28 grillies in his head and the leivnits in his hair made him thought 29 he had the Tossmania. Had he twicycled the sees of the deed 30 and trestraversed their revermer? Was he come to hevre with his 31 engiles or gone to hull with the poop? The June snows was 32 flocking in thuckflues on the hegelstomes, millipeeds of it and 33 myriopoods, and a lugly whizzling tournedos, the Boraborayel- 34 lers, blohablasting tegolhuts up to tetties and ruching sleets off 35 the coppeehouses, playing ragnowrock rignewreck, with an irri- 36 tant, penetrant, siphonopterous spuk. Grausssssss! Opr! 1 Grausssssss! Opr! 2
The Gracehoper who, though blind as batflea, yet knew, not 3 a leetle beetle, his good smetterling of entymology asped niss- 4 unitimost lous nor liceens but promptly tossed himself in the 5 vico, phthin and phthir, on top of his buzzer, tezzily wondering 6 wheer would his aluck alight or boss of both appease and the 7 next time he makes the aquinatance of the Ondt after this they 8 have met themselves, these mouschical umsummables, it shall be 9 motylucky if he will beheld not a world of differents. Behailed 10 His Gross the Ondt, prostrandvorous upon his dhrone, in his 11 Papylonian babooshkees, smolking a spatial brunt of Hosana 12 cigals, with unshrinkables farfalling from his unthinkables, 13 swarming of himself in his sunnyroom, sated before his com- 14 fortumble phullupsuppy of a plate o'monkynous and a confucion 15 of minthe (for he was a conformed aceticist and aristotaller), as 16 appi as a oneysucker or a baskerboy on the Libido, with Floh 17 biting his leg thigh and Luse lugging his luff leg and Bieni bussing 18 him under his bonnet and Vespatilla blowing cosy fond tutties 19 up the allabroad length of the large of his smalls. As entomate 20 as intimate could pinchably be. Emmet and demmet and be jiltses 21 crazed and be jadeses whipt! schneezed the Gracehoper, aguepe 22 with ptchjelasys and at his wittol's indts, what have eyeforsight! 23
The Ondt, that true and perfect host, a spiter aspinne, was 24 making the greatest spass a body could with his queens lace- 25 swinging for he was spizzing all over him like thingsumanything 26 in formicolation, boundlessly blissfilled in an allallahbath of 27 houris. He was ameising himself hugely at crabround and mary- 28 pose, chasing Floh out of charity and tickling Luse, I hope too, 29 and tackling Bienie, faith, as well, and jucking Vespatilla jukely 30 by the chimiche. Never did Dorsan from Dunshanagan dance it 31 with more devilry! The veripatetic imago of the impossible 32 Gracehoper on his odderkop in the myre, after his thrice ephe- 33 meral journeeys, sans mantis ne shooshooe, featherweighed 34 animule, actually and presumptuably sinctifying chronic's de- 35 spair, was sufficiently and probably coocoo much for his chorous 36 of gravitates. Let him be Artalone the Weeps with his parisites 1 peeling off him I'll be Highfee the Crackasider. Flunkey Footle 2 furloughed foul, writing off his phoney, but Conte Carme makes 3 the melody that mints the money. Ad majorem l.s.d.! Divi gloriam. 4 A darkener of the threshold. Haru? Orimis, capsizer of his ant- 5 boat, sekketh rede from Evil-it-is, lord of loaves in Amongded. 6 Be it! So be it! Thou-who-thou-art, the fleet-as-spindhrift, 7 impfang thee of mine wideheight. Haru! 8
The thing pleased him andt, and andt, 9
He larved ond he larved on he merd such a nauses 10 The Gracehoper feared he would mixplace his fauces. 11 I forgive you, grondt Ondt, said the Gracehoper, weeping, 12 For their sukes of the sakes you are safe in whose keeping. 13 Teach Floh and Luse polkas, show Bienie where's sweet 14 And be sure Vespatilla fines fat ones to heat. 15 As I once played the piper I must now pay the count 16 So saida to Moyhammlet and marhaba to your Mount! 17 Let who likes lump above so what flies be a full 'un; 18 I could not feel moregruggy if this was prompollen. 19 I pick up your reproof, the horsegift of a friend, 20 For the prize of your save is the price of my spend. 21 Can castwhores pulladeftkiss if oldpollocks forsake 'em 22 Or Culex feel etchy if Pulex don't wake him? 23 A locus to loue, a term it t'embarass, 24 These twain are the twins that tick Homo Vulgaris. 25 Has Aquileone nort winged to go syf 26 Since the Gwyfyn we were in his farrest drewbryf 27 And that Accident Man not beseeked where his story ends 28 Since longsephyring sighs sought heartseast for their orience? 29 We are Wastenot with Want, precondamned, two and true, 30 Till Nolans go volants and Bruneyes come blue. 31 Ere those gidflirts now gadding you quit your mocks for my gropes 32 An extense must impull, an elapse must elopes, 33 Of my tectucs takestock, tinktact, and ail's weal; 34 As I view by your farlook hale yourself to my heal. 35 Partiprise my thinwhins whiles my blink points unbroken on 1 Your whole's whercabroads with Tout's trightyright token on. 2 My in risible universe youdly haud find 3 Sulch oxtrabeeforeness meat soveal behind. 4 Your feats end enormous, your volumes immense, 5 (May the Graces I hoped for sing your Ondtship song sense!), 6 Your genus its worldwide, your spacest sublime! 7 But, Holy Saltmartin, why can't you beat time? 8
In the name of the former and of the latter and of their holo- 9 caust. Allmen. 10
i checked the page you referred to and i concede that it (and many more authorative references) indicate such a pronunciation
i am not a classics scholar, however several references to the proper pronunciation of Ouranus (the greek god of the sky) indicate the pronunciation i gave
firstly here is a good link to a page which gives the proper latin and old greek pronunciation of the entities whom the planets were named after
they give the latin pronuciation:
VRANVS oor-AH-nuss
and the old greek pronunciation
OURANOS (Ouranos) oar-AH-noss, oor-AH-noss
note that the last sylable changed from an 'o' sound to a 'u' sound, however the stressed middle vowel is an ah in both cases
one thing that i did not stress in my first post is that there should be no 'y' sound at the beginning of the word either
secondly here is a more scholarly page which shows the pronunciation of ouranos (search page for uranus, and page works best if you have proper greek fonts installed)
they indicate an IPA pronunciation of:
[ura`nos]
so yes, in summary you could argue that the common modern pronunciation is correct even if it has changed from the way the ancient romans and greeks pronounced the word
however, i feel that it is an unfortunate pronunciation and i prefer the old one - i realise that there can never be a language police, nor would i welcome one, but i do feel that it is good for people to know that there is an alternative pronunciation to the common modern one which can sound better and is more in touch with the word's roots
i feel that the present situation arose from the fact that there was very little usage of the word for many centuries until it suddenly got shot back into prominence with the naming of a major planet after it - and unfortunately people pronounced it as they read it and not from hearing it
Re:Clever, 0x90, but I'm changing my name to 0x120
on
InvisibleNet Presents IIP
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
0x90 is the instruction code for 'NOP' (No OPeration) on IA32.
yes, and this extract from the interview seems to confirm that yours is the 'correct' decoding of the nick -
[interviewer] Okay, let's talk about authentication of identity next.
We know we are anonymous, but currently what measures are in place that can help ensure that I am really talking to nop or my other associates on IIP?
[0x90 does not correct the name substitution in his reply]
The problem is that EULA's don't just try to indemnify against damages -- they attempt to limit your rights (right of first sale, redistribution, fair use rights, free speech rights (cannot use for benchmarking, etc) -- and no, most of these are not "constitutional rights" but are rights granted through case law) or grant the software/seller/manufacturer additional rights that you may not agree to (c.f. spyware EULAs).
does anyone who is not a programmer ever nest parenthese like in the example above? - i would guess not (it amuses me whenever i see it (i do it myself)).
btw right on with yr comment
cut to the chase
on
Jobs in Japan?
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Making a long story, short: my wife just left and...
...i want to find me a japanese girlfriend
seriously, one way to start off on the right foot is to avoid terrible cliches such as 'the land of the rising sun' - yes, i know nihonkoku translates roughly to land of the sun's origin - but this moniker sounds james-clavellish-kitschy and very tired
- as bad as calling australia 'down under' or perhaps the usa 'the land of the imperialist warmongers'
finally, i wish you luck on your journey - they say that travel broadens the mind
initially, of course, we would be interested in establishing bases on a planet with terraforming coming much later
so leaving aside the question of terraforming it still seems to me that venus is a better choice for establishing bases on the planet, simply again due to the fact of it's earthlike gravity
i can forsee the heat and pressure problems being dealt with - and i think it would not be necessary initially to establish bases on the surface of venus (with it's attendant volcanic dangers) but in some kind of bases in the atmosphere - perhaps something similar to buckminster fuller's "cloud 9" structures if you are familiar with them
as the new scientist article highlights, the heat and pressure in the atmosphere lessen with altitude above the surface - and so there might be some optimum altitude low enough to still provide decent gravity, but with a lesser heat and pressure environment to deal with
extreme craft capable of withstanding the heat and pressure could then descend to the surface to mine required materials
it may be obvious from this post that i have little knowledge of what i am talking about - in which case i beg your pardon - i will do a bit of a search for the book you mentioned - i simply wrote my first comment because as i said the idea of going first to mars is always so obviously assumed as the only course of action and it surprises me that venus is left out of the running
this article brought up the question which i often ask myself - why is there so much attention paid to mars and so little to venus?
surely venus is a much better long-term proposition for colonisation than mars? yes i know about it's crushing and extremely hot atmosphere, but this is something that can potentially be adapted to or ameliorated - perhaps even comprehensively changed by some atmosphere engineering
what can not be changed about a planet is it's gravity - this is obviously a fundamental characteristic of a planet inextricably linked to it's mass - and mars' low gravity seems to me to be an intractable problem for colonists - ie maybe they could adapt to living there but they would never be able to return to earth
finally, from a poetic viewpoint it would be nice if the human race made it's first step out into the solar system towards the planet of love and not the planet of war
Most of the stress and strain we're seeing here today, with patents, copyrights, and music distribution is down to the fact that people are attempting to force capitalism onto markets that it cannot handle.
agreed. this is called manufacturing scarcity. telephone companies do it, ip propronents do it, diamond miners do it. solution is inherently simple - call their bluff and refuse to play their game - ppl only have power over you if you give it away to them
well i've never read a page of ulysses so i can't comment on it - after reading portrait of the artist as a young man at school, my next experience of joyce was a couple of years ago where i did actually read the whole of finnegans wake to myself out loud
it was a revelatory experience - i do not pretend to understand even 5% of the book, however once, twice or three times a page perhaps, one 'gets' the word play or the wordful insight, and that can be very funny or profound or usually both - there are passages in the book which are a transcendental experience to read - sorry, that sounds pretentious but i have not had the same experience reading any other book - so in short i strongly recommend it (and i did the book a disservice by suggesting it as some sort of counter punishment in my previous post)
i was led to read finnegans wake after reading marshall mcluhan who was a hugh joyce fan and used many finnegans wake excerpts in his book understanding media to expound upon his own thesis
finally, i've never read jack london however i might check him out on your recommendation - i do however remember a passage in nancy mitford's the pursuit of love concerning uncle matthew (lord alconleigh) who was
...sceptical about the pleasure afforded by reading, telling enquirers: 'I have only ever read one book in my life, and that is' White Fang. 'It's so frightfully good I've never bothered to read another.'
finally an intelligent comment afters scores of comments filled with anal-retentive victorian-peadgoguerish-pedantry
your highlighting both the need for stability and dynanism in language use was insightful
i too thought of mark twain as a very good counter-example against the elitism being shown here - another very good example would be james joyce - all of the slashdot posters virtuously suggesting punishment and marking-down of student's work should be forced to read the whole of finnegans wake aloud - perhaps they might then learn to love language rather than sententiously moralise about it
Slashdot Mirror
yes, you make a good point - my comment was a bit of a smart-arse comment and i agree that counting copyright from the date of first publishing makes much more sense than counting it from the death of the author - it's simply unfortunate that the length of time has been extended by so long in the usa
indeed, with the practice of counting from the date of the death of the author one can imagine writing a fan letter such as
dear author,
i enjoyed your book so much that i am hoping you die soon
btw, i looked at a few author decease dates after reading this story and noticed that a.a. milne died in 1956 so winnie-the-pooh will be availble copyright free in australia in 2006 - i wonder how disney (who negotiated some sort of exclusive license with the milne estate) feel about that - i myself feel very happy as i find the disney portrayal of winnie the pooh abysmal and would like to see it balanced by other people having the right to present alternative interpretations of winnie the pooh to the public
this reminds me of the choice you are presented with when downloading the debian cd iso's from sites outside america (like my own country, australia)
for the first cd you are given the choice of two versions - disk1, and disk1-non-us (labels not exact here)
one's initial reaction is to think - hey, i want what all those lousy american bastards are getting, i'll go with the standard disk1
however a little more reading shows you that the non-us cd actually contains lots of goodies that those lousy american bastards are unable to legally obtain - mostly security and encryption stuff
same with this page - those ppl fortunate enough to be living in america - 'land of the free' - are unable to obtain these books due to their government making a pact with the corporate devil sometime in the late 70s early 80s
those of us living having to make do with living outside the borders of the 'leader of the free world' are however able to access them
this, my dear american friends, is called irony
thanks for your comment - i found it interesting and informative
i was the submitter of this story, and i was hoping for more comments like yours on the taiwan-china aspect which is discussed in the article. i've spent some time in taiwan (though none in china) and i find this relationship very interesting. unfortunately any mention of china seems to provoke some sort of blind response in a large number of americans and most of the comments prior to yours were disappointing 'china is an evil regime that exploits it's own ppl and is getting bigger all the time and we are scared' type diatribes that add nothing of value to the discussion
(first came across it in levy's hackers book, did a quick search on google and came across this page which relates the story)
the story takes up from just after the arrival of the first PDP-1 at MIT (1961)
spot on
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thanks for making the effort to write such an insightful and hard-hitting comment - you made many good points, i'll focus on just one to add a few quotes
your line
Because the GNU/GPL sphere goes against the grain in balking authority from outside itself, it isn't the instinctive choice of anybody- it's giving up your power to something bigger than you.
i like a lot and here are some relevant quotes
Lord Shiva said
"You are judged on your actions, and this determines your future. Never seek power. It is the fastest way to fall."
Hakim Bey
"Never seek power - only release it"
RMS is truly a great visionary - i find that everything he has written about free software has been truly prescient, and penetratingly insightful.
Again, on the matter of BitKeeper, as far as i am concerned he is completely right. It's not a question of 'best tool for the job' - the creed of the technocrat - but the best tool if and only if that tool respects the user's freedom.
Interestingly, the movement to downplay RMS's role in the free software movement and his instigal role in the development of the GNU/Linux system is mirrored many times in history where the true visionaries and revolutionaries are brushed aside by later-comers who sell-out on the founding principles of a movement - and Linus Torvalds for all his strong contribution towards the linux kernel is rapidly coming into danger of falling into this camp.
As an example, and one i hope you do not find to off-topic, i ask this mainly american audience on slashdot to tell me who was america's first president?
If you answer george washington you are incorrect - george washington was the leader of a counter-coup after the first revolution.
As my supporting documentaion i give you this from the introduction to the brilliant alternative history of america called the Tribes and the States (written by william james sidis, on several objective grounds considered america's greatest genius of the 20th century).
Don't stand by and let our new john hancock (RMS) be replaced in history by the new george washington (torvalds).
I think the example of the use of the word limited as in 'limited print edition' is a good one.
To spell it out
someone produces 100 prints in a 'limited edition'
sometime later they say this is still a limited edition but we are going to produce another 100 prints - now it is a limited edition of only 200 prints
again, further down the road they produce another 100 prints but maintain it is still a 'limited edition'
seen in this way their use of 'limited' is obviously bogus - and the analogy carries directly to how the congress is interpreting the use of the term 'limited' in the copyright clause
aesop? - i prefer joyce
('scuse the line-numbering)
~ ~ ~
The Gracehoper was always jigging ajog, hoppy on akkant 22
of his joyicity, (he had a partner pair of findlestilts to supplant 23
him), or, if not, he was always making ungraceful overtures to 24
Floh and Luse and Bienie and Vespatilla to play pupa-pupa and 25
pulicy-pulicy and langtennas and pushpygyddyum and to com- 26
mence insects with him, there mouthparts to his orefice and his 27
gambills to there airy processes, even if only in chaste, ameng 28
the everlistings, behold a waspering pot. He would of curse 29
melissciously, by his fore feelhers, flexors, contractors, depres- 30
sors and extensors, lamely, harry me, marry me, bury me, bind 31
me, till she was puce for shame and allso fourmish her in Spin- 32
ner's housery at the earthsbest schoppinhour so summery as his 33
cottage, which was cald fourmillierly Tingsomingenting, groped 34
up. Or, if he was always striking up funny funereels with Bester- 35
farther Zeuts, the Aged One, With all his wigeared corollas, albe- 36
dinous and oldbuoyant, inscythe his elytrical wormcasket and 1
Dehlia and Peonia, his druping nymphs, bewheedling him, com- 2
pound eyes on hornitosehead, and Auld Letty Plussiboots to 3
scratch his cacumen and cackle his tramsitus, diva deborah (seven 4
bolls of sapo, a lick of lime, two spurts of fussfor, threefurts of 5
sulph, a shake o'shouker, doze grains of migniss and a mesfull of 6
midcap pitchies. The whool of the whaal in the wheel of the 7
whorl of the Boubou from Bourneum has thus come to taon!), 8
and with tambarins and cantoridettes soturning around his eggs- 9
hill rockcoach their dance McCaper in retrophoebia, beck from 10
bulk, like fantastic disossed and jenny aprils, to the ra, the ra, the 11
ra, the ra, langsome heels and langsome toesis, attended to by a 12
mutter and doffer duffmatt baxingmotch and a myrmidins of 13
pszozlers pszinging Satyr's Caudledayed Nice and Hombly, 14
Dombly Sod We Awhile but Ho, Time Timeagen, Wake! For if 15
sciencium (what's what) can mute uns nought, 'a thought, 16
abought the Great Sommboddy within the Omniboss, perhops an 17
artsaccord (hoot's hoot) might sing ums tumtim abutt the Little 18
Newbuddies that ring his panch. A high old tide for the bar- 19
heated publics and the whole day as gratiis! Fudder and lighting 20
for ally looty, any filly in a fog, for O'Cronione lags acrumbling 21
in his sands but his sunsunsuns still tumble on. Erething above 22
ground, as his Book of Breathings bed him, so as everwhy, sham 23
or shunner, zeemliangly to kick time. 24
Grouscious me and scarab my sahull What a bagateller it is! 25
Libelulous! Inzanzarity! Pou! Pschla! Ptuh! What a zeit for the 26
goths! vented the Ondt, who, not being a sommerfool, was 27
thothfolly making chilly spaces at hisphex affront of the icinglass 28
of his windhame, which was cold antitopically Nixnixundnix. 29
We shall not come to party at that lopp's, he decided possibly, 30
for he is not on our social list. Nor to Ba's berial nether, thon 31
sloghard, this oldeborre's yaar ablong as there's a khul on a khat. 32
Nefersenless, when he had safely looked up his ovipository, he 33
loftet hails and prayed: May he me no voida water! Seekit Ha- 34
tup! May no he me tile pig shed on! Suckit Hotup! As broad as 35
Beppy's realm shall flourish my reign shall flourish! As high as 36
Heppy's hevn shall flurrish my haine shall hurrish! Shall grow, 1
shall flourish! Shall hurrish! Hummum. 2
The Ondt was a weltall fellow, raumybult and abelboobied, 3
bynear saw altitudinous wee a schelling in kopfers. He was sair 4
sair sullemn and chairmanlooking when he was not making spaces 5
in his psyche, but, laus! when he wore making spaces on his ikey, 6
he ware mouche mothst secred and muravyingly wisechairman- 7
looking. Now whim the sillybilly of a Gracehoper had jingled 8
through a jungle of love and debts and jangled through a jumble 9
of life in doubts afterworse, wetting with the bimblebeaks, drik- 10
king with nautonects, bilking with durrydunglecks and horing 11
after ladybirdies (ichnehmon diagelegenaitoikon) he fell joust as 12
sieck as a sexton and tantoo pooveroo quant a churchprince, and 13
wheer the midges to wend hemsylph or vosch to sirch for grub 14
for his corapusse or to find a hospes, alick, he wist gnit! Bruko 15
dry! fuko spint! Sultamont osa bare! And volomundo osi vide- 16
vide! Nichtsnichtsundnichts! Not one pickopeck of muscow- 17
money to bag a tittlebits of beebread! Iomio! Iomio! Crick's 18
corbicule, which a plight! O moy Bog, he contrited with melan- 19
ctholy. Meblizzered, him sluggered! I am heartily hungry! 20
He had eaten all the whilepaper, swallowed the lustres, de- 21
voured forty flights of styearcases, chewed up all the mensas and 22
seccles, ronged the records, made mundballs of the ephemerids 23
and vorasioused most glutinously with the very timeplace in the 24
ternitary not too dusty a cicada of neutriment for a chittinous 25
chip so mitey. But when Chrysalmas was on the bare branches, 26
off he went from Tingsomingenting. He took a round stroll and 27
he took a stroll round and he took a round strollagain till the 28
grillies in his head and the leivnits in his hair made him thought 29
he had the Tossmania. Had he twicycled the sees of the deed 30
and trestraversed their revermer? Was he come to hevre with his 31
engiles or gone to hull with the poop? The June snows was 32
flocking in thuckflues on the hegelstomes, millipeeds of it and 33
myriopoods, and a lugly whizzling tournedos, the Boraborayel- 34
lers, blohablasting tegolhuts up to tetties and ruching sleets off 35
the coppeehouses, playing ragnowrock rignewreck, with an irri- 36
tant, penetrant, siphonopterous spuk. Grausssssss! Opr! 1
Grausssssss! Opr! 2
The Gracehoper who, though blind as batflea, yet knew, not 3
a leetle beetle, his good smetterling of entymology asped niss- 4
unitimost lous nor liceens but promptly tossed himself in the 5
vico, phthin and phthir, on top of his buzzer, tezzily wondering 6
wheer would his aluck alight or boss of both appease and the 7
next time he makes the aquinatance of the Ondt after this they 8
have met themselves, these mouschical umsummables, it shall be 9
motylucky if he will beheld not a world of differents. Behailed 10
His Gross the Ondt, prostrandvorous upon his dhrone, in his 11
Papylonian babooshkees, smolking a spatial brunt of Hosana 12
cigals, with unshrinkables farfalling from his unthinkables, 13
swarming of himself in his sunnyroom, sated before his com- 14
fortumble phullupsuppy of a plate o'monkynous and a confucion 15
of minthe (for he was a conformed aceticist and aristotaller), as 16
appi as a oneysucker or a baskerboy on the Libido, with Floh 17
biting his leg thigh and Luse lugging his luff leg and Bieni bussing 18
him under his bonnet and Vespatilla blowing cosy fond tutties 19
up the allabroad length of the large of his smalls. As entomate 20
as intimate could pinchably be. Emmet and demmet and be jiltses 21
crazed and be jadeses whipt! schneezed the Gracehoper, aguepe 22
with ptchjelasys and at his wittol's indts, what have eyeforsight! 23
The Ondt, that true and perfect host, a spiter aspinne, was 24
making the greatest spass a body could with his queens lace- 25
swinging for he was spizzing all over him like thingsumanything 26
in formicolation, boundlessly blissfilled in an allallahbath of 27
houris. He was ameising himself hugely at crabround and mary- 28
pose, chasing Floh out of charity and tickling Luse, I hope too, 29
and tackling Bienie, faith, as well, and jucking Vespatilla jukely 30
by the chimiche. Never did Dorsan from Dunshanagan dance it 31
with more devilry! The veripatetic imago of the impossible 32
Gracehoper on his odderkop in the myre, after his thrice ephe- 33
meral journeeys, sans mantis ne shooshooe, featherweighed 34
animule, actually and presumptuably sinctifying chronic's de- 35
spair, was sufficiently and probably coocoo much for his chorous 36
of gravitates. Let him be Artalone the Weeps with his parisites 1
peeling off him I'll be Highfee the Crackasider. Flunkey Footle 2
furloughed foul, writing off his phoney, but Conte Carme makes 3
the melody that mints the money. Ad majorem l.s.d.! Divi gloriam. 4
A darkener of the threshold. Haru? Orimis, capsizer of his ant- 5
boat, sekketh rede from Evil-it-is, lord of loaves in Amongded. 6
Be it! So be it! Thou-who-thou-art, the fleet-as-spindhrift, 7
impfang thee of mine wideheight. Haru! 8
The thing pleased him andt, and andt, 9
He larved ond he larved on he merd such a nauses 10
The Gracehoper feared he would mixplace his fauces. 11
I forgive you, grondt Ondt, said the Gracehoper, weeping, 12
For their sukes of the sakes you are safe in whose keeping. 13
Teach Floh and Luse polkas, show Bienie where's sweet 14
And be sure Vespatilla fines fat ones to heat. 15
As I once played the piper I must now pay the count 16
So saida to Moyhammlet and marhaba to your Mount! 17
Let who likes lump above so what flies be a full 'un; 18
I could not feel moregruggy if this was prompollen. 19
I pick up your reproof, the horsegift of a friend, 20
For the prize of your save is the price of my spend. 21
Can castwhores pulladeftkiss if oldpollocks forsake 'em 22
Or Culex feel etchy if Pulex don't wake him? 23
A locus to loue, a term it t'embarass, 24
These twain are the twins that tick Homo Vulgaris. 25
Has Aquileone nort winged to go syf 26
Since the Gwyfyn we were in his farrest drewbryf 27
And that Accident Man not beseeked where his story ends 28
Since longsephyring sighs sought heartseast for their orience? 29
We are Wastenot with Want, precondamned, two and true, 30
Till Nolans go volants and Bruneyes come blue. 31
Ere those gidflirts now gadding you quit your mocks for my gropes 32
An extense must impull, an elapse must elopes, 33
Of my tectucs takestock, tinktact, and ail's weal; 34
As I view by your farlook hale yourself to my heal. 35
Partiprise my thinwhins whiles my blink points unbroken on 1
Your whole's whercabroads with Tout's trightyright token on. 2
My in risible universe youdly haud find 3
Sulch oxtrabeeforeness meat soveal behind. 4
Your feats end enormous, your volumes immense, 5
(May the Graces I hoped for sing your Ondtship song sense!), 6
Your genus its worldwide, your spacest sublime! 7
But, Holy Saltmartin, why can't you beat time? 8
In the name of the former and of the latter and of their holo- 9
caust. Allmen. 10
we are asking the wrong question when we query
"how many planets in the solar system?"
simply we should ask
Q : "how many inner planets are there?"
A : 4 - mercury, venus, earth, mars
and
Q : "how many gas giants are there?"
A : 4 - jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune
these two questions are more meaningful
and the answers 100% accurate
thanks for yr reply
:
:
i checked the page you referred to and i concede that it (and many more authorative references) indicate such a pronunciation
i am not a classics scholar, however several references to the proper pronunciation of Ouranus (the greek god of the sky) indicate the pronunciation i gave
firstly here is a good link to a page which gives the proper latin and old greek pronunciation of the entities whom the planets were named after
they give the latin pronuciation
VRANVS oor-AH-nuss
and the old greek pronunciation
OURANOS (Ouranos)
oar-AH-noss, oor-AH-noss
note that the last sylable changed from an 'o' sound to a 'u' sound, however the stressed middle vowel is an ah in both cases
one thing that i did not stress in my first post is that there should be no 'y' sound at the beginning of the word either
secondly here is a more scholarly page which shows the pronunciation of ouranos (search page for uranus, and page works best if you have proper greek fonts installed)
they indicate an IPA pronunciation of
[ura`nos]
so yes, in summary you could argue that the common modern pronunciation is correct even if it has changed from the way the ancient romans and greeks pronounced the word
however, i feel that it is an unfortunate pronunciation and i prefer the old one - i realise that there can never be a language police, nor would i welcome one, but i do feel that it is good for people to know that there is an alternative pronunciation to the common modern one which can sound better and is more in touch with the word's roots
i feel that the present situation arose from the fact that there was very little usage of the word for many centuries until it suddenly got shot back into prominence with the naming of a major planet after it - and unfortunately people pronounced it as they read it and not from hearing it
yes, and this extract from the interview seems to confirm
that yours is the 'correct' decoding of the nick -
still like the 'gross' interpretation but...
uranus is a pun free zone
(or at least a less obvious target)
if you pronounce it correctly
u rhymes with goo, to
ra rhymes with ma, ha
nus rhymes with puss
u - ra - nus
does anyone who is not a programmer ever nest parenthese like in the example above? - i would guess not (it amuses me whenever i see it (i do it myself)).
btw right on with yr comment
Making a long story, short: my wife just left and...
...i want to find me a japanese girlfriend
seriously, one way to start off on the right foot is to avoid terrible cliches such as 'the land of the rising sun' - yes, i know nihonkoku translates roughly to land of the sun's origin - but this moniker sounds james-clavellish-kitschy and very tired
- as bad as calling australia 'down under' or perhaps the usa 'the land of the imperialist warmongers'
finally, i wish you luck on your journey
- they say that travel broadens the mind
parent post was extremely informative - thankyou
here's a little word gloss for a couple of the more uncommon words in the article
thermohaline :
thermo meaning temperature
haline meaning salty
boreal
of, or relating to the north
in this context, the northern hemisphere
from the greek god of the north wind, boreas
finally there was a typo on equitorial
(no, i am not being a spelling nazi),
which is correctly typed equatorial
thanks for yr reply
initially, of course, we would be interested in establishing bases on a planet with terraforming coming much later
so leaving aside the question of terraforming it still seems to me that venus is a better choice for establishing bases on the planet, simply again due to the fact of it's earthlike gravity
i can forsee the heat and pressure problems being dealt with - and i think it would not be necessary initially to establish bases on the surface of venus (with it's attendant volcanic dangers) but in some kind of bases in the atmosphere - perhaps something similar to buckminster fuller's "cloud 9" structures if you are familiar with them
as the new scientist article highlights, the heat and pressure in the atmosphere lessen with altitude above the surface - and so there might be some optimum altitude low enough to still provide decent gravity, but with a lesser heat and pressure environment to deal with
extreme craft capable of withstanding the heat and pressure could then descend to the surface to mine required materials
it may be obvious from this post that i have little knowledge of what i am talking about - in which case i beg your pardon - i will do a bit of a search for the book you mentioned - i simply wrote my first comment because as i said the idea of going first to mars is always so obviously assumed as the only course of action and it surprises me that venus is left out of the running
this article brought up the question which i often ask myself - why is there so much attention paid to mars and so little to venus?
surely venus is a much better long-term proposition for colonisation than mars? yes i know about it's crushing and extremely hot atmosphere, but this is something that can potentially be adapted to or ameliorated - perhaps even comprehensively changed by some atmosphere engineering
what can not be changed about a planet is it's gravity - this is obviously a fundamental characteristic of a planet inextricably linked to it's mass - and mars' low gravity seems to me to be an intractable problem for colonists - ie maybe they could adapt to living there but they would never be able to return to earth
finally, from a poetic viewpoint it would be nice if the human race made it's first step out into the solar system towards the planet of love and not the planet of war
i welcome comments
a great example of french programming excellence is httrack - a powerful website copier / offline browser released under the GPL
it runs under both windows and linux (both an rpm and a deb exist), and includes both a GUI and a command line operation capability
the lizard featured on the cover of the oreilly book advertised off to the side of this article is a frill-necked lizard
native to that land of weird and wonderful animals, terra australis
and this lizard is one little terror australis - have a look at some of the pictures on this page
story read while browsing using ie5
this comment posted using phoenix
very happy - am using a low end pentium 133
with 114MB RAM - tried mozilla several times
before but it wasn't practical on this hardware
and yes this machine dual-boots into debian
woody - which i am still finding my way around in
should hopefully be browsing happily from linux soon
- but meanwhile i've cut another huge chunk
of my ms dependency
thankyou mozilla team
- you have made me very happy
post facto scriptum ?
i like it
agreed. this is called manufacturing scarcity. telephone companies do it, ip propronents do it, diamond miners do it. solution is inherently simple - call their bluff and refuse to play their game - ppl only have power over you if you give it away to them
well i've never read a page of ulysses so i can't comment on it - after reading portrait of the artist as a young man at school, my next experience of joyce was a couple of years ago where i did actually read the whole of finnegans wake to myself out loud
it was a revelatory experience - i do not pretend to understand even 5% of the book, however once, twice or three times a page perhaps, one 'gets' the word play or the wordful insight, and that can be very funny or profound or usually both - there are passages in the book which are a transcendental experience to read - sorry, that sounds pretentious but i have not had the same experience reading any other book - so in short i strongly recommend it (and i did the book a disservice by suggesting it as some sort of counter punishment in my previous post)
i was led to read finnegans wake after reading marshall mcluhan who was a hugh joyce fan and used many finnegans wake excerpts in his book understanding media to expound upon his own thesis
finally, i've never read jack london however i might check him out on your recommendation - i do however remember a passage in nancy mitford's the pursuit of love concerning uncle matthew (lord alconleigh) who was
finally an intelligent comment afters scores of comments filled with anal-retentive victorian-peadgoguerish-pedantry
your highlighting both the need for stability and dynanism in language use was insightful
i too thought of mark twain as a very good counter-example against the elitism being shown here - another very good example would be james joyce - all of the slashdot posters virtuously suggesting punishment and marking-down of student's work should be forced to read the whole of finnegans wake aloud - perhaps they might then learn to love language rather than sententiously moralise about it
why not pass on bon jovi and go for the much cooler 5 piece banjo ensemble ban jovi?
can't find a website for these guys, but here's a place where you can buy their cd
no real affiliation to th band in question - just heard them play once at an underground music festival in taiwan (they are american)