Would you rather that new frontiers to never be policed or surveilled ever?
I would rather people started fixing that fucked up thing we call a "society" instead of trying to stomp out the fire even harder. Our societies are at war with each other because we're still ruled by ignorance and greed. No one installs monitoring systems in the offices so why the hell wonder about terrorism? To take your "frontier" analogy a bit deeper into reality. Instead of building a fence thousands of miles long and trying to "monitor" what goes over it you could try to seolve the issues that drive people over such a barrier. But you're probably right, monitoring is way less dirty and can't be pinned to individual responsibility.
The fact is that criminals and other evildoers are using the internet and other technology for nefarious purposes as well as the good guys.
Oh come on, evildoers? Really? Where are we? Kindergarten? I had hoped that this word vanished with the imbecile who introduced it. There are more "evildoers" in public positions and among the ranks of history than ANY terrorist group will ever hire in the entire existence of the planet. Sure we all use the technology for what we can and to prevent our antagonists from beating us to it. The problem here is that we subject millions of people all over the world to ridiculously inept means of what we call "prevention" and "preemptive measures" that the tiny amount of actual victims is far outweighed by the hysteria riddled members of the public who are easily manipulated. How many Al Qaida operatives do they actually catch in New Zealand? Isn't this just another excuse to find means to control your population? I seriously don't know but as of late... I'm more worried about the finding out the truth part than about
what they claim to protect us from.
I for one am glad for police and law enforcement agencies having the same powers as they would have in the offline world.
Then you, for one, don't understand that there is a difference between the "powers" in the offline world and the ones in the "online" world. Even if you wanted you need to put lots of effort into pinpointing someone's location in real life. The combined data from all our real world tech appliances on the other hand seem to erradicate that effort and give us instant access to whatever you need to know. At least in the olden times to find someone's hidden stash you would at least have to actually go to his place and break it open.
I wish you a happy 2010 and hope that you'll take a lesson in what people call "sarcasm". Getting it makes life on the interwebz much easier you know?
I think that's why it's called that right? I use it to sync folders and documents between my desktop and laptop to keep browser, email, rss feeds and other things up to what I've done on the desktop when I'm on the go. The SSH implementation works great, UI could be better (at least under Linux from what I can tell) but it works and didn't do anything stupid so far. Can't say anything about the Windows or OS X implementation but I'd think it works equally well.
I understand Google is an American company. This is American legislation. I can't take anything from the article which would tell me anything about the access to non-US citizen email. Anyone dare to speculate? I'd say "We're reading everything..."
I'm assume you're being sarcastic. But typically buses, trains and planes with internet hook ups do it via a cellular card which is then connected to the WAP. So far it's the most reliable way of providing service. I suppose on planes or something where people don't move about they could use ethernet hooked up to a regular router, but generally WAP is well enough supported.
What is this sarcasm you are speaking of? For I come from the interwebs and have never heard of such a thing.
bwahahahahahahahaha 3D TV in 2010... oh my gosh... that was a good one...
muahahahahhahahahah
We don't even have working HD television stations in most places and the adoption rate of HD TV sets is a joke. The people that need and want HD do so because of specialized applications like Blu-Ray... pushing for 3D TV now is the most ridiculous waste of money imaginable. Cameron really chose a bad time to try to become the spokesperson for a completely unnecessary technology ahead of it's time.
Show me one non-subscription based station in Germany that works w/o an added set top box and broadcasts HD content on a weekly basis. Once EVERYTHING (and I mean literally even the phone sex hotline commercials) are shot and aired in HD THEN MAYBE we can talk about another TV format. Other than that I'm still looking for reasons to switch on my TV anyway if not for playing on my "mostly not really HD 360" and the "screw HD Wii".
You come up with a contract policy that forces a certaini high-end user group into a single, limited resource system and then complain about how this very system collapses... shouldn't there be legislation against that? I mean if a vendor offers a service that will considerably decrease in quality with the number of people that take up the offer, isn't that some kind of fraud? Sure, NOW they'll update their networks because too many paying customers are complaining about the QoS but why is this possible in the first place.
I certainly think they should test their OEM configurations before they go out the door but let's be honest. How hard is it really? Dell has a range of models which differ only slightly in terms of CPU/RAM etc. I can see problems with certain language options but afaik OSS is much better supported right out of the box with translations than most retail software. I've got a few issues with your points, if a "stupid error" slips through Microsoft how are you responsible for that then? Same for alternative Office software, how is Dell responsible for that? They test the software, does it work as advertised? No? File a bug report. What else can you do. Does Dell get a dedicated line into Microsofts code lab? Do they have a priority bugfix hotline? I don't think so.
The question here is: What is "good testing" and what is the alternative if a court order actually prevents you from selling/shipping the software. If I were a computer manufacturer I'd rather look into a testing cycle that would keep my shipment process running and diversifies my experience and configuration portfolio for future use rather than bitch and moan to a court how you are inconvenienced by one of your suppliers shenanigans. Then again, I'm not a computer manufacturer. I'm not really familiar with Dells modus oparandi but how much "support" do they actually give for the software installed? Do they explain customers how to use MS Word? If there is a bug in Word what do they tell them anyway? Like I said, I honestly don't know.
So two of the biggest hardware retailers in the world complain about how it's too boohoo complicated for them to change their OEM installation images that get automatically plastered onto every computer? No one does a manual install in the Dell or HP plants. The extensive time and resource consuming "testing" they're referring two most likely comes from the time they sit around their contracts testing how much Microsoft owes them now for this legal stunt. The most testing you'd have to do for this is to install an alternative on every model once and then you're good. I'mn not really aware of any hardware limitations that would prevent a word processor to run on any modern system.
They should be forced to ship their machines with something like OpenOffice. Microsoft can't complain themselves but that would expose them for the jerks they are so they bully their OEM holders to do their legal poo-flinging. Pathetic, just as expected.
That's like saying... people that are not good at reading and spelling should go out and make their living writing books.
No, that's like saying people who are not good at reading and spelling should make an effort to learn and practice. I haven't met the first person who could learn reading and spelling (or social skills) by sitting on his ass and whining about tough it is. What, you thought life was supposed to be easy? LOL.
You know why you'll always be a loser?
Now, tell me. Ingenious discoverer of truth. Tell me why the things you think you know about me from a half page comment in a computer forum are true and how you can, with you open minded attitude, label someone a loser you've never met and never spoken to? Oh right, open minded successful people don't need reasons.
Disappointment, rejection and failure are the only consequences out of this retarded advice.
^^ Because you have a negative fucking attitude. "Oh, if I go out and try to learn and improve then I'll just fail. I'll always fail, I'll never be anything. So I'll just sit at home and cry about how unfair life is."
Welcome to reality for many people. Sure, I make no big deal about how I'd love to have a positive attitude towards life. Just that it doesn't come automatically people like me. I'd also love to be ignorant and oblivious to many things, another thing I can't influence. I can smile all day but that doesn't make me happy. Oh and a warning: the last sentence was an analogy... not literally meant. You don't seem to understand the difference.
in the end I'd rather stay an introvert with a few true friends than be that extroverted jackass again that gets laid, meets people and "does things" all while not realizing that all of it is meaningless pretend bullshit.
^^ Not to mention your irrational jealousy and hatred of those who actually do get it, those who are successful in ways that you will never allow yourself to be. Your insecurity is showing. It's typical, predictable, and sad.
How quaint, and which post exactly did YOU read? I kinda missed the one in which I explained my CV and stuff to you and introduced you to my friends... the only thing that's predictable here is your self-affirming ignorance paired with that infinite belief in what you say. THAT is sad.
P.S. your "few true friends"? LOL. They're just as weak as you are, and they'd fuck you over in a heartbeat if someone threatened them. You have a lot to learn about life.
Alright, your just being a jackass ridiculing yourself now. Until someone "threatened" them? Jeez. What a wonderful picture of the threats to friendship you have. How many of your former girlfriends, that get you laid such a lot, would take a bullet for you? Also, tell me more of your wisdom great master. You seem to be the Dhalai Llama's son or something. Maybe learning about YOUR life makes everybody as happy as you pretend to be. May I ask you how old you are to think you can go around giving other people advice on how to live their lives? Oh wait, you're just gonna lie anyway. Nevermind.
After all, that "life" that you seem to promote so feverishly is mostly lead by people that neither care nor understand what the world is actually about and what matters.
^^ Along with rationalizations such as these, which are your pathetic attempt to convince yourself that it's actually your way of living that's the superior one and that everyone else's way is shallow and petty. Your conscious mind might be fooled by this nonsense, but your subconscious isn't, and neither is anyone you meet.
Where did I claim my way of life is superior to yours? Is that what you read into this? How would I even know enough about what you do and what I do to compare it in any meaningful way? I've been to "be soc
You're a funny bisquit are you? "People that are not good at socalizing should go out and socialize". That's like saying... people that are not good at reading and spelling should go out and make their living writing books. Disappointment, rejection and failure are the only consequences out of this retarded advice. What most introverts need is other introverts to connect to and feel safe around. As an introvert trying to socialize with extroverts is like pricking a power socket with a wet fork. You might connect for a moment but you can't really stand it for long. Failure after failure trying to connect with the "normal" masses looking down on them is the worst thing that drives people even deeper into their shells. I've been through phases like that... in the end I'd rather stay an introvert with a few true friends than be that extroverted jackass again that gets laid, meets people and "does things" all while not realizing that all of it is meaningless pretend bullshit. After all, that "life" that you seem to promote so feverishly is mostly lead by people that neither care nor understand what the world is actually about and what matters. Keeping themselves busy so they never have to reminisce about the things that are "wrong" with their attitude and whatnot. In my experience introverts think about way more things (especially in a social context) and that's why they hardly risk upsetting those relationships. Just my 2 cents.
But you're not here to help with the discussion anyway, are ya? You're just writing to demonstrate to the potentially worst computer crowd in the world what a great socializer you are...
I loled
I live in (Nazi) Germany and we've had more freedom of speech for years. At least satire is still (mostly) satire over here.
You can have your country back once you've sorted out how to get rid of the ruling political and religious nutters.
We've got lots of idiots like that around here too but they hardly call the shots.
Ah and getting rid of guns would be a great idea as well. Ever wondered why a moron can defend his absolutely batshit crazy opinion against all odds? Because he fends of reality with an assault rifle... that's why.
Then every other broadband customer has to pirate their media or pay a "Comcast Tax" when purchasing physical media. Maybe this'll wake up the consumer types.
Could they just go die already? I'm not buying anything either and I'm sick by the cries of suffering from the basement. I guess I'll take a shovel down there and end it...
I'm intrigured by the idea that learning "print" style writing can be a "lengthy" process, once you have already spent a few years writing. Isn't is quite natural - just draw the same letters, but separately instead of joined up and tidy them up a bit?
If you'd known the crap I was taught as a kid you'd understand that it was a bit more complicated than that. The stuff I had to write looked somewhat like this: http://spzwww.uni-muenster.de/~griesha/eps/wrt/pics/schrift/lehrer-ir.1966d.gif but even more curly. I found this example on Wikipedia but it doesn't do the crap justice if it's just single letters. http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:La-ges.jpg&filetimestamp=20060501153550 I don't have much of my primary school writing around but you're getting the idea. Note how this first sample is from a teacher from 1966 and this guy obviously took his time to write this sentence. Mine looked far worse under pressure. The Wiki page even states that usually this stuff was taught AFTER learning print... I never even learned print. We were taught that "Latin Cursive" only.
I learned cursive as a child and used it throughout university.
Then you might have been lucky and adopted a style that was compatible with most other writing so teachers were able to recognize it.
Print was occasionally required for filling in forms. I don't remember ever feeling challenged by that, even though it was only used for forms.
Well, large blocktype in capital letters to cram into form boxes is something else than free flowing print style letters required for producing a sophisticated result in drafts.
Maybe you felt you had to copy the awkward (not designed for writing) glyph shapes that computers and typewriters use, instead of simply using the cursive shapes you already learned minus the redundant flowy bits as long as it was legible?
I never tried to imitate computer or type font. I just took what I saw in other writing and used that as a guideline. It comes pretty close to how computer fonts look is far more "edgy" and straight strokes than the curvy squiggling I did before. I'm not saying I had a hard time, it was just inconvenient to try to lose a habit that was so deeply entrenched in my brain. I'm not a calligrapher but it works for me and I'm fine with that.
I dropped my cursive handwriting several years ago when I went to the German equivalent of Highschool Senior Year. I had been taught a curvy flowing writing style from primary school onwards and was required to write like that even though I found it exhausting. Then people started expecting me to write half a dozen pages or more in under 90 minutes for class tests which subsequently were graded badly because... heck... how am I supposed to write legibly in that amount of time when the style of writing I was taught looks like a curvy mess. I specifically remember my English teacher one day handing a class exam back to me which got an "F" because he couldn't read the 13 pages I had to squeeze into the 80 minute exam time, ironically the same guy a few years later told me that he couldn't give me anything but straigt "A"s in his classes. The difference between an "F" and an "A" -grade wise- for me that's enough reason to think Fuck Cursive. My primary school teachers and the idiots writing the curriculum obviously didn't take into account that some day kids would have to complete real life tasks with that crappy writing. Thus started a lengthy process retraining myself to "print" style writing. After all, what good is a handwriting nobody else can read. It might be fun for literary scholars or archaelogists but my employers and teachers have been more than glad to see me drop that cursive hyroglyphics. A year of cramps and wasted trees later my grades got (significantly) better. Nine years later I can finally decipher things I wrote in a hurry months ago and for really long texts nobody can expect me to avoid typing it anyway anymore. Those that find a romantic spark in writing books and letters in wriggly bible font are welcome to learn how to do it. Just don't expect me to do it if it's detrimental to my everyday requirements. I maintain two seperate keyboard layouts (QWERTY and DVORAK Type 2) on full 10 finger typing speed. That should be enough writing geekery for me.
Slashdot Mirror
Would you rather that new frontiers to never be policed or surveilled ever?
I would rather people started fixing that fucked up thing we call a "society" instead of trying to stomp out the fire even harder. Our societies are at war with each other because we're still ruled by ignorance and greed. No one installs monitoring systems in the offices so why the hell wonder about terrorism? To take your "frontier" analogy a bit deeper into reality. Instead of building a fence thousands of miles long and trying to "monitor" what goes over it you could try to seolve the issues that drive people over such a barrier. But you're probably right, monitoring is way less dirty and can't be pinned to individual responsibility.
The fact is that criminals and other evildoers are using the internet and other technology for nefarious purposes as well as the good guys.
Oh come on, evildoers? Really? Where are we? Kindergarten? I had hoped that this word vanished with the imbecile who introduced it. There are more "evildoers" in public positions and among the ranks of history than ANY terrorist group will ever hire in the entire existence of the planet. Sure we all use the technology for what we can and to prevent our antagonists from beating us to it. The problem here is that we subject millions of people all over the world to ridiculously inept means of what we call "prevention" and "preemptive measures" that the tiny amount of actual victims is far outweighed by the hysteria riddled members of the public who are easily manipulated. How many Al Qaida operatives do they actually catch in New Zealand? Isn't this just another excuse to find means to control your population? I seriously don't know but as of late ... I'm more worried about the finding out the truth part than about
what they claim to protect us from.
I for one am glad for police and law enforcement agencies having the same powers as they would have in the offline world.
Then you, for one, don't understand that there is a difference between the "powers" in the offline world and the ones in the "online" world. Even if you wanted you need to put lots of effort into pinpointing someone's location in real life. The combined data from all our real world tech appliances on the other hand seem to erradicate that effort and give us instant access to whatever you need to know. At least in the olden times to find someone's hidden stash you would at least have to actually go to his place and break it open.
I wish you a happy 2010 and hope that you'll take a lesson in what people call "sarcasm". Getting it makes life on the interwebz much easier you know?
Is just there to help light the streets at night.
Oh Welcome, my dear friends, to the future: Where even the worst crimes against humanity are "worth it".
I think that's why it's called that right? I use it to sync folders and documents between my desktop and laptop to keep browser, email, rss feeds and other things up to what I've done on the desktop when I'm on the go. The SSH implementation works great, UI could be better (at least under Linux from what I can tell) but it works and didn't do anything stupid so far. Can't say anything about the Windows or OS X implementation but I'd think it works equally well.
you case-insensitive clod!
I understand Google is an American company. This is American legislation. I can't take anything from the article which would tell me anything about the access to non-US citizen email. Anyone dare to speculate? I'd say "We're reading everything ..."
I'm assume you're being sarcastic. But typically buses, trains and planes with internet hook ups do it via a cellular card which is then connected to the WAP. So far it's the most reliable way of providing service. I suppose on planes or something where people don't move about they could use ethernet hooked up to a regular router, but generally WAP is well enough supported.
What is this sarcasm you are speaking of? For I come from the interwebs and have never heard of such a thing.
...
-- Don't raid my house FBI, there's nothing to find here except dirty socks and full ashtrays.
bwahahahahahahahaha 3D TV in 2010 ... oh my gosh ... that was a good one ...
muahahahahhahahahah
... pushing for 3D TV now is the most ridiculous waste of money imaginable. Cameron really chose a bad time to try to become the spokesperson for a completely unnecessary technology ahead of it's time.
We don't even have working HD television stations in most places and the adoption rate of HD TV sets is a joke. The people that need and want HD do so because of specialized applications like Blu-Ray
Show me one non-subscription based station in Germany that works w/o an added set top box and broadcasts HD content on a weekly basis. Once EVERYTHING (and I mean literally even the phone sex hotline commercials) are shot and aired in HD THEN MAYBE we can talk about another TV format. Other than that I'm still looking for reasons to switch on my TV anyway if not for playing on my "mostly not really HD 360" and the "screw HD Wii".
Oh whoops
You come up with a contract policy that forces a certaini high-end user group into a single, limited resource system and then complain about how this very system collapses ... shouldn't there be legislation against that? I mean if a vendor offers a service that will considerably decrease in quality with the number of people that take up the offer, isn't that some kind of fraud? Sure, NOW they'll update their networks because too many paying customers are complaining about the QoS but why is this possible in the first place.
I certainly think they should test their OEM configurations before they go out the door but let's be honest. How hard is it really? Dell has a range of models which differ only slightly in terms of CPU/RAM etc. I can see problems with certain language options but afaik OSS is much better supported right out of the box with translations than most retail software. I've got a few issues with your points, if a "stupid error" slips through Microsoft how are you responsible for that then? Same for alternative Office software, how is Dell responsible for that? They test the software, does it work as advertised? No? File a bug report. What else can you do. Does Dell get a dedicated line into Microsofts code lab? Do they have a priority bugfix hotline? I don't think so.
The question here is: What is "good testing" and what is the alternative if a court order actually prevents you from selling/shipping the software. If I were a computer manufacturer I'd rather look into a testing cycle that would keep my shipment process running and diversifies my experience and configuration portfolio for future use rather than bitch and moan to a court how you are inconvenienced by one of your suppliers shenanigans. Then again, I'm not a computer manufacturer. I'm not really familiar with Dells modus oparandi but how much "support" do they actually give for the software installed? Do they explain customers how to use MS Word? If there is a bug in Word what do they tell them anyway? Like I said, I honestly don't know.
They should be forced to ship their machines with something like OpenOffice.
I think perhaps you missed what this case is all about.
I think perhaps you've missed details like this: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/18/190227/i4i-Says-OpenOffice-Does-Not-Infringe-Like-MS-Word
So two of the biggest hardware retailers in the world complain about how it's too boohoo complicated for them to change their OEM installation images that get automatically plastered onto every computer? No one does a manual install in the Dell or HP plants. The extensive time and resource consuming "testing" they're referring two most likely comes from the time they sit around their contracts testing how much Microsoft owes them now for this legal stunt. The most testing you'd have to do for this is to install an alternative on every model once and then you're good. I'mn not really aware of any hardware limitations that would prevent a word processor to run on any modern system.
They should be forced to ship their machines with something like OpenOffice. Microsoft can't complain themselves but that would expose them for the jerks they are so they bully their OEM holders to do their legal poo-flinging. Pathetic, just as expected.
That's like saying ... people that are not good at reading and spelling should go out and make their living writing books.
No, that's like saying people who are not good at reading and spelling should make an effort to learn and practice. I haven't met the first person who could learn reading and spelling (or social skills) by sitting on his ass and whining about tough it is. What, you thought life was supposed to be easy? LOL.
You know why you'll always be a loser?
Now, tell me. Ingenious discoverer of truth. Tell me why the things you think you know about me from a half page comment in a computer forum are true and how you can, with you open minded attitude, label someone a loser you've never met and never spoken to? Oh right, open minded successful people don't need reasons.
Disappointment, rejection and failure are the only consequences out of this retarded advice.
^^ Because you have a negative fucking attitude. "Oh, if I go out and try to learn and improve then I'll just fail. I'll always fail, I'll never be anything. So I'll just sit at home and cry about how unfair life is."
Welcome to reality for many people. Sure, I make no big deal about how I'd love to have a positive attitude towards life. Just that it doesn't come automatically people like me. I'd also love to be ignorant and oblivious to many things, another thing I can't influence. I can smile all day but that doesn't make me happy. Oh and a warning: the last sentence was an analogy ... not literally meant. You don't seem to understand the difference.
in the end I'd rather stay an introvert with a few true friends than be that extroverted jackass again that gets laid, meets people and "does things" all while not realizing that all of it is meaningless pretend bullshit.
^^ Not to mention your irrational jealousy and hatred of those who actually do get it, those who are successful in ways that you will never allow yourself to be. Your insecurity is showing. It's typical, predictable, and sad.
How quaint, and which post exactly did YOU read? I kinda missed the one in which I explained my CV and stuff to you and introduced you to my friends... the only thing that's predictable here is your self-affirming ignorance paired with that infinite belief in what you say. THAT is sad.
P.S. your "few true friends"? LOL. They're just as weak as you are, and they'd fuck you over in a heartbeat if someone threatened them. You have a lot to learn about life.
Alright, your just being a jackass ridiculing yourself now. Until someone "threatened" them? Jeez. What a wonderful picture of the threats to friendship you have. How many of your former girlfriends, that get you laid such a lot, would take a bullet for you? Also, tell me more of your wisdom great master. You seem to be the Dhalai Llama's son or something. Maybe learning about YOUR life makes everybody as happy as you pretend to be. May I ask you how old you are to think you can go around giving other people advice on how to live their lives? Oh wait, you're just gonna lie anyway. Nevermind.
After all, that "life" that you seem to promote so feverishly is mostly lead by people that neither care nor understand what the world is actually about and what matters.
^^ Along with rationalizations such as these, which are your pathetic attempt to convince yourself that it's actually your way of living that's the superior one and that everyone else's way is shallow and petty. Your conscious mind might be fooled by this nonsense, but your subconscious isn't, and neither is anyone you meet.
Where did I claim my way of life is superior to yours? Is that what you read into this? How would I even know enough about what you do and what I do to compare it in any meaningful way? I've been to "be soc
1st of September? When the last "true" TPB user will stop caring about the project for good? Nice going. Good Luck with your useless block then.
You're a funny bisquit are you? "People that are not good at socalizing should go out and socialize". That's like saying ... people that are not good at reading and spelling should go out and make their living writing books. Disappointment, rejection and failure are the only consequences out of this retarded advice. What most introverts need is other introverts to connect to and feel safe around. As an introvert trying to socialize with extroverts is like pricking a power socket with a wet fork. You might connect for a moment but you can't really stand it for long. Failure after failure trying to connect with the "normal" masses looking down on them is the worst thing that drives people even deeper into their shells. I've been through phases like that ... in the end I'd rather stay an introvert with a few true friends than be that extroverted jackass again that gets laid, meets people and "does things" all while not realizing that all of it is meaningless pretend bullshit. After all, that "life" that you seem to promote so feverishly is mostly lead by people that neither care nor understand what the world is actually about and what matters. Keeping themselves busy so they never have to reminisce about the things that are "wrong" with their attitude and whatnot. In my experience introverts think about way more things (especially in a social context) and that's why they hardly risk upsetting those relationships. Just my 2 cents.
...
I loled
But you're not here to help with the discussion anyway, are ya? You're just writing to demonstrate to the potentially worst computer crowd in the world what a great socializer you are
I live in (Nazi) Germany and we've had more freedom of speech for years. At least satire is still (mostly) satire over here. You can have your country back once you've sorted out how to get rid of the ruling political and religious nutters. We've got lots of idiots like that around here too but they hardly call the shots.
... that's why.
... because I can.
Ah and getting rid of guns would be a great idea as well. Ever wondered why a moron can defend his absolutely batshit crazy opinion against all odds? Because he fends of reality with an assault rifle
I'm just joking of course
Then every other broadband customer has to pirate their media or pay a "Comcast Tax" when purchasing physical media. Maybe this'll wake up the consumer types.
"We can't take into consideration the sanitation laws or human rights, this needs to act as a deterrent for pillaging hordes"
Could they just go die already? I'm not buying anything either and I'm sick by the cries of suffering from the basement. I guess I'll take a shovel down there and end it ...
Fort Knox announced today that someone broke in and took a dump on the Gold ... nothing was stolen though.
Public Anti-Terror campaigns, everybody accusing everybody else, political trials etc.
At least with that shit Americans at some point realized how horrible it is. Right now the headless chicken is still going strong.
And the "OMG gargoyle" comments probably didn't help either ...
I'm intrigured by the idea that learning "print" style writing can be a "lengthy" process, once you have already spent a few years writing. Isn't is quite natural - just draw the same letters, but separately instead of joined up and tidy them up a bit?
If you'd known the crap I was taught as a kid you'd understand that it was a bit more complicated than that. The stuff I had to write looked somewhat like this: http://spzwww.uni-muenster.de/~griesha/eps/wrt/pics/schrift/lehrer-ir.1966d.gif but even more curly. I found this example on Wikipedia but it doesn't do the crap justice if it's just single letters. http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:La-ges.jpg&filetimestamp=20060501153550 I don't have much of my primary school writing around but you're getting the idea. Note how this first sample is from a teacher from 1966 and this guy obviously took his time to write this sentence. Mine looked far worse under pressure. The Wiki page even states that usually this stuff was taught AFTER learning print ... I never even learned print. We were taught that "Latin Cursive" only.
I learned cursive as a child and used it throughout university.
Then you might have been lucky and adopted a style that was compatible with most other writing so teachers were able to recognize it.
Print was occasionally required for filling in forms. I don't remember ever feeling challenged by that, even though it was only used for forms.
Well, large blocktype in capital letters to cram into form boxes is something else than free flowing print style letters required for producing a sophisticated result in drafts.
Maybe you felt you had to copy the awkward (not designed for writing) glyph shapes that computers and typewriters use, instead of simply using the cursive shapes you already learned minus the redundant flowy bits as long as it was legible?
I never tried to imitate computer or type font. I just took what I saw in other writing and used that as a guideline. It comes pretty close to how computer fonts look is far more "edgy" and straight strokes than the curvy squiggling I did before. I'm not saying I had a hard time, it was just inconvenient to try to lose a habit that was so deeply entrenched in my brain. I'm not a calligrapher but it works for me and I'm fine with that.
I dropped my cursive handwriting several years ago when I went to the German equivalent of Highschool Senior Year. I had been taught a curvy flowing writing style from primary school onwards and was required to write like that even though I found it exhausting. Then people started expecting me to write half a dozen pages or more in under 90 minutes for class tests which subsequently were graded badly because ... heck ... how am I supposed to write legibly in that amount of time when the style of writing I was taught looks like a curvy mess. I specifically remember my English teacher one day handing a class exam back to me which got an "F" because he couldn't read the 13 pages I had to squeeze into the 80 minute exam time, ironically the same guy a few years later told me that he couldn't give me anything but straigt "A"s in his classes. The difference between an "F" and an "A" -grade wise- for me that's enough reason to think Fuck Cursive. My primary school teachers and the idiots writing the curriculum obviously didn't take into account that some day kids would have to complete real life tasks with that crappy writing. Thus started a lengthy process retraining myself to "print" style writing. After all, what good is a handwriting nobody else can read. It might be fun for literary scholars or archaelogists but my employers and teachers have been more than glad to see me drop that cursive hyroglyphics. A year of cramps and wasted trees later my grades got (significantly) better. Nine years later I can finally decipher things I wrote in a hurry months ago and for really long texts nobody can expect me to avoid typing it anyway anymore. Those that find a romantic spark in writing books and letters in wriggly bible font are welcome to learn how to do it. Just don't expect me to do it if it's detrimental to my everyday requirements. I maintain two seperate keyboard layouts (QWERTY and DVORAK Type 2) on full 10 finger typing speed. That should be enough writing geekery for me.