I guess it's hardly suprising really. People interested in languages, dying or not, are much more likely to have studied languages at some point because of their interest. Although obviously everybody learns grammar at the intuitive level, being taught grammar from a text book appears to be a lot less common - in England for instance we are not taught english grammar at all in most schools. The only place we have exposure to grammar rules is in learning foreign languages. Although this won't necessarily improve your knowledge of your native grammar, the sheer thought you have to apply to writing in another language could make you consider the structure of your own.
It might be interesting to know the educational background with respect to languages of the various GrammarNazi people who at least used to prowl slashdot.
I guess it's hardly suprising really. People interested in languages, dying or not, are much more likely to have studied languages at some point because of their interest. Although obviously everybody learns grammar at the intuitive level, being taught grammar from a text book appears to be a lot less common - in England for instance we are not taught english grammar at all in most schools. The only place we have exposure to grammar rules is in learning foreign languages. Although this won't necessarily improve your knowledge of your native grammar, the sheer thought you have to apply to writing in another language could make you consider the structure of your own.
I speak reasonable German and have studied French, Russian and Spanish to varying degrees. I always type out text messages in full words and sentances , it vexes me when I receive "c u l8r" type messages.
It might be interesting to know the educational background with respect to languages of the various GrammarNazi people who at least used to prowl slashdot.
Although not on topic, you should check out Directory Opus from GPSoftware - http://www.gpsoft.com.au It's an Explorer replacement and is truely good. There is more configurability than you can wave a stick at. Trust me, it's great:)
Here in the UK I just wish that I could afford to buy *any* house. With house prices increasing at 20% pa at the moment it ain't going to happen. I am only 23 so I'm content with saving ~40% of my take home each month for the moment.
I just don't see how it's possible to buy a house *and* have $100,000 saved by the time you're 32. I reckon that I'd need about a 20% pay rise (take home) each year to just save the $100k - and that is saving 40% of take home.
4. The Mozilla toolbar is broken and can't be fixed by mere mortals. By which I mean this: I want a home button on my toolbar, but Mozilla doesn't let me put one there.
Have you tried Navigator preferences "Select the buttons you want to see in the toolbar"?
If you're using Mozilla or a browser that supports user css files, you can disable blink tags for all sites. Wahoo!
Create a file usercontent.css in your profiles chrome directory (something like C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\f0saup39.slt\chrome on windows).
In said file put
blink {text-decoration: inherit !important;}
and your blinking will cease forever.
For more examples of the fun things you can do with user css, see the css anarchist.
Most times I rememeber to turn of my phone before I go into the theater but on the few occasions I don't the ads are a simple polite way to remind me to.
And this is the point really, I feel. I don't think that people leaving their phones on are necessarily ignorant. The chances are that they just forgot to turn it off and had the bad fortune to receive a call/message during the film. Having said that, if they then start to have a conversation it definitely is boardering on ignorance...
I have actually heard a mobile go off in a cinema in the UK once or maybe twice. Certainly no more than that.
As for the US attitude to these kind of things, from what I've read here in the past (whilst perhaps being coloured by stereotypes), it seems to me as though in some cases they can be more selfish than what I would expect from people here in the UK.
You may remember an article a good while back about a cinema in the US that provided wireless connections inside the actual "screen" itself. As I remember, there were a large number of comments suggesting that people using laptops during a film were very annoying, as I can quite imagine. The comments were frequent enough and written in such a way as to suggest that having people using laptops inside a cinema is a common occurance - perhaps someone can verify this. I can't even imagine this happening in the UK, although I will admit that that is not entirely because of how selfish people are...
As somebody else has already pointed out, you can do this with user CSS. For more examples of fun and bizarre things you can do with user CSS, see the CSS Anarchist's Cookbook.
I'll bet dollars to donuts that if diamonds cost pennies per carat, he wouldn't care who gets the money.
Very true, but then I'll bet it would be less of an ethical issue if buying a diamond involved just 0.01c/Carat going as blood money. As things stand, I'm sure that the amount of money per carat used as blood money is substantially higher than that, but I have no figures.
Er, maybe I've misunderstood what you meant, but having learnt some russian a few years back and also having visited Russia I'm fairly certain that there are both upper case and lower case letters. In many circumstances both upper and lower case are similar, especially in printed form (see http://www.friends-partners.org/oldfriends/languag e/russian-alphabet.html ). You will see few differences between the two cases show there, but I know that their letter for a T sound is often hand written as an m with a line over it (as in a boolean "not m"). There are other similar examples, such as a "d" being written either as "g" or a upside down g.
Likewise, Greek also appears to have two cases. See http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabe t.html I'm sure that anyone with any sort of science background will have come across both cases of numerous Greek letters.
As to why we have different cases, I would just say that it conveys meaning. I guess ultimately this is just saying it does improve legibility (even though I was trying to avoid saying that as you requested) because after all we don't use capitals in speech. I would contest that removing capitals from everyday printing would be of any benefit. In filenames I don't really think that it matters. Restricting everyone to using lower case is not the thing to do though - I want to be able to use capital letters in my filenames on occasion! Perhaps not being case sensitive is the way to go.
Also, don't forget that capital letters may have more significance in non-english languages.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess it's hardly suprising really. People interested in languages, dying or not, are much more likely to have studied languages at some point because of their interest. Although obviously everybody learns grammar at the intuitive level, being taught grammar from a text book appears to be a lot less common - in England for instance we are not taught english grammar at all in most schools. The only place we have exposure to grammar rules is in learning foreign languages. Although this won't necessarily improve your knowledge of your native grammar, the sheer thought you have to apply to writing in another language could make you consider the structure of your own.
It might be interesting to know the educational background with respect to languages of the various GrammarNazi people who at least used to prowl slashdot.
Cheers,
Roger
I guess it's hardly suprising really. People interested in languages, dying or not, are much more likely to have studied languages at some point because of their interest. Although obviously everybody learns grammar at the intuitive level, being taught grammar from a text book appears to be a lot less common - in England for instance we are not taught english grammar at all in most schools. The only place we have exposure to grammar rules is in learning foreign languages. Although this won't necessarily improve your knowledge of your native grammar, the sheer thought you have to apply to writing in another language could make you consider the structure of your own.
I speak reasonable German and have studied French, Russian and Spanish to varying degrees. I always type out text messages in full words and sentances , it vexes me when I receive "c u l8r" type messages.
It might be interesting to know the educational background with respect to languages of the various GrammarNazi people who at least used to prowl slashdot.
Cheers,
Roger
What, no +1 funny?
Wow, that *is* pretty nice looking. Know if you can get them seperately at all?
Cheers,
Roger
Moore's law isn't about processor speed, it's about transistor density. The two go hand in hand but aren't the same.
Cheers,
Roger
I'm glad that it wasn't just me that thought that... :)
So how many people does slashdot "kill" each year then by the same thinking? :)
Despite the hypocrisy, made glaringly obvious by his proficiency at the game, my dad loved to quote Mark Twain whenever the subject of pool came up:
"Proficiency at billiards is sign of a mis-spent youth."
Self mockery isn't the same as hypocrisy.
Cheers,
Roger
Although not on topic, you should check out Directory Opus from GPSoftware - http://www.gpsoft.com.au It's an Explorer replacement and is truely good. There is more configurability than you can wave a stick at. Trust me, it's great :)
Cheers,
Roger
Here in the UK I just wish that I could afford to buy *any* house. With house prices increasing at 20% pa at the moment it ain't going to happen. I am only 23 so I'm content with saving ~40% of my take home each month for the moment.
I just don't see how it's possible to buy a house *and* have $100,000 saved by the time you're 32. I reckon that I'd need about a 20% pay rise (take home) each year to just save the $100k - and that is saving 40% of take home.
Aargh!
Roger
Photo[n] multiplier tube
Amen to that :) I might be on 5 figures.
Also, the Orbit theme rocks!
;)
Pish. Pinball all the way
Roger
Yeah, fair point.
4. The Mozilla toolbar is broken and can't be fixed by mere mortals. By which I mean this: I want a home button on my toolbar, but Mozilla doesn't let me put one there.
Have you tried Navigator preferences "Select the buttons you want to see in the toolbar"?
Roger
Pinging our hosts like people in the Unis do
All suprised, if we hear some pongs
And I'm sitting down here just watching you, and I'm thinking
Where has the band width gone?
Where's it all gone to
Don't browse
My modem's hurting
Don't browse
Where has all the band width gone?
Where's it all gone to?
Don't browse.
Can't think of any more for the moment.
Yeah, you're right - I don't think I ever saw it even before I disabled it. The css anarchist stuff can be fun though :)
If you're using Mozilla or a browser that supports user css files, you can disable blink tags for all sites. Wahoo!
Create a file usercontent.css in your profiles chrome directory (something like C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\f0saup39.slt\chrome on windows).
In said file put
blink {text-decoration: inherit !important;}
and your blinking will cease forever.
For more examples of the fun things you can do with user css, see the css anarchist.
The CSS Anarchist's Cookbook
The CSS Anarchist Strikes Again!
Cheers,
Roger
Most times I rememeber to turn of my phone before I go into the theater but on the few occasions I don't the ads are a simple polite way to remind me to.
And this is the point really, I feel. I don't think that people leaving their phones on are necessarily ignorant. The chances are that they just forgot to turn it off and had the bad fortune to receive a call/message during the film. Having said that, if they then start to have a conversation it definitely is boardering on ignorance...
Roger
Hi Greg,
I have actually heard a mobile go off in a cinema in the UK once or maybe twice. Certainly no more than that.
As for the US attitude to these kind of things, from what I've read here in the past (whilst perhaps being coloured by stereotypes), it seems to me as though in some cases they can be more selfish than what I would expect from people here in the UK.
You may remember an article a good while back about a cinema in the US that provided wireless connections inside the actual "screen" itself. As I remember, there were a large number of comments suggesting that people using laptops during a film were very annoying, as I can quite imagine. The comments were frequent enough and written in such a way as to suggest that having people using laptops inside a cinema is a common occurance - perhaps someone can verify this. I can't even imagine this happening in the UK, although I will admit that that is not entirely because of how selfish people are...
Cheers,
Roger
As somebody else has already pointed out, you can do this with user CSS. For more examples of fun and bizarre things you can do with user CSS, see the CSS Anarchist's Cookbook.
The CSS Anarchist's Cookbook
The CSS Anarchist Strikes Again!
Enjoy!
Roger
I'll bet dollars to donuts that if diamonds cost pennies per carat, he wouldn't care who gets the money.
Very true, but then I'll bet it would be less of an ethical issue if buying a diamond involved just 0.01c/Carat going as blood money. As things stand, I'm sure that the amount of money per carat used as blood money is substantially higher than that, but I have no figures.
Cheers,
Roger
Er, maybe I've misunderstood what you meant, but having learnt some russian a few years back and also having visited Russia I'm fairly certain that there are both upper case and lower case letters. In many circumstances both upper and lower case are similar, especially in printed form (see http://www.friends-partners.org/oldfriends/languag e/russian-alphabet.html ). You will see few differences between the two cases show there, but I know that their letter for a T sound is often hand written as an m with a line over it (as in a boolean "not m"). There are other similar examples, such as a "d" being written either as "g" or a upside down g.
e t.html
Likewise, Greek also appears to have two cases. See http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphab
I'm sure that anyone with any sort of science background will have come across both cases of numerous Greek letters.
As to why we have different cases, I would just say that it conveys meaning. I guess ultimately this is just saying it does improve legibility (even though I was trying to avoid saying that as you requested) because after all we don't use capitals in speech. I would contest that removing capitals from everyday printing would be of any benefit. In filenames I don't really think that it matters. Restricting everyone to using lower case is not the thing to do though - I want to be able to use capital letters in my filenames on occasion! Perhaps not being case sensitive is the way to go.
Also, don't forget that capital letters may have more significance in non-english languages.
Regards,
Roger
You may want to try
n dl ers
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folders\shellex\ContentMenuHa
as well.