He was not in the US at the time of his terrorist action. He was on a flight from Paris to Miami and was only 90 minutes into the flight. He was only stopped from boarding an earlier flight because he had no checked luggage and was flying Paris -> Miami -> Antigua which appeared suspicious. Having sent his personal information before the plane took off would not have prevented him from attempting his shoe bombing.
Absolutely. Learn the theory first. Once you know the theory it can be applied in practically every language out there. The language doesn't (always) matter, the *idea* is what matters.
Yes we all know single people cannot possibly have house payments, car payments, food or bills. All of these can only be gotten once you marry and squeeze out off-spring. Job security is equally important to those of us who choose not to burden ourselves with families and family or not I would never join a union. Unions are as evil as many companies out there. When you are walking the picket line, where are the fat-cat union bosses? Sitting at home collecting their normal paycheque from the union dues you pay.
You know it IS possible to wait until you have found a new job before quitting you current one. Why does everyone think the original poster was advocating quitting right on the spot without finding a new job first?
I'm with the original poster. Unions suck. I would never join one nor work where joining one is required. If I didn't like my job or the company I work for I would find a new job and then hand in my resignation.
Maybe as some fellow slashdotters out there say, it is about time. But, my problem is that they are asking people to do what the patent office is paid to do. As the article says, Because the USPTO usually does not have the manpower and time to thoroughly check every patent that comes into the office, many are unjustly rubber stamped. So maybe they should hire more people to research and issue patents. Or failing that, stop rubber stamping whatever comes across their desk. If they can't do their jobs properly, the entire lot of them should be fired and people that can do the work be hired.
They are asking you to do their jobs. Jobs they are paid to do. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with that?
What if one day all the garbagemen, sorry sanitation engineers, across the country said "Sorry, we don't have enough time to stop at everyone's house and collect the trash. So we are setting up a Peer-to-dump service. You haul your own trash, and your neighbor's trash too if you wouldn't mind, to the dump and tell us how much you took there. We'd really appreciate it, thanks."
I was wondering the same thing. What's the big deal...so they can tap your VOIP conversation. Whoop-dee-doo, they can already tap your "normal" telephone conversation, how is this any different?
And if you use a cell phone, shouldn't you be more paranoid about Joe Schmo tapping into your cell phone conversation with the equipment he bought on Ebay?
I guess for you it really comes down to what the savings would be. If you make alot of long distance calls then something like Vonage may save you money in the long run, even if you are paying for basic phone service to get DSL + monthly Vonage costs. Really depends on how big your monthly phone bill is. In my case, paying for basic phone to get DSL + Vonage would still save me money (though right now I get my broadband from my cable company). My girlfriend talks to her parents 3+ hours a night, everyday and they are long distance. I was looking at phone bills upwards of $200 a month until I moved to Vonage.
If you can't deal with not having X-ray vision on the road, you're just screwed; even in an SUV you can't see through a tractor-trailer or a box truck.
Well I didn't say anything about tractor trailers or box trucks in my post. In fact I am behind SUVs and mini-vans more than I am tractor trailers so I am not entirely sure what the point is of your rant.
So what's the deal? Does my ability to safely navigate a Toyota Tercel through SUV-heavy traffic just mean I'm a much better driver than you and everyone else using this reasoning for commuting in a gas-guzzler, or what?
If you are comfortable in your Toyota, good for you. My post wasn't about you it was about me and about why I now have gone from feeling uncomfortable on the road to feeling comfortable and in control. I am not reasoning why everyone else is driving and SUV or a mini-van, I was simply expressing why I was driving one. As I said in my post, if everyone would go back to cars so would I. But as long as I am getting stuck behind every soccer mom and their mini-van I am keeping my current vehicle because it makes me more comfortable and if I am comfortable and in control on the road I am a better driver.
I drive an SUV for only 1 reason: because of everyone else is in SUVs and mini-vans. No its not a case of "oh everyone else has one I need one to". I used to drive a small economy class car. But the number of SUVs and mini-vans on the road made it impossible for me to see what was going on. I would get a mini-van in front of me and I could no longer see down the road to anticipate what traffic was doing. I'd try and turn at an intersection and could not see around the SUV in front of me. It started getting really bad, SUVs and mini-vans all over the place with idiot drivers in them. Being in a small car behind a mini-van is like driving blind. Sure you can leave plenty of space between you and the mini-van (if some other idiot doesn't try and put his vehicle in that space) but you still can't see past the mini-van especially if the rear window is tinted black. You are completely relying on the driver in front of you to know what they are doing and to react to traffic in an appropriate amount of time. I found this very stressful and sometimes very scary.
So, I got a Jeep Liberty. Now I am high enough up off the road that I can see past the vehicle in front of me. I can anticipate what traffic is going to do, and I feel that I am much safer because of this. If everyone went back to mid-size and economy cars I would too, but as long as their are so many idiot drivers in large vehicles out there I'm keeping my Jeep.
I really want to hear from artists about what the CRIA and the RIAA are slinging around. In Canada we pay a levy on blank media. This levy is to compensate artists for the copying that occurs. This means, in Canada, I can legally make a copy of my CDs, rip any songs off and build a compilation CD of my own creation, without fear of legal action. This levy also applies to MP3 players and similar devices. But what do the artists think of this? Are they for it? Are they against it? Do they consider it fair? Do they believe it promotes illegal file sharing and the other evil activities the CRIA and the RIAA are blaming on dwindling sales?
Everyone seems to think they know what's best for artists, but we never seem to hear from the artists themselves. The CRIA and the RIAA say they are acting in the best interest for the artists. People in this thread say "artists just want their music heard"....which sounds an awful lot like someone is trying to say that artists don't mind having their hardwork ripped off without getting any form of compensation for it. Come on artists, if any of you read Slashdot, tell me how you really feel about all this!
In the present case, it's not as if the infringer had published the cut-out pattern (or whatever) used to make those garments, they just published photos of people wearing them. If publishing photos of the garments were forbidden, it would (by analogy) also be forbidden in the software industry to publish screenshots... Fortunately, most judges can still tell the difference between a screenshot and source code (or at least, I'd hope so...)
So based on that argument I should be able to go into a movie theater with a camera and film the movie that is being shown on the screen and then post it for everyone to see. Its not as if I was making the script available or anything. A judge should be able to tell the difference between a moving picture of the movie and the movie's script.
The French would raise hell if we tried to exercise a US law against a French citizen, and rightfully so. Similarly, French law does not and should not apply to those outside France's borders.
Interesting point, too bad the US Government doesn't play that way. Are you aware that there are Canadian businessmen that are forbidden from entering the US? Why? Because they do business in Cuba. That is their only offense. They do business with a country the US doesn't like, so they are prevented from entering the US. How is that right?
Oh, and what about all this RIAA and DMCA crap? Did the US not flex its political muscle to have "DVD Jon" arrested for breaking US copyright law?
Did you also know that Canadians pay a levy on all blank media (CDs) that they buy? The reason, so that they can legally copy songs from a music CD to a blank CD. But the US enforced copyright and security measures attempt to prevent that. Something that is completely legal in Canada and again the US is trying to protect its "intellectual property".
So why shouldn't France and companies in France be allowed to protect their intellectual property?
Voice recognition doesn't work properly so why bother implementing something that is "broken" from the start? Why frustrate all those users who are going to have to repeatedly say their search term all because the software can't handle their accent? The keyboard may not be the best input device ever invented but at least typed words do not have an accent. Well, at least not when the words are spelled correctly.
Just a little point of interest here. The English spoken in America is closer to now-archaic English (Victorian English) than the English actually spoken there now. We ennunciate more, and speak clearer. That's nothing against British English. It's simply evolved.
Certainly some Americans do, but I cringe everytime I hear "Amblance" instead of "Ambulance" and "axe" instead of "ask".
I'm willing to concede archaic usages, and non-American uses that sound unusual to me as being outside of the scope of the authority of my idiolect. But using word choices that are outside of common usage is inappropriate for the media, and reporting to the media/people.
Perhaps you should look at the article again. It is from The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper. Once again it is back to your opinion about improper usage of the word. You do realize that a) English is not an "American" invention and b) Canadian English is more closely related to British English than it is American English. Further, RIM is a Canadian company and while I cannot find any profile information for James Balsillie on RIM's homepage I am taking a "leap of faith" and assuming that he is Canadian. Hence, we are once again returned to the fact that it is strictly your opinion, and perhaps a little bit of ignorance on your part, that the word was used incorrectly.
Merriam-Webster, and other respectable dictionaries *do* list this pronunciation, because it *is* in common usage. Just because *you* don't like it, doesn't mean it's not being said that way.
That is an interesting argument coming from someone who is complaining about the improper usage of the word assure in a news article. I find your last sentence in the above quote rather humorous given the current topic of discussion.
So this stupid hyper-correcting authority "broke" English, but because it's tradition now, and no one knows, and 99.999% of the population speaking English natively is going to tell you that "adventure" is correct and "abenture" is wrong, that's the way it is.
Actually I would consider the people who work for Oxford English Dictionary, and to some degree the folks at Merriam-Webster, to be the guardians of the English language.
In closing I'd just like to say,
1) The Globe and Mail -- Canadian Newspaper
2) RIM -- Canadian Company (leading me to believe James Balsillie is Canadian)
3) Canadian English does not equal American English
4) The English language was invented by the occupants of what is now England
The point is, that according to my ideolect, the sentence sounds fucked up.
Yes, according to you the sentence sounds fucked up. However, that does not necessarily mean that you are correct in your assumption that the word assure was used improperly.
It's all in who you trust. If you want to trust the arbitrary authority of your dictionary or "common usage", which both say that a proper pronunciation for "nuclear" is "nookyoolur", then go ahead, but perscriptionists are still going to tell you it's wrong.
If your dictionary says that nuclear is pronounced "nookyoolur" then perhaps it is time you invested in a real dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary does not list "nookyoolur" as either the British nor the American pronunciation of nuclear. Also a real dictionary would be able to let you know that there is no such word as "ideolect", which you use throughout your post. Perhaps you were thinking of "idiolect".
Personally I would trust the authority of a dictionary over the rantings of an individual.
Considering that it is the adults (especially my generation) that grew up when video arcades were big and the first home console systems started coming out.
There is one statistic in the report that is most likely true and rather unfortunate: 5x more teens are playing mmogs than adults especially women
I can certainly attest to that. Nothing like some punk kid who thinks he's l33t and ub3r coming along and ruining your team on WoW or CoH/CoV.
Goes for talkers too. I could never understand why someone would pay so much for an education and then sit in class and talk through the whole lecture. If you don't want to listen and learn then LEAVE!!! It's not grade school, they don't take attendance....ok some do but those are usually rare cases.
Have you ever been to the U.S.? Where are you getting your facts?
Probably from television or other mainstream media. Same place Americans get their "facts" about Canadians. We don't understand you because we don't live down there. You don't understand us because you don't live up here. I'm just glad our two countries "grew up" to be friends and co-operate with one another...yeah yeah softwood lumber, war on terrorism, umbrella protection of the US Military....blah blah blah.
No standard format, lots of different types of readers. Books come in a standard format that everyone is used to, paper pages bound together. E-books come in so many different formats that don't work on all platforms.
Slashdot Mirror
He was not in the US at the time of his terrorist action. He was on a flight from Paris to Miami and was only 90 minutes into the flight. He was only stopped from boarding an earlier flight because he had no checked luggage and was flying Paris -> Miami -> Antigua which appeared suspicious. Having sent his personal information before the plane took off would not have prevented him from attempting his shoe bombing.
Absolutely. Learn the theory first. Once you know the theory it can be applied in practically every language out there. The language doesn't (always) matter, the *idea* is what matters.
Yes we all know single people cannot possibly have house payments, car payments, food or bills. All of these can only be gotten once you marry and squeeze out off-spring. Job security is equally important to those of us who choose not to burden ourselves with families and family or not I would never join a union. Unions are as evil as many companies out there.
When you are walking the picket line, where are the fat-cat union bosses? Sitting at home collecting their normal paycheque from the union dues you pay.
You know it IS possible to wait until you have found a new job before quitting you current one. Why does everyone think the original poster was advocating quitting right on the spot without finding a new job first?
I'm with the original poster. Unions suck. I would never join one nor work where joining one is required. If I didn't like my job or the company I work for I would find a new job and then hand in my resignation.
Maybe as some fellow slashdotters out there say, it is about time. But, my problem is that they are asking people to do what the patent office is paid to do. As the article says, Because the USPTO usually does not have the manpower and time to thoroughly check every patent that comes into the office, many are unjustly rubber stamped. So maybe they should hire more people to research and issue patents. Or failing that, stop rubber stamping whatever comes across their desk. If they can't do their jobs properly, the entire lot of them should be fired and people that can do the work be hired.
They are asking you to do their jobs. Jobs they are paid to do. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with that?
What if one day all the garbagemen, sorry sanitation engineers, across the country said "Sorry, we don't have enough time to stop at everyone's house and collect the trash. So we are setting up a Peer-to-dump service. You haul your own trash, and your neighbor's trash too if you wouldn't mind, to the dump and tell us how much you took there. We'd really appreciate it, thanks."
I was wondering the same thing. What's the big deal...so they can tap your VOIP conversation. Whoop-dee-doo, they can already tap your "normal" telephone conversation, how is this any different?
And if you use a cell phone, shouldn't you be more paranoid about Joe Schmo tapping into your cell phone conversation with the equipment he bought on Ebay?
I guess for you it really comes down to what the savings would be. If you make alot of long distance calls then something like Vonage may save you money in the long run, even if you are paying for basic phone service to get DSL + monthly Vonage costs. Really depends on how big your monthly phone bill is. In my case, paying for basic phone to get DSL + Vonage would still save me money (though right now I get my broadband from my cable company). My girlfriend talks to her parents 3+ hours a night, everyday and they are long distance. I was looking at phone bills upwards of $200 a month until I moved to Vonage.
Finally!!! It's all I wanted, to hear from the artists themselves about what record labels were doing in their name!
Hopefully American artists will jump on the bandwagon.
Proud Canadian!
If you can't deal with not having X-ray vision on the road, you're just screwed; even in an SUV you can't see through a tractor-trailer or a box truck.
Well I didn't say anything about tractor trailers or box trucks in my post. In fact I am behind SUVs and mini-vans more than I am tractor trailers so I am not entirely sure what the point is of your rant.
So what's the deal? Does my ability to safely navigate a Toyota Tercel through SUV-heavy traffic just mean I'm a much better driver than you and everyone else using this reasoning for commuting in a gas-guzzler, or what?
If you are comfortable in your Toyota, good for you. My post wasn't about you it was about me and about why I now have gone from feeling uncomfortable on the road to feeling comfortable and in control. I am not reasoning why everyone else is driving and SUV or a mini-van, I was simply expressing why I was driving one. As I said in my post, if everyone would go back to cars so would I. But as long as I am getting stuck behind every soccer mom and their mini-van I am keeping my current vehicle because it makes me more comfortable and if I am comfortable and in control on the road I am a better driver.
I drive an SUV for only 1 reason: because of everyone else is in SUVs and mini-vans. No its not a case of "oh everyone else has one I need one to". I used to drive a small economy class car. But the number of SUVs and mini-vans on the road made it impossible for me to see what was going on. I would get a mini-van in front of me and I could no longer see down the road to anticipate what traffic was doing. I'd try and turn at an intersection and could not see around the SUV in front of me. It started getting really bad, SUVs and mini-vans all over the place with idiot drivers in them. Being in a small car behind a mini-van is like driving blind. Sure you can leave plenty of space between you and the mini-van (if some other idiot doesn't try and put his vehicle in that space) but you still can't see past the mini-van especially if the rear window is tinted black. You are completely relying on the driver in front of you to know what they are doing and to react to traffic in an appropriate amount of time. I found this very stressful and sometimes very scary.
So, I got a Jeep Liberty. Now I am high enough up off the road that I can see past the vehicle in front of me. I can anticipate what traffic is going to do, and I feel that I am much safer because of this. If everyone went back to mid-size and economy cars I would too, but as long as their are so many idiot drivers in large vehicles out there I'm keeping my Jeep.
Probably not making a profit because it is not worth paying for. Terrible game play and terrible interface.
I really want to hear from artists about what the CRIA and the RIAA are slinging around. In Canada we pay a levy on blank media. This levy is to compensate artists for the copying that occurs. This means, in Canada, I can legally make a copy of my CDs, rip any songs off and build a compilation CD of my own creation, without fear of legal action. This levy also applies to MP3 players and similar devices. But what do the artists think of this? Are they for it? Are they against it? Do they consider it fair? Do they believe it promotes illegal file sharing and the other evil activities the CRIA and the RIAA are blaming on dwindling sales?
Everyone seems to think they know what's best for artists, but we never seem to hear from the artists themselves. The CRIA and the RIAA say they are acting in the best interest for the artists. People in this thread say "artists just want their music heard"....which sounds an awful lot like someone is trying to say that artists don't mind having their hardwork ripped off without getting any form of compensation for it. Come on artists, if any of you read Slashdot, tell me how you really feel about all this!
In the present case, it's not as if the infringer had published the cut-out pattern (or whatever) used to make those garments, they just published photos of people wearing them. If publishing photos of the garments were forbidden, it would (by analogy) also be forbidden in the software industry to publish screenshots... Fortunately, most judges can still tell the difference between a screenshot and source code (or at least, I'd hope so...)
So based on that argument I should be able to go into a movie theater with a camera and film the movie that is being shown on the screen and then post it for everyone to see. Its not as if I was making the script available or anything. A judge should be able to tell the difference between a moving picture of the movie and the movie's script.
The French would raise hell if we tried to exercise a US law against a French citizen, and rightfully so. Similarly, French law does not and should not apply to those outside France's borders.
Interesting point, too bad the US Government doesn't play that way. Are you aware that there are Canadian businessmen that are forbidden from entering the US? Why? Because they do business in Cuba. That is their only offense. They do business with a country the US doesn't like, so they are prevented from entering the US. How is that right?
Oh, and what about all this RIAA and DMCA crap? Did the US not flex its political muscle to have "DVD Jon" arrested for breaking US copyright law?
Did you also know that Canadians pay a levy on all blank media (CDs) that they buy? The reason, so that they can legally copy songs from a music CD to a blank CD. But the US enforced copyright and security measures attempt to prevent that. Something that is completely legal in Canada and again the US is trying to protect its "intellectual property".
So why shouldn't France and companies in France be allowed to protect their intellectual property?
Voice recognition doesn't work properly so why bother implementing something that is "broken" from the start? Why frustrate all those users who are going to have to repeatedly say their search term all because the software can't handle their accent? The keyboard may not be the best input device ever invented but at least typed words do not have an accent. Well, at least not when the words are spelled correctly.
Considering RIM is a Canadian company, why should the US care?
Just a little point of interest here. The English spoken in America is closer to now-archaic English (Victorian English) than the English actually spoken there now. We ennunciate more, and speak clearer. That's nothing against British English. It's simply evolved.
Certainly some Americans do, but I cringe everytime I hear "Amblance" instead of "Ambulance" and "axe" instead of "ask".
Excellent debate Krach42!
I'm willing to concede archaic usages, and non-American uses that sound unusual to me as being outside of the scope of the authority of my idiolect. But using word choices that are outside of common usage is inappropriate for the media, and reporting to the media/people.
:-)
Perhaps you should look at the article again. It is from The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper. Once again it is back to your opinion about improper usage of the word. You do realize that a) English is not an "American" invention and b) Canadian English is more closely related to British English than it is American English. Further, RIM is a Canadian company and while I cannot find any profile information for James Balsillie on RIM's homepage I am taking a "leap of faith" and assuming that he is Canadian. Hence, we are once again returned to the fact that it is strictly your opinion, and perhaps a little bit of ignorance on your part, that the word was used incorrectly.
Merriam-Webster, and other respectable dictionaries *do* list this pronunciation, because it *is* in common usage. Just because *you* don't like it, doesn't mean it's not being said that way.
That is an interesting argument coming from someone who is complaining about the improper usage of the word assure in a news article. I find your last sentence in the above quote rather humorous given the current topic of discussion.
So this stupid hyper-correcting authority "broke" English, but because it's tradition now, and no one knows, and 99.999% of the population speaking English natively is going to tell you that "adventure" is correct and "abenture" is wrong, that's the way it is.
Actually I would consider the people who work for Oxford English Dictionary, and to some degree the folks at Merriam-Webster, to be the guardians of the English language.
In closing I'd just like to say,
1) The Globe and Mail -- Canadian Newspaper
2) RIM -- Canadian Company (leading me to believe James Balsillie is Canadian)
3) Canadian English does not equal American English
4) The English language was invented by the occupants of what is now England
5) Relax it's Friday!!
The point is, that according to my ideolect, the sentence sounds fucked up.
Yes, according to you the sentence sounds fucked up. However, that does not necessarily mean that you are correct in your assumption that the word assure was used improperly.
It's all in who you trust. If you want to trust the arbitrary authority of your dictionary or "common usage", which both say that a proper pronunciation for "nuclear" is "nookyoolur", then go ahead, but perscriptionists are still going to tell you it's wrong.
If your dictionary says that nuclear is pronounced "nookyoolur" then perhaps it is time you invested in a real dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary does not list "nookyoolur" as either the British nor the American pronunciation of nuclear. Also a real dictionary would be able to let you know that there is no such word as "ideolect", which you use throughout your post. Perhaps you were thinking of "idiolect".
Personally I would trust the authority of a dictionary over the rantings of an individual.
Considering that it is the adults (especially my generation) that grew up when video arcades were big and the first home console systems started coming out.
There is one statistic in the report that is most likely true and rather unfortunate:
5x more teens are playing mmogs than adults especially women
I can certainly attest to that. Nothing like some punk kid who thinks he's l33t and ub3r coming along and ruining your team on WoW or CoH/CoV.
Goes for talkers too. I could never understand why someone would pay so much for an education and then sit in class and talk through the whole lecture. If you don't want to listen and learn then LEAVE!!! It's not grade school, they don't take attendance....ok some do but those are usually rare cases.
I guess those come next year.
The US is the most powerful country in the world.
Define powerful. From what I understand China is buying up your debt. Which means when they want to call their marker you're screwed.
And since we seem to be arbitrarily deciding what powerful means....Canada is the most powerful country in the world!
Have you ever been to the U.S.? Where are you getting your facts?
Probably from television or other mainstream media. Same place Americans get their "facts" about Canadians. We don't understand you because we don't live down there. You don't understand us because you don't live up here. I'm just glad our two countries "grew up" to be friends and co-operate with one another...yeah yeah softwood lumber, war on terrorism, umbrella protection of the US Military....blah blah blah.
No standard format, lots of different types of readers. Books come in a standard format that everyone is used to, paper pages bound together. E-books come in so many different formats that don't work on all platforms.