> they evolve or merge with more influential ones.
No, some disappear without a trace. In contact situations where one of the languages is associated with power and status, speakers of the other language will often give it up for the status language. If the number of speakers is small, the language can disappear within a few generations.
> Linguistic family trees generally mirror genetic family trees.
That's not true. Consider the linguistic family tree leading up to present-day English, and then consider the genetic family tree leading up to present-day English speakers.
While there is surely a positive correlation, "mirrors" is far too strong a word.
Pedantic notes:
> The native languages spoken by the Lapps, Basques and Welsh are relics from before Pro-Indo European language and culture spread from India to Europe
Welsh is an IE language.
Pro[to]-Indo-European is the reconstructed parent language for the whole family. Its children spread from India to Ireland, but PIE itself didn't.
Re: I though otherwise, so did my physics teacher.
on
Comic Book Physics
·
· Score: 1
> I remember last year for the mid-year intercession at my high school> , there was a whole week long class devoted to showing the FLAKEYNESS and INCORRECTNESS of comic book physics.
Well of course, if you ignore all the stuff that's incorrect you can write a paper about all the stuff that's correct.
> What exactly is an inappropriate context? One would think that any place that is it appropriate to have a conversation with a person, it would be appropriate to have a conversation via cell phone.
Actually, I don't object when cell talkers observe the norms for volume levels. (I think they're losers, but I don't object.)
But it's a different matter when you're sitting in a restaurant and can't hear your own conversation because some loser halfway across the room is talking into a cell phone like he thinks it's a megaphone.
> They're in a public place, if they want to talk on a cell phone, it's their right. Hell, if they want to sit there whistling "It's a small world, after all" while banging on pans, they can do that too.
Yeah, try that next time you're in a restaurant, theatre, or museum, and see what happens.
> As a top IT executive for a fortune 50, I spend a lot of time on global conference calls. I would be extremely annoyed, and would consider it an attack on both me personally, and me professionally (and, by extension, my company) if someone were to jam my cellular during an important conference call.... I recommend you not do this.
As a normal person, I consider it an attack on me both personally and professionally, when someone use a cell phone in an inappropriate context.
> Ok, I don't even watch Angel, most on account a' I don't have a TV, but what is up with the networks cancelling TV shows? Are they only looking for "The NExt Big Thing"tm? I wonder if they figure that a possible smash hit will earn them more money in the short term, rather than a steady show that will earn them money at a regular rate...
That's the way every other business in the USA operates these days. Regular incomes don't impress the shareholders anymore.
> I'm seriously questioning the validity of this article. It says an IBM spokesman said they got access to parts of Microsoft code. Something I believe is very unlikely given the IBM's purpose.
Heh, everybody got access to parts of Microsoft code last week.
> The whole point of copyright and patents, and I quote from the constituiton (article 1, section 8) is "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"
I always found that curious. How many other rules in the US Constitution are prefaced by a justification for the rule? Did those guys in the powdered wigs feel some special need to justify this one?
> Now that the MS source for NT 4 and Win2k is "out there"
Which suggests the argument that even if your code isn't "Open Source" it may still be "open source", so even if source availability is a security handicap, the field may still be more level than closed source shops would like to think.
> I don't care about Apple's market share, as long as OS X (and its requisite hardware) is available to me.
That's how many of us Linux users have always felt too.
The only caveat is that someone needs to keep a nontrivial market share, or else MS will embrace/extend hardware and the internet to the point that we can't use it even if we do have our minority OSes.
> I am a software developer not an engineer, as are most people in the field. Software won't become an engineering science until companies are willing to pay for that process. Given the current trend towards cost cutting I don't see that happening anytime soon.
It will be interesting to follow the lawsuit news on this one. If someone gets squeezed hard enough, we might see a movement toward good engineering praxis as a result.
More likely the politicians will step in and bail them out, but ISTM that as society continues to rely more and more on software, at some point we're going to decide that we can't afford not to set and follow good engineering standards.
> Chalk up another one for the most disasterous software bugs in history. This one should give the Ariane 5 explosion a go for no 1.
The A5 wasn't caused by a bug, at least not in the sense we usually use the term. It was caused by a decision to re-use a part from the A4 and its embedded software, without bothering to review its specifications.
It's certainly a problem that good "engineering" should have caught, but most of us wouldn't call it a bug.
Why do I foresee an increase of callers with Tourrettes?
(auto attendant)Thank you for calling XYZ corp. For support, press
(customer) FUCK SHIT DAMN HELL BITCH!!!
I already do that. Especially when the message drones on and on before telling me which button to push.
Even worse when it's one of those newfangled voice recognition systems that doesn't have a clue what you're saying, if you aren't saying the expected. At least then you have the satisfaction of knowing that a human will hear it, when their analysts go over the recordings of the "give up" calls to see what went awry.
Slashdot Mirror
> they evolve or merge with more influential ones.
No, some disappear without a trace. In contact situations where one of the languages is associated with power and status, speakers of the other language will often give it up for the status language. If the number of speakers is small, the language can disappear within a few generations.
> Linguistic family trees generally mirror genetic family trees.
That's not true. Consider the linguistic family tree leading up to present-day English, and then consider the genetic family tree leading up to present-day English speakers.
While there is surely a positive correlation, "mirrors" is far too strong a word.
Pedantic notes:
> The native languages spoken by the Lapps, Basques and Welsh are relics from before Pro-Indo European language and culture spread from India to Europe
Welsh is an IE language.
Pro[to]-Indo-European is the reconstructed parent language for the whole family. Its children spread from India to Ireland, but PIE itself didn't.
> I remember last year for the mid-year intercession at my high school> , there was a whole week long class devoted to showing the FLAKEYNESS and INCORRECTNESS of comic book physics.
Well of course, if you ignore all the stuff that's incorrect you can write a paper about all the stuff that's correct.
> What exactly is an inappropriate context? One would think that any place that is it appropriate to have a conversation with a person, it would be appropriate to have a conversation via cell phone.
Actually, I don't object when cell talkers observe the norms for volume levels. (I think they're losers, but I don't object.)
But it's a different matter when you're sitting in a restaurant and can't hear your own conversation because some loser halfway across the room is talking into a cell phone like he thinks it's a megaphone.
> They're in a public place, if they want to talk on a cell phone, it's their right. Hell, if they want to sit there whistling "It's a small world, after all" while banging on pans, they can do that too.
Yeah, try that next time you're in a restaurant, theatre, or museum, and see what happens.
> I recommend you grow the fuck up and realise that world does not revolve around you.
That's just about the ultimate in irony, in the context of a discussion of the annoying habits of cell phone users.
> Electronic Warfare for the common masses. Just another example of civilian uses of orginially military technologies.
Though in this case a good old fashioned broadsword would be a better solution.
> As a top IT executive for a fortune 50, I spend a lot of time on global conference calls. I would be extremely annoyed, and would consider it an attack on both me personally, and me professionally (and, by extension, my company) if someone were to jam my cellular during an important conference call.
As a normal person, I consider it an attack on me both personally and professionally, when someone use a cell phone in an inappropriate context.
I recommend you not do this.
> Ok, I don't even watch Angel, most on account a' I don't have a TV, but what is up with the networks cancelling TV shows? Are they only looking for "The NExt Big Thing"tm? I wonder if they figure that a possible smash hit will earn them more money in the short term, rather than a steady show that will earn them money at a regular rate...
That's the way every other business in the USA operates these days. Regular incomes don't impress the shareholders anymore.
> Does this mean we'll finally get clippy?
"I see you're trying to port me to an unauthorized platform."
> I'm seriously questioning the validity of this article. It says an IBM spokesman said they got access to parts of Microsoft code. Something I believe is very unlikely given the IBM's purpose.
Heh, everybody got access to parts of Microsoft code last week.
> The whole point of copyright and patents, and I quote from the constituiton (article 1, section 8) is "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"
I always found that curious. How many other rules in the US Constitution are prefaced by a justification for the rule? Did those guys in the powdered wigs feel some special need to justify this one?
Was it just an excuse, even back then?
> Now that the MS source for NT 4 and Win2k is "out there"
Which suggests the argument that even if your code isn't "Open Source" it may still be "open source", so even if source availability is a security handicap, the field may still be more level than closed source shops would like to think.
> I don't care about Apple's market share, as long as OS X (and its requisite hardware) is available to me.
That's how many of us Linux users have always felt too.
The only caveat is that someone needs to keep a nontrivial market share, or else MS will embrace/extend hardware and the internet to the point that we can't use it even if we do have our minority OSes.
> Actually, it's supposedly only 15% of the source code.
They'll be in trouble, if it's the 15% that works.
> Can Sci-Fi show nudity? I know they can in the UK, but what about the more repressive US channel?
In the USA, Congress is more worried about a glimpse of a tit than they are about ongoing wars in the Near East.
"I see you're trying to put your trousers on two legs at a time."
> I think I speak for many when I do bad homer impression and say: WOO HOO!
Let's just hope you don't do a Nelson impression after you see it.
> Did they clone Paris Hilton? If not, I don't care.
Yeah, but the clone turned out to be short, fat, and prudish.
We'll send her right over. How many do you want?
> software bug in an energy managment system sold by General Electic
Now they're going to change their name to Limited Electric.
> I am a software developer not an engineer, as are most people in the field. Software won't become an engineering science until companies are willing to pay for that process. Given the current trend towards cost cutting I don't see that happening anytime soon.
It will be interesting to follow the lawsuit news on this one. If someone gets squeezed hard enough, we might see a movement toward good engineering praxis as a result.
More likely the politicians will step in and bail them out, but ISTM that as society continues to rely more and more on software, at some point we're going to decide that we can't afford not to set and follow good engineering standards.
> Chalk up another one for the most disasterous software bugs in history. This one should give the Ariane 5 explosion a go for no 1.
The A5 wasn't caused by a bug, at least not in the sense we usually use the term. It was caused by a decision to re-use a part from the A4 and its embedded software, without bothering to review its specifications.
It's certainly a problem that good "engineering" should have caught, but most of us wouldn't call it a bug.
> First is the £0 per unit licensing fee. A great thing for any manufacturer.
What's the conversion rate between & and $?
Even worse when it's one of those newfangled voice recognition systems that doesn't have a clue what you're saying, if you aren't saying the expected. At least then you have the satisfaction of knowing that a human will hear it, when their analysts go over the recordings of the "give up" calls to see what went awry.