I don't find it sad he spent that time. It's obviously something he feels strongly about, and if these comments always get modded up, it's clear that plenty of other people feel that way too. There's no trolling about it. As for virii, the word is itself a virus (or rather a worm, since it is spread by the Internet). Now if we're talking about evolution, let's talk about improvement through evolution rather than deterioration. Verbing nouns, for example, is now accepted because it makes certain constructions a lot more efficient. You might argue that "virii" saves two letters compared with "viruses", thus making things more efficient, but why not in that case save three letters and go for "viri" which is more logical anyway? Just to finish on, the word "fast" is both an adjective and an adverb (and has been since before the 12th century). Any reputable dictionary will confirm this, so you can stop bristling and live a more relaxed life.
It would have been nice if you'd mentioned the K.I.A. Russian astronauts too. I wouldn't expect you to mention their names, because there doesn't seem to be an authoritative list, but you could have acknowledged them globally. Your "For all the men and women who lost their lives pushing the limit for our greater understanding of space (and Earth)" certainly implies their inclusion. I'll dismiss the possibility that you left them out deliberately. Please say you didn't.
In the article about downloading: "The Commission estimates over 17,000 jobs are lost annually through piracy and counterfeiting in the EU."
They don't say how this estimate came about, but at face value it seems to demonstrate a dismal lack of understanding of basic economics, I won't even introduce the fallacy of lost sales (would never have bought the disc anyway...) into the argument. I'm neither a downloader nor a big buyer of discs, yet every time I spend money it helps provide someone with a job. Exactly the same applies to people who stop buying discs and download, unless they leave the money they save in a tin box at home, which I doubt.
I am not defending downloaders; I am demanding that the European Commission resign en bloc due to imcompetence.
In Germany, the loser of a criminal case can always call appeal court.
It's a crime to have a similar name in Germany? Maybe you didn't mean to say criminal.
Anyway, I'm not advocating anyone's legal system over another's (I'm neither German nor American). It just seems gut-weird to me that as soon as you don't get your way with a lower court, without any other reason than your not liking their decision, you get to appeal. It's not as though any new arguments are being produced (at least it doesn't seem that way from what I read).
Either the article left a few details out or the German legal system is a very strange animal.
Plaintiff: Hey, your site name sounds like our trademark so we're taking you to court. Defendant: Yeah, sure, go on, try it. Plaintiff (to court): Look at this name, it's just like ours! Court: Is it hell, bugger off, case dismissed. Plaintiff (to appeal court): Hey did you see what they said? They said the other name doesn't sound like ours. C'mon now, it does, it double does. Tell 'em won't ya? Appeal court: Ok, we'll tell 'em. Case awarded.
Does anyone spot anything missing here? Like how the case got to the appeal court in the first place? New evidence? Crooked witnesses?
I'd just like to point out that, my own posting included, the total number of words wasted through using the name Ford in order to save keystrokes is 179 (see whole thread).
Looks like you've misunderstood the term "second world."
To be a 2nd World country you have to first and foremost be communist. See here
In truth the 2nd World has all but disappeared. You might argue there's still China, but if that's all that's left you might as well just use the term "China".
A Song of Fire and Ice is the hottest fantasy series out right now. It's three books so far and the fourth is out in April, I believe.
Since I've all but decided to abandon Jordan until the series is finished (probably some time in 2015), and since everyone seems to rate GRR Martin, I think I'll give Song of Fire and Ice a try. Could anyone allay my fears be assuring me that this is a saga that looks as though it might actually finish one day?
I believe it's round about the middle of the third book when you find out what the baddies are really up to. Near the end of the book, when the time comes to implement their evil scheme, I remember thinking, is that it? After that the fourth book was always going to be anticlimatic. But as someone already said, at least Williams finishes his nlogies from time to time. <cough>Jordan</cough> Williams develops great stories but someone really should teach him how to write endings.
You can easily dispose of the hard drive if you do not mind loosing it. Well I'm sure a lot of people would agree with you about loosing it before shooting at it;)
What I'd like to see is a record kept of all these half-arsed claims reported on Slashdot. We could then go and check up on the claimants' final demise, making sure they got their just dose of ridicule rather than letting them sneak away forgotten. Anyone remember the bloke with the inexhaustible energy supply a couple of years back? Or the Afghan Commodore-hacking prodigy <cough> Katz </cough>?
Since all he was trying to do was produce an efficient run-time version, he could have easily maintained the compiler as a normal legible program (in as far as Basic can ever be legible) and then awked* it to produce a runtime version. A precompiler in other words.
* or used a program written in Basic to do the source compression
I admire your stamina. Brooks lost me as a reader after less than 200 pages of Sword of Shannara, not because the plot reminded me of anything I'd previously read but simply because his writing style was so pathetically weak and I couldn't see anything developing in the plot to make up for it. If he has become more skilled with his craft, he should consider himself lucky to have been given that chance. Having said that, most fantasy books these days are weak. Most are also too long. Lord of the Rings is as long as any story needs to be.
Much as I agree with you, I'd just like to point out that in a logical argument, people who live in glass houses are allowed to propel hard objects through the air. Denying them this is a form of argumentum ad hominem.
Primary colours are different things to different people. It depends whether you are a painter, a printer, or a colour engineer, for example. Only the colour engineer, with red, green, and blue, can create every conceivable colour from just three base colours, since his colours are additive. The others can create just about every hue but need help (e.g., white paint or substratum) to give them the required tone value because their colours are subtractive.
Slashdot Mirror
Bollocks. "Farther" is a specific variant of "further". It can be used instead of further in distance comparisons but doesn't have to be.
This sounds like just the shot in the arm the ancient art of gurning has been crying out for.
http://www.cumbria.uk.com/cumbria/fun/gurn.htm
My God, how foolish we all now feel.
Let's see if that still holds after this, eh?
...has to say about that site.
(What's amusing is that you get a different version every time you click).
Because it means "men."
Well I'm glad to hear it means something: that's more than we can say for virii, eh?
I don't find it sad he spent that time. It's obviously something he feels strongly about, and if these comments always get modded up, it's clear that plenty of other people feel that way too. There's no trolling about it.
As for virii, the word is itself a virus (or rather a worm, since it is spread by the Internet).
Now if we're talking about evolution, let's talk about improvement through evolution rather than deterioration. Verbing nouns, for example, is now accepted because it makes certain constructions a lot more efficient. You might argue that "virii" saves two letters compared with "viruses", thus making things more efficient, but why not in that case save three letters and go for "viri" which is more logical anyway?
Just to finish on, the word "fast" is both an adjective and an adverb (and has been since before the 12th century). Any reputable dictionary will confirm this, so you can stop bristling and live a more relaxed life.
It would have been nice if you'd mentioned the K.I.A. Russian astronauts too. I wouldn't expect you to mention their names, because there doesn't seem to be an authoritative list, but you could have acknowledged them globally.
Your "For all the men and women who lost their lives pushing the limit for our greater understanding of space (and Earth)" certainly implies their inclusion.
I'll dismiss the possibility that you left them out deliberately. Please say you didn't.
In the article about downloading:
"The Commission estimates over 17,000 jobs are lost annually through piracy and counterfeiting in the EU."
They don't say how this estimate came about, but at face value it seems to demonstrate a dismal lack of understanding of basic economics, I won't even introduce the fallacy of lost sales (would never have bought the disc anyway...) into the argument. I'm neither a downloader nor a big buyer of discs, yet every time I spend money it helps provide someone with a job. Exactly the same applies to people who stop buying discs and download, unless they leave the money they save in a tin box at home, which I doubt.
I am not defending downloaders; I am demanding that the European Commission resign en bloc due to imcompetence.
In Germany, the loser of a criminal case can always call appeal court.
It's a crime to have a similar name in Germany? Maybe you didn't mean to say criminal.
Anyway, I'm not advocating anyone's legal system over another's (I'm neither German nor American). It just seems gut-weird to me that as soon as you don't get your way with a lower court, without any other reason than your not liking their decision, you get to appeal. It's not as though any new arguments are being produced (at least it doesn't seem that way from what I read).
Either the article left a few details out or the German legal system is a very strange animal.
Plaintiff: Hey, your site name sounds like our trademark so we're taking you to court.
Defendant: Yeah, sure, go on, try it.
Plaintiff (to court): Look at this name, it's just like ours!
Court: Is it hell, bugger off, case dismissed.
Plaintiff (to appeal court): Hey did you see what they said? They said the other name doesn't sound like ours. C'mon now, it does, it double does. Tell 'em won't ya?
Appeal court: Ok, we'll tell 'em. Case awarded.
Does anyone spot anything missing here? Like how the case got to the appeal court in the first place? New evidence? Crooked witnesses?
I'd just like to point out that, my own posting included, the total number of words wasted through using the name Ford in order to save keystrokes is 179 (see whole thread).
Thanks for your attention.
Looks like you've misunderstood the term "second world."
To be a 2nd World country you have to first and foremost be communist. See here
In truth the 2nd World has all but disappeared. You might argue there's still China, but if that's all that's left you might as well just use the term "China".
A Song of Fire and Ice is the hottest fantasy series out right now. It's three books so far and the fourth is out in April, I believe.
Since I've all but decided to abandon Jordan until the series is finished (probably some time in 2015), and since everyone seems to rate GRR Martin, I think I'll give Song of Fire and Ice a try.
Could anyone allay my fears be assuring me that this is a saga that looks as though it might actually finish one day?
Otherland critique in six words:
Great idea, great world, weak plot.
I believe it's round about the middle of the third book when you find out what the baddies are really up to. Near the end of the book, when the time comes to implement their evil scheme, I remember thinking, is that it? After that the fourth book was always going to be anticlimatic. But as someone already said, at least Williams finishes his nlogies from time to time. <cough>Jordan</cough>
Williams develops great stories but someone really should teach him how to write endings.
You can easily dispose of the hard drive if you do not mind loosing it. ;)
Well I'm sure a lot of people would agree with you about loosing it before shooting at it
What I'd like to see is a record kept of all these half-arsed claims reported on Slashdot. We could then go and check up on the claimants' final demise, making sure they got their just dose of ridicule rather than letting them sneak away forgotten.
Anyone remember the bloke with the inexhaustible energy supply a couple of years back? Or the Afghan Commodore-hacking prodigy <cough> Katz </cough>?
Congratulations on giving the right answer; you win again!
Since all he was trying to do was produce an efficient run-time version, he could have easily maintained the compiler as a normal legible program (in as far as Basic can ever be legible) and then awked* it to produce a runtime version. A precompiler in other words.
* or used a program written in Basic to do the source compression
I admire your stamina. Brooks lost me as a reader after less than 200 pages of Sword of Shannara, not because the plot reminded me of anything I'd previously read but simply because his writing style was so pathetically weak and I couldn't see anything developing in the plot to make up for it. If he has become more skilled with his craft, he should consider himself lucky to have been given that chance.
Having said that, most fantasy books these days are weak. Most are also too long. Lord of the Rings is as long as any story needs to be.
Much as I agree with you, I'd just like to point out that in a logical argument, people who live in glass houses are allowed to propel hard objects through the air. Denying them this is a form of argumentum ad hominem.
Primary colours are different things to different people. It depends whether you are a painter, a printer, or a colour engineer, for example. Only the colour engineer, with red, green, and blue, can create every conceivable colour from just three base colours, since his colours are additive. The others can create just about every hue but need help (e.g., white paint or substratum) to give them the required tone value because their colours are subtractive.
Then how about...
In Soviet Russia, all your Beowulf cluster of dead BSD hot grits are belong to Natalie Portman [goatse.cx]. Profit!
-- or even --
Goatsex warning! In Soviet Russia, all your Beowulf cluster of dead BSD hot grits are belong to Natalie Portman. Profit!
You did a nice job of writing something that went over most people's heads there :)
Except of course only one of them means "to have an effect on", and it ain't effect.