> Should be: > "Get them right, and I'll take you more seriously."
Not necessarily. When the clauses are that short, the comma can usually be omitted. (It depends, of course, on which style guide you're consulting or editor you're asking.)
> Proper spelling, grammar, and usage are easy compared to the syntax of a programming language or shell.
I hate to point this out, since I agree with you on the importance of grammar and spelling, but they're really not. Natural languages are centuries-old accretions of vocabulary, phonology, orthography, and syntax. They're messy. Just look at irregular verbs, for example, or the English spelling system (which is the way it is partly because English pronunciation changed pretty drastically about four hundred years ago, but we largely kept the old spellings).
By contrast, programming languages and shells are designed from the ground up to have a simple, clear syntax, with the exception of Perl.
> Anyone remember reading about this in Tom Clancey's book "Rainbow Six"???
Clancy based those devices (which were heartbeat sensors, if I recall correctly) on the DKL LifeGuard, which Sandia Labs proved to be pretty much an expensive box of useless electronic components.
>...frankly the only reason we study him because > he was most likely the only one to do it at his time.
Sweet zombie Jesus. If anyone would benefit from a study of literature...look, does the name Marlowe at least ring a bell? There were many other playwrights (called "poets" at the time) in that era. Not many of their manuscripts survive because there were no copyright laws at the time, and work was jealously guarded. Most of Shakespeare's plays only survive today because some of his friends got together and printed a folio edition after his death.
And "don't really have much to teach us"? Shakespeare teaches us what it means to be human. For example, Titus Andronicus on the imminent execution of two of his sons and the rape of his daughter: "If there were reason for these miseries, then into limits could I bind my woes."
Find me a better illustration of despair than that in Sun Tzu or von Clausewitz and I'll eat my hat.
>...the simplest solution turns out to be the best.
I had a witty reply ready to go for this, but the bowling ball failed to make it down the ramp onto the bellows, which would have blown the balloon across the room carrying the mouse to the cheese on the Enter key, whose weight would have submitted my post.
When you're sitting in meetings thinking "I would cheerfully shoot any one of you fuckers in the face to get my last job back", it's probably time to move on.
> Try reading "Canterbury Tales" aloud - once you get past the spelling it is surprisingly similar to the english we speak nearly 800 years on.
Well, yes and no. True, Chaucer-era Middle English had lost most of the inflections of Old English (vestiges of which linger in things like pronoun cases to this day) and picked up a lot of vocabulary from the Norman invaders, but it didn't really sound like modern English. That wouldn't happen until the Great Vowel Shift around the 15th and 16th centuries.
> Remember... English is the bastard child of Celtic, Latin, and various other Germanic languages.
English isn't really related to the Celtic languages. There are a few Celtic loan words, but that's about it. Also, Celtic languages and Latin aren't Germanic. You can see the relationships here.
Slashdot Mirror
> I mean, what will happen when the implant is turned on and the neuroscientist becomes self-aware?
I'm guessing something along the lines of "Holy SHIT--I put a what in where?"
> however the researchers stated "We still can't figure out what Bob Dylan is saying"
It doesn't help that all the error messages come out as:
"Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?"
> Roberts C. Genital herpes
What an unfortunate last name.
> Well I want to be a martian colonist. Not all of us can get the job we want.
Sure you can.
> Alas, poor Google. I knew thee well.
Apparently not too well.
> I sense an evil twin joke coming on.....
I bet Nemesis looks exactly like the Sun, but with a stylish 200,000-mile-wide Evil Spock goatee.
> Should be:
> "Get them right, and I'll take you more seriously."
Not necessarily. When the clauses are that short, the comma can usually be omitted. (It depends, of course, on which style guide you're consulting or editor you're asking.)
> Proper spelling, grammar, and usage are easy compared to the syntax of a programming language or shell.
I hate to point this out, since I agree with you on the importance of grammar and spelling, but they're really not. Natural languages are centuries-old accretions of vocabulary, phonology, orthography, and syntax. They're messy. Just look at irregular verbs, for example, or the English spelling system (which is the way it is partly because English pronunciation changed pretty drastically about four hundred years ago, but we largely kept the old spellings).
By contrast, programming languages and shells are designed from the ground up to have a simple, clear syntax, with the exception of Perl.
(But I kid Perl...)
> I mean, dropping the name "Pentium" must reallllly make those CPUs fly
Next up: speed holes.
> Anyone remember reading about this in Tom Clancey's book "Rainbow Six"???
Clancy based those devices (which were heartbeat sensors, if I recall correctly) on the DKL LifeGuard, which Sandia Labs proved to be pretty much an expensive box of useless electronic components.
> Forget how to pronounce C++0x, how do you pronounce Bjarne Stroustrup?
I know you were probably being funny, but for anyone who wonders, Wikipedia says:
A rough English attempt at pronunciation of his name would be "B-yar-ne Strov-stroop".
> How do they deliver your 20-sided dice via snail mail?
By making their saving throw vs. shipping. Duh.
> [...] there is now disagreement over how closely human beings and chimpanzees are related.
Ironically, the disagreements take the form of geneticists shrieking and flinging poop at each other.
> Six syllables in
> The first line of your haiku
> Also, winter sucks.
Too many syllables
Means a defective haiku.
Return for refund.
> are more self-confident, giving them a slight acting boost
Self-confident? Do you actually know any actors?
> ...frankly the only reason we study him because
> he was most likely the only one to do it at his time.
Sweet zombie Jesus. If anyone would benefit from a study of literature...look, does the name Marlowe at least ring a bell? There were many other playwrights (called "poets" at the time) in that era. Not many of their manuscripts survive because there were no copyright laws at the time, and work was jealously guarded. Most of Shakespeare's plays only survive today because some of his friends got together and printed a folio edition after his death.
And "don't really have much to teach us"? Shakespeare teaches us what it means to be human. For example, Titus Andronicus on the imminent execution of two of his sons and the rape of his daughter: "If there were reason for these miseries, then into limits could I bind my woes."
Find me a better illustration of despair than that in Sun Tzu or von Clausewitz and I'll eat my hat.
> ...the simplest solution turns out to be the best.
I had a witty reply ready to go for this, but the bowling ball failed to make it down the ramp onto the bellows, which would have blown the balloon across the room carrying the mouse to the cheese on the Enter key, whose weight would have submitted my post.
--Rube Goldberg
> What would you do with a GPL scientific paper -- change some things and put your own name on it?
Hell yeah, I would. I expect to win next year's Nobel Prize for Mr. Bad Example's General Theory of Why the Ladies Should Be All Up Ons.
> How do you know it has no OS?
Build a bridge out of it!
Oh, wait....sorry. That's witches. Carry on.
When you're sitting in meetings thinking "I would cheerfully shoot any one of you fuckers in the face to get my last job back", it's probably time to move on.
> Jpeg bandwidth kilobyte, iPod Bluetooth nano buffer kilobyte!
You bastard, my mother is a saint!
> Try reading "Canterbury Tales" aloud - once you get past the spelling it is surprisingly similar to the english we speak nearly 800 years on.
Well, yes and no. True, Chaucer-era Middle English had lost most of the inflections of Old English (vestiges of which linger in things like pronoun cases to this day) and picked up a lot of vocabulary from the Norman invaders, but it didn't really sound like modern English. That wouldn't happen until the Great Vowel Shift around the 15th and 16th centuries.
A couple of nitpicks here:
> Remember... English is the bastard child of Celtic, Latin, and various other Germanic languages.
English isn't really related to the Celtic languages. There are a few Celtic loan words, but that's about it. Also, Celtic languages and Latin aren't Germanic. You can see the relationships here.
And if I laugh at any mortal thing, 'Tis that I may not weep.
--Lord Byron
> What value is the pi where you live?
About three to five bucks, depending on size and filling.