Well, in the evil-lite(TM) that is implied by the motto, yes it is. Especially in the eyes of the ex-employee.
I don't really have a problem with them firing a dingbat. I do have a problem with the empty slogan that they use to promote themselves - "Do no evil". It's meaningless but it seems to have made a lots of people think they are "the cool".
But what else do you expect from an advertising company?
I'm sure that the management of Google class being sued as evil, and I'm sure that they are bright enough to understand cause and effect.
Yet amazingly, you expect others to.
Actually I expect nothing in my post. I am saying that Google are now compelled to maximise profit and things that stop them doing this are necessarily evil from their perspective. They were, by their very own "do no evil" philosophy, compelled to get rid of this troublesome blogger.
Just because a company truthfully says that they will do no evil does not mean that a.n.other will not think, sincerely, that they have done evil. People can have honest differences of opinions over what they consider evil.
"Indebted to" was what I meant. With an IPO comes new resposibilities and is was the fact the Google now owes a duty to the IPO shareholders (and others) that I was refering to.
So I used the word that I was in fact looking for.
Ah - "Do no evil". Sounds so simple, doesn't it? But Evil, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And in this case, the beholden.
When Google was small "do no evil" probably meant the same to the company as it did to you and me. But now it is grown the nature of evil (as perceived by the company) has changed. It was "do nothing that will alienate the user". Now it is "Do nothing that will upset the bottom line". Evil is making less money than you could. Evil is anything that could disrupt your plans (whatever they are, because the plans are secret. disclosure would, of course, be evil.)
I remember (vaguely) New Worlds SF (and probably still have some second hand ones in the loft: I recall buying one in particular that had a Brian Stapleford story in it). But I've never verbalised it: I was thinking esseff was the pronunciation.
On the other hand I'm the sort of person who can't remember names unless I write them down, and I'm practically incapable of reading a script out-loud, so, I wonder, is it me who is weird?
Nope - you're the weird ones. Me - I'm normal.
Still, in the post "Star Wars" generation if you say "siff" to someone I dare say they will mishear it as Sith and regale you with tales of light-sabres and how the second trilogy (which came out first) was much better than the first trilogy (which succeeded it temporally but not artistically). Bah - kids.
And stupid. They knew that they were walking a very narrow path with respect to legality. They had to be like Caesar's Wife - not only pure but seen to be pure. But instead they took their behaviour well over the line into things that they knew were illegal. And then recorded the fact that they were doing it.
"sf (abbrev.) Shortened form of "science fiction," this is generally the preferred shorthand term in the science fiction community. "Sci-fi," more common in the popular culture, is a term coined by Forry Ackerman to sound like "hi-fi." Also: sf&f (abbrev.) Science fiction and fantasy."
Note the use of "preferred" and "common" - in Glasgow Sci-fi is (or was) definitely the more common. I lived there for 26 years, and was a regular at Futureshock - at the time *the* SciFi bookshop in the city. Indeed after my finals I was completely pissed (drunk for the location ignorant), went there, and knocked over a display of books. The owner was very understanding - probably an occupational hazard of being sited so near a university.
Please, don't blame your location for your ignorance
Why ever not? "SF" as a term is an Americanism. Over here in Blighty the term "SciFi" is almost exclusively used (I can certainly never remember anyone I've met using the term "SF" with repect to Science Fiction, and I've reading Sci-Fi for over 30 years). I know what it means through exposure to US culture, but is someone in the street asked me "Did I like SF?" I'd assume that they were taking about my visit to San Fransisco, mainly because you'd expect someone talking to you to have the same cultural context.
As far as the headline goes, without the context of "writers" and "publishers" then the headline would have been confusing to me. What would the average slashdotter have made of "SF Group Sting Supposedly Traditional Business"? My parsing would have been to do with San Fransisco, and not to fiction. "Sci-Fi group...." on the other hand is pretty clear.
So I hope that this post has been the dog's bollocks and you have given a monkey's and got to the end. I still think it is odd that the mere use of a term can give some people the screaming abdabs - it's not particularly chav. I'd suggest that they relax, skin up a fag, and perhaps roast some faggots. It's not like we're all from north of Watford.
Well, they could do that I suppose, but the Apple case is rather big so it would rattle about. An IBM X40 is 10.5 X 8.3 X 0.95 against 10.9 X 8.6 X 1.18 for the 12in power book. It is also lighter. The X40 has a smaller volume than the Mac Mini - and includes a Screen, Keyboard, Touchpad and Trackpoint.
Trying to fit an Apple 12" G4 powerbookin a X40 case would be tricky....
Phrased like that the answer is a trick answer - Great Britain is (geographically) the big island that contains most of Scotland, England, and Wales. Therefore the only part that isn't in the United Kingdom are (a) those parts that are occupied by foreign consulates and embassies, and (b) the terminus of the channel tunnel rail link (which I think is technically French - certainly the clocks are an hour fast).
Sure it wasn't "Which part of the British Isles is not part of the United Kingdom"? - A: Eire and Isle of Man
The enigma machine was a single component in a cipher system - the procedures by how the machine was used, how the rotors were selected, how the signal was set up were all other components.
The Poles did two things - they broke an early cipher system based on the enigma machine, and to do this they had to figure out some things that, as it happened, remained the same during WWII - particularly the wiring of the machine rotor interface.
They handed over all their work to both Bletchley Park and the French Intelligence Service because a) they were about to be invaded and b) recent changes in the cipher system used around enigma had changed, rendering their technique ineffective. The French didn't do much with it, but Alan Turing (amoungst many others) at Bletchley Park managed to figure out a systematic way of breaking any cipher system based on the enigma, and this intelligence - codenamed Ultra - was immensely significant during the war. Even with this head start there were still long periods during the war when enigma could not be broken due to system changes.
So without Poland it is fair to say that the Allies probably would not have broken enigma. Bletchley Park had basically given up pre-war, and they would not have caught up if Poland hadn't shown them the way. Equally, for all the acheivement of the Poles, their breakthrough would have been for nought as the newer cipher system had surpassed their resources even before the start of the war.
When you hit the shutter on a digital SLR you take the picture immediately. On a compact it takes about 0.5 seconds. This is because the sensor is only used taking a picture on an SLR. On a compact it is continually in use, so when you hit the shutter what actually happens is the the sensor the shutter is closed, the sensor reset electronically, and then the picture is taken.
It is also completely impossible to focus manually with a compact camera. Then you get to depth of field preview, focus points, different metering modes.
Then there is the interchangable lenses - everything from super-wides to super telephotos. The Canon EF(-S) range now goes from 10mm to 1200mm - add some extenders and you get a focal length range of (in compact camera terms), of 300X.
The digital SLR lenses generally make much better use of light (i.e. they have bigger apertures). This is turn allows more flexibility when shooting.
But horses for courses - if you just want snaps then a compact is the camera to buy. Digital SLRs aren't any better or worse - just a different tool for a different job.
And, to bring scolling to the audio world, I have a very old (15 years) Sony Tuner that has a scroll wheel for choosing between the preset stations (up to 30). And it does the cute trick of the faster you spin the faster the choices go by. I don't think this was particularly innovative then either, but I think it's the oldest device I have with such an interface.
I agree with you to an extent - I think it looks bad and pronounces worse. Note that the Economist is UK English, and is the one I usually use for guidance during my frequent bouts of confusion. I don't agree with them on everything, but they are a good guide as to what is considered acceptable. I would have put "Hopkins'" I must admit.
Slashdot Mirror
I prefer the more Nietzschian aphorism:
"If you download for long from a torrent, the torrent downloads from you."
But I can't help thinking he was ahead of his time: "Only sick music makes money today.".
Call me Mr Picky, but how do you fold dominos?
Well, in the evil-lite(TM) that is implied by the motto, yes it is. Especially in the eyes of the ex-employee.
I don't really have a problem with them firing a dingbat. I do have a problem with the empty slogan that they use to promote themselves - "Do no evil". It's meaningless but it seems to have made a lots of people think they are "the cool".
But what else do you expect from an advertising company?
I'm sure that the management of Google class being sued as evil, and I'm sure that they are bright enough to understand cause and effect.
Yet amazingly, you expect others to.
Actually I expect nothing in my post. I am saying that Google are now compelled to maximise profit and things that stop them doing this are necessarily evil from their perspective. They were, by their very own "do no evil" philosophy, compelled to get rid of this troublesome blogger.
Just because a company truthfully says that they will do no evil does not mean that a.n.other will not think, sincerely, that they have done evil. People can have honest differences of opinions over what they consider evil.
"Indebted to" was what I meant. With an IPO comes new resposibilities and is was the fact the Google now owes a duty to the IPO shareholders (and others) that I was refering to.
So I used the word that I was in fact looking for.
Wow - your HR department is pretty quick.
Ah - "Do no evil". Sounds so simple, doesn't it? But Evil, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And in this case, the beholden.
When Google was small "do no evil" probably meant the same to the company as it did to you and me. But now it is grown the nature of evil (as perceived by the company) has changed. It was "do nothing that will alienate the user". Now it is "Do nothing that will upset the bottom line". Evil is making less money than you could. Evil is anything that could disrupt your plans (whatever they are, because the plans are secret. disclosure would, of course, be evil.)
I remember (vaguely) New Worlds SF (and probably still have some second hand ones in the loft: I recall buying one in particular that had a Brian Stapleford story in it). But I've never verbalised it: I was thinking esseff was the pronunciation.
On the other hand I'm the sort of person who can't remember names unless I write them down, and I'm practically incapable of reading a script out-loud, so, I wonder, is it me who is weird?
Nope - you're the weird ones. Me - I'm normal.
Still, in the post "Star Wars" generation if you say "siff" to someone I dare say they will mishear it as Sith and regale you with tales of light-sabres and how the second trilogy (which came out first) was much better than the first trilogy (which succeeded it temporally but not artistically). Bah - kids.
... so dead.
And stupid. They knew that they were walking a very narrow path with respect to legality. They had to be like Caesar's Wife - not only pure but seen to be pure. But instead they took their behaviour well over the line into things that they knew were illegal. And then recorded the fact that they were doing it.
Breathtaking.
We really need some sort of system so that people remember the spelling.
Actually, according to the fanspeak guide:
"sf (abbrev.) Shortened form of "science fiction," this is generally the preferred shorthand term in the science fiction community. "Sci-fi," more common in the popular culture, is a term coined by Forry Ackerman to sound like "hi-fi." Also: sf&f (abbrev.) Science fiction and fantasy."
Note the use of "preferred" and "common" - in Glasgow Sci-fi is (or was) definitely the more common. I lived there for 26 years, and was a regular at Futureshock - at the time *the* SciFi bookshop in the city. Indeed after my finals I was completely pissed (drunk for the location ignorant), went there, and knocked over a display of books. The owner was very understanding - probably an occupational hazard of being sited so near a university.
Please, don't blame your location for your ignorance
...." on the other hand is pretty clear.
Why ever not? "SF" as a term is an Americanism. Over here in Blighty the term "SciFi" is almost exclusively used (I can certainly never remember anyone I've met using the term "SF" with repect to Science Fiction, and I've reading Sci-Fi for over 30 years). I know what it means through exposure to US culture, but is someone in the street asked me "Did I like SF?" I'd assume that they were taking about my visit to San Fransisco, mainly because you'd expect someone talking to you to have the same cultural context.
As far as the headline goes, without the context of "writers" and "publishers" then the headline would have been confusing to me. What would the average slashdotter have made of "SF Group Sting Supposedly Traditional Business"? My parsing would have been to do with San Fransisco, and not to fiction. "Sci-Fi group
So I hope that this post has been the dog's bollocks and you have given a monkey's and got to the end. I still think it is odd that the mere use of a term can give some people the screaming abdabs - it's not particularly chav. I'd suggest that they relax, skin up a fag, and perhaps roast some faggots. It's not like we're all from north of Watford.
Pip pip old bean
Ah - Mea culpa. You are, of course, correct. Too hasty in my search for an earlier example.
Coin - to devise a new word or phrase.
If someone else previously coins a phrase then you cannot coin it - it is no longer new.
Oh, you can beat that:
1987.
Even talking about software too. (The post is from 1990, but references a 1987 NSA document that explicitly mentions OS with respect to software).
It was a joke? Wow - I wish I had your sense of humour.
Do you do Bar Mitzvahs too?
Well, they could do that I suppose, but the Apple case is rather big so it would rattle about. An IBM X40 is 10.5 X 8.3 X 0.95 against 10.9 X 8.6 X 1.18 for the 12in power book. It is also lighter. The X40 has a smaller volume than the Mac Mini - and includes a Screen, Keyboard, Touchpad and Trackpoint.
Trying to fit an Apple 12" G4 powerbookin a X40 case would be tricky....
Berwick-upon-Tweed - it was at war with Russia for 113 years: the declaration of war mentioned B-u-T but the peace treaty neglected it.
But it has always (well, since 1707 anyway) been part of the United Kingdom.
Phrased like that the answer is a trick answer - Great Britain is (geographically) the big island that contains most of Scotland, England, and Wales. Therefore the only part that isn't in the United Kingdom are (a) those parts that are occupied by foreign consulates and embassies, and (b) the terminus of the channel tunnel rail link (which I think is technically French - certainly the clocks are an hour fast).
Sure it wasn't "Which part of the British Isles is not part of the United Kingdom"? - A: Eire and Isle of Man
It's complicated.
The enigma machine was a single component in a cipher system - the procedures by how the machine was used, how the rotors were selected, how the signal was set up were all other components.
The Poles did two things - they broke an early cipher system based on the enigma machine, and to do this they had to figure out some things that, as it happened, remained the same during WWII - particularly the wiring of the machine rotor interface.
They handed over all their work to both Bletchley Park and the French Intelligence Service because a) they were about to be invaded and b) recent changes in the cipher system used around enigma had changed, rendering their technique ineffective. The French didn't do much with it, but Alan Turing (amoungst many others) at Bletchley Park managed to figure out a systematic way of breaking any cipher system based on the enigma, and this intelligence - codenamed Ultra - was immensely significant during the war. Even with this head start there were still long periods during the war when enigma could not be broken due to system changes.
So without Poland it is fair to say that the Allies probably would not have broken enigma. Bletchley Park had basically given up pre-war, and they would not have caught up if Poland hadn't shown them the way. Equally, for all the acheivement of the Poles, their breakthrough would have been for nought as the newer cipher system had surpassed their resources even before the start of the war.
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with nearly 128 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves.
/. readers 1 BL = 1.17 LoC
The British Library (www.bl.uk) has 150 million items (but fewer bookshelves) so the claim of "largest" is a bit dubious.
For
In a word - responsiveness.
When you hit the shutter on a digital SLR you take the picture immediately. On a compact it takes about 0.5 seconds. This is because the sensor is only used taking a picture on an SLR. On a compact it is continually in use, so when you hit the shutter what actually happens is the the sensor the shutter is closed, the sensor reset electronically, and then the picture is taken.
It is also completely impossible to focus manually with a compact camera. Then you get to depth of field preview, focus points, different metering modes.
Then there is the interchangable lenses - everything from super-wides to super telephotos. The Canon EF(-S) range now goes from 10mm to 1200mm - add some extenders and you get a focal length range of (in compact camera terms), of 300X.
The digital SLR lenses generally make much better use of light (i.e. they have bigger apertures). This is turn allows more flexibility when shooting.
But horses for courses - if you just want snaps then a compact is the camera to buy. Digital SLRs aren't any better or worse - just a different tool for a different job.
Excellent. I've tried it from our UK site, but access denied. I've also tried it from our US site, via the US proxy, and also get access denied.
The US proxy is physically located at (pause for dramatic effect...)
1750 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC
That's right - next door to the White House.
Is there a point to this policy?
And, to bring scolling to the audio world, I have a very old (15 years) Sony Tuner that has a scroll wheel for choosing between the preset stations (up to 30). And it does the cute trick of the faster you spin the faster the choices go by. I don't think this was particularly innovative then either, but I think it's the oldest device I have with such an interface.
I agree with you to an extent - I think it looks bad and pronounces worse. Note that the Economist is UK English, and is the one I usually use for guidance during my frequent bouts of confusion. I don't agree with them on everything, but they are a good guide as to what is considered acceptable. I would have put "Hopkins'" I must admit.