This may very well be the worst possible venue for this sort of discussion. On the other hand, it is "ground zero" for linguistic crime, so perhaps some good will come of this.
I'm reading a lot of defensive, "how dare u insult my grammer! there's no such thing as correct language OMG" posts... this is unsurprising. It's a sensitive subject, especially for people who like to think of themselves as educated and intelligent.
To respond to a few of the ideas being mentioned:
1. "There's no such thing as correct language!"
True, but completely meaningless in this context. While the language does change and grow as the popular usage changes, mistakes are still possible. "Lose" is not properly spelled "loose," not now, not a hundred years ago, not a hundred years from now. It's a mistake. Likewise, lack of punctuation and capitalization just obscure the ideas behind the words.
2. "but but but! it's my words! i can say them any way i want"
True, but don't be surprised if the rest of us (poor, classically-educated fools that we are) judge you based on your apparently poor education or substandard intelligence.
On the other hand, some people (myself included) like to play with the language, purposefully tweaking things for effect. Don't mistake this for ignorance or apathy. One of the most skilled English speakers I know of is Salman Rushdie. His ability to use the language verges on the musical: he twists it, stretches it, pulls it, and makes it do things that it was never meant for. And yet... he keeps the ideas intact.
It reminds me of when I used to teach wheel-throwing in the ceramics department as an undergrad, where there would be a mixture of advanced students along with the freshmen. The advanced students would be doing all sorts of free-form, asymmetrical work, while the beginners had to produce a simple, straight-sided cylinder for their first piece. Invariably, one of the freshmen would complain that their work was being judged by a different standard. This difference is, I would explain to them, that the advanced students have already show that they know how to make a simple, straight-sided cylinder, while you have not. You have to learn the rules before you're allowed to break them.
You may remember, CNN and Fox News get their revenue on the television by selling advertisements.
Yes, and no. They also get a goodly percentage of their income from the cable or satellite providers who carry their channels. You pay for that in the form of your cable or satellite monthly bill.
I don't know... I saw her in "Cursed" earlier this year... and she was just terrible. Of course, it could have just been the horrible, stupid script, but she was really, really bad.
I'm not sure you get the character very well. She's the epitome of the little-blond-good-girl, until her life is ripped apart and she becomes... twisted.
So you need a hollow-eyed blond waif who has her mind... corrupted innocence. SMG might actually work for this. Though I would prefer someone like Alicia Silverstone (too old now I guess).
Christina Ricci, on the other hand, seems like she was born that way. Remember her as Wednesday Addams?
Well, how can you virtualize something that's already virtual?
The monetary system in the country (and all others, as far as I know) is based upon a shared (and mutually agreed-upon) illusion of value.
This is what Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (and Cryptonomicon, for that matter) was talking about. This isn't a virtualization of money, this IS money. These people are creating money, printing their own currency in the most elemental way possible, they're thinking it up.
It's interesting for that reason alone, aside from what people are actually doing with the service.
I've been doing this stuff a long time... I remember ReadySetGo! even, before xPress. What was that short-lived partial replacement... (Design Studio? something like that.)
In the way back days, xPress was designed with a more production-oriented, grid-format bent than Pagemaker, (not that that was hard to do in those days.) It was very good at some things, not so good at others, but it worked.
Personally, I loathed it. It seemed very inflexible. When I had a choice, I would even use Pagemaker instead. (that tells you something) It wasn't even the software I didn't like, it was the way Quark treated their customers. Aldus had very reasonable upgrade procedures, disk replacement policies, etc. Quark treated their customers with contempt--if you weren't institutional--that is. If you had more than 20 licenses, they would suck your dick, but for a freelancer you just got treated like shit.
Regardless, pretty much every designer had to have a copy to stay current, so there wasn't much choice about working with them. Enter the travesty that was xPress 4.0. What a clusterfuck. I remember trying to resolve a font issue at 3am, wondering how many billions of dollars this thing had cost the industry in lost productivity.
How long after the introduction of the PPC 601 did it take them to write a native version? I can't even remember, but as I recall, it was years.
OSX? I'm not sure how their support was for that transition, as by that time the translators into ID were good enough to ditch them, permanently. (...and when I took my current job, I did so on the condition that they ditch QXP, and go to ID all the way).
They're still widely used at newspapers, the poor slobs.
YMMV, naturally. Some people love them, in a masochistic way I assume. Or maybe it's a Stockholm syndrome thing.
what pisses me off about all the coverage of this that I've read...
I can't find ANYONE who'll say what the stats are on the damn sword. This is obviously the most critical bit of information about the story, and no one will report it.
1h? 2h? +9 for ogres? What?? GAH!
Obviously, there are some circumstances where such a killing would be perfectly understandable. Without the stats, how will we ever know?
cause there's like 20 old episodes of friends and the simpsons on all the same time and half the time it's just adverts and stuff.
Add in a channel solely devoted to people playing darts, and you've just described UK television. (at least, during my last visit.) Oh, and commercials for ringtones.
Oh, I kid, I kid. I love bbc sitcoms, but they never seemed to be on while i was watching. It was always either Friends or the Jerry Springer Opera......or darts.
Yes, I'm sure you have at least several years before new OSX releases don't run anymore...
For the uses you mention (internet usage, audio/video/DVD playback), it will continue to run for many, many years after that. Eventually the HD may develop errors, or you may need a new DVD drive, but those are easily replaced.
What I'm trying to say is, a machine doesn't have to run the latest and greatest to be useful. Would you expect today's $500 PC to run Longhorn? Then why would you expect it from a Mac?
It's not like it up and dies the moment Apple releases 10.9 or whatever that won't install on it.
Part of this is, Linux users--especially hobby or home users--have a reputation (deserved or not) for not wanting to pay for software. Or hardware, if they could get away with it.
Mac users, on the other hand, seem to be willing to shell out actual hard-earned cash for stuff (not only that, but willing to pay a premium to get the best). Witness iTMS.
(I'm not trolling, and I'm not talking about the reality, only the perception.)
To be fair, having WINE or the ability to dual-boot XP seems to be a big part of the difference: those Linux users who really want to run HL2 (for example) can.
I know this is meant to be funny... but it doesn't really work that way.
Most geeks seem to have non-geek (or only partially geeky) parents. For a lot of us, geeking out was a kind of rebellion.
I wouldn't be surprised if geeky folk have a fewer-than-average number of geeky kids, as those kids rebel against their parent's geekyness by getting big into sports, etc.
So a population like this would be self-sustaining as a geek haven, just by drawing new members from the rest of the populace.
I mean, if you were right, the San Francisco gay/lesbian population would have died out a long time ago. (yes, I know it's a stereotype of SF, but it's a self-fulfilling stereotype: gay people move to SF because they know they won't be discriminated against (not as much as in the rest of the country), and it's just plain easier to get a date.)
Slashdot Mirror
OK, so then they'll just use machine guns and hand-grenades.
...if I were the rioting type, I think I would prefer the less-lethal options, thanks.
Problem solved, right?
Or, if you have health problems that put you at additional risk, leave the rioting to others.
m-
This may very well be the worst possible venue for this sort of discussion. On the other hand, it is "ground zero" for linguistic crime, so perhaps some good will come of this.
I'm reading a lot of defensive, "how dare u insult my grammer! there's no such thing as correct language OMG" posts... this is unsurprising. It's a sensitive subject, especially for people who like to think of themselves as educated and intelligent.
To respond to a few of the ideas being mentioned:
1. "There's no such thing as correct language!"
True, but completely meaningless in this context. While the language does change and grow as the popular usage changes, mistakes are still possible. "Lose" is not properly spelled "loose," not now, not a hundred years ago, not a hundred years from now. It's a mistake. Likewise, lack of punctuation and capitalization just obscure the ideas behind the words.
2. "but but but! it's my words! i can say them any way i want"
True, but don't be surprised if the rest of us (poor, classically-educated fools that we are) judge you based on your apparently poor education or substandard intelligence.
On the other hand, some people (myself included) like to play with the language, purposefully tweaking things for effect. Don't mistake this for ignorance or apathy. One of the most skilled English speakers I know of is Salman Rushdie. His ability to use the language verges on the musical: he twists it, stretches it, pulls it, and makes it do things that it was never meant for. And yet... he keeps the ideas intact.
It reminds me of when I used to teach wheel-throwing in the ceramics department as an undergrad, where there would be a mixture of advanced students along with the freshmen. The advanced students would be doing all sorts of free-form, asymmetrical work, while the beginners had to produce a simple, straight-sided cylinder for their first piece. Invariably, one of the freshmen would complain that their work was being judged by a different standard. This difference is, I would explain to them, that the advanced students have already show that they know how to make a simple, straight-sided cylinder, while you have not. You have to learn the rules before you're allowed to break them.
m-
Having just vacationed in the UK a few months ago (where each dollar was worth less than 50p), I feel your pain.
For you, I now shed a single tear: o
There, I feel better now, don't you?
m-
Duh, I can't believe there's even any question.
Superman is WAY faster. He can fly so fast, he reversed the spin of the ENTIRE planet and TURNED BACK TIME.
I mean, DUH.
m-
You may remember, CNN and Fox News get their revenue on the television by selling advertisements.
Yes, and no. They also get a goodly percentage of their income from the cable or satellite providers who carry their channels. You pay for that in the form of your cable or satellite monthly bill.
m-
I don't know... I saw her in "Cursed" earlier this year... and she was just terrible. Of course, it could have just been the horrible, stupid script, but she was really, really bad.
I've always liked her work, too.
m-
I'm not sure you get the character very well. She's the epitome of the little-blond-good-girl, until her life is ripped apart and she becomes... twisted.
So you need a hollow-eyed blond waif who has her mind... corrupted innocence. SMG might actually work for this. Though I would prefer someone like Alicia Silverstone (too old now I guess).
Christina Ricci, on the other hand, seems like she was born that way. Remember her as Wednesday Addams?
m-
You seem to be in the minority.
If they made money selling a phone-only, they would make it.
Meanwhile, here you go.
m-
Here's hoping American McGee's Strawberry Shortcake will make it to the big screen soon, too.
m-
Geeks have friends?
/mildly bitter
See, he just put the quotes in the wrong place. What he meant to say was:
Or you just go ask your geek "friend".
See, it's always convenient to have someone around to remove viruses, back up your system, and get your DSL working again.
m-
Well, how can you virtualize something that's already virtual?
The monetary system in the country (and all others, as far as I know) is based upon a shared (and mutually agreed-upon) illusion of value.
This is what Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (and Cryptonomicon, for that matter) was talking about. This isn't a virtualization of money, this IS money. These people are creating money, printing their own currency in the most elemental way possible, they're thinking it up.
It's interesting for that reason alone, aside from what people are actually doing with the service.
m-
When we got our iPods, my wife and I already owned over 800 CDs between us.
We are hardly unique.
m-
I've been doing this stuff a long time... I remember ReadySetGo! even, before xPress. What was that short-lived partial replacement... (Design Studio? something like that.)
In the way back days, xPress was designed with a more production-oriented, grid-format bent than Pagemaker, (not that that was hard to do in those days.) It was very good at some things, not so good at others, but it worked.
Personally, I loathed it. It seemed very inflexible. When I had a choice, I would even use Pagemaker instead. (that tells you something) It wasn't even the software I didn't like, it was the way Quark treated their customers. Aldus had very reasonable upgrade procedures, disk replacement policies, etc. Quark treated their customers with contempt--if you weren't institutional--that is. If you had more than 20 licenses, they would suck your dick, but for a freelancer you just got treated like shit.
Regardless, pretty much every designer had to have a copy to stay current, so there wasn't much choice about working with them. Enter the travesty that was xPress 4.0. What a clusterfuck. I remember trying to resolve a font issue at 3am, wondering how many billions of dollars this thing had cost the industry in lost productivity.
How long after the introduction of the PPC 601 did it take them to write a native version? I can't even remember, but as I recall, it was years.
OSX? I'm not sure how their support was for that transition, as by that time the translators into ID were good enough to ditch them, permanently. (...and when I took my current job, I did so on the condition that they ditch QXP, and go to ID all the way).
They're still widely used at newspapers, the poor slobs.
YMMV, naturally. Some people love them, in a masochistic way I assume. Or maybe it's a Stockholm syndrome thing.
m-
It sounds like you are talking about the 1.0 version (or 2.0?) of ID... 2.0 was the first usable version imo, with CS I went mission critical.
IDCS addressed many (though I doubt all) of your concerns.
m-
Error establishing a database connection!
what pisses me off about all the coverage of this that I've read...
I can't find ANYONE who'll say what the stats are on the damn sword. This is obviously the most critical bit of information about the story, and no one will report it.
1h? 2h? +9 for ogres? What?? GAH!
Obviously, there are some circumstances where such a killing would be perfectly understandable. Without the stats, how will we ever know?
m-
cause there's like 20 old episodes of friends and the simpsons on all the same time and half the time it's just adverts and stuff.
...or darts.
Add in a channel solely devoted to people playing darts, and you've just described UK television. (at least, during my last visit.) Oh, and commercials for ringtones.
Oh, I kid, I kid. I love bbc sitcoms, but they never seemed to be on while i was watching. It was always either Friends or the Jerry Springer Opera...
m-
Yes, I'm sure you have at least several years before new OSX releases don't run anymore...
For the uses you mention (internet usage, audio/video/DVD playback), it will continue to run for many, many years after that. Eventually the HD may develop errors, or you may need a new DVD drive, but those are easily replaced.
What I'm trying to say is, a machine doesn't have to run the latest and greatest to be useful. Would you expect today's $500 PC to run Longhorn? Then why would you expect it from a Mac?
It's not like it up and dies the moment Apple releases 10.9 or whatever that won't install on it.
m-
Part of this is, Linux users--especially hobby or home users--have a reputation (deserved or not) for not wanting to pay for software. Or hardware, if they could get away with it.
Mac users, on the other hand, seem to be willing to shell out actual hard-earned cash for stuff (not only that, but willing to pay a premium to get the best). Witness iTMS.
(I'm not trolling, and I'm not talking about the reality, only the perception.)
To be fair, having WINE or the ability to dual-boot XP seems to be a big part of the difference: those Linux users who really want to run HL2 (for example) can.
m-
Yeah, verbing weirds language.
m-
I know this is meant to be funny... but it doesn't really work that way.
Most geeks seem to have non-geek (or only partially geeky) parents. For a lot of us, geeking out was a kind of rebellion.
I wouldn't be surprised if geeky folk have a fewer-than-average number of geeky kids, as those kids rebel against their parent's geekyness by getting big into sports, etc.
So a population like this would be self-sustaining as a geek haven, just by drawing new members from the rest of the populace.
I mean, if you were right, the San Francisco gay/lesbian population would have died out a long time ago. (yes, I know it's a stereotype of SF, but it's a self-fulfilling stereotype: gay people move to SF because they know they won't be discriminated against (not as much as in the rest of the country), and it's just plain easier to get a date.)
m-
That wouldn't work... in my experience, the ears are being covered by the thighs at that point--and clamped down hard if you know what you're doing.
Which is a problem 'cause you can't hear the front door open...
Ah, to be 18 again.
This underwater breathing thing would have come in handy at that point: I could have hid in the pond....
m-
Yeah, because all of the most important apps we need to run aren't cross-platform. Like Photoshop, Illustrator, Office, etc.
...so what's left? Final Cut Pro? I would suspect that they're already on board.
Oh, wait.
So, what big Mac apps are there (which aren't made by Apple) that aren't already cross-platform?
I suspect that the Rosetta emulation will be sufficient for smaller apps, it's the big ones I worry about.
m-
As my father used to say, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Doesn't matter, he's still an asshole. (Dvorak, not my dad.)
m-
My father in law spends a lot more than that on a golf club... Hell, the greens fees here are over $300 (with a discount).
If you can't afford it, sure, it's a waste. If you can, and this is how you choose to enjoy yourself, why not?
m-