German newspaper Der Spiegel has a letter from what is apparently the "Secret Organisation Al-Qaeda in Europe" claiming responsibility for the terror attacks. The article can be found (in German) at this link.
I agree with you. Sadly though (in this particular instance), languages change, and word usages evolve. (Anyone remember when you could actually use the word "gay" to mean "happy"?)
The hoi polloi have taken the word away from the Hacker (in the traditional sense) community, and made it into something else. We just have to move on, I guess. Given that you're already no longer allowed to correct people's spelling, grammar, syntax, be it on the Internet or even at work, might as well let semantics go down the drain with the rest of it all.../vocabulary nazi off
The car does have a trunk, behind the two seats. It's about two feet deep, and as wide as the inside of the car. I used to drive my daughter around when she was an infant: they have a special, backward-facing baby seat, which kills the passenger-side airbag, and her pram, with the hard baby-shell, fitted comfortably in the trunk. I also regularly went shopping with the smart, and had no trouble storing a case of beer and a week's worth of food for a family of three in the trunk. Also, the passenger seat can fold forward, so that you can carry longer loads (e.g. skis) if you have to.
I actually owned one for about three years. Got rid of it when kids started happening, but up to that point, it was ideal to commute to work in. Your mention of "diesel rabbit" leads me to suspect that you live in the US. Given the stupendously low speed limit on the highways in the US, you obviously don't know what you're talking about. The car absolutely has enough acceleration to get up to over 75mph on the access ramp, allowing you to merge into normal European motorway traffic without problems. If that works in Europe, why should it not in the US?
You're right - I did miss most of your point. What I forgot to say was that, to me there's a big difference between English and the other languages I know which may not have that much to do with the language itself, but probably more with the culture that brought it about: English seems to spawn new words, or import them as needed from other languages, much more rapidly than others, at least in the past. (Take for example the French government's attempts to ban "franglais" - English words imported into French.)
Basically, in English, it's easy to either create a new word, or pick one up, when a new concept needs to be expressed. Other languages lacking this flexibility do limit what one is able easily (or at all) to express, especially when the maintainers of the language, such as they are (the local shaman, L'Académie Française, etc) impose restrictions on what the users are allowed to do with the language. (George Orwell wrote about this much better than I ever could in 1984...)
Both examples that assert the hypothesis that language define thoughts are from primitive hunter/gatherer societies.
However, as a speaker of several "more evolved" languages (German, French, English, Bulgarian) or dialects (Swiss-German), I definitely get the impression that language shapes thought. I used to write translations for a living, and I can tell you it is sometimes extremely difficult to translate the exact meaning from one language to another.
A classic example is the German Schadenfreude. There's simply no equivalent in English, and the best I can come up with is "pleasure at another's misfortune". Another example: the Swiss dialects of German (there's actually no single Swiss-German, but rather Zurich-German, Basel-German, Appenzell-German etc). These all have a much simpler (or rudimentary) grammar than German, and lack many of the words. To the extent that, when trying to speak of anything that originated after about 1700, the Swiss-German dialects have to import the vocab from German, else the concept would be inexpressible.
Bulgarian has singular, dual and plural forms, and also a form for several singulars ("these ones" as opposed to "those") and three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter). French has only singular and plural, and two genders. However, they have some words that are masculine in the singular, and feminine in the plural (délice, delight; amour, love; orgue, [musical] organ). Getting all that stuff right when shovelling a thought from one language into another is not trivial.:)
While German is my mother-tongue, I definitely prefer English (my third language) for day-to-day use, as its almost non-existent grammar (okay, let's call it ultra-flexible instead) and simply gigantic vocabulary makes it the easiest tool for me to express myself with any degreee of flexibility and precision. Of course I don't always manage it, but at least it's not the tool getting in the way. A bit like being allowed to code in, say C++ as opposed to a 1960's dialect of BASIC...
A tablet doesn't have a keyboard, and I can't shut it to protect the screen
I have an Acer C111 sub-3lb (or sub-1.5kg) TabletPC that does include a reversible screen (you can close it with the screen facing down) and a keyboard. If Acer can do it, I'm sure Apple can make a MacTablet (or whatever) with the same form factor.
As for the "slow explanation" you asked for which, I assume (but correct me if I misunderstood the title of your post) addresses the question of why anyone would want a Tablet-type machine in the first place:
I've been using this machine now for a few months (>6, <12) in both "Laptop" (sub-notebook, since it has a slightly small keyboard and a small-but-1024x768 screen) and "Tablet" (screen reversed over the case, use stylus only) modes, and I can say, in answer to a lot of the posts that claim it turns a PC into nothing but an overgrown Palm-type machine, that it works surprisingly well.
I can sit in a meeting and scribble notes while looking at the speaker - not easy to do when you'r playing hunt-and-peck on a keyboard.
I can sketch things as if on pen and paper, but the software can help me correct diagrams (making rectanguloids into rectangles, ellipsoids into ellipses and circles, etc) as I sketch them, taking my eyes off the speaker no more than with pen and paper.
Plus, by opening the writing bar at the bottom of the screen, I can input handwritten text into any application, be it designed for Tablet or not...
And then the goodness: I can transfer all that stuff into "real" applications with a lot less work than copying it all off paper.
Of course, I'm speaking from someone who uses a (gasp! I'll get modded flamebait, I expect) machine running Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition, and Apple or Linux have yet to show a similar offering, but I expect that, if these things catch on, Apple and Linux will come up with equivalent solutions. (Perhaps, in Apple's case, the tables are reversed for once, and this time it's Apple waiting to see if a technology catches on before they implement it...?;)
Bash me if you like, but personally, I think that the Tablet Edition of Windows is actually one of the better things MS has come up with lately (whether they nicked the fundamental research off someone else or not - it's a product, and it's available). However, I'd like to see that sort of functionality clad in the elegance that companies like Apple (among others) have a reputation for. That, I think, could really make pen-based laptops into a killer tool.
Slashdot Mirror
German newspaper Der Spiegel has a letter from what is apparently the "Secret Organisation Al-Qaeda in Europe" claiming responsibility for the terror attacks. The article can be found (in German) at this link.
I agree with you. Sadly though (in this particular instance), languages change, and word usages evolve. (Anyone remember when you could actually use the word "gay" to mean "happy"?) The hoi polloi have taken the word away from the Hacker (in the traditional sense) community, and made it into something else. We just have to move on, I guess. Given that you're already no longer allowed to correct people's spelling, grammar, syntax, be it on the Internet or even at work, might as well let semantics go down the drain with the rest of it all... /vocabulary nazi off
The car does have a trunk, behind the two seats. It's about two feet deep, and as wide as the inside of the car. I used to drive my daughter around when she was an infant: they have a special, backward-facing baby seat, which kills the passenger-side airbag, and her pram, with the hard baby-shell, fitted comfortably in the trunk. I also regularly went shopping with the smart, and had no trouble storing a case of beer and a week's worth of food for a family of three in the trunk. Also, the passenger seat can fold forward, so that you can carry longer loads (e.g. skis) if you have to.
I actually owned one for about three years. Got rid of it when kids started happening, but up to that point, it was ideal to commute to work in. Your mention of "diesel rabbit" leads me to suspect that you live in the US. Given the stupendously low speed limit on the highways in the US, you obviously don't know what you're talking about. The car absolutely has enough acceleration to get up to over 75mph on the access ramp, allowing you to merge into normal European motorway traffic without problems. If that works in Europe, why should it not in the US?
You're right - I did miss most of your point. What I forgot to say was that, to me there's a big difference between English and the other languages I know which may not have that much to do with the language itself, but probably more with the culture that brought it about: English seems to spawn new words, or import them as needed from other languages, much more rapidly than others, at least in the past. (Take for example the French government's attempts to ban "franglais" - English words imported into French.)
Basically, in English, it's easy to either create a new word, or pick one up, when a new concept needs to be expressed. Other languages lacking this flexibility do limit what one is able easily (or at all) to express, especially when the maintainers of the language, such as they are (the local shaman, L'Académie Française, etc) impose restrictions on what the users are allowed to do with the language. (George Orwell wrote about this much better than I ever could in 1984...)
However, as a speaker of several "more evolved" languages (German, French, English, Bulgarian) or dialects (Swiss-German), I definitely get the impression that language shapes thought. I used to write translations for a living, and I can tell you it is sometimes extremely difficult to translate the exact meaning from one language to another.
A classic example is the German Schadenfreude. There's simply no equivalent in English, and the best I can come up with is "pleasure at another's misfortune". Another example: the Swiss dialects of German (there's actually no single Swiss-German, but rather Zurich-German, Basel-German, Appenzell-German etc). These all have a much simpler (or rudimentary) grammar than German, and lack many of the words. To the extent that, when trying to speak of anything that originated after about 1700, the Swiss-German dialects have to import the vocab from German, else the concept would be inexpressible.
Bulgarian has singular, dual and plural forms, and also a form for several singulars ("these ones" as opposed to "those") and three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter). French has only singular and plural, and two genders. However, they have some words that are masculine in the singular, and feminine in the plural (délice, delight; amour, love; orgue, [musical] organ). Getting all that stuff right when shovelling a thought from one language into another is not trivial. :)
While German is my mother-tongue, I definitely prefer English (my third language) for day-to-day use, as its almost non-existent grammar (okay, let's call it ultra-flexible instead) and simply gigantic vocabulary makes it the easiest tool for me to express myself with any degreee of flexibility and precision. Of course I don't always manage it, but at least it's not the tool getting in the way. A bit like being allowed to code in, say C++ as opposed to a 1960's dialect of BASIC...
Okay - mod me down and shoot me, I didn't actually bother to RTFA before posting this... LOL That'll teach me!
I beg to differ...
I have an Acer C111 sub-3lb (or sub-1.5kg) TabletPC that does include a reversible screen (you can close it with the screen facing down) and a keyboard. If Acer can do it, I'm sure Apple can make a MacTablet (or whatever) with the same form factor.As for the "slow explanation" you asked for which, I assume (but correct me if I misunderstood the title of your post) addresses the question of why anyone would want a Tablet-type machine in the first place:
I've been using this machine now for a few months (>6, <12) in both "Laptop" (sub-notebook, since it has a slightly small keyboard and a small-but-1024x768 screen) and "Tablet" (screen reversed over the case, use stylus only) modes, and I can say, in answer to a lot of the posts that claim it turns a PC into nothing but an overgrown Palm-type machine, that it works surprisingly well.
I can sit in a meeting and scribble notes while looking at the speaker - not easy to do when you'r playing hunt-and-peck on a keyboard.
I can sketch things as if on pen and paper, but the software can help me correct diagrams (making rectanguloids into rectangles, ellipsoids into ellipses and circles, etc) as I sketch them, taking my eyes off the speaker no more than with pen and paper.
Plus, by opening the writing bar at the bottom of the screen, I can input handwritten text into any application, be it designed for Tablet or not...
And then the goodness: I can transfer all that stuff into "real" applications with a lot less work than copying it all off paper.
Of course, I'm speaking from someone who uses a (gasp! I'll get modded flamebait, I expect) machine running Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition, and Apple or Linux have yet to show a similar offering, but I expect that, if these things catch on, Apple and Linux will come up with equivalent solutions. (Perhaps, in Apple's case, the tables are reversed for once, and this time it's Apple waiting to see if a technology catches on before they implement it...? ;)
Bash me if you like, but personally, I think that the Tablet Edition of Windows is actually one of the better things MS has come up with lately (whether they nicked the fundamental research off someone else or not - it's a product, and it's available). However, I'd like to see that sort of functionality clad in the elegance that companies like Apple (among others) have a reputation for. That, I think, could really make pen-based laptops into a killer tool.