Even there, it's referential to other sounds. Which is why onomatopoeia in different languages sound (and are spelled) different in different languages - like a cat's sound, for example.
Doc, yer impossible to rib. But let me run this by ya --
Om.
Allegedly the sound of the cosmos. If any "word" is a being in its own right, independent of our referential meanings, it's gotta be Om.
On the other hand, I think the Firesign Theater put it well when they sang:
There's no intrinsic "meaning" to the words and other language elements, just our shared experiences, including our experience of language itself.
Except for onomatopoeia words, of course -- "sizzle" means "sizzle" because it sounds "sizzly"... "ouch" means "ouch" because it has an "ouchy" quality, etc.
-kgj
Stateless is Beautiful
on
The Next Net
·
· Score: 1
How about replacing http into a stateful protocal?
Illegal to own, or carry around the street? I dunno diddly about law in England but here there's a lot of stuff that you can own but not transport, like throwing knives.
Of course you can't transport throwing knives -- you have to throw them.
How the hell are we supposed to manage our planned economy if people go around carrying knives meant for throwing? The mere thought of it staggers my inner social Darwinist... not to mention the quaking of my inner Aristotelian teleologist....
I don't know about the USA, but in England it has long been held that a manufacturer of a kitchen knife cannot be held responsible for a murder carried out using the knife.
I, too, don't know about the USA... and I've lived here all my life, mate.
The nut of the Betamax case:
In the Betamax case, the Supreme Court ruled that a company was not liable for creating a technology that some customers may use for copyright infringing purposes, so long as the technology is capable of substantial non-infringing uses. In other words, where a technology has many uses, the public cannot be denied the lawful uses just because some (or many or most) may use the product to infringe copyrights. Source
To my thinking, this means that manufacturers of cute cuddly teddy-bears are not responsible when some crazed maniac uses stuffed animals to perpetrate a murderous asphyxiation spree.
Furthermore: the knife is too goddamned obvious -- any fool can knife a man to death. It takes an innovator to kill with stuffed animals.
If you don't think IP theft happens in corporate software, think again. There's been several very public lawsuits where code theft from one company to another happened.
Based on their knowledge and belief, the Hamiltons [William and Nancy, owners of Inslaw] have alleged that high level officials in the Department of Justice conspired to steal the Enhanced PROMIS software system. As an element of this theft, these officials, who included former Attorney General Edwin Meese and Deputy Attorney General Lowell Jensen, forced INSLAW into bankruptcy by intentionally creating a sham contract dispute over the terms and conditions of the contract which led to the withholding of payments due INSLAW by the Department. The Hamiltons maintain that, after driving the company into bankruptcy, Justice officials attempted to force the conversion of INSLAW's bankruptcy status from Chapter 11: Reorganization to Chapter 7: Liquidation. They assert that such a change in bankruptcy status would have resulted in the forced sale of INSLAW'S assets, including Enhanced PROMIS to a rival computer company called Hadron, Inc., which, at the time, was attempting to conduct a hostile buyout of INSLAW.
- Source
Don't knock "Urysses". He returned after after twenty years and almost single handedly killed all his wife's suitors. So if IE went to the wilderness a couple of years ago, say, the competing browsers will have a lot to worry about in ummm... 2023.
How is parent a troll? Seems right on target to me.
A post can be both Troll and right on target -- both Troll and Insightful, Troll and Interesting, Troll and Funny, etc. Being a Troll doesn't necessarily negate the better qualities of a post.
As with people: we are both creatures of light and creatures of darkness. Just ask anyone who's ever hurt the one they love.
... we [males] use 100% of that extra brain-space (plus about 90% of the overlap) thinking about girls, either what they look like naked, or what they are thinking about, or sometimes both.
True -- although thinking about what women are thinking about is a futile task. I scarcely bother any more. Better to spend that brain energy on picturing them naked.
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.
Then again, a law so secret that I can't know the law... that's the Star Chamber all over again.
I was being somewhat funny, I expected to be modded funny, but as a libertarian with somewhat conservative leanings, I find that I disagree with Kerry/Clinton on most things. Of course, I yell at Bush alot too...
Yup, I got that. My comments about Total Contention weren't for you personally -- I caught your humorous irony, and you did earn the +Funny mod.
But I do think that the Total Contetion issue (as I've dubbed it) affects a lot of Slashdotters, and a lot of the populace at large -- and it's a central problem that's been facing all mankind throughout history, now more than ever because we have the technology to exterminate ourselves -- so, I pitched in my two cents.
Will wonders never cease? Something I agree with Kerry & Clinton on?
You (understandably) got modded +Funny.
But you've touched on a completely serious issue -- the politics of finding common ground.
Our current political circus is built on the lawyer/contention model -- either I'm totally for you, or I'm totally against you. My party right or wrong, your party be damned. A world of Total Contention.
But Total Contention is an illusion. Life isn't like that. Real people aren't always wrong, aren't always the enemy. I vote for X, that doesn't make Y a total idiot. It only seems
like Y is a total idiot, because the X party has a vested interest in Total Contention.
Too many leaders feed us the Total Contention bullshit, because Total Contention keeps us distracted, keeps us from thinking clearly, keeps us from building bridges to each other... bridges that might make those leaders obsolete.
I'm not talking about a Sixties love-fest here. We do need to debate issues. We do need to promote the views we cherish, and challenge the views we hate.
But if we're going to get past Total Contention -- get past the politics of hate -- get past all of that "Us Versus Them" crap -- if we're going to achieve honest intelligent debate, if we're going to find some kind of common ground where we can live on this ball of mud without hating each other to death -- then we've got to learn to listen to each other and learn from each other.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean they told you that they loved you, but it turned out they were just using you for sex?
...
More or less. I guess I should have figured it out for myself
-- Kirk kept shouting, "Oh Janice, oh Janice!"
-- Spock only did it every seven years.
-kgj
Surely you weren't seduced by the Windows GUI?
... join me and we will rule the network as Icon and Mouse Pointer ...!
You don't know the power of the dark side of the Windows GUI
-kgj
Even there, it's referential to other sounds. Which is why onomatopoeia in different languages sound (and are spelled) different in different languages - like a cat's sound, for example.
... Om ... Range ...
Doc, yer impossible to rib. But let me run this by ya --
Om.
Allegedly the sound of the cosmos. If any "word" is a being in its own right, independent of our referential meanings, it's gotta be Om.
On the other hand, I think the Firesign Theater put it well when they sang:
Om
-kgj
There's no intrinsic "meaning" to the words and other language elements, just our shared experiences, including our experience of language itself.
... "ouch" means "ouch" because it has an "ouchy" quality, etc.
Except for onomatopoeia words, of course -- "sizzle" means "sizzle" because it sounds "sizzly"
-kgj
How about replacing http into a stateful protocal?
No, let's not do that.
-kgj
Illegal to own, or carry around the street? I dunno diddly about law in England but here there's a lot of stuff that you can own but not transport, like throwing knives.
... not to mention the quaking of my inner Aristotelian teleologist ....
Of course you can't transport throwing knives -- you have to throw them.
How the hell are we supposed to manage our planned economy if people go around carrying knives meant for throwing? The mere thought of it staggers my inner social Darwinist
-kgj
I don't know about the USA, but in England it has long been held that a manufacturer of a kitchen knife cannot be held responsible for a murder carried out using the knife.
... and I've lived here all my life, mate.
I, too, don't know about the USA
The nut of the Betamax case:
In the Betamax case, the Supreme Court ruled that a company was not liable for creating a technology that some customers may use for copyright infringing purposes, so long as the technology is capable of substantial non-infringing uses. In other words, where a technology has many uses, the public cannot be denied the lawful uses just because some (or many or most) may use the product to infringe copyrights.
Source
To my thinking, this means that manufacturers of cute cuddly teddy-bears are not responsible when some crazed maniac uses stuffed animals to perpetrate a murderous asphyxiation spree.
Furthermore: the knife is too goddamned obvious -- any fool can knife a man to death. It takes an innovator to kill with stuffed animals.
-kgj
But were AI & minority report movies with happy endings?
Yes.
AI: David, the Boy-Robot, spends one perfect day with his mother.
Minority Report: The precogs retire to a quiet island in the Pacific Northwest.
-kgj
True. Example: Inslaw's PROMIS. -kgj
What the heck has [Spielberg] done for Sci-Fi?
Given it happy endings.
-kgj
Amazon is in the business of Selling Things.
"Sell" is a verb.
"Things" are nouns.
Verbs and nouns. Amazon is in the Verbs and Nouns business.
Conclusion: Amazon should simply patent "Verbs" and "Nouns". That would cut to the heart of the matter, eh?
-kgj
Is there any standard that Microsoft has adhered to and not broken? It seems they're always ignoring or redefining standards.
Standard MS has not broken, The Golden Rule:
"He who has the gold, makes the rules."
-kgj
Don't knock "Urysses". He returned after after twenty years and almost single handedly killed all his wife's suitors. So if IE went to the wilderness a couple of years ago, say, the competing browsers will have a lot to worry about in ummm... 2023.
<Chortle>Damn, that's funny!</Chortle>.
I love it when classicists post to SlashDot.
-kgj
How is parent a troll? Seems right on target to me.
A post can be both Troll and right on target -- both Troll and Insightful, Troll and Interesting, Troll and Funny, etc. Being a Troll doesn't necessarily negate the better qualities of a post.
As with people: we are both creatures of light and creatures of darkness. Just ask anyone who's ever hurt the one they love.
-kgj
Sure but look at how many bugs were generated.
"Those aren't bugs -- those are features."
-kgj
Given sufficiently high level languages (as appropriate for the app) this would be true.
And God said, "Let There Be Light."
God uses a very high level language: four words, and the hard work is done.
-kgj
Interesting thread -- I want to say Thanks to you guys for looking up and discussing this stuff.
-kgj
I claim that I can fly by doing nothing more than flapping my arms... How about a demonstration of these claims?
Yes, a demonstration is definitely in order.
You jump and flap, I'll record the results.
-kgj
... we [males] use 100% of that extra brain-space (plus about 90% of the overlap) thinking about girls, either what they look like naked, or what they are thinking about, or sometimes both.
True -- although thinking about what women are thinking about is a futile task. I scarcely bother any more. Better to spend that brain energy on picturing them naked.
-kgj
men have a larger brain [than women]...
This is true, but irrelevant.
Intelligence is a function of brain mass to body mass. Men have larger brain than women; but men have larger bodies. The ratio is the same.
The brain/body mass ratio as a function of intelligence holds true across a wide range of species.
See The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan for details.
-kgj
I believe you can. You just can't disseminate it. I on the other hand can draw Mickey Mouse smoking a joint AND disseminate it. God Bless Australia.
Damn. So much for America the Free. Guess I'll just have to smoke a joint, and pretend I'm drawing Mickey Mouse.
-kgj
Heh-heh. I thought the same thing -- but you got the better quote, and faster too.
-kgj
This reminds me, somehow, of Catch-22: Then again, a law so secret that I can't know the law
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
-kgj
I was being somewhat funny, I expected to be modded funny, but as a libertarian with somewhat conservative leanings, I find that I disagree with Kerry/Clinton on most things. Of course, I yell at Bush alot too...
Yup, I got that. My comments about Total Contention weren't for you personally -- I caught your humorous irony, and you did earn the +Funny mod.
But I do think that the Total Contetion issue (as I've dubbed it) affects a lot of Slashdotters, and a lot of the populace at large -- and it's a central problem that's been facing all mankind throughout history, now more than ever because we have the technology to exterminate ourselves -- so, I pitched in my two cents.
-kgj
Will wonders never cease? Something I agree with Kerry & Clinton on?
... bridges that might make those leaders obsolete.
You (understandably) got modded +Funny.
But you've touched on a completely serious issue -- the politics of finding common ground.
Our current political circus is built on the lawyer/contention model -- either I'm totally for you, or I'm totally against you. My party right or wrong, your party be damned. A world of Total Contention.
But Total Contention is an illusion. Life isn't like that. Real people aren't always wrong, aren't always the enemy. I vote for X, that doesn't make Y a total idiot. It only seems like Y is a total idiot, because the X party has a vested interest in Total Contention.
Too many leaders feed us the Total Contention bullshit, because Total Contention keeps us distracted, keeps us from thinking clearly, keeps us from building bridges to each other
Harry Tuttle put it well: Listen, kid, we're all in it together.
I'm not talking about a Sixties love-fest here. We do need to debate issues. We do need to promote the views we cherish, and challenge the views we hate.
But if we're going to get past Total Contention -- get past the politics of hate -- get past all of that "Us Versus Them" crap -- if we're going to achieve honest intelligent debate, if we're going to find some kind of common ground where we can live on this ball of mud without hating each other to death -- then we've got to learn to listen to each other and learn from each other.
-kgj