So, in several countries, 1,333 is understood as 1.333 -- Would the US be one of those countries, or would France be one of those countries? Now I'm really confused. I guess I should find out by measuring my hair.
TeaFLOPS - Tea FLoating Operations Per Second -- it's how many bits escape from the teabag/strainer/ball and float to the surface per second, of course. The delightful thing about this computer is that instead of only having two states, and a fixed size of 32 bits per bite, you can have an infinitely scalable states, and slurps can be of a variable size. Thermal cooling is done via Milk.
AFAIK, the Common Carrier status for communication was introduced by Napoleon Bonaparte for telegraph wires, (as part of the ITU treaty) and is (or was) the same in all signatory countries. Of course, nationally, it can be open to interpretation -- but in Canada's case, Common Carrier is quite similar to the US status. The only difference is that in Canada, effort is made to resolve differences without resorting to lawsuits, leaving the suits as a method of last resort instead of being used as a warning shot.
To carry this further, there's a reason you need a license to drive, just like you need a license to serve alcohol, operate a business, or a myriad of other things.
Driving an automobile is not a right. In most places, it is still perfectly legal to travel via horse & buggy (although people choose not to), and pedestrians still have full freedom to walk all over public property (including roads). To get from point A to point B, nobody needs a car -- it just makes it more convenient, and faster. It is also possible to carpool, meaning you don't have to have a license to drive (passengers don't need licenses yet), or to ride a bicycle, or a motorized vehicle under a certain HP. None of these things need licenses. Walking on public property is a right. Driving a car is a privilege. This also explains the wheelchair access laws, as a person in a wheelchair is defined to be "walking", therefore they have a right to access to public spaces.
And how does this work after the content is public domain and no longer needs to be paid for?
How does this work when you've paid for content, but the provider goes out of business, and so can no longer validate your product?
How about the fact that it is perfectly legal to transfer copyright from one person to another?
And the fact that there is no copyright on the high seas? You can do whatever you want with intellectual property in international waters.
Could DRM somehow protect the producer of the intellectual property if a person moved from the US to the UK where some copyright clauses are less strict while others are more strict?
And can this DRM automatically change if the local copyright laws change?
Basicly, this boils down to DRM that can have its rules modified by anyone in a position of authority over the intellectual property -- this would include the original author, the copyright holder, the chain of government (global, national, state, municipal, familial...), and ultimately, the individual who has purchased the product.
Now, I have to agree, I'm all for DRM that can be easily broken by anyone. Personally, I see this as the only workable method: DRM that requires a conscious effort to break, but can be broken easily by anyone and any device. That way, it's still the law that keeps people from breaking any DRM; and all DRM can be broken by anyone in any situation where it is legal to do so (notwithstanding DMCA-style laws).
Funny thing; I find that in properly zoned areas, busses are just as fast as cars; in car-centric areas, busses are slower.
The trick is creating "busways" where busses run down a corridor, or use HOV lanes when a corridor is impractical. Traffic intersections need the lights recalibrated, so that any bus approaching a light will change the signal, much like a pedestrian pushbutton.
The end result is that it takes slightly longer for regular vehicles to navigate the grid, but busses only have to stop at their stops; they don't get stuck in gridlock. The next step is to space the bus stops further apart (5-20 blocks for the high capacity routes) for the long distance runs, and have local service that winds its way around the neighbourhood. This way, people are also encouraged to (gasp) walk small distances, which clears up traffic and pollution problems (including litter problems), increases health, lowers obesity, and increases a sense of community.
[G]et computers out of schools completely...(by the way, I have an MA in Ed. Technology)[.] They don't help kids learn[;] in fact they hinder the writing process.
Well, I guess on one hand, your post illustrates the point you're making perfectly. Even when you know the rules, it is extremely easy to take no care in how your ideas are encoded into text when you input via a computer -- less effort in entering the sentences means less effort in thinking about structure.
However, as someone who always had extreme difficulty mastering printing and handwriting, my first keyboard was a liberating experience for me! Considering I'm a lateral thinker, the ability to type free-form ideas and then reorganize them into a logical progression without having to rewrite everything was a blessing. The act of writing was a hinderance to my learning, and the accuracy and depth of my language didn't come into its own until I was able to overcome my writing impediment. I even tended to use the shortest words possible when writing, so as not to hurt my wrist as much.
I still remember the grade 12 teacher who required I hand-write my reports, and submit all drafts as well as the final copy. I hand wrote one, which was sub-standard (draft level). Then, out of frustration, I re-did it in a day on a word processor, submitting each "revision", and stood there while he read it so he could see how much better my ideas flowed, as well as how much shorter, time-wise it took me to complete. We then agreed on letting me submit the rest of my assignments typed, with each page signed by my parents.
The point of this illustration is that no two students learn the same way -- due to many factors; disabilities as well as natural learning methods -- and the current system tries to adapt to that by allowing children to learn in the way that works best for them. This method is generally different for each subject in school.
Of course, I can't stand the current system either. In any teaching style, 20% or so of the class gets left behind. Personally, I feel that children should be trained how to learn in all the various learning methods, and should have exposure to all of the tools available. The trick is to not have such strict divisions of courses; combine math and history and english; have different requirements for different assignments, and grade based on how the student uses the tools required.
Having taught 6th grade maths, I can tell you that some students don't learn because they don't see any progress. However, I did a quick mini-course on logarithms for those who I felt were smart but not applying themselves in class; then I had them research how logarithms worked, and apply that information to the problem solving and basic algebra taught in 6th grade maths. They ended up learning the same skills that the other students were supposed to be learning, but using mathematical tools that interested them and were challenging.
Now, if I had done that with the entire class, it would have been a disaster. However, it actually prompted some of the other students to work harder so that they could join this "chosen" group in the "fun" math.
I should point out that I was also using BASIC on Apple ][s with the special group from time to time. They had to solve problems by creating algorithms pulled from BAISC recipes, and testing for a result.
Computers are a tool, and used as such, are extremely useful in a school setting. However, used as a "solution", they achieve nothing other than keeping students entertained while the teacher deals with the more difficult children. Instead of getting computers out of schools, I propose something different. All computer software that a teacher cannot explain, in detail, how it is being used to leverage the learning techniques they are supposed to teach, should be removed from their classroom. "Math Blasters helps them with their math drills" is not a proper explanation. "This software program calls on the children to be creative while requiring use of the skills they are supposed to have gained in fact finding and problem solving to this point in the curriculum" is.
Something great that I've found is that a number of nation-wide chains provide online photo printing now. This means that I can print anything from my computer to photo paper / card stock / bumper stickers / tattoos / placemats / mouse pads / coffee mugs for really reasonable rates (much cheaper than I could do it myself), and have them dropped off at the store of my choosing.
This means that I can, for example, print a set of custom coffee mugs, and have them delivered to a store near relatives who live on the other side of the country. I not only save on printing, I also save the shipping!
OK, let's use the doctor scenario.
I have a problem and I go to a doctor. He immediately knows what's wrong, tells me what to do to fix it, and bills me for his time.
I go home, and publish his findings about my problem on my blog, so that others who suffer similarly can fix it themselves, without having to go to a doctor.
The UDOA (United Doctors of America) is sifting through web sites, and stumbles across mine. They see that the product of one of their members (the advice) is published there for anyone to duplicate, thus depriving their members of the revenue they could have earned from all those people going to see them!
The result is that the UDOA contact the FBI, who come and raid my house, take my computers and any drugs related to my problem (just in case I'm giving them to others), and put me in jail.
Now, I know I'm playing Devil's advocate as much as the next/.er, but it seems to me there's an obvious problem here.
If you want something a bit more analogous than the above illustration, how about substituting the Recipe Maker's Association of America for the UDOA? Why aren't people who trade recipes being jailed for copyright infringement?
Nothing's being removed, including the ability to compile Cocoa/Java apps. They just won't be adding any new features to the C/J API; even features that are available to C/oC. All this means is that if Apple decides to add a hook for something like kCOM to Cocoa, Java-based apps won't be able to access this information.
"...they want to be able to interrupt or redirect a airplane's Internet access during a crisis...."
Kinda hard to use internet access to set something off when all you have access to is the FBI's honeynet.
On the other hand, I don't think this is really about setting something off on a plane that some person happens to also be on; it's about making airplane wifi a bit less anonymous, so that someone can't keep hopping flights and have their internet usage be extremely difficult to track.
Of course, all the person has to do is be on the ground near a major urban centre, and they have their pick of anonymous access points.
And as you know, as soon as you copy a song, somebody else's copy, far far away, suddenly dissapears, depriving them of their property and thus meeting the definition of "stealing". As opposed to, say, "pirating", which involves the loss of (theoretical, and in most situations very unlikely) income without the actual loss of an asset that was formerly possessed.
If you're going to be anal about it, "pirating" involves the boarding of another person's ocean going vessel, and "stealing" something from it and/or "stealing" said vessel. Even Pirate Radio was about "stealing" bandwidth used by someone else in order to broadcast without restrictions/fees.
Why don't we all just call it what it is? Copying! Copying can be good (I copied his fabulous dance move) or it can be bad (I copied his paper on plagiarism). It's all still copying.
Mod parent up... the Squid cache is the place to inject bittorrent, not Apache. As BT can handle full folder structures now, it should be easy to even custom craft the torrent so that the html gets transferred first, followed by.jpg,.png and.gif, and then everything else. That way, the page could even load before the torrent was complete. Combine this with the new "trackerless" torrenting and mod-gz style compression on the individual files, and you've got quite a nice little enhanced Squid!
Guess what? There's a LOT you can do. For starters, place your investments in ethical funds. These funds consist of companies that have agreed to be audited for shady business practices.
Secondly, there are quite a few ethical companies out there still, despite the FUD most people spew about unethical practices being inevitable.
Take, for instance coffee and chocolate. You could refuse to purchase any of those two items that doesn't bear the Fair Trade seal. This is just one example, there are many more. Every little bit of purchasing pressure helps, whether you see immediate results or not.
Not all businesses care about profit above everything else -- although it is true for most publicly traded companies who don't have a majority shareholder.
The system is NOT inevitable. Only consumer apathy makes it inevitable, and that depends upon comments like yours. It's true that there will always be unethical employees and managers, and there will always be some unethical businesses. But all it takes is a bit of incentive from consumers and from individuals who make policy in companies, and you have ethical businesses.
Your argument is well structured, but it belies the fact that it's often the people who lived in rich suburbs and had small classes who don't have a clue about grammar. This isn't about people being better or worse, it's about effective use of a tool.
Think of it this way -- imagine someone is running a business, and someone else comes in and shoplifts, walking away with some of their product. You could use your same argument to say that it's all racism and elitism, as the business owner had the money and was taught the skills to run their business, while the shoplifter obviously was poor and disenfranchised. Are you willing to judge the poor shoplifter on the same level as the greedy business owner even though he did not have the same advantages? What if I told you the shoplifter was the child of a millionaire, and was doing it because they were bored, and the business person was running a family business, and they'd immigrated from a third world country and had their entire extended family's life savings invested in the one shop, and had virtually no margin left on their product?
Anyone can learn grammar; some won't have been taught it correctly when they were young, and that's a shame. However, they're ignorant no matter what their race or social status; they are less effective at communicating, and will be judged based on how they handle themselves in a public situation. I know some highly educated people who speak four languages; while their Chinese, French, and German are top notch, their english is lacking, and people assume they aren't very intelligent, as they can't understand what they are saying. Snobbery exists, but it exists in all aspects of life. People thinking they are better than others does not depend on language use. When I wear an expensive suit, people treat me much differently than when I wear a sweat shirt, ball cap, baggy jeans and vans. Basicly, people respect success, and are snobbish toward people who seem to have a high opinion of themselves, but aren't displaying the cultural "success" symbols.
The problem with a fully phonetic approach can be best explained in the world of online gaming.
Take a MUD that's been running for 4 years, for example. That's 4 years of the world changing, new classes, objects, areas being defined. Those who were there for those 4 years grew with the MUD, and know exactly how to use it. However, someone new logging on after 4 years, assuming it's a MERC (for example) MUD, will be totally lost, unless there are defined rules and FAQs available to help them along. If they're just told "just jump in! I'm sure you'll figure everything out from context," you can bet they'll likely leave pretty quickly.
The same is true of living languages. Contextual learning might be fine if you've spent the last 20 years of your life doing it, but what happens when you move to somewhere where the language has grown in a different direction? What happens when you move to a country with a completely different language structure? You need to learn the rules. If there's no fixed set of rules, how are you going to learn the language? Very painfully and slowly, if you rely solely on context. Adult minds aren't designed to learn that way, only to subsist.
"Got" is the past tense of to get, so "You've got mail" really means that in the past, you went out and fetched your mail (The have is a modifier used to put it in the perfect). Compare this to "You have to get mail," where the "to" signifies that the verb is "get" and "have" is an imperative.
There are some interesting articles out on how this sad state of affairs is prevalent in the business administration world too -- many memos sent out in businesses are grammatically incorrect enough that they require all recipients to have a face to face meeting with the sender in order to actually figure out what exactly was meant.
(As for "exactly was meant" vs "was meant exactly," this is the sort of grammatical rule that can [and is] changing in the English language).
This all started before the internet -- even before BBSes were popular. In the mid 80's, North America adopted a new "hollistic" teaching strategy -- this method of teaching eschewed traditional grammar drills in favour of contextual grammatical teaching methods. So an entire generation has grown up not knowing the rules, just how the words they use themselves fit together. In University, I experienced a number of people finishing off their english degrees who didn't even know the proper terms for various figures of speech, not to mention how the rules all fit together!
This is all completely seperate from the influence of technology and the internet -- hackers know a specific language, whether it be C++, LISP, SNOBOL, BASIC, Rexx, or something else, because the wordset is very small, and the ruleset is also quite small. All the definitions are fixed, and the hackers had to learn the basics of the language precisely in order to do anything useful with it. Conversely, an entire generation of North Americans has grown up being taught that you can get along quite well without learning anything specific about the English language.
By the way, "shutter" is something on a house or behind a camera lens; "shudder" is what your body does when you are cold or afraid. This is yet another example of learning a word by hearing it in context instead of learning it by reading it and looking up the definition.
Sometimes Chinese looks much more attractive as a language....
I think you just got (and missed) both points... one way to extinguish a forest fire is oxygen deprivation. Often, a highly flammable substance is burned to suck oxygen out of the area and thus extinguish the fire. The plus side to using liquid hydrogen is that any excess fuel that doesn't burn up will almost instantly vaporise and leave the area, not leaving unwanted incindiaries lying around, as sometimes happens with traditional explosives.
Just out of curiosity, how is the parent offtopic?
The news posted talks about broadband trials coming out around the world, emphasizing CDMA 2.5MHz broadband by NexTel. The article that I linked to shows that in Canada and Mexico, 2.5MHz CDMA has been commercially viable for over a year.
My point was that the information about NexTel is nothing earth shattering, only reporting that a company that has failed with one cellular broadband technology is now running a pilot of technology that has been proven in the field for a significant amount of time.
1. Download iTunes
2. Aggregate your mp3s and AACs (change the rip quality first)
3. Make a playlist
4. Insert a CD-RW
5. Click "Burn CD"
6. ???
7. Profit (from only having to listen to good tracks)
As someone who has tried to get a number of permission deals from various industries, I'll let you know right now that RIAA and MPAA related companies tend to completely ignore you, even when you've emailed, faxed and sent snail mail (there's no way to get to a real person in charge of such things at the phone numbers I've tried).
Software publishers (I've never tried to contact a BSA publisher) and other independent media publishers are usually delighted to make a deal; often, even for free, or with a small percentage kickback if you're doing something for-profit.
I'm glad Google has decided to side with the independents instead of the corporate behemoths on their treatment of individuals in this case, and actually acknowledge that corporations share the world with individual human beings.
Slashdot Mirror
Slow down, and re-read what I wrote ;)
So, in several countries, 1,333 is understood as 1.333 -- Would the US be one of those countries, or would France be one of those countries? Now I'm really confused. I guess I should find out by measuring my hair.
That becomes painfully obvious when reviewing what your politicians and reporters say and write ;)
TeaFLOPS - Tea FLoating Operations Per Second -- it's how many bits escape from the teabag/strainer/ball and float to the surface per second, of course. The delightful thing about this computer is that instead of only having two states, and a fixed size of 32 bits per bite, you can have an infinitely scalable states, and slurps can be of a variable size. Thermal cooling is done via Milk.
AFAIK, the Common Carrier status for communication was introduced by Napoleon Bonaparte for telegraph wires, (as part of the ITU treaty) and is (or was) the same in all signatory countries. Of course, nationally, it can be open to interpretation -- but in Canada's case, Common Carrier is quite similar to the US status. The only difference is that in Canada, effort is made to resolve differences without resorting to lawsuits, leaving the suits as a method of last resort instead of being used as a warning shot.
Driving an automobile is not a right. In most places, it is still perfectly legal to travel via horse & buggy (although people choose not to), and pedestrians still have full freedom to walk all over public property (including roads). To get from point A to point B, nobody needs a car -- it just makes it more convenient, and faster. It is also possible to carpool, meaning you don't have to have a license to drive (passengers don't need licenses yet), or to ride a bicycle, or a motorized vehicle under a certain HP. None of these things need licenses. Walking on public property is a right. Driving a car is a privilege. This also explains the wheelchair access laws, as a person in a wheelchair is defined to be "walking", therefore they have a right to access to public spaces.
How does this work when you've paid for content, but the provider goes out of business, and so can no longer validate your product?
How about the fact that it is perfectly legal to transfer copyright from one person to another?
And the fact that there is no copyright on the high seas? You can do whatever you want with intellectual property in international waters.
Could DRM somehow protect the producer of the intellectual property if a person moved from the US to the UK where some copyright clauses are less strict while others are more strict?
And can this DRM automatically change if the local copyright laws change?
Basicly, this boils down to DRM that can have its rules modified by anyone in a position of authority over the intellectual property -- this would include the original author, the copyright holder, the chain of government (global, national, state, municipal, familial...), and ultimately, the individual who has purchased the product.
Now, I have to agree, I'm all for DRM that can be easily broken by anyone. Personally, I see this as the only workable method: DRM that requires a conscious effort to break, but can be broken easily by anyone and any device. That way, it's still the law that keeps people from breaking any DRM; and all DRM can be broken by anyone in any situation where it is legal to do so (notwithstanding DMCA-style laws).
The trick is creating "busways" where busses run down a corridor, or use HOV lanes when a corridor is impractical. Traffic intersections need the lights recalibrated, so that any bus approaching a light will change the signal, much like a pedestrian pushbutton.
The end result is that it takes slightly longer for regular vehicles to navigate the grid, but busses only have to stop at their stops; they don't get stuck in gridlock. The next step is to space the bus stops further apart (5-20 blocks for the high capacity routes) for the long distance runs, and have local service that winds its way around the neighbourhood. This way, people are also encouraged to (gasp) walk small distances, which clears up traffic and pollution problems (including litter problems), increases health, lowers obesity, and increases a sense of community.
Well, I guess on one hand, your post illustrates the point you're making perfectly. Even when you know the rules, it is extremely easy to take no care in how your ideas are encoded into text when you input via a computer -- less effort in entering the sentences means less effort in thinking about structure.
However, as someone who always had extreme difficulty mastering printing and handwriting, my first keyboard was a liberating experience for me! Considering I'm a lateral thinker, the ability to type free-form ideas and then reorganize them into a logical progression without having to rewrite everything was a blessing. The act of writing was a hinderance to my learning, and the accuracy and depth of my language didn't come into its own until I was able to overcome my writing impediment. I even tended to use the shortest words possible when writing, so as not to hurt my wrist as much.
I still remember the grade 12 teacher who required I hand-write my reports, and submit all drafts as well as the final copy. I hand wrote one, which was sub-standard (draft level). Then, out of frustration, I re-did it in a day on a word processor, submitting each "revision", and stood there while he read it so he could see how much better my ideas flowed, as well as how much shorter, time-wise it took me to complete. We then agreed on letting me submit the rest of my assignments typed, with each page signed by my parents.
The point of this illustration is that no two students learn the same way -- due to many factors; disabilities as well as natural learning methods -- and the current system tries to adapt to that by allowing children to learn in the way that works best for them. This method is generally different for each subject in school.
Of course, I can't stand the current system either. In any teaching style, 20% or so of the class gets left behind. Personally, I feel that children should be trained how to learn in all the various learning methods, and should have exposure to all of the tools available. The trick is to not have such strict divisions of courses; combine math and history and english; have different requirements for different assignments, and grade based on how the student uses the tools required.
Having taught 6th grade maths, I can tell you that some students don't learn because they don't see any progress. However, I did a quick mini-course on logarithms for those who I felt were smart but not applying themselves in class; then I had them research how logarithms worked, and apply that information to the problem solving and basic algebra taught in 6th grade maths. They ended up learning the same skills that the other students were supposed to be learning, but using mathematical tools that interested them and were challenging.
Now, if I had done that with the entire class, it would have been a disaster. However, it actually prompted some of the other students to work harder so that they could join this "chosen" group in the "fun" math.
I should point out that I was also using BASIC on Apple ][s with the special group from time to time. They had to solve problems by creating algorithms pulled from BAISC recipes, and testing for a result.
Computers are a tool, and used as such, are extremely useful in a school setting. However, used as a "solution", they achieve nothing other than keeping students entertained while the teacher deals with the more difficult children. Instead of getting computers out of schools, I propose something different. All computer software that a teacher cannot explain, in detail, how it is being used to leverage the learning techniques they are supposed to teach, should be removed from their classroom. "Math Blasters helps them with their math drills" is not a proper explanation. "This software program calls on the children to be creative while requiring use of the skills they are supposed to have gained in fact finding and problem solving to this point in the curriculum" is.
This means that I can, for example, print a set of custom coffee mugs, and have them delivered to a store near relatives who live on the other side of the country. I not only save on printing, I also save the shipping!
I go home, and publish his findings about my problem on my blog, so that others who suffer similarly can fix it themselves, without having to go to a doctor.
The UDOA (United Doctors of America) is sifting through web sites, and stumbles across mine. They see that the product of one of their members (the advice) is published there for anyone to duplicate, thus depriving their members of the revenue they could have earned from all those people going to see them!
The result is that the UDOA contact the FBI, who come and raid my house, take my computers and any drugs related to my problem (just in case I'm giving them to others), and put me in jail.
Now, I know I'm playing Devil's advocate as much as the next /.er, but it seems to me there's an obvious problem here.
If you want something a bit more analogous than the above illustration, how about substituting the Recipe Maker's Association of America for the UDOA? Why aren't people who trade recipes being jailed for copyright infringement?
Nothing's being removed, including the ability to compile Cocoa/Java apps. They just won't be adding any new features to the C/J API; even features that are available to C/oC. All this means is that if Apple decides to add a hook for something like kCOM to Cocoa, Java-based apps won't be able to access this information.
"...they want to be able to interrupt or redirect a airplane's Internet access during a crisis...."
Kinda hard to use internet access to set something off when all you have access to is the FBI's honeynet.
On the other hand, I don't think this is really about setting something off on a plane that some person happens to also be on; it's about making airplane wifi a bit less anonymous, so that someone can't keep hopping flights and have their internet usage be extremely difficult to track.
Of course, all the person has to do is be on the ground near a major urban centre, and they have their pick of anonymous access points.
If you're going to be anal about it, "pirating" involves the boarding of another person's ocean going vessel, and "stealing" something from it and/or "stealing" said vessel. Even Pirate Radio was about "stealing" bandwidth used by someone else in order to broadcast without restrictions/fees.
Why don't we all just call it what it is? Copying! Copying can be good (I copied his fabulous dance move) or it can be bad (I copied his paper on plagiarism). It's all still copying.
Mod parent up... the Squid cache is the place to inject bittorrent, not Apache. As BT can handle full folder structures now, it should be easy to even custom craft the torrent so that the html gets transferred first, followed by .jpg, .png and .gif, and then everything else. That way, the page could even load before the torrent was complete. Combine this with the new "trackerless" torrenting and mod-gz style compression on the individual files, and you've got quite a nice little enhanced Squid!
Secondly, there are quite a few ethical companies out there still, despite the FUD most people spew about unethical practices being inevitable.
Take, for instance coffee and chocolate. You could refuse to purchase any of those two items that doesn't bear the Fair Trade seal. This is just one example, there are many more. Every little bit of purchasing pressure helps, whether you see immediate results or not.
Not all businesses care about profit above everything else -- although it is true for most publicly traded companies who don't have a majority shareholder.
The system is NOT inevitable. Only consumer apathy makes it inevitable, and that depends upon comments like yours. It's true that there will always be unethical employees and managers, and there will always be some unethical businesses. But all it takes is a bit of incentive from consumers and from individuals who make policy in companies, and you have ethical businesses.
Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Think of it this way -- imagine someone is running a business, and someone else comes in and shoplifts, walking away with some of their product. You could use your same argument to say that it's all racism and elitism, as the business owner had the money and was taught the skills to run their business, while the shoplifter obviously was poor and disenfranchised. Are you willing to judge the poor shoplifter on the same level as the greedy business owner even though he did not have the same advantages? What if I told you the shoplifter was the child of a millionaire, and was doing it because they were bored, and the business person was running a family business, and they'd immigrated from a third world country and had their entire extended family's life savings invested in the one shop, and had virtually no margin left on their product?
Anyone can learn grammar; some won't have been taught it correctly when they were young, and that's a shame. However, they're ignorant no matter what their race or social status; they are less effective at communicating, and will be judged based on how they handle themselves in a public situation. I know some highly educated people who speak four languages; while their Chinese, French, and German are top notch, their english is lacking, and people assume they aren't very intelligent, as they can't understand what they are saying. Snobbery exists, but it exists in all aspects of life. People thinking they are better than others does not depend on language use. When I wear an expensive suit, people treat me much differently than when I wear a sweat shirt, ball cap, baggy jeans and vans. Basicly, people respect success, and are snobbish toward people who seem to have a high opinion of themselves, but aren't displaying the cultural "success" symbols.
Take a MUD that's been running for 4 years, for example. That's 4 years of the world changing, new classes, objects, areas being defined. Those who were there for those 4 years grew with the MUD, and know exactly how to use it. However, someone new logging on after 4 years, assuming it's a MERC (for example) MUD, will be totally lost, unless there are defined rules and FAQs available to help them along. If they're just told "just jump in! I'm sure you'll figure everything out from context," you can bet they'll likely leave pretty quickly.
The same is true of living languages. Contextual learning might be fine if you've spent the last 20 years of your life doing it, but what happens when you move to somewhere where the language has grown in a different direction? What happens when you move to a country with a completely different language structure? You need to learn the rules. If there's no fixed set of rules, how are you going to learn the language? Very painfully and slowly, if you rely solely on context. Adult minds aren't designed to learn that way, only to subsist.
There are some interesting articles out on how this sad state of affairs is prevalent in the business administration world too -- many memos sent out in businesses are grammatically incorrect enough that they require all recipients to have a face to face meeting with the sender in order to actually figure out what exactly was meant.
(As for "exactly was meant" vs "was meant exactly," this is the sort of grammatical rule that can [and is] changing in the English language).
This is all completely seperate from the influence of technology and the internet -- hackers know a specific language, whether it be C++, LISP, SNOBOL, BASIC, Rexx, or something else, because the wordset is very small, and the ruleset is also quite small. All the definitions are fixed, and the hackers had to learn the basics of the language precisely in order to do anything useful with it. Conversely, an entire generation of North Americans has grown up being taught that you can get along quite well without learning anything specific about the English language.
By the way, "shutter" is something on a house or behind a camera lens; "shudder" is what your body does when you are cold or afraid. This is yet another example of learning a word by hearing it in context instead of learning it by reading it and looking up the definition.
Sometimes Chinese looks much more attractive as a language....
I think you just got (and missed) both points... one way to extinguish a forest fire is oxygen deprivation. Often, a highly flammable substance is burned to suck oxygen out of the area and thus extinguish the fire. The plus side to using liquid hydrogen is that any excess fuel that doesn't burn up will almost instantly vaporise and leave the area, not leaving unwanted incindiaries lying around, as sometimes happens with traditional explosives.
The news posted talks about broadband trials coming out around the world, emphasizing CDMA 2.5MHz broadband by NexTel. The article that I linked to shows that in Canada and Mexico, 2.5MHz CDMA has been commercially viable for over a year.
My point was that the information about NexTel is nothing earth shattering, only reporting that a company that has failed with one cellular broadband technology is now running a pilot of technology that has been proven in the field for a significant amount of time.
...meanwhile, Allstream (AT&T) and Fido have had commercial 2.5MHz CDMA broadband in place in this city for over a year.
1. Download iTunes
2. Aggregate your mp3s and AACs (change the rip quality first)
3. Make a playlist
4. Insert a CD-RW
5. Click "Burn CD"
6. ???
7. Profit (from only having to listen to good tracks)
Software publishers (I've never tried to contact a BSA publisher) and other independent media publishers are usually delighted to make a deal; often, even for free, or with a small percentage kickback if you're doing something for-profit.
I'm glad Google has decided to side with the independents instead of the corporate behemoths on their treatment of individuals in this case, and actually acknowledge that corporations share the world with individual human beings.