Splunge - Slashdot User

Comment Re:I know you're just joking, but... (Score 1) 939

by Splunge on Monday October 01, 2007 @01:48PM (#20813013) Attached to: The World's Languages Are Fast Becoming Extinct

There are ideas that cannot be easily expressed in Greek and ideas that cannot be easily expressed in Syriac.

To me, this is (no offense) bullshit. People always say that you need different languages to express different ideas. That there just aren't the words in Language 1 to express the idea in Language 2. How can this be unless the people of Lang 1 are fundamentally different individuals than people of Lang 2 and, really, they're not. People have more or less the same basic emotions and senses. Since they have the same basic needs, they have the same basic environment. It isn't like a tree and a bacteria attempting to describe their worldviews to each other.

So a language doesn't have the word to describe that X. Well, it can (and many do) appropriate them. English speakers certainly knew the feeling of taking pleasure in the misfortune of others before the appropriation of schadenfreude. It's not like anyone says "I have no idea what feeling you're talking about". And, prior to the appropriation, one could use the clumsy "took pleasure in the misfortune of others" to describe it.

All used human languages should be 'turing complete' and therefore equally 'powerful' at expressing anything a human needs to express.

Canada's Copyright Cops Give Go-Ahead For iPod Tax 230

Posted by Zonk on Thursday July 19, 2007 @07:19PM from the pay-for-your-piper dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist reports that the Canada's Copyright Board has given the go-ahead for a new copyright tax on iPods, despite an earlier court decision blocking the fee. The Board apparently ruled that not including iPods would make criminals of millions of Canadians and that the levy could conceivably be applied to cellphones and personal computers. 'If we're going to make P2P legal through a levy system, the system must (1) address both downloading and uploading; (2) consider addressing non-commercial use of content; (3) cover audio and video; and (4) more closely link the copying to those paying the levy. The government has yet to play its hand on this issue, but with the prospect of an unpopular levy and mounting pressure for a Canadian fair use provision, it will have to take a stand sometime soon.'"

Chimps Found Making Own Weapons to Hunt for Food 410

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:47PM from the boards-with-nails dept.

Pojut writes "The Washington Post has an article involving chimps and weapons. Apparently, there have been direct observations of chimps in the west African savannah modifying sticks to create spears. They then use these spears to kill small mammals and eat them. It is the first time that an animal other than a human has been directly observed in crafting a weapon for the purpose of hunting or killing."

Robot Identifies Human Flesh As Bacon 312

Posted by Zonk on Thursday November 09, 2006 @07:53PM from the tastes-like-chicken-or-so-i've-heard dept.

Jearil writes "Wired's 'Table of Malcontents' blog links to an article about a wine-tasting robot that thinks humans taste like bacon. The Japanese robot is intended to act as a personal sommelier, suggesting wines, cheeses, and hors d'oeuvres based on its owners personal tastes. It also apparently thinks humans would be tasty as part of a sandwich." From the article: "Let the robot holocaust commence: robots think we taste like bacon ... Upon being given a sample, he will speak up in a childlike voice and identify what he has just been fed. The idea is that wineries can tell if a wine is authentic without even opening the bottle, amongst other more obscure uses ... like 'tell me what this strange grayish lump at the back of my freezer is/was.' But when some smart aleck reporter placed his hand in the robot's omnivorous clanking jaw, he was identified as bacon. A cameraman then tried and was identified as prosciutto." This is most distressing.

Should Online Stores Be Subject To ADA? 546

Posted by kdawson on Monday November 06, 2006 @02:16PM from the accessibility-rising dept.

prostoalex writes, "HTML tutorials usually mention alt tags for images and noscript tags as something optional that a Web designer should add to a site for the crawlers and users browsing with graphics or JavaScript turned off. However, a recent lawsuit against Target by the National Federation of the Blind accuses the retailer of not complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Since Target's online store is unbrowsable with a screen reader, the nation's 200,000 blind people who go online cannot become paying customers, the NFB contends. From the article: 'In denying Target's motion to dismiss the suit two months ago, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel... held that the law's accessibility requirements applied to all services offered by a place of public accommodation. Since Target's physical stores are places of public accommodation, the ruling said, its online store must also be accessible or the company must offer equally effective alternatives.' Does the judge's name ring a bell? Yes, it's the same Marilyn Hall Patel who handled the RIAA's case against Napster in 2001." Web builders and tools may need to start brushing up on the Web Accessibility Initiative.

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