posted
My brother and I were talking about this recently, they've even got a patent on trying to teach someone music.
What we believe is two things, the reason Microsoft are taking these patents is so that if they are sued by a company, they will have enough patents to say that the company suing has already infringed on so many of their patents.
The second is that Microsoft already is moving for a reform in the patent system, perhaps their reasons for this is to try to show just how much it needs reformed.
Posts: 1831 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Just for that, I'm think we should patent every three letter internet acronym, the phrases "log on" and "log off", the word "w00t!" and the letter e.
posted
The Bıble? Dots on the "ı"s ın the Englısh Bıble are rather mıld compared to the "ımportance" a Hebrew Sefer-Torah (Torah book - scroll) to have the nıce lıttle "flags" on top of certaın letters. Look at any Torah scroll and see the lıttle letter-elaboratıons.
It's harder to read ıt so mınd you. And ıt's annoyıng because you've got to read ın publıc these thıngs.
Who needs the dots on the "ı"s anyway?
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
You're breaking my mind! Put back the dots, spelling devil!!
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Der Grammatikfuehrer
unregistered
posted
The dots exist to make the letter i more readable by helping it stand out from neighboring letters. But since you can't grasp this basic fact and since you have committed so many other linguistic crimes, I hereby sentence you to a reeducation camp. If you resist, I will be forced to beat you senseless with a tray of movable type.
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posted
Wow, so I can call myself "Der Grammatikkönıg" and defy your rules. The only reason "ı" ıs more readable wıth dots ıs because you're used to ıt.
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Here, I am the Official Grammar Communist of these boards. And no, I'm not partitioning Poland with you, we all know where that leads. I'll just invade straight away.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
It's not that hard to read it without it because we know what words are being written. It's like that thing where you can jumble the letters inside a word, keeping the first and last letters the same, you can still comprehend it.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Jonathan Howard: Wow, so I can call myself "Der Grammatikkönıg" and defy your rules. The only reason "ı" ıs more readable wıth dots ıs because you're used to ıt.
So? If everyone's used to it this way, and there's nothing wrong with it, why complain about it and petition for change?
quote:Originally posted by kojabu: It's like that thing where you can jumble the letters inside a word, keeping the first and last letters the same, you can still comprehend it.
This is pretty easy to disprove.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote:Originally posted by kojabu: It's like that thing where you can jumble the letters inside a word, keeping the first and last letters the same, you can still comprehend it.
This is pretty easy to disprove.
I've seen it done before.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Sorry, only examples I've read are from his personal notebooks (Washington University in Saint Louis has several in their collections), where he was, ah, liberal with his handwriting.
That is, most of it just looks like up and down squiggles.
I guess he wrote neater when he thought others might read it.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I write sloppy notes to myself, but not a paper I'd hand in.
And what worthwhile things can I do? I invited someone to Hatrack - six posts only; I write poetry - Tom complains about Yodaness; I make language reforms - and the Grammar Communists and Fürers attack me for bad orthographic skill; I practise language - and I'm banished from co-ruling the Galaxy.
Easy for thee to talk.
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote: The second is that Microsoft already is moving for a reform in the patent system, perhaps their reasons for this is to try to show just how much it needs reformed.
Considering Microsoft's past behaviour and their penchant for using patent law as a weapon I find it hard to envision them championing reform unless it is structured as such to give large semi-monopolies even more latitude.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Mıcroſoft's monopulative. Everybody knows that; now, we've got to stop them from patenting the 30 letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, ı, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, ſ, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, þ, ð.
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Jonathan Howard: And what worthwhile things can I do?
If you want to know more about language, go read a few linguistics textbooks. Research Proto-Indo-European verb forms or the Great Vowel Shift. Learn Old English or something.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote:Originally posted by kojabu: It's like that thing where you can jumble the letters inside a word, keeping the first and last letters the same, you can still comprehend it.
This is pretty easy to disprove.
I've seen it done before.
It is a HOAX. And I am telling you, the next person to reference it . . . well, I don't want to make any threats, but I refuse to be responsible for what I may do.
quote:Originally posted by kojabu: It's like that thing where you can jumble the letters inside a word, keeping the first and last letters the same, you can still comprehend it.
This is pretty easy to disprove.
I've seen it done before.
It is a HOAX. And I am telling you, the next person to reference it . . . well, I don't want to make any threats, but I refuse to be responsible for what I may do.
Um I'm sorry, but I've read things that people have written like that, that's where I'm basing it off of. Maybe it's just my brain.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
The trick to that is that you can't scramble the letters too much—especially letters with ascenders and descenders. That e-mail was posted three or four times here on Hatrack, and people quickly came up with scrambled words that were impossible to read because they were too jumbled.
But the original e-mails themselves were a hoax, even if it "worked." There was no such study at any university.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
Sorry, I got overexposed to that email (I believe in one memorable week there were four Hatrack threads, three threads at various other fora I frequent, and a handful of copies in my email) and tend to react badly to any mention of it.
posted
rivka, this is the second time this week I've seen you scream "HOAX" in relation to that subject. On what are you basing this? Last time you referenced Snopes.com, but they only list it as Undetermined, and that isn't talking about the phenomenon itself, but whether it was "discovered" by a university study. (They name the university, but I'm too lazy right now to look it up.)
So, what gives? What makes it a "hoax". It is clear that the phenomenon exists to some degree, at least for the text in the email that was being sent around. (I can't vouch whether it works across the board or not.)
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Here's a good place to start. I think it's fairly obvious that it's a hoax. There has not been any such study at any university, so the first claim—that this is the product of research—is false. Secondly, it's not true that the letters can be in any order. That link shows what happens when you really start to scramble the words. Furthermore, studies have shown that we read by recognizing the shape of words—it's not simply a matter of the first and last letter. That's why it can be so hard for someone people to sound out long words that they're unfamiliar with; even if it's an easy word to say, they tend not to read letter-by-letter.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
KarlEd, did you follow the links at the end of the Snopes article?
Jonathon makes several good points:
The study the email cites never happened -- this is the biggie, IMO.
The actual claim is not true. It is harder to read scrambled words. How much harder depends on the exact scrambling.
Additionally, there are several words in that infamous email that are decodable primarily because they have letters duplicated. ("rscheearch")
It is difficult enough to convince people to (at least attempt) to spell correctly without giving them (invalid) excuses not to . . .
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
boy -- I had to scroll up and read what you were calling a hoax -- because just catching the tail end of this thread, I at first thought you were talking about what I originally posted -- and I thought "then every major news organization is wrong".
But I see the thread drifted into a different direction. *whew*
If a dash placed between two words - such as this pair - is supposed to be an EM Dash, how come Microsoft Word gives you an EN Dash when you do the letter-space-hyphen-letter-space sequence? You'd expect them to know!
(Mind you, Publisher does an EM Dash, without any spaces. Should you or shouldn't you put spaces before a dash?)
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Thanks, Karl. I know that I've been particularly snappish the last few days, and I apologize.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Jonathan Howard: Jon Boy, I have a question:
If a dash placed between two words - such as this pair - is supposed to be an EM Dash, how come Microsoft Word gives you an EN Dash when you do the letter-space-hyphen-letter-space sequence? You'd expect them to know!
(Mind you, Publisher does an EM Dash, without any spaces. Should you or shouldn't you put spaces before a dash?)
Because Microsoft Word is a piece of crap and its autocorrect features are retarded.
Actually, it's probably because most people don't put spaces around dashes. However, I believe it is common in Britain to use an en dash surrounded by spaces rather than an em dash without spaces. I'm guessing that Word thinks this is what you're doing.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
No apology necessary. I didn't take it as particularly snappish. I just wasn't sure what your reasoning was. I probably missed it when the threads about the original email were going around. Then, encountering your dismissals back-to-back like that piqued my curiosity.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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