[Cialug] [OT] Security and the browser

[Barry Von Ahsen]

inflammable means flammable?!?  what a country!

-barry


Josh More wrote:
> Just to take this really far off topic, I'd like to recommend that
> everyone participating in this conversation read "The Meaning of
> Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary"  ( 
> http://www.amazon.com/Meaning-Everything-Oxford-English-Dictionary/dp/019517500X/
> ).
> 
> It's very well written and fascinating, for those of us who appreciate
> language enough to quibble about it on a technology list.  :)
> 
> 
>  
> 
> -Josh More, RHCE, CISSP, NCLP, GIAC 
>  morej at alliancetechnologies.net 
>  515-245-7701
> 
> 
> 
>>>> "Daniel A. Ramaley" <daniel.ramaley at drake.edu> 10/22/08 12:27 PM
>>>>
> On Wednesday October 22 2008 12:04, Bryan Baker wrote:
>>> It's one of those things where some people use it incorrectly, it  
>>> eventually becomes accepted practice to use it incorrectly.
>> Exactly. It literally means to reduce by 1/10 and is now used as a
>> synonym for total destruction (an almost 180*spin).
> 
> I think that's getting close to the difference between prescriptive and
> 
> descriptive linguistics. I used to have a more prescriptive view of 
> language. These days i think (probably as a result of learning some 
> Japanese in a non-traditional program) that a descriptive view is 
> better. Languages change over time; words change meaning and new 
> grammar and vocabulary are developed while old are dropped.
> 
> Prescriptivists will tend to think that language should be static and 
> not change. I think prescriptivists probably would make better junior 
> high language teachers since they are less accepting of "errors". 
> Descriptivists who simply try to divine the existing rules of a 
> language rather than enforcing some external rules are probably better
> 
> at accepting the change of language over time.
> 
> Perhaps slightly more on topic: so what does the word "hacker" mean? 
> There's a good example of a word that has changed meaning, and did so 
> in a very short period of time.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118, Drake
> University
> Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave
> +1 515 271-4540                        Des Moines IA 50311 USA
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