[NTLUG:Discuss] IMOCKYOU, or: MAKE.MOCKERY.NOW!!!

[Ian Alexander]

Agreed.  Eventually the proponents of proscriptive lingustics will realize
that language is a continually evolving thing, that we don't speak the
same "english" as we did 100 years ago (much less 1000), and will come
around to the descriptive line of thought - the OneTrueWay(tm)(r)(c).

Food for thought: if the point of language is to communicate, then does it
really matter what words a person uses as long as you both understand what
the other is saying?  Why bitch about such trivial details when there are
so many other important things to bitch about?  :)


----                                                                    ----
Ian J. Alexander                   email: ija at eaze.net  Office: 817-557-3038
Senior Software Engineer           http://ija.eaze.net  Fax:    817-557-3468
EazeNet - Putting the 'S' in 'ISP'
                       --== There is no spoon. ==--
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On Thu, 4 May 2000, Doug Shaw wrote:

> At 02:46 PM 5/4/00 -0500, Buddy Brannan wrote:
> 
> >Now maybe someone knows the answer to this, but whose bright idea was the
> >term "bumped off"? As in, "I was on the Innernet and in the past few
> >minutes, I've been bumped off by your server seventy-three thousand five
> >hundred and forty-eight times!" 
> 
> Everybody can be mocked.  For example, whose idea was it to refer to ideas
> as "bright?"  I was unaware that luminescence was an attribute of ideas.
> 
> The phrase "bumped off" is being used like the phrase "knocked off" to
> refer to the state of their connection to the Internet.  The connection can
> also be "dropped" or "broken," although neither of these is any more
> accurate than "bumped."
> 
> But if we're going to be pedantic, let's be completely pedantic.  Instead
> of saying ("typing") that they're being "bumped off," they should say
> ("type") that they've been "disconnected."  But WAIT!  THEY aren't
> connected at all!  Their modem ("modulator/demodulating device") is
> connected and IT is being disconnected or "bumped off."  Heck, to be
> completely factual, THEY aren't even "on" the Internet!  ("On" is a
> misleading term... better to say "connected to.")
> 
> If they aren't "connected to" the Internet, why are they calling technical
> support ("assistance" would be a better choice of words)?  And why are you
> paid to provide assistance to someone who isn't "connected to" the Internet?
> 
> Face it, if the people we mock knew enough to avoid being mocked, we'd be
> unemployed.  Everybody would be pretty self-reliant when it came to
> computers and there wouldn't be such a demand for "specialists."
> 
> So we'd move on to other fields where people weren't so self-reliant.  But
> the same rules apply.
> 
> To make this post vaguely on-topic (not really "on"), consider that the
> name Linux is a hybridization of "Linus' Unix."  But now that the majority
> of Linux development work is being done by other people, is that name
> really accurate?  We should rename it to "Worldix" or "Earthux" or
> "Globlix" to more accurately reflect its modern status.
> 
> Having depleted my supply of figuratively sarcastic stones, I'm going to
> retire to my figuratively sarcastic glass house.  Good day!
> 
> Doug
> 
> 
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