What is Digg?Sponsored by American Express
A Gift That Could Only Come from You view!
americanexpress.com - Give a Gift Card with your photo on it so they know who to thank.
60 Comments
- RBOnline, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Another case of Government computer illiteracy. No wonder our Government wastes billions on stupid contracts from incapable companies.
- po6ot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Did any of you actually read this?
She understood the software was to be FREELY distributed.
She was questioning the legality of some 3rd party that was SELLING the software for PROFIT.
She then asked the Mozilla guy if it was ok for people to be making a profit on this GPL software.
Then he gives some wierd reply that didn't really answer her questions.
What he should of gone on to say was whether it is legal or not to sell GPL software.
and is it? - macewan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4from the country that knighted gates ;-)
- Pogue_Mahone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@ po6ot
FTA
"I said that selling verbatim copies of Firefox on physical media was absolutely fine with us, and we would like her to return any confiscated CDs ..."
How much more clear would you like him to be? - Tufriast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I find that people are not used to the idea of the Free Software Movement, and GNU/Linux, and the Open Source Community because it goes in the face of capitalism. For their whole lives people have been expected to *pay* for everything they get. The truth of the matter is that there is plenty we do *not* pay for and get regularly. Such as air. It's a commodity - think about it. It is needed for you to live, is a limited supply, and the quality can degrade.
So, in essence, I think this kind of thinking really opens people's eyes. If you decide that everything has a price - there is no limit. Freedom is the first thing that made human society good. I just hope more instances of free *anything* pops up soon. - thenativeraver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3There should really be an IQ test before any person can be in charge of any part of the government.
I'm sick of stupid people in charge. - VSLOATHE, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"whats a spanner?"
A spanner wrench is a type of wrench used to torque large industrial ring-shaped retainers. There are a couple types, one you actually cup over the end of the bolt or cylinder to spin the ring, the other kind wraps around the ring and grabs the teeth on it. - warrenfalk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Getting into government *is* the IQ test... getting in means you failed.
- lagerbottom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@po6ot - "and is it?"
It is absolutly leagal to sell GPL software. RMS used to sell copies of Emacs back in the day to help fund GNU. - maht, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@dink
Because of US TV imports, almost everyone in the UK knows that Septics say fanny for arse, elevator for lift, trunk for boot, hood for bonnet, sidewalk for pavement, attorney for solicitor, soccer for football, chips for crisps, fries for chips, no more taxes for more taxes and count floors from 1 not ground.
That last one confused me while playing Call Of Duty and the British soldiers say "enemy on the first floor" when they meant "ground floor". I was trying to see the Nazi on what Americans call the 2nd floor.
We're used to having different words for stuff because of all of our regional accents. The most confusing one I know of in the UK is working out what the local word for bread roll is when visiting another town. You could be asking for a bap, roll, cob, barmcake, teacake, batch, softie, bun, breadcake, muffin or butty (if it has a filling). And if you ask for the wrong one chances are you'll just get a blank stare. - DoubtfulSalmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@dink: "so if fanny is Brittish English for pussy, then fanny pack must be a rather offensive term over there then- or atleast something you wouldn't say in public, no?"
I cannot speak for the British, but here in Australia, if you say "fanny pack", we'll just assume that you're American and leave it at that. "Fanny" doesnt' rate as offensive - it's really a very 'soft' term - and really pretty much never used. - plkrtn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1American's speak American English, a deriative of English. Most British people can translate American English to English quite easily...
American's like to remove the unneeded letters because simple minds need simple things... :0)
Its not our fault that American's have decided to bastardise the language of the mother land is it? - kyriakos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2honestly, digg is a great site but I'd recommend to anyone to avoid reading comments. most of the people commenting above haven't visited the link..
- B0jangles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just follow the 'Longstanding English Tourist Guide' maht. Speak louder and point more!
- durandal2005, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Dugg for using the word "spanner".
- RBOnline, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1^I'm British, just to clarify.
- afrazkhan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'd love to call American English just "American", but that would introduce a terrible inconsistency. In our own small island of Great Britain, we have as much variation in English over different parts than Americans have with us (and by "us", I mean Londoners, because I'm a xenophobe and London is England as far as I'm concerned). Save for the retarded American spelling of course.
I say retarded not because of changes like "socialisation" to "socialization" (though I could go on about my theory on the cause for that change in spelling in America), but for the difference in just _one_ word: aeroplane.
The word is aeroplane - A-E-R-O-P-L-A-N-E. Aero, as in aeronautics. There is no such word as airplane. It's simply nonsensical. Aluminium is a pretty bad offender too, but suffice to say that it makes as much sense as changing "potassium" to "potassum", just because you don't feel like pronouncing it properly.
I love you yanks really, :P - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Heh, I'll laugh the day I get taken to court for having several Linux ISOs on my drive!
In other news, Tony Blair realizes that you don't have to smile 24/7 :P - BritOverseas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Hee hee hee, gotta love them Brits for using them funny words like "Spanner", where do they come up with this *****? Oh, thats right, the English language...
Same as a "Fanny" is a front butt (womans genitals), not to be confused with a rear butt, your ass.
Alumin(I)um is spelt with a second "I" and unless you are Spanish "Colour" has a "U" in it.
Have to explain to my American workmates when they come to the U.K with me, not to use the word Fanny for their ass, several near misses with that one. Also, when somebody says they are going to have a fag, they are not talking about finding the nearest public toilet to have sex with another of their gender...
Biscuits are not bread, cookies ARE cookies but mainly only if they have chocolate chips in them and chips are french fries, but crisps are chips, get it?
easy huh? - NoMoreNicksLeft, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0She just wanted the opportunity to "whack a bad guy", and was upset and confused when that turned out not to be the case.
If it somehow interferes with or screws up anti-piracy legislation, then that is only a problem with the legislation itself, not with free software. - Nichevo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A spanner is a wrench
- dusingaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Spanners are basically Wrenches.
- captsuprawesome, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Maybe I'm just not getting it, but how does this prevent anti-piracy efforts? The business has the responsibilty to make sure its products are legal, the law enforcment has the responsibility to know whats legal and whats not, and Mozilla has the responsibilty to protect their product (which they don't really care about since it's free). I don't see how this stops them from preventing sales of unlicensed copies of Microsoft Office or other pirated software...
- g30ph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Anyone taking the time to put a free piece of software onto a CD for redistriubution should be allowed to charge for their own time and materials. I'm sure a few bucks is fair for the cost of the cd, label, and a minute or 2 to burn it.
- SniperGX1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Good, hope they fail...or die... whatever comes first
- dink, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@britsoverseas
so if fanny is Brittish English for pussy, then fanny pack must be a rather offensive term over there then- or atleast something you wouldn't say in public, no? - mw00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0She cannot believe that it can be redistributed by others by being sold for profit, which i can understand too...
- po6ot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@lagerbottom
Thank you. I trust that you are correct.
@Pogue_Mahone
I read that bit of the article. However, if it was illegal to sell GPL software (i have now been told that it is legal) I don't think it matters very much what his opinion on it is. - jtatum, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Funny and telling. A nice illustration of the difference between those who get it and those who don't. I wonder if the message got through to her, though.
- turdboogaloo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i thought there was an IQ test to get into the government. They only take the ones that fail the test.
- wthulhu, on 08/29/2009, -0/+0http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3Aspanner
A wrench or spanner is a tool used to turn bolts, nuts or other hard-to-turn items.
The British way of saying monkey wrench. - odysseus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you've ever played Team Fortress Classic you'll know what a spanner is. Clang Clang Clang!
Here's a photo:
http://www.combatgold1.co.uk/misc/steam/tfc/spanner-kill.jpg - TKDWILSON, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"""""There should really be an IQ test before any person can be in charge of any part of the government.""""""
Knew a guy with a genius IQ that's car broke down, so he attached a rope to it and was trying to pull it to a mechanic.
Eric Wilson - GrahamStw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@shangothrax: "Actually, the Americans got it right about Aluminium. I don't remember exactly where that error came from though."
In 1808 Humphry Davy, proposed the original name, "alumium", while trying to isolate from the mineral "alumina". In 1812 he changed the name to aluminum to match its Latin root. Then someone pointed that the other recently elements all ended in -ium, so they changed it.
Americans spelt it aluminium to start with, but then some guy in 1892 spelt it "aluminum" on his adverts and the new spelling stuck!
-- More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Spelling - B0jangles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This really doesn't throw a spanner in the works. She just didn't understand that he had said that it was fine for others to make money of our freely distributed goods. She quite clearly was new at her job. Trading Standards are the sex. :D
- BritOverseas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Having a house in Texas and being a smoker (ex now), I had to stop myself from saying fag, them Texans just don't know what to make of you and as they say, "theres only steers and queers"....
- tayq1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0a fanny pack is a bum bag in the UK
- plkrtn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0DoubtfulSalmon has it spot on.
Most Brits also know a fanny pack is American English for a bum bag...
We also know that if your fanny is aching you mean your arse (which is ass in AE)
American's saying "arse" is quite funny to hear actually... and "pub" - Petronski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Who could complain about that? I mean, it's pie . . . and chips . . . for free!
- alex.bosworth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The funny thing is just a little while ago there was a digg story about how people are selling FireFox and the comments were overwhelmingly people who didn't believe that was legal?
Mozilla actually could stop them from selling FireFox if they wanted to, by enforcing their Trademark, so they would have to call it 'GenericBrowser' instead, ala Redhat vs CentOS, but why would they want to? - TKDWILSON, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0""""Claiming that IQ doesn't apply past age 16 is just idiotic. It is not the only measure of intelligence but it is a damn good estimate most of the time.""""""
Do they even do actual IQ tests after 16? From an educational standpoint they don't for highschools and such that is. I never took an actual IQ test. Got 148 on iqtest.com. but not sure how close that really comes.
Eric Wilson
Eric Wilson - JAFFA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@quicktiming
Interesting. In many English pubs/clubs/bars if you ask for a 'coke' then you'll normally get a reply such as "Will Pepsi be ok?" Unless they actually sell Coca-Cola :p
Its best to just ask for a 'cola' ........ - BritOverseas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0You betcha, also calling somebody a fanny is slang for idiot/pussy, at least in my neck of the woods anyway.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0that woman is a total idiot and i can't believe anyone could work in the area of software piracy and not has a good understanding of software licensing.
- jonesin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Fascinating article, and very interesting that there are people who think in the way that woman does.
- richardiscool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What about the employees in Mozilla's office - aren't there like 40?
- shangothrax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Actually, the Americans got it right about Aluminium. I don't remember exactly where that error came from though.
I agree with you about Aeroplane though. Airplane does sound stupid. As does having a fullstop before end-quotes. WTF is up with that? It goes ". not ." It doesn't make a lick of sense. - g30ph, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0@BritOverseas
Maybe one day we'll stop claiming we speak English and start calling it American. It's an English derivative. At least we can understand each other most of the time.
BTW I understood spanner because I'm a Star Trek nerd. They always need a microspanner for this or that. Of course all their "spanners" look like a fancy tv remote. - I8PP, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1"There should really be an IQ test before any person can be in charge of any part of the government."
Nixon had a 135 IQ, Bill Gates has a 180 one. They were both brilliant. - kb9vgr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0some people are just mad because they are on the low side of the curve
-
Show 51 - 60 of 60 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 