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Re: OT: learning curve (was: a little comparison of procmail and maildrop)



On Fri, Nov 07, 2003 at 12:12:08PM -0500, Allister MacLeod wrote:

> On the other hand, as someone who's played Live-Action
> Role-Playing games, I certainly don't mind being pummeled a bit with
> some PVC pipe wrapped in foam insulation and duct tape. :^)

LOL. . .

> > Official rules of English in Holland don't frighten me.  I don't have
> > to start worrying until our good friends at Webster decide to put it
> > in their dictionary ... and when they do, I can point to the Oxford
> > dictionary, which is a lot better at keeping crap out of our language.
> > (Webster specifically states that their dictionary follows common use,
> > and that the reverse is not intended to be the case.)
> 
> I kinda like having a crap language.

I don't stick to standard usage, either [1].  That can be done with any
language, though, whether or not there's an official dictionary.

> I often use "ain't" in everyday
> speech, and commonly say "like I said" instead of "as I said."  What
> disappoints me is people who are convinced that their way is the one
> right way, and are unwilling to do any research (e.g. in Webster or
> Oxford.)  Especially if their way defies many standards, both de facto
> and well-specified. (<- look! A sentence fragment! I'm so bad.)

I think it's important to distinguish between "right" and "better."
Daveglish is not always more "right" than Webstish, but I believe it's
better (better being defined as being capable of expressing more given
the same number of learned terms) 100% of the time.

> Of course, I'm guilty of such chauvanism myself sometimes, as I'm sure
> pretty much everybody is or has been at one time or another.  One
> incidence that sticks out in my mind is regarding the pronunciation of
> "wyvern."  I was adamant that it rhymed with "wither," until my cousin
> had to virtually bean me with the dictionary to prove otherwise.

I love Hebrew because nobody has to look in the stinkin' (well, since it's
full of crap, after all) just dictionary to figure out the pronunciation
of a freakin' word.  It's 100% phonetic ... like I wish English were. . .

> > I guess the best conclusion here is: don't use the term "learning curve."
> > If you hear somebody else using it, pretend you didn't hear the words
> > "learning curve" being used.  If the guy tries to force you into a corner,
> > pretend you didn't know that _that's_ what "learning curve" meant.
> > If he tries to explain what it means, _then_ you can "let him have it!"
> > This way, you're not actively fighting somebody else's war unless you're
> > sucked into a battle - in that case, you're fighting that battle and
> > nothing else.  If you want to fight a battle just for the hell of it,
> > though, please do the computer world a favor and pick one in the computer
> > field, so you at least do us some good in the process.
> 
> Aie!  I'm almost sorry I used the term in the first place.  It's a
> good thing that, if any of you grammarians (or should I say
> punctilious purveyors of picayune pedantry) are gun-nuts, you have the
> good judgment to keep those passions separate.

Gun permits are really difficult to get here in NJ, so don't expect any
bullets from me ;-)

> I'd hate to end up in
> front of a firing squad for abusing an ambiguous and oft-misused term.

It's only ambiguous because it's oft-misused, as I'm sure Rene will be
more than glad to pound into you ;-)

> Of course, I'm really not sorry at all.  This thread has proved rather
> interesting and has been a source of immeasurable amusement.

I'm sure a lot of guys who didn't read this thread are very sorry you
started this thread (or are studying techniques to have procmail cat
anything with OT in the subject to /dev/null, if they don't yet have
their gun license yet).  I'd be a lot more affraid of gun-nuts among
them than among grammar pedants, if I were you ;-P

 - Dave

[1]
http://www.bigfatdave.com/me/glossary.html

-- 
Uncle Cosmo, why do they call this a word processor?
It's simple, Skyler.  You've seen what food processors do to food, right?

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