and....
http://slashdot.org/articles/98/10/01/0653252.shtml
(From slashdot)
"Next year, Microsoft will publish an English dictionary. The company has
been working for three years with an Australian firm and a British firm.
It will hit the shelves in August of next year. Perhaps arrogantly, the
company called English "the first global language since Latin". Cavete
Microsoft et MSSpeak venire."
These followups from Slashdot readers are a laugh...
"At last, we'll be able to look up the word 'wankers' then."
"This is a clear attempt by MS to undermine the learn-once-speak-anywhere
property of English. By doing so, they hope to fragment the English
speaking community, and by leveraging the Windows monopoly make MS-English
the de-facto standard. Ultimately the paper-edition will withdrawn, and
everyone who wishes communicate will be forced to install MS-English and
the windows platform."
"I'm sure you won't actually be able to open the book and look at the
source code!"
"Microsoft Definitions:
Monopoly 1. The exclusive power, or privilege of selling a commodity; the
exclusive power, right, or privilege of dealing in some article, or of
trading in some market; sole command of the traffic in anything. 2: A
game from Parker Brothers. 3: Not Microsoft.
Object Oriented 1: See one of the following: OLE, Active X, Visual Basic.
2: Not Java.
Boolean 1. Any integer value from -1 to 1. See Visual Basic.
Linux 1: An operating system based on outdated Unix technology written by
the same people who break into banks and steal credit card numbers. See
Competition, Evil, Too Many Cooks, crackers, and Unix.
RMS. Short for Richard Stallman, part of those lunatic criminals who
actually think you should have the source for your software. See Linux,
Free Software, Unix, GNU, crackers.
Gates, Bill. The most successful and creative mind of the late 20th and
early 21st Century. Brought about unparallelled harmony and creativity
during his reign at his non-monopolistic company "Microsoft".
"I wonder how long it will take before the Dictionary crashes. How would
you reboot a Dictionary anyhow?"
"Is it ironic that the piece closes with the line "Microsoft is
headquartered in Redmond"? If that's the case then there's at least one
person who does need a new dictionary!"
"Ok, so English will become a proprietary language? We will need to pay
to use English(tm) words? Let's start developing GNU English!"
"I realize there are lots of people who think Microsoft's software is
fantastic, but does this mindshare really extend to totally different
fields? I like lots of Disney products, but I can't see myself buying a
Disney car."
Rachel Polanskis University of Western Sydney, Nepean
Senior UNIX Admin PO Box 10, Kingswood NSW 2747
Systems && Operations Computing && Communications Division Kingswood
r.polanskis@nepean.uws.edu.au Phone: +61 (0247) 360 291