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Comment: Re:"text-speak" in formal writing (Score 1) 375

by franki.macha (#34971288) Attached to: Study Sez Txt Msgs Make Kidz Gr8 Spellrz


The myth that English has five vowels is incredibly damaging. The five _letters_ that we call vowels might have been good enough for Latin, and might still be good enough for Spanish, but for a Germanic language such as English that has many, many, more (something like 12 for me), we need a better system.
Since other Germanic languages seem to have this sorted, I think it would be a great idea to port one of their solutions to English.


by franki.macha (#33450816) Attached to: Hawking Picks Physics Over God For Big Bang

Right, but if there's no evidence for something you should not treat all options as equal.
I don't know whether or not I have a tiny goat living in my nose, but without any evidence either way, I will assume it isn't true. ...Hopefully my doctor will be able to provide a definitive answer by Monday.

Comment: Re:That's not the professional term (Score 1) 487

by franki.macha (#33349452) Attached to: Justice Department Seeks Ebonics Experts

Although I generally agree with your point, and Celtic languages such as Gaelic certainly predate the arrival of Angles and Saxons and the like. the kilt is apparently a relatively modern invention with a mere four or five hundred years of history.

I believe that the traditional dress of the Celtic people of Britain was trousers, which led to much mockery from the Romans, as real men obviously wear togas.

Comment: Re:Appeal (Score 2, Insightful) 254

by franki.macha (#33062444) Attached to: UK Courts Rule Nintendo DS R4 Cards Illegal

A High Court is not the highest court in the UK, that would be the Supreme Court, I believe, although I'm not a lawyer.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "It's not really making piracy *more illegal* is it?". Things can't really be more or less illegal, just more or less severely punished, but I don't think this ruling is about piracy as such, only things that could be used _for_ piracy.

Comment: Great news (Score 2, Insightful) 35

by franki.macha (#33007770) Attached to: Open Source Participation Gains Support In China

I, for one, welcome this news, I've read a lot about Chinese companies using open source software, for example I would love to get my hands on a Debian-running Loongson, but this is the first time I've heard about them giving back to the community.

I wonder if they're hiring native English speakers who can't speak Chinese to help them with community relations? :>
That's a job I'd love to have.

Comment: Re:It's about being truthful (Score 1) 718

by franki.macha (#32968014) Attached to: Windows vs. Ubuntu &mdash; Dell's Verdict

Why is this flamebait? Other than the incorrect use of an apostrophe it's spot on.

I get hideously confused installing anything on OS X, and don't even dare try on Windows, whereas Linux package managers are incredibly simple.
And before anyone says "That's because you're a 1337 Linux user and you can't understand normal people", I'm definitely not, I'm an idiot.

Although, I do have problems understanding other people...

Error in operator: add beer