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Only on Gizmodo could the blink tag end up next to the nuclear bomb on any list.
Also, in regards to the do-without-ability of the second and third Back to the Future movies. John, I enjoy your articles and believe you have great skills as a writer and blogger, so understand when I say this, I say it with the utmost respect:
Screw. You. I love every minute of every one of those movies.
Well, it's not really the DeLorean, it was Doc Browns Flux Capacitor, because as we saw in the last movie, you can use it on a train, and not JUST the DeLorean. I think that needs an edit.
@John Herrman: Good point, but I doubt there's anyone here who hasn't heard of Oppenheimer regretting the Atomic bomb or hasn't seen Back to the Future either.
Personally, I would love to get rid of the www. Three of the hardest letters to say. Probably Al Gore's idea. And sorry but saying "dub-dub-dub" does not make you cool.
@RogueWarrior: The myth is that Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet (according to snopes.com it's just that, a myth). That's not the same as the World-Wide Web.
It's like the internet is the hardware and the World-Wide Web is the software (not a perfect analogy).
The Internet was a US invention. The WWW was invented by a Brit working at Cern, the European particle physics lab.
@matt_mcmhn: The browser usually tries resolving the DNS name by appending and prepending a variety of common starts and endings. Even the websites don't need that, its just a convention for signifying servers that are global accessible as opposed to internally or locally only (which might not make sense to you unless you've worked in a big company that does internal IT management).
@matt_mcmhn: Right, but the point of the article is that he is apologizing about the paper he has wasted. You might not have to type it in when you are directing your browser there, but you still need to include [www.anysite.com] when you are including it in a paper, or any type of formal business setting.
@tacomstng:
Yeah, well, if you eliminate one or both backslashes, how likely do you think it would be that any printed material you're working with would see an actual reduction in paper use? Newspapers wouldn't see a reduction, and most sane people would make a quick edit, or tweak some fonts/spacing if they ended up with a single word that would print out on its own page. Mostly, I'd say the only time his double-slash really caused any problems was back in the days when you had to type in every single character.
@monkeyesq: root in *nix systems is simply / not /.
nutbastard is correct. From the Slashdot FAQ: [slashdot.org]
What does the name "Slashdot" mean?
"Slashdot" is a sort of obnoxious parody of a URL. When I originally registered the domain, I wanted to make the URL silly, and unpronounceable. Try reading out the full URL to [slashdot.org] and you'll see what I mean. Of course my cocky little joke has turned around and bit me in the butt because now I am called upon constantly to tell people my URL or email address. I can't tell you how many people respond confused "So do I spell out the 'dot' or is that just a period?"
also, most modern browsers don't demand that the prefix be put in at all - and lets not forget how many seconds of our life have been wasted by listening to someone uselessly saying ''double-u double-u double-u''
most sites don't even use www any more, and thank god. furthermore, .com isn't necessary most of the time any more. go ahead, try it - go to the address bar and just type 'google' or 'gizmodo'. if your browser isn't total shit, it'll get you there.
it's especially wierd since, for instance, network drive addresses use \\ and most anything the uses slashes preceding an address of some sort uses \, not /.
strangely enough, when the internet was fresh and new, people would always erroneously call them backslashes, probably out of habit from the tradition of using them for addresses of many sorts.
heyyyyy now, while the vast majority of my experience with computers is likely windows, i did learn python on ubuntu ( and noticed the slash diff when doing it on windows later) AND i'm on record for demanding more linux news on giz.
i tried really hard to abandon windows for linux, and while i enjoy the power, i abhor the responsibility. getting compiz running was worth it. nvidia drivers are a bitch, though.
@MikeHerbst: Actually... the backslash is a remnant of DOS. In the early days of DOS, there were no subdirectories. Slash (/) was used for command-line parameters (as in "dir /w"). When subdirectories were added later, they decided to use backslash instead of changing the way command-line parameters work.
When Microsoft bought/stole/developed MS-DOS, they just kept things status-quo. And we've been stuck with it ever since.
@nutbastard: "i tried really hard to abandon windows for linux, and while i enjoy the power, i abhor the responsibility. getting compiz running was worth it. nvidia drivers are a bitch, though."
Ah-ha! You my friend, need a Mac. You get all of the power of Unix without any of the requirements for technical expertise.
nutbastard promoted this comment
Edited by DreamTheEndless: Death's little brother at 10/13/09 7:07 AM
DreamTheEndless: Death's little brother was starred
DreamTheEndless: Death's little brother was unstarred
@nutbastard: Yeah, but it doesn't need to be YOUR (my) technical expertise. Like at the bank where I was just working... I had an account on several of our Unix boxes, but I didn't have enough access to "bork" anything up. For normal stuff, we had to have faith that the Unix admins had set things up correctly and would help us make any changes that we needed.
I have root disabled on my MacBook Pro, but I can enable it at any time if I need to. Also, the account that I use for most things is not an administrator. If I need to do anything unixy (something where there isn't already a GUI interface written,) I bust out some Google, log in as an admin, and do it... For day to day stuff I have faith that the engineers at Apple have set things up correctly and that they (or teh internets) will help me with any one-off things that I need.
Even without a couple of decades of *nix experience under my belt, my computer (or my unix server at work,) is stable and secure with a powerful OS. #timbernerslee
10/14/09
Also, in regards to the do-without-ability of the second and third Back to the Future movies. John, I enjoy your articles and believe you have great skills as a writer and blogger, so understand when I say this, I say it with the utmost respect:
Screw. You. I love every minute of every one of those movies.
10/14/09
... just in case.
10/14/09
And Comic Sans - Microsoft BOB! wasn't a failure. Comic Sans lives on. Can the same be said about the Chicago font (just admit it Mac - it can't)
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/13/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/13/09
It's like the internet is the hardware and the World-Wide Web is the software (not a perfect analogy).
The Internet was a US invention. The WWW was invented by a Brit working at Cern, the European particle physics lab.
10/13/09
10/13/09
10/13/09
Yeah, well, if you eliminate one or both backslashes, how likely do you think it would be that any printed material you're working with would see an actual reduction in paper use? Newspapers wouldn't see a reduction, and most sane people would make a quick edit, or tweak some fonts/spacing if they ended up with a single word that would print out on its own page. Mostly, I'd say the only time his double-slash really caused any problems was back in the days when you had to type in every single character.
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
*blew your mind*
10/12/09
10/12/09
are you serious? because i've always thought of it as the most clever URL ever.
URLs are bookended on one side by a slash, and on the other side by a dot.
so, when spoken: h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-slash-dot-dot-com
am i the only one who thought it was simply clever?
maybe i'm not cut out for this whole nerd thing.
10/12/09
10/12/09
nutbastard is correct. From the Slashdot FAQ:
[slashdot.org]
What does the name "Slashdot" mean?
"Slashdot" is a sort of obnoxious parody of a URL. When I originally registered the domain, I wanted to make the URL silly, and unpronounceable. Try reading out the full URL to [slashdot.org] and you'll see what I mean. Of course my cocky little joke has turned around and bit me in the butt because now I am called upon constantly to tell people my URL or email address. I can't tell you how many people respond confused "So do I spell out the 'dot' or is that just a period?"
10/12/09
most sites don't even use www any more, and thank god. furthermore, .com isn't necessary most of the time any more. go ahead, try it - go to the address bar and just type 'google' or 'gizmodo'. if your browser isn't total shit, it'll get you there.
10/12/09
I replaced my linksys router with a d-link one, and now safari 4 and firefox can't figure something out without the .com
It could be worse, I could be using IE, which demands the http;//, the www, and the .com
10/12/09
10/12/09
@Bully: "Paper" Bills are made from cotton, not actual paper. So no trees are killed in the process.
10/12/09
strangely enough, when the internet was fresh and new, people would always erroneously call them backslashes, probably out of habit from the tradition of using them for addresses of many sorts.
10/12/09
Forward slashes (/) are a *nix artifact. Backslashes (\) are a Windows-trying-to-be-slightly-different-than-*nix-artifact.
10/12/09
heyyyyy now, while the vast majority of my experience with computers is likely windows, i did learn python on ubuntu ( and noticed the slash diff when doing it on windows later) AND i'm on record for demanding more linux news on giz.
[gizmodo.com]
i tried really hard to abandon windows for linux, and while i enjoy the power, i abhor the responsibility. getting compiz running was worth it. nvidia drivers are a bitch, though.
10/12/09
When Microsoft bought/stole/developed MS-DOS, they just kept things status-quo. And we've been stuck with it ever since.
10/13/09
10/13/09
Ah-ha! You my friend, need a Mac. You get all of the power of Unix without any of the requirements for technical expertise.
10/13/09
that's not really true - the power of unix comes from having technical expertise. without out it all one has is the power to bork their system.
i've no need nor want for a mac. dont really care for them these days.
10/22/09
I have root disabled on my MacBook Pro, but I can enable it at any time if I need to. Also, the account that I use for most things is not an administrator. If I need to do anything unixy (something where there isn't already a GUI interface written,) I bust out some Google, log in as an admin, and do it... For day to day stuff I have faith that the engineers at Apple have set things up correctly and that they (or teh internets) will help me with any one-off things that I need.
Even without a couple of decades of *nix experience under my belt, my computer (or my unix server at work,) is stable and secure with a powerful OS. #timbernerslee
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
yep. i tried to make my blink blink.
10/12/09