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Comments on: Cries for help go out as open source mogul's radar breaks

get out of my files 

By Anonymous Coward Posted Saturday 28th July 2007 17:45 GMT

Maybe Chairman Tim is going senile time for

the drool farm for O'Reilly.

Freedom... 

By Anonymous Coward Posted Sunday 29th July 2007 12:55 GMT

The powers that be will examine my files when they pry my private key out of my cold, dead hard drive... sorry, couldn't resist.

Phenonomen? 

By Aubry Thonon Posted Monday 30th July 2007 02:13 GMT

"I know people complain about the name, but it's a good handle for a set of phenonomen."

Surely he meant "phenomenon".

<doo doo doodoodoo>

Phenomenon?

<doo doo doodoo>

Phenomenon!

<doo doo doodoodoo doodoodoo doodoodoo doodoodoo doo doo doodoo doodoo>

...with appologies to "Muppets Tonight"...

Phenonomen #2 

By Anonymous Coward Posted Monday 30th July 2007 07:56 GMT

<pedant mode>

Actually, I think he meant "phenomena" since he was talking about a set of 'em.

</pedant mode>

BTW, any chance of banning "meme"? It's really getting on my tits and only seems to be used in quotes that, if unpublished, would leave the world a better place.

TeeCee

Yes, "meme" considered harmful 

By Andrew Orlowski Posted Monday 30th July 2007 12:48 GMT

(Written by Reg staff.)

TeeCee - Use of the word "meme" is considered pretty naff (and a giveaway sign that the person using it is a chump). There are so few occurances of "meme" at El Reg it's not worth formally banning.

(It's appeared a couple of dozen times in 70,000-odd articles, almost always satirically).

In this story, it's obviously being used satirically too. Empty-headed Web 2.0 enthusiasts like to use the word to make themselves sound cooler and more important.

See Jaron Lanier for a good explanation of the naffness of "meme" -

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/27/jaron_lanier_futurist_conference/

>> "The 'meme' is what's left of ideas when you remove the sense of experience, and so the 'meme' is a way of saying ideas are nothing more than relativistic game theory moves," he says. "That's absolutely, demonstrably, not so in some specific areas like mathematics where things are true and false. But I don't think it's so where life has experience and experience gives us an alternate anchor point. An inexperienced life can only be made a 'meme'." <<