On Fri, Sep 02, 2005 at 11:55:23PM +0200, Wouter van Heyst wrote: > On Fri, Sep 02, 2005 at 04:05:25PM -0400, Joe Smith wrote: > <snip> >> I assume that by 'preching to the choir' Wouter meant: the people you are >> trying to convince already believe in what you are saying. >> I suspect that Yavor interpeted this as: the people you are trying to >> convince don't care. >> >> The first meaning is the correct meaning, however due to the strong >> negative connotation of the phrase it is not uncommon to misinterpret it. > The only negative connotation I can think of is that you don't get any > new converts, not something that would cross my mind initially. > Do people interpret the phrase negatively otherwise? It depends on the non-verbal language. If it's in the context of "sit down, you're wasting time", then it's negative. If it's in the context of "Here here, we agree all around" then it's not. Of course, lacking the non-verbal component here, the reading is kinda up to the reader, based on understanding of context. Coming directly after "wrong list" possibly helped that, although I didn't read it as such. Of course, now I'm posting... I disagree with Yavor that we should use GNU/Linux so that people will go to gnu.org, reject non-free software and start spreading freedom under the GPL. I'm not sure Debian explicitly supports the GPL and the One True Path to freedom, really. I'm here to help build the best free operating system and software distribution possible, not neccessarily the best GNU system possible. I believe we should use GNU/Linux because we're using GNU libc (and coreutils?). So GNU/FreeBSD for the kfreebsd port, and uC/Linux for a (theoretical) uClibc port... ^_^ The name of the distribution should reflect the contents of that distribution, rather than the politics it may or may not endorse. -- ----------------------------------------------------------- Paul "TBBle" Hampson, MCSE 8th year CompSci/Asian Studies student, ANU The Boss, Bubblesworth Pty Ltd (ABN: 51 095 284 361) Paul.Hampson@Anu.edu.au "No survivors? Then where do the stories come from I wonder?" -- Capt. Jack Sparrow, "Pirates of the Caribbean" License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.1/au/ -----------------------------------------------------------
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