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Jan 4, 2003, 3:14pm

That would actually make sense if their language was supposed to be closely related to English, since many creoles and lesser known dialects of English have such gramatical simplifications. For example, instead of saying "he went" a person might say "he had go" and mean exactly the same thing. I've always found it rather interesting that the words eleven and seems to have no relation to the rest of the English number naming system except for it's aparent relation to the word twelve. Maybe the hobbits in his stories were supposed to have liked that particular word for some reason. Perhaps the resemblance to the word elves? :)

By the way, it's interesting to note that such peculiarities in number naming are not exclusive to English and languages derived from English. There have been several number systems that at one time or another were much more popular in certain cultures than base 10, so that has had some influence in the development of the modern names for numbers. For example, base 12 and base 60 were once very popular and have influenced the way we record time. Computer circuits like base 2 because it's easy to work with, and geeks tend to like base 16 beause it easily converts to base 4 and base 2. For a while, even base 8 got to be somewhat popular in certain circles. By the way, those who have an interest in languages and didn't already know this may find it interesting that the French language has no word for eighty, unless they added one without me knowing about it which wouldn't surprise me. The French word for "4" is "quatre" and the French word for 20 is "vingt" so instead of a single word for 80 you would say "quatre-vingts" which litterally means four twenties. Feel free to correct me if my information isn't quite right, but it may give a few people something to think about anyway. :)

TechnoZeus

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Jan 4, 2003, 6:31pm

Interesting summary. I think actually though that a more accurate one would have been something like: What's grammatically incorrect to some people may be grammatically correct to others. :)

TechnoZeus

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Jan 5, 2003, 11:54am

For the most part, I agree... but I was talking about native speakers. Not all "native" speakers of a "language" speak the same dialect of that language so the majority of fluent adult native speakers of English in some area may actually use that particular word formation and see it as correct, and languages do evolve. Also, all native speakers of all languages go through a stage of development when they choose logic over exceptions to rules simply because they either haven't yet learned the exceptions or have learned them but have not yet gotten used to them. The only possible exception to this that I could think of is if a person failed to learn any language until late in their childhood or some time in their adulthood, and were then carefully taught a very orderly language such as Esperanto for a first language, and I think even then they would go through that stage.

We tend to correct children when they say things in a way that makes sense rather than the way they're "supposed to" say it, but I often wonder if we should pay more attention and learn from them as much as we teach them. For example, the verb forms "gooder" and "goodest" are logical enough even though we're used to something else, they would be easier for people learning English as a second language, and I don't see how a native English speaker could fail to recognize their meaning let alone think they meant something else unless they had learned a dialect of English that's WAY different from any I've ever heard of. What makes such words "wrong" anyway? The words we use now and think of as correct were all wrong "everywhere" at some point in time.

TechnoZeus

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Feb 1, 2003, 3:43am

Hey, I make that "weather/whether" mistake a lot, and I'm very fluent in English. Hehehe.

TechnoZeus

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Feb 7, 2003, 12:10am

As you stated, some people can't afford that much for a game. Well, I would like very much to be able to try some of the new on-line games, but wouldn't be able to reasonably afford an average boxed game that only has to be paid for once, let along a game that you have to keep on paying for... and Active Worlds isn't a game. If it was, I would leave it today... because I come to Active Worlds for what I can contribute to it, not for any entertainment value I hope to get out of it.

If I want to play a game, I'll play one of the free games I've got stored on my older computer system or one of the out-dated games I already have paid for a long time ago back when I "could" afford it... and I haven't played any of those in quite a while.

I like video games... but to me Active Worlds is the start of something much more important. I don't think Active Worlds Inc. is charging too much, but I also do wish they would charge less. It's their right to set the price they think is best, and it's very sad that so many good people can't afford it. These are just facts. At least they do still offer "some" stuff free, which is in my opinion rather generous of them... but I would be happy to see more of it. :)

TechnoZeus

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Feb 23, 2003, 4:45am

Well, just tourist usage and trial worlds as far as I can think of at the moment... but that's still better than nothing.

TechnoZeus

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Feb 6, 2003, 10:58pm

I haven't seen any arguments about this subject at all in the wishlist newsgroup. I haven't looked lately at the other 6 newsgroups that you cross-posted to so I don't know how bad the problem is in any of them, but if the people you are addressing really are "a load of irritating morons" it's very doubtful that yelling at them will change that fact. If they're not, then you just yelled at a bunch of good people for nothing.

If anyone wants to reply specifically to me (about my reply) I'll find your reply if you post it to wishlist but otherwise please post any further replies to this thread to General or Community for followup depending on which one you think is your reply is better suited for.

Just so you know John, it's generally not a good idea to cross post unless you are very sure that what you are posting really needs to be in all of the groups you are cross-posting to and really should have most of the replies to it go to all of the same newsgroups. One of the reasons it's not a good idea is that if any of the moderators of any of the groups it's cross-posted to decides it's inapropraite for that particular group, it will get deleted from all of them.

Note to the moderators... I won't miss this reply if you decide to zap it. Have a nice day.

TechnoZeus

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Feb 6, 2003, 11:01pm

There are lots of people "not arguing" in many places. By the way, I'm not arguing with you about it... just stating a fact that is in conflict with your statement. I didn't make the fact true... it already was. :)

TechnoZeus

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Feb 7, 2003, 6:27pm

The newsgroups aren't "for fighting" but unfortunately there are some people who use them as if that was their sole intended purpose. What you need to realize is that we have very few such people here, and those are the people least likely to be chased off by a post typed in all caps calling people names and telling everybody to shut up.

Also, you cross posted that message to places where the fighting wasn't even happening. I don't know about the other newsgroups, because I haven't had time for them lately (and the more fighting goes on in them the less time good people will make for them) but I know there was no fighting going on in the wishlist newsgroup.

Now, if you're going to cross-post to this thread at all anymore, "PLEASE" state which newsgroup you will be looking for replies in, so that people can eliminate the rest of the newsgroups when replying to you. I'll be in Wishlist if you want to reply to me.

TechnoZeus

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Feb 8, 2003, 8:37am

Really? You say I had it comming to me? Then tell me what I did to deserve it, please.

TechnoZeus

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Feb 9, 2003, 10:01am

Okay. Not a problem.... and I agree it is something that needed to be addressed. As a matter of fact, it was already planned for AW 3.5, which is why AW 3.4 hasn't been released yet. We're now beta testing what "would have been" AW 3.4 as AW 3.4 so in the long run it simply means all the fighting accomplished nothing except to waste a lot of people's time and cause the people waiting for a release upgrade to Active Worlds to have to wait much longer.

Sorry if I seemed to have taken that personally. I mainly wanted to point out that the way it was worded could easily be taken as an accusation against vaguely identified people... which was exactly how that whole mess got going in the first place. Gotta word stuff like that carefully. :)

TechnoZeus

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Feb 10, 2003, 9:12am

Well, although I'm not the "whole" exec team I still got a lot of personal attacks durring that little war that went on, from people who didn't even know me at all and from people who thought they knew me well and couldn't understand why I would have done the things it sounded like I was being accused of.

I'm sure you can understand that with this in mind I'm not about to let a statement that makes it "sound like" something was done wrong by the committee that I happen to be a member of just pass by without asking for clarification.

Nothing against you, or against anyone, of course.

TechnoZeus

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Apr 21, 2003, 7:26pm

I don't really know, but I suppose what it comes down to is whether or not the copyright owner complains. Not a likely thing to happen in either case, I would think.

TechnoZeus

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May 19, 2003, 3:17pm

Not meaning to say whether I think it's good or bad, but simply an answer to your question... You asked "Why do people go to a chat system just in order to hide there?" The answer, at least in the case of Active Worlds, is that it's not a chat program. It's a program with chat features. The distinction is that there is more to do in Active Worlds than just chat, and more options for socialization available than simply talking with anyone about anything.

Yes, I agree that there should be additional options such as to only hide your online status from people who's on-line status it already hidden from you, or to only hide your on-line status from people who are not on your contact list, but there will always be people who will use such features in a way that fails to make sense to some other people. In fact, it's interesting to note that when the hide online status feature was added, a lot of the same people who had asked for it, begged for it, or even demanded it, ended up complaining that it was over-used.

TechnoZeus

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May 19, 2003, 5:15pm

Perhaps each person should be listed in their own contact list by default, thereby allowing them to see their own default status setting. Probably not all that good of a solution, but I though mentioning it may give a little food for thought anyway. :)

TechnoZeus

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Oct 31, 2003, 3:01am

I have suggested a command for exactly this purpose... to allow momentum to be added to an avatar's movement without forcing a specific destination location or producing a warp or teleport sound... but unfortunately, I think the suggestion and most of those I made with it went pretty much unnoticed.

TechnoZeus

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Nov 1, 2003, 3:24pm

Sure, I could do that. I'll look up some of the old suggestions I've made that haven't been used yet, and re-post a few of them to the Wishlist newsgroup if I think they would still work well as additions or enhancements to the current version of Active Worlds, since it seems all old wishes have been deleted.

It will take me a while to find them, and decide which ones are still important, but in the mean time, here is a quote from one of them...

Accelerate command.
Example: bump Accelerate +2S -1E
This command would have an effect similar to "walking" or "flying" in which a small acceleration would be added to your movement with no associated sound effects. Mainly useful with the adone speudotrigger or any type of timer to produce effects such as a wind tunnel with a strong updraft, or with the bump trigger for situations where you may be in contact with an object for an extended period of time, like conveyor belts, escalators, or water that carries you downstream. In this example, the avatar would be accellerated in a South by SouthEast direction.

TechnoZeus



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Nov 1, 2003, 5:05pm

Nope. Alpha World (AW) is running on a version 3.4 world server.

TZ

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Nov 1, 2003, 6:20pm

Sorry.. forgot about the automatic inclusion of quoted text.

TZ

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Oct 18, 2003, 1:34pm

Sorry I'm not there to help people in AW lately as much as I used to be, and that I don't say much in there. ActiveWorlds isn't the only place that I spend time trying to help people. It is much safer than the world off-line, but it's only one place and there are people asking for my help in other places also. I started spending less time in AW helping people, because of the fighting that went on some time back. I have stayed out of the newsgroups except to help with conception and testing of new features, because the newsgroups have had too much tendancy to turn into a war zone, and I'm not a fighter.

Unfortunately, no matter how many war zones a person tries to avoid, there are always more. Now I am having to defend myself against accusations, and so far without legal representation. The traveling is more than I can afford, and people in the part of Chicago that I'm having to defend myself in seem to be under the impression that nice people can't exist.

To the people who don't know me well enough to say one way or another for certain what kind of person I am but want to offer help anyway, I would just like to say... thanks for being the kind of person who would do such a thing.

If anyone who really feels they know me well would like to act as a character whitness for me, to prove that I really do exist, I would very much appreciate it. I don't think the courts will pay much attention to any statements that aren't made in person at the trial, but any effort at all would be much appreciated. I'm not asking for help... but in this case I'm also not turning it down.

The comment I posted to that article about being jailed for being too helpful on October 17th gives details about when and where I have to be in court. I know some people are really upset with me for not helping more than I have lately, but the world we live in has made doing so very difficult.

TechnoZeus


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Oct 20, 2003, 1:30am

Actually, the distance works against me and in the favor of the prosicution, because ignorance of the law is no excuse, but traveling costs money. Fortunately, I have looked up the law I was accused of, and know that I did not do anything even remotely breaking it. As for the evidence, or lack thereof, the only whitness would be the girl they arrested along with me, and she knows I'm innocent. Yes, I am concerned about the possibility that they may offer her an incentive to lie against me, but I'm hoping that will not happen. I have done nothing wrong, so it would take a pretty twisted mind in my opinion to stoop to dishonesty in order to get a conviction. All I was doing is being a nice guy. If I am prosecuted dishonestly, I will be found guilty of a crime I did not commit, and there is nothing I can do about it. If I am given a fair trial, they will find that a mistake was made and an innocent man was arrested.

Here's the way the law reads...

(720 ILCS 5/11-15)
Sec. 11-15. Soliciting for a prostitute.
(a) Any person who performs any of the following acts commits
soliciting for a prostitute:
(1) Solicits another for the purpose of prostitution; or
(2) Arranges or offers to arrange a meeting of persons for the
purpose of prostitution; or
(3) Directs another to a place knowing such direction is for
the purpose of prostitution.

http://www.legis.state.il.us/legislation/ilcs/ch720/ch720act5articles/ch720act5Sub16.htm

I did not attempt to obtain, entice, lure or proposition anyone for any purpose. ( For clarification as to why I mentioned those specific acts, see the definition of "solicit" according to Webster.com at http://webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=solicit )

I did not arrange or offer to arrange any meeting for any purpose.

I did not direct any person to any location for any purpose. ( I did ask a few people for directions while I was in Chicago, but not for the purpose of prostitution, and the law says nothing about asking for directions anyway. )

Not only was I not involved in prostitution, but I hadn't even thought of it until the police brought it up. Neither subject had not been discussed between myself and the girl I was accused of soliciting prostitution with, nor between myself any the person I had driven to Chicago, nor between myself and anyone durring my trip to Chicago, nor between myself and anyone durring my time in Chicago, nor between myself and anyone at any point in time between the moment in which I first met the man that I drove to Chicago and the time I got arrested, nor petween myself any anyone at or around the time that I met the man I drove to Chicago. I can safely and honestly state all of this to be an absolute fact without hesitation, because before the police arrested me and accused me of soliciting for prostitution, the subject of prostitution was not something that I had ever spent much time thinking about or discussing with anyone. Also, since I find the idea of selling or buying sex to be revulting, I would not have entered into a discussion about it without strong feelings of disgust. Unfortunately, whether I like it or not, I have to deal with it now. I have nothing against prostitutes, but I do feel bad for those who feel that they must allow themselves to be degraded in such a way, and I feel bad that any prostitute or any other person may ever feel they must participate in the degradation of others in order to earn money for survival. I did not see the girl I was helping as a prostitute. I saw her as a person who had asked about food and may have been hungry and in need.

In case anyone reading this might tnink I haven't made myself clear enough, I will add the following statement of fact: I have "never" done "anything" whatsoever for the purpose of prostitution, nor have I ever taken part in any act or acts of prostitution, nor have I ever intended to take part in any act or acts of prostition, nor would I even consider taking part in an act of prostition.

TechnoZeus

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Oct 20, 2003, 4:15am

Thanks. I replied to your comments to the article.

reply to comment...
http://spiraline.com/culturallure/html/modules.php?name=News&file=comments&op=showreply&tid=24&sid=24&pid=23&mode=&order=0&thold=0#24

article (for those who are reading this and don't have the URL)...
http://spiraline.com/culturallure/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=24&mode=&order=0&thold=0

TechnoZeus

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Oct 20, 2003, 5:23am

Thanks. I hope so too. :)

Yes, you're absolutely right. If I had done what they accused me of, I would have no need to defend myself, because the time they already had me locked up for would have been counted as time served, and that is all the time they would have given me, if I was guilty. Unfortunately, since I am not guilty, and was not willing to lie and say I was guilty, it's not over yet. I have to return to court and defend myself now, and there's a good chance that I will lose in spite of the fact that I have done nothing wrong.

Sticking to the truth allows me to keep my self respect, but it also puts me at risk... so once again I am accepting risk to myself by choosing to do what I feel is right. A lot of people point out to me that they think I should avoid such risk even if it means failing to help someone in need, or not doing what I feel is right. I was reminded about an hour ago that many people accept risks by choosing to do things which endanger not only their own lives, but the lives of others as well... and which don't help anyone... so at least the risks I accept are for a good cause.

TechnoZeus


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Oct 22, 2003, 2:16am

Actually, the argument that SW Chris made is very logical. Consider the following probabilities...

(1.) If a person was guilty and proud of it, then that person would most likely not claim to be innocent.

(2.) If a person was guilty and ashamed of it, then that person would most likely try to keep quiet about the situation if possible, and I was told when they jailed me that if I said I was guilty the time they already had me locked up for would most likely have been all the time I would serve. In fact, that is exactly the offer I was given when I went to court on the 14th, and I chose the alternative.

Consider also, the fact that I not only have been very open publicly about what happened and what I was accused of, but I also tried very hard to get the police to look into my story while they had me locked up. I just wanted to go home. I was tired, and had volunteer work scheduled for the following day. While other people were trying to tell the police that they had no right to investigate them, I was trying to get the police to investigate me further. I wanted them to learn the truth, because the truth was exactly as I said it was. I did not do anything wrong. I was simply being helpful. Unfortunately, they wouldn't lift a finger to look into it. Of course, I don't hold that against them, because I do realize that I was something entirely foreign to their experiences, but I do hope that they will come away from the encounter with slightly more open minds.

There were no TV news cameras aimed at me. There was no crime victim. Nobody was hurt. There was no evidence of a crime, because there was no vrime for there to be any evidence of. I was simply giving food to someone who had asked about food earlier, and ended up in jail because the police misinterpreted my actions. In fact, while I was in jail, one of the police officers told me that they knew I had not actually broken the law, but that the reason I was arrested was because I would have broken the law if they hadn't arrested me. Well, even if that were true it would have been impossible for them to prove, and I could have simply kept silent and let them attempt to do the impossible. Sure, a crooked cop could have chosen to plant evidence, or try to get someone to lie on the stand, and might even have felt justified in doing so if this were a murder trial and they really believed me to be guilty, but why would they bother when they know I'm innocent and they didn't even feel that the crime I was accused of "almost" committing would have been wrong to commit? I've been accused of a crime that from what I have seen and heard while I was locked up (and since then) the police think of as an every day activity that everybody does and a certain number of people have to be arrested for in order to bring in revenue for the city and keep the law enforcement personel gainfully employed. It's not about right and wrong, from what they told me. It's about legislation. (I didn't understand that part, but perhaps it will make sense to you, or someone reading this.) I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and fit the general physical description of some category of person that tends to get arrested for the crime that at least one police officer involved aparently felt I was about to commit. They're expected to arrest a certain number of people for that crime and, even though I'm innocent, I count as one.

TechnoZeus

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Oct 22, 2003, 2:33am

Yes, it appears that money is what it's all really about. I did finally get ahold of an attorney, but he said that he only handles divorces. He was nice enough to get another attorney to phone me, but that one said goodbye and good luck as soon as I told him that $750 was an awful lot of money on my income and not something that I could easily come up with. I didn't even get to ask any of the questions I had been hoping to ask. Really short phone conversation. Of course, I don't hold it against him. After all... it's his job, not his hobby. Still, I think it's a shame that probably pretty much everyone knows that, once accused of a crime, it tends to be much more likely for a poor innocent person to be found guilty than a rich guilty person.

I just hope I can get a public defender who cares about truth and justice.

TechnoZeus

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Oct 22, 2003, 4:07pm

Oh, I absolutely agree with you, that $750 would be cheap, for an attorney. It's just a lot of money for someone on my current income. My second divorce was over years ago, and I'll be paying for that as long as I live in ways that make money seem unimportant... plus, I have spent years working on paying off a $2000 debt. Besides that, I don't know whether the $750 was supposed to cover everything, or just the initial retainer. It doesn't matter, because I simply can't afford it. Might as well be $50000000000 from that perspective.

TechnoZeus

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Oct 30, 2003, 3:54am

Yes, ENZO, you are correct. Unfortunately, the way they work it there, I couldn't get an attorney until the case actually went to court. That means I had no time to prepare at all. When I went to court the first time, I had an attorney long enough to be asked whether I wanted to enter a plea of guilty or have the hearing moved to another court. Since I had done nothing wrong, I opted for the second choice. As soon as I did that, I no longer had an attorney, because the case was no longer being handled by the same court. When I went to the second court, I was assigned an attorney right away, and then the case was dismissed before I had a chance to talk with the attorney. Of course, once the case was dismissed, I again no longer had an attorney. Now, they have 120 days durring which they can re-open the case, if they choose to, so that gives them 120 days durring which they "could" try to build a case against me even though once again I have no legal representation, but I'm not worried at this point because if they were going to play dirty and try to fabricate evidence out of thin air, I think they would already have done so.

Of course, I still have to go back to Chicago after the 120 days is up, in order to have this mess expunged, and that's going to cost me too.

TechnoZeus

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Oct 30, 2003, 1:18pm

There was no offense.

TZ

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Oct 30, 2003, 6:50pm

Why don't you consider giving up your need to hurt others at all costs? I'm not asking for money. As a matter of fact, I was strongly encouraged to open up a Pay-Pal account and set up a donations button to help with the expenses caused by all of this, and I passed on the opportunity, because as much as I do need it, I'm not comfortable with asking. Furthermore, they never read my rights to me, so feel free to stop making so many assumptions. You weren't there. I was.

TechnoZeus



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Oct 30, 2003, 9:59am

Could be. :)

I noticed the resemblance also, and wondered whether it was coincidental.

Of course, anything that anyone says to someone else generally has at least two meanings, because the person hearing it it almost certainly going to end up with a different meaning than the person who said it.

TZ

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