Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

[tmoran]

>whereas the FSF "free" is an abbreviation for "free of certain contractual
>restrictions".
  Or perhaps it means "free" in the same sense as "The homeless are
free of worry over mortgages or rent."

Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[Ted Dennison]

In article <3C021EA6.4221485E@brighton.ac.uk>, John English says...
>
>I think Americans call them cellphones, but in the UK they're "mobiles"
>(or as they become ubiquitous, just plain "phones").

"Cell phone", yes. Its two words. Its short for "cellular phone". The companies
selling them like to shorten it to just "cellular" (as they sell non-phone
functionality as well), but you don't hear people on the street using that one
much.

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Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[Larry Kilgallen]

In article <LfwM7.38232$xS6.62450@www.newsranger.com>, Ted Dennison<dennison@telepath.com> writes:
> In article <3C021EA6.4221485E@brighton.ac.uk>, John English says...
>>
>>I think Americans call them cellphones, but in the UK they're "mobiles"
>>(or as they become ubiquitous, just plain "phones").
> 
> "Cell phone", yes. Its two words. Its short for "cellular phone". The companies
> selling them like to shorten it to just "cellular" (as they sell non-phone
> functionality as well), but you don't hear people on the street using that one
> much.

US companies selling such service other than on the original 800 Mhz
"A carrier" and "B carrier" AMPS service often use the term "wireless"
to indicate that what they offer is somehow not "cellular" in nature.

To the best of my knowledge, only satellite phones and home-based
good-for-300-feet-from-the-base-station phones are "wireless" but
not "cellular" in nature.  Non-AMPS service may have cells of different
sizes, but that does not make them non-cells.

Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[John English]

Larry Kilgallen wrote:
> US companies selling such service other than on the original 800 Mhz
> "A carrier" and "B carrier" AMPS service often use the term "wireless"
> to indicate that what they offer is somehow not "cellular" in nature.

Hmm, In the UK "the wireless" is what my parents used to listen to
before they started calling it "the radio" (i.e in the days of the
BBC broadcasting "the Home Service", "the Light Programme" and "the
Third Programme" before they became BBC Radio 4, Radio 2 and Radio 3
respectively).

Two countries separated by a common language, eh?

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Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[Larry Kilgallen]

In article <3C037B03.5DDA76F7@brighton.ac.uk>, John English <je@brighton.ac.uk> writes:
> Larry Kilgallen wrote:
>> US companies selling such service other than on the original 800 Mhz
>> "A carrier" and "B carrier" AMPS service often use the term "wireless"
>> to indicate that what they offer is somehow not "cellular" in nature.
> 
> Hmm, In the UK "the wireless" is what my parents used to listen to
> before they started calling it "the radio" (i.e in the days of the
> BBC broadcasting "the Home Service", "the Light Programme" and "the
> Third Programme" before they became BBC Radio 4, Radio 2 and Radio 3
> respectively).

That use of the term applied in the United States as well.

> Two countries separated by a common language, eh?

Obviously the US is more Ada-like with its use of overloading :-)

Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[Ted Dennison]

In article <eFhM7.46638$RG1.24555639@news1.rdc1.sfba.home.com>, tmoran@acm.org
says...
>
>>whereas the FSF "free" is an abbreviation for "free of certain contractual
>>restrictions".
>  Or perhaps it means "free" in the same sense as "The homeless are
>free of worry over mortgages or rent."

More in the sense of the old saying "Its a free country". (Well, 200+ years old
here in the US anyway).

Its not saying that we can help ourselves to anything in the country without
paying. Its also not saying that the country itself is free for the taking by
anyone who wants to own it. Its also not saying that the leaders of the country
are free to impose whatever terms they want on us. It is saying the we (in this
case, the "users") have a very large amount of freedom with this country,
tempered mainly by prohibitions against depriving anyone else of that same
freedom.

---
T.E.D.    homepage   - http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html

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Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[Preben Randhol]

On Wed, 28 Nov 2001 21:45:27 GMT, Ted Dennison wrote:

> More in the sense of the old saying "Its a free country". (Well, 200+
> years old here in the US anyway).

Hmm, that depends on your definition of freedom.

Preben
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