5 ms·

Can anyone explain what's meant by "o" and "u" word? Googled, but found no explanation.

by DmitriLebedev 18y ago

joshwa 18y ago
O = Organic U = ???
- mhb 18y ago
  kosher?
- jcl 18y ago
  Presumably, U = typo for O
evgen 18y ago
The circled U is a trademark of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America which is used to signify their certification of a product as being kosher.
- dreish 18y ago
  It certainly is, but I don't think that has anything to do with the question, which was regarding the section of the linked article titled "Opting Out of the System", where the author writes "I can't even use the 'U' word" without giving much of a hint as to what word he means. He refers to an "O" word later which is pretty clearly "organic", which actually reminds me of what I dislike about this essay: Sure, it would be great if our Howard Roark-style farmer could grow his own organic crop and slap an "organic" label on it to sell it to his handful of fans without having to deal with the Organic Trade Association, but that's not so good for me, as a customer buying food at the local supermarket. If just anyone could label their food "organic", then what are the odds that word would ever actually mean anything? Likewise, I think it's all well and good that this clearly intelligent and responsible person should build a composting toilet, but if there were _no_ standards, what would stop a new neighbor from moving in next to me and installing, say, a toilet that dumps feces in a pile in the back yard?
  - xirium 18y ago
    > If just anyone could label their food "organic", then what are the odds that word would ever actually mean anything? Let's recast this. How you like to pay a third party an ongoing annual royalty for the privilege of calling your own software open source? We're smart enough to get concensus on a definition and, if necessary, back it with case law. We don't need interest groups co-opting words from the dictionary for their own financial interest.
    - dreish 18y ago
      Given the profusion of licenses, that might not be far from a bad idea, though I suspect a trademark licensing fee would not find many takers unless the price were in the $0.01-1.00 per year range. I don't need the phrase anyway -- I call my work free software (which can't be trademarked), and describe it as GPL- or LGPL-licensed.
    - zasz 18y ago
      I can tell if your software is open-source if you leave the source code on your website. I can't tell if "free-range" eggs were actually laid by hens allowed to range freely. Whether something is open-source or not is pretty obvious; whether something is organic or not is difficult to verify and not generally well-understood yet.

Can anyone explain what's meant by "o" and "u" word? Googled, but found no explanation.

joshwa 18y ago

O = Organic U = ???

mhb 18y ago
kosher?
jcl 18y ago
Presumably, U = typo for O

evgen 18y ago

The circled U is a trademark of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America which is used to signify their certification of a product as being kosher.

dreish 18y ago
It certainly is, but I don't think that has anything to do with the question, which was regarding the section of the linked article titled "Opting Out of the System", where the author writes "I can't even use the 'U' word" without giving much of a hint as to what word he means. He refers to an "O" word later which is pretty clearly "organic", which actually reminds me of what I dislike about this essay: Sure, it would be great if our Howard Roark-style farmer could grow his own organic crop and slap an "organic" label on it to sell it to his handful of fans without having to deal with the Organic Trade Association, but that's not so good for me, as a customer buying food at the local supermarket. If just anyone could label their food "organic", then what are the odds that word would ever actually mean anything? Likewise, I think it's all well and good that this clearly intelligent and responsible person should build a composting toilet, but if there were _no_ standards, what would stop a new neighbor from moving in next to me and installing, say, a toilet that dumps feces in a pile in the back yard?
- xirium 18y ago
  > If just anyone could label their food "organic", then what are the odds that word would ever actually mean anything? Let's recast this. How you like to pay a third party an ongoing annual royalty for the privilege of calling your own software open source? We're smart enough to get concensus on a definition and, if necessary, back it with case law. We don't need interest groups co-opting words from the dictionary for their own financial interest.
  - dreish 18y ago
    Given the profusion of licenses, that might not be far from a bad idea, though I suspect a trademark licensing fee would not find many takers unless the price were in the $0.01-1.00 per year range. I don't need the phrase anyway -- I call my work free software (which can't be trademarked), and describe it as GPL- or LGPL-licensed.
  - zasz 18y ago
    I can tell if your software is open-source if you leave the source code on your website. I can't tell if "free-range" eggs were actually laid by hens allowed to range freely. Whether something is open-source or not is pretty obvious; whether something is organic or not is difficult to verify and not generally well-understood yet.