I’m designing some software to help small mom-and-pop companies put themselves online for little or no recurring cost. The software will be able to run all the functions of their business, from inventory control, to marketing (tie ins to Froogle, eBay, Shopping.com, and AdWords and Overture), to accounting (export in CSV for now, QuickBooks later), and so forth. It will be easy to change the look-and-feel of it (using skins and templates, some of which I’ll build at first, and I’ll publish the guide to creating more). It will integrate with Authorize.net, PayPal, and other merchant services. It will be built using Open Source tools, and will itself be Open Source.

Can anyone think of a good name for something like this?

I have an HP Pavilion DV4 laptop, and when I had gotten this thing for my birthday last year, I instantly fell in love. It runs on Windows 7 and it’s such a great laptop, the only problem is that it didn’t have Microsoft Word automatically installed on it, and since I’m a highschool student, Word is something that us necessary for me to have on my own laptop. (Microsoft making you have to pay more money? Nah, no way). So, I quickly downloaded through a torrent a version of Microsoft Office Pro 2007, and everything was working fine. For some reason however, a few months ago Word stopped opening up for me, and it didn’t have any real reason as to why. It would sometimes run in safe mode, but eventually decided to stop running altogether. Recently, I decided to purchase a legal copy of Mircrosoft Office Home, and for some reason my laptop refused to recognize the CD. I was really frustrated, because it recognized other disks that I tried to install. When my mother took it to her job along with my laptop, her IT guys took a look at it and it ends up that we got a faulty disk, so we returned it. Today, we got another Office CD in the mail, and once again, my laptop is refusing to read the disk. The possibility of being sent 2 faulty disk seems very rare, and I’m awfully frustrated, but that’s not the worst part. Since I’m seriously in need of a word processor, I decided to download a free one online (other than Microsoft Word), and for some reason whenever I try to start the app, it doesn’t start and has an error. I even tried Google’s word document service, and every time I try to print the document, IT CRASHES! It’s almost like my laptop has suddenly become allergic to anything even INVOLVING a word processor. I also know for sure that my laptop doesn’t have any viruses, because my mom’s IT guys had checked that also. I don’t have any idea what to do, and all I want to do is freakin’ type word documents! That’s it! Can someone help me out?!?!?
Ok, in reference to JoelKatz for letting me know how vague I was (sorry about that btw), here’s more detail on my problem;
When I say it refused to read the disk, I mean that when I inserted the CD into the CD/DVD drive, I could hear the machine working, but suddenly stopping, then working again, then stopping (this went on for a minute or so), and there was no new window popping up from a new program and no alert from Windows or the installation wizard. So no I didn’t get an error message, because my computer just flat out did not recognize that I even put a disc in. The alternate word processor I downloaded was AbiWord 2.8, and whenever I click on the program to open it, I see the little blue circle by my pointer letting me know that it’s trying to open the program, but then it disappears and the program remains unopened. As far as the google issues are concerned, what happens is that it’s possible for me to type up a word document, but when I try to print what I just typed, the brow
*the browser (Google Chrome) suddenly froze and then crashed on me, for no explained reason.

I have an HP Pavilion DV4 laptop, and when I had gotten this thing for my birthday last year, I instantly fell in love. It runs on Windows 7 and it’s such a great laptop, the only problem is that it didn’t have Microsoft Word automatically installed on it, and since I’m a highschool student, Word is something that us necessary for me to have on my own laptop. (Microsoft making you have to pay more money? Nah, no way). So, I quickly downloaded through a torrent a version of Microsoft Office Pro 2007, and everything was working fine. For some reason however, a few months ago Word stopped opening up for me, and it didn’t have any real reason as to why. It would sometimes run in safe mode, but eventually decided to stop running altogether. Recently, I decided to purchase a legal copy of Mircrosoft Office Home, and for some reason my laptop refused to recognize the CD. I was really frustrated, because it recognized other disks that I tried to install. When my mother took it to her job along with my laptop, her IT guys took a look at it and it ends up that we got a faulty disk, so we returned it. Today, we got another Office CD in the mail, and once again, my laptop is refusing to read the disk. The possibility of being sent 2 faulty disk seems very rare, and I’m awfully frustrated, but that’s not the worst part. Since I’m seriously in need of a word processor, I decided to download a free one online (other than Microsoft Word), and for some reason whenever I try to start the app, it doesn’t start and has an error. I even tried Google’s word document service, and every time I try to print the document, IT CRASHES! It’s almost like my laptop has suddenly become allergic to anything even INVOLVING a word processor. I also know for sure that my laptop doesn’t have any viruses, because my mom’s IT guys had checked that also. I don’t have any idea what to do, and all I want to do is freakin’ type word documents! That’s it! Can someone help me out?!?!?
Ok, in reference to JoelKatz for letting me know how vague I was (sorry about that btw), here’s more detail on my problem;
When I say it refused to read the disk, I mean that when I inserted the CD into the CD/DVD drive, I could hear the machine working, but suddenly stopping, then working again, then stopping (this went on for a minute or so), and there was no new window popping up from a new program and no alert from Windows or the installation wizard. So no I didn’t get an error message, because my computer just flat out did not recognize that I even put a disc in. The alternate word processor I downloaded was AbiWord 2.8, and whenever I click on the program to open it, I see the little blue circle by my pointer letting me know that it’s trying to open the program, but then it disappears and the program remains unopened. As far as the google issues are concerned, what happens is that it’s possible for me to type up a word document, but when I try to print what I just typed, the brow
*the browser (Google Chrome) suddenly froze and then crashed on me, for no explained reason.

The Online Etymology Dictoinary defines the word as: “Purely in ref. to political opinion, ‘tending in favor of freedom and democracy’… But also (especially in U.S. politics) tending to mean ‘favorable to government action to effect social change’.”

The left-wing is certainly more liberal on sexual issues. They stress freedom whereas the right wing focus on the need for responsibility. OTOH, when the word liberal is applied to economics, it means free-market/laissez faire. These policies are more often supported by the right-wingers.

Now I understand that liberalism is the dominant ideology in the West. BOTH sides embrace the ideals of liberalism when it is conveniant. So why did the word liberal come to carry the very leftist meaning of “favorable to government action to effect social change”? Put aside the question of whether or not government action for social change is a good thing. Why is it that (especially in the USA) liberal means left wing? Thanks in advance!
Just want to clarify. I’m not focusing on why LIBERAL has become a dirty word in America.

In USA & Canada LIBERAL has come to mean left-wing social liberalism, as championed by Pierre Trudeau & John Maynard Keynes.

Compare this to Europe & Australia where LIBERAL means right-wing classical liberalism, as championed by Robert Menzies & Ludwig von Mises.

What caused this split in liberalism? Who are the true heirs to the legacy of Kant, Locke & de Tocqueville?

Pretty big question. Maybe someone can point me to a book that tackles this question?

I appreciate all the thoughtful responses (especially almintaka’s)

Please feel free to email me if you’re having problems posting a message here.

I’m in the process of marketing myself online as a freelance writer and editor. (I’ve built a fairly simple website using Web Studio 4.0 software.) In order for people to send me documents for editing, I need a way to allow them to browse for the file on their own computer and upload it to mine. I’m vaguely familiar with the idea of an FTP site, but am not sure if that’s the best way to go. Any ideas on what might work best? Thanks!