When we say that something is "the exception that proves the rule," what do we mean? Here are some excerpts of opinions I found through Google:

Don't you get it? The whole point of this saying is that it doesn't make sense. It's what you say to confound your enemies when your argument has been shot out from under you by some pesky counterexample. From the point of view of advancing the debate it's about one jump ahead of "yo mama," but it beats standing there with your mouth open [The Straight Dope].

The exception proves the rule means "Take a case which you think is exceptional, test it, if the rule still holds then it's probably a good rule" [monkeymagic]

Exception probat regulam [Lat.], the exception proves the rule. A legal maxim of which the complete text is: exceptio probat [or (con)firmat] regulam in casibus non exceptis--`the fact that certain exceptions are made (in a legal document) confirms that the rule is valid in all other cases' [via Living Code].

Well it's nice to know that I'm not the only scientifically minded person that has been confused by this saying. Taken at face value it seems to hide some great kernel of wisdom that I couldn't quite penetrate. In fact, it is the mere contradiction of the statement combined with the apparent validity given it by its popularity that makes it so deep sounding. 6:39:43 PM    comment []  

RSS is a simple way to syndicate content. It is considered a push model for content delivery but basically consists of an XML file that is hosted on a web server. Subscribers periodically retrieve the RSS file to get the latest updated information.

BitTorrent is a P2P download client that allows a single source server to distribute large files without having to support all of the downloads itself. When a BitTorrent client retrieves a file from the source server, it then makes the file available to others in the cloud. As more users download the file, they too begin to share the file. This way, the cloud of users continues to grow, more and more users can download the file, but new users are directed to clients in the cloud instead of the originating server allowing the total throughput of the system to scale almost infinitely.

What happens when you combine RSS with BitTorrent? You get the ability to syndicate large content items (music, videos, software, etc.) without the need for a large server farm to support the load [Wired]. 8:38:53 AM    comment []