English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

12:02 AM

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So, "desperacy"? Why not just say "desperation"?

David Wallace

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 So, "desperation"? Why not just say "desperacy"?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@DavidWallace Well, one word is common, and the other not, and I am wondering if they would be exact synonyms or what.

Robusto

@tchrist Well, the attention got me a down vote on that question, for what reason is beyond my ken.

David Wallace

Yeah, I think they are synonyms. One is simply not used any more.

tchrist

12:15 AM

@Robusto I’ve gotten 3 mysterious downvotes today, and I don’t understand a one of them.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

sigh my beer bottle is empty and my code STILL isn't working yet

David Wallace

You don't see any relationship between the two halves of that sentence?

tchrist

One was on the same as yours, two were on the emasculation thing. No idea why.

Robusto

Chalk it up to the drive-by posse.

tchrist

It might have been a guy.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

12:17 AM

The relationship is that my boss hasn't seen fit to update developer workstations since 2007. So my poor little workstation with 4Gb ram has 8GB allocated, and thus I spend a lot of time waiting. So much time that I finished my beer and only managed to deploy the app a handful of times.

tchrist

Probably two of them.

Oh, you said posse. Never mind.

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 See? That is penny-wise, pound-foolish management for you. They'd rather waste your time and productivity.

tchrist

We’re 44% closed. Hm.

Robusto

A new workstation would pay for itself in weeks, if not days.

David Wallace

@Robusto No, they're not foolish; they simply don't understand.

Robusto

12:20 AM

If they can't do that math, they're fools. Fools are foolish.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto Yeah. And then when I managed to bring up the "new machine conversation" once, and I spec'ed out some $1400 workstations that were pretty kick-ass, he started floating an idea of getting everyone those fancy high-def macbooks. For similar CPU/RAM/SSD specs it's be over $3000 for those things.

Meanwhile, I have to twist arms to get new phones for testing.

the $1600 price diff between the PC I spec'ed and the one he spec'ed buys a lot of phones and tablets

Anyway. Meantime, I just come here when I'm compiling.

Robusto

They also don't understand why you need two large monitors for developing. They give those to the managers, who only ever answer emails or do PowerPoint slides.

tchrist

@Robusto I’d just like one that lets me put two 80-column xterms side by side, thank you very much. Is that really too much to ask? I hate 8-point fonts.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto well, we have dual monitors.

I could probably use 3, but whatevs. The monitor situation isn't holding me back much.

Robusto

I have dual monitors as well, but one of them is on the laptop. I'd rather work from home where I have a kick-ass workstation and two 24" monitors. I can do in a day what it takes me two at work. (Also thanks to the lack of interruption.)

tchrist

12:27 AM

@Robusto Ditto Tritto and Quitto.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Well, I do work from home. My monitors are 22" but they're fine. And I don't think I need a notebook at all. In almost 10 years at this company I've wanted a notebook on maybe 3 occasions.

tchrist

Does notebook mean laptop?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So if the boss buys me a super-awesome Macbook with Retina display and yadda yadda yadda, I'm going to have to install Windows on it in a VM and do all my work from that VM. And never ever move that notebook from my desk.

tchrist

That sort of thing is a crime in these parts.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@tchrist laptop is the older word for notebook.

tchrist

12:30 AM

They renamed laptops? When?

Better, why?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

They renamed them about 15 years ago to connote that they were smaller and more portable.

The older word didn't fall out of use though.

tchrist

I thought notebooks were tablets.

Or are those booklets now?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

No, notebooks are laptops.

tablets are touch-screen computers.

tchrist

You mean with vs without keyboard?

Morons can't type anyway, and all those keys puts them off.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

There were "tablets" about 10 years ago at least, which were essentially notebooks that you could close with the screen exposed, and just use the touch-screen.

@tchrist Some tablets have keyboards

most things you'd call a "Tablet" these days have a removable keyboard

If they have a keyboard at all

Cerberus

12:34 AM

Hi.

@Mitch "The Spanish Netherlands" are what is now Belgium, after the Dutch rebellion, because they remained under Spanish control.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

If they have a keyboard that cannot be removed and closes with a hinge like a notebook/laptop does, then they are essentially the same as a touch-screen notebook. The difference is that certain ecosystems will strongly prefer certain words: in Android you have phones and tablets (mostly), and with iOS it's the same: phones and tablets.

Microsoft Tablet PC

Microsoft Tablet PC is a term coined by Microsoft for tablet computers conforming to a set of specifications announced in 2001 by Microsoft, for a pen-enabled personal computer, conforming to hardware specifications devised by Microsoft and running a licensed copy of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system or a derivative thereof. Hundreds of such tablet personal computers have come onto the market since then. History In 2002, original equipment manufacturers released the first tablet PCs designed to the Microsoft Tablet PC specification. This generation of Microsoft Tablet PCs w...

Tablet computer

A tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen and instead of using a physical keyboard it often uses an onscreen virtual keyboard. A tablet computer may be connected to a keyboard with a wireless link or a USB port. Convertible notebook computers have an integrated keyboard that can be hidden by a swivel joint or slide joint, exposing only the screen for touch operation. Hybrids have a detachable keyboard so that the touch screen can be...

Laptop

A laptop computer is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop has most of the same components as a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device such as a touchpad (also known as a trackpad) and/or a pointing stick, and speakers into a single unit. A laptop is powered by mains electricity via an AC adapter, and can be used away from an outlet using a rechargeable battery. Laptops are also sometimes called notebook computers, notebooks or netbooks. Portable computers, originally monochrome CRT-based and developed into the modern laptops, were originally considere...

Robusto

I hope the Windows phone and Suirface tablet die a swift death. Reason: I don't want to have to support a third "standard" for mobile development.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto Just do Android. It is eating up the whole market.

Robusto

Nah. Management all have iPhones, so that's what they test my stuff on.

Cerberus

@Mitch Before the rebellion, were indeed part of the Kingdom of Spain; that is, we owed fealty to the King of Spain. However, he exercised little to no direct control over us. We mainly just paid him taxes. When Philip II tried to increase what control he had over us, raise taxes, and force us to prosecute Protestants, we simply refused. At the same time, the iconoclastic Beeldenstorm erupted.

He then tried to establish control over us through military force, in which he failed—that is, the southern Netherlands had joined the rebellion, but he managed to conquer and occupy them, and now they are Belgium.

@Robusto Silly and backwards—just as many people in business still have Blackberries.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

12:43 AM

@Cerberus Well, Blackberry makes sense for businesses

That is BB's core competency

Robusto

@Cerberus To be fair, though, you are seldom amused at people yanking your chain.

Cerberus

They supposedly had this encrypted e-mail system.

@Robusto You were calling me names and ignoring my explanation. A joke is supposed to be funny.

But no matter.

Robusto

@Cerberus It was funny for me.

But I apologize if you were offended. Although I don't remember calling you names. I did say you affected an RP accent, however.

Cerberus

It's OK. I was not really offended, just annoyed and perplexed.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yay, my code works, time for another beer

So the only cold beer I have is Heineken

Cerberus

1:07 AM

Yay!

What's wrong with Heineken?

Robusto

It's full of nitrosamines.

Cerberus

Who?

Robusto

Heineken.

I used to like Heineken when I was younger. Now I favor a good IPA, like Dogfish Head 90 Minute.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus If there was something wrong with it, I wouldn't buy it. But I prefer a different kind.

I enjoyed drinking Steigl when I was in Austria. I'll have to see if it's available here.

Cerberus

I personally don't care about the brand, as long as it's normal beer.

Robusto

1:18 AM

I don't even know what "normal" beer means anymore.

Cerberus

Yellow beer?

Robusto

When in doubt I'll have a Guinness, if it's on draft.

@Cerberus You mean lager?

Cerberus

I just mean the kind of beer they serve you when you order a beer...that's probably lager, but I always forget which is which.

Robusto

And don't say "yellow" — that sounds so unappealing. If you have to call it a color, try golden instead.

Cerberus

Heh.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:19 AM

my bottle of Heineken says "Heineken Lager Beer" on it. so, yeah.

Cerberus

I was feeling factual.

Robusto

All beer is lager, unless it's ale.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

And the kind I prefer is "Mill Street Original Organic Lager" but the words "original" and "lager" are tiny so everyone calls it "Mill Street Organic".

Cerberus

How about pilsner?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto So is Guinness a lager?

Robusto

1:20 AM

Pilsner is lager.

Cerberus

Well.

See?

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 No, stout is a kind of ale.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

hm.

Cerberus

How am I supposed to remember that?

Robusto

But ale is commonly referred to as beer anyway, so it's not important.

I had this all explained to me by the proprietor of a high-end bar in Cambridge, but the distinctions are lost on me now.

Anyway, beer and TV beckon. Later.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:23 AM

cya

So @Cerberus I am trying to decide if I want to get a N4 or not

on one hand, it is damn cheap

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Will it be sold in the Canadian Play Store?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

on the other hand, I don't really need it

Cerberus

Because it probably won't be in the Dutch Play Store.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus well, I can reach the page where it's available for order, only, I can't order, I can only put in my email address

Cerberus

Ah OK.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:25 AM

So I think it will be available

functionality-wise it won't offer much over the GN...

Cerberus

It won't be available in the smaller EU countries, and not in Italy.

And they say retail prices will be € 500+.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

really?!

yeesh

wire me $400 CAD and I'll mail you one

Cerberus

Which is USD 640+.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yay!

Mitch

@Cerberus Oh. Nothing ever makes sense by the names.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I can even throw in a sim card that will give you internet access in austria

Cerberus

1:27 AM

That's very kind of you. I really shouldn't buy it because I don't need it, though...

@Mitch nods

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Even better!

A problem with importing phones is that you need to pay all sorts of fees, like VAT and duties, if they are shipped from outside the EU.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I want to use that sim card, because it represents several GB of high-speed mobile data, untapped and waiting for access.... but it obv. doesn't work here and I could have just given it away when we left Salzburg

@Cerberus Interesting

I could bake it into a cake and mail it as a cake

Cerberus

I'm afraid you will have to return to Vienna!

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yay! Still better!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I really want to! But there's no $ or time. and if there were, there's also so much more of Europe to see

Cerberus

I suppose.

You could sell it on Ebay.at.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus It is hardly worth the effort. If I'd had a good opportunity to give it away I probably would have. It only cost 10 euro

Cerberus

1:30 AM

Hmm yeah.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

it's good for a year though

Cerberus

Who knows where you'll be one year from now?

Living in Vienna with your family...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus relaxing by the side of a lake in the mountains near Salzburg, writing a novel

my parents would kill me though, for taking their grandchildren so far away :)

Mitch

@Robusto All beer is nasty, unless it is root beer or ginger ale.

Cerberus

So anyway, what do you consider the most significant improvement in the N4 over the GN for you personally, that is, what would really save you time or energy?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:32 AM

@Mitch ginger beer?

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 and then they'll visit.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Can't argue with that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I don't think it will save me anything

It will be faster, which is nice

Cerberus

Not even the wireless charging?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

It will have a better camera

Mitch

1:33 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 ya know...I just saw that the other day.. doesn't sound right.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch I love it. But it's typically VERY strong, a lot of people can't stand it. too gingery.

Cerberus

(I can't imagine how a phone could be faster than the GN: I hardly ever need to wait for anything, at least no more than on my PC.)

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 spicy?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus That would save me so little time that the conversations about buying the phone, and the effort spent in buying the phone, etc, would dwarf the savings.

Mitch

tongue-bity?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:34 AM

@Mitch yes

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Myeah...but how much better? Will it be able to take good picture in low light?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

The gingery-flavour plus the carbonation make it hard to drink.

Mitch

maybe...maybe I'll try it once.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 But but...having to plug in the USB is slightly annoying.

I was even considering buying a (horizontal) pogo-pin dock, à € 30.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Supposedly it's improved. And phone cameras are typically pretty underwhelming. So any improvement is an improvement.

Cerberus

1:35 AM

It would have to be pretty significant for me to matter.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus heh slightly. But worth $350 plus the extra wireless base which I don't think comes with it?

Cerberus

Yeah, exactly.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus well, I noticed the improvement in the camera even from the Nexus S to the GN

Cerberus

Hmm.

Noticed, OK—but was it really enough to turn certain unacceptable photos into acceptable ones?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch I once made a pretty good cocktail with it. It involved ginger beer and rum. I think you can also use tequila.

@Cerberus in some cases, yes.

Cerberus

1:37 AM

Okay.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But usually I don't even bother trying to get "Acceptable" photos with the phone.

Cerberus

How do you mean?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Because I have a point-and-shoot camera that is 100x better than my phone.

Cerberus

Right.

But I always have my phone with me, and never anything else.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So if I care AT ALL about photo quality, I usually use that.

Mitch

1:38 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 the whole taxing thing seems so silly nowadays when on the internet, you can find out what all the prices are everywhere.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 But but...

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 but you can't tell if they're bad if you're looking at them onl on your phone.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch true. But that isn't the only thing I use photos for.

So anyway, I want a better camera on my phone. Before I had this phone, I had a Canon SD500 camera in my pocket ALL THE TIME.

Then I got the Nexus S and it was so big there was no room for the camera.

Then I got the Galaxy Nexus and it was even friggin' bigger.

So I no longer carry a camera and the phone is only a mediocre replacement.

and my several-years-old camera (now the Canon S90) is pretty darn good. But the phone can do fun things like upload photos to facebook.

Cerberus

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So I can't wait to see what they do with Android cameras

Mitch

1:41 AM

do you use cameras that need film?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Image not found

Cerberus

Do you consider this an acceptable photo?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch Not since the dark ages

@Cerberus can't see it

Cerberus

Not even if you click?

It's Dropbox...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

oh, I have to click

No, I don't really consider that an acceptable photo. It's so grainy and blurry

Cerberus

1:42 AM

Exactly.

That's my GN.

At sunset.

It was an HDR photo, so presumably one of the shots had longer exposure, but it wasn't enough.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I find the idea of doing HDR on a phone pretty funny. Who can hold it still enough?

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 The software deals with it, supposedly.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Anyway, the improved camera, and photo-sphere thing look pretty fun. Plus having the latest, greatest thing is also fun

What do you use for HDR photos?

Cerberus

It's not great, but I consider that picture very much acceptable.

Printed in regular photo format, it will look OK.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah, that one's fine

Cerberus

1:46 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 HDR Camera.

I think the lite versions works OK.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

it really depends on the lighting, etc. HDR aside, because my camera doesn't do it, I could have gotten a much better pick of that table using my S90. It would have been much clearer.

Cerberus

I probably got the full version at a heavy discount.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 No doubt. But I was holding my phone in my hand.

I just happened to walk by that table.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah. So anyway, I like taking pictures and wish the phone cameras were better.

Cerberus

I would never have taken the trouble to fetch my real camera from another room, if still had one (Olympus died).

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I agree. My only concern is that just that I'm afraid it may not be significantly better. My father's S3, for example, is not much better.

The camera, I mean.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Well, it might be much better at certain kinds of photos that you didn't try

Cerberus

1:49 AM

Although I must say my GN feels just as fast in general, despite the inferior hardware.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I only tried a low-light photo, and that is really what matters most to me: in all other circumstances, I'm happy with it as it is.

I think we tried low-light with flash.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah. well, anyway, so compared to the GN, it has a better camera, and wireless charging, and a newer version of android. But that version of android will come to the GN, so....?

Cerberus

Yeah.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

although, when ICS came to the Nexus S, there were several features that were disabled. Like "face unlock".

So maybe "photo sphere" won't work on the GN

I will laugh though if the Nexus S gets 4.2 as fast as it got 4.1

Cerberus

It has more RAM and better CPU/GPU, so perhaps some applications will be significantly faster on it, a year or two from now (because they're fast enough on the GN now).

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus yeah, some games will perform better for sure.

Cerberus

1:52 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Of course it will! Why wouldn't it?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus well, they may cripple it on purpose.

like they did with "face unlock" on the Nexus s

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yes. But you can just upgrade once games appear that you notice are slow on your GN.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Then you can just download the apk.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Well, I notice loading times already on lots of games. But that's on my tablet.

@Cerberus If I root the phone

Anyway, we'll see. It's not available yet.

Cerberus

Loading times, yes, I notice them, but they are very short. Since I usually play a game for a longer time, I really don't care about those 10 seconds once in a while.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Actually a new tablet would probably be more useful to me than a new phone.

Cerberus

1:54 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 ...

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Then you know what to buy!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus For some reason though, my wife seems perfectly okay with me buying an N4, but if I said "new tablet", she'd probably give me The Eye.

Cerberus

Haha.

Why?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Maybe I'll buy TWO N4s, one for her, one for me

Cerberus

Oh!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

She hates smartphones though

Cerberus

2:00 AM

Would she like one?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

she likes to press physical buttons

but today she used my GN to send a text and admitted that it wasn't so hard to type with

Cerberus

She will get used to it quickly.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

She's a bit of a luddite

Cerberus

I was afraid of the soft keyboard before I got this phone.

And I must say I still prefer a hardware keyboard.

Even if it's tiny.

But Swype is OK.

Anything but Swype is torture.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I haven't met a hardware keyboard I liked better than the stock Android software keyboard

Cerberus

2:01 AM

Crazy talk!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

oh, yeah, that's another thing it has, non-swype-swiping

Cerberus

My old HTC had a great keyboard.

I could blind-type an SMS while walking down the street.

And I never ever typoed.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Have you ever owned a phone with a hardware keyboard? Which one?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus the Galaxy 551

but I've played with other phones

Cerberus

That looks decent enough.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I find that the innovations in the android keyboard (like holding down an e key to get a popup list of "3" and é ê etc) are so nice

typing passwords on that phone was a major pain

Cerberus

2:06 AM

Really?

I had no issue with that.

Use the N key for numbers and common symbols.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

well, I dunno. Maybe I was doing it wrong.

Cerberus

By the way, you know what the best wallpaper is?

Black.

It looks so cool!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Anyway, my wife thinks a hardware keyboard will help her somehow. So she wants to get one of those Samsung phones with the keyboards. But none of the keyboard phones seem to have good support

@Cerberus Yeah black is good. CyanogenMod lets you pick a solid colour as a wallpaper. Dunno why that isn't a built-in feature.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yeah, I don't know. I tell people they shouldn't.

Because Swype is acceptable, and phones with keyboards are so much bigger and have otherwise low specs.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus well, after having played with TouchWiz phones, I can say that I won't buy one unless I can strip out TouchWiz

@Cerberus She probably doesn't care about bigger. But yeah, there are no high-end keyboard phones.

I want her to get a smartphone so she can start using Google Calendar to store appointments. So that I can know when they are.

Instead of her just telling me from time to time and me struggling to remember.

Maybe I should get an N4 for her. Surprise! Oh, you don't want it? Nm, I'll use it!

Cerberus

2:13 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Flash a different ROM?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus That isn't always possible or easy. And when it is, you're usually talking about a model that's significantly similar to a Nexus.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 You are just like my father!

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I think it should usually be possible.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I dunno. Not all obscure Samsung phones are supported by CM.

And CM is the only rom I really consider.

Cerberus

Search XDA.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I have

I was looking into CM and other unofficial roms for various phones

Cerberus

2:15 AM

I think there are other good ROMs?

There were several good ones for my old HTC.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

most of them tend to be in the "dubious legality" territory. Like if they just ripped the software that came with the phone, then poked around with it and made who knows what changes, and uploaded that to some website.

CM is an open project with good transparency. I trust them way more than some random modder.

Cerberus

They are all like that, and I don't see anything wrong with it. You just need to gauge the reputation of whatever ROM you are considering on XDA. It's not hard. I did that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Well, CM is not like that though. You can download and build CM yourself.

Cerberus

CM may very well be the best ROM.

But other ROMs may be perfectly fine too.

I heard talk of MUI and AOKP, or what is it?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Well, I don't have time to try to figure out what else out there is acceptable. CM is what I trust. They are my backup plan. Though owning a Nexus makes using CM less important... I'd rather have up-to-date nexus Android than slightly-enhanced older-CM-Android

Cerberus

2:20 AM

Yeah same here.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus AOKP I've heard of, they may be a good competitor to CM. But they'll usually have the same drawbacks as CM wrt. hardware support

Cerberus

Anyway, by just reading a few threads on "what are the best ROMs out there for my Universe Connector Prime Ultimus Maximus 687bII?", you will quickly get a decent impression.

Or you could just buy her a N4 and see how she likes it.

Try to find her weak spot.

What things will she appreciate that that phone has, but her current phone does not?

Even if it is something that all modern phones have.

If a creature is immune to normal weapons, there will always be some spell that can capture her.

You must have done something right to enchant her in the past, so do what you must.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I gave her food.

That's her weakspot.

Cerberus

Haha!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

This is her phone: eternalephemeron.blogspot.ca/2007/06/…

Cerberus

2:26 AM

Great.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Oh, dear. I don't know what to say.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

In fact that might actually be her exact phone. It's either my old one, or hers, we ended up buying two identical phones at the same time.

Cerberus

Cute. At the time.

Remind her how romantic that was.

And that it needs to happen again.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

heheh

She just wants me to give her the Nexus S. Which I normally would, except I need it for work.

Cerberus

Ah!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But she doesn't want to use it as a phone.

Cerberus

2:30 AM

So she is open to regular smartphones!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

She wants to use it as a portable photo-frame.

Cerberus

Ah.

Well, she can use it as that, as a navigation unit, as a music and video player...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But the fact that her current phone can only store 200 text messages in its storage before giving an error is starting to annoy her, now that she texts heavily with coworkers.

Cerberus

Hehehe.

Not to mention that Whatsapp is free.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus believe me. I know! but she doesn't think it's useful enough to buy one. And she loves buttons too much.

Cerberus

2:32 AM

I remember the 200 messages.

Why was that ever the limit? Surely 1 MB of memory was cheap enough to build in at the time?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 If she isn't going to buy it, there's only one person who can...

And she will like the wireless charging!

Oh, she will like that!

You know how you could prepare your offensive?

By asking her to do stuff on your phone.

"Honey, can you turn on Google Maps and get us navigation to Blablaland?"

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Well, since it's a device that uses electricity, she would consult with me before buying it. Before we met she was very independent when it came to that stuff, but since then she's abdicated all responsibility for that stuff to me.

Cerberus

"Honey, can you open Tunemein and play this radio station?"

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus She gets annoyed

"I can't find the whatchima. What is it doing. How do I make it... no. you do it."

Cerberus

The clue is to get her to do it when it is about something she wants.

But, granted, it can be difficult.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

My strategy is to get her to do it when I'm driving, so only she can do it.

Cerberus

2:36 AM

My mother is nigh incorrigible in that regard.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

mine too.

My dad is getting there.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That's why I mentioned navigation.

My father is open to it, but very sloppy and forgetful.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

He has a Kobo Vox e-book reader which is basically a small, underpowered android tablet. I keep trying to explain how it has so much untapped potential but they don't want to hear it.

Cerberus

I installed Idrive for him, to automatically back-up all his files to the internet (for free). And, when disaster struck, he managed to restore his files all by himself!

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yeah, sounds familiar.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Anyway, I'm going to head off. I'm tired and my code works, even though it's not feature complete. Maybe I'll be done tomorrow. We'll see.

cya later

Cerberus

2:50 AM

Good luck!

And don't fantasise about the smooth curves of the Nexus 4.

Carlo_R.

3:08 AM

Bye @Mr.Shiny, and good look. I hope to see you here tomorrow.

user19161

5:42 AM

@Cerberus Can we fantasise about your curves?

Andrew Grimm

10:36 AM

It's not constructive because you are asking for opinions. For example, I would use favourite everywhere except in a computing context, which would be favorite precisely to distinguish that situation. In the same way, it's dialog box but a dialogue between two people, and an electric clock is an analog device (as opposed to digital) and analogue is reserved for "analogy". But that's just me; others may be different -- it looks like Barrie is -- and so it cannot be a constructive question as it is. Even asking for concrete evidence is likely to produce opposing examples. — Andrew Leach 58 mins ago

I don't fully get @AndrewLeach 's logic. If there isn't a consensus within British English (either from a prescriptivist or descriptivist viewpoint), can't you just say "There isn't a consensus, use whichever you like"?

Rather than closing the question as "not constructive".

tchrist

10:54 AM

@AndrewGrimm You might try a Meta question. I don't think many people are awake around here. Damn time change made me get up an hour early by their reckoning. But really, no matter how you spell it, favorite makes a really piss-poor verb in my book.

Andrew Grimm

@tchrist You don't like nouning verbs?

tchrist

> Not since Lydia Bennet eloped with Mr. Wickham, not since Anna Karenina ran off with Count Vronsky, has such a hue and cry been heard about purloined affections. The triangle that flared at the climax, with Chris Christie scampering away from Mitt Romney in the wuthering storm to cling to Barack Obama, the New Jersey governor’s brown eyes looking up trustingly into the president’s brown eyes, added a frisson to a jaundiced, spendthrift race.

Well, she must enjoy writing.

Andrew Grimm

Maureen Dowd?

tchrist

Right.

Andrew Grimm

How many ELU questions has she been responsible for?

tchrist

10:58 AM

Several. I don't know the number. You can search as well as I.

I'm on my first cup of coffee, and it not yet 4am.

By the clock.

Which I disbelieve anyway.

32 hits for "Dowd".

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