English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Vitaly

2:00 PM

That might work, thanks. Or just a computer simulation.

Matt Эллен

I'm confused about how that will not involve reproduction, but great!

KitFox

Well, because they themselves would be doing the dirty sex things with the plants.

And they could see the results right before their eyes.

Matt Эллен

oh, actually get them to grow something!

KitFox

And if it is sinless enough for a monk to do it, surely God wouldn't cast them into the pits of hell for that sort of sexual exploration.

@Vitaly Maybe, except that of course, you could be manipulating the computer simulation to convince them to worship the devil.

Then they might try to get you to repent for such chicanery!

Vitaly

Oh, they are not religious, they are just squeamish and don't understand evolution

KitFox

2:05 PM

Weird.

Vitaly

2:26 PM

@Reg OOS, and sorry but both of my decks get paired with their respective perfect counters in this war. Also, our new member is kinda suspicious (Chatzy).

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Gah.

@Kit, you got any stam?

KitFox

@RegDwightѬſ道 I've been spending it. Three bars already.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I know. I'm asking whether I should snipe or not.

I have 70 left, we are 500 behind.

KitFox

I've got 14.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I see.

KitFox

2:30 PM

I could WB...

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Nah, not worth it.

Not in an 8k war.

KitFox

That's irritating. I leveled up earlier, so I spent two full bars in a row on this one.

Matt Эллен

yeah, those Warner Brothers are nothing but trouble

KitFox

My littlest keeps starting Stutter, then taking the disc out, putting it back in, and starting it up again, and dancing.

►

Matt Эллен

excellent. I'm not sure if I know that one

KitFox

2:33 PM

I think it was their big hit.

Matt Эллен

then I probably do.

added it to watch later and enjoy the burst of nostalgia :)

KitFox

My eldest apparently likes Elastica.

And Garbage and PJ Harvey.

And the Bangles.

Matt Эллен

I think I listened to queen and simon and garfuhnkel, mostly when I was that young. Plus whatever was on the radio

it's what I remember, at least

KitFox

I made the eldest a CD. We call it his "car mix" because we listen to it in the car. He asked the other day if we could listen to his car mix because it is "wicked awesome."

Matt Эллен

:D yeah!

For some reason, my dad's enjoyment of music has declined a lot in recent years. I'm sure he listened to things when I was a kid. These days he just turns it off.

I find it hard to understand not liking music

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:44 PM

Maybe his hearing is going?

Matt Эллен

nah, I don't think so. When I'm at my parents' home they don't have the TV loud or anything

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

He might still be losing certain frequencies

Matt Эллен

maybe

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

and so the music sounds bad to him, and thus less enjoyable

whoops, turns out that appt I thought was in 30 mins is in 15. bye!

(thank Jobs for smartphones!)

Matt Эллен

cya!

@KitFox - are we in competition to see who will get the copy editor badge first?

KitFox

3:05 PM

@MattЭллен Oh right. We were. I forgot.

I like music, but I turn it off a lot these days. I find it too distracting.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox I'm on 167 edits. where you up to?

KitFox

169.

scrambles to edit all the questions and answers on the site

Matt Эллен

D: scrambles to intercept

KitFox

5

Q: Does “woman driver” have a special meaning other than female driver?

Rush Limbaugh’s “wrong choice of word” is causing a big fuss. And I was puzzled to find the following statement of Limbaugh from www. rushlimbaugh com. that was made 4 days ago: "The reaction that they are having to what I said yesterday about Susan Fluke -- or Sandra Fluke, whatever her ... Loo...

word

Man, I hate Rush Limbaugh.

Matt Эллен

isn't he a type of cheese?

I am quite confused by some of the image results for rush limburger

RegDwight Ѭſ道

3:13 PM

0

A: Difference between spine and backbone

backbone and spine sam to sam idiota

Robusto

@Vitaly: I emailed a Russian colleague your video and asked him if it showed voter fraud. His response: "Yes, it does. With this stealing, Putin made a mistake declaring he got 60% of votes, he should have declared he had 99.99% of votes as Stalin did."

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@RegDwightѬſ道 What type of cheese is this?

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightѬſ道 edam

Skullpatrol

I have some shocking news about the English Language and its Usage.

KitFox

waits for it

Skullpatrol

3:22 PM

►

merriam-webster.com/video/0003-ibeforee.htm

KitFox

He forgot the "or when sounded like 'a' as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh'" part.

Skullpatrol

I before E except after C

"I before E, except after C, or when sounded as A, as in neighbor or weigh," is a mnemonic rule of thumb for English spelling. If one is unsure whether a word is spelled with the sequence ei or ie, the rhyme suggests that the correct order is ie unless the preceding letter is c or the combination is being pronounced as an 'A' (that is, like the name of the letter 'A' in English: ), in which case it is spelled ei. For example: * ie in believe, fierce, collie, die, friend, achieve * ei after c in deceive, ceiling, receipt, ceilidh * ei sounds like an 'A' as in vein, The rule is very well k...

KitFox

And I don't think most people would confuse a plural ending that way (e.g., species). And "hacienda" and "madeira" are Spanish words, not an English one.

Matt Эллен

e before i except before pie, where I always go first

Robusto

@Skullpatrol Or when sounded as neither or either or tomato or potato.

KitFox

3:28 PM

Also, -ing endings. I mean, come on.

Funny, I've not really had much trouble with that rule ever.

"I before E except after C or when used in any fashion where you wouldn't possibly confuse it unless you are dyslexic or not paying attention."

I hate null values.

Matt Эллен

you hate nothing!

Robusto

Oldsmobile had a car model known as the Ciera (made famous in the movie Fargo). Them GM fokes never cud spel rite.

@KitFox Valuist! Null is a legitimate value and extremely useful! Fie!

KitFox

@Robusto "Operator '/' is not defined for type 'Integer' and type 'DBNull'."

Matt Эллен

Null values cause nothing but trouble! I had one break into my car last week, even.

KitFox

grumbles, shakes fist

There must be a better way to do this.

Matt Эллен

3:37 PM

@KitFox as far as I know you'll either have to check before you use your value each time, or coalesce you DBNULL into a value fit for use before you use it.

KitFox

@MattЭллен There must be a better way to do this.

Matt Эллен

I wish

KitFox

And I can't tell if these are legitimate bugs, because I am using test data which is full of garbage.

Matt Эллен

:(

KitFox

>:(

Matt Эллен

3:42 PM

indeed

Robusto

@KitFox Oh, right ... .Net stuff. Well, my sympathies to you and yours.

KitFox

@Robusto Thanks. What do you use again?

Robusto

0

Q: how do you pronounce 'char' and 'reg'?

In many programming languages, 'char' is a type name for character values. The word 'character' is pronounced with a [k] sound. But what about 'char'? While trying to find the answer elsewhere, I learnt that there is an English word 'char' which is pronounced [tʃɑ:(r)], but it has nothing to do...

pronunciation contractions

Does this really belong here?

Matt Эллен

"how to pronounce char" used to be a question on Programmers.SE

but it must have been deleted because I can't see my answer to it

Robusto

@KitFox We are a Java shop. But I don't mess with that myself, as I've said before.

KitFox

3:44 PM

@Robusto Maybe if it were made generic to "how do we usually pronounce shortened words"? or something.

Robusto

@KitFox Except that can't be answered either. It depends on individual cases.

KitFox

shrugs and yawns

I probably ought to hop in the shower anyway.

Matt Эллен

indeed. can't have a dirty Kit

KitFox

3:59 PM

Ta da! Squeaky clean.

Matt Эллен

woohoo!

Imagines shiny fox

meeting, ta ta!

KitFox

bye!

Robusto

@KitFox I bet you're not really going to hop.

KitFox

@Robusto Not while I was getting in, but while I was in the shower, I did in fact hop.

Robusto

@Vitaly: Another Russian colleague weighs in on the video: "Not sure why you call it stealing though. This video shows people dropping not one but several ballot papers each. So, it is not stealing but dropping additional :)"

Hmm ... my next single-word-request question: "Is there a term for the co-founder of a series of Q&A sites who reportedly stepped down but still wants to manage things so as to prevent others from enjoying the things he cannot abide"?

KitFox

4:12 PM

@Robusto "Asswood."

aedia λ

Why is morning being morning again at me? I've had enough of this!

sulks at coffee

KitFox

~~sulks in~~ sucks at empathy

aedia λ

giggles

proffers carrot sticks

They had to be broken in half to fit in my lunch container so now I have twice as many!

KitFox

Sweet.

sighs fixed it.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.

I'm feeling very Eeyore today.

aedia λ

Eeyore is the best character though!

KitFox

4:26 PM

Now that I fixed that one thing, it has shown me more things that are broken.

Maybe some juice will help me feel better.

user19161

Just like when we learn one thing new, we discover that there are ten more things to be learnt.

KitFox

Maybe turkey dog and french fries for lunch will help me feel better.

aedia λ

Mmm. Yes, you're probably in need of some protein and fat. Or at least it will cheer you up. I know it would me.

KitFox

I'm all out of chocolate too.

And I'm at home today, hiding in my bedroom to do w-rk.

aedia λ

@KitFox Want a Lindt truffle?

user19161

4:33 PM

@aediaλ I thought it is sugar that cheers you up.

KitFox

@aediaλ Oh thanks!

user19161

Protein makes muscles big. Fat makes tummy big. Sugar makes laughter big. QED.

KitFox

Also, why are my totals not working out right?

user19161

@KitFox Use a calculator.

KitFox

It's not really feasible to go to every user's workplace and use a calculator.

aedia λ

4:37 PM

Send them all calculators? I'm sure you can find a cheesy promo one...

I mean wouldn't they love to calculate their totals correctly with Barbie here?

user19161

The GNOME calculator is very good. It has a scientific mode for all the common functions.

user19161

But people might not know it exists because you have to set it.

KitFox

@aediaλ Nice. I'm sure I could sell it to the team at our next meeting. "It will be a great way to encourage users to examine their data more closely!"

Damn it, damn it, damn it. That view is not just all the current stuff. Grr! punches past self for not anticipating this need

RegDwight Ѭſ道

0

A: Is there a term to describe speech that has a hidden meaning but is not sarcastic?

I agree with many of the other comments. Many times this takes the form of a "backhanded compliment". Example: " I don't normally like girls with greasy hair, but somehow you make it work". In this example they are blatantly saying the person has greasy hair, and the pseudo-compliment would be ...

Passes as an answer?

KitFox

Um. A crappy answer, but I suppose "backhanded compliment" is an answer.

It's borderline though.

aedia λ

4:48 PM

I was about to say the same thing. It's not a dupe of the other answers and it's sort of related to the question, though a very specific example, rather than answering the question as a whole. I guess it's an answer.

Robusto

@aediaλ Barbie doesn't worry about math. There is no "Math Barbie."

aedia λ

@Robusto But how else are you going to know if you're over your credit card limit when you're out shopping?

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 The real answer is innuendo but I'll be damned if I'm going to post that.

@aediaλ Easy. The clerk tells you.

aedia λ

Oh.

I guess I fail Shopping 101.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Barbies don't worry about credit card limits, either.

KitFox

4:58 PM

@aediaλ "Math is hard. Let's go shopping!"

aedia λ

Fine, fine, I admit I only had a few Barbies, and they didn't even know about credit because they lived in a lesbian commune with a lot of off-brand plastic food in their two kitchens, and nowhere to shop.

And one Ken whose head and legs unfortunately kept falling off so they stole his clothes.

KitFox

tries not to choke on french fries

Freedom fries.

Freedom rocks.

Gotta run. Laters.

5:05 PM

Bai!

@KitFox I'm so not making that up either. I remember that they mostly had one giant bed which I think was probably a pillow or something my mom sewed for a baby doll I never really played with.

KitFox

@aediaλ ...and that's how you got the Gay, innit?

aedia λ

@KitFox Hahaha probably.

KitFox

Your poor mother. If only she'd given you a working Ken doll.

aedia λ

I also remember the Barbies didn't have a car so they would ride the My Little Ponies around for fun.

Even if they didn't have wings I pretended they could fly of course.

KitFox

Sweet. I had a My Little Pony once. The pink one. Cotton Candy, I think.

I had a Kissing Ken Barbie too, but I dismantled her to see how the kissing mechanism worked, and I couldn't be bothered to stitch her face back on after that.

aedia λ

5:10 PM

They were nearly all girls - I don't think I even had any that were actually intended as boys; those were rare. But one of my first was blue so he was an integral character.

This is actually the same one, though a terrible picture

KitFox

Her burned remains were buried in a shallow grave near the garden.

aedia λ

AHHHHHHH

shivers

KitFox

What? Is that weird?

I won't tell you what happened to my Miss Moppet doll then.

Matt Эллен

tell! tell!

aedia λ

It's not weird to take things apart, I'm just slightly freaked out imagining burned doll faces or something

But do tell us.

KitFox

5:11 PM

I think I would have liked playing with dolls if I hadn't had two older brothers and a "progressive feminist" mother.

aedia λ

I got scared watching Coraline even.

Matt Эллен

@aediaλ the image made me laugh :D

KitFox

@aediaλ Oh, I didn't burn her face. I kept that for later. I just burned her legs really.

And that was because I wanted to know if I had mixed the napalm in correct proportions.

aedia λ

I never liked baby dolls, only slightly played with Barbie, but played with ponies a ton. I probably had about 10 when I was really into them but kept collecting them so probably at least 20 by the end - my friends and I loved the old school ones the best so we would check all the garage sales.

KitFox

Nothing happened to Miss Moppet actually, except that my brothers hid her in the fish tank. I found that very distressing.

Matt Эллен

5:13 PM

awwww :(

poor moppet

aedia λ

Oh no!

I would have been really upset too.

KitFox

I liked her better than Barbie. She was nice to me. Not like Barbie, would was too busy with Ken to give me the time of day.

aedia λ

Haha.

Barbies cared too much about clothes and couldn't even stand on their own, that was the problem

Matt Эллен

lego minfigs never had that problem

aedia λ

I had stands for them that I remember being really excited to get, so that I could finally have more than two characters doing something at once

KitFox

5:16 PM

I had a lot of Lego minifigs and horses.

Matt Эллен

thyme to fly. cya

KitFox

Cya!

aedia λ

I know! My LEGO minifigs had a huge imaginary life, but that's what I played with my brother, My Little Pony and Barbie and stuff were good for with other people who didn't have LEGO

KitFox

@aediaλ Oh yeah! I remember those.

JSBᾶngs

Ron Maimon, New York City

139 4

grammar linguistics rhymes single-word-requests grammaticality grammatical-structure antonyms

^ anybody know what's up with this guy?

aedia λ

5:17 PM

@MattЭллен Bye!

JSBᾶngs

he has no questions with score greater than 0

KitFox

He's crazy?

He's an autodidact. That usually means insane.

Cerb says he asks questions the same way on Ling.

aedia λ

@KitFox Oh oh and those little tiny cars, whatchamacallits, there were even ones that could fit a little baby car inside 'em. Way smaller than hot wheels. What d'ya call'em?

JSBᾶngs

i'll go with that theory

KitFox

@aediaλ Micro Machines?

I had piles of those.

Still do, in the basement.

aedia λ

5:19 PM

Ah yes!

KitFox

@JSBᾶngs I mean, "I like physics, but I think the professionals are, for the most part, completely competent." sounds a little odd, but "I consider myself to be the next Isaac Newton." really shouts it loud.

aedia λ

I had the little playhouse for them that pretended to be an oil can or something like that

JSBᾶngs

@KitFox hah, lol

KitFox

@aediaλ I have that. And the distributor cap garage, and the air carrier, and a wall display case.

Now I want to go look at them. Must resist.

aedia λ

@KitFox Ooh fancy! I never had a display case... I didn't have that many, but I do love them.

Some of my stuff is in my parents' attic due to my cramped living conditions and I hope to rescue it eventually.

KitFox

5:22 PM

I put my favorites in my dollhouse for the children to play with.

I hung a helicopter and an airplane from their ceiling.

Robusto

@KitFox An autodidact? Does that means he tries to teach his car to do tricks?

user19161

5:45 PM

@JSBᾶngs I looked at his physics answers. I quite like this guy. He might really be the next Isaac Newton.

KitFox

If he is that good, then why doesn't he have a PhD?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

hey @aedia, you like bugs, right? npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/…

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Not as big as I thought when I saw giant.

user19161

I have seen a spider larger than that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

6:01 PM

In Canada only our Mosquitoes are that big

They fly off with your cat

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I assume you are joking.

user19161

Are there such big mosquitoes?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

It sure seems that way :)

user19161

But I was not joking about the spider.

user19161

I saw it on a highway.

user19161

6:03 PM

There are some mosquitoes that seem to be able to pierce through thick clothing. We call them commando mosquitoes in the army.

user19161

Even with uniform you still get bitten by them somehow.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah we have mosquitoes that seem to be able to bite through denim.

I think it must actually be that you are getting bitten at some other time and only notice it later and misattribute the time-of-bite

user19161

The scariest animal I saw was a wild boar that ran across the jeep I was in.

user19161

It was scary because it was unexpected and I had not seen a wild boar before.

user19161

It is certainly different from a cute little pig.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

6:09 PM

yeah probably more dangerous too

JSBᾶngs

wild boar are more dangerous than most things

however, they're fun to kill in Age of Empires

probably my favorite wild animal

KitFox

Agreed.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

My wild-boar experience is limited to the first season of Lost, in which boar featured as a common meal for the castaways.

user19161

Of course I went to the zoo and saw lions and tigers there, but they are not scary as they are far away.

KitFox

So if I took a step back from what I was doing, and asked the question "What are the best tools for creating dynamic webpages that have lots of table data that should be formatted based on cell values, and also that will need to be presented in nice graphs and charts?" what do you think the answer would be?

So I know where to start looking.

JSBᾶngs

6:17 PM

@Kit alas i have no idea

KitFox

The only things I can think of are .Net and PHP really. Maybe I should just re-write everything in C#.

But that doesn't really get me anywhere.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Kit are you trying to create spreadsheets, on the web? tables, graphs, charts?

user19161

@KitFox Wow that is like a word request that needs to fulfil many criteria!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

you might want to look into a reporting framework

KitFox

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Just the same as what I'm doing now. Mostly presenting tables of data, with sorting and filtering. (Also, need some charting, but this is something my boss seems to think we're lacking. The charting tool looks OK to me.)

I just want to learn something new.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

6:21 PM

Ah

In that case I'd suggest learning a new way to access your data, such as using MVC.net

( I think that's what it's called? SO uses it)

KitFox

But they want lots of funky conditional formatting, like "display everything in red if the number of records is less than what it should be."

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

How is your CSS knowledge

KitFox

@MrShinyandNew安宇 wrinkles nose

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Um, well, I learned a lot from you and aedia.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

The thing about something like MVC.net is that it allows you to skip a lot of boilerplate code. At least, when I went to the Toronto SO Devdays a guy from Microsoft was able to create a web app that creates , updates, and displays data in a table in about 10 minutes.

It doesn't use sprocs though :)

The advantage of something like this is that you can avoid writing boilerplate code.

KitFox

There is a lot of boilerplate.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

6:25 PM

And for presentation rules, you can always put some CSS classes throughout the resulting code depending on what conditions you've discovered.

Then your stylesheet can just apply colours appropriately.

KitFox

Well, true. I do some of that already. I just hate the way it looks.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

You can use judicious use of CSS rule precedence to have more important rules override less important ones.

@KitFox Maybe you need to use more complicated selectors

KitFox

Maybe I should try Ajax or something.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

to reduce the number of classes and IDs you need, and to simplify your CSS rules

@KitFox AJAX is really just a transport mechanism. You still need code to actually implement business rules

KitFox

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I'm not sure I follow you.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I know, I mean, just to try something new.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

6:27 PM

Well, if you have table cells that need to be red, a naive way to do this is to put class="redcell" on each cell. But if the whole table needs to be red, and there's only one on the page, you can just do table { background-color: red; }

or do table.too_few_records { background-color: red; } and apply the too_few_records class to the table when you discover that there are too few records.

And keep in mind that you can put multiple classes on a single element.

and that you can do table.everything_is_peachy { bg: white} table.everythings_gone_to_hell { bg:red; }

KitFox

Oh, I see what you mean now. I thought you were saying that I could do something more complicated to make it less complicated.

user19161

Mr Shiny is giving computer lesson 100.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy crap, I did say I was going to stop doing that, didn't i. Well, at least Cerb isn't here. :)

@KitFox well, yes, more complicated (i.e. advanced) CSS to reduce the amount of code, by saying more with less.

KitFox

Plus, I am not sure how I would do that programmatically, which means I'd be learning something new.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

One of the most important things to remember, as a coder, is DRY (don't repeat yourself). So if you find yourself sprinkling the same HTML classes all over a document, you're maybe doing it wrong.

@KitFox Well, you use ASP to generate your tables, right? There must be a way to specify classes on all the relevant HTML elements, or, at least, enough important ones.

KitFox

6:31 PM

I more or less finished the last page I was working on, and I had told my boss that I wanted to take a day or two and review the site and figure out what needed to be fixed, because it is really overgrown.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Remember: CSS allows you to select descendants, so if you can only apply classes to Table, TR, TD, but you need to style a button in a td, you can do td.some_relevant_class button { rules }

KitFox

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh, I'm sure it can be done. Don't ruin my fun!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox Oh, you mean, you don't want to use that

well, you can just output the tables by hand

KitFox

Oh, hahaha!

I was thinking I need to repackage pretty much everything. Write some new functions and classes, and document my functions. And write some test cases while I'm at it.

Except I always have trouble with test cases.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

If you want to add ajaxy things, I'd recommend looking through your app and trying to find something that could benefit from fewer page transitions and background-updates.

Then try to ajax-ify it.

KitFox

6:34 PM

You know what I really need to do? Reduce load times as much as possible.

And see if I can push a lot more validation to client-side to speed that up too.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox You shouldn't move validation to the client. You could copy it there if you need to improve the user experience. But it should always be on the server, that's the only way to ensure it runs at all.

Reducing load times is challenging. You could use a profiler or put some timing instrumentation into your code. My app has all DB access done from inside command objects, and those objects always record their execution times, so we can tell where the most likely performance problems are.

KitFox

Mmm, yes. I was thinking about date checking, for instance. When the date box loses focus, I have it check to make sure the date is after the last entered date and not in the future. Apparently, this make for a very unhappy user experience.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Hmm. I'm not sure how I would do that either. makes notes

I also want to import the production data and de-identify it, so I can test with real data, and not the garbage I'm currently using.

I spent two hours checking calculations this morning, only to find out that my numbers were wrong because I have an orphaned record hanging out in my test data.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox So basically we have a static global object that stores timing based on a name (you could use the file name or object class name or page name). Every time the command (or page or whatever) executes it notes the start time and end time. Then it adds this to the collection of stats for that named object. So get_user: 9ms; get_user: 9ms; get_user: 200ms; => (avg 70ms, max: 200ms, avg cached: 9ms)

KitFox

Really what I want to do is just start the whole thing over from scratch, now that I've gone through it once.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 What's your back end?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox Yes, this is an excellent idea. But you should make an automated process for this so that you can do it again later. We have a problem getting production data anymore.

@KitFox Our app is Java (JSPs, Struts, JDBC) talking to Oracle.

KitFox

6:41 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yeah, I'd have to write scripts for de-identifying anyway.

user19161

-1

Q: Is "So far as concerns something" the same as "So far as something is concerned"?

The following excerpt is from an article of Harry Frankfurt who is a professor from Princeton University: Especially by pretentious word or deed: There are two points to notice here. First, Black identifies humbug not only as a category of speech but as a category of action as well; it may be...

idioms meaning-in-context pronouns

user19161

Why two downvotes?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox yeah but I mean try to make it as repeatable and easy a process as possible. Because later on people will want to do this and find that they can't get the time to go through it all. And your dev db will get older and older.

KitFox

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Maybe I can program a button...

;-)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox yeah, but your button will only work until you change your schema.

KitFox

6:44 PM

I don't know why you keep assuming we have some sort of "schema."

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

The most ideal thing would be for the schema to identify which tables and columns need scrubbing, and what kind of scrubbing they need.

KitFox

It's all just notes on a paper napkin that I put in the manila file on my desk.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox well, I mean, you have tables, right? they form a schema

KitFox

I am joking.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox Hm, I think I can identify some features you might want to consider looking into then :)

KitFox

6:45 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh, yes. That's a very good idea.

user19161

@KitFox Wait, what is a manila file?

KitFox

Then it doesn't matter if an incidental column is added.

If it doesn't contain identifiable information.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox I'm not sure it would work though. I have a very complicated script for scrubbing credit-card numbers, because our DB is very denormalized and so when I update a CC number it has to get copied into lots of places.

So if your data isn't fully normalized, you might find that scrubbing is hard to automate.

KitFox

@JasperLoy staples.com/Staples-Manila-File-Folders/product_SS116657

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

anyway I have to run.

KitFox

6:46 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Well, of course it is fully normalized. I was the one who built it.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh OK. Thanks! Bye!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I think if you want to play around with stuff, I'd recommend javascript and CSS, you can then expand to ajax, and you can make your apps look really spiffy with minimal effort, which gets you mucho bonus points

bye

user19161

@KitFox Now I am reminded of thinking about the difference between staple, staplet and stapler.

user19161

The difference between an apple and an applet is much more obvious obviously.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

7:09 PM

1

Q: "Learning always" vs "always learning"

What is the difference between learning always and always learning in terms of grammar and connotation? If the connotation is the same then which is preferred?

word-order

Okay, is the order "learning always" possible at all? Other than in constructions such as "learning always to bla", where the always does not belong to the learning, but rather to the to bla?

Matt Эллен

7:33 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 you could have it as a tattoo

or a tag line on a business card

something like that

RegDwight Ѭſ道

To mean what?

Matt Эллен

that you're always learning

RegDwight Ѭſ道

First time I hear that. To me, that could only mean that you are in the process of learning the word "always".

Matt Эллен

:D

that too!

I think it would need a comma

"learning, always"

RegDwight Ѭſ道

See.

That's something completely different.

Matt Эллен

7:35 PM

I forget commas all the time

RegDwight Ѭſ道

The question is like asking, what is the difference between "red car" and "car red"?

The answer to that, as posed, can only be "car red is ungrammatical".

Matt Эллен

true

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Though of course you can construct a perfectly grammatical sentence where the word "car" is followed by the word "red".

And "car, red" is grammatical as well.

Matt Эллен

"What kind of vehicle are we looking for constable?"
"Car, red, sir"

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Exactly.

But not "Car red."

Matt Эллен

7:37 PM

aye

RegDwight Ѭſ道

And in any case, I have a feeling that the OP just saw the words in this order in a context where the always just does not belong to the learning.

Which is why I asked him for the context.

Matt Эллен

yeah. it's not got a lot to it, as questions go.

I'd have to use a lot of imagination to find it interesting

Thale's example of "He is learning always" is far more likely to be written "He is learning. Always", to put emphasis on the idea that he is always learning.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Meanwhile I am quite surprised to have Tim ask on meta why I killed an answer of his with fire.

0

A: Should this be comment or answer?

I don't remember if I acted on a flag or just converted it myself, but that doesn't really matter anyway. Your answer literally says, there are so many possiblilities that this is off-topic here, unless you can cut it down. Maybe writers.se? If a question is off-topic, you are kind of expec...

Matt Эллен

I figured that was the reason.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I actually think a different answer got flagged, and while I was at it I checked the others, too.

Matt Эллен

7:46 PM

Some people really like their reps.

aedia λ

8:16 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 OMG THOSE ARE SO COOL

Aww they're even awesomer in baby form!

That video of the lil one hatching was adorable.

Matt Эллен

8:32 PM

@Kit this is the Elastica song I remember

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@aediaλ And I was always under the impression that bugs didn't hatch in forms that resemble the adult form.

aedia λ

@MattЭллен Catching up, I agree with you here, but the more I think about it the more I realize I still wouldn't usually utter she is learning always or she is learning often or anything like that. In my mind for some reason as I write this, it's an old headmaster or nanny on British tv of some sort pointing at a pupil saying those things, and I would definitely accept them though if not utter them myself.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I know, they're like shiny green mini-adult ones. It's crazy.

It's not at all like butterflies or anything.

I guess I don't know much about stick insects.

Matt Эллен

@aediaλ yeah. it's definitely not something I'd use. It's a really cheesy was of saying it :)

aedia λ

I don't think I could even end a spoken sentence with always or often like that. Not only are both totally unclear in my dialect, so you'd have no idea what the word was if it didn't connect to some more consonants, it just seems so weird to leave 'em hanging.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇