English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

3:00 PM

OK, here it is: the all-time universal retort for developers when told their code has bugs: "Hey, works on my machine."

Ashen

@Robusto Ticket 3758519: Ticket closed (worksforme)

Matt Эллен

@Robusto good retort. will use again

KitFox

Ticket 4568792: Ticket closed (usertoostupid)

Robusto

@Ashen You're getting the hang of it. Nice work.

Ticket 2421385: Closed (Works as coded.)

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Ashen

3:01 PM

Looks like somebody uses Trac

user19161

Ticket 24563: Closed (Live with it)

Ashen

I wish those were valid ticket statuses

So badly

JSBᾶngs

Ticket 15892002: Closed (toobusyplayingminecraft)

Robusto

Ticket 3030102: Closed (Only a stupid shite still uses IE6)

Ashen

@Robusto (invalid) Upgrade your damn browser

i've actually seen that one

Robusto

3:04 PM

@Ashen But your version doesn't call the user a stupid shite.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

One day I will kick balpha for using hyphens instead of dashes.

Ashen

@Robusto I don't really wanna get fired

Robusto

Did anyone notice Jon Stewart's "Leeroy Jenkins" bit on The Daily Show the other night?

@Ashen Pussy.

Ashen

Then again I'm between jobs

Clinton looks a bit more Russian than I remember him

Robusto

@Ashen Wait, what? You're between jobs and still afraid of getting fired?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

3:06 PM

Loss of hair will do that to you.

Ashen

@Robusto Generally speaking if I don't have a job I also don't have a ticket queue to deal with

I don't have an RT server in my basement or anything

Robusto

@Ashen I refuse to get drawn into commenting on soulless, reptilian Russian strongmen.

Ashen

Fair enough

Robusto

@Ashen That is the silver lining in the dark cloud.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Comment on soulful amphibian Dutch weakmen instead. Please!

Cerberus

3:08 PM

The Russians pay € 100 billion a year for Putin to keep the country at relative peace...

Ashen

@Robusto Yeah, I have all the time in the world now to customize my desktop just the way I like it. Which, uh, took a day.

Cerberus

Perhaps it's worth it.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

People getting blown up in Moscow is very relative peace.

Cerberus

Blown up?

By rebels, you mean?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well at least that's what they'll tell you.

Cerberus

3:11 PM

I'm comparing the current situation with revolution or civil war.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well don't need Putin for that.

Cerberus

Well, if he is defeated, might not chaos ensue?

Other people fighting for dominance?

By defeated I mean deprived of all power.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Nice try, Vladimir Vladimirovich, now let me talk to Cerberus again.

Cerberus

He is a classical example of a Leviathan.

What do you think would happen if he died tomorrow?

Matt Эллен

an example of a classical leviathan?

or a classic example of a leviathan?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

3:14 PM

@Cerberus if at all, there would be some chaos on the international markets. But not on the Russian streets.

Cerberus

Leviathan (book)

Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil — commonly called simply Leviathan — is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and published in 1651. Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. The publisher was Andrew Crooke, partner in Andrew Crooke and William Cooke. Leviathan ranks high as a classical western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince and is ...

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus someone lower down the chain will take over in the interim until another election could be held

Cerberus

> In Leviathan, which was written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), Hobbes argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. He wrote that chaos or civil war – situations identified with a state of nature and the famous motto Bellum omnium contra omnes ("the war of all against all") – could only be averted by strong central government.

@RegDwightѬſ道 No? So what do you think would happen? Would the country become democratic? Would an enlightened leader rise to the throne?

@MattЭллен And what would the result be?

KitFox

Damn it. Why does thing forget the ItemTemplate?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

(from theoatmeal.com/pl/minor_differences5/butter)

KitFox

3:20 PM

giggle

Robusto

I'm amazed someone has a microwave that does tenths of a second. Must be expensive.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus happiness and harmony

Cerberus

Yeah mine only increments by 10 seconds.

@MattЭллен Suuuuure!

Robusto

@MattЭллен Immediate disqualification for being way too close to "Ebony and Ivory."

Matt Эллен

@Robusto racist!

Robusto

3:25 PM

@MattЭллен Yeah. I just can't stand white people.

2

Jan 17 at 18:23, by Robusto

Then quit criticizing Mr. McCartney for imagined failings. Instead, note that he painted a HUGE target on his ass with Silly Love Song and Ebony & Ivory.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Robusto their waves are extra micro, thus easier to dose.

God I can't type anymore.

Ashen

Any time something from the Oatmeal is posted I feel compelled to post the Gayroller

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Ashen feel free

KitFox

"Penis looks like a sea cucumber poking out of a wizard's robe." hahahahahaha

Ashen

It's even related to this channel (re: grammar)!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

3:28 PM

in War Metal Tyrant, Nov 4 '11 at 0:33, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

You know, a close friend of mine,.. well let's just say you can torture him to death by simply mentioning the song's name.

JSBᾶngs

@Ashen off-topic: peeving about non-literal use of "literally"

RegDwight Ѭſ道

People peeving about that will get literally decimated.

KitFox

@JSBᾶngs I think he meant it literally.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

9

Q: "Literally" and "Decimate" misuse

Recently I've heard American TV commentators say "[a person] was literally decimated" and "[a Senator] was literally thrown under the bus". In the first case I think the person was not actually 10% killed, but in the second, I believe they meant that 57 members of the US Senate carried #58 onto C...

Look how that stupid comic is accepted instead of nohat's answer.

JSBᾶngs

thanks for pointing that out to me. downvoted!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

3:31 PM

HARR FEEL MY POWER

Ashen

@RegDwight I'll be honest, all three things in that made me flinch

@JSBngs Oddly enough the barred lowercase alpha in your nick doesn't show up in the text box with a tab-complete

RegDwight Ѭſ道

That's not odd.

JSBᾶngs

@Ashen autocomplete is known to be unable to handle the awesomeness that is non-ASCII characters

RegDwight Ѭſ道

That allows you to ping him even if you don't speak Rhetorhomanich.

Robusto

I think you all need to hear Free Bird just one more time.

JSBᾶngs

3:32 PM

that's why many of us have secret characters in our name

KitFox

shh Nobody say anything. Let's all just stare at the floor and shift uncomfortably.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@KitFox I misread shift as, well, let's just leave it at that.

KitFox

stares at floor and shifts uncomfortably

Ashen

I really want to go back in time and replace ASCII with UTF-8

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Давай!

Matt Эллен

3:33 PM

stares at the door and shifts uncontrollably

Robusto

@Ashen We'd have to send a terminator back to stop you.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

shifts the door and stares uncontrollably

Ashen

But then my future self that's already returned from the past would send a counter-unit

KitFox

Don't kill Hitler.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Go watch some Futurama.

Ashen

3:34 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 We had a guy that did that once, he got thrown out of the women's locker room and expelled

KitFox

floors the stairs and controls unshiftably

Gigili

Stares at the shifted door

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

stares at the shift and doors unconsollingly

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Cccccccombo breaker!

Gigili

3:56 PM

Is there anyway to earn the Tumbleweed badge?

Seems impossible.

Matt Эллен

@Gigili I've earned it on Stack Overflow, but not here

aedia λ

moors the shares and drifts unknowingly

Matt Эллен

@Gigili it's not difficult to earn on SO, just ask a really boring, yet idiosyncratic question

@aediaλ I like it, kinda melancholy

JSBᾶngs

hahahahaha: google.com/#q=stick+of+butter+half+cup

just showed up on thedailywtf.com

aedia λ

@MattЭллен It's kind of yucky out today. I feel like snuggling up in a pile of blankets and rereading the Secret Garden or something else that's got moors in it, but instead I have to pretend I'm accomplishing things

Matt Эллен

4:10 PM

@aediaλ I have days like those. they're usually spent here

@JSBᾶngs m^6! wow, I didn't know US cups were interdimensional

aedia λ

Ow my brain! I haven't had enough coffee to think past flatland yet!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Stupid Imperial system.

Matt Эллен

which reminds me, I want to buy some Viking Metal

KitFox

Which reminds me, I saw Red Hot Chili Peppers listed as "Metal" yesterday. WTF?

Matt Эллен

LOL

no disrespect to the Chili Peppers, but they are not metal

unless they've radically changed since last I heard them...

aedia λ

4:25 PM

They're not even particularly spicy

KitFox

I can't figure this out. I wrote a custom control that appears to work fine, but when I click on anything, I get the error "An ItemTemplate must be defined on ListView."

aedia λ

Well what are you doing failing to define your ItemTemplate? Scoundrel!

KitFox

But, but...

Matt Эллен

@KitFox does this help? I've not been able to watch the video.

KitFox

It's not even executing any of my code.

@MattЭллен It might, but i can't see it. It's all garbled.

Matt Эллен

4:28 PM

bum

@KitFox so what the guy does is click the little arrow on the right of the listview, in the designer, then clicks on configure listview, then clicks ok. Everything works after that.

Robusto

@MattЭллен RHCP are teh awesum. Don't be dissin' my boys like dat.

KitFox

@MattЭллен That's not going to help, I guess. But thanks.

Robusto

But dems is not metal.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto Yo, yo, yo - I ain't dis no one, but they sure ain't |m|METAL |m|

JSBᾶngs

i really want a 6-dimensional meter of butter now

even though it's lent and i can't eat it

Robusto

4:38 PM

@MattЭллен Try Amon Amarth. Or Naglfar.

KitFox

You gave up multidimensional food items for lent?

Robusto

@KitFox Is string cheese multidimensional? I mean, in theory?

KitFox

That's just awful.

Robusto

The best string cheese has 11 dimensions.

Matt Эллен

@JSBᾶngs but you could just look at it! I bet it would blow my mind

KitFox

4:42 PM

I think I shall go have some lunch now.

Robusto

-1

Q: Using a possessive apostrophe with an initialism

Should you write, "some of the UK's longest tunnels..." or "some of the Uk's longest tunnels..."?

possessive apostrophe initialisms

Matt Эллен

@KitFox good luck! I hope you win

Robusto

Is this question too stupid to avoid nuking from orbit? ^

Matt Эллен

I think it qualifies

Ashen

In the computer/business building on campus I just got accosted by a man who claimed "computers, therefore creationism", which is officially the oddest thing to have happened to me this month

Robusto

4:57 PM

"There is nothing wrong with your code. We just haven't found a system advanced enough to run it yet." — P.G.

Matt Эллен

@Ashen I see. Was it that god makes computers, or that god made us because we make computers?

Robusto

@Ashen Balloons, therefore elephants. See? The logic is solid.

Matt Эллен

Jet planes, therefore pterodactyls

KitFox

I can kind of see that. God, up in heaven, mumbling over and over "This time it should work...damn it..."

Matt Эллен

lol

Robusto

4:59 PM

@MattЭллен No. Too close. I thought I was getting a little too on the nose with balloons => elephants. But you crossed the line.

Matt Эллен

oh dear. I'm always on the edge. sometimes I fall off

KitFox

catches @Matt

Matt Эллен

nearly tumbles to his death

Robusto

Plagioclase feldspars, therefore Harry Potter.

Matt Эллен

thanks, @KitFox!

KitFox

5:01 PM

Any time.

Anytime?

Damn. keeps eating lunch

JSBᾶngs

@Ashen my first thought was actually of this: retrologic.com/jargon/C/creationism.html

Robusto

@KitFox I thought you said you were going to go eat lunch. Now you are eating lunch without actually going. I can't handle this cognitive dissonance.

@Matt:

►

Viking enough for ya?

Matt Эллен

I'm listening to Ensiferum right now (n_n)

I'll put Amon Amarth on next!

Ensiferum are quite folky too, it's nice

Robusto

And we have to include this for completeness:

►

Someone had to do it, I guess.

aedia λ

5:17 PM

Hey @KitFox, you used to do Odyssey of the Mind, right?

Whoops, internet issues.

Robusto

Self-Jinx!

aedia λ

I no rite? That was weird.

I'm nervous about tomorrow because I'm helping out at our competition and have more responsibility than before.

It's still a small competition so I know it will all go fine, and I have been doing this like, for-ev-er, so the actual rules and stuff don't worry me. I'm just worried about the inevitable person who volunteered and doesn't realize that means they actually have to be there for the time they signed up for, etc. and now it's my job to resolve it ASAP...

JSBᾶngs

i did Odyssey of the Mind back in the day when i was in gradeschool

aedia λ

I'm not always good at projecting an air of authority.

@JSBᾶngs Yay awesome!

Did you love it?

And should I wear the earrings that are made from lightbulbs, fishing lures, clothespins, or my new ones that are paper/fabric beads?

Or look for my four-leaf clover ones or something more normal like beaded ones?

I think I usually have worn the clothespins.

KitFox

@aediaλ Yes.

@aediaλ Fishing lures.

aedia λ

5:25 PM

They're pink and fluffy.

Sound good?

Double-self-jinx. Eeesh, what's wrong with my internets today?

KitFox

Yes. They sound lovely.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto errr, that's one way to do it.

Robusto

@aediaλ What, you ears aren't gauged yet?

@MattЭллен The worst part is, you can't unsee that.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto yes, but I can bury it, like so many other enemies

aedia λ

@Robusto No, but I do have three piercings in one ear, so I could conceivably wear two sets of these if I wasn't worried about never getting the lightbulb out of the clothespin again

RegDwight Ѭſ道

5:47 PM

More migration votes on this?

1

Q: What tense to use in an academic paper when speaking about correspondence?

What is the correct tense to use in an academic paper when speaking about correspondence? Say one of my source materials is a letter written by someone named William, in which he says he went to the store. Would I say William writes that he went to the store. or William wrote that he ...

tense writing-style

Matt Эллен

5:58 PM

bless cornbread ninja

KitFox

And bless IQueryable.

Matt Эллен

amen!

KitFox

...If I can just get it to work.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox are you sure want an IQueryable? Or are you creating a class that implements it?

KitFox

I don't know what I am doing with it.

I was trying to figure out how to pass a DataQuery (from LINQ) into my custom control, and then manipulate it, but I don't think that will work.

Matt Эллен

6:10 PM

you'll want to pass IEnumerable(of T) I think

KitFox

But I want to reuse the control, so I won't know the types beforehand...

Matt Эллен

that's OK, I'm almost certain (I will look it up) that all query results implement IEnumerable(of T)

so you can just set your parameter to be that type and it should just work

Oh! I'm sorry. IQueryable(of T) is the better one - it implements IEnumerable(of T) anyway

so you get more of what you want with that

KitFox

ctrl-z ctrl-z ctrl-z

Matt Эллен

sorry

KitFox

It's OK. I appreciate you doing so much leg work for me.

I should already know this stuff.

Gigili

6:17 PM

@MattЭллен no votes and no answers is okay but no comments? There always is someone who complains about what you asked.

Mahnax

Hello.

Matt Эллен

@Gigili check this one :)

0

Q: eventsource is crashing my browser

Well, my use of eventsource is crashing my browser. I have a simple page that displays a table of statuses, and javascript that listens to a server sent event for updates. I use jquery.eventsource to do the listening, jQuery version 1.6.2, and I'm running Firefox 10 as my browser. This is my ja...

jquery-plugins server-sent-events

@KitFox so should I!

hi @Mahnax :)

Mahnax

How're you?

KitFox

Here's my Tumbleweed:

0

Q: Assigning hotkeys (keyboard shortcuts) in Mac OS X 10.5.8 for audio playback

I will begin by mentioning that I am a SQL/ASP.NET programmer and I work in Windows environments. However, I am in a very small department that has a mishmash of Macs and PCs, and to most of the people here I'm "Generic IT Person," so occasionally I'm asked to troubleshoot Macs. I don't know squa...

mac shortcuts audio

Matt Эллен

@KitFox I use IEnumerable<T> all over the place. I don't even think about IQueryable

Gigili

6:19 PM

@MattЭллен Ha! Very nice.

KitFox

@MattЭллен I don't usually use them at all. I guess I am just lame like that.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox I deleted my actual tumbleweed question as it became irrelevant. The above one is just a disappointment, and not just to my friends and family, but to myself.

@KitFox I'm sure you do! List<T> is an IEnumerable<T>

KitFox

I left mine because then I can say I'm still researching possible solutions.

@MattЭллен I don't really use lists either.

Matt Эллен

@Mahnax pretty good, done for another week. how're you?

@KitFox yeah, that why my above one is still around

KitFox

So, @Matt, do you know how to let's say introduce a Where clause to the query expression object?

Matt Эллен

6:30 PM

you mean like var result = query.Where(a => a == 3); ?

or write the mechanics of a where clause for a class?

KitFox

I don't have a .Where method.

Matt Эллен

is here too public for you to show me your code?

KitFox

Well. Not really, but it's all over the place.

JSBᾶngs

@KitFox you do to have a .where method

everything that's an IEnumerable has a Where() method

you might not see it if you don't have using System.Linq;

Matt Эллен

@KitFox if you want to paste the bit that troubling you into pastebin or something, I can have a look to see what I can see

@JSBᾶngs good point

KitFox

6:35 PM

No, I don't. I must be doing something wrong.

Let's see. I have a page where I declare the data context and the object for the dataquery. That gets passed to a custom control, which receives it as IQueryable.

Is that right so far, or did I miss something?

Matt Эллен

sounds good to me

JSBᾶngs

IQueryable has .Where

KitFox

The IQueryable object doesn't give me .Where in the intellisense though.

JSBᾶngs

whenever you write a where clause in the pseudo-SQL syntax, it's getting translated to Where() under the hood

KitFox

> 'Where' is not a member of 'System.Linq.IQueryable'

Hmm, OK well, that goes away when I explicitly use the IQueryable(Of StudentHistory)