English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2014-09-20 (page 1 of 3)

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12:08 AM

Common Gateway Interface

Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard method used to generate dynamic content on Web pages and Web applications. CGI, when implemented on a Web server, provides an interface between the Web server and programs that generate the Web content. These programs are known as CGI scripts or simply CGIs; they are usually written in a scripting language, but can be written in any programming language. == History == In 1993, The NCSA team wrote the specification for calling command line executables on the www-talk mailing list. ; however, NCSA no longer hosts this. The other Web server develo...

33,383 questions tags CGI on Stack Overflow.

> 2014-09-09: Numbered list can now start with any number, not just 1.

Unfortunately, they have a very little idea of “any number”:

And a 1, and a 2, and 1, 2, 3: “♫ ⅰ little, ⅱ little, ⅲ little Indians, ⅳ little, ⅴ little, ⅵ little Indians, ⅶ little, ⅷ little, ⅸ little Indians, ⅹ little Indian boys! ♫” — tchrist 3 mins ago

user116848

12:29 AM

Me, I simply understand CGI in a graphics sense.

user116848

I mean I am no programmar

user116848

I don't go into detail of its definition because it is a very broad term

user116848

But good info. though :)

12:48 AM

Who the hell voted down Prof. Lawler’s answer? It’s correct, and cuts through the baggage the other “answers” bring.

1

A: "There was a man known as the 'Toe Suck Fairy'" — is "there" a complement?

Leaving out the Toe Suck Fairy, an independently serious Healthy Hyphenation™ problem, the sentence to be accounted for is There was a man known as X. This is a very simple sentence, suitable for beginning stories, displaying two syntactic processes: There-Insertion, which inverts the verb ...

Ahah, quick renege. Good.

Or I’m delirious. Or both.

People should not suck toads. They might be poisonous.

Curare.

Dogs can die from this.

1:08 AM

Maybe I haven't been to Iceland because I'm busy dealing with YOUR crummy code.

2 hours later…

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:17 AM

@Cerberus Have you never seen Star Wars?!?!?!?

@RegDwigнt I have lots of Duplo, or rather, the kids do. But I have not encountered the situation where I'd want to use it yet. It is on my mind though. Possibly the other half of my model will be duplo-supported.

Anonymous

3:38 AM

Wow! I didn't know there was a lego SE site

Anonymous

Too bad, though, it doesn't seem very active

Anonymous

I found it looking up whether Duplo and Lego fit together

4:12 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 No, why should I?

user image

4:42 AM

My rule: I don't follow any rules! will i follow that?

5:27 AM

> the global drug market is geographically concentrated, with sales in the US accounting for about 48% of the total, followed by Europe’s 29% and Japan’s 11%. Why is this?

Hallo.

Hoi!

Ik ga net naar bed.

Net = just.

Naar = nearer = to.

(Sort of.)

Ah. I see.

Well, I'm going to be drinking that stuff I was telling you about soon.

Mm.

O, happy day!

Have fun.

5:42 AM

Thanks!

It's open now. Mm.

Yay!

Bye!

poof

Adieu!

7 hours later…

12:23 PM

Today I got a copy of "The blue book of grammar and punctuation".

12:44 PM

Are you going to celebrate with a party?

Nope. Yesterday I got "Complete French" and "Complete German".

So I will study English, French and German in Oct, Nov, Dec resp.

In January will you study a language beginning with the letter "H"?

Nope. I will spend the whole of next year studying math to prepare for the GRE.

I also hope to completely solve my mental problems by the end of next year.

Why a whole year? I only needed a few weeks and did quite well. I'm sure you know more math than me.

Well, it is the math subject GRE, not the general GRE.

12:50 PM

Oh.

Never mind.

I am not sure exactly how long I might take though, just an estimate.

My advice would be get a prep book, go over it, and then do the sample tests. There are usually three tests. Do the first one, identify your weak areas, and study those. Then do the second one. If you still have weak areas (you should have made some improvement), hit those hard on your own or get someone to help. Drill. Then do the third one. By this time you should be ready.

Aha, thanks. I saw a sample test online.

And however long it takes between your state of readiness and the test, keep drilling on your weak areas. Take another test, if you can, a month before the actual test.

I don’t understand why you think you need a book on punctuation.

12:53 PM

Fortunately, I think the test can be taken where I am, no need to travel overseas to take.

@tchrist I like to follow rules.

I don't, understand why; you need: a book on puncuation?

@WillHunting They why are you so fractious in chat?

Anyway, the author of that book, Jane Straus, died from brain cancer in 2011. The book is a bestseller in the US.

It's not for linguists, but is sufficient for better writing.

It is in its eleventh edition now.

“Like to follow rules” sounds like something you should see a shrink about.

Of course, I don't like the laws in my country.

But I like grammar and punctuation rules.

Punctuation is a convention.

Having to do only with writing, not with language.

If you just want rules, I’ll write you a list of them and then you can follow my rules.

12:58 PM

You rule!

If you haven’t figured out grammar by this age, you never will.

Anyway, a large part of the book is at grammarbook.com.

@tchrist A democratic convention.

So you should just accept that what you know is what you know.

Are you dying of brain cancer?

You might, if you read that book.

Nope. I do not have cancer.

1:00 PM

Yet.

I think she also wrote some inspirational books, like "Enough is enough".

Returning to the basics never hurt anyone.

Two and two are four
Four and four are eight
Eight and eight are sixteen
Sixteen and sixteen are thirty-two.

Inchworm, inchworm
Measuring the marigold
You and your arithmatic
You'll probably go far.

Inchworm, inchworm
Measuring the marigold
Seems to me you'd stop and see
How beautiful they are.

see, did that hurt?

I remember that 1 inch is 2.54 cm.

1:04 PM

Non sequitur.

That's called free association. You mentioned "inchworm" so I thought of "inch".

If you think of inch as 2.54 cents, you’re doing it wrong.

@Arrowfar hi pal :-)

user116848

@IceBoy Hey :-)

@WillHunting You have centimeter worms in Singapore? How quaint.

1:07 PM

Now, they have 2.54centimeter worms in Singapore, which is even worse.

@Robusto I remember you once said that your foot is exactly one foot long.

How many square millimeters are there in a square centimeter? (no googling please)

@IceBoy 100.

correct

Why would one have to Google that?

1:12 PM

habit?

The formula is cent- / mill- = 10. And 10^2 = 100.

Five and eight one-hundredths and five and eight one-hundredths are ten and sixteen one-hundredths.
Ten and sixteen one-hundredths and ten and sixteen one-hundredths are twenty and thirty-two one-hundredths.
Twenty and thirty-two one-hundredths and twenty and thirty-two one-hundredths are forty and sixty-four one-hundreths.
Forty and sixty-four one-hundreths and forty and sixty-four one-hundreths are eighty-one and twenty-eight one-hundredths.

1/100 / 1/1000 = 10. And 10^2 = 100.

What lovely lyrics you have there in Singapore!

please use parentheses, this: 1/100 / 1/1000 is ambiguous

1:14 PM

No, 10^2 == 8.

In binary.

chthon(tchrist)% perl -le 'print 10^2'
8

I can't write decent exponents in chat.

What, 10**2 == 100?

Or 10² = 100?

Ten squared = 100.

You all know what I mean.

1:16 PM

2 mins ago, by Ice Boy

please use parentheses, this: 1/100 / 1/1000 is ambiguous

Tents quared are a camp.

31 secs ago, by Robusto

You all know what I mean.

iqsefenjizijovwfjbnifvxnxfn <---You know what I mean :-)

¹⁄₁₀₀ / ¹⁄₁₀₀₀

why refuse to use parentheses?

1:20 PM

Because it need not be written on a teletype.

It does if you're too lazy to find the correct characters.

Which I am.

5th graders can use them

So find me a 5th grader.

     1
    ---
    100
-----------
     1
   -----
    1000

That^ works

1:22 PM

Who knew tchrist was a 5th grader?

Such information should be included in one's profile.

They kick you out of SE for it.

he's smarter than a 5th grader

OIC.

@tchrist Anyway, this is still too much work.

my hands are broken today :(

Not my fault that they had to discard % signs for me and use ‱ instead.

1:24 PM

I'm having coffee and enjoying my Saturday.

(1/100) / (1/1000)

user116848

@tchrist What software you use for math equations etc. here? You use Autohotkeys?

@IceBoy Too complicated.

@Arrowfar Mine own.

user116848

I see.

1:26 PM

I’m a programmer, not a user.

user116848

So you made that software yourself?

@Arrowfar Hahahahaha . . . sorry, the image of tchrist using AHK is just too funny. It assumes so many out-of-character things. Like him using Windows, for starters.

Of course.

user116848

@Robusto :D

user116848

@tchrist OKay. Nice software btw

1:30 PM

Next let's picture tchrist at a NASCAR event.

or even a raiders football game :-)

5

A: Is the plural form of “Mercedes” a disused word?

What's going on is that words that end in unstressed /i:z/ in English do not normally gain anything when inflected for the plural, the possessive, or both. That’s also why a plural possessive only gets one marker, not two. Both inflections add /əz/ to the word, but dups are suppressed. The /i:z/...

@tchrist: I upvoted this but saw a typo, so I edited it.

Dunno why the OP isn't satisfied with the answer as it stands.

1:51 PM

@Robusto Because he doesn’t like me. Remember that’s the creep who posted this after being suspended for low-quality postings, and who later, if memory does not deceive me, was also suspended for voting irregularities:

-17

Q: Was my suspension for posting low-quality posts a Great Injustice?

Hello, I'm writing in reference to your English Language and Usage - Stack Exchange account: http://english.stackexchange.com/users/24531/xavier-vidal-hernandez Due to many moderator flags on your questions, we have elected to suspend your account for 7 days. Your quest...

discussion moderation suspension low-quality-posts

He used to play games pretending to be from a different country than he really is. In fact, he still does.

Just a troll, really.

What did the trolls do before there was an Internet, I wonder?

Is disuse disused?

live under bridges

> † 1. Of persons: Not used or accustomed; out of the habit. Obs.

It means obsolete.

Which is not what he is trying to use it as.

Which means his question is wrong.

2. No longer used; fallen out of use; obsolete.

* 1611 Cotgr., ― Disusité, disused, grown out of vse.
* 1630 Sanderson Serm. II. 261 ― Some dis-used statute.
* 1674 Boyle Excell. Theol. ii. v. 222 ― Our ignorance··of the dis‐used languages wherein they are delivered.
* 1864 Bowen Logic vii. 220 ― A different and now disused meaning.

He means unused, not disused.

One uses a thing, but when one stops doing so one doesn't disuse or unuse that thing.

2:02 PM

Since it was never popular in the first place, it has not fallen out of use and become obsolete.

Therefore, it is not disused.

Plus the question title suffers other infelicities as well.

The plural of Mercedes is perfectly common.

@JohanLarsson disuse is misused :)

He meant "How come people don’t “Mercedeseses” when they have more than one “Mercedes”?

So the title has two strikes. Anybody find a third?

Mercedeses is ill-used as the plural for Mercedes. One fish, two fish.

But it is not inconfused.

@tchrist That's what all the kidses say.

How can singularity have a plural form? Something is terribly wrong with the universe if we have multiple singularities.

And don't get me started on universe itself.

It is, in breve, variously abused, confused, contused, diffused, disabused, ill-used, inconfused, misused, overused, perfused, refused, suffused, superfused, unamused, unconfused, underused, unexcused, ungeniused, unperused, unrefused, unused, and well-abused — but never ever ever “disused”.

I think his title needs to be misdisabused of its improprieties and infelicities.

Like flies they fall.

2:11 PM

Is in breve a fixed expression?

Yes.

Is it short for something with a verb?

@tchrist I wonder about the accusative.

It means in short.

I thought so.

cerb-so-verb

2:13 PM

Ohh it is Italian!

That explains it.

I know you long for something brevior.

@JohanLarsson Thank you.

@tchrist How so?

I figure you were seeking a Latin form, not an Italian one.

It would be in brevi in Latin, presumably.

Is the English perchance a translation of the Italian?

Yes, since ablative brevis is brevi.

2:16 PM

In Dutch, we say in het kort.

@tchrist No!

The ablative is brevi.

Yes, I know.

OK.

I fumbled the entire point.

Haha.

It happens.

That’s why I thought you were questioning it.

Because if it were Latin, that’s the wrong case for in breve.

2:17 PM

Well, wrong: it is not what I would expect, but anything's possible.

@Cerberus We say in short in English, never *in curt.

I suppose you could say curtly though.

With a verb, it might be breve: like factum in breve or something.

It is not so common a word any longer.

I know.

Curt is kortaf in Dutch.

"Short-off".

I believe that curt used to be more common.

2:19 PM

Hmm.

It now has a negative connotation.

“He was quite curt with me.”

Of course.

Which means nothing other than if s/curt/short/ in that sentence, but seems a bit ruder.

But just being short with someone is offputting.

No doubt curt is from Latin: is short from its Germanic sister? Is Dutch kort from the Latin too?

> Etymology: OE. sc(e)ort = OHG. scurz :– OTeut. type *skurto- (compar. *skurtizon-, OE. scyrtra), whence Dutch schorten, ONor. skorta to lack; for other derivatives see shirt, skirt sbs.
The Teut. adj. is commonly regarded as a popular L. *excurtus (f. L. ex- + curtus). On this view it would be parallel in origin with the synonymous OFris., OS. kurt, Dutch kort, OHG. (MHG., mod.G.) kurz, a WGer. adoption of L. curtus. The Rom. langs., however, afford no evidence of a popular Latin *excurtus, and it is unlikely that such a form existed. It is possible that Teut. *skurto- may be an altered a…

It appears to be a matter of some disagreement.

Curt in English is very new.

Had Shakespeare lived twice as long, he probably would never have heard it used it English.

> Etymology: ad. L. curt-us cut or broken short, mutilated, abridged, which became in late L. and Romanic the ordinary word for ‘short’: Ital., Sp. corto, Pr. cort, Fr. court.
The Latin adj. was app. adopted at an early date in Ger., giving OS. and OFris. curt (MDutch cort, Dutch, MLG., and LG. kort, whence also mod.Icel. korta, Sw. and Da. kort), OHG. kurt, kurz (MHG. and mod.Ger. kurz), where the word has taken the place of an original Teut. *skurt-, in OHG. scurz, in OE. scort, sceort, short. But the latter was retained in English.

It is my belief that sense 2b is now dominant.

2:23 PM

@tchrist Hmm interesting.

Damn it to hell, I’m on drugs and it shows: I am undergoing caffeine withdrawal, which counts as being on drugs. I go now to remedy this grievous mistake.

Oh, dear.

Tsk, tsk.

Coffee is one of the great pleasures of morning.

Often I get out of bed solely because I'd like a nice hot cup of coffee.

So Middle High German has scherze "small piece". Dutch has scherts "joke", possibly from "comedic scene".

@Cerberus Italian gives us the musical term scherzo which means joke as well.

It's a light, usually fast movement of a larger piece of music.

2:26 PM

Right!

I like scherzi.

But it turns scherts/scherzo/scherze are probably not related to short/curt.

I don't find this funny at all.

This is funnier, I suppose.

In Spanish, you do not ever use corto on people, nor usually do you use largo its antonym on them either. Rather, you have chicos altos con chicas bajas, and I have not referring to their birth.

Mozart left them rolling in the aisles.

@Robusto Not following. “Funny”?

@tchrist See scherzo above.

2:31 PM

Scherzi are always scherzando.

Didn’t the CBS Evening News once begin with the scherzo movement of the Ninth, in like the early 70s or something?

@tchrist NBC with Huntley and Brinkley.

And it was the '60s.

I was GOING to say 60s, but I mistrusted my memory.

What the hell was I doing watching the news in the 60s!!!???

Dunno. Ask your parents.

2:34 PM

I should have been out playing.

Shéhérazade is French for scherzo?

Oh come on.

I am, of course, making a joke.

Very well.

Work with me here.

2:37 PM

> Scheherazade /ʃəˌhɛrəˈzɑːd(ə)/, Šeherzada, Persian transliteration Šahrzâd or Shahrzād (Persian: شهرزاد‎, šahr + zâd) (Arabic: شهرزاد ) is a legendary Persian queen and the storyteller of A Thousand Nights and a Night. [edited]

I knew that.

I refuse to italicize RTL scripts.

They’re already cursed.

Listen to how much of this scherzo influenced The Firebird.

user116848

@tchrist In Urdu we also say it as "Sehzadi"

Unclear on the grafix.

2:38 PM

Hey @Cerberus, I have another t-shirt for you:

> Why do some questions not start with an auxiliary verb?

@RegDwigнt Because they prefer Wh-words.

@RegDwigнt That's nice.

Especially the "why".

@Arrowfar With a normal /s/?

Yes. Hence the t-shirt.

We need a t-shirt tag.

I don't get this "t-shirt".

2:40 PM

its-hurt

@RegDwigнt He has no need. We've seen him in boxer shorts, but he is always topless.

sighs

user116848

@tchrist Yes, with "Sh" sound like in Persian.

> The earliest forms of Scheherazade's name include Šīrāzād (شيرازاد) in Masudi and Šahrāzād (شهرازاد) in Ibn al-Nadim, the latter meaning "she whose realm or dominion (شهر šahr) is free (آزاد āzād)". In explaining his spelling choice for the name, Burton says, "Shahrázád (Persian) = City-freer; in the older version Scheherazade (probably both from شیرزاد Shirzád = 'lion-born'). Dunyázá = 'world-freer'. The Bres[lau] Edit[ion] corrupts the former to Shárzád or Sháhrazád; and the Mac[naghten] and Calc[utta] to Shahrzád or Shehrzád.

Sep 16 at 19:36, by Cerberus

I want that on a t-shirt.

Sounds like a need to me.

2:41 PM

@Arrowfar Ok, that’s what I was wondering. I didn’t know how the mapping worked.

@RegDwigнt He doesn't say he's going to wear it.

He didn't specify he would put it on or anything.

Jinx.

I kind of liked JKionx better.

Maybe he needs to wipe the floor with it. What with the whole living-in-the-Netherregions thing.

@Robusto you can have it back for twenty bucks.

JKionx = Just Kidding + ion (i am a particle) + x (i am a witch)

2:43 PM

Did I say that?

@RegDwigнt Too late. You'll have to contact my lawyers.

Dogs say the darndest things.

user image

No Claghorn Leghorn?

@Robusto cool. Lawyers pay more.

2:44 PM

Fan mail? From some flounder?

I can pump it up to my usual 3000.

@RegDwigнt They'll work out a settlement taking into account all your unpaid royalties for my patented language elements.

@Robusto he renamed himself Mark Twain.

I thought he renamed himself Rooster Cogburn.

@Robusto nah, unlike you they know that I've been paying all these years, and they've been keeping the money "for you".

2:45 PM

OIC

@Robusto Read: No shirtcocking

<- is unfamiliar with shirtcocking

If you cock your shirt, it's likely to fire without warning?

@Robusto Easily remedied.

Winnie the Pooh is a shirtcocker.

@tchrist The cure is worse than the disease.

I guess Donald Duck was a shirtcocker too.

So are the Animaniacs. And Daffy Duck.

jinx

2:49 PM

Hmm looks like that semi-corrupt NZ PM has won another term and an absolute majority in parliament. Not good.

Donald and Daffy are no jinx.

@Robusto Oh I’m sorry. Just pretend you never saw that.

I can't unsee that.

Funny how that works.

I can.

I just did.

2:50 PM

Lies.

I thought of burning man → burning van → Malcolm in the middle → Bryan Cranston → Breaking Bad. And all was good.

It all works round to Breaking Bad in the end, doesn't it?

Hey @tchrist, how many mm of rain did you get per day during those awful floods?

@Cerberus So much that they had to measure it in inches.

They just got 268mm in Manila in 24 hours.

2:52 PM

Millimeters would have been an insult to the prodigious rain.

Well.

@Cerberus Pfft. If it was so much, they should have boasted about it in inches.

You could say 2.7dm.

@Robusto If you can get from thinking of a bloke in t-shirt and no underpants to thinking of Bryan Cranston in underpants and no t-shirt, and you manage to do that in less that six degrees of Kevin Penis, I mean Bacon, then you're safe.

The floods are 2m high in some parts of the city.

2:53 PM

@RegDwigнt You lost me at "a bloke in t-shirt and no underpants."

But perhaps it is less mountainous than in Colorado, so less damage?

And here is my response to all future references to that unhappy image: Lalalalalalalalala I can't hear you Lalalalalalalal!!!!

@Robusto Excellent. So you already unsaw him. Your lawyers will be in touch with me about the payment.

@RegDwigнt Six Degrees of Extirpation?

Read Bruce Sterling?

2:55 PM

@tchrist Oh, and we also have schermutseling, which may be related to skirmish?

I think skirmish is Persian.

@Cerberus Sounds more like breakfast cereal.

Mmm no!

Yesterday a Breaking Bad marathon was on. Again. At this point I have spent almost one full month of my life watching the show.

Time well spent.

You can go to your grave with no regrets.

Yeah that's what I figured.

2:57 PM

I can't think of an English translation. When there are schermutselingen, it means there is low-key, unorganised fighting. Usually military.

Although you might regret the countless hours you frittered away not watching Breaking Bad.

SciFi author Bruce Sterling remarks: But take some nude muscular young guy and armor him face-to-foot in black and gray sulfurous muck and he looks genuinely impressive, like a New Guinea head-hunting Mud Warrior. Hey, Nancy and I are with this. It works for us. We strip the dusty clothes from our middle-aged, married-couple carcasses and we cover ourselves with mud.

@Cerberus That is the very definition of skirmish.

@Robusto I do that every breathing moment. It's my second nature.

But Seth Stevenson’s article is still better.

2:58 PM

@Cerberus Scharmützel.

@Robusto Mmm I'd say a skirmish is slightly different.

@RegDwigнt Oh! That's cool.

The Sterlings went with a toddler and a nine-year-old.

Just speak German. They have a word for everything.

@Cerberus In what way?

@RegDwigнt Not saudade.

2:59 PM

@tchrist they do. It's Saudade.

@Robusto A skirmish can be more purposeful? Schermutselingen just happen.

Not everyone understands what it means, but that much is true of every word in every language.

@Cerberus OK. A skirmish is tentative contact, which may be intended to feel out an enemy's strength. Or it could be just light fighting.

@RegDwigнt Oh. I thought it was alles.

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