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5:58 AM
@Gigili Then you think wrong. Don't listen to what those mad New Zealanders tell you; it's all nonsense.
Hey, tri-cephalic one. Long time.
 
6:16 AM
... and getting longer by the minute. No answer was the @Cerb reply.
 
@DavidWallace Morning!
What did the New-Zealanders tell Gigi?
 
Oh, it was just one New Zealander. Unfortunately, she took it to heart.
 
And what did he or she tell her?
 
He said something like - if she took sentences that he had written, and tried to pass them off as her own, somebody might notice the change in writing style, in particular the more complex sentence structure.
(to the best of his memory)
 
Right, that may be true.
My point was mainly that simply using more abstract/unusual words is not a good approach.
Emulating one's elders, however, can work.
If done right.
 
6:23 AM
Oh, absolutely. Simple is nearly always better. But somehow, she has yet to forgive me.
(I mean, to forgive the unnamed New Zealander who thus insulted her)
 
I'm sure she will come around.
She has been crowned Queen of this room, by the way.
 
Speaking of which, you're aware, no doubt, of the election over on Math?
 
Against her express wishes, but still.
I heard some things.
Mainly that Gigi is a candidate.
 
OK, just thought I should mention it. In case there were any candidates that you'd consider voting for.
(or anyone else who frequents this room, such as @Alenanno or @Otavio)
 
Actually, that conflicts with her distrust of female rulers.
 
6:26 AM
No, a moderator is not a ruler.
 
I can't vote on a site I don't know.
Why not?
 
You can.
 
No I can't.
 
It is a free, community driven Q&A for people studying math at any level and professionals in related fields.
So, now you know it.
 
You don't say.
But I'm not going to vote on a site I don't know.
 
6:28 AM
OK, nuff said. What's been happening in the land of Cerberia lately?
 
I'm struggling to steal focus from Flash applications.
 
Flash is a plague.
 
Do you have any experience in this battlefield?
It is.
I hope it shall die soon.
 
No, I haven't written very many web apps with flash in them, and then only ones that use Ajax libraries to make the flash.
And it's too widespread to die any time soon.
 
The thing is, I can have Autohotkey detect the Flash plugin for Youtube and Google Video, but not on several other websites.
My problem is rather from a user's point of view.
 
6:30 AM
So, you're creating a site, and it's not behaving right? Do you want me to take a look?
 
@DavidWallace Not any time soon...but Apple has poisoned it beyond recovery in the long run.
@DavidWallace No, I am looking for a way to have my hotkeys passed on to Firefox itself, not Flash, when I press keys.
For example, when I am playing a video and I press control-w, nothing happens, because Flash steals the key, and it never reaches Firefox.
 
So, someone else's site is broken. That's always the way. I don't think you can do it. Once flash intercepts the hot key, it's over to the flash app whether to pass it on or not.
Even just browsing a PDF file will have this effect.
 
Well, I use an Autohotkey script to click on the address bar then tab back: that works.
The only thing is that I need to reliably detect Flash, because I don't want to have it click on the address bar always.
 
Probably because the particular flash app isn't interested in alt-D or tab.
If it were, this technique wouldn't work.
 
No Flash application is ever interested in my keys sigh.
@DavidWallace What do you mean?
It isn't interested, and that's why normal hotkeys don't work; but clicking the address bar always works.
 
6:34 AM
If a flash app intercepted alt-D, then a hotkey script to go up to the address bar would fail.
 
No, the hotkey script takes precedence.
It works.
 
Oh, so you mean you've got an actual click in there? Not a hot key. That should be OK then.
 
Yes, an actual click. It is ugly, but it's the only thing that works.
But it is a bit slow.
 
So can you make your script go to the address bar first, then do the Ctrl-W (or whatever it is you want it to do).
 
So I don't want that to happen on normal pages (without Flash).
@DavidWallace Yes.
That's simple.
The hard part is detecting whether or not Flash has input focus (when it hasn't, the click is not necessary).
I can detect Youtube and Google Video's Flash plug-ins.
 
6:36 AM
OK, I don't quite follow what you're trying to achieve, but I want to help you. But my dinner just arrived and has begun cooling. Will you still be here in half an hour?
 
Absolutely!
I hope your dinner is good.
 
OK, see you soon then.
 
OK bye!
For when you get back: what I want to achieve is to be able to somehow detect whether or not Flash has input focus. This must be done in such a way that Autohotkey can use this information to decide whether or not a mouse click on the address bar is needed.
As an alternative, some magical way of stealing focus back from Flash always, but without an added delay, would be great—but I have lost hope for that.
 
6:59 AM
OK, I've been looking around and I can't find an answer. I don't hold out a lot of hope to be honest. Fortunately, you happen to have an account on a large network of Q&A sites, where there might be someone who can help you.
 
I have browsed said network for this question, and it has been asked many times.
Well, the direct question "how can I unfocus Flash?".
But no good answer.
But I suppose I could ask for a way to detect whether Flash has focus.
Actually perhaps it could be done with a PostMessage.
Do you know how those work?
AHK has this function, and it is supposedly some way to more directly interface with Windows.
But I only use code using that that I have copied from elsewhere, because I couldn't figure out how it works.
 
7:43 AM
Sorry I couldn't be more help. AHK is not something that I use at all.
 
@DavidWallace Just a note, you can vote in elections only if you have 150 rep, at least... For the same reason @Cerberus said he wouldn't vote. :P
 
@DavidWallace Thanks for your good intentions anyway!
 
Oh, you're kidding?
 
@Alenanno Yeah, it wouldn't be fair to vote outside one's own district, so to speak.
@DavidWallace I mean, thanks for listening to me complaining and for thinking about it.
 
@DavidWallace Is that for me?
Ah no.
 
7:46 AM
Err, yeah, I mean I didn't know the 150+ rule.
 
Oh, hehe.
 
Just as well there isn't one for Linguistics any time soon; I'd be ineligible.
 
It means that you know the site at least a little bit.
 
For one moment I thought perhaps you had interpreted my line as sarcastic, which it wasn't meant to be.
@Alenanno Agreed.
 
And if you want to be a candidate, 300 rep.
 
7:47 AM
Oh, sorry, it was a little ambiguous. Umm, yeah, I was talking to Alenanno.
 
I was at 294 in Skeptics ahah
 
Haha.
You grasped just short of the ultimate power!
 
But I probably wouldn't have nominated anyway... :D
I mean
I'm no-one at that site... speaking of reputation, not in numbers
 
I am approximately half a person here at Ling.
 
A Hobbit? :P
 
7:49 AM
My reputation is 51.
I'm waiting for someone to ask a question that I can answer.
 
@DavidWallace Yes I know... I was kidding on the "half a person" which is the Hobbits' height :P
@DavidWallace Why don't you ask a question?
 
That would be unprecedented.
 
In other words? I'm afk for a bit
 
I mean, there is no precedent for me to ask questions.
 
@DavidWallace Why do precede and precedent have stress on different syllables?
What phonological factors caused this?
There's your question.
 
7:53 AM
But I didn't ask it. You did.
 
I merely articulated your thoughts.
Ask it.
 
I don't think you did.
 
But I did.
 
It could lead into a discussion about diacritical marks on Spanish plurals.
 
Oh?
Now, see, you are onto something interesting.
 
7:56 AM
President and preside.
I was reading a book about the changes that had occurred as Latin developed into Spanish. The author was talking about the way a Spanish plural always has the stress on the same syllable as the singular, and he wrote something like "it would make no sense otherwise". I thought his statement was nonsense.
 
Guys, I'm off for a while, talk to you later
:)
have fun!
and please, don't destroy the room while I'm away!
:D
lol
 
Hey, @Cerberus, quick, let's destroy the room before Alenanno gets back.
 
@DavidWallace Thanks for the support :D later!
 
For example, the plural of orden is órdenes. The accent is added, because Spanish has strict rules about which syllable to stress, and the accent is needed to override the rules.
 
1
Q: Greek vs. Persian first names. Cognates or borrowing? Greek: φασιανός Persian: siâvoš

A-KI'm curious about some Old/Middle Persian names that end in -š (a 'sh' sound) and their equivalents in Greek. There are obvious examples of Persian names in Greek such as: Kuroš Κύρος Dâriuš Δαρεῖος The cuneiform inscriptions of the above two actually include th...

 
8:02 AM
@DavidWallace Shit, too late.
@DavidWallace Ask about that!
@DavidWallace Right, I know about those rules (their existence).
 
OK, but I KNOW that his statement as nonsense. There's nothing to ask.
 
Oh.
 
as = was. Too late to edit.
The rule is that in the absence of accent marks, the stress is on the second-to-last syllable if the word ends in a vowel or n or s, and on the last syllable if the word ends in any other consonant.
So orden has the stress on the o. But if órdenes didn't have the accent mark, the stress would be on the first e, which would break the rule about the stress being the same in the plural.
But if this were English, there wouldn't be an issue, because the stress is allowed to move around, like precede and precedent. Which is where we came in.
 
8:26 AM
Right, true.
 
 
8 hours later…
4:18 PM
@Gigili Good evening, Your Royal Highness.
 
giggles
Good evening.
 
Ancient language discovered in the Middle East:
 
4:39 PM
What's the written language on the clay called?
Pinnish?
 
I don't know if it has a name, already
 
It certainly has, but I don't know the English equivalent.
 
5:30 PM
@Gigili Cuneiform.
 
5:47 PM
Uhum, cuneiform. Thank you, Cerb.
 
Hello everybody, I need some advice.
 
Buy low!
Sell high!
 
@KitFox Ahahah not that type :D
In this post... What's the best way, in your opinion to "survey" our users time zones?
1
Q: Let's create a regular chat event!

AlenannoNow that we have our fantastic Community Bulletin, we can advertise our chat better and work in order to make this site more populated. So I was thinking: why not organize chat events? These ones would be on: Discussing site problems and strategies (e.g. promotion); Welcoming new users and help...

 
"If I said you had a nice body, would you hold it against me?" is only a good pickup line if you have a thick foreign accent.
 
@KitFox I'll try that! writes it down
I'll let you know if it works.
:D
 
5:51 PM
So what do you recommend to encourage affection?
 
Alcohol.
 
@KitFox You have a tough idea of love. :D
 
That's how I won my husband.
 
@KitFox Oh, it worked then...
 
It was either that or my winning personality.
 
5:53 PM
@KitFox Why not betting on the latter?
 
My personality leaves something to be desired.
 
I'd bet it was your winning personality.
 
Could have been my good looks.
Or that I'm easy.
 
@KitFox You're being quite vague. :D
 
Am I? :D
 
5:55 PM
@KitFox You listed four things already :P
ahha
 
Well, true.
 
@KitFox Would you participate in this chat thing?
:P
 
I might. Not sure.
The truth is, I got him drunk and then took advantage of him in his altered state.
He never saw it coming.
 
@KitFox LoL
 
But then, he never looked back either.
 
5:56 PM
@KitFox looked back?
 
Um. Doubted his choice?
Wondered if he should have done something differently?
 
@KitFox Oh ok :D
 
Something like that.
I don't know about the chat. I don't participate much in Linguistics.
I pop into the Writers chat sometimes.
 
@KitFox Everybody is welcome here.
:P
Haven't you seen our motto up there?
 
I think if you want to make it work you've got to have a pretty good group of people who commit to showing up and chatting, and you should have a few topics ready each week.
 
5:59 PM
@KitFox That's not going to be a problem, but first I asked you all something which was ignored lol
 
Nice nice. I will get him drunk then.
On vodka.
 
@Gigili Heavy!
 
@Alenanno Well, I don't know the answer to that.
Keep asking in chat at different times?
 
@KitFox I'll just ask in the meta question... :P
 
They used doodle on MSE.
Or deedle?
Whatever
 
6:03 PM
@Gigili What is that? An online tool?
 
@Alenanno Well, you could look at the room activity chart...
 
@KitFox I did this:
0
A: Let's create a regular chat event!

AlenannoUser - Time Zone Alenanno: +1 ...

:P
@KitFox Tell us about your interests... :D
 
6:19 PM
Well, that about sums it up.
(I haven't any.)
 
@KitFox No hobbies?
At all? I don't believe it :P
 
No time for hobbies. Only work and family.
 
@KitFox Oh, that sucks a bit... :)
I mean, not having time.
 
No, I like work and I love spending time with my boys.
 
@KitFox Ah :P
 
6:29 PM
Oh, the tumbleweed again...
 
Ahahahha
:D
@OtavioMacedo I have others waiting for me to use them.
 
@Alenanno good, because this one is weird.
 
@OtavioMacedo Ahah how weird?
 
They look more like a bunch of entangled spiders rolling down the hill :P
 
@OtavioMacedo ahahah :D
Why @louisrhys never joins us?
Everyone, I'm off
later! :)
and don't forget to sign up here!
0
A: Let's create a regular chat event!

AlenannoUser - Time Zone Alenanno: +1 Otavio: -3

 
 
2 hours later…
8:29 PM
@KitFox Most pick-up lines work better with a foreign accent. I was always far more successful with women in Argentina than in New Zealand.
@Gigili Don't know about where you're from, but here, "doodle" is sometimes a euphemism for boy parts. The sentence "order premium doodle now" on the front page of that web site sounds incredibly dodgy to me, and don't start me on "decorate your ads-free doodle".
and I have a friend (from the South Island) who claims never to be attracted to New Zealanders; but she has dated men from all over the world.
 
 
3 hours later…
11:28 PM
@DavidWallace Have you lived in Argentina?
 
@OtavioMacedo No, but I've been there twice, for two different reasons.
 
11:52 PM
@Cerberus There?
 

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