« first day (119 days earlier)      last day (4794 days later) » 

7:04 PM
(I wonder who could have done such a thing.)
 
Not my right or responsibility to comment on that.
I see you're already approaching 400 on Drupal Answers, @kiamlaluno.
8
Drupal Answersdrupal.stackexchange.com

Beta Q&A site for project managers, themers, developers, site-builders, administrators, and businesses using or thinking about using the Drupal CMS.

Currently in public beta.

 
@RegDwight — Is there no sparrow falls that you do not see?
 
As if I'm telling you.
 
Is there no change of death in paradise?
Does ripe fruit never fall? Or do the boughs
Hang always heavy in that perfect sky,
Unchanging, yet so like our perishing earth,
With rivers like our own that seek for seas
They never find, the same receding shores
That never touch with inarticulate pang?
 
Pang... Huhuh, like PANG! Huhuhuh.
 
7:13 PM
And, in the isolation of the sky,
At evening, casual flocks of pigeons make
Ambiguous undulations as they sink,
Downward to darkness, on extended wings.
I know you don't have time for this, but for when you do, here it is.
 
"Why should she give her bounty to the dead?" Sounds like a poem about StackExchange.
Hm. There's almost a pattern to those enjambements.
 
Stevens use enjambments always to mean something. They're never arbitrary.
For example:
With rivers like our own that seek for seas
They never find, the same receding shores
That never touch with inarticulate pang?
 
Almost like Smetana.
 
BTW, this is probably his most famous and, many say, his best work.
 
And I always have time for poetry. What I sometimes don't have is the mood.
 
7:22 PM
I find myself getting in the mood rather easily. Same with music.
 
But good poetry doesn't care about your being in the mood for it or not.
Semi-Jinx.
 
Good poetry knows it will always be there, plump and appealing, whether you have the eyes to see it or the ears to hear it.
 
As I was saying before my Mac decided I had to reset it (and it didn't give me any chance to decide), last time I checked, I was at 366 (and still I am).
 
And that is not approaching 400 how?
 
7:28 PM
That depends from what you mean by "approaching"; when I am say "we are approaching the seashore", I mean we are close enough that you could jump off the boat, and swim.
 
Present progressive, Work it.
 
@Robusto Meisterhaft.
 
I could work it, but I cannot use it when I should not.
 
When I say "We are approaching the seashore," it means we can get out of the car and walk to the beach.
@RegDwight Genau.
 
(Actually, it was supposed to be "when I say 'we are approaching the seashore'", but I wanted to add a "am" to seem a native speaker who forgot the grammar rules of his own language.)
 
7:34 PM
@kiamlaluno "Tell it to the marines."
 
Meh. That video sums up this chat perfectly. It's got vikings, muppets, music and poetry. Your link sums up nothing. Nothing!
 
Except my quote to @kiam.
 
Yes, but your quote summed up your quote perfectly enough already.
 
7:41 PM
I wasn't talking to you. That was for his benefit.
Do you always read other people's mail too?
 
Mar 6 at 15:07, by RegDwight
@Robusto Haha. Okay, I shut up.
 
You do have the quickest search chops I've ever seen, I'll give you that.
 
Thank you. <Takes that.>
 
Macro-cheater.
@You know who you are.
 
7:55 PM
Harr. A dupe of two questions at once.
0
Q: "People that" or "People who" or "People whom"?

Brandon Montgomery"People that use our software like it very much." "People who use our software like it very much." "People whom use our software like it very much." The middle one seems right to me, but which one is correct?

4
Q: Should you use "who" or "that" when talking about multiple people doing something?

Bryan DowningWhich of the following is correct? "There were 10 people that went to the store." "There were 10 people who went to the store." Edit: Which of the following is correct? "There were 10 people that had brown hair." "There were 10 people who had brown hair"

15
Q: Using "who" and "whom"

moucheI can never figure out whether I should use "who" and "whom". Most people use "who" for both colloquially, but that's not correct. What's the rule for using "who" or "whom"?

 
Maybe instead of just a FAQ we should have an MFAQ. "Most Frequently Asked Questions."
If people just scanned the top 10 we would eliminate about 80% of our duped questions.
 
We already have an MFAQ.
Though I am a bit surprised to see the Oxford Comma question so far down the list.
 
(I wonder if "the first chicken that sings has laid an egg" has any meaning in English.)
 
That only works if you know where to look. We should have a big button when you ask a question that shows an easy-to-read list of the top questions. Not just the "best guess what your question is about" heuristics one.
 
@kiamlaluno Are you referring to cutting the cheese?
 
8:12 PM
@RegDwight: I am referring to my "I wonder who has done such thing" comment. The equivalent of "the first chicken that […]" is used in a specific context, in Italian.
 
Well, I think you could apply "whoever smelt it, dealt it" there.
 
@Rob: That might help. I am for it.
As an alternative, we could do something like this.
 
@RegDwight: I take the chicken sentence would not be clear to an American, then.
 
Our MFAQs get special tags, like "who" and "whom" and "that" and "comma" and "enumeration" and "possessive" and "whose" etc. etc.;
 
@RegDwight 言い出しっぺ。
 
8:16 PM
Then whenever a new question matches one of those special tags, the appropriate question shows up as the highest suggestion, instead of the regular algorhithms that are active now.
 
@Robusto Google Translate: "Who brought."
8
Q: Show "related" questions before question submission

The questions shown when asking a question are only based on the title, but it seems that the "related" sidebar, only shown after submission, often catches much more relevant questions. This isn't surprising because the latter has the full text of the question plus tags to work with. (Though I ...

 
@RegDwight — Well, you get what you pay for.
Google's translation isn't even literally close.
 
Excellent. Have you paid on my behalf or why am I seeing much better translations there?
 
I floated you this time.
 
Oh are suggestions still only based on question title? Either way, my system was more about a limited set of hand-made tags for the top 20 most common questions. That should weed out a decent bit.
 
8:22 PM
ii dashi 'pe
 
I will repay tenfold in coke and communism.
 
"the one who calls attention to a fart is in fact the farter" is the opposite of "the first chicken to sing […]".
 
And BTW, Wehe, wer's zuerst gerochen, dem ist's aus dem Arsch gekrochen.
 
@kiamlaluno — I wasn't talking to you.
 
@Robusto: I was not talking to you, either.
 
8:24 PM
There, you just did again.
Stop it.
 
Noöne is talking to noöne!
 
Can we stop with all this not talking? It's getting a bit loud in here.
 
I was responding within the narrow scope of @RegDwight's statement.
@Martha — I'm not afraid of you. You've been known to be wrong before, @Martha. Especially when you've disagreed with me.
 
I didn't start the sentence with "His majesty"; therefore "His majesty" is wrong about to whom I was talking.
 
@kiamlaluno — Totally NN.
 
8:25 PM
@Robusto Nice sneak edit there, you non-native commie!
 
"His Majesty" should be used to that, "His Majesty".
 
@RegDwight Glorious People's Revolution will destroy American will to fight. We will have all bluejeans and blonde starlet.
 
A brave new world!
 
No article in sentence!
...
waiting ...
Umm, Tovarich?
 
What?
 
8:29 PM
"A" brave new world?
 
Yes.
 
No article, no copula.
 
Yes, in the original title. So what?
We are creating a brave new world. All of them, better worlds.
 
Обучите себя к коммунизму!
 
Now that is just grammatically wrong.
 
8:32 PM
Glame Boogle.
 
Haha.
 
Thwack!
But anyhow, I am very sad that noöne gets my geek references.
 
If you're talking about Huxley, of course I got it.
 
|runtime = 119 minutes |country = |language = English |budget = $39 million |gross = $38,869,464 |preceded_by = FireflyThose Left Behind }} Serenity is a 2005 space western film written and directed by Joss Whedon. It is a continuation of the canceled Fox science fiction television series Firefly, taking place after the events of the final episode. Set in 2518, Serenity is the story of the captain and crew of a cargo ship. The captain and first mate are veterans of the Unification War, having fought on the losing side. Their lives of petty crime are interrupted by a psychic passenge...
 
Or even if you're talking about Shakespeare.
Miranda from The Tempest: O brave new world that hath such creatures in it!
And I didn't have to Google nothin'!
I don't need your stinkin' prosthetic memory!
 
8:37 PM
I don't have to google my geek references, either. And Shakespeare doesn't even count as a geek.
Flatulence humor refers to any type of joke, practical joke device, or other humor related to flatulence. History of flatulence humor Although it is likely that flatulence humor has long been considered funny in cultures that consider the public passing of gas impolite, such jokes are rarely recorded. Two important early texts are the 5th century BC plays The Knights and The Clouds, both by Aristophanes, which contain numerous "fart" jokes. Another example from classical times appeared in Apocolocyntosis or The Pumpkinification of Claudius, a satire attributed to Seneca on the late Roman ...
Back on track with this one.
 
A fart by any other name ...
 
See that list, @kiamlaluno? "The first chicken that cackles, laid the egg."
 
@RegDwight: I did; thank you.
 
I had to read The Clouds in college. I hadn't realized that Saturday Night Live existed in ancient Greece.
 
Yeah, that play was SO hard on Socrates. A shame, really.
 
8:42 PM
It's not your time of the day, Michael. You should be hiding in the bushes.
 
Oops. Sorry.
 
Inexcusable. Really.
 
Hey, he's not a mod anymore. People don't expect so much of him now.
So cut him some slack.
 
He's still blue. That's good enough for me.
 
He hasn't learned how to exhale and inhale yet. Give it time.
 
8:44 PM
(I would prefer some bacon. I am going to cut some slices of that.)
 
@Robusto Famous last words?
 
Dunno how famous. Or how last.
 
Modship in chat.stackexchange.com is not as fine-grained as one might expect. All moderators of any site are moderators of all chat rooms.
 
(I know that.)
 
(They know that.)
 
8:47 PM
(Everyone knows that.)
 
{At least not everyone is automatically mod on MSO.}
 
So why are you all holding your breath?
 
..., exhaled Robusto.
 
It's fine for you to hold in your farts, but you are allowed to breathe.
 
That reminds me of KV231, somehow.
 
8:50 PM
(The first chicken that cackles, laid the egg.)
 
So that would be you again, @kiamlaluno.
 
Uhmmm… no.
(That's how our chickens are different: they point at a different person.)
 
Italian chickens don't speak English well at all.
 
Ugh, is this kind of quoting okay with us? english.stackexchange.com/questions/15882/…
(Not posting on a separate line on purpose.)
I don't think the email address and the link should be there.
 
I'd take out the part with the email and website, since it's not even related to the question.
 
8:58 PM
Done.
Couldn't delete the sentence wholesale as @Cerberus' and @ShreevatsaR's comments wouldn't make any sense then.
 
I keep forgetting that I can still edit things myself, since I can't do so many other things I used to.
 
9:13 PM
Meanwhile on MSO:
55
Q: Should we cap reputation gained from questions at +2000?

Jeff AtwoodBased on: Could we put a cap on reputation earned by asking questions? I am starting to wonder if we should cap reputation gained for questions. I have historically resisted this, but: It does seem nonsensical that users can get 10,000+ reputation purely on the basis of asking hundreds of qu...

 
One really good answer is like making one really popular record. You can live off of the royalties for life.
I'm looking for that one answer that will get hundreds of upvotes, and then I can retire.
 
Until they implement a per-post reputation cap instead of per day.
 
And crush the American Dream???
 
Jon Skeet has been pushing for it for two years or more, but I don't think they're very inclined to do it.
 
For the life of me, I can't find that MSO post where someone proposed a sliding-scale daily rep cap. Like, 200 for new stuff, 100 for one-week old stuff, and no passive rep whatsoever from one-year old stuff.
 
9:20 PM
If you said that in the lounge, Grace Note would magically find it and insert it into your post, I bet.
 
I want to be the Grace Note of this place here.
 
You are.
 
@Robusto Oh, my. I hadn't even realized that the planet's name was a Shakespeare reference. (I love all things Firefly.)
 
@Kosmonaut I'm failing!
 
0
Q: Using apostrophes

anahey guys, i need some help, i`m writing an essay and well, im not very good at grammar, because i speak spanish.... i find all the grammar rules very hard and i want to get an A in my essay!i looked up the information on the internet but i still cant understand it 100%.... so i need help to under...

That made me laugh... and then I closed it.
His response to your comment was funny.
"no, I don't have any"
To paraphrase: "That might narrow my question and I want it to be extremely broad and covering everything"
 
9:30 PM
Well, I have answered broader questions in the past.
But can't be bothered anymore.
7
A: Explanation for usage of "Would", "Would have", "Will", "Will have"

RegDwightThis question is quite broad, and I find it quite hard to come up with an answer that is comprehensive yet succinct, technically impeccable yet easy-to-understand. At the risk of failing miserably, I'll give it a try nonetheless. Will, would, and have are auxiliary verbs used to form different t...

2
Q: Sounds of the letter a.

Marcos RorizHi, how can I know when to differentiate the sounds of the letter a, like in: apple and vault?

13
A: Are there any simple rules for article usage ("a" vs "the" vs none)

RegDwightWell, if you insist on the rule being simple, here you are: a = some, any the = this, that Two simple examples. Note that you just wrote "...if a person knows which item you are talking about...". You didn't write "...if the person knows...". And that's correct, because you are not pointing t...

 
Do you think I should not have closed it?
 
I was the first one to comment that it should be close.
D.
 
I think the biggest thing about that question is that I think we have answered those questions
in other questions
 
In many other questions.
That's why I said, look at the related questions to the right.
 
Yeah the suggested similar questions when creating a new question should be improved if possible.
 
9:36 PM
I also find it a bit against the spirit of the site to respond to a request for more specifics by saying you intentionally want it to be as broad as possible.
 
"a bit"
You've just earned yourself a star, young man.
 
Gee!
 
Them's pity stars, though.
 
Are they?
Y?
 
:(
 
9:37 PM
yesterday, by RegDwight
@kiamlaluno No, if you want to look at it humorously, white stars are the "real" stars, while black stars are the "pity stars" @Robusto kept asking for.)))
 
Huh what's up with those colours? I see the star I just gave as yellow?
This site is so weird. How am I ever going to remember all that stuff.
 
If you get a number next to the star, does it graduate to non-pity at some point?
Like 5 stars?
 
Right, I see hollow and solid black stars. Funny, never noticed that before.
 
It's really easy, just type your password here in chat, it will show up as *******.
 
Wow.
 
9:39 PM
hunter2
 
My password is ***************************************************************************.
 
All I see is *******
 
Ah it works!
 
Yeah I didn't see hunter2 either, I saw just stars.
 
9:40 PM
Is an old joke still funny if everyone already knows it?
 
Yes!
 
Well, I am laughing heartily right now.
 
It's like Monty Python, you just reference it and your mind goes through the whole thing again and you enjoy it.
 
My memory is so bad that I only faintly remembered having read that somewhere. Still chuckling.
 
It only gets annoying when everyone then has to recite every line once it has been referenced
 
9:41 PM
@Kosmonaut triggered ze chuckle for me.
 
One or two lines usually is enough
 
@Kosmonaut Hence the link. To prevent that from happening, plus for the incognoscenti.
 
Yes, and thanks.
Incidentally, is there something wrong with a password that is a full sentence from a poem in a foreign language?
 
It's like humor scripture. You just invoke the reference.
 
It is.
I find full sentences quite easy to type, and I hate symbols.
 
9:44 PM
Bash.org 244321, verses 4-9
 
And if the sentence is long enough, it will contain enough bits to be hard to crack.
 
I will just copy-paste it, d'oh.
@Kosmonaut It kind of does, actually.
Feb 23 at 9:04, by RegDwight
Hooray, all-new badges! Shiny...
 
bye all
 
CU
 
What did I miss?
...
 
9:57 PM
Bash.org
 
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.
 
@Kosmonaut I was going to type out the joke about the prisoners who have numbered all their jokes, but I'll just reference it instead.
 
@MichaelMyers I don't get it. Which number?
 
372 was a real knee-slapper.
Whoa, I just got an answer accepted on SO after 11 months. I wonder why?
0
A: CSS: Horizontally scrolling image inside variable width div?

RobustoUnless your target div is constrained either by a fixed width style or by a container with a fixed width or whose ancestors include a fixed width, you won't be able to get your target div to acquire scrollbars. It will just go as wide as its contents, and the browser scrollbars will take over.

 
Accept rate, probably.
 
10:03 PM
Ah, yeah. Haha.
 
Now you're that much closer to Unsung Hero.
 
This is probably the most eloquent way of expressing "+1", ever:
0
A: Meaning of "brave my fire"

Alain Pannetier"Brave" as a very long story. To make it short... The original root is from Greek "βάρβαρος". Βάρβαροι were the people whose languages were unintelligible. Hence the "bar-bar" onomatopoeic name. There was obviously a pejorative connotation to this noon; although "foreigner" (as in "non-Greek"...

 
Already got it.
@MichaelMyers That was my first gold badge on SO.
Dammit, now I forgot why I was looking at SO in the first place! Stupid late-accepting-answers-persons.
 
Well, never mind then.
 
I know why I am still looking at MSO.
 
10:06 PM
Because you're addicted?
 
But I think that question just got deleted.
No, still looking for that sliding rep thingamajiggy.
 
What sliding rep thingamajig?
 
It was titled something like "Here are a few random thoughts from a new user". So it may have been closed as noise or pointless.
 
Did anyone answer it that you remember?
 
48 mins ago, by RegDwight
For the life of me, I can't find that MSO post where someone proposed a sliding-scale daily rep cap. Like, 200 for new stuff, 100 for one-week old stuff, and no passive rep whatsoever from one-year old stuff.
@MichaelMyers No, I only remember a comment mentioning Nick Craver and Jon Skeet.
I don't think there were any answers, it was really more like "here's some feedback". And much of it was duplicating older stuff.
 
10:09 PM
0
Q: "hard" vs. "difficult"

CallithumpianMy late grandfather had several word-choice peeves for which he would gently interrupt a speaker, especially a grandchild, in order to correct. The one I remember most was his dislike for the use of "hard" as a synonym for "difficult," as in the statement: This homework is really hard. I r...

One wishes certain organs to be one and not the other. Just sayin' ...
 
This is something that could use an answer by @nohat.
 
Color me gone. Later, everyone.
 
TTYL.
 
@RegDwight is this the one you're looking for?
42
Q: Why should I keep answering on Stack Overflow? Observations from a new user.

ErikObservations, suggestions and some questions after 4 days on Stack Overflow. I've been hearing about Stack Overflow from more and more people, and it turns up more and more often in my Google searches. This weekend I decided to finally give it a try, see how it compared to e.g. the original expe...

 
@RD01 I hereby dub thee Honorary Grace Note for the Day.
 
10:22 PM
Is that a good thing?
 
@RD01 THANK YOU!!!!
 
Excellent. I will treat it as a gold badge then.
That post has some pretty good ideas.
 
Meh.
"And I, as I believe many others also do, answer questions equally for recognition and as a desire to help."
I can't believe people would actually admit that they should consider "recognition" equal to just plain answering.
Don't they feel dirty?
 
No. Why do you think there's a game-like points system in the first place?
 
10:32 PM
Don't forget the shiny baubles.
 
Argh, my memory sucks. Not only were there answers, I have even edited one of them!
 
It is meant to an embarrassing aspect of human nature that the greater structure must work with, but that must remain taboo.
Like sex.
Saying "sex is as important to me as learning".
 
@Cerberus That reminds me of a Seinfeld episode.
"The Abstinence" is the 143rd episode of the American sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 9th episode for the 8th season. It was originally broadcast on the NBC network on November 21, 1996. Plot George's girlfriend has mononucleosis, so he can't have sex with her for six weeks. Elaine has met a doctor who has almost gotten his license to practice. Jerry agrees to appear at career day at his former junior high school, but he is bumped back because the children love the zoo worker, then when he is about to go on there is a fire drill. Kramer lights up a cigar in Monk's and is asked to leave by ...
 
That might be fun...
Meh there is nothing interesting on the internets.
Then why are they calling themselves *inter*-nets?
 
Are you sure the 'inter' in internet is related to the 'inter' in interest?
 
10:45 PM
You mean they should be uninternets? But English words must not begin with an unin-!
 
@Martha: Uhuh I read that somewhere on the internets.
 
@Martha It sure is.
It is even related to the intel in intel!
 
@Reg: Oh dear, I think you just pointed out that contradicted my own previous remarks implicitly.
Hmm where does "Intel" come from anyway?
From intel as in intelligence agency?
Or plain intelligence?
 
@RD01 Meh. It just sent me to the Gibson Guitar's home page. Sorry, not interested.
 
10:47 PM
@Cerberus Integrated Electronics
 
Hey that randomwebsite.com is fun. Except that most pages on the internet seem to have rotted away.
 
@martha You can't win them all I guess.
 
Huh Integrated Electronics... I see.
 
Intelligence, integrated, internet, and interest all go back to the Latin inter-, "between".
 
No way. That is freaky.
 
10:48 PM
I got sent to thekitchen.somethingorother. The only thing I know about a kitchen is that it is a good place to store my refrigerator and microwave.
 
@Cerberus Briefly hinted at here:
47
A: Isn't the word "uninstall" wrong?

RegDwight Insane is the opposite of sane, from Latin in- “not” and sanus. Inaccessible is the opposite of accessible, from Latin in- “not” and accessibilis. Inadequate is the opposite of adequate, from in- and adequate. Install is not the opposite of stall. It comes from Latin installare, from in- in the ...

 
Incidentally, integrated doesn't come from inter at all.
 
Argh, yes, you're right, I got carried away
 
@Reg: I know, I immediately thought of that question when you mentioned unin-.
 
But I've got it right in the question itself.
 
10:50 PM
Don't try to teach me Latin, yo dawg.
Ok.
 
@Cerberus I won't, as I don't know jack about Latin.
 
Incidentally, are there any classicists on EL&U?
I don't think I have ever seen any here.
 
Do two semesters of night school Latin count?
 
Hmm sorry nope.
 
Eh, thought so.
 
10:51 PM
But still nice!
Do you have any idea what % of Americans would have had at least 5 years of Latin and Greek at school?
 
The experience was memorable chiefly because my sister & I terrorized the poor teacher. He never did learn to tell us apart.
 
You have a twin? Hawt.
 
@Cerberus "Negligible" would be my guess.
 
Really? Wow.
 
Latin AND Greek? virtually none.
 
10:53 PM
That is odd.
 
Latin is not offered in all High Schools and Greek is almost never offered.
 
In most European countries it is de rigueur.
 
We just aren't that into furrin tongues, period.
 
Well many do know some French and German, in my experience.
 
Spanish is the most frequently taught foreign language in American schools, by far.
 
10:54 PM
@Cerberus Did you meet them in the US or in the Netherlands?
 
Yeah okay, but only a few percent learn Latin here too.
@Mich: Netherlands. I have never been in the New World...
 
I suspect that may have skewed your perception of Americans, then.
 
Come visit the new world. We have cake.
 
Yeah possibly so. On the other hand, I think it is also based on my experience with Americans on the internet.
 
I know a fair number of people who have taken French or German in school, but none of them could come up with more than two sentences if they needed it.
 
10:57 PM
I think I will be visiting New York some time this year. Friends of my parents have an appartment in Manhattan where we could stay.
Well the Dutch suck at French too, even though nearly 100% have done at least a few years of French in school.
 
I never even studied Manhattanese in school. I don't know if I could communicate with the natives.
 
It can be, like, hard.
Or is that LA slang?
 
Feb 28 at 2:09, by Martha
OK, this is NOT actually Martha here. I can't figure out how to log out of English Language and Usage. I think I managed to log my sister off of Stack Overflow -- I found a "logout" button in the middle of a page somewhere -- but there doesn't seem to be an analogue on EL&U. Help?!?
 
Aww that is so cute.
 
Uh oh. Possession. Someone with a Latin background would be helpful right about now.
 
10:59 PM
@Cerberus I don't think that's Manhattan anyway.
 
Hey I am no Catholic!
 

« first day (119 days earlier)      last day (4794 days later) »