English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

so @Cerb, it's just me and you at this late hour

Oh, dearie!

Are you going to descriptivist me?

alas, i cannot watch your slow typing for lack of plugin

Aww, does it want a plugin? I didn't know that.

wait, what? descriptivist you? when have i ever descriptivized anyone?

2:05 AM

Perhaps I should upload it to Youtube then.

the plugin might be flash

I don't know, I am blind to it anyway...

anyhoo, doesn't matter

Hmm you don't have flash?

i guess i do, since i've watched youtubes on this before

2:06 AM

I will try watching it in another browser.

Oh, it requires Java.

right, and i'm disinclined to install java here

Is Java so much out of fashion these days...

You might not be alone, so I should upload it to Youtube anyway.

well, i need it in the browser so rarely

slow night. it's the night before Independence Day here, so people are all relaxing/partying

in about 30 min i'm going over to my uncle's house to light things on fire

no holidays over there in Dutchistan?

Oh, is that it!

Nope, we don't celebrate other people's independence, virtuous though it might be.

And we have been independent for so long we stopped celebrating it.

well, the Brits have been independent for centuries as well, but they have Guy Fawkes day to make up for it

2:13 AM

Instead we celebrate the Queen's birthday.

excellent. that's very civilized

much more civilized than ours, which is a lot of fun, but is pretty uncivilized

Hah, ours is extremely uncivilized.

Especially where I live: every provincial who wants to get drunk comes to the capital.

do you light things on fire?

letting off explosives in your backyard is an essential part of the holiday here

Hey, what's up with those Brits!? Why are they celebrating this traitor who fought for the Spaniards!?

plus, every good civilization needs its bacchanals

2:16 AM

Hmm, nope, that we do not.

Is it comparable to New Year's Eve?

@Cerberus on Guy Fawkes Day they celebrate the fact that he was captured and hung

Oh!

@Cerberus its comparable to european new year's, yes. here in the states we don't usually light fireworks for the new year. we light fireworks on the 4th of July, though

Thank goodness.

Really, no fireworks on January 1? I had no idea.

They do light 'em in England, don't they?

i don't know. you'll have to ask a brit

2:20 AM

►

New York City has a famous fireworks show on Jan 1, but other than that people generally don't do fireworks for the new year. i've never heard of anyone buying and letting off their own fireworks on that day

whereas it's practically obligatory to light off something for Independence Day, except for those poor souls who live in places that it isn't allowed

Interesting... could there be this innate quantity of yearly fireworks that every human being must light, no matter on what day?

@Cerberus yeah, that's pretty bad. the js is too heavy, i assume

Is that it?

But it is much better in Chrome.

@Cerberus an interesting theory. i can hear my neighbor lighting off some screamers right now

2:23 AM

Well, they can be nice to watch.

i love 'em. and tomorrow i'm sleeping in, then going to a barbecue at my grandmother's house. it's gonna be great

Q: Lag when typing on Superuser and SE, especially in comments, in FF and IE - but not in Chrome, and never on other sites

Sounds exciting! Hehe.

@JSBangs Notice that it is much better in IE 8.

4

Updated: here is a screencast of my typing I am testing the speed of typing in this comment., on Firefox 5, on this Pentium IV @ ~2GHz, Windows 7. You can see how many letters vanish and how slow it is. Pay attention to the sound of my typing: I was finished typing half way through the recording,...

bug

@Cerberus what browser was that in? IE's JS performance was known to be terrible up thru 7, only slightly better in 8, but excellent in 9

Firefox 5.

FF 3.6 was just as bad.

Chrome best (but still annoying).

huh. firefox. i haven't used FF in ages.

it's odd, after the release of IE9, i now consider IE and Chrome to be the browsers of choice, with FF the odd one out. never would have guessed that IE would surpass FF in such a short time

2:29 AM

IE 8 is better than FF 5 at this thing.

How old is IE 8?

At least IE saves the key presses, instead of discarding them, which FF does. Typing is still very laggy in IE. Chrome isn't that good either.

perhaps you should just get a better computer :)

@JSBangs So why don't you use FF? My reason for using it is its extensions. If I could find replacements for Chrome, I might switch; not no chance, so far.

This is my parents' PC. My PC at home is OK (though even on that dual core, it is still slightly flashy, worse than on most other commenting sites).

i like Chrome best. IE copied its menu bar style that maximizes the browser space, which is great. i haven't used FF since... v3? But it had gotten big and slow

and i used to use tons of extensions, but i found that i can live without most of them

What is strangest is that it is excruciatingly bad in comments, but acceptable in answers/questions.

the things i largely used extensions for (blocking up popups and javascript per-site) are now built-in in both Chrome and IE I believe

@Cerberus in comments it counts characters as you type. i don't think that it does that in answers/questions

2:33 AM

Hmm... there are several more that I find indispensible.

@JSBangs Ah, that might be it!

I wish there were a javascript-less version of se.

then comments wouldn't work at all, since i don't think there's any non-ajax comment form

but anyway, it's time for me to go light things on fire

have a good night

How do you open a link in a new tab in Chrome? Right-click and select "in new tab" or something? I am hooked on Drag de Go, where I just drag a link up for a tenth of a second and it opens in a new foreground tab, etc.

OK, have fun!

5:00 AM

edelweiss b sepia d igor ephemeral jeepers aitch aisle gaol caper element enemy eau p cuba argument esteem t ukelele v double-ukelele exceed white z

oops... I meant to say something first...

A friend of mine used to say "Q as in Cuba". Of course, it's a joke.

I wanted to ask for some help from folks to complete or polish up my "alternate phonetic alphabet" that consists entirely of totally misleading words. :)

Please tag me if you feel like contributing. The hard plosives (not sure if I really know the right term here b, d, p, t, v and z all are giving me trouble to find words that make that sound at the start but really start with another letter.

oh, h and o are also problematic.

Here's to hoping you will join me! :)

9:01 AM

@ErikE — z as in xenon?

9:13 AM

@ErikE — v as in Wiesbaden, v as in Wiesenthal?

@ErikE — t as in ctenoid?

9:42 AM

o as in au fait? I dunno

au naturel, Auvergne…

9:54 AM

hey

@Vitaly I would like to know something?

What does aka means?

also known as

what?

Aka

A.K.A., AKA, a.k.a., aka, or a/k/a may refer to: *"Also known as", used to introduce pseudonyms, aliases, nicknames, working names, legalized names, pen names, maiden names, etc. Media *AKA (film), a 2002 film *"A.K.A." (Jericho episode), a 2007 episode of the TV series Jericho *The A.K.A.s, a rock band *Channel AKA a UK television channel Organizations *a.k.a. Cartoon, a Canadian animation company *Aga Khan Academies, a network of residential schools in Africa, South and Central Asia, and the Middle East *Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first sorority in the United States founded by and for ...

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/AKA

hummm......!!

Elvis Presley, aka “The King” → Elvis Presley, also known as “The King”

10:08 AM

okies

This room is for what type of discussion?

10:50 AM

Apr 26 at 20:47, by RegDwight

General discussion about English Language and Usage, plus some fooling around.

11:45 AM

thansk

Mr. Disappointment

1:28 PM

Or: _'Just fooling around, plus some sparse general discussion about English Language and Usage.

Mr. Disappointment

5:03 PM

Yes, the formatting of my last post failed. No, I won't remove, replace or justify it.

5:59 PM

> …and the U.S. satellite which failed to reach orbit in 1957 (because the Vanguard rocket blew up on the launch pad) derided as a kaputnik (in the "Daily Express"), a flopnik ("Daily Herald"), a puffnik ("Daily Mail"), and a stayputnik ("News Chronicle").

via etymonline.com/index.php?term=sputnik

Hah.

Was the Sputnik the first object launched into space by humans ever?

Define space. :P

V-2

The V-2 rocket (, i.e. reprisal weapon 2), technical name Aggregat-4 (A4), was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known non-human-piloted artifact to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight. It was the progenitor of all modern rockets, including those used by the United States and Soviet Union space programs, which gained access to the scientists and designs through Operation Paperclip and Operation Osoaviakhim....

6:24 PM

Interesting...

Didn't know the V2 got that high.

6:35 PM

@Cerberus: Anything for b, d, p, h?

A friend of mine used to say "Q as in Cuba". Of course, it's a joke. I wanted to ask for some help from folks to complete or polish up my "alternate phonetic alphabet" that consists entirely of totally misleading words. :)

With the help/inspiration of various people such as @Vitaly, so far I have: edelweiss b sepia d igor ephemeral jeepers h aisle gaol caper element enemy aubergine p cuba argument esteem pterodactyl yukon v double-yukon extra white xenon

Please tag me if you feel like contributing. The single-letter items are giving me trouble in finding words that make that sound at the …

Oh!

@Vitaly Are those other rockets, or are you referring to Erik's thing?

Unfortunately pterodactyl doesn't start with "tee" but at least it pee and tee are easily confused so pterodactyl works well.

@ErikE Erik: Let me think of some Greek words starting with pt-...

@Cerberus — Yes, I am referring to his thing.

6:41 PM

Ah, ok.

I don't see it happening for those letters, frankly.

German can help with v as suggested

wienerschnitzel

I'd like two-syllable words where possible... any improvement on "edelweiss"?

I'd also like the first syllable stressed. Any improvement on "ephemeral"?

ephebe?

eyot?

épée?

eight?

7:53 PM

There is also ephedrine.

8:05 PM

(With unchanging stress on the first syllable.)

9:15 PM

eight would be great except it sounds like "ate"

come to think of it, ait is another spelling for eyot

Q: Correct pronunciation of the letter "v"

9:43 PM

@MrDisappointment Hm, I've heard that somewhere...

Mar 11 at 17:08, by RD01

Heavy on the fooling around.

Oh and I see that you're stuck at level 6. You need help or just lost interest?

Meanwhile elsewhere...

0

Q: Pronoucning W vs. V

This something may be innately obvious to native speakers, however to many outsiders the difference is elusive. I only recently realized the difference and still have a hard time to distinguishing them. Please explain how to pronounce these two letters correctly, specifically lip/tongue movement ...

pronunciation

0

Going off of the "haitch" vs "aitch" debate, what is the correct pronunciation of v? is it "vee" with a f-type mouth placement or a "wee" or "wi" like the game console?

pronunciation

10:24 PM

Hi all

Interested in or use Debian? Then please follow and vote on:

1

Debian

Proposed Q&A site for debian users and developers.

Currently in definition.

Mr. Disappointment

@Reg Stuck?!?! Pah! ...Well, ya, actually. I think. I'll get back to you on that.

As for those questions, looks like a 'back-merge' would be most appropriate - but then the original answers will only address one of the two points.

10:48 PM

Hey

Guys remember me?

@Vitaly ?

no, I don't!

@MrDisappointment ?

@Jez I do not , too. Are you new?

relatively.

though i make a name for myself quickly. any publicity is good publicity. do you use/like debian, or have you ever heard of it?

As a guide, I've changed my name.. My nickname here was "Boob"!

@Jez What's that?

A linux distribution.

one of the most popular

10:56 PM

Like Ubuntu?

@MrDisappointment I'm not talking about a back-merge. I am subtly hinting at the fact that the older question got closed as "general reference". I am also hinting at the fact that Anderson Silva has a long history of asking rather poor questions and borderline dupes.

@Explorer like, yes. In the same way that Coke is like Pepsi.

hey @RegDwight

trg787

11:36 PM

i d'like to ask smth abt English but dont know what.....

4

@Explorer Huh wha? Sorry, I have to fight a war against the Soviet Union.

And all I have is some Dutch boy's support.