English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2011-09-11 (page 1 of 2)

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5:08 AM

@Fx Further congrats on your blueness!

5:22 AM

@waiwai933 I flagged a question because I thought it didn't migrate to Writers correctly, but I think the OP reposted it there and y'all don't need to do anything.

@aediaλ I saw that one! (Not the flag, but the question)

I swear we all flagged to migrate

@simchona I thought so too but there's no going back to see once it doesn't work! I felt bad for closing it once it showed [closed] rather than [migrated]

2

Q: A question voted to be off-topic and better suited to writers.SE has not been migrated

When should one use a section sign (the link is only for 10k users) has been voted as off-topic and better suited to writers.SE by 5 users, but the question was simply closed. Is it always ok to use the verb "to say" after a question? has been voted to be migrated from all the users wh...

bug status-bydesign vote-to-close migration

Kiam had this issue several times

So I guess if the question would have been untagged it wouldn't migrate. I'm not totally sure what happened with this one.

I think the OP may have reposted it before I closed the one here, so maybe that's why it didn't go.

I don't know how it works

Magic. Definitely magic.

but I felt bad because it was a thought out question and the OP seemed really earnest

5 hours later…

10:54 AM

Is anyone here?

user19161

11:17 AM

@Alenanno Indeed!

hey @Jasper

user19161

What's up? Just bored?

kind of

user19161

Hmm, just go do something then, whatever.

user19161

Like you can go running for a few hours.

11:27 AM

Is this one GenRef or just Off-topic for you?

-1

Q: Names of military ranks in English

Can you please provide me with a list containing the names of all military ranks in English starting from the lowest (I guess it's private) and ending with the highest?

list-request military

To me it's more off topic

but I don't know

user19161

I chose GR. Doesn't matter really. And different countries have different systems. I still remember all of mine.

11:46 AM

me too

I voted

2 hours later…

user19161

1:47 PM

Hello @matt!

Matt Эллен

hullo @Jasper :)

I'm distracting myself from house work, what are you up to?

user19161

@MattЭллен Nothing much. Just had dinner. Dark Knight is showing on TV but I've watched it before.

Matt Эллен

I do enjoy a good batman film

user19161

But I didn't really like the movie.

Matt Эллен

ah, well, probably best you find something else to do!

user19161

1:51 PM

I think Spiderman is the best superhero movie, partly cos I like the Peter Parker spectacles. Well, as you know, I always have lots of things to think about!

Matt Эллен

Indeed, as do we all! Although, different things, of course

I thought the 3rd Toby Maguire Spiderman film was a bit rubbish, a bit too camp and cliche

user19161

How is the blog post coming along?

Matt Эллен

the one for EL&U? It's pending review.

I guess they're waiting for more people to finish before they start putting posts live

user19161

I wear that kind of specs myself. Black plastic frame. It's quite hard to find. I searched the entire island for one with a nose pad, since these usually have none.

user19161

If I lose or damage this, I don't know where to find another.

user19161

1:54 PM

Perhaps I could attach the nose pad myself elsewhere.

Matt Эллен

My glasses are a lot thinner framed, and rectangular, but they are black

user19161

So the frame is metallic?

Matt Эллен

Perhaps. I'm sure you could get the frames online and have the lenses fitted by your optician

@Jasper yes

user19161

The previous pair I had was also plastic but without nose pad, so it kept slipping off. I wonder why the designer made them like that. Perhaps my face shape is weird.

Matt Эллен

I don't know. all the glasses I've had have bits to keep them on my nose

user19161

1:58 PM

The support structure is supposed to be part of the plastic itself, but it is insufficient in my case.

Matt Эллен

how odd

user19161

Since one cannot morph the metal to have that support, these come with the nosepad by default.

user19161

I hope you get me.

Matt Эллен

I think so

I think my other pair (plastic and held together with electrical insulation tape) have nose rests...

user19161

Now that I have 10k SE-wide in chat, will I get any notifications for flags?

Matt Эллен

2:00 PM

oh no, the nose rest is extruded

@Jasper I haven't got any

but my 10k comes from places where I have under 200 rep

user19161

@MattЭллен Well, perhaps it's better not being able to get any.

Matt Эллен

I'm waiting for my flair rep to be over 10K before I start wondering

@Jasper maybe, otherwise you might have to do something about them!

user19161

So you check that secret email account weekly now?

Matt Эллен

certainly more frequently, but not a regular frequency. checked it several times last week!

user19161

OK I think I will send one to you in a few hours.

user19161

2:04 PM

@MattЭллен And how many did you get?

Matt Эллен

last week I had a few. my brother's account must have been hacked, since he sent me spam

plus some marketing emails from recuiters and estate agents

user19161

Oh dear, he should quickly change his password then.

user19161

I think my current password is unfathomable.

Matt Эллен

I don't think mine is :D

user19161

But easily rememberable.

Matt Эллен

2:06 PM

yeah, I have a system, it would be easy to guess my passwords if you know my system.

user19161

Well, I think most people have some system!

Matt Эллен

yeah, probably

I wouldn't remember mine if I didn't have a system

some places forget, because I've strayed from the system

user19161

Anyway cesargon said he was going to use "evaluable" for his project, the word I suggested. Yay!

Matt Эллен

Congrats!

user19161

I only have one 12-letter password for all my accounts, a bit dangerous Cerb said.

Matt Эллен

2:10 PM

yes, if it gets broken once, then all your accounts are compromised

user19161

It has capital letters, small letters and numerals though.

user19161

Perhaps I should change it yearly.

user19161

So you still read the transcript more or less?

Matt Эллен

that makes it difficult to guess and hack with a dictionary, but if someone steals the passwords from one of the sites and breaks how they're encoded, your other 11 accounts are now vulnerable

@Jasper yes

I try and keep up to date with it

I'm nosy like that :D

user19161

@MattЭллен Same, though I only read the relevant and interesting parts!

user19161

2:13 PM

I didn't start from the beginning though, just recent times.

Matt Эллен

Yeah, I might have skipped over some of the parts where a certain youngster was just blurting out lyrics ;)

user19161

Well, you can just say Sonic, though the concealment of his identity was probably done in humour.

Matt Эллен

I didn't want him to think I look down on him for it

user19161

I'm glad he has changed into Sonic, Chaos sounds chaotic and confusable with the other Chaos.

user19161

@MattЭллен No, I think he will understand.

user19161

2:16 PM

He knows quite a lot of stuff for his age.

user19161

More than I did in the past.

Matt Эллен

I find his youth shows, more than that of drm, or waiwai, though

maybe he is younger than them

user19161

OK, expect my email in a few hours then.

user19161

It will be a short one.

Matt Эллен

will do!

user19161

2:18 PM

How is your weekend so far?

Matt Эллен

yesterday was great. I recorded some music (only in my front room, not in a studio) with my band

today is house work day

How is yours going?

user19161

Nothing special. I thought housework meant working at home until I realised it was just the usual housework.

user19161

Ah, Peter Shor has overtaken me in rep. Yay! I am waiting to be bumped off the first page. It's not good having the pressure to stay there.

user19161

I jump to and from the front page recently in total rep!

Matt Эллен

wow!

I don't that i'll ever be front page material!

user19161

2:23 PM

You are on the third page now. EL&U I mean. Very soon you will overtake me.

user19161

If Sim continues at this rate, she might overtake the cigar soon.

Matt Эллен

:D yeah, she's rocketing ahead!

user19161

OK see you in my email later!

Matt Эллен

see you later :)

Hi!

My advice on passwords: use a few unique ones for your most sensitive sites, like your main e-mail, Paypal, Ebay, something like that.

Matt Эллен

2:33 PM

hi @Cerb :)

Use another password for all your tier-2 websites, like Amazon and all other web stores, and perhaps Stackexchange if it's important to you. That way, you're trusting the security systems of websites who will be arious about it; a random internet forum doesn't think it needs to be careful, because people can't do much damage with a stolen password there: but Amazon knows that people could do major damage and will protect it better.

Then use another password for all your other websites.

@MattЭллен Morning! Ish.

Matt Эллен

:D

Another recommendation: sentences are very easy to remember, yet hard to hack:

Ilikemattyfromelu

Try hacking that.

Vitaly says it doesn't matter, because people won't try dictionary attacks anyway (or something like that), but I don't know.

Matt Эллен

I think dictionary attacks are quite unlikely, these days, since most places will have a 3 stikes and you're out rule (or something similar)

With SE, I use my Google openID anyway :)

@Cerberus now I know your password!

@MattЭллен Dammit! changing...

@MattЭллен I was rather thinking of people who download the entire (encrypted) database from a hacked server, as with Lifehacker.

Matt Эллен

2:44 PM

@Cerberus oh, right with rainbow tables etc. Yeah, I don't know enough to know what the bad guys are doing.

I believe hackers tried to crack passwords on their own computers/botnet.

It would seem obvious to use the commonest passwords first, then dictionary attack, then perhaps brute force—but that should take very long.

0

Q: what does 'ca.' stand for?

I've understood ca. means something like approximately. But where does this come from, is this an acronym of some sort?

meaning acronyms

Gen Ref

@Cerberus and @Matt :D

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus yeah, brute force would take ages, given how many possible combinations there are.

Yeah.

Voted for your peace of mind.

my peace of mind?

2:51 PM

Yes.

I don't understand lol

what do you mean?

I was under the impression that this question was eating at your soul?

@Cerberus What gave you that impression?

You wanted it closed, didn't you?

I just assumed OCD.

lol

Matt Эллен

2:56 PM

:D

well, I did a search and the fourth link had the answer in it

so to me that's gen ref

@Cerberus don't assume too much, you know what happens when you assume

Matt Эллен

so I upvoted and favourited the question

I mean voted to close

I guess Google works differently where apneadiving lives

I know different countries get different results for certain searches

Searching two characters gets few results, ok, but he knew that it meant approximately, so why not try "ca approximately"?

"apneadiving "?

but well

it's the user's name

it's ok

2:59 PM

http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&oq=&hl=en&safe=off&q=abbreviation ca

@Cerberus what I said above about "assume" was meant like a joke, did you know it? :P

Ehh I understood that it was a joke, but I didn't think you meant anything very specific by it?

oh nono

it was just to

cool everything down

or whatever you say it

Uhh cool everything down? Was that necessary? I was just joking...

By the way, I am looking for this song.

It is a duet by Mina and Adriano Celentano.

oh

3:02 PM

They do silly dances.

Can't remember the title.

you want to know the title?

uhm

Yes?

Remember any part of the song? like words

Hmm no.

I admit I don't know their songs lol :D but if I can help

3:03 PM

The video is in black and white.

Oh OK.

this one?

I remember some part of the melody, but no words: I'm extremely bad at remembering song texts.

Nope.

But thanks for looking.

I know that one very well, and it's great too.

They dance here

3:05 PM

Yes!

That's it.

Thanks.

No prob

xD

It's 50$

it

ops I deleted

lmao, I ruined my own joke

But where is @Reg? He used to be here a lot more

OK give me your address and bank account number.

Hmm I don't know where he is.

ahah

@Cerberus were you in the Linguistics SE too?

I can only understand half of that song, but that's enough to like it. And I just like M and A C.

@Alenanno Yes.

You can understand italian?

3:10 PM

I can read a newspaper or academic article (probably the easiest genres to understand) with some effort, but a real novel is probably too hard. Listen is also harder than reading.

Your Italian is definitely better than my Dutch lol

Heh.

Do you read German?

If it's not too complicated, I can understand what it's about more or less

depends on the level

Dutch is somewhere in between German and English.

Goede dag!

Any idea?

Yes yes

:D

what about "my name is"?

3:12 PM

Mijn naam is x.

do you have any "I'm called..." expression?

But you would normally say "ik heet x", "ich heiß x".

oh

It's SVO, right?

@Alenanno Yes, but that is unusual, used in special circumstances only.

@Alenanno Yes.

It's quite close to its Germanic neighbours.

Ik kan je niet horen.

I can't hear you?

3:14 PM

Yes!

See? It's easy.

De school van Aristoteles heette de Peripatetische School.

heette is "to be called" but what tense?

Simple past.

Do you have (the horrible) grammatical cases?

Nope.

Only in archaic expressions.

Good.

3:17 PM

And they aren't horrible, they are cool!

Ahah they kill the passion for learning a language

"Great language! Oh, it has cases... Ok, let's move on."

Well, you can just ignore them when you're starting.

Many Germans often don't use then correctly either.

So I have been told.

I studied Russian for 2 years

and they were a bit annoying

Hehe.

but well, I'm kind of joking, I mean, I like it when languages have their peculiarities

but once I decided

3:19 PM

Sure.

to study Finnish

Latin and Greek have cases too.

You know how many cases do they have?

Oh dear, Finnish is so very different...

Finnish has 15 cases. If they add another one, they can cover every possible situation in real life

:P

3:20 PM

Then they won't even need words any more.

Ahah

Just case endings

Are you interested in any language at the moment?

English?

Finish learning italian so we can chat using that.

Hehe.

You already know English

I mean something new

3:22 PM

I'm not really learning Italian actively, but I do like it.

I'm still learning English, I don't know everything there is to know.

user image

I found this on my wall.

It is even more colourful in real.

Oh I understand but I mean, you're fluent... :D Is it light from the window?

Yeah it is the reflection of the sun against the windows of the houses opposite mine that is refracted somehow.

By the way, I find that Wikipedia articles on some subject that you know some stuff about are very easy to read in languages that you hardly know.

For example, I can understand quite a bit of a Catalan or Galician or Lombard article.

Wikipedia FTW

:D

hi

but now that you mention it

3:27 PM

The mail service Americans have known for generations is losing billions of dollars a year, as handwritten communication has all but disappeared - replaced by emails, text messages, and social-media - and billing and other commercial transactions are increasingly conducted over the Internet.

I noticed it

I think

hello?

does anybody know the grammar structure of the sentence above?

Hi.

Which sentence? I see many...

@Kim Any word in particular?

3:28 PM

I 'm learning english on voa standard

Voa?

this one "The mail service Americans have known for generations is losing billions of dollars a year, as handwritten communication has all but disappeared - replaced by emails, text messages, and social-media - and billing and other commercial transactions are increasingly conducted over the Internet."

@Kim Which part of that sentence don't you understand?

@Cerberus voice of america

Ah.

All but = almost

As = because

(In this sentence.)

3:30 PM

Isn't "but" = except?

or something like that

Matt Эллен

not in this instance, but it can be

not in that instance either!

what 's the billing means

Matt Эллен

billing is the act of sending a bill

and why there are two "-" in that sentence

Matt Эллен

or requesting payment for a bill

as in "I shall be billing you for my services"

3:32 PM

That "–" is a parenthesis basically

@Matt got it.

@Kim To mark a part of the sentence that stands apart, that isn't part of the sentence structure.

I could do it in here too — by putting something in brackets, which is also parenthesis — without interrupting the flow of the main sentence.

@Cerberus i see. thanks.

user19161

@Alenanno Done.

Oh :)

user19161

3:38 PM

@Cerberus You shouldn't joke about it, it is hell.

OK.

@Jasper Why do you have Justin Bieber as your gravatar?

user19161

@Alenanno I like his songs.

Seriously?

user19161

@Alenanno Yes, everything I say is serious.

3:45 PM

Oh ok

I'll keep that in mind

user19161

@Alenanno It's OK, you don't have to be that serious.

I'm not that serious :D It was an acknowledgement

Hehe.

Anyone listens to rap music here?

Hmm not really.

Does anyone listen to Mina in Italy?

user19161

3:50 PM

Nope, only some pop and Italian opera.

Matt Эллен

@Alenanno not really

@Jasper lol... some listen to her, yes

but I can't really say the percentages... Mostly old generations I suppose

For example, I think she's a good singer, she has a nice voice, but I don't actively listen to her...

Do you know Ancora by Mina?

I really like it.

Maybe I heard the name

oh

a song

the title tells me little

let me search it

user19161

3:52 PM

Oh today is 10 years since Sept 11 attacks. Peace to the victims and their families and friends.

Is there a mobile client software to access this chatting room?

I think she was banned from television forever by the Church for that and other songs, because it was too sensual.

some android or iphone software?

@Kim I don't think so.

@Cerberus I think I heard it, but no, she went away by herself actually

3:53 PM

But the mobile version of the website should allow you to chat if you have a modern phone.

@Alenanno Oh... bummer.

@Cerberus Oh.. it' s slow to use a browser in mobile phone.

Depends on the phone

user19161

@Kim Never do that, you spoil your eyesight!

and on the internet connection

@Kim Yes, probably. My phone is too old for this chat anyway.

It's funny. My phone is 4 or 5 years old, and I can still browse any website easily that doesn't use Flash or anything too advanced.

3:56 PM

@Cerberus I was looking for that Mina thing, maybe it wasn't just like that... I'll let you know when I'm sure

There are various versions but well...

Well, gotta go offline, catch y'all later guys

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Sep '1111

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