English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

5:00 PM

And your AHK is probably a keylogger anyway.

Matt Эллен

@aediaλ only on a Tuesday

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I mean the thing that pops up all the time and makes it harder or impossible to do certain things. That thing is bad. I don't know what they call it, but to me it is the equivalent of the war on drugs and terrorists.

Robusto

@Cerberus — Whoa. Not given to nerd rage much, are you?

JSBᾶngs

@Cerberus "that thing" exists on every OS, including Mac and Linux.

Robusto

@JSBᾶngs Word.

JSBᾶngs

5:02 PM

you may see it a little more on Windows, just because MS is trying to maintain back-compat

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus it doesn't make anything impossible. It makes certain things harder by design. That's the whole point. To make certain things harder. It can be turned off, even.

JSBᾶngs

but honestly, i see the UAC prompt on Windows about as often as I see the sudo prompt on Ubuntu (since they're the same thing, essentially), and they bother me the same amount: not at all.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

The problem you're having, cerb, is that your automation solution needs a redesign for the modern era of computing. And the AHK guy doesn't seem to have tackled the problem. Also, some of your old programs may also be incorrectly designed. Just because it appears to work for you doesn't mean it was ever a good idea or safe. Heck, Microsoft has gone out of their way to make programs which are actually completely incorrect and broken but accidentally worked continue working.

Cerberus

@Robusto Sorry, I'm bored and waiting for my XP to install, and this seemed like a nice controversial tangent.

Robusto

@JSBᾶngs My only issue with it is when the modal window pops up on a phantom monitor because I've disconnected my laptop from it, but Windows 7 decides that it wants to use that one as the main monitor anyway EVEN THOUGH when that monitor is plugged in the modal covers both screens.

JSBᾶngs

5:05 PM

@Robusto can't say i've ever had the problem, but yes, that would be annoying

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto ooh, that'd be ANNOYING

Cerberus

@JSBᾶngs In any case it doesn't bother me on XP nearly as much as on 7.

Robusto

Yeah. And I'm wondering WTF happened.

JSBᾶngs

BTW, this is one of the better dailywtf articles in a while: thedailywtf.com/Articles/Terrorists!.aspx

Matt Эллен

@Robusto GIMP is the worst for that. For some reason it shows dialogues on a different screen to the one it's loaded

user19161

5:07 PM

0

Q: "more sincere than hypocrite"

In my self-evaluation, I want to convey the idea of I am a person down to earth and more sincere than hypocrite. But I am not sure if "more sincere than hypocrite" is awkward in pure language perspective? Also I don't want people to think that by "more sincere than hypocrite" I imply som...

word-choice

user19161

NARQ

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 You're probably right. But it is a pain in the ass. I tried selectively diabling it, but I think I had to disable the whole UAC to just get rid of the pop-ups I dislike so much.

Robusto

@WillHunting Not even an intelligible statement.

user19161

@JSBᾶngs You can turn off UAC I think.

Robusto

@JSBᾶngs Har!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

5:10 PM

@Cerberus Anyway, I strongly recommend that people do not disable UAC, and instead update or replace broken software that doesn't play nice with it. UAC is important, there for a reason, and you should almost never need to touch it or even see it.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I think you're focusing more on technicalities and abstractions than I do. I want a computer that does what I want; I don't want a new version to make it impossible to do the things I used to do; I don't want to have to learn all new interfaces and stuff if the old stuff works fine.

Matt Эллен

@JSBᾶngs it's a good 'un :)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I'm a developer and the only time I see UAC is when I update software, or when I need to flush my DNS cache (which shouldn't require UAC imo... dunno why that does)

Robusto

@Cerberus — Then it's confirmed: You can't teach an old dog new tricks!

3

Matt Эллен

bah dum tish!

JSBᾶngs

5:12 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 because the DNS cache is stored in kernelspace with the TCP stack

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus The thing is "having a computer" means so much more than it used to. If you're talking about just having a machine that does certain things, then fine. But once that machine is on the internet, it changes the whole equation. It took Microsoft years to figure it out.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Here we are back to the fundamental issue we talked about yesterday: I don't think "security" is nearly as important as ease of use, at least not for me. I think I'm safe enough and I know what I'm doing.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JSBᾶngs yes but clearing it shouldn't require UAC. I'm already a local admin.

MetaEd

Clearing the DNS cache should be a nonprivileged operation? Naah.

JSBᾶngs

@MrShinyandNew安宇 right, but your processes run under a non-admin token until you choose to elevate them

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

5:13 PM

@Cerberus you can have security AND usability, actually. Just not security, usability, and shitty software like AHK that doesn't play nice with the security software.

Cerberus

Of course I understand that Windows needs to grow and update, and it's fine that eventually it won't be in tune with old software any more. That's fine. What I do believe, however, is that it is often best for individual users to keep using old stuff and only switch when the new stuff has settled down.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JSBᾶngs fine, but here's the thing: the only way I know how to clear the DNS cache requires me to run an elevated command prompt. The attack surface of that is much higher than if clearing the DNS cache was an unprivileged operation.

@Cerberus It settled down years ago, when Vista was finally released.

Robusto

@Cerberus But Windows XP is like, ten years old. That's OVER 9000 in dog years.

JSBᾶngs

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Vista was iffy. Win7 was the good version.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JSBᾶngs yes but it settled the UAC issue. Vista wasn't that bad at all. And once it hit the market, developers whose apps required Admin rights no longer had any excuse for not updating their code so that their broken designs could work on new systems. And that was years ago.

Cerberus

5:19 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 The basic fact remains that I would have to change lots of things and dump some of them. If it ain't broken, why fix it?

@Robusto XP will be killed over my dead body!

Matt Эллен

for certain values of not broken

JSBᾶngs

@Cerberus xp is already dead. it's rotting right now in your necrotic embrace.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Broken as in unable to do the things I need.

Matt Эллен

I'm running XP right now

Cerberus

@JSBᾶngs Yeah, and it feels nice and warm.

Matt Эллен

5:21 PM

It's not rotting. You can still get OEM licenses for XP from MS

admittedly only for embedded systems

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Well, XP is broken. It can't keep itself secure for you. And it is dead. Lots of new software won't work on it. And it is soon to be unsupported even for security updates. And AHK is designed improperly, for a computing era which is no longer the current computing era.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Yay!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MattЭллен IE6 too?

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 None of that is as of yet relevant for my experience as a user. I don't notice any of those things on my computer. It just works.

Matt Эллен

@MrShinyandNew安宇 :D no

honestly, I'd prefer to be running Win 7

Cerberus

5:24 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Question: how often do you buy a new cell phone?

Matt Эллен

which is why I'm going home.

toodles

Cerberus

Bye!

Robusto

@Cerberus — I'm on my fourth in the past 3 years.

Cerberus

@Robusto Aww. Why?

Robusto

Because I always want something newer, better, faster.

Cerberus

5:26 PM

I'm using the phone my brother bought three phones ago, for him. It is from 2007 I think.

@Robusto See? I think that's behind it. And, as long as that makes you happy, fine.

By the way, my XP installation screen says "...with new innovative features, like a pop-up blocker...".

Hilarious.

Robusto

@Cerberus — Does it run on diesel or regular gasoline?

Cerberus

@Robusto Worse: Windows Mobile 6.0.

Robusto

@Cerberus — Ouch.

Cerberus

Which admittedly sucks big time. Always has. But I have installed so many programs you barely see the original menus anywhere. So it works fine.

Except that it is a bit unstable and slow, and has a smallish screen.

And there is much software that I would like to have but isn;t available. So I have good reasons to switch.

Robusto

@Cerberus — All of which are deal breakers for me.

Cerberus

5:30 PM

@Robusto Understandable.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I'd buy a new cell phone every year if I could easily do that. But in Canada there are various factors that make it uneconomical.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Don't you hate having to reconfigure it every year?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

If I wanted to pay $500+ each year and be constantly switching carriers I could get a new phone each year. Otherwise, I get a new one every 3 years, ish

aedia λ

@Cerberus About every two years, lately.

Cerberus

Apart of money.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

5:31 PM

@Cerberus my phone doesn't take much reconfiguration

aedia λ

I would get one every year if it weren't usually much cheaper to get two-year contracts.

Cerberus

@aediaλ Hmm that's still quite short.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

My old phones were pretty basic, they basically required me to input phone numbers. that's annoying, but it takes what, an hour or so?

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 No? I use lots of programs on it that need configuring, like Tomtom, my home screen, the behaviour of my lock screen, I don't know.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

My current phone stores all its important data on Google's mothership, so I could replace it with a new android phone and be up and running in the time it takes to download some apps.

Robusto

5:32 PM

@Cerberus My new smart phone (one for each of your heads):

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto image not found

Robusto

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Lies! I found it myself!

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yeah I have that too, and it makes a big difference. By the way, did you just copy the numbers by means of the sim card, in the era of black and white phones? I did.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus No, because we didn't have sim cards here in canada.

aedia λ

@Cerberus But I've only been through three phones that I paid for myself since I was out of college, I think. Before that I had a phone for for-ev-errrr that my parents helped me with, and before that, a giant brick of a cellphone that I had prepaid minutes for and it certainly couldn't text or anything.

Cerberus

5:34 PM

@Robusto We like!

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh! I had no idea. That must have been a pain.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Cell phones are a bit different than computers. For one thing, the platforms are not yet mature. For another thing, they are often tied to a phone network carrier, which has its own limitations.

@Cerberus Mobile networks in Canada are crappy. over priced and incompatible.

Cerberus

@aediaλ Hmm OK. I'm on my second phone now ever.

Robusto

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yeah. You really don't get all the benefits of a phone unless you root it.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Are they? Hmm OK, that complicates things. Can't you buy separate phones like here?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus 4th for me. But as the phones do more, and evolve faster, I find myself wanting new phones faster. In the old days, when all phones did was call, and text, I didn't care about upgrading. ring tones? who needs that rubbish.

Cerberus

5:36 PM

I feel the urge to upgrade phones more strongly too.

aedia λ

@Cerberus I've had two smartphones, which are a luxury. But the one before that, my first phone I bought on my own - it was probably free with joining the two-year contract. It's difficult to buy a phone here separate from a contract.

There are only some carriers that offer it, so it's not really the same situation.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus You mean, like, unlocked phones? There isn't a big market for that because the phones only work on one or two carriers anyway. so who cares if it's locked, unlocking it only works if you leave the country and take it to a compatible foreign carrier

Cerberus

And yet...my phone can still do basically anything I need, so I'm not really missing out on that much.

@aediaλ I bought my previous phone from Ebay, I think. You can buy anything there, without contract, obviously.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Huh? Phones don't work on all carriers? How do carriers even know what phone you're using?

I can just pop my SIM card into any phone that isn't locked, and there are ways to remove the lock.

Robusto

@Cerberus The same way a server knows what computer OS you're using.

Cerberus

You can just flash a new ROM.

aedia λ

5:40 PM

@Cerberus Yeah but here it's hard to get that phone connected to anything at a non-hideous price.

MetaEd

@Cerberus Hey ... keep it clean.

Cerberus

@Robusto It only knows because your browser's UAS tells it, right? User Agent String. Or whatever it's called, I thought it was that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus They use different radio network technologies. So they can't even HEAR the phones from other network types.

Cerberus

@aediaλ How do you mean? Can't you just hook it up to some cheap subscription?

aedia λ

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yeah that too. I forgot about that.

Cerberus

5:41 PM

@MetaEd Don't worry, phones love the sight.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh! Wow, that is weird. So they don't all use GSM and HDSP (...)?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus No. And even if they use a particular technology it might be on a different freq band and not all phones support all bands.

Tim

@Robusto Probably because you didn't even bother to understand.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 So Samsung has to make several different phones of the same type, for Canadian carriers?

Robusto

@Tim As you didn't bother to parse my statement as sarcasm, which it was.

Tim

@Robusto Wow, you still couldn't let that go?

Cerberus

5:48 PM

Hey, hey, Chill out.

Tim

@Cerberus I am cool

Robusto

@Tim You pinged me. I didn't ping you.

Cerberus

@Tim Good!

@Robusto You probably don't mean me.

MetaEd

Trying to decide whether to vote close this discussion as "exact duplicate", "off topic", "not constructive", "not a real question", or "too localized". It seems to fit all of them XD

Robusto

@Cerberus Correct.

Cerberus

5:50 PM

OK.

@MetaEd Which exactly?

The one about OSs?

MetaEd

Yes, that one.

Robusto

8

Q: What does humor-challenged mean?

When describing a person as humor-challenged, what does it mean?

meaning humor

Cerberus

I vote for exact duplicate and not constructive.

MetaEd

Just need three more votes.

Tim

@Robusto Yes I did. I don't see a problem with me. If you feel offended, I am sorry. Probably I can also say you don't see my sacarsm?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

5:51 PM

@Cerberus Yes, and not just Canadian carriers, US, Japanese, etc.

Cerberus

Weird.

Robusto

@Tim — I'm all set.

Cerberus

@MetaEd I voted thrice.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MetaEd I'll vote too, only, "General Reference".

Robusto

@Cerberus I didn't know you were from Chicago.

►

MetaEd

5:54 PM

Just need two votes.

Cerberus

"XP enhances your ability to share photos with your friends and family. You can easily transfer photos from your digital cameria to your My Pictures folder."

Just thought I'd share that funny quote with you.

Robusto

@Cerberus Ooh, I'm tingling all over. Where can I get such an advanced, helpful operating system?

aedia λ

@Cerberus There are prepaid carriers it might work with... it looks like T-mobile lets you activate an unlocked GSM phone, for example. But prepaid/pay-as-you go plans are seldom cheaper than the least expensive non-smartphone (voice/text) contracts here, either, I'd say.

Cerberus

@Robusto I know!!

@aediaλ Ugh. Well, mobile carriers form an ugly oligopoly here too.

They all suck.

Robusto

@Cerberus — Don't you mean duopoly or triopoly or tetrapoly? How can multiple carriers form a single monopoly?

MetaEd

5:57 PM

Well they can't very well form a multiple monopoly, can they?

XD

aedia λ

List of United States wireless communications service providers

List of United States wireless communications service providers (in alphabetical order). According to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), there are over 180 facilities-based wireless service providers in the United States. The top 8 wireless telecommunications service providers in the United States, from largest to smallest by the number of current subscribers, are * Verizon Wireless (106.3 million) * AT&T Mobility (97 million) * Sprint Nextel (51 million) * T-Mobile USA (34 million) * TracFone Wireless (17.75 million) *MetroPCS (9 million) * U.S. Cellular (6 ...

Cerberus

@Robusto Oops. I was going to type oligopoly but it didn't come out.

aedia λ

the tech list for voice and data networks

MetaEd

Oligopoly. That's a great word.

Robusto

There are basically three carriers in the U.S., with one little runt bringing up the rear. The rest are a rounding error, and will likely be gobbled up before long. In fact, AT&T tried to gobble up T-Mobile already.

Cerberus

6:00 PM

@aediaλ Oh, that's silly. I bet they did that on purpose.

@Robusto Yeah we have only three carriers with their own networks too.

T-Mobile, KPN, Vodafone.

Robusto

Cerberus

MetaEd

@Cerberus One side must be the Shih Tzu.

Cerberus

@MetaEd Just one side?

Robusto

@Cerberus See? This is why we can't have nice things.

Cerberus

6:04 PM

Is that the race?

@Robusto Yeah, I know.

MetaEd

@Cerberus Yeah, I figure it eats on one end and Shih Tzu the other.

Cerberus

@MetaEd Ah, haha, yes, I see.

I suppose each side calls the other that.

Meanwhile, XP is still busy installing.

I used the same CD on my laptop, and it didn't take nearly as long.

2.5 hours is too much.

The setup thing hasn't crashed, and yet the progress bar hasn't moved for ages.

Robusto

@Robusto It would be ironic if, 30 years after the government broke up AT&T for being a monopoly, we found ourselves in a world where AT&T had bought up everyone else and became a monopoly again.

Cerberus

Will they allow that?

aedia λ

Ma bell, très bien ensemble...

Cerberus

6:13 PM

Ehh...

aedia λ

►

Cerberus

I think he sings "Michelle ma belle, sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble."

aedia λ

Yes.

Cerberus

His pronunciation is terrible.

aedia λ

It was a joke about Ma Bell.

Cerberus

6:18 PM

Ahhh!

Nice.

I had no idea.

aedia λ

@Cerberus It's a good thing you never heard me banging on the piano singing this song when I was like 12. I never actually learned how to pronounce any of those words.

@Cerberus Not his song. My spelling.

Cerberus

@aediaλ But you would have been so cwuuute! pinch cheek

aedia λ

In case I wasn't obvious enough. :P

@Cerberus Aw wriggles away

Cerberus

@aediaλ Yeah that's how I interpreted it, though he might theoretically have referred to the phone company too...

aedia λ

I don't think so, but maybe he really loved her.

Cerberus

6:21 PM

@aediaλ Takes one stride to cross the room it took you a minute to get to the other side to.

@aediaλ Who doesn't love foreign monopolists!

Matt Эллен

I don't recall having affection for them

Robusto

@Cerberus When is pronunciation ever relevant to how a song is sung?

Cerberus

How quaint.

@Robusto Never.

Robusto

Then quit criticizing Mr. McCartney for imagined failings. Instead, note that he painted a HUGE target on his ass with Silly Love Song and Ebony & Ivory.

Cerberus

Ehhh noted.

Robusto

6:24 PM

Also, Mahlzeit.

Cerberus

Still it is remarkable how even the most venerable, learned Brits sometimes have a horrible pronunciation of foreign languages.

Bai.

user19161

6:37 PM

@Tim Relax! Have a Kit Kat.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus why is that remarkable?

user19161

I find Kit Kats very useful in this room. I've used it several times to help people relax.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@WillHunting You've used Kit to relax?

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 She will say I'm too far away to be of use.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I would expect them to have a decent accent.

user19161

6:42 PM

Actually I have not had a Kit Kat myself for very long. I should go get some from the supermarket.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus You expect people to pronounce foreign languages properly? I think most people anywhere, even if well educated, can't.

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 That's why they are called foreign.

aedia λ

Seeing this answer reminds me of some other question about recursive or infinitely expanding or live-in-the-house-that-jack-built phrases or something like that...

2

A: "to like the idea of being able to avoid having to understand something"

Some sentence structures are recursive, so they could in theory be extended forever: The fascinating witches who put the scintilating stitches in the breeches of the boys who put the powder on the noses on the faces of the ladies of the harem of the court of King Caractacus, were jus...

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Not perfectly, of course, but not horribly either. England is really much worse than the other Germanic countries, in my experience.

user19161

@aediaλ A bit difficult to parse.

aedia λ

6:45 PM

But I can't come up with it by searching for things like recursive or expanding or anything. Anyone able to read my mind?

@WillHunting The question is kinda confusing.

Cerberus

Sorry, I suck at searching.

aedia λ

I'm not sure it's a dupe or anything, but I wish I could find it anyway.

@Cerberus Aww. Three heads aren't better than one at it?

Cerberus

No, they start snapping at each other.

Not a pretty sight.

Remember the bloody snowmen?

user19161

Speaking of chocolate, I like Ferrero Rocher, or whatever it is spelled.

aedia λ

@Cerberus Oh dear, yes!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

6:47 PM

@Cerberus I think it may be a function of bilingualism, and the necessity for bilingualism, and how English, being such a dominant language, allows English speakers to get by without being at all bilingual.

aedia λ

@WillHunting With the hazelnuts in?

user19161

@Cerberus Speaking of snowmen I think the one in chat is gone.

Cerberus

Oh, yes.

user19161

@aediaλ Yes! Or whatever nut that is.

aedia λ

@WillHunting Oh noes you're right!

sad face

user19161

6:48 PM

@aediaλ I'm ALWAYS right.

aedia λ

giggles Sure, sure.

user19161

Good, good.

MetaEd

7:10 PM

A snowball doesn't stand a chance in here.

Cerberus

Because we're so hot?

MetaEd

That's it.

Hella hot.

Cerberus

You speak the truth.

Or, rather, Hada hot!

user19161

@cerb How was the outing that night? I guess it went well?

Cerberus

@WillHunting When do you mean?

user19161

7:12 PM

@Cerberus Er, you mentioned to Kit.

Cerberus

@WillHunting You mean last Friday, perhaps? I didn't go.

On Saturday I just went to a dinner part in the Hague, nothing more exotic.

user19161

@Cerberus Interestingly that could be interpreted to mean it was very exotic or not exotic at all!

Cerberus

Really? How can it mean anything other than "[it was] nothing more exotic [than a dinner party]"?

Or is a dinner party exotic?

Matt Эллен

depends on how exotic your dinner parties are

user19161

@Cerberus It is so exotic that nothing can beat it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:17 PM

@Cerberus Depends on how exotic the Hague is

Cerberus

I suppose Jasper would know, as a man of the east...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Btw this video explains soooo much:

►

user19161

@Cerberus Er, I am more like a man not of this world.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Ah! It is always the Society of Jesus, always.

Fascinating.

@WillHunting Lies!

user19161

@Cerberus I noted fascinating is one of your favourite adjectives.

Cerberus

7:21 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I don't think she's for real, is she?

@WillHunting Thanks, but I prefer to call it a participle.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I can't tell

Cerberus

Her other videos are claiming that Jesuits stole 20 percentage points of Putin's votes.

I really think she is joking.

In case you feel like bashing me, you should know my XP installation bar is stuck below the n in "Installing Network" for the second time.

The second n.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Windows XP is its own reward, you know.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I suppose looking at the installation screen for the past four hours is a rewarding experience, but...

Is my cd player or my hard drive broken?

It's really weird.

user19161

13

Q: How to say that food is hot (temperature) without the listener thinking that I mean "spicy"?

There is an excellent discussion of spicy vs. hot here: Difference between "spicy" and "hot" However, having read the previous question, I did not see any answer that tells how to say anambiguously that food is hot (temperature) without being misunderstood. If I say that my ...

single-word-requests idioms phrase-requests

user19161

7:26 PM

Destined for multicollider.

Cerberus

The first time it worked but it finished overnight, so I don't know how long it took (probably very long as well).

user19161

@Cerberus Oh dear, four hours...

Cerberus

In Dutch, "warm" is the preferred term.

user19161

In Chinese they are definitely different.

Cerberus

@WillHunting I know! When I installed the same cd on my laptop, it took maybe 45 minutes.

user19161

7:28 PM

@Cerberus Your desktop is very old?

Cerberus

Nope.

Far newer than my laptop.

user19161

Then how come the difference?

Cerberus

I have no idea!

It is terrible.

Perhaps my cd player or hard drive are broken in some way that normally isn't noticeable.

user19161

5

Q: What does "the darkest of nights" mean?

Over at german.se we have a question involving "the darkest of nights". I would like to know what this expression actually means, but I didn't find it in an online dictionary (e.g. leo.org, dict.cc, Cambridge Dictionary). So what does this expression mean? Is it a figure of speech? I can imagine...

meaning expressions

user19161

Surprised it has 6 answers.

user19161

7:31 PM

@Cerberus It is possible that the optical disc drive is damaged or the disc got dirty.

user19161

You will be surprised. Sometimes it just takes a simple tissue cleaning to solve the problem.

Cerberus

@WillHunting Hmm but I've kept it in a clean, safe place all the time?

user19161

@Cerberus It just takes a fingerprint to dirty it.

Cerberus

Besides, would that make it extremely slow to read, but not fail? The installation succeeded last night.

user19161

@Cerberus I am no expert but I would think a fingerprint could affect the reading.

Cerberus

7:34 PM

@WillHunting I've never had problems with fingerprinted cds before, and the one I installed last night was a different disc, a dvd even, same problem. I burned that dvd yesterday.

user19161

So after cleaning handle it carefully.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

could be your DVD reader is failing

Cerberus

I really don't think that's it...

user19161

Also note that some drives can read CDs but not DVDs as another issue.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yes, that could be it.

But last time I installed a game, the dvd reader worked fine.

user19161

7:36 PM

So if you put a DVD into a CD drive, it could show something and pretend it is working.

Cerberus

@WillHunting No, mine can do it all. I have burned and installed Windows from it before.

Though the last time I did all of that together was years ago.

Tim

@WillHunting Thanks! If you mean chocholate, I don't have money for them.

user19161

@Tim Oh, I was giving you virtual chocolate in this room.

user19161

1

Q: When do we use 'revision' as a countable noun?

'Revision' might be countable or uncountable. I am a little bit confused.

uncountable-nouns

user19161

This is hard to answer.

Tim

7:41 PM

@WillHunting Okay, thanks! What does "NARQ" really mean?

user19161

@Tim It means Not a real question. It's one of the closing options you choose from.

Tim

I didn't choose to close my question.

user19161

@Tim I know. You see it when you reach 3k.

Mitch

@Tim Hi Tim...your questions in comments and sincerity are better answered here...

Tim

@WillHunting It doesn't matter to me. I am not the closing-type of person

@Mitch Thanks. So what would you say regarding Jay's comment?

user19161

7:44 PM

@Tim Closing and downvoting are not a bad thing. It's just part of how the site works. I received many downvotes myself you know.

Tim

@WillHunting Well, I certainly wish to forget them as quickly as I can. There are more important things for me to worry about. And I know some people are not always bearing good intention.

Mitch

@Tim about closing (not about the comments)... the question is a bit vague, and it has the flavor of copy-editing (asking to have a phrase you are writing commented on or fixed). Questions here are better if they are somewhat factual. That's the direction I took my answer.

Tim

@Mitch Thanks! (1) "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" instead of "Convicted? No, never convicted. No." what would you reply? (2) "making a claim like 'I am sincere' alone is self-negating." So is " I am down-to-earth and genuine"?

Mitch

@Tim Re Jay's comment: 'I am not a crook' is a famous statement by former US President Nixon during the Watergate scandal...He was trying to assert that he was not involved in criminal activities (that really were committed by others and he was only remotely connected with).

But his saying that out loud, that he is not a criminal, sounds like he is trying to convince you of that fact, and that (by association, by mentioning a word with bad associations, makes people think of that bad thing, and that if there was no suspicion before, there certainly is one now.

'I did not eat that cookie'. What cookie? I had never thought it before but now I do.

Tim

@Mitch Okay, I admit I don't quite get it. Is 'I did not eat that cookie' implying now I want to eat it?

Mitch

7:54 PM

to 'felony': (1) by 'never convicted. No' it sounds like he is affirming it is not that particular thing (conviction) associated with the felony crime, but by saying so much leads one to think that maybe there was some other qword than 'convicted' that is associated. (like 'arrested' or 'indicted' or 'abetted')

Cerberus

Hi!

Just as Clinton probably had his own little definition of "sexual relations", or what was the word.

user19161

@Cerberus So still installing?

Mitch

@Tim 'I did not eat that cookie' is on the surface a statement that I did not eat that cookie (yes that seems like a pretty empty statement)..but what it leads others to think is that maybe I'm denying it, maybe I stole it but haven't eaten it yet, maybe I saw who did it but won't tell, etc...Words mean things on the surace but we all draw inferences from prior situations, real or imagined.

@Cerberus Yes, exxactly, CLinton, but I couldn't remember the actual quotes. I think 'cookie' is what the kids call it these days.

Cerberus

@WillHunting Yup, it's still below the n. So I either try the dvd again, which was slow but would at least finish eventually, or I download another version of XP.

user19161

@Cerberus I did not know you can download XP, shh...

Cerberus

7:58 PM

@Mitch Hmm that sounds equally enticing...

You can download anything.

Tim

@Mitch Thanks! I admit I am shocked at how far people can think. (1) What is a "qword"? (2) Why is sincerity the quality of a speech act, while down-to-earth and genuine aren't?

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…