English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Brandon Damante

12:01 AM

Idk I don't delve into the world of literature, rather C programming. Wow, I just sounded like a nerd.

David Wallace

A little. But you wouldn't be the only programmer to come to this chat room today.

Brandon Damante

Captain?

And thanks for agreeing with me LOL

David Wallace

Captain has posted some good answers about C++ on SO, so presumably they are a programmer by profession, even if they don't claim so explicitly.

Brandon Damante

I know im not, but hey, maybe some day...

David Wallace

People who sound like nerds get better jobs than people who sound like jocks. Survive high school and the world is your oyster.

The word "nerd" does not exist in the vocabulary of anyone over 18.

Brandon Damante

12:05 AM

YES thank you for that quote. Us nerds will rule the world

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Well, Kant probably agreed with that.

Brandon Damante

True, true

David Wallace

@Cerberus Any sane person would lie. Obviously. Unless they felt that they would be unable to lie convincingly. I suppose I should seek professional help for that too?

Cerberus

Heh, you do not need to.

But, yes, most people would disagree with Kant.

Remember, the question is not about what is reasonable, but WWKD?

David Wallace

@Cerberus I was a little surprised by the remark in question.

Cerberus

12:09 AM

Which remark?

David Wallace

@Cerberus There's only one person who can answer that, and he probably wouldn't answer truthfully.

Brandon Damante

Wellllll, ummm, I like Margaret Peterson Haddix...

How's that for literature

Cerberus

Lie!? He would never!

David Wallace

@BrandonDamante Never heard of her, sorry.

Brandon Damante

She's a teen writer. im 13

David Wallace

12:12 AM

She's a teen who writes? Or a writer who writes for teens? Or both?

Brandon Damante

She writes for teens

Cerberus

David Wallace

That could well explain why I haven't encountered her. Any particular genre or style? Something my 11-year-old son might enjoy?

Cerberus

From a game.

Brandon Damante

@DavidWallace Action, Suspense

David Wallace

12:14 AM

@Cerberus I've asked you before not to post evidence of your drunken rampages here in this chat room.

Cerberus

Well, it was fun.

I don't remember how I ended up there.

David Wallace

I'm more interested in how you managed to get home again.

Brandon Damante

Waiiiiiitt what are we talking about?

I just switched from Stack Overflow to here and Im so confuzzled

Cerberus

The doll-witch carried me home.

David Wallace

Cerberus, how do you pronounce "Kantian"? I imagine it rhyming with "luncheon".

Cerberus

12:17 AM

I had her fetish under my control.

@DavidWallace I would pronounce the t.

Brandon Damante

Ohhhhhhhhhh thats..... ummm..... so, how bout them Yankees???

David Wallace

@Cerberus Well, that was lucky.

Cerberus

/'kæn.tɪ.ən/

That's how I would pronounce it.

But then, who am I.

David Wallace

No way! Not with an /æ/. What sort of Dutchman are you?

Cerberus

It's an English word!

David Wallace

12:19 AM

For me, Kant rhymes with punt.

It's the only correct way to say it.

No matter how many eyebrows it raises.

Cerberus

Haha.

Where ever did you get that pronunciation?

If it were simply obscene, à la; but it's just wrong!

David Wallace

I Kant tell you.

Cerberus

/kɑnt/ I could understand.

David Wallace

How do you think I say "punt"? Do I need to make you a recording?

Cerberus

I think you pronounce it like cunt, right?

David Wallace

12:21 AM

How is /kʌnt/ wrong?

Cerberus

dictionary.reference.com/browse/kant

I don't understand why you would choose /ʌ/.

Words with German a are normally not pornounced /ʌ/, so why now?

David Wallace

Hmm, Wikipedia says [ɪˈmaːnu̯eːl ˈkant]

Umm, does that look right? It turned into squares for me.

Cerberus

That's the German pronunciation.

It looks right to me.

David Wallace

So, that's the same as "can't" right?

Unless you're North American.

@Cerberus In that case, I have been mispronouncing all sorts of German words.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Not exactly, but somewhat similar.

howjsay.com/index.php?word=kantian

Here you can hear English kantian.

@DavidWallace Well, /ʌ/ and /a/ are not that different.

David Wallace

12:26 AM

I'm trying to think whether I have a minimal pair for them in my speech.

Cerberus

Probably not.

David Wallace

See, for me, the difference between "bud" and "bard" is only length, not what the vowel is.

Cerberus

You know, /ʌ/ and /a/ sound almost identical to Germans and me.

David Wallace

Or maybe there's a very slight difference between the centre of "bud" and the centre of "bard", but they certainly overlap greatly.

Cerberus

Yeah.

David Wallace

12:28 AM

Or "cut" and "cart".

"hut" and "heart".

Cerberus

Those sound more different to me than German Kant and English cunt.

David Wallace

In cart/heart/bard I guess I've got more time to open my mouth, so it end up being a slightly more open sound.

Cerberus

I can barely hear the difference between those ^ two.

But, in English, I just always hear the English pronunciation, so /æ/, as with most foreign words in English.

David Wallace

I guess for me, "can't" and "c**t" differ only by length too. So I guess I just need to make Kant longer, to stop him sounding like /kʌnt/.

How do you pronounce Torontian?

Or do you say Torontonian?

Cerberus

I would say ɑ and ʌ are different in English not only in length.

I...have never heard that word. I would probably say Toront-i-an, but perhaps most people would say Toronchan?

I don't know.

David Wallace

12:34 AM

No, the more I think about it, the more I think Torontonian is correct. I need to think of a different example. I'm sure there's a T->CH change associated with the -ian suffix for SOME place name.

Cerberus

Oh, I am sure.

But I would not expect it with foreign names.

David Wallace

Yeah, fair enough.

And it occurred to me that the change from /a/ to /æ/ that we English speakers make is quite normal. See, if I say the name of your fine city, it would rhyme with "hamster jam" - and I'm sure that's not how YOU would say it.

Cerberus

Indeed.

/æ/ is very common in RP.

David Wallace

Which, of course, is precisely what I speak!

Cerberus

I know!

Even though the Amerricans overuse the sound, it is nothing to be ashamed of in itself!

David Wallace

12:44 AM

Oh, it has its place.

My wife has difficulty with it.

She does not distinguish "had" from "head", or "bad" from "bed". And don't you dare ask her if you can pat our pet.

I need to disappear for a while. See you later.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Haha, yes.

I must say both the a in bad and the e in bed sound like kinds of "e" to me.

Just different kinds of e.

I believe I correctly use both vowels, but there is an underlying confusion.

tchrist

@Mitch Why did you change the title?

Mitch

I didn't I just approved it.

tchrist

Same diff.

Mitch

I approved it because that's that the OP meant.

tchrist

12:52 AM

I don’t think so.

They meant want, which is what they were asking about.

Mitch

OK. It's what the OP should have written.

tchrist

Sure.

But they didn’t, which was the entire point of the question.

Mitch

they were asking about something that sounds like 'want' which turns out to be 'wont'

tchrist

It no longer makes sense.

Cerberus

It will be easier to find for other people if the title is kept as "want".

People like the OP.

tchrist

12:55 AM

I think so, too.

Mitch

I will change it back.

but...

how did you know I did it? I can't see my name on it.

also, how do you rollback? I don't see the link for that.

tchrist

I am perceptive in that way.

Mitch

OK. I found the rollback thingy and did it.

tchrist

I clicked the suggested-by-Community link.

Mitch

Also, I vote for 'thingy' to be a word.

tchrist

12:58 AM

There’s a vote?

Mitch

Yes. I just did.

tchrist

There are two thingies.

One is a noun, the other an adjective.

Mitch

So you did a 'who the hell allowed that crazy edit in? oh, that guy.' ?

tchrist

Ayup.

Mitch

@tchrist really?

tchrist

12:59 AM

@Mitch Certs.

Mitch

Well, I'm doing this with one hand while eating.

on a phone.

tchrist

TMI

thingy /ˈθɪŋɪ/, a.
Etymology: -y1.
a. Having the nature or character of a thing; real, actual, objective, substantial; in quot. 1894, ? consisting of separate, independent, or unconnected things. b. Devoting oneself to or concerned with actual things, practical, matter-of-fact.
So thinginess /ˈθɪŋɪnɪs/, the quality of being thingy; (a).reality, actuality, objectivity; (b).devotion to things, practical or matter-of-fact character.

1894 M. Schuyler in Forum (N.Y.) July 617 ― The government buildings have become more and more ‘thingy’, more and more compilations of ‘features’ that fail to make up a physiognomy.

1976 New Yorker 15 Mar. 118/2 ― The very thinginess of the contemporary city life in the film shows-the fast cars, the unobtrusive chic, the small cafes-seems to deprive us of any illumination.
1982 T. Gunn Occasions of Poetry i. 22 ― He was in love with the bare fact of the external world, its thinginess.

thingy /ˈθɪŋɪ/, sb. Also thingie, (occas. -ee).
Etymology: -y6, dim. suff.; cf. -ie.
1. Sc. A little thing.
1888 Barrie When a Man’s Single (1900) 11/2 ― A speerity bit thingy she was.
2. = thing sb.1 (in various senses); cf. thingummy. colloq.
1933 Green & Stept (song-title) ― Swingy little thingy.
1968 M. Richler Cocksure v. 32 ― It was going to be the rage. A thingee. Like TW3.
1977 Spare Rib June 26/3 ― Then there are those women who make men wear things on their thingies.
1981 J. Barnett Firing Squad xiii. 184 ― We don’t do crime here··. Contracts, copyright, companies floated, that’s…

Thingy is not just one word. Thingy is two words.

I don’t know that I’ve used thinginess, but thingy, yes.

Mitch

I'm looking at the 'adjective' entry

tchrist

It’s been reified.

Mitch

many of them are actually obviously -not- adjectives, obviously nouns in a noun position

and others look to me like attributive nouns.

tchrist

1:04 AM

Which one?

Mitch

With al due respect, I think the OED has a lot of ... problems.

tchrist

> The government buildings have become more and more ‘thingy’, more and more compilations of ‘features’ that fail to make up a physiognomy.

That’s pretty adjectival.

Mitch

" highly ‘thingy’ texts" attributve noun.

tchrist

Do you really think so?

Mitch

wrongly labeled as anadjective:"We are not to dwell upon either the ‘thingy’ or the associative nature of the words". I read that as a noun. not as a modifier of 'nature'.

@tchrist yes rereading some of them are definitely adjectival.

@tchrist yeah, I do. I would never use it adjectivally (pronunciation?)

anyway I'm glad to see that my vote worked so quickly. cripes they'll put anything in the OED.

tchrist

1:09 AM

@Mitch Why of course:

anything /ˈɛnɪθɪŋ/, pron., sb., adv.
1. pron. a. A combination of any and thing, in the widest sense of the latter, with all the varieties of sense belonging to any a. Orig. always separated; separation now usually denotes stress upon thing, as ‘any thing, but not any person.’

Mitch

I used to have a list of words not in the dictionary that should be in the dictionary.

Then when I started to find them there, it was very disappointing.

tchrist

You should scan the quarterly updates.

Mitch

@tchrist yep anything is in there.

tchrist

@Cerb I never thought of how any is pronounced with an /ɛ/.

What’s with the barrage of lamissimo questions all of a suddenlike?

Cerberus

@tchrist Yeah, I always find this confusing when I think about it consciously.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:24 AM

It fills me with despair that I get more rep out of a single rep-whoring answer than I do for any thoughtful, researched answer.

4

Cerberus

(Reg isn't here, so...)

tchrist

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 This happens to me constantly.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:39 AM

@Cerberus That's a good one. I've been there many times.

It was so refreshing when I used to work in computer repair and we had a direct phone line to the mfr's 2nd or 3rd level support people, who could just speak plainly to us.

@tchrist I was just looking at my highest-voted answers and some of them are so trivial.

tchrist

This needs one more close vote:

0

Q: Interview, Of....Said

In magazines, when authors interview people, if they want to simply quote interviewees' answers to some topics instead of writing a full article, they tend to use this format: On his (interviewee's) work: "........" On family: "......." On school: "......" which is a short hand fo...

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I understand!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@tchrist Nortonn S again, eh?

tchrist

Daily.

Once we get his stuff closed, it can get on the delete wagon.

A lot of my old close votes have evaporated on his, and I can’t re-closevote. Sigh.

But delete votes don’t evaporate, so it is important to get him closed, as those expire.

Thanks.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:02 AM

no problem

Cerberus

2:24 AM

You know what I dislike?

When people use metrics to mean "figures" or "data" or something similar.

It seems to be a vogue word.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

it isn't just any data though. it is meant to be used for things that are measured, particularly when assessing business practice.

Cerberus

How about figures, then?

What also annoys me is disrupt.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus "figures" is just numbers, right? metrics are measured. The accounting sheet has figures on it.

Cerberus

It is the new buzz word that has come instead of innovate, which had become meaningless.

Are metrics always truly measured?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Nah, disrupting is very different than innovating.

@Cerberus well, ideally

Cerberus

2:27 AM

If they are measured in a way that does not apply to data or figures, then I'm OK with metrics.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Like, the iphone can be said to be disruptive. Same with the iPad. Those devices redefined computing. Innovation helped make them, and there have been innovations since then, but, eg, Android has not been as disruptive as iphone.

Cerberus

I have no idea how the Iphone was "disruptive".

If it was, then the word has become meaningless too.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus No, data is a broader term. You can measure things in a science lab and get data. But you can't get metrics there. It's a business word. You get metrics about your business processes or the quality of your product.

@Cerberus Seriously? It has led the way for a very large shift in computing.

Cerberus

Why can't get get data and figures about your business processes? Business words are usually crap, so you haven't exactly helped the defence, hehe.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Prior to the iPhone a smartphone was anything that ran JavaME, or had a shitty WAP browser. Now, a smartphone is a small computer with a touch screen that incidentally makes calls, with an app store and a huge developer ecosystem that arose practically overnight.

Cerberus

2:30 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Then what does "disruptive" mean to you beyond "successful"?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus The Galaxy S3 is successful. But it hasn't disrupted anything.

Cerberus

Definition?

To me, modern smartphones are not that much different from, say, my old Windows Mobile, except that they are faster and better designed. But I could do roughly the same things with them.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

It upsets the balance of whatever was there before. What does "disruptive" normally mean to you? The PC was disruptive. The tablet computer is the next disruption. The shift to mobile. Spearheaded by the iphone.

Cerberus

I would never use the word "disruptive" in that way. It sounds newfangled. I bet you would never find it used in that context before, say, 5 years ago.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Except that the old Windows Mobile phone which was not well designed was also, worldwide, not that popular or successful. It did not lead to a huge shift in how business is being done, how games are being monetized, how apps are sold, or where applications run (i.e. on phones/tablets vs PCs)

Cerberus

2:32 AM

Upsets the balance? That is very vague.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Well, I have heard it since the 90s

@Cerberus Please post your favourite definition of "disrupt"

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 So "successful" is the key?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

or "disruptive"

@Cerberus No. Successful is maybe necessary but not sufficient.

Cerberus

Then what else is needed?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

a change in how things are done, on a large scale.

Prior to the iPhone I had never heard of an app store and I bet most people hadn't either.

Phones came with apps.

they didn't have a store where you could get more.

The iPhone and its associated store changed all that

Among other things.

Once Apple proved the concept, everyone else had to follow suit.

Cerberus

2:35 AM

Everyone on Windows Mobile, including myself, installed countless programs. How is having an "app store" important?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Because it changes all the rules of the software industry.

Now there are gatekeepers for getting apps onto devices.

Now there is a single choke point of money.

Cerberus

How?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Now there are well defined ways to install and deliver and update the apps.

There are new rules for how you can sell the app.

There are new incentives for creating an app, on account of having a unified marketplace.

There are new limitations.

Cerberus

Many people use applications that aren't in these app stores.

Like the very popular Swype.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Most people who use swype get it pre-installed with their devices. It's popular because it's pre-installed.

Cerberus

2:37 AM

So why is "new and successful" not a more specific and fitting term to describe what you mean?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus "Many", sure, but I am very sure that most apps everywhere come from the devices's native store.

@Cerberus Because of the disruption!

People are making tablet apps now instead of PCs. Hell, they're making tablet apps instead of websites!

Lots of products are successful but in no way disruptive.

Cerberus

What or who was "broken or burst asunder"?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Like Windows 7.

@Cerberus What are you talking about

Cerberus

The definition of "disrupt".

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

That is the definition for "rupture".

I prefer these defintions: google.ca/…

> Interrupt (an event, activity, or process) by causing a disturbance or problem

> Drastically alter or destroy the structure of (something)

Cerberus

2:41 AM

It seems to me this vogue use of "disrupt" uses only one conventional characteristic of the word disrupt, namely "something is greatly changed", but it does not use "damaged or turned into chaos", which seems to me the second essential part of the word; secondly, it is more than "greatly changed": the unrelated element of "success, popularity" is added to the word as well. It doesn't resemble the true sense of the word that much any more.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

The switch to mobile computing is disruptive in the computer industry. Computing on phones, computing on touch screens, selling apps in stores, selling apps for pennies and then monetizing on in-app purchases, app ecosystems with built-in delivery and payment and DRM etc, all of that is disruptive.

David Wallace

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Cellphones have always been disruptive.

tchrist

Disruptive innovation

{| border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width:250px;" class="infobox" |- ! style="background:#ddd;" | Types of Innovation |- | ;Sustaining: An innovation that does not affect existing markets. :;Evolutionary: An innovation that improves a product in an existing market in ways that customers are expecting. (E.g., fuel injection) :;Revolutionary (discontinuous, radical): An innovation that is unexpected, but nevertheless does not affect existing markets. (E.g., the automobile) ;Disruptive: An innovation that creates a new market by applying a different set of values, which ul...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I don't think the word "disrupt" requires the sense of "damaging"

tchrist

Well, that certainly isn’t useful.

Cerberus

2:43 AM

Thirdly, it shifts focus from the object of disruption, which normally has focus, to the subject, as if disruption were all about the agent!

tchrist

A disruptive innovation is an innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades), displacing an earlier technology.
The term is used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically first by designing for a different set of consumers in the new market and later by lowering prices in the existing market.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 "Or causing chaos".

It means more than "change".

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Well, "chaos" is a good metaphor for the computer industry when it comes to mobile.

Cerberus

@tchrist Right, "in business", there you go: a buzz word.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I think it is greatly exaggerated.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus That's nice. You don't work in the industry, so your opinion is somewhat uninformed, I think.

Cerberus

2:45 AM

People still use and buy PCs; sales just don't rise as quickly an more as they used to.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus The iPad is the number one best selling PC right now.

Cerberus

I don't consider an Ipad a PC.

David Wallace

Is it impersonal? Or not a computer?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

That alone, on account of it being a completely separate platform from basically everything else that existed before it, is enough to make it somewhat disruptive. If you want a piece of that market, you need to start from scratch.

Cerberus

David Wallace

2:47 AM

@Cerberus Seems a little meaningless to me.

Cerberus

Why?

It shows that PC sales don't suffer from the rise of phones and tablets and faplets too much.

static4.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4a8ede0d8dc2c8314f7a3932

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus That chart is somewhat pointless since it doesn't indicate what it counts as a PC, and if it excludes tablets, what their corresponding numbers are; also it needs to correct for economic factors such as the recession of '08

David Wallace

There are a million possible reasons for that little hiccup. It's like using an NGram to prove that more people say "a" than "an".

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I don't think it shows that at all.

David Wallace

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Nobody forces you to post rep-w**ring answers :-)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:50 AM

@DavidWallace The system does: otherwise I get no rep and people who know shite about English get lots.

tchrist

-1

A: Is “the girls are want to gossip” correct?

The problem is not with 'want', but with 'are'. If you replace 'are' with 'all' the sentence is correct. The correct English would be: The girls in the office all want to gossip. As to your question "Does anyone have a reference citing this use?". Well, is a common office thing to gossip an...

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Well, perhaps that chart was not very clear.

tchrist

I think he has misunderstood.

Cerberus

So do you claim that PC sales have dropped a great deal since the Iphone, say, at least 30 %?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So if you believe Apple's numbers in that slide, they have, for the quarter in question, the single-most popular model of "computer" out there. And theirs is radically different than the rest.

Cerberus

2:51 AM

So?

See, you are again solely focusing on the subject of this supposed disruption.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus So the fact that it's radically different AND successful means it disrupts the industry.

Cerberus

I am saying this is part of the problem: focus should lie on the object.

David Wallace

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Graphs are always more convincing with a photo of an earnest little man in front.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@DavidWallace I'm going to include him in all my graphs from now on.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Okay, and don't you feel that is somewhat different from what the word "disruptive" normally emphasises?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:52 AM

@Cerberus So you're saying we should say "The market was disrupted" and not "the ipad disrupted the market?"

David Wallace

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Oh, don't do that. It means I shall have to find a different earnest little man for my own graphs.

Cerberus

No, I am saying the word is very suspect as a vogue/business word, for the reasons I mentioned.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus No! I am saying that in the sense of "unexpected change, disturbance, interruption", the word is perfectly used.

Cerberus

12 mins ago, by Cerberus

It seems to me this vogue use of "disrupt" uses only one conventional characteristic of the word disrupt, namely "something is greatly changed", but it does not use "damaged or turned into chaos", which seems to me the second essential part of the word; secondly, it is more than "greatly changed": the unrelated element of "success, popularity" is added to the word as well. It doesn't resemble the true sense of the word that much any more.

10 mins ago, by Cerberus

Thirdly, it shifts focus from the object of disruption, which normally has focus, to the subject, as if disruption were all about the agent!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Your distrust of anything that has ever been associated with Money is noted. I do not share your religious views on this matter and find the use of the word "disruptive" in a business sense to be informative and clear.

Cerberus

2:54 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 It is a derived, secondary sense; and in that capacity, it seems awfully close to marketing speak.

I find it a bland word that just means "new and successful", which are exactly the two holy grails of business speak.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Your prejudice against language change is also well-documented around here. Feel free to never work in any kind of business capacity that requires you to discuss markets or economics, so that you can avoid the taint.

@Cerberus It's more than just new and successful.

Cerberus

Exactly.

David Wallace

@Cerberus Surely it means slightly more? Like new and successful to the detriment of other products?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

The automobile was disruptive. It reshaped society.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 You have so far not convinced me.

David Wallace

2:56 AM

That was a jinx just then!

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 especially to the horses.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

The smartphone, being a kind of portable computing taken to a level never seen before then, has changed how the computer industry does things and will continue to change it.

It is reshaping the very economics of software development, in some cases, by changing how people pay for software.

tchrist

Printing press.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Part of that is the phone and part of that is the app store but they are a package deal right now.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Only very, very slightly, then, because the detriment is normally one of the main parts of disrupting, while it is not important in this novel sense; secondly, they have added a new sense, which is "successful". That's not in the normal definition of "disrupt". Thirdly, disrupting normally focused on the thing disrupted, not on the disruptor.

tchrist

Internet?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:58 AM

Whether the whole package will remain and the disruptions will last remains to be seen.

David Wallace

@tchrist World Wide Web possibly. Internet less so.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Great change, yes; but is disruption really the most accurate word?

"Some overlap" is not "accurate".

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Why must disrupting be focused on the thing disrupted? citation needed.