English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

cornbread ninja

01:34

howdy

Mahnax

Hi corn!

cornbread ninja

bonjour, mahnax!

how do you do?

Mahnax

Great, thanks! I've a job interview tomorrow.

Yourself?

cornbread ninja

Nice! May I ask for what kind of job?

Mahnax

Starbucks.

That's about as good as it gets for a HS student here, so I'm hoping I get it.

cornbread ninja

01:36

I am great; my mom, brother, sister-in-law, and grandparents just met my boyfriend's parents

Mahnax

Oh, how did that go?

cornbread ninja

Nice, but you don't get to really make the coffee anymore. I liked making frappuccinos, but I was alone there.

@Mahnax I'll have to conduct exit interviews, but I think pretty well.

My grandma and his mom both make quilts.

Mahnax

@cornbreadninja How do you mean?

@cornbreadninja Glad to hear it.

cornbread ninja

@Mahnax I worked there before they had those fully automated machines.

brb

Mahnax

Hm, I'm not sure if they're automated here. You have to steam the milk yourself and add that to espresso and syrup, for most hot drinks.

Of course, there are tea lattes that have no espresso.

cornbread ninja

02:15

@Mahnax IIRC, the machines I used didn't grind the beans and fill the portafilter for you. and yeah, you do have to steam the milk.

Sorry; I meant to come back sooner than that.

Mahnax

Oh, that sort of thing.

I see. Well, I still look forward to the prospect of working there.

cornbread ninja

02:53

@Mahnax good luck!

Gnintendo

03:14

Is this a correct use of a colon:?

The statue is designed to conform to the Roman poet Vergil’s account of the event in Aeneid: When the Trojan priest Lacoön tried to warn his comrades to be wary of Greeks bearing gifts, he angered the Greek god Athena, who favored the Greeks.

My thought was that the second independent clause was an apposition, but I wondered what you guys thought

MετάEd

@Jez Without seeing your element tree it's hard to know what's going wrong. But this shows that the coloration you're aiming for is not impossible. So where does that differ from yours?

@Gnintendo "The most common use of the colon is to inform the reader that what follows the colon proves, explains, or lists elements of what preceded it."

@WillHunting.

user19161

@MετάEd Hey Ed!

MετάEd

@WillHunting Do you celebrate turkey day?

user19161

@MετάEd No, I am not American!

MετάEd

Then I suppose I shall not ask whether you enjoyed yours. :-)

Gnintendo

03:23

@MετάEd So you would agree with my usage?

sup @WillHunting

MετάEd

There you have it. Thanksgiving.

user19161

@MετάEd Nice picture! Did you have turkey?

MετάEd

@Gnintendo It seems fine to me.

@WillHunting I did not eat meat today, actually. But the meatless sausage balls were nice.

user19161

@MετάEd Hmm, now you sound like a vegetarian, I think Reg is one.

MετάEd

@WillHunting I live with vegetarians of the ovo-lacto variety, but am not a vegetarian myself. Still, even when I am eating on my own, I eat very little meat.

Gnintendo

03:30

@MετάEd What's that font on your blog? It looks like a digitization of a Walpergen cut

I didn't know there were any

It's a Fell type but, what's the font?

MετάEd

@Gnintendo google.com/webfonts/specimen/IM+Fell+DW+Pica

Gnintendo

@MετάEd Thanks.

MετάEd

@Gnintendo And for headings, google.com/webfonts/specimen/IM+Fell+DW+Pica+SC

Gnintendo

small caps, of course :P

@MετάEd It's an interesting digitization; most projects attempt to reproduce the shape of the orignial cut when digitizing (as opposed to the printed result)

MετάEd

@Gnintendo Indeed; and I like it precisely because it reproduces the look of print.

Gnintendo

03:39

@MετάEd I'm a big fan of the EB Garamond digitization project: georgduffner.at/ebgaramond

The guy is doing a fantastic job with it

MετάEd

@Gnintendo Oooooh.

Mahnax

@cornbreadninja Thanks!

Gnintendo

04:13

@MετάEd Junicode is also great

user19161

04:35

@MετάEd I gave you a little present for thanksgiving just now. =)

user19161

@Mahnax Did you have turkey just now?

MετάEd

@WillHunting Thank you! How do I, uh, unwrap it?

@Gnintendo These links are very helpful, not least because I have begun work on a font myself.

@WillHunting Are you the one responsible for today's upvotes on my old answers?

user19161

@MετάEd Well, my "presents" mean only one thing in this room. =)

Gnintendo

@MετάEd linuxlibertine.org

@MετάEd oldwww.gust.org.pl/projects/e-foundry/tex-gyre

@MετάEd klepas.org/openbaskerville

@MετάEd tug.dk/FontCatalogue

Mahnax

@WillHunting No, I'm Canadian.

Our Thanksgiving is in October.

user19161

04:44

@Mahnax Ah I just don't know who celebrates what, and yes I know where you are from.

Gnintendo

@MετάEd There's a lot of my favorite font projects; combined, they should be a good resource for you.

Mahnax

@WillHunting Fair enough.

MετάEd

@Gnintendo Nice.

user19161

@Mahnax Have you grown even taller recently? You must be 2 m now.

MετάEd

@WillHunting Now I'm a little afraid.

user19161

04:52

@MετάEd Nah, nothing to fear...

MετάEd

@WillHunting I know: it's very elegant, but there isn't room in the margin to explain it fully.

Mahnax

@WillHunting Goodness, no.

Only about 180cm.

Cerberus

09:05

Hi.

Jez

@MετάEd Is that a gun Snoopy has pointed at the Indians?

David Wallace

@Cerberus do you have time for a chat? Not here?

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Yo!

Eh, sure?

David Wallace

Err, gmail chat maybe?

Cerberus

Hmm do I have that?

I may have turned it off, let me see...

Ah, there it is.

Matt Эллен

09:26

@Jez I think it's a tray of beers

RegDwighт

09:41

0

Q: What is the term for the person who does coding or developing online with wearing headset?

What is the term for the person who does coding or developing online with wearing headset and listening to music or something else ,continously for hours or what is the activity done by the person?

What the

Matt Эллен

09:54

wow.

Cerberus

12:01

Yo.

Matt Эллен

Yo.

Cerberus

12:27

> I wouldn't rank myself as a billionaire. It's touch and go right now.

Oh, wait.

I misread the Dutch translation. I thought it was something weird.

I'm watching "the Queen of Versailles", about an American nouveau-riche couple.

nrc.nl/breedbeeld/2012/11/23/…

Matt Эллен

is it good?

Cerberus

Mediocre.

They have fallen on hard times.

I'm about one-third in.

The financial crisis.

They had to sell their 100-million-dollar house.

A tragedy.

Fortunately, they managed to salvage some scraps and bits.

Like their other house.

Which is 2400 m².

The other house was 9000 m².

Largest house in America.

Matt Эллен

:O

such squalor

how will they cope?

tune in after the break to find out.

lunches

Cerberus

Haha.

Later!

Monica

12:56

Hello

tchrist

13:23

Excellent Cerberus, your answer is to me a flashback of the EL&U glory that we are losting today. Congratulations, +1. — Carlo_R. 1 min ago

►

Lost again.

Cerberus

13:39

I...suppose I should be pleased?

tchrist

Yes, I suppose you should.

RegDwighт

13:59

I should suppose, but I please.

Friday meeting.

Matt Эллен

I haven't had lunch yet, so that's not why I'm back. I'm just waiting for the pan to heat up

Cerberus

Oh, hot luncheon!

I want.

I have the most delicious pea soup sitting in my fridge...

But I was going to eat that for supper.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

pea soup! it's as thick as fog!

Matt Эллен

ah. I prefer a main meal in the middle of the day.

I don't normally get that when I'm at work

bbl — cooking

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MattЭллен in the old days, that is when the biggest meal was held. But then the british aristocracy started staying up later and later and things got moved around.

That's why "dinner" and "supper" mean the same thing.

so @Cerberus I was looking into prepaid phone plans for my wife. Gods they're complicated to understand.

I know this because I made a spreadsheet and I still feel like I don't fully understand how they work.

Cerberus

14:06

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 What fog?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus It's just something people say when there is heavy fog: "it's as thick as pea soup"

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Egad!

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Ah, I see.

So by "pre-paid" you mean what we call SIM-only?

As in, you don't get a phone with it?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus pre-paid is where you put money into your account, and they deduct money whenever you make a call

Cerberus

Okay.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

as opposed to post-paid, where you use the phone for 30 days, and they send you a bill for whatever you used, but a certain amount is included in the basic fees

Cerberus

14:09

So why do you want pre-paid?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

to save money

Cerberus

Pre-paid is usually more expensive here.

Funny.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

my wife doesn't use data (yet... ) and she wants to save some money.

@Cerberus Well, it depends on the usage

Cerberus

Yeah.

It's sickeningly complicated.

I just filled in what I needed in this plan-comparison site and got the cheapest option.

And I got a discount on it too.

Don't you have such websites?

They may not always be entirely up to date or have all the options, but they give you a good impression.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Hm. I dunno

Cerberus

14:12

cellphones.ca/cell-plans

Like this?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

neat

That site has a filter, which is nice, but it doesn't filter on some of the gotchas. Example: many plans don't include call display (which shows the number of the caller). You have to pay extra.

Cerberus

Seriously??

Wow.

Someone should bomb your telco infrastructure to the ground. This can only be fixed by restarting from the ground up.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Nah, the solution is to support the upstarts. Which I am already doing. But my financial savings I pay for by sacrificing coverage area

and data speeds

my plan is great. unlimited everything for $45/month

(well, unlimited data means "5GB")

The problem is their coverage area is small

So when I leave town I have no data at all

But they are increasing their coverage area all the time. So eventually it won't make sense not to use them.

the other problem with this carrier is the phone selection. Most phones don't work on these bands.

Cerberus

14:27

I see.

€ 45 is a lot.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

but the Nexi do

Cerberus

So how many MB do you really use?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 ! Stop that!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

now that I work from home? maybe 200-400MB

Cerberus

Correct yourself, Mister!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

heheh I did it for you, sweet puppy

Cerberus

14:28

You know I can't talk to you until you correct it...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

haha

it's too late anyway

Cerberus

...

faints

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

so $45 is not the same as € 45. First of all, my price doesn't include tax, so it's actually just over $50 with tax.

but $50 is more like € 39

And that includes long distance, airtime, sms, mms, and data.

Honestly: it's pretty much the best deal there is around here and it's 3x better than comparable deals from the big carriers.

Cerberus

Everything is always included here.

That many GB would be fairly expensive here too.

Can't you down-grade to 500 MB?

I have 550 MB/minutes/SMS + 500 MB.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I don't think I'd save any money if I downgraded with this carrier

Cerberus

14:33

They have no cheaper plans?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Their cheaper plans offer, eg, no data.

Cerberus

facepalm

Many very cheap plans have no data here either.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

actually their plans have changed. Now they have a $20 plan and a $40 plan.

The 20$ plan has 100MB data, and the $40 plan is the same as mine.

Cerberus

No $2.50 plan?

Ah.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

hm, actaully, I think their $40 plan doesn't include voicemail!

Cerberus

14:35

!!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

which means I save $3

with my older $45 plan

Cerberus

How can you have a plan that doesn't include voicemail??

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

www2.windmobile.ca/en/Pages/…

Some people don't use voicemail

Cerberus

Really, blanket bombing is the only answer.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But I don't understand how you could have a mobile plan with highly-limited minutes and no call-display. That one is pure gouging. It costs NOTHING to do call display.

Cerberus

14:36

It's all pure gouging.

I mean, they already charge you or count ticks when you call you voicemail anyway, right?

It's one tick per minute for me.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

well, some of it is not. Airtime, eg, is a limited resource because it uses cell tower time, and they over-sell the network on purpose.

Voicemail costs for hosting

Cerberus

What is airtime?

So if I call my voicemail for 550 minutes, I will have emptied my entire month's bundle.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

the time when your phone is talking to the cell tower while you're on a call

Cerberus

Ah.

You already play "airtime" costs for each voicemail minute, right?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

see, here, landlines have influenced our notions. In Canada, landline local calls are completely free

Cerberus

14:39

So why double charge if not to gouge people?

I don't even know what landlines cost any more here, haven't had one since ehm 2004 or so.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But on cell phones, all calls cost air time, because when the phone is talking to the cell tower, it uses tower resources which are scarce.

Cerberus

Of course.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

voicemail costs money for the carrier to host

Cerberus

But you already pay for those minutes. We just call that "mobile", not airtime.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

in addition to the costs of the airtime

Cerberus

14:40

Ah, but it costs them far less than calling another phone on another carrier.

And the hosting is negligible.

There was nothing to agree or disagree. It's some info you could benefit from or ignore. — Kris 8 mins ago

Ugh.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Well, I don't know what the costs are for setting up stuff like that.

Cerberus

Not much.

Or they would have charged us more for it in the past.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But the point is that it does cost money for voicemail in addition to the airtime you pay to actually call the voice mail

Cerberus

That is what I meant.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I mean it costs the carrier money

Cerberus

14:43

A negligible amount.

Much less than connecting you to another mobile on their own network.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

No way

Cerberus

Then they need to have two wireless connecions active at once.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

They charge both parties the airtime for that

Cerberus

To voicemail, that's only one.

Seriously??

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

of course they do

Cerberus

14:44

Wait, so if I call you in Canada, from within the same city, they charge you??

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yes

Cerberus

Obscene.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I pay for all incoming and outgoing minutes no matter who calls

Cerberus

So basically whatever your plan is is worth half what my plan is worth.

They double charge EVERYONE for EVERYTHING.

Why aren't you outraged??

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I am outraged... sorta.

But they're not double-charging

Cerberus

14:45

I am already outraged that they do this here if you're in a foreign country. But in your own city??

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

when two phones are in use, they both use airtime, so why would both phones not be charged?

Cerberus

Because two phones will always be in use?

How else can you call someone?

Wow, your prices are really high.

And ours are already way to high.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

You know what is outrageous? If I, and my wife, are in a different city, we both pay long distance chagres: I to call her, long distance to our home city, and her to receive a call long distance to where she is.

Cerberus

Same here.

That is ridiculous indeed.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Not at all the case: in many cases the other phone is on a different carrier, or a landline. So someone else is responsible for the airtime.

Cerberus

14:47

And I don't believe for one minute that they really route the call through your home city, because they would just be inefficient. But they make you believe that they do.

tchrist

Too much phone porn, thank you very much.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yes, so? Either way, two phones will be in use. Either on the same carrier or two different carriers.

Porn?

I've never seen porn on my phone.

No matter what I try.

Hmm now you've made me curious, actually. How would that look?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Yes but either way, two phones are in use and two parties are responsible for those two phones.

Cerberus

Sure.

So?

tchrist

Like food porn for phones.

Cerberus

14:50

It's like saying, "you have to buy two plane tickets, one for your upper body and one for your legs".

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus So if I'm on Bell, and you're on Rogers, and I'm using Bell's airtime, and you're using Rogers's airtime, why should only the caller pay for airtime? If I call you, who pays for Rogers's airtime?

tchrist

40

A: What does "information porn" mean?

This is a particular instance of the X porn meme template. I'm not going to provide a link for that, mostly because I don't relish what Google will try to show me if I search for it. In general, however, X porn is material of type X presented in an excessive, highly attractive format designed to ...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

No it's not. It's like saying you need to buy two tickets if you use two seats.

Cerberus

No, because I can book one seat and fly.

tchrist

searches for @Cerberus’s phone’s IP address to better mount a porncast on its wee screen

Cerberus

14:52

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I suppose in theory you could split it up, but to what end? Then you would also have to halve the cost per minute.

I don't have a "wee" screen.

It's huge.

Go watch your own wee-wee.

tchrist

Handheld screens are always wee.

Unless you are a polar bear.

Cerberus

I can hold my monitor in one hand if I have to.

tchrist

Back to porn, I see.

Cerberus

Pah.

tchrist

My monitor is two feet across. How can two feet fit in one hand?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

14:55

@Cerberus Well, let's just say that it makes sense to me that two phones consuming 1 minute airtime each pay for two minutes total.

Cerberus

But you still pay double what I pay per month for the same use.

I said hold, not fit.

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