English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2012-03-02 (page 5 of 5)

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Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:01 PM

It's like that here, where I work. This is why I am constantly trying out new things, especially in our internal apps, that push the limits of what I know. The customer-facing app can't really be used as a playground, but the CRM app can be, to a degree.

@KitFox That's normal right?

Don't go trying to make me feel better.

That's pretty much the way I learn new things, except for the other way, which is when somebody needs to do a thing someone else has been doing and I am a likely candidate because no one else has a better clue

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@aediaλ yes, that too.

And then two years later I look at the thing and I'm like what idiot did it this way... oh.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:03 PM

But honestly, when it comes to things like... storing data in the DB. The state of the art has changed a lot since I started working where I am now. There are object/relational mapping systems and other storage layers that promise to make short work of all the boilerplate stuff. But we don't use that here because in 2003 the boss didn't think they were performant.

So we, as developers, have to push to change the tech we are using or else we never get to use it.

It's easy to always do what works, especially if most of your day is spent turning business rules into code.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox if you're working alone and still learning, then you're doing really well.

I just feel like I am doing everything in the least efficient way possible.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So next time, maybe try writing your app in C# instead of whatever you're using.

Matt Эллен

or AHK!

2

And I don't know enough to figure out how things ought to be done.

Or how it might be done better.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:04 PM

@KitFox The only way to avoid that is to get some kind of review of your work.

And I'm really tired of working in a vacuum.

It's noisy and full of dirt.

Matt Эллен

:D yeah, it is a frustrating experience to not have people to bounce things off

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Eh. Except, like I said, I feel like I know about as much as my boss at this point.

Matt Эллен

figuratively and physically

Haha.

For this kind of pay, I might as well just consult.

Then I can pretend like I know everything anyway.

Matt Эллен

7:06 PM

:D that what I did when I consulted

Hahaha.

Matt Эллен

this person seems sick - a clear case of the peeves to me:

-5

Q: FINE VS WELL - Which is correct?

Why is now "improper" to answer FINE when someone asks "how you are doing?" It's been..FINE for years! :)

Lemon tea is good when one is sick.

Chicken noodle soup.

Matt Эллен

oh!

7:09 PM

Or Reg can swoop in and close, that works too.

Pepto-bismol. Definitely.

@Cerberus yep, but I might have misspelt some of it. Haven't practiced in a while (~2 years)

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Mar 7 '11 at 18:16, by RegDwight

Big Russki is watching you.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox Well, I don't know your boss so I can't comment on that. But if I were you, I would A) read some books. Have you read Design Patterns? and some other books like that. B) pick a new technologoy or technique and try it out in your next feature.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Thanks. I might do that. I feel pretty demoralized lately, so maybe that will help.

Must go. Later, my pipls!

Matt Эллен

7:11 PM

see you @KitFox

@KitFox Bye!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

0

Q: How to spell laundre?

That is the best spelling I could find, or come up with. I don't think it is correct, since I don't see it in the dictionary, and searching without the "victoria secret" prefix doesn't show the correct results. I'm talking about the sexy clothing that woman wear. Like the stuff you can buy at ...

@Mahnax The Reg’d Wight, a mod aflight, a swoop, a close, and wrong is right.

9

Bad poetry for the win!

@JonPurdy YES.

I’m rooting for bad poetry in the world cup, of course.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

7:12 PM

How can one possibly mishear lingerie as laundry, and then misspell that?

user image

Just so you know, I beat Fumble to it by two seconds.

Matt Эллен

+1 good buddy

@RegDwightѬſ道 Lingerie sounds vaguely like “laundry” if you give it the French pronunciation.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Yes. Except that no.

Matt Эллен

no

I just tried it

RegDwight Ѭſ道

7:14 PM

@Mahnax no need for screenshots, the exact timestamps are viewable by hovering over dates.

@RegDwightѬſ道 Oh.

Matt Эллен

well, I suppose I am British. Americans and Shredder might have different pronunciation

@RegDwightѬſ道 You can delete it then, I can't.

[lɛ̃ʒri] versus [lɑnd(ʒ)ri]?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Mahnax I will just merge you into Thursagen.

7:15 PM

Roughly.

My IPA laziness level is high today.

@RegDwightѬſ道 Noooo!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Okay, so now that the poor sod has got his answer, can we all agree that it's too localized?

Matt Эллен

yes

Sure.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Wow that's some nice agreeing right there. Keep it coming.

7:16 PM

His spelling makes sense, though. (laun-dr-é)

It's some amazing agreeing.

Because that roughly corresponds to the English pronunciation of lingerie.

Goddammit phonetics, come to my rescue!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I dunno. I dare you to go to France, or Victoria's Secret for that matter, and try that spelling in person.

Moi, I've been to France, and let me tellya, they won't let you mispronounce eau as eau.

When someone mishears some X I said as Y, then insists that I said Y, there’s usually a very straightforward phonetic explanation…that they won’t get or listen to. :(

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Feb 18 '11 at 20:14, by Robusto

And don't give me any crap about hard to hear coming from a French speaker! I remember being criticized for pronouncing blancmange incorrectly. I said, "But you're supposed to leave out the c sound, right?" And my French friend said, "Yes, but you sound like you're leaving it out!"

Feb 18 '11 at 20:19, by RegDwight

@Robusto Never mind blancmange, I remember being criticized for pronouncing eau incorrectly! I was like "o", and he was like "no-no-no, not o, o!"

Matt Эллен

7:19 PM

:D

those crazy French

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Feb 18 '11 at 20:19, by RegDwight

That went on for hours.

Seriously. It did.

As in English, silent consonants in French can colour articulation even though pronunciation isn’t supposed to differ. Or maybe they’re just crazy.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Or both.

And a half.

Sure, non-exclusive or.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well, the half is where it's all at.

Matt Эллен

7:22 PM

enjoying both is better than enjoying just half

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Okay so where's that other riddle we had.

Actually it might still be open.

We didn't have too localized back then.

Ah yes.

2

Q: What is the spelling of the English word that is pronounced "nafessess"?

I have one word that my second grade English teacher told us once. I can pronounce it but I no longer remember its meaning or spelling. I also can't write the word using the pronunciation symbols simply because I don't know them at all (ashamed). When I try looking for this word over the Interne...

meaning single-word-requests pronunciation

Matt Эллен

I vaguely remember that

RegDwight Ѭſ道

It was like BC or something.

Matt Эллен

well, it certainly won't help anyone else

and the recording is no longer available

Hi, and bye!

Have a great night!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

7:33 PM

Mkay.

Matt Эллен

cya @Cerberus. you too :)

@MattЭллен Adios!

Matt Эллен

A dieu

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I bet you fifty tögrögs that we'll see him in four hours, totally drunk.

Matt Эллен

:D excellent

I don't know what a tögrögs is though, so I won't bet any incase I can't pay up

7:35 PM

Oh, yeah. He's gonna come back totally hammered and then blame his poor spelling on it.

@MattЭллен How you know it won't help anyone else?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Mongolian tögrög

The tögrög or tugrik (, tögrög) (sign: ₮; code: MNT) is the official currency of Mongolia. It was historically subdivided into 100 möngö (мөнгө). Currently the lowest denomination in regular use is the 10-tögrög note and the highest is the 20,000-tögrög note. Currency sign is . In 2010, the tögrög was the best-performing currency world-wide. History The tögrög was introduced on December 9, 1925 at a value equal to one Soviet ruble, where one ruble or tögrög was equal to of silver. It replaced the Mongolian dollar and other currencies and became the sole legal currency on April 1, 1928...

Matt Эллен

@Gigili just an inkling - how many people do you think it will help?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

We are not even sure it helped the OP.

Matt Эллен

I can think of one person it probably helped, and a bunch of people who got rep from it

RegDwight Ѭſ道

7:36 PM

He kind of accepted an answer, but that's not saying much.

Matt Эллен

exactly

Well, I'm outta here. Bye!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

CUs.

Matt Эллен

cya @Mahnax

@MattЭллен I mean if a question about Dalai lama will help someone, that one will also help someone else.

Matt Эллен

7:38 PM

@Gigili no it won't. it's about someone mishearing a word a long time ago

no one else misheard the word that way

probably

RegDwight Ѭſ道

That Dalai Lama video got a bajillion clicks.

Matt Эллен

he might even be misremembering how he misheard it

RegDwight Ѭſ道

So approximatly gobzollion people didn't get the joke.

Matt Эллен

what was that video? I don't even know what this is being compared to!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

115

Q: Can someone please explain this Dalai-Lama joke to me?

I'm not sure if this question is on topic (maybe it just needs to be rephrased), but since this made global headlines due to the Dalai Lama not being able to understand it, I figure most non-native speakers would have trouble getting the joke too. This is the joke on YouTube. The Dalai Lama ...

meaning-in-context jokes pun

Oh, and note how it's closed!

Matt Эллен

7:40 PM

:D

yeah, that's practically helpful in comparison

Okay okay, it's not about helping other people - It's about how many people like this question.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

So even this, with 115 upvotes, and 10,300 views, is not open.

@Gigili it absolutely is about helping other people.

Matt Эллен

@Gigili uh, it's all about helping other people. that's the entire point. helping as many people on the internet as possible

RegDwight Ѭſ道

And analyzing that particular mishearing helps exactly one person.

@RegDwightѬſ道 Yes, because it got closed after a month.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

7:41 PM

I'm not sure I get your point.

Matt Эллен

in fact I'd go as far as to say that the Dalai-Lama question should still be open.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Many say that.

It helped people to laugh, not that 87643879843 people didn't get the joke or it was important to them to get it right.

asked Jun 17 '11 at 14:52 / closed as off topic by Jeff Atwood♦ Jul 10 '11 at 11:13

Matt Эллен

he's still an ubermod, despite not being an employee

I wonder if they'll take that away

I guess not.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well to be fair, Kosmo has mod privileges despite not even visiting.

Matt Эллен

7:44 PM

true

RegDwight Ѭſ道

It's like a medal. Once you earn it, you keep it.

You'd have to actively unearn it somehow.

Matt Эллен

but elected mods lose it, right? when an election happens

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Oh that depends on the election.

Matt Эллен

I see

RegDwight Ѭſ道

There were such and such.

But for the most part, the idea is to get more people for a growing site. Not to replace people over and over again.

I'm a bit afraid to check how many mods SO has right now.

Matt Эллен

7:46 PM

I gotcha

12

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Hm, actually only twelve right now.

Jinx.

I'm almost certain them used to be moar.

Matt Эллен

user image

I am quite tired tonight, so forgive me for a stupid question like this: when a result has been previsouly proven, we say "Bourbaki has shown that ..." and not "Bourbaki showed that...", right? (It's just a made up sentence) Is there an important difference? If yes, is the first form more appropriate?

Matt Эллен

I think either is fine

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Nov 16 '11 at 20:16, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

user image

7:48 PM

Good. Thanks.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightѬſ道 they're not made by Coca Cola

@Szabolcs no problem!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I am looking for a different image, that's the closest I've got so far.

But it's probably expired by now.

Matt Эллен

ah. hmmm. I'm not sure I want to be axed

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well I can't find it.

Jun 15 '11 at 15:48, by RegDwight

user image

Make do with this one.

Matt Эллен

lolwhut

RegDwight Ѭſ道

7:51 PM

Jun 15 '11 at 15:48, by RegDwight

Yo dawg, we herd u liek to drive, so we put a car in ur car so u can drive while u drive...

Matt Эллен

:D

RegDwight Ѭſ道

spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,768553-2,00.html

Matt Эллен

yyo dawgo dawe heardwg, wyou likee heto readard ysooweu liput wordske tin your wordso reso youad scan reado wwhile you reade puyo dawgt wowerheardds iyou liken yoto readur wosorweds sputo ywordsoinu cyourawordsn reso youad whcanireadle yowhile youu rereadad

that was harder than it looks

RegDwight Ѭſ道

It looks quite hard.

Matt Эллен

I might sell it to the Americans as a form of cryptography

RegDwight Ѭſ道

8:05 PM

And with their military budget, they will buy it. Twice.

Matt Эллен

yes!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

1. Sell it.
2. Sell it.
3. Profit!

Matt Эллен

that's the spirit! and Robusto calls you a communist

RegDwight Ѭſ道

He calls me many things. He's an old bored man.

Let me entertain him.

Matt Эллен

:)

RegDwight Ѭſ道

8:09 PM

Speaking of entertainment, I'll go clean up my HD receiver's hard drive.

Matt Эллен

good luck.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Thanks. Won't take long. Just a couple Seinfelds or Jamie Olivers or what have you.

Matt Эллен

having been to his restaurant in Oxford, I'm not sure what people find so funny

I am going to drunkenly cycle home later. cya!

3 hours later…

10:48 PM

Hi all. I'm just reading the transcript; so don't expect intelligent life from me for several minutes.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I understand that. But the developer who removes the annotation from the class is just going to remove it from the test too. So its value for future-proofing is little. Its value now is little, especially since the OP intends to copy the annotations form the class to the test, rather than going back to the requirements. In short, he/she has reached the point where adding a test is uneconomic. In my experience, that's the place to stop. YMMV, and I'm OK with that.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 and I don't know whther this remark was intended ironically

@Simon I guess you can figure out that I'm not at a kiddy cricket match.

@RegDwightѬſ道 They still broadcast Seinfeld where you live?

11:31 PM

@Vitaly - I was thinking about your earlier comment; that you thought it was strange that I mentioned Terry Tao's IMO gold before I mentioned the Fields Medal. I guess I'm actually more impressed by the former. How many people even compete at an IMO aged 12, let alone come home with a gold medal? I would think this is rather fewer than the number who have won a Fields Medal.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@DavidWallace Well why not. They still broadcast Married with Children as well. And The Bill Cosby Show, in point of fact.

@MattЭллен can't tell you about people, but as far as I'm concerned it's just unintrusive entertainment.

He doesn't make a fuss about it. He just cooks. And nothing really spectacular. And I just watch. And two days later I've forgotten most of it. Entertainment.

@RegDwightѬſ道 You're kidding! I haven't seen any of those shows for years.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

And I'm not really sure what it is, but he must have it. Because I'm not into cooking shows at all. But somehow I will always have a free minute for Jamie. Shrug.

Likewise. I watch Nigella, but not for the cooking.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Never heard of that one. Just looked it up.

11:43 PM

You have no idea what you're missing.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Could be. But as I said, I'm not into cooking at all.

That is, I am into cooking myself, but watching TV shows doesn't cut it.

NZ television is currently completely inundated with cooking shows. Really boring.

@Reg I was just reading your answer to the question about English needing more space than other languages. Very impressive.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well I think I'll go watch one last episode and then call it a night.

It would be interesting if someone asked the same question re time. Like, what can I say in 30 seconds of English, and how long it would take to say the same thing in some other language.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

It's kind of stupid, really. During the week I don't have time to sleep because of work, and on weekends I can't get any sleep because I don't want to be wasting the precious free time.

@DavidWallace depends on the thing, I guess.

In every language there are words for which you'd need entire sentences in any other language.

11:53 PM

I guess there are. For example, Bosnian has a single word that means "on the day before yesterday", and a single word that means "on the day after tomorrow". My wife and I use these words even when we're speaking English.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Позавчера, послезавтра.

(OK, I know those aren't entire sentences, but you get my point).

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Of course. Now try and translate serendipity into Bosnian.

Aha, the fact that Bosnian and Russian are closely related has not escaped you, my friend!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well not too closely. One is Eastern Slavic, the other Southern Slavic.

Huge difference!

11:56 PM

But they are alike in having single words for Позавчера and послезавтра.

My wife has just gone out. Otherwise I would ask her how best to express "serendipity" in Bosnian. I see what you mean though, it's unlikely to be a single word.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

It would be really cool if I could spontaneously reply with a Russian word that has no Bosnian equivalent. Alas, I'm lame-witted.

I might coin sretnopodudaranje.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Knock yourself out.

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Mar '122

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