English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Andy

12:01 AM

What can I use instead of "a little bit"?
That's between tremendously and a little bit.

KitFox

A tad?

What's the context?

TRiG

A tittle? A jot?

Andy

My writing changed a little bit.

KitFox

A dollop.

Oh. Then not a dollop.

Cerberus

Considerably?

Or just no adverb at all?

KitFox

12:13 AM

What's wrong with "a little bit"?

Andy

@KitFox it's too colloquial

KitFox

My writing changed.

I revised my writing.

Cerberus

I said somewhat, but you didn't like that, which isn't colloquial.

Andy

But also my writing changed but not alot and also not a little, so what can I say.

KitFox

Nothing.

Just "My writing changed."

Cerberus

12:14 AM

Then just leave out the adverb.

KitFox

That's what you want to say, so why hedge it?

Andy

I'll just use somewhat.

Thank you guys for the answers.

Cerberus

> Gusts of 140mph in parts of Aberdeenshire and Inverness-shire as ALL trains in Scotland are cancelled

That's a lot.

@matt Looks like your storm is a bit worse than what we had in October.

Or have you lost power?

Robusto

12:43 AM

@Cerberus Why didn't they render that as 225 kilometers per hour?

Cerberus

@Robusto I think they have miles in Scotland?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

12:57 AM

►

@Robusto

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I have never heard that before.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 From the "Where the fuck did you get that from?" department:

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

I received my copy of the southern music issue of a fantastic quarterly called Oxford American, and there was a story about Tupper Saussy. I had to hear his music at once.

Robusto

►

Listen to at least the first two tracks.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Interesting.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

I highly recommend the magazine. You can get it at the Barnes & Noble.

It's published out of the University of Central Arkansas.

Robusto

I will check next time I'm there.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

1:02 AM

@Robusto I'm listening.

Got to go to dinner, though. pauses

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

1:18 AM

@Rob P.S. It's with the literary mags and F&SF and Analog and what have you.

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I know where you mean.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

k.

Dan

5:17 AM

anyone around?

@TRiG ?

TRiG

@Dan Nope.

Not here.

I'm asleep in bed, of course.

Where else would I be at this time of night?

I think popular ideas about cuss words have it backward. Terms like “lame” are the awful ones. “Fuck” and “shit” are AWESOME. #ableism

Tweeted by VanguardVivian on December 5, 2013 at 11:10 PM

Dan

@TRiG haha nice

I have a language question for you

moreso fishing for a vocabulary term

I am trying to convey the idea 'not dismissive of'

I am writing a meta question about an ideal moderator at BH.SE

(and am open to input)

TRiG

@Dan Yeah. Apparently I'm an expert now.

Dan

@TRiG so I was told ;)

so for instance, my ideal mod dream team is a Christian, a Jew, and an atheist

for the Christian, preferably a non-Protestant or Protestant who is familiar with and not dismissive of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox perspectives

i.e. it's OK if they disagree with others in their religion, but they need to not be the type who would actively suppress them because they're 'wrong'

all I've got is 'not dismissive of'

is there a better word?

TRiG

5:35 AM

@Dan thesaurus.com/browse/dismissive ? Nothing there seems to fit.

I'll try to think of something else, but right now I've got nothing. It's also 5:30 a.m., and if I'm late for work yet again, I'll get in massive trouble, so g'night.

Dan

@TRiG but I need an antonym, 'not dismissive'

@TRiG no problem, thanks anyways

TRiG

@Dan Supportive? Accepting?

Dan

@TRiG yes and no, I think I am misusing 'dismissive' to begin with, which is part of the problem

oh well

I know you must sleep. Thank you

Andy

7:10 AM

So if I close my laptop, what's that called. I what?

badass

"closed it" or "put the screen down"

Johan Larsson

10:25 AM

My friend is a surf geek, today it is snow 25m/s storm and he went surfing. Hope he shares some pictures so I can share with you later.

badass

!!wiki surfing

KitSox

Surfing

Surfing is a surface water sport in which the wave rider, referred to as a surfer, rides on the forward or deep face of a moving wave, which is usually carrying the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitable for surfing are primarily found in the ocean, but can also be found in lakes or in rivers in the form of a standing wave or tidal bore. However, surfers can also utilize man-made waves such as those from boat wakes and the waves created in artificial wave pools. The term surfing refers to the act of riding a wave, regardless of whether the wave is ridden with a board or without a ...

Johan Larsson

subtract tropic, add arctic

badass

ic, add the opposite :D

Johan Larsson

var conditions = -1*tropic;

badass

10:37 AM

(-1)*tropic = tropic*(-1) = - tropic = arctic

^Multiplicative property of -1

Johan Larsson

This is here today

badass

Brrr...

badass

10:57 AM

Surfing in that kind of weather could turn you into a Surf Nazi

Johan Larsson

blocked at work

badass

The term "surf nazi" has been in use since the fifties to describe someone who was unconditionally devoted to surfing. It was around this time that some surfers, particularly in the Southern California area, became less concerned with the values of mainstream society and more focused on surfing. They cared less about things like getting a good job and making a lot of money, and more about getting to the beach and riding waves. As Greg Noll put it, "For the first time ever, they had a group of guys that didn't give a rat's ass, dropping out of the basketball team or the football team and jus…

RegDwigнt

11:19 AM

0

A: Question tag for a sentence starting with "few"

What is the tag question of: which one is correct. Time and tide wait for none, isn't it/ don't they? Happy Christmas, isn't it/ don't I? Who cares. don't they/ do they? Messi, isn't it/ aren't you?

What is that even supposed to mean.

> Happy Christmas, don't I?

That one is at least funny, but the last two simply broke my brain.

badass

surf nazi says relax

Matt Эллен

Do they know Franky?

@RegDwigнt RegDwight, isn't it? Glad to meet you

@RegDwigнt I got nothing

badass

before or after he went to Hollywood?

Matt Эллен

during the period he was on his way

RegDwigнt

Franky, my dear, I don't give a damn.

badass

11:24 AM

relax don't do it

Johan Larsson

11:44 AM

@MattЭллен do you know the answer to this?

Matt Эллен

looks like you just got an answer!

Johan Larsson

12:05 PM

yep but sill no dice for me, I tried that but then I don't implement ICommand

Matt Эллен

how do you mean?

Johan Larsson

I'm writing a CustomCommand : ICommand

And ICommand has public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged;

Matt Эллен

do you need to take advantage of add and remove or are the default behaviours good enough?

Johan Larsson

Not sure how you mean. I just want my command not to leak stuff.

Matt Эллен

if you break point inside add, what type is value?

@JohanLarsson public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged; is fine, just use that, no need for extra stuff.

Johan Larsson

12:10 PM

Reed Copsey pointed out that my implementation is leaking without the extra stuff

I could not find much in the docs so asked on SO

Matt Эллен

@JohanLarsson how does he say it's leaky?

I'll post the solution we use

Johan Larsson

It will keep things alive, keep them from being garbage collected

Matt Эллен

I don't see how using add and remove will prevent that

Johan Larsson

me neither, I'm clueless just posted some crap to keep the what-have-you-tried happy

Matt Эллен

OK, sorry, I've read what CanExecuteChangedEventManager is, so what you're saying makes sense now :D

Johan Larsson

12:22 PM

I use your implementation also but that one is automatic, no way to manually raise the CanExecuteChanged

Matt Эллен

??

Johan Larsson

CanExecuteChangedEventManager has a poor name

Matt Эллен

CanExecuteChange(this, someobject) doesn't work?

Johan Larsson

@MattЭллен at least I think it is, I have an AutoRelayCommand with your implementation. It updates on all ui activity

Matt Эллен

I'll delete the answer, because it's not related to CanExecuteChangedEventManager

Johan Larsson

12:24 PM

yeah might attract downvotes after my edit of the question

ty sir any way

Matt Эллен

I'm pretty sure you can still call CanExecuteChange from within the class, using my method

oh! apparently you can't

how odd

Johan Larsson

CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested();

maybe that is the way to go

Matt Эллен

maybes

Johan Larsson

I'll leave the question and wait for Reed, did not find much documentation about it so felt asking on SO was the right thing to do.

Matt Эллен

yeah

your current answer says what I was saying earlier

Johan Larsson

12:35 PM

Think it is related to this

Matt Эллен

yeah, I was getting memory leaks because I wasn't letting go of event handlers. really annoying

Johan Larsson

this is useful, and the one for collectionchanged. Syntax is not as nice though

Matt Эллен

I have a hacky solution to your problem. would you like to hear it?

Johan Larsson

sure

Matt Эллен

I'm not sure if it will workm, because it's stupid...

Johan Larsson

12:39 PM

you are selling it for sure

Matt Эллен

CanExecuteChangedEventManager.AddHandler(this, new EventHandler(value));

that will compile, but it might not work otherwise :D

Johan Larsson

I tried that, then it blew up in the RaiseCanExecuteChanged()

Matt Эллен

ah :D

thought it might

Johan Larsson

compiletime blew up

Matt Эллен

must be something in the method, because the newing of Eventhandler works

Johan Larsson

12:42 PM

yes

also not sure what will happen with remove if newing

if it does referenceequals it will fail

Matt Эллен

true

Johan Larsson

I get the compiler error "The event CanExecuteChanged can only appear to the left of -= or += "

on:

var handler = CanExecuteChanged;

when changing it

Matt Эллен

yeah. when you do the event in a property style you can't access it like if it's a field

because in a property style I think the compiler creates an event in the background

like for autoproperties

Johan Larsson

probably true

Matt Эллен

but! you can create your own event and access it through the property

hmmmm

I don't think that fixes anything

Johan Larsson

12:55 PM

I'm writing a thing that will use a zipfile like a database :)

Matt Эллен

is that what the command is for?

Johan Larsson

The command is more general purpose but I'm going to use it in this app

I expect this app to run for a very long time so leaks is an issue

Matt Эллен

indeed

so how does it use a zip file like a DB?

Johan Larsson

Instead of having a db I'm going to store a bunch of documents in the zipfile. Hacking the names of the documents so I can search them without opening each one.

Trying to avoid an installer

Matt Эллен

OK

interesting

Johan Larsson

12:59 PM

I'm doing mongo without db :)

Matt Эллен

indeed :D

tchrist

7

A: WinterBash 2013

Since it's not really a secret anymore: Winter Bash 2013 will start on December 16th. Here's a little teaser, with apologies to Marco and Laura: (Yes, this year you'll be able to customize the hat's position on your avatar.)

RegDwigнt

Interesting. Very schematic. Last year's production design was more lavish.

tchrist

Not sure I care to put on those funny court wigs they still unconscionably use in Britain.

I guess barristers tend to be afflicted with male pattern baldness.

Jasper Loy

Got my 100 association bonus today.

Matt Эллен

1:13 PM

who have you associated with?

Jasper Loy

Why am I creating and deleting accounts again and again?

2

@MattЭллен Eng and Math

Matt Эллен

because you don't like it here enough to stay

Jasper Loy

I think it's because I am crazy.

tchrist

@JasperLoy Because you have SEPD.

Matt Эллен

you don't have to be crazy to leave here, but it helps

Jasper Loy

1:15 PM

@tchrist That is one acronym unknown to me.

What disorder is SEPD?

Maybe it is meant to be a random D.

tchrist

Stack Exchange Personality Disorder, from the DSM-7.

Jasper Loy

Geezis!

Matt Эллен

Sociedad Español de Patologia Degestiva

Jasper Loy

Yes, soon it will be in the book, considering they now have mathematics disorder.

At least they took homosexuality out of the book.

tchrist

@MattЭллен Like any other bitch, Spanish society is feminine.

Matt Эллен

1:19 PM

oop! I misscopied that

tchrist

@JasperLoy I’m glad that cheers you.

Jasper Loy

@tchrist Yes, though, of course, everyone in this chat knows I am straight by now.

Matt Эллен

Sociedad Española de Patología Digestiva (SEPD)

Jasper Loy

@MattЭллен You still have a long beard?

Matt Эллен

I do

tchrist

1:20 PM

@JasperLoy Because you tell us that many times a day that you are here. Yeah, yeah. Everybody has issues, but not everyone hangs out their bloomers in public places.

Matt Эллен

I must depart!

tchrist

@MattЭллен ¡Mucho mejor!

Jasper Loy

@MattЭллен Bye!

tchrist

You want depart, you got it.

Mitch

@tchrist I don't think anyone does that. At least not lately.

tchrist

1:22 PM

That was the funniest typo I’ve made all week.

Mitch

At the laundromat?

At the dry cleaners? But of course that would be crazee. No one has their underwear dry cleaned...too... scratchy.

Jasper Loy

The best is not wear any underwear.

tchrist

harrumphs

Mitch

Ohhhh... which means they're crazy. I get it. What's the DSM-# for 'crazy'?

tchrist

@Mitch Psychotic episodes.

Jasper Loy

1:24 PM

I just met a friend who is schizo-affective.

tchrist

> Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders

Jasper Loy

My friend with OCD jumped many years ago.

He could not take it anymore.

tchrist

@JasperLoy You mean you just met with such a friend, or you just met such a person for the first time?

Jasper Loy

@tchrist Oh, with.

I am still alive, though every day, I hope I don't wake up.

tchrist

Although the more manic states of Bipolar I sufferers are also some sort of crazy.

@JasperLoy Someday your wish shall be granted.

Jasper Loy

1:26 PM

@tchrist Yes, death comes to us all.

My cousin also jumped off years ago, I dunno what D he has.

There will be other problems in my next life, but I hope I don't have OCD again.

At the risk of trivialising other things, I think OCD is the worst thing on earth.

tchrist

@Mitch There’s also a proposal on board for BP subtypes, like "Bipolar I Disorder with Psychotic Features". That would be the crazy bit I mentioned on BP1.

Jasper Loy

I guess there were signs of me going mad as early as 9.

tchrist

@JasperLoy nytimes.com/2013/12/06/opinion/…

Mad as a hatter

"Mad as a hatter" is a colloquial phrase used in conversation to refer to a crazy person. In 18th and 19th century England mercury was used in the production of felt, which was used in the manufacturing of hats common of the time. People who worked in these hat factories were exposed daily to trace amounts of the metal, which accumulated within their bodies over time, causing some workers to develop dementia caused by mercury poisoning (called mad hatter syndrome). Thus, the phrase became popular as a way to refer to someone who was perceived as insane. Etymology The origin of the saying...

Jasper Loy

Let me tell you why I am still alive, it is cos I don't dare to kill myself, hahaha.

tchrist

@Mitch The various dementias probably also count as crazy.

Jasper Loy

1:32 PM

I use crazy for anything in the DSM. Very loose usage.

By the definition, almost every one is crazy.

tchrist

If you aren’t being severely medicated right now, Jasper, you’re not just some kind of crazy, you’re a bloomin’ idiot.

Jasper Loy

@tchrist I have been taking meds for several months.

tchrist

If they haven’t helped, you need something else. You might still need something else.

Jasper Loy

I am unlucky in the sense that too often, when I think I have nailed it, something unexpected happens. It is like a curse.

tchrist

Bill Shatner in a barrister’s wig.

Jasper Loy

1:36 PM

Perhaps I did too much evil in my previous lives...

tchrist

@JasperLoy This is true for everyone, Jasper, for all versions of it.

Jasper Loy

@tchrist That is comforting, really. At least I know I am not alone.

Mitch

@JasperLoy By experience, everyone is. Some just cover it up better.

@JasperLoy Crazy is pretty much a biological dysfunction like diabetes or heartburn, so don't take it personally.

RegDwigнt

0

A: Developing a crush or infatuation

Just to let you know, I have fallen in love with a fictional character. Holly Short from Artemis Fowl.I cant stop thinking of her and always draw and read of her

tchrist

You’re welcome.

RegDwigнt

1:50 PM

-1

A: "Often" and "oftentimes"

This annoying word seems to be growing in popularity and I am certain that its use is inappropriate since "often" conveys precisely the same meaning. I suspect it is a corruption of "many times." But what do I know. I'm just the math teacher.

This is even worse.

He is a math teacher and he can't read the fine graph in the top answer?

Mitch

My attempt...

one more try...

tchrist

Not really.

Mitch

well that was 15 minutes with MSWord wasted.

tchrist

> f u cn rd ths, itn tyg h myxbl cd.

@Mitch Only 15? Sure all minutes therein spent are ipso facto wasted, time forever subtracted from your allotted span never to be reclaimed, only taxed further.

Ths prtclrly rpd unntljbl ptr znt jnrly hrd & f it z it dznt mtr.

And yes, that really is Vincent Price.

Johan Larsson

2:05 PM

This might be dumb.

tchrist

@JohanLarsson Well, it’s a heck of a lot of work just to rewrite basic transformations like s/ % ( \p{ASCII Hex Digit} {2} ) / char hex $1 /gex and its inverse s/ ( \P{ASCII} | \W ) / sprintf "%%02x", $1 /gex — that’s for danged sure!

Johan Larsson

I'm in mongo mode

tchrist

@JohanLarsson Me, I haven’t read it today myself.

tchrist

2:38 PM

@JohanLarsson I don’t mean to denigrate your work. But aren’t there standard libraries to do this in your language? Of course, I was also showing/spiffing off how a high-level-language approaches these things as opposed to a low-level one.

Johan Larsson

np man, just flame away :)

It got pretty ugly

There are UrlEncode and HttpEncode, ahve not seen FileNameEncode yet

string illegal = "\"M\"\\a/ry/ h**ad:>> a\\/:*?\"| li*tt|le|| la\"mb.?";
string regexSearch = new string(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars()) + new string(Path.GetInvalidPathChars());
Regex r = new Regex(string.Format("[{0}]", Regex.Escape(regexSearch)));
illegal = r.Replace(illegal, "");

that was not an option since I want to be able to decode

Johan Larsson

3:11 PM

filename or fileName?

RegDwigнt

3:33 PM

@JohanLarsson I use if (-1 == read) these days, to make sure I've really typed enough equal signs.

That's the only part of your code I can comment on. The rest doesn't look like HTML, so I'm not competent enough.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:48 PM

@RegDwigнt I don't know if that's necessary in C#. It isn't in Java.

You get a compiler error if you do if (read = 1) because if statements only accept boolean expressions. And if your variable is already a boolean you never need to do if (x == true) because you can just do if (x)

So I finished sorting the huge bin of 2nd-hand lego I bought.

What a strange experience.

RegDwigнt

Ewwww.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I washed it first.

I discovered quite a lot of pieces I didn't know were Lego.

RegDwigнt

You are typing in this room with the same fingers you used to touch other people's LEGO bricks. That's gross.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

They're my lego bricks now.

So I have one of these:

RegDwigнt

That is quite hideous.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:51 PM

took me a while to figure out it's a bionicle missle.

RegDwigнt

And yes, first time I see it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

it actually works pretty well.

RegDwigнt

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 that part is easy actually.

The tip gives it away.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

which tip? the bar end? or the blunt end

RegDwigнt

The blunt end.

It looks very similar to those regular rubber missiles.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:53 PM

This collection had quite a lot of bionicle and constraction stuff and I didn't come across any other parts like this.

RegDwigнt

I was playing with one yesterday, all night long, trying to figure out what to do with its other end which looks very peculiar.

Couldn't come up with any use for it.

But it would certainly make people go whoa, which part is that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

luckily, this collection also had that pump thingy

RegDwigнt

Oh my.

Reminds me of the Mars Mission thing.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

it's very odd, sorting through, say, 30lbs of lego, and not finding a single complete set.

yeah that's what I thought the pump was for

RegDwigнt

This is the other thingy I was playing with yesterday.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:56 PM

weird, I've never seen that kind of missle

I have some of those with a fully round end

RegDwigнt

Note the recess on the half beam, before the last hole.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 weird, I've never seen any of those with a fully round end, except just now during my search. Looks like they are from Mindstorms or something.

These here I have dozens of.

From Space sets, Agents, and most recently Ninjago.

They are ubiquitous.

bricklink.com/…

Oh yeah, and Atlantis, too.

Even Star Wars! But I don't have any of these sets.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

RegDwigнt

That looks like a shroom for Mario to jump on.

Oh, it's five o'clock. I think I'll commute extra early today.

Need to buy sweets for St Nicolaus's.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Mine came from batman sets and star wars.

RegDwigнt

I only have the Batman Cave. Still not assembled.

Over and out.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:00 PM

cya

aedia λ

4:25 PM

I even washed my own LEGO. I would have like triple washed other people's LEGO.

Actually maybe not. I only washed mine because a lot of it was quite dusty. I guess I was in a hurry to put away a castle like fifteen years ago.

I still don't have a good building setup. I did move the office furniture, but then I had to put a whole file cabinet and printer and shredder and stuff up here in preparation for moving all the living room furniture so we could get a couch. And then we bought a tv instead of a couch.

badass

Hi everybody.

aedia λ

Hola!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@aediaλ Just buy a folding table, then set it up somewhere "temporarily".

aedia λ

4:54 PM

I'm really thinking about it.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…