English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@MattЭллен Traitor!

@halirutan In your second example, in is not correct.

But investigating the properties tells me... is fine.

You use the -ing for as a gerund.

@Cerberus OK. But do you know how such kind of sentence is called where you start with a verb?

Ehh I don't think there is a name for that.

You just start the sentence with a gerund?

@Cerberus Thanks. Let me read a bit more about gerund.

5:00 PM

The distinction between participle and gerund is important.

Although they have the same form.

Gerund means "the action of investigating"; the participle means "who/that investigates".

> The people investigating our business were rude. => participle

@Cerberus Yes, this is how it feels for me.

> Investigating our business is a lot of work. => gerund

@halirutan And that is correct!

So a gerund functions like a noun and a verb at the same time, whereas a participle is an adjective and a verb.

@Cerberus Ah, I see.

Externally, a gerund is a noun, in that it can function like a noun as e.g. the subject or object of a verb.

Internally, it is a verb, because it can have e.g. an object of its own.

5:46 PM

> You have been on a raft with a chicken for 4 hours 38 minutes 19 seconds.

@KitFox Isn’t the ᴍᴜᴛᴇ button wonderful? Much better than earplugs.

Mute?

Mute.

I dunno.

I wish I could apply it to more than just a computer, believe me.

5:50 PM

Hi @KitFox

Hi @Sudhir.

How are you?

12:50 PM and party cloudy. Warmer today than yesterday.

I'm fine. Yourself?

That would be good

I'm also fine.

What would be good?

5:51 PM

Respite from the cold.

Is it cold there?

No, I'm telling at your end.

Oh. "would be" implies something desirable that is not realized.

I think you mean "that is good" then.

Yes. You're right. still learning

It would be good to have the rest of the day off.

For instance.

@Sudhir That's why I thought you'd like to know.

5:54 PM

Today, In my country there was strike.

Whole country was closed.

Wow. Government workers?

Yeah

I haven't paid any attention to the news.

Oh!

So in US there is also strike?

We have strikes sometimes, yes.

5:55 PM

oh

Government workers can't though.

But they have other means of protest.

I've one question. Is "Ha ha" formal word?

Formal?

yes

Like would the Queen use it?

5:57 PM

No, we usually use in chatting for expressing our happiness.

I don't think so.

Yes, it is the sound of laughing.

its a formal word in English.

I'm not sure what you mean by formal. It's not offensive or slang.

I mean to say Is it included in OED?

I don't know. Have you looked?

Are you a student?

5:59 PM

No

I'm a worker of IT company.

Oh. Let me check.

Tell me one thing normally one software developer as a fresher gets how much salary package is US?

It varies widely depending on the location.

And your skillset.

on an average?

1000USD?

per month

?

"ha", "ha ha", and "ha-ha" are all in the dictionary.

6:03 PM

Oh

@Sudhir More. Probably 2500-4800.

That's great

Yeah, it's decent.

as a fresher its somewhat more than enough.

It's a good salary if you've got just yourself.

6:05 PM

So companies comes to Institutes for placement?

I'm not sure I understand the question. What are you thinking of as Institutes?

Colleges?

Colleges

Some do. There are "job fairs" where prospective employers do recruiting.

But many companies don't recruit like that.

Oh great

What's the main reason behind 2008 recession in US that hit Indian IT companies very severely?

many were closed

Uh. I'm not an economist. I can only tell you what I heard.

6:09 PM

What?

I rewatched Maxed Out and it pretty much predicts what happened

@simchona: I've similar cat at my home as your pic have.

:)

@Sudhir Yay! It's a picture of my old cat.

Oh

It would be "at/in" my home?

Preposition always bites me.

Either "in my home" or "at my house" would work

6:13 PM

Thanks.

Or just "at home." The "home" implies it is your house.

okay

That's actually an interesting question. I wonder why the difference there.

Why?

I'm very weak in Preposition.

Some of this is native-speaker intuition--some prepositions sound right, but we can't say why

6:16 PM

Native speakers would say "in my home" and "at home." Never "in home" or "at my home." Well, in that sense.

They would imply something else.

@KitFox Exactly my thoughts earlier

I wonder if it is a difference in the way the two prepositions work.

I bet @Cerb would know.

@KitFox:You've any pic of yours?

I want to see.

Hmm what?

@Sudhir I don't share my pic in chat.

6:18 PM

okay

So which company you've heard of India?

I think prepositions are to a significant degree idiomatic, i.e. the causes are lost in time.

Which Indian companies have I heard of?

None.

Tata Steel?

Arcalor Mittal?

IT companies?

@Cerberus:Yes

I don't think I know any.

6:22 PM

At home happens to be an idiomatic combination, and home without a possessive adjective implies it is the home of the person mentioned earlier or based on context.

Infosys

?

So there are two factors that may be pushing against "at my home".

The precise workings of this construction are unclear.

@KitFox: In US there are beggars who speaks English fluently?

It sounds odd but I wonder about English speakers beggar

you there?

@simchona?

What happened?

I'm waiting

Yes, there are English-speaking beggars in most countries in the world.

in the world or of the world?

Poverty in the United States

6:30 PM

Poverty is a state of privation or lack of the usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. According to the U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday September 13, 2011, the nation's poverty rate rose to 15.1% (46.2 million) in 2010, up from 14.3% (approximately 43.6 million) in 2009 and to its highest level since 1993. In 2008, 13.2% (39.8 million) Americans lived in relative poverty. In 2000, the poverty rate for individuals was 12.2% and for families was 9.3%. In November 2012 the U.S. Census Bureau said more than 16% of the population was impoverished, and a...

Johan Larsson

what is the number for Greece? Heard some huge number-

Depends on how you measure.

They have 25 % unemployment...but that includes moonlighting, which is very common in Greece, I believe.

If they come to India they can live a good life.

I am surprised how little poverty there is in Malaysia and Egypt.

And Iran and Thailand too, I suppose.

So what's daily income of poor there?

@KitFox:You busy with work

bye

Its too late here

@simchona

Robusto

6:45 PM

@Cerberus Looks like Chile is kicking ass in South America.

@Robusto It is!

It is also the most civilised country in SA, as far as I know.

Robusto

I work with a guy from Chile. He thinks it is.

Hehe.

Now I'm trying to find the actual cultural heart of Santiago.

But I can't.

At least nothing looks remotely nice.

giant yawn

maps.google.com/…

This looks fairly OK, though.

@aediaλ !

6:52 PM

Hiya! I think I need ten more cups of coffee. Or somethin'.

maps.google.com/…

Okay, this may be the main square. It actually look quite nice! Except for that ugly skyscraper, but, well.

I had a movie-marathon weekend, and completely foobar'd my sleeping schedule, and haven't managed to get back on track despite w-rking like a zombie yesterday.

The cultural heart of Santiago is its historic cathedral, which resides in its Old Town, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. It is where the pilgrims who travel the Way of St James have flocked to for a dozen centuries.

@Cerberus So at first glance there are not many improvements over the GN. Most of the improvements are invisible unless you need them. I.e. more cpu cores, more ram.

@aediaλ Yikes. Eat a magical unicorn cookie, meyhaps?

6:56 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Hmm yes. Does it feel decidedly more responsive / faster during daily use?

@aediaλ pours coffee

@tchrist But that's an edited photo. I want real Street View.

@Cerberus decidedly more responsive and faster than my nexus S which is what I upgraded from most recently.

Heh.

And compared to your wife's GN?

6:56 PM

It looks nicer than the GN. The glass back is way nicer looking.

I also like the curved glass front.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yayyy thank you!

The software is the same as the GN

I think there are some features enabled on the N4, like HDR photos, that might not be on the GN. The HDR seems to work okay... I need to try it in real-world situations though.

I am wondering about this because I bought an Acer Liquid Gallant for my friend, and it actually seems just as responsive as my GN most of the time, even though it has only one core. It's the most extreme budget phone available at 4.3".

There are some things I don't like. 1. The power button is too hard to press. And that's very annoying.

But it's fine.

6:58 PM

2. The colours aren't as warm as the GN and the black isn't as black.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I use an application for that. No need to integrate that into the OS if you ask me. But OK.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Use PGM!

No Super AMOLED?

3. My car has a slot where the GN fits and the Nexus S and Nexus 4 don't fit. It turns out that it's not for phones but for some accessory that came with the car. But whatevs, the GN fit and this one doesn't.

@Cerberus no it's IPS something

The Acer has fairly bad blacks and bad viewing angles. Still perfectly fine, though—but clearly worse.

Here. Maybe you can tickle a street-view out of it. I cannot.

It's very sharp and clear. But not as black and the colours are a bit too blue.

6:59 PM

You could correct that blue with some application.