English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Noah

06:02

Can "billions of dollars " be used as a singular?

@Cerberus

Cerberus

06:17

@Noah Nope.

You can say "a billion dollars" or "one billion dollars".

But "billions" is always plural.

Noah

So we have to write "billions of dollars have been spent" instead of "has been spent"?

then why do we say "five dollars is a lot of money"

Cerberus

06:41

@Noah Yes.

@Noah That is possible with any noun.

> Ten people is too much.

Noah

07:08

is requester common in contemporary English?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Noah use it in a sentence

Noah

For example you receive requests through a Web form and you need to label a field where the person who submits the request has to put their name.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I guess it might make sense in context.

Noah

Requester Name: Jon.

I was thinking of Applicant Name, but that is more related to teh employment and jobseeking industry.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I think it'd be more common to use some other word.

Noah

07:15

Can you suggest some?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

"Applicant" works for any case where the person is submitting an application.

@Noah it depends on what the web form is for.

Noah

But this is more like a request form at a company.

For example, you need a computer, so you have to fill out a request form.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

can you think of any other word that describes the relationship between the employee and the helpdesk/whatever?

Noah

Well, the form is called "request form"

I dont know what other word would describe the requester.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

imagine if you didn't have a form, just an in-person process.

Noah

07:28

Begger.? lol

Can you help me find one?

Cerberus

07:44

Employee?

Client?

Noah

Client Name?

What if the person is not an employee?

Cerberus

08:10

Why not just "name"?

Or even "your name"?

Noah

That might work.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

10:29

Some Russian people are funny because they are expecting others to speak Russian and refuse to speak in English ....

Matt Эллен

10:40

Yo momma so fat that everyone else's mass is a rounding error in comparision.

KitFox

10:52

Good morning!

Matt Эллен

Hello!

How was your cake?

KitFox

Yummy.

And delicious.

Matt Эллен

mmm. Sounds excellent

KitFox

I got some wildly-colored tank tops that my boys picked out.

Matt Эллен

nice

KitFox

10:53

I'm wearing two of them today.

Matt Эллен

at the same time?

KitFox

But my other present hasn't gotten here yet. Should arrive today.

@MattЭллен Yes.

It's the new thing I do, I guess.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox exciting!

@KitFox you're a trend setter

KitFox

I'm pretty sure it's a wireless controller for the PC.

But my husband won't say for certain.

Matt Эллен

:D

KitFox

10:55

So I might be playing Heretic from my couch tonight!

Matt Эллен

old skool and nu skool combine

KitFox

The neon pink and electric blue tank tops make me feel like I ought to be playing Vice City though.

Which I could! Tonight! On Steam! If I wanted!

Matt Эллен

yes!

KitFox

Which would also be much simpler than digging out the PS2.

Matt Эллен

yeah. who has time for digging, these days?

KitFox

10:59

Well, mumbles something about the fish digging

I will get so much done today!

Matt Эллен

good. What is your first task?

KitFox

I am going to do the assessments part. I added some new tables yesterday, so this morning, I will create two new views.

Then sprocs!

How about you? What's on your docket today?

Matt Эллен

good old sprocs.

KitFox

I suppose you've been at work for...What, like three or four hours already?

Matt Эллен

@KitFox hmm. I have actually forgotten. I had to fix the uninstaller then something

KitFox

11:01

Five?

Matt Эллен

3.75 hours

I've fixedthe uninstaller

KitFox

Yay!

And talked to me!

Matt Эллен

I'm running 100000 scans

fake data

what was the other thing...

@KitFox yay!

KitFox

I would be on the server right now, but I like to wait until I get to my monitors, so in the morning, I pretend to do support.

Well, I do support when there is any to be done.

@MattЭллен Debugging something?

Matt Эллен

by my calculations, though, 100000 scans will take longer than I anticipated when I started them.

KitFox

11:03

So time to goof off?

Matt Эллен

no. I think it will take 9 hours

I can't goof off for — well obviously I can, but I'll be at home by the end

KitFox

What kind of impact does that have on the machine, or do you not actually run it?

Matt Эллен

it's all simulated in my machine, but I'm running it from visual studio

KitFox

2010?

Matt Эллен

so, I can't actually develop anything

@KitFox yes

KitFox

11:05

You'll have to work on your documentation, then.

Matt Эллен

yes. I could try and doucment the tests I do

KitFox

In limerick form.

Matt Эллен

lol

KitFox

A familiar cadence with help your readers absorb and retain the information better.

Matt Эллен

my limerick blog has 19 tumblr followers!

KitFox

11:07

That's great!

It's like you have friends!

Matt Эллен

I'm surprised so many people have found it

@KitFox lol.

KitFox

Yesterday I was wishing I had friends.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox you do have friends

KitFox

I mean friends to drink with and such.

Matt Эллен

oh. yeah. that's a bit difficult from over here

KitFox

11:08

Yeah.

I have a couple, but it's always a lot of effort to get together these days.

RegDwighт

I still can't use that tumblr thing. I still don't understand what it even is.

Matt Эллен

yeah. kids and distance are bothersome

KitFox

And it's the curse of my birthday that most everyone is vacationing with their family or getting ready to.

Or having family visit, etc.

No time for Kit.

Matt Эллен

:(

KitFox

Poor Kit.

But I had a really nice birthday!

And more presents tonight!

And I have to drink the scotch before it mellows any further!

Matt Эллен

11:09

@RegDwighт hmmm. I saw a youtube video that explained it yesterday...

KitFox

I think I have a tumblr account on account of Matt's tumblr account but I'm not sure.

Matt Эллен

►

RegDwighт

That's nice and all, and I'm sure there are thousands of YouTube videos explaining it.

But they really really really really suck at communicating themselves.

I don't know what I'm doing there, I don't know who sees what, or indeed if anyone sees anything at all.

Matt Эллен

tags are key to people seeing things

RegDwighт

What? There are tags?

Matt Эллен

11:12

note to self: fluorine experiment

RegDwighт

I know there are blogs, I know there are pics, I know there are schmadoodles and fizzles, but now there's also tags? I've not seen a single tag yet.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт I have (redunantly) tagged every limerick I have written witht he limerick tag

RegDwighт

Here, @Kit, now you're not poor anymore.

KitFox

Thanks.

You know how I love the Russian.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox aye lassy, that ye dee

KitFox

11:14

My boys really liked the Tumblr video.

Matt Эллен

:D

RegDwighт

Actually now I see that I have tagged my shit. With six tags, in fact. And you're telling me someone's seen that? I've had zero reaction so far.

Matt Эллен

well, you can't tell if anyone's viewed. only if they had the inclination to "like" it

or reblog it

RegDwighт

Well I don't have a single like, either.

I only see that I'm following 19 blogs (which is a lie, I am not following anyone, I don't even know how to do that), and that I have something called "untitled". Which I cannot edit.

Matt Эллен

you can edit it. That's the title of you blog.

if you go to tumblr.com/dashboard there are the settings, somewhere

RegDwighт

11:17

Oh. But I don't want a blog.

I thought I could just share links and shit.

Matt Эллен

that's the same thing

the tumblog

RegDwighт

@MattЭллен that's where I am, at all times actually. That's where it puts me every time.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт good. so on the right you see the url of your tumblr. if you click on that it should take you to just your posts and then on the right again there should be settings, where you can entitle your thing

RegDwighт

I checked out the About section and the Help section and even there, they failed to so much as communicate what the hell the site even is. You say it's a collection of blogs that aren't blogs. I would have loved to hear that from them.

Matt Эллен

I'm speaking from memory so all information is highly suspect

KitFox

11:19

Wow, they practically break your arm to get you to follow blogs.

It looks rather like Twitter but with no limitations. A FB wall without the other stuff.

Matt Эллен

exactly

KitFox

Commute time. Later.

Matt Эллен

CU

RegDwighт

@MattЭллен but... I don't want to have to title my thing. I don't want to have a thing. I want to share random pics.

CU Kit.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт yes. finding things out is difficult. I just went a head and pushed all the buttons

RegDwighт

11:21

@MattЭллен actually when I do that, I can't edit my existing thing, it tells me to set up a new thing, whose authorship would be automatically be shared with others. WTF.

It also starts some weird talk about main blogs and side blogs.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт hmm. well, the good news is you can get rid of the "Untitled" bit.

RegDwighт

Not sure about that.

As I said, I seem to be creating a new thing, not editing the existing one.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт oh. OK. I have side blogs. I must have done something else to set the title

RegDwighт

Which I don't want to exist in the first place, but so be it.

This is like rocket surgery or something.

You'd think by 2013 they'd've figured out how to share links on the Internet, and how to write FAQs.

Noah

Hello, humans.

RegDwighт

11:24

So anyway. Screw that. Here's a different question. How do I browse a tag?

Hello Noah.

Say, I want to see pics of cute animals. Now what?

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт type the tag you want to browse into the search bar. or go to http://tumblr.com/tagged/<tag name here>

RegDwighт

Well, I don't know the name of the tag.

How could I know it if I'm only just searching for it.

Noah

In Mac OS X Mavericks, you can easily browse a tag by simply clicking on it in your Finder window.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт ah. just search and see what tags come up

RegDwighт

Right. I could try clicking on some tags that seem interesting. The problem is to find one.

O0oO0oOO0ooO

11:28

What's the difference between "on and off" vs "off and on" and "down and up" vs "up and down"

?

Matt Эллен

the order of the words

RegDwighт

Quite typically, one particular order is idiomatic and all others aren't.

So the search sort of works. Sort of.

Matt Эллен

e.g. "trying turning it off and on again"

RegDwighт

Can you tell me why it puts the graffiti in there?

The top post is not tagged LEGO, but at least it mentions #lego in plain text. But the second post is completely unrelated.

Matt Эллен

because it is tagged with lego. for some reason the tags displayed under the posts exclude the tag you search for

RegDwighт

11:30

Genius.

Matt Эллен

indeed

lunch!

RegDwighт

This is tagged #lego?

Mahlzeit.

Andrew Leach

Time to paint? I must have got that wrong.

Noah

Time to screw things up.

Hello @DavidWallace

I dont see your ELU account anymore?

Not sure if you are still around.

David Wallace

Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullah, Noah. I haven't had an ELU account for several months.

Noah

11:37

W.Salam. Warahmatullah.

Okay. I didnt know that.

David Wallace

I'm a little bit surprised that you thought I did. I thought I had had it deleted long before you started coming here.

Noah

No. I think I remember you answering questions on ELU.

So It wasnt that long ago.

David Wallace

I think it was November last year.

RegDwighт

This is a terrible, horrible, no-good day. Even frigging Google is completely unusable now.

Noah

Really? That' seems a bit longer than I thought.

David Wallace

11:41

Definitely November.

Noah

But you have your Islam.SE account, right?

@RegDwighт I wonder why the communist is so angry today.

:)

David Wallace

Yes, I still have Islam.SE. I don't use it very much though.

I got to 5000 rep on Stack Overflow today!

RegDwighт

@Noah well, pardon my French, but how the fuck am I supposed to search for Russian sites about LEGO, if Google actually translates my query from Russian into English and then returns only pages with not a single word of Russian on them?

Noah

Wow, I think my SO rep is awfully low.

RegDwighт

Google should stop trying to read my mind, and start reading what I actually tell them to read.

Noah

11:45

Try Bing/

There's always an alternaive out there.

RegDwighт

Yeah no shit.

David Wallace

Just don't tell bing that you like lego.

Noah

Or even baidu.

Baidu will help you with your Chinese

RegDwighт

A breath of fresh air.

Who would have thunk. Bing actually searches for the term you entered.

Noah

See, i told you.

RegDwighт

11:47

And then they wonder why nobody uses Google in China or Russia.

David Wallace

Haha. I didn't look closely enough at your screen dump from google. I thought you were searching for "nero" and wondered what the relationship was between that and lego. I will get my eyes tested.

Noah

Microsoft stole Google's algorithms and then added there own ones to them.

RegDwighт

And I mean, I should know better. I could use Yandex or Rambler like everybody else. But no, for some reason I always keep giving Google a chance.

Noah

Google is not for Russians. Sergy seems to have been pissed off by the russian goverment

Microsoft stole Google's algorithms and then added there own ones to them.

RegDwighт

@DavidWallace well, to be fair (and that is sort of my whole point), the relationship between "nero" and "lego" is precisely that between "лего" and "lego".

David Wallace

11:51

So лего means something else?

Noah

But, forgive my Spanish, how in the hell should Google know that you are searching for lego, while you are typing Nero in there.

David Wallace

He's not typing Nero.

RegDwighт

Лего means лeго. It is Russian for LEGO. It is, however, not English for LEGO. Neither is Nero.

Noah

Okay. Got you.

David Wallace

Noah, л is the Russian equivalent of L, and г is the Russian equivalent of G.

Noah

11:52

I had to zoom in your screenshot.

David Wallace

So what you said about the relationship between "nero" and "lego" being precisely that between "лего" and "lego" is actually completely untrue. That is, one was a Roman emperor, and the other three are little plastic building blocks.

RegDwighт

It is untrue in other contexts, but it is entirely true in this particular one.

Noah

I understand. But if he is looking for a simple thing like this, why doenst he put LEGO in there?

Have you tried searching it on google.com.ru

RegDwighт

When you enter X and Google searches for Y, then it doesn't matter what X is. The point is that it's not Y.

David Wallace

I have no problem getting google to give me only Russian results for Лего.

RegDwighт

11:55

Teach me.

Actually, teach them.

David Wallace

You tell it to give you only Russian results. Then you search for Лего.

RegDwighт

I told them to give me only Russian results, by typing in Russian.

David Wallace

No, you did not.

Noah

try it on www.google.com.ru

David Wallace

No, Noah, that won't help.

RegDwighт

11:56

They also know from my browser settings, my Gmail profile, and everything else they've been collecting over the last 15 years that I am in fact a Russian.

Noah

@DavidWallace Why not?

David Wallace

Click the options button. Tell it to give you results only in Russian.

RegDwighт

I do not want to do that. Why would I want to go to options? I already told them the exact string to search for.

David Wallace

@Noah Ask Google. It just doesn't.

KitFox

Hiya.

RegDwighт

11:57

And I do not want to find results only in Russian. Who knows what kind of misunderstanding that will entail?

KitFox

Anybody want to join me for coffee?

RegDwighт

I need to find results in any language featuring this exact string in Russian.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox So long as I don't have to drink the coffee

David Wallace

Or, you could put it in " " marks. Which says "this is the exact string that I'm interested in - apply none of your own misguided intelligence".

That works too.

RegDwighт

@DavidWallace yeah.

David Wallace

11:59

@KitFox I would LOVE to join you for coffee, but I expect that my budget won't stretch to the airfare.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…