English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

skullpatrol

19:02

If you're interested, read his book Relativity: The Special and General Theory.

Anonymous

@MετάEd They save you some work sometimes! :-)

Anonymous

. . . That's all I've got.

skullpatrol

Relativity: The Special and the General Theory

Relativity: The Special and the General Theory began as a short paper and was eventually published as a book written by Albert Einstein with the aim of giving: It was first published in German in 1916 and later translated into English in 1920. It is divided into 3 parts, the first dealing with special relativity, the second dealing with general relativity and the third dealing with considerations on the universe as a whole. There have been many versions published since the original in 1916, the latest in December, 2011. The w...

Anonymous

@Cerberus Some people admit that grammaticality is not black-and-white. It seems reasonable to me. "Me like go pub often for many food drink also" would get more stars from me than "I like to go to pubs often for many food and drink" (although I would only bother with this distinction if it were relevant to the discussion at hand)

skullpatrol

@MετάEd amazon.com/mc~2-Biography-Worlds-Famous-Equation/dp/0425181642

Anonymous

19:10

But at least intuitively it makes sense. One utterance can sound more wrong than another.

KitFox

Yeah, but I'd argue neither one of those is grammatical.

Anonymous

Oh, that was my intention: to show two things that are ungrammatical, but one which is "more ungrammatical"

skullpatrol

let's not argue :-)

MετάEd

@snailboat I have to admit that formula is going to save me some real calculator time.

@skullpatrol So does he explain what he means by "most famous equation"

Because authors of popular books are well known for pulling numbers from orifices.

skullpatrol

dunno, I haven't read it

I would imagine he means the most popularly known.

Like a famous work of art.

Cerberus

19:37

@snailboat If I were to adhere to the definitions of these linguists, I would call that concept acceptability, not grammaticality, I think?

Anonymous

@Cerberus Well, it's true that people (including me!) make an acceptability-grammaticality distinction, but I don't think either of them has to be black-and-white

skullpatrol

!!youtube It doesn't matter if you're black or white

KitSox

►

Cerberus

@snailboat It doesn't have to be...

You could say the use of a question mark already assumes a certain degree.

To be honest, I am sceptical about the concept of grammaticality altogether as defined by certain linguists.

Anonymous

Uh-huh? What is your view?

Cerberus

19:43

Well, I'm not so sure the concept of grammaticality has any basis outside of acceptibility.

It is a bit...Chomskyesque, perhaps, to presume divine laws.

Jim

19:56

Hello. I have a quick question. Why would I receive an up vote to an answer that yields only +2 points. I checked to see if it was a reversed down vote, but as far as I can tell it's not. Have I reached a daily limit or something, maybe?

MετάEd

@Cerberus That's fair. I'm skeptical about the definition of definition, as defined by certain philosophers.

@Cerberus Not popery?

I'll take Popery for 100.

Anonymous

@Jim Did you hit 200 points (plus 15 per accepted answer)?

Jim

@snalboat I'm at 230.

I thought I would just stop getting points at all after 200, but I have to re-read the fine print I guess.

Anonymous

The basic limit is 200 per day, which I think is reset each day at midnight UTC. There are some points which don't count toward the cap, so I think in this case you've got 2 * 15 = 30 points for two accepted questions, bringing it up to 200 + 2*15 = 230

KitFox

The limit is for vote rep only.

Jim

19:59

Maybe I had 198 in vote rep after a down vote, so the next up vote limited me to only an additional +2, giving 200. Thanks. That makes sense.

Anonymous

Sounds reasonable! :-)

KitFox

@Jim That could be, yes.

Cerberus

@MετάEd Hah. Hah.

Stack Exchange

Limerick Machine: An old man who wanted some chips Was looking a licking his lips The view that he saw Made him...

posted on March 13, 2014 by sgdi

An old man who wanted some chips Was looking a licking his lips The view that he saw Made him salivate more Potatoes fried up in thin strips

Cerberus

vimeo.com/88093956

Don't look at the description: what do you think this visualisation shows?

It's quite cool.

Moving points of light on a map...

skullpatrol

20:10

I thought it was the internet...

Anonymous

At first I thought it might be networking too, but I figured it out maybe 15 seconds in

skullpatrol

...I saw a similar graphic for Facebook

MετάEd

@Cerberus It doesn't help that the title's in the tab ...

KitFox

I figured it out from the still.

But those circular patterns are easy to spot.

skullpatrol

KitFox

20:18

quitting time. Talk to all y'all tomorrow!

Cerberus

@MετάEd The title tells you little.

skullpatrol

later

Cerberus

@skullpatrol Hmm not based on the same visuals.

MετάEd

@Cerberus It tells you little enough, though. I suppose it depends on who you are.

Cerberus

What struck me was how the routes across the Atlantic are so far to the north, and how they were spaced apart by a certain fixed distance.

@MετάEd "Europe 24" tells me nothing.

skullpatrol

20:20

true dat^

it doesn't matter who you are

9 mins ago, by skullpatrol

@Cerberus these don't look similar?

Cerberus

Not to me?

No dots.

Similar, sure.

But it's not the same visualisation.

skullpatrol

that's what I meant.

add in animation and magnification

Cerberus

OK.

skullpatrol

I guess I have an over active imagination.

Cerberus

The ones in your image are all straight lines.

skullpatrol

20:28

from far...

Cerberus

They depict connections, probably: not actual routes, I think?

MετάEd

@Cerberus It tells me it'll show me something about a day in the life of Europe. And the still image (before you click play) tells the rest of the story. So I had it at 0:00.

Cerberus

Sure, the image is informative.

Alraxite

20:48

2048 is hard:/

Ca

Can't get to the 2048 tile

Cerberus

Ohh so close!

Alraxite

21:08

Probably my 100th game.

Anonymous

I got to 256! :-) (I've only played once)

Anonymous

It says my score is 2908.

Cerberus

Nice.

I got to 512 in my only game.

Anonymous

Well done!

Alraxite

I don't even remember. I was so confused how the game worked.

But definitely didn't get to 256.

Anonymous

21:14

Anonymous

The 2s and 4s killed me. Stupid 2s and 4s.

Alraxite

I usually try to concentrate a higher number block at one corner and then try to have lower number blocks in descending order next to it.

So, if I choose bottom left where I'd keep my highest block

then I'll basically be only using the down, right, and left keys

rarely ever up

I kind of screwed up in the end of my game, so my 1024, 512... row is not at the bottom as it should have been.

MετάEd

What's a good way to manage the small blocks? In Threes, actually.

Anonymous

Yay, I'm at 256 in my second game, too :-)

Anonymous

Oh, I only got a slightly higher score that time

Damkerng T.

21:33

Oh, what is this game? It looks like everything is in 2^n.

Anonymous

Yes. Your goal is to make it to n=11

Damkerng T.

Isn't that 2048?

Anonymous

That's the name of the game!

Damkerng T.

A web game?

Anonymous

The link is over at the right in a starred message by RegDwight

Damkerng T.

21:35

Ah, I see. Got it. Trying...

I found this one: gabrielecirulli.github.io/2048

Cerberus

@MετάEd Small?

2 and 1?

Anonymous

I played a third time, experimentally putting very little thought into it, and just hitting arrows really fast based on whatever seemed instinctively good

Anonymous

I got close to 512

Cerberus

Good!

Anonymous

The game appears to have a pretty good natural difficulty curve, where starting out it's difficult to lose, and it feels more and more difficult as the game goes on

Anonymous

21:37

That makes sense, because your big numbers have fewer and fewer opportunities to join, so they end up taking up space rather than being useful.

Cerberus

@MετάEd If you see a red one coming in next turn, make sure it will appear on whatever side you have blue ones lying around, so move in the opposite direction. Never let coloured ones be closed in by white ones. Killing coloureds should have priority over killing whites. Although the fewer, the merrier, of course.

Anonymous

I'm curious if the game can always be won by a skilled player

Cerberus

Reg says it can.

He says he should be able to win most games.

Alraxite

Who holds to prestigious high score to that game?

Anonymous

Not I, said the snail

Anonymous

21:40

I haven't really figured out even the basics of 2048 strategy.

Damkerng T.

Oh, I got only 256!

Anonymous

Aw, I beat my high score by entering a fixed pattern.

Damkerng T.

I think that is a pattern for this.

Just curious about the best possible score.

Save the link for later. :-)

Anonymous

Will do? :-)

Damkerng T.

No. It's done. :D

Anonymous

21:48

Oh, I thought you might have been instructing me to save the link for later.

Anonymous

Uh oh. Left down left down up got stuck. It needs to go right, but it doesn't know how!

Damkerng T.

Oh, I usually omitted I in chat rooms. :-)

Anonymous

I guess that pattern's not a winner.

Damkerng T.

This kind of game reminds me of chess.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. My mom does that. Although I don't think she'd be likely to say "[I] save the link for later" either way

Damkerng T.

21:51

I bet that one day we will be able to prove that whoever has the first move is definitely either the winner or the loser.

Anonymous

But she'll write things like "Went to the store." or "Had Korean lessons again this afternoon."

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I can prove that right now, as long as you let me set the problem domain to Tic-Tac-Toe.

Anonymous

Admittedly, it doesn't end up as a very good description of chess.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Indeed. My bad. I should have said "Saving ..."

Anonymous

But Tic-Tac-Toe is all I can manage.

Damkerng T.

21:53

Whoever moves first in Tic-Tac-Toe is the winner, I guess.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I can disprove that!

Damkerng T.

Hah!

MετάEd

@Cerberus Yes, traffic control with the small pieces

@Cerberus That is so racist.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Let's play Tic-Tac-Toe. I'll go first. I choose the upper-left corner!

Cerberus

@MετάEd Yeah, it's nice, huh?

Damkerng T.

21:55

Let's call the cell 123, 456, 789.

Anonymous

Okay. I play 1.

Damkerng T.

You chose 1, I choose 2.

Anonymous

Now I choose 3.

Damkerng T.

I choose 4.

Anonymous

I choose 7!

Damkerng T.

21:56

I choose 6.

Anonymous

I choose 8.

Anonymous

I see where this is going. cries

Damkerng T.

Oh, am I going to win? I choose 9.

Anonymous

I um, choose 5!

Damkerng T.

Wait, I think I might need to draw the board. :D

MετάEd

21:57

We could play matches.

||| |||| |||||

Anonymous

X O X
O X O
X X O

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

lights match, extinguishes on tongue

Anonymous

Have I proven anything fundamental about Tic-Tac-Toe yet?

MετάEd

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Hi! Okay, but from which group

Damkerng T.

I might need to rephrase... Whoever moves first in Tic-Tac-Toe will be the winner, if they choose so, I guess.

MετάEd

21:58

@DamkerngT. No.

Damkerng T.

No?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@MετάEd Hi! Oh geez, I guess the 3rd one.

Anonymous

No! I lied.

MετάEd

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 So your move is ||| |||| ||||

Anonymous

You can always force a draw.

MετάEd

21:59

and my move is ||| || ||||

Damkerng T.

I don't know how to play matches.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

||| || |||

I don't, either.

Anonymous

Are we playing matches, too? Or are we watching?

Damkerng T.

LOL

Anonymous

Is it my turn?

Anonymous

22:00

I'm every bit as good at matches theory as I am at Tic-Tac-Toe theory.

Damkerng T.

:D

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@MετάEd Wait, you took two matches.

Anonymous

You can take an arbitrary number from any group, but you don't want to take the last one of any group?

MετάEd

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 You can take at least one match, but from only one pile.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

OK.

MετάEd

22:01

Right, you don't want to be left holding the last match.

|| || |||

Anonymous

Whose turn is it?

MετάEd

@snailboat It's @cornbreadninja麵包忍者's turn

Damkerng T.

Ah, that sounds a little familiar. Does the game start with four piles?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

|| || ||

Anonymous

Oh, good luck, cornbread ninja!

MετάEd

22:02

@DamkerngT. The way I play it starts with ||| |||| |||||

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 | || ||

Damkerng T.

I see. A little different.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@snailboat thank you! ^_^

@MετάEd | || |

I lost

Anonymous

Uh, oh!

Damkerng T.

Oh!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

because M'ed took two that one time and I never did ;_;

MετάEd

22:07

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 | | |

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

loses

| |

MετάEd

Ok ... ||| |||| |||||

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 :-(

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@MετάEd ||| |||| ||

@MετάEd is ok.

MετάEd

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 ||| || ||

Cerberus

So that is a bit like Four in a Row?

If played well, of course.

MετάEd

22:11

I guess I don't know four in a row

Damkerng T.

Go?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@MετάEd | || ||

Hi Cerbawerberus!

MετάEd

It's not like Go.

Alraxite

How is this game played?

MετάEd

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 || ||

Cerberus

22:12

You throw in a chip from the top when it's your turn, and you win if you have four in a row, can be diagonal. The same for your opponent.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Hi!!

MετάEd

@Alraxite You take at least one match, but from only one pile. If you take the last match, you lose.

Mitch

We could play rock paper scissors. You go first.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@MετάEd ||

Damkerng T.

Sounds rather like Go, though I don't know exactly how to play Go.

Cerberus

MετάEd

22:13

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 |

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Connect Four!

Cerberus

@DamkerngT. Noo it is nothing like Go.

Damkerng T.

Ah, I see.

cyril

connect 5

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Um, shit.

Anonymous

22:13

I liked Connect Four when I was little.

Cerberus

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I'm sure it's marketed under many names.

MετάEd

||| |||| |||||

Alraxite

@MετάEd Oh okay.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

I must commute.

Alraxite

Can I join? @MετάEd

||| |||| |

Damkerng T.

22:14

Frankly, the first time I saw this Connect Four game was just a few years ago. :D

MετάEd

@Alraxite || |||| |

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I haven't played it since grade school.

Anonymous

I think one of the first things I ever wrote in C was a little Connect Four clone.

Alraxite

@MετάEd || ||| |

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Mine was Guess My Number. :D

MετάEd

22:15

@Alraxite | ||| |

Alraxite

@MετάEd | | |

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Oh, HiLo!

MετάEd

loses

Alraxite

Erm, I win?

Yay!

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Yes. :-)

MετάEd

22:16

It's your table! You start.

Anonymous

@Alraxite Yay! You've toppled the reigning champion of matches.

Alraxite

@MετάEd ||| |||| |||

Anonymous

And here I thought it could not be done.

Alraxite

@snailboat For the moment, I have!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I did that, but before I learned C.

Damkerng T.

22:17

Watching people playing games is fun too. :D

@snailboat Actually, I did it in BASIC. (One of the languages that I dislike the most. :-)

Cerberus

@snailboat Did it have a strong AI?

I've just played it online, but the AI sucked.

Anonymous

@Cerberus No, I don't think so. But in my defense, I was in grade school.

Cerberus

Heh.

MετάEd

@Alraxite You start with ||| |||| |||||

Cerberus

I imagine it must be hard to program an AI.

Alraxite

22:18

@MετάEd Oh, okay. Didn't know.

MετάEd

I didn't tell anybody.

:D

Anonymous

It depends on the purpose of that AI.

Alraxite

@MετάEd ||| |||| |||||

There.

MετάEd

@Alraxite || |||| |||||

Anonymous

A pretty broad category of things are referred to as "AI", and some of them are fairly easy to cobble together :-)

Damkerng T.

22:19

@snailboat I'm sure that my first program in C was "hello.c".

Alraxite

@MετάEd || |||| |

MετάEd

@Alraxite || ||| |

Alraxite

@MετάEd || || |

MετάEd

@Alraxite || ||

Alraxite

You can't do that?

@MετάEd

MετάEd

22:21

You take at least one from only one pile.

Alraxite

That's the last one in its pair?

MετάEd

It's okay to take the last one.

Alraxite

@MετάEd 'but if you take the last one you lose..?'

okay

MετάEd

If you take the very last one, you lose.

It just so happens that when you see | | |, the writing's on the wall.

Alraxite

@MετάEd Okay. || |, I lost:(

Unless you accidentally make the wrong move!

MετάEd

22:23

Right!

:-)

Okay, anybody: ||| |||| |||||

Anonymous

I'll play! Can I play?

Anonymous

I've been dying to get in on this game.

Anonymous

||| ||||

Anonymous

Oh, I lost

Damkerng T.

Huh? Can you take 5 at once?

Anonymous

22:24

Wait! I don't give up yet. I'm going to see this through!

Alraxite

Ha ha.

MετάEd

@snailboat || ||||

Anonymous

|| ||

MετάEd

loses

Okay, some of y'all are paying attention :-)

Anonymous

Oh, I'm glad I didn't give up! :-)

MετάEd

22:26

The next thing is to add a wager. I was going to suggest playing for cornbread, but I don't see any cornbread.

Mitch

@DamkerngT. It's 7. Am I right?

Damkerng T.

Nope, it's between 1-100. Higher.

Anonymous

That's not a proper binary search!

Alraxite

@MετάEd So, if the board is | | and it's player A's turn, then that means B wins?

Anonymous

Seven.

Alraxite

22:27

Because A can take one match

and then the board is |

MετάEd

@Alraxite Player A is forced to play |, so B takes the last match and loses.

Alraxite

@MετάEd Oops, yes. B loses I mean.

Damkerng T.

But theoretically, we can guess it right in 7 guesses.

MετάEd

I believe @snailboat has the table.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... probably 8.

MετάEd

22:30

You rack, somebody breaks.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. log₂100 ← How's the subscript 2 look?

Damkerng T.

Looks like a "z". :D

Anonymous

@MετάEd Oh, I'm quitting while I'm ahead.

skullpatrol

too high

MετάEd

@snailboat All right, you beat me, so I'll take your place.

Anonymous

22:31

That way you won't be able to tell it was all luck!

MετάEd

||| |||| |||||

@snailboat Right again!

No challengers. Darn it I was gonna win cornbread.

Damkerng T.

Ah, I went read about "acquaintance" question on ELL.

cyril

$\log_2(100)$

Damkerng T.

Can we call someone we met just once, perhaps saying only a few words to each other, but perhaps got their contact like a business card or e-location, an acquaintance?

cyril

Anonymous

22:40

@cyril Yay!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I don't know. Say, what's an e-location?

cyril

@snailboat math.ucla.edu/~robjohn/math/mathjax.html

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Things like email address, Facebook account, Twitter ID, etc.

Anonymous

Oh, thank you!

Damkerng T.

Oh, MathJax. I like it.

cyril

22:44

$e^{e^{e^{e^{e^-\infty}}}}$

cyril

22:57

we should program connect4 for the bot, in dual player mode, just outputting:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ o _ _ _
_ _ _ o x _ _ _

with !!connect d or !!connect e .. for each column

Cerberus

Yay!

cyril

but that would kill Stack Exchange databases

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…