English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:00 AM

Light grey is lost energy. Dark grey is energy that is actually used.

It seems there isn't much energy waste to be countered by households.

Except if they use less electricity.

Because, for the orange beam arriving at the Residential block, a light-grey beam twice its width is wasted in the process of generating electricity.

Oh, and households could use less transportation, though it doesn't show how much of the Transportation energy is used by residents and how much by the rest.

Kit

12:45 AM

@aedia I hope they let you go home.

Robusto

1:31 AM

@Cerberus — Ha! They put solar in yellow (presumably because the sun is yellow) but at 0.11% of the total it makes a very thin, hard-to-see line.

I wonder what "rejected" energy means.

6

Q: Why "ain't I" and "aren't I" instead of "amn't I"?

Why do we say "ain't I" or "aren't I" instead of "amn't I"? What's the history of this usage? Are there any other similar patterns in English? I'm guessing it has something to do with the dispreference of two consecutive nasal consonants, but a more authoritative answer would be great.

etymology

Nuke it.

Martha

@Robusto Why?

Robusto

I'm sure this is a dupe, but I can't find it.

Martha

1:47 AM

I'm terrible at finding dupes, but I'm not sure it is one, anyway. (And it certainly isn't general reference - the Wiktionary link or whatever in the comments doesn't come close to addressing the "why".)

Robusto

Here, have an .

Martha

A little box that says "F8" above "FF"?

Robusto

Works on Macs only, I guess.

Martha

Ah, I see. How'd you know I was hungry?

Robusto

I wish my keyboard had thorn and eth characters.

I can do the ash: Æthelflæd.

Martha

1:55 AM

Alt+Num 0222: Þ

Robusto

Not on a Mac

Martha

Alt+Num 0254: þ

See, Macs suck. :þ

0198 = Æ, 0230 = æ

Robusto

Ah, no they don't suck! þÞ ðÐ

Option-t = þ
Option-T = Þ
Option-d = ð
Option-D = Ð

I just had to enabled the U.S. Extended Keyboard ^_^

Martha

0208 = Ð, 0240 = ð

Robusto

So now I can't write Æðelflað just like an Old English writer would have (if he had owned a Mac).

Martha

2:01 AM

(Took me a while to find those - for some reason, character map alphabetizes them after various accented I's.)

See, Freudian slip: "can't write".

Robusto

Or is it Æþelflæð? I don't remember, and my Anglo-Saxon Dictionary is somewhere in a big pile of books.

Martha

The beauty of Alt+Num shortcuts is that they're completely independent of the current keyboard layout.

Robusto

The whole alt plus numbers things is boring. I want keystroke combos I can use.

№222

What do you see there?

Martha

I can always type an é or an ö, even if I'm using someone else's computer who has some fancy-shmancy French keyboard installed.

No. 222, only with a fancy underlined-superscript 'o'.

Robusto

Yup. Kewl.

cœsura!

if (a ≥ b && c ≤ d) {
// noop
}

Randolf Richardson

2:06 AM

@Robusto That will be a very tight loop that can lock up some systems if those conditions are true.

Martha

¼½¾

Robusto

That's code by Robusto®!

Randolf Richardson

@Martha 1/4 1/2 3/4

@Robusto Hen Hao

Robusto

Have a pilcrow: ¶

Martha

(those were 0188, 0189, 0190 btw)

0182: ¶

Robusto

2:08 AM

PC ≠ Mac

PC < Mac

¿Quien sabe?

Just my 2¢

Randolf Richardson

@Robusto That was for a paragraph. Is this for a section? §

Martha

« »

Randolf Richardson

@Robusto You should have ended that with a double-exclamation point‼

Robusto

That is a section marker. Also used in musical notation. The score will say dal segno (from the §)

Martha

Found that fancy №, but it doesn't have a shortcut.

0167: §

Robusto

2:11 AM

5

A: It is unprofessional to use double exclamation marks and CAPS in a product or service?

That depends on how you want to present yourself to your audience. If you want to appeal to the 4chan crowd or put yourself on a par with, say, the local used-car dealer, by all means stuff your prose with bundles of exclamation marks. But you have to ask yourself if exclamation marks (especiall...

Randolf Richardson

@Robusto I was using character 19, but maybe you missed that. =P

Robusto

I don't need new ways to write slammers.

‰

Randolf Richardson

@Robusto ☺

Martha

0191: ¿, 0177: ±, 0181: µ

Randolf Richardson

@Robusto That's "per mille," isn't it? 1/1000.

Robusto

2:14 AM

fāl

Martha

0169 © 0174 ® 0162 ¢ 0165 ¥ 0163 £

Randolf Richardson

@Robusto I know there's another one, which I believe the banks may refer to as "per diem" (or something like that) which is for 1/10000 and has one more trailing sub-script-like "o" included.

Robusto

yeah yeah, four keystrokes per character. I get it. It's a PC.

Martha

× (0215) ÷ (0247)

Randolf Richardson

@Robusto The leading zeros are optional. But you'd still be at four keystrokes for that to hold down the ALT key.

Robusto

2:17 AM

I can make dots on vowels: ỏả

Martha

But there's also 130 é, 148 ö, 160 á.

Robusto

Nope, holding down a modifier key is not a keystroke. Besides, you're holding down the ALT key anyway.

Yeah, I can do all those too.

Martha

Actually, the leading zeros are not optional: there are some characters that have three-digit codes, but the four-digit code is not the same as the three-digit code with a zero added to the beginning.

Randolf Richardson

@Robusto In programming it's different then.

Robusto

Măd!

Martha

2:18 AM

é = 130 or 0233 is the only one I can remember off the top of my head.

Robusto

Me loves me Mac. Poor you with your PCs. Me sorry for you.

Randolf Richardson

@Robusto Thank you.

Robusto

Me also loves that it's dual quad-core with 16GB RAM ^_^

I can £ the keyboard all day and it never breaks a sweat.

Randolf Richardson

@Robusto That's very nice. I see i7 processors and am looking forward to getting one of those some day soon.

Robusto

Pfft! One of those.

Martha

2:20 AM

@Robusto But that's just because the Mac OS is such a resource hog that you need that much just to get by. :þ

Cerberus

@Rob: The light-grey energy is what is lost due to inefficiency. Dark grey is what's actually used.

Robusto

I don't have a ¥ for a PC at all. Besides, I run Windows XP and Windows 7 and Ubunto on my Mac as well.

@Martha — That is such a lie.

Martha

:D

Robusto

@Cerberus — Thanks.

Now I must to bed. Night all!

Martha

It's fun to rile up the appleoids.

Randolf Richardson

2:22 AM

@Martha I wonder if the Umlaut Monster ( uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/German_grammar ) uses a Mac?

Cerberus

Bye @Rob!

Macs to the flames! Let's collect them on the square and burn them all!

Randolf Richardson

@Cerberus Does that mean you're promoting Mac Book Burning?

Cerberus

@RandolfRichardson Heh, yes! You got that right.

Martha

Ok, folkses, me gots to go home now. Me cants write jquery even when awake, so half-asleep just aint gonna work.

Cerberus

Bai!

I am off to bed as well.

Adios!

poof

Randolf Richardson

2:28 AM

Time for me to get back to Java programming (and Perl) too.

/me waves good-bye.

RegDwight

9:28 AM

@Martha I don't even get the box.

Alenanno

I see it! lol

I mean

the apple

Alain Pannetier

9:46 AM

Ciao tutti quanti !!!

Alenanno

Ciao @AlainPannetier

Already 3 "Correction required/requested" questions today... what's happening? :|

RegDwight

@Alenanno Ham and Bacon keeps answering them before they get closed, that's what's happening. So the OP sees no reason to stop.

Alenanno

Eheheh

I noticed that

But this last one, is he the same one from before?

RegDwight

Sure he is.

Alenanno

He changed nick!

I thought he was another one

...

Robusto

9:59 AM

3

Q: Hyphenating “steady state”

I am unsure if and when to hyphenate steady state (in a mathematical context), i.e.: We now calculate the steady-state concentration from the given formula. I looked at this generic hyphenation question, but the links given there did not give a clear rule for this case. To me, it seems mos...

nouns adjectives hyphen

RegDwight

Me haz commeneted.

Robusto

Saw that. Voted to close.

I say NFO.

Haha, I said Ubunto instead of Ubuntu above.

RegDwight

Yeah, I was like wondering already and stuff.

Alenanno

Voted to close as well.

Alain Pannetier

MeeToo

Robusto

10:02 AM

Me fingers, they does what they wants.

Especially when I'm tired, like right now.

Alenanno

@Robusto What time is it there?

Alain Pannetier

@Robusto are you already or still up?

Robusto

6:00 a.m. Already up.

Alenanno

AW.

Alain Pannetier

uccello mattiniero si becca il verme

Alenanno

10:04 AM

Ahahah :D Mattiniero*

Robusto

And I can't have coffee or food this a.m. because I am going in for a blood test.

Alenanno

Take some snacks with you

Alain Pannetier

Corrected thx

Alenanno

with chocolate

a lot of chocolate

xD

Robusto

@Alenanno — With myself? I'll make sure to take pineapple.

Alenanno

10:05 AM

@AlainPannetier :D

Jez

Pizza Hut emailed me; any stuffed crust pizza for £9.99. they're evil, fattening me up

Alenanno

you*

Robusto

Pizza Hut? I wouldn't eat that crap if it was the last pizza on earth.

Alenanno

Is it "take sth with you" or "with yourself"? You put me in deep doubt now

Jez

@Robusto i would

Robusto

10:07 AM

It's with you.

Alenanno

thanks

Robusto

Yeah, well the rule of thumb is this: If you're paying for it in £ it ain't real pizza.

Alenanno

Ahahah

Jez

eh?

Robusto

Go to Chicago and get yourself some real pizza.

RegDwight

10:08 AM

Real pizza = Napoli. Everywhere else = crap.

Alain Pannetier

@RegDwight Well said!

Robusto

Pfft. That's B.S.

Alenanno

@RegDwight :Q________ but in the rest of Italy there are some good pizzas too

Jez

personally i like a pizza crust a bit thicker than a piece of paper

Robusto

Have you been everywhere else, @RegDwight?

Alenanno

10:09 AM

@Robusto there's no need to

:D

Alain Pannetier

@Robusto have you been to Naples (Italy, not Florida)?

Robusto

If you want to get murdered or robbed, go to Napoli. If you want pizza, go to Chicago.

Alenanno

lol

Alain Pannetier

Al Capone lived in Naples as everybody know.

Jez

@Robusto I've had 'Chicago Town' pizza. didnt digest very well.

Robusto

10:10 AM

Why did somebody star my comment about section markers in musical notation? That is so not starrable.

RegDwight

@Robusto 1. I have, as a matter of fact, been everywhere else, and 2. in hindsight, I shouldn't have been everywhere else, because, as I mentioned, everywhere else is crap.

Robusto

@Jez — I have no idea what "Chicago Town" means.

Jez

Alenanno

:O

Robusto

@RegDwight — You haven't been to my back yard, in spite of your threats.

Alenanno

10:11 AM

That is so not pizza.

Robusto

@Jez — Oh, puh-leeeze!

Alain Pannetier

That's not pizza that's cheesecake.

RegDwight

@Robusto Um, you are mixing them up. If you want to get murdered or robbed, go to Chicago. If you want pizza, go to Naples.

Alain Pannetier

With bacon and ham.

RegDwight

@Robusto How would you know I haven't?

Jez

10:12 AM

@AlainPannetier it's chicago style. give me pizza hut anyday :-)

RegDwight

You don't see them ninjas in your backyard, either.

Robusto

@RegDwight — I stand by all my racist and metro-centric remarks.

Alenanno

:Q_____

RegDwight

Q.E.D.

Alain Pannetier

Pizza hut put just a little bit less cheese...

Robusto

10:13 AM

@RegDwight — They can't get in. I have a ninja filter on my back yard.

Jez

@Alenanno I'd eat that but it's not the best.

RegDwight

@Robusto That's what they would have you believe, yes.

Alenanno

@Jez It is a pizza. That's different. :P

RegDwight

Those sneaky ninja-filter seller bastards are like that.

Jez

@Alenanno looks like it's one of those ones with a crust the thickness of a piece of paper.

Robusto

10:14 AM

Alenanno

@Robusto That one looks good too.

RegDwight

Pizza is not about looks, it's about taste.

Alenanno

:D

It's also about looks.

Robusto

RegDwight

Now that is just abhorrent.

Alenanno

10:15 AM

I mean, if it's thicker than my laptop, no.

Robusto

And a deep-dish as well.

[Looks toward the heavens.] I tried to teach them, Father, but they will not listen.

RegDwight

Jez

@Robusto erm, that's quiche

Robusto

@RegDwight — You know, if you're not going to say anything, the proper way is just to exercise restraint and not say anything.

We don't need a marker to show where you didn't say something.

RegDwight

A picture is worth a thousand words. Especially if it's a thousand Capitalizationist words.

Jez

10:19 AM

t3.gstatic.com/…

curious. they must only allow access on IP

RegDwight

@Jez That is just unnatural.

Jez

now that is mmmmmouthwatering

i like to eat the cheese off the top separately :-)

Robusto

@Jez — Stop talking about your perversions. No one cares. Really.

Alenanno

xD

Robusto

Four of the latest 5 questions are closed. We could make it 5 out of 6 if people [ cough @RegDwight ] would get off their dead butts and close the hyphenation one.

RegDwight

10:30 AM

We have 50+ 3k users but only one RegDwight. You do the math.

(And just so you know, RegDwight is way too busy deleting that closed stuff.)

Robusto

@RegDwight I did the math. All it takes is one @RegDwight. No need for 50+ 3K users.

Alenanno

A déjà vu! lol

Robusto

We have three close votes on steady-state already.

RegDwight

@Robusto What will you do during my next Urlaub? Huh? Huh? I ask you, how will you be able to live???

Robusto

I have already appointed a @RegDwight surrogate.

RegDwight

10:33 AM

Well, there you go.

Let him close stuff.

Robusto

Her. She's a chick. Much hotter than thou.

RegDwight

Then I have no idea why you're still in the business of chatting with Communists, telling them not to say anything.

Robusto

Hey, life can't be sex, drugs and rock'n'roll ALL the time.

RegDwight

Says who?

Robusto

You, obviously. Here you are.

Haha, we have three people answering the multiple-choice question about "orange blanket of blossoms" ... I choose A. No wait, I choose A. No, I do. Me, me me!

RegDwight

10:43 AM

I am tempted to head over there and choose B, whatever it is, just to freak everyone out.

Robusto

I will upvote you, to heighten the freakout. And put in a +1 comment. It will be perfect.

Alenanno

That sounds like an (evil) plan.

Robusto

We could all make it the most upvoted answer.

Alenanno

Oh wait, I'm not sure... an (evil) plan or a (evil) plan? I'm going to ask this question now.

Robusto

And people would not know what to think. And it would become canonical. You would google and it would be the first hit.

@Alenanno — Wait, aren't you supposed to hyphenate "a evil-plan"?

RegDwight

10:45 AM

We could get it MultiCollidered, and change the wording of the question while it's on the MultiCollider so that B actually is the correct answer, and then after I get 80+ upvotes, we change it back. Profit!

Alenanno

@Robusto You have a point.

Robusto

@RegDwight — You sure you want to stop at 80+?

RegDwight

I am extremely generous today.

Anyhow, the next step would be to post a follow-up question on Skeptics, and doctor it in a similar way.

Robusto

Meh, gotta go drink my water and be with my wife, even without coffee. :(

TTYL

RegDwight

CU

Alenanno

10:47 AM

See ya!

z7sg

@RegDwight You can multicollide things at will??? I worry that such powers are in the hands of a Communist.

RegDwight

@z7sg It's not that hard. Especially for a question with 3+ answers.

In fact, it's already in the top 90, without me even moving a finger.

z7sg

@Reg Ah, these things are beyond my ken.

RegDwight

Rats, @Robusto, they stole your all-time shill question!

Mar 7 at 18:08, by Robusto

@RegDwight — Here's my all-time shill question suggestion: "Which Ubuntu distro allows the fastest downloads of porn and more cowbell?"

9

Q: Which Ubuntu (or other GNU/linux) for a 12-year old system?

I have a 12-year old Toshiba Libretto Laptop with a Transmeta Crusoe Processor TM 5600 running at about 600MHz, 128 MB RAM and S3 Savage graphics. Which Ubuntu (or any other GNU/Linux based OS) could I use for a stable operation. I intend to use the laptop for basic computing needs including sur...

distro-recommendation

Plagiarism!!!!

Ham and Bacon

11:53 AM

2

Q: Adjective with proper noun

Do we use the article "the" when we use an adjective with a proper noun? Which of these is correct? The Switzerland-based ABC Fund operates in most countries of the EU. Switzerland-based ABC Fund operates in most countries of the EU. I have a feeling the first sentence is correct but t...

grammar proper-nouns definite-article

Robusto

12:57 PM

@RegDwight — Yeah, but they messed it up. They forgot the part about the porn. A rookie move.

RegDwight

Yeah, if you gonna plagiarize, you better do it right.

Robusto

It will cost them in the scoring.

RegDwight

It already does. Only 22 upvotes so far, and that's for the question, all the answers, and all the comments combined.

Dang, another Friday meeting.

Laterz.

Robusto

CYA.

@RegDwight — Rookies. And the lack of cowbell will hurt too.

Alain Pannetier

1:47 PM

@Martha, @Robusto Regarding your discussion of last night about the input of unicode characters, if you're lucky enough to use a GTK+ Linux desktop the "CTRL+SHIFT+U" sequence will allow you to enter any unicode character even above the BPM limit. On the PC the hexa codes you have to remember are IBM codepage dependent.

Robusto

@AlainPannetier — Can I use that with my Ubuntu distro? I can't recall which one it is, because I so seldom use Linux.

Alain Pannetier

All Gnome distros with GTK apps.

To know if you "qualify" try the Old English ones or the eszett:

Old English:
Æ ash maj. : C6
æ ash min. : E6
Ð eth maj. : D0
ð eth min : F0
Þ thorn maj : DE
þ thorn min : FE

German:
ß eszett : DF

So just try CTRL + SHIFT + U and a small underlined u will appear.

Then you can either release or not and type an hexa number from the list above and see what happens. Strike return after the number's last digit.

Robusto

I will have to do that from home.

Alain Pannetier

In addition, if you install the right fonts (eg from synaptics). Wikipedia left hand side menu starts to look "human"....

For instance you will need special fonts for this to display correctly:
Linear B ideogram:
𐂃 EQU (horse head) 10083

Sumerian:
𒈠Lugal (King) 12220

Robusto

I don't know if I can handle "human" ...

Alain Pannetier

1:58 PM

Also very easy to type IPA.

The good thing for MAC users is that these are the very same codes as in OSX (with the option key held down).

With the "Unicode Hex Input keyboard layout" I mean.

Kit

@AlainPannetier Can you do this in Windows too?

Alain Pannetier

In Windows I believe it's Alt + "+" and the Unicode hexa code.

I'll check it out in a VM (have to start it though)

Kit

So Alt and + simultaneously, then the hex code?

í

Robusto

@AlainPannetier — Ah, so I can just select that keyboard layout. See how easy Mac makes things?

Kit

╞

Robusto

2:09 PM

When I want to type Japanese I just switch to hiragana keyboard and the Mac does the rest.

Kit

Works with Alt and the keypad, but I can't figure out hex input. I'm such a n00b.

z7sg

þat's very useful Alain

Alain Pannetier

@KIt forgot to tell you
`HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\EnableHexNumpad = 1`

Kit

What will that do to my numpad?

Robusto

0

Q: What does "way too up to do something" mean?

A friend of mine put the expression on his FB wall. What does it mean?

meaning

Puh-leeze kill this with fire.

Alain Pannetier

2:16 PM

@Kit, it does not have to be on the numpad. Type DF and the "+" from the normal keyboard. Should work.

I mean {Alt + "+"} then DF

Robusto

@z7sg — Shoulda gone with the eth there.

Alain Pannetier

@Keep Alt + "+" pressed till you finished entering the Hexa number.

1. Press Alt
2. Press keypad +
3. Press then release D
4. Press then release F
5. Release ALt and +
ß should appear.

Jez

@Robusto something to do with drugs?

z7sg

@Robusto No, I think thorn was commonly used for the, as in 'Ye Olde Shoppe' þ -> Y

And this and that and pretty much everything. I don't think it was phonetic.

Robusto

Could be.

But 'Ye Olde Shoppe' was never Old English.

Kit

2:26 PM

é

Well, I think I've got the notion, but hot keys keep getting in the way.

z7sg

Is it Middle English?

Alain Pannetier

My sequence is wrong release the + before pressing the D.

You might need to reboot if you did not have the right registry settings.

Kit

@AlainPannetier Thanks, but it doesn't make a difference. It keeps hitting my file menu.

I'll try rebooting, but really I wanted the é, anyway. I can get that without hex.

Alain Pannetier

Try in Wordpad maybe, it worked for me. Ah OK.

Martha

I don't think Alain's method can work on a Windows machine. For one thing, the '+' is a repeating character, i.e. if you keep it held down, it eventually fills the input buffer and starts beeping at you.

Robusto

2:31 PM

@z7sg — I'd call it "Wardour Street English".

Martha

And é is easy - Alt + Num 130.

Ok, people, somebody has seriously misunderstood the point of stars. The list on the right looks sad.

Robusto

@Martha — Agreed.

Kit

@Martha Yep. Quick, say something funny!

Alain Pannetier

@Martha, it did work for me ALT+"+"(release "+", keep Alt pressed) + D + F + release alt and "ß" does appear.

Kit

It might work for me, but the Alt+F hot key for the file menu keeps picking up.

z7sg

2:37 PM

@Robusto I had to look that up. Wardour Street doesn't have any 'Olde Shoppes' these days.

Kit

ȣ

Hmm.

Martha

@AlainPannetier You must have hotkeys disabled or something. Alt+D puts the focus on the address bar, and Alt+F opens the File menu, as Kit said.

Kit

That was not ß

Martha

What's with the meta-starring?

Kit

but it was also not ▀

Martha

2:41 PM

☺ (Alt + 1)

Kit

ȣ ȣ Frig!

z7sg

¹

Kit

ß is the same as ß, but one is OEM and the other is Windows.

Alain Pannetier

@Martha, It's Alt + "+" + "DF". Not just Alt + DF. The "+" must avoid collision with the Alt D and Alt F provided you have your registry setting OK.

Kit

If I use Alt + and 223 I get ȣ. Alt + 0223 ȣ Alt 0223 ß or Alt 225 ß

RegDwight

2:45 PM

@Cerberus There's a question for that.

5

Q: How to enter phonetic transcriptions?

I was impressed of some answers (as well as comments) which used phonetic transcriptions. My Question is how can I enter them in the text editor? Maybe it's not possible with an ipad, how do you do this on a PC?