English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@Cerberus Um, no, it's not really like the internet. It differs from the internet in many important ways.

1:10 AM

Where would you like to put it?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Such as?

Alright, time for Ariadne to stitch together her threads.

@tchrist In the body of the e-mail?

Sirius Satellite Radio

Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio (SDARS) service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio. Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams (channels) of music and 65 streams of sports, news and entertainment to listeners. Music streams on Sirius carry a wide variety of genres, broadcasting 24 hours daily, commercial-free, and uncensored. A subset of Sirius music channels is included as part of the Dish Network satellite television service. Sirius chan...

U.S. Route 50 in Nevada

U.S. Route 50 (US 50) is a transcontinental highway in the United States, stretching from Sacramento, California, in the west to Ocean City, Maryland, on the east coast. The Nevada portion crosses the center of state and was named The Loneliest Road in America by Life magazine in July 1986. The name was intended as a pejorative, but Nevada officials seized on it as a marketing slogan. The name originates from large desolate areas traversed by the route, with few or no signs of civilization. The highway crosses several large desert valleys separated by numerous mountain ranges toweri...

Sirius

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek: Σείριος Seirios ("glowing" or "scorcher"). The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris (α CMa). What the naked eye perceives as a single star is actually a binary star system, consisting of a white main-sequence star of spectral type A1V, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, called Sirius B. The distance separating Sirius A from...

@Cerberus Think of all the ways commercial radio NOT delivered by satellite differs from the internet, then imagine if you took that same product, increased the sound quality, and removed the commercials, while charging a subscription fee.

1:11 AM

Sirius is the Dog Star.

Sirius is only in North America.

It does not shine on you.

Howsoever serious a response you might choose to give.

I assume this is because there are no stars in hell.

Not even Dog Stars.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Uhh I always listen to Internet channels without commercials. Maybe their maximum quality is lower, but I honestly wouldn't notice the difference anyway with my boxes / headphones.

Internet schmitternet.

Okay, so why do you like Satellite radio so much?

There is no Internet on a cross-continent road-strip. But there is Sirius.

@Cerberus I wasn't asking you to compare satellite radio to one tiny aspect of the internet. I was asking you to compare radio to internet. They are so completely different that this conversation is taking on a surreal air.

1:14 AM

@tchrist I s'pose. I'm rarely in a position where I want to listen to the radio but without Internet access, but you may be.

I drive.

internet: a general-purpose computing network on which many services are built, including some music-delivery systems.
radio: a single-purpose broadcast medium for delivering news and music.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I don't know what you mean, but Internet radio works fine for me, so I was wondering whether I might be missing out on something that I might like better.

And the things you mentioned I already have on the Internet.

Only if you go nowhere far.

Yes.

1:16 AM

Satellite radio requires special hardware to receive the signal. and a monthly subscription.

I have never in my life been somewhere far but without company.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Wow, that sounds really cool!!

@Cerberus The point being, you probably don't want to buy that hardware or spend the money on the subscription.

I guess maybe the TGV would count, if they don't have free Wifi yet.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yes, absolutely, I don't. But I was still wondering what I was missing.

Until you drive twenty thousand-mile road-trips across a country where there is no radio to be had, you will not appreciate it. But when you do, you truly shall.

OK.

1:18 AM

I know I certainly did.

I'm sure.

badass

Is it expensive?

Well, I drive 5-minute trips to the grocery store and I like my satellite radio, because there's lots of selection and no commercials.

You have no Internet on your way to the grocery store?

A lot.

> How much Sirius Radio costs per month depends on the type of subscription you choose. The activation fee is $15.00 and monthly subscriptions start at $17.99 ...

@Cerberus Of course not!

1:20 AM

@badass I pay $100/year because I called them and said I didn't want the product at full price

And you don't even live in a remote area!

That’s right.

@Cerberus The satellite radio is built into my car. It's way more convenient to use than fiddling with my phone to try to do some internet radio thing.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Does that also work for you at the grocery store?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Good for you!

1:21 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Just plug in your phone and press the icon on your home screen?

[spoofee.com/how-to-get-a-discount-sirius-xm-radio-subscription/… to Get a Discount on Sirius XM Radio Subscription).

Hm.

`How to Get a Discount on Sirius XM Radio Subscription

@Cerberus Then wait, while my phone is switching from home wi-fi to 3G, then wait while it loads the music metadata, then loads the stream, then if I want to change the music or something I need to fiddle with my phone while driving, which is both dangerous AND illegal, blah blah blah. Instead I can just press the SIRIUS button on my car's dash and presto, music.

spoofee.com/how-to-get-a-discount-sirius-xm-radio-subscription/…

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Like, really!

So many tragic deaths due to phones now.

And not just the ones doing the stupidity. They kill other people.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Loading should take only a few seconds, and only one button press.

Still illegal to fiddle with your phone.

1:25 AM

Do it as you start your car?

My car-charger for my phone is in the back of my station wagon where it belongs.

@Cerberus I've occasionally used my phone for music over bluetooth, using stored songs on the phone. It's never as convenient as using the built-in music device in the car.

Or while waiting at a traffic light?

@Cerberus That's illegal here.

I take the position that when my car is turned off, I can use the phone.

1:25 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 At least it is not dangerous.

I won't say that I've never touched my phone while stopped at a light, but it could still get me a ticket.

And your trip takes only 5 minutes anyway...

Others feel they can use it while in park but running, yet so often they forget to stop.

KitSox

HAMMERTIME!

Anonymous

Hammock time.

1:26 AM

fiddles fiddles fiddles fiddles fiddles

Really? A snail in a hammock?

Anyway, that trick of calling Sirius and saying I don't want to pay full price has worked 3 years in a row so far.

Anonymous

Snail hammock!

heh

Is it a special silicon hammock?

1:27 AM

Why does a slug need a ham hock?

I probably wouldn't use Sirius if I didn't get it so cheaply. I don't drive much and there is terrestrial radio. But man, the COMMERCIALS. honestly it's infuriating how many commercials there are on regular radio.

I only wish I could get the regular local channels on Sirius. The sound quality is 100x better and the lack of commercials makes it so much more pleasant to listen to.

At prime time, yes.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I utterly cannot abide them. I never listen to commercial radio. At all. Ever. I cannot stand it.

Even on state radio, there are some commercials here.

How sad!

1:29 AM

@tchrist :) That doesn't surprise me

Were you affected by the gas outtage in Boulder?

@tchrist 'Tis. On public television, they come only between programmes. But they're still very long.

Anonymous

@tchrist Is that rhetorical or the opening of some kind of joke?

Anonymous

Because I want to hear the punchline

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 There was a gas outtage?

@snailboat Yes.

Anonymous

Oh, good

1:30 AM

@tchrist Hey, we've been talking about gas outages, I think?

In this very room.

@tchrist 7000-odd homes/people lost gas for several days. They had to shut the system down, then turn off the gas at every home, then repressurize, then turn the gas back on one home at a time.

If that happened here and now, there would be really serious trouble.

We haven’t seen double-digit positive for like 6 days or something.

Actually, I think it hit 10 today.

Barely.

yes, it happened there and now.

dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_24678635/…

Denver or Boulder?

Dec 3 at 1:55, by Cerberus

Do you at least have gas pipes underground?

1:32 AM

Oh my.

No, I had gas.

> workers scrambled to restore natural gas to approximately 7,200 households and businesses that had been left without service -- and heat--after a crippling equipment failure early Friday morning.

For how long was it out?

That’s really bad.

@Cerberus since Friday morning. I'm not sure they're done restoring service.

Wow.

Three days??

That's awful.

1:34 AM

Niwot and Gunbarrell are ENE of me by a few miles, not sure how many. Single-digit miles.

Then I would...sit in the cellar with lots of blankets and hot-water bottles and tea.

No no no sit in the attic you fool!

And candles, perhaps.

The cellar is cold.

Cold sinks.

Heat rises.

But the cellas has no wind from any side, and it has the best insulation.

1:35 AM

If I had no gas I'd be down to using a space heater and cooking with a kettle and microwave.

And the ground will be warmer than the air.

I have like 5 different levels in my house. My bedroom is second topmost.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 If you have a space heater, you're saved.

@Cerberus I just have one. It barely works.

It's loud as hell.

No space heater.

1:36 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That's should be enough for a small room?

Just an electric oven in the kitchen.

I'd probably risk my fireplace, which I've never used because I've never had the chimney inspected.

@tchrist Does it work with the door open?

There’s an electric heater in the garage so that my car windows don’t freeze shut.

I forgot to turn it on, so they did.

Ah.

So then you, too, would survive.

1:36 AM

@Cerberus Why wouldn’t it?

My doesn't.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I converted mine to gas.

Most microwave-ovens don't.

@Cerberus I said OVEN.

Like for baking.

Not for nuking.

@Cerberus oh, a microwave cannot be used with the door open, that'd be a huge danger

1:38 AM

And I said microwave-oven, which is an oven and a microwave combined.

Huh?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 They could allow the oven function to work when the door is open.

No.

@Cerberus I've never heard of such a device.

Seriously?

It's what everybody has here.

1:38 AM

around here, "microwave oven" is long for "microwave"

Odd.

A microwave is not an oven.

Robusto

@tchrist I dunno. Audiobooks and an iPod do me proud. I have Sirius and I have to say it's kind of disappointing.

@Cerberus Why not?

@Robusto Yeah, all the Sirius commercials. Isn’t that bizarre?

Anonymous

@Cerberus Is a gas oven a gas?

1:39 AM

@Cerberus Um, yes it is. In English, a "microwave oven" is what you calling just a microwave.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Because...it doesn't work like an oven at all? A stove is also not an oven.

You must be thinking of a "combination microwave convection oven" instead.

@Cerberus A stove is completely different from an oven.

Which is something else.

Anonymous

Just asking, since my world appears to be backwards.

1:40 AM

@snailboat He doesn’t even know what gas is. He’s a biker.

But a microwave oven is similar to all the other kinds of ovens.

@snailboat Over here, gas oven comes between xenon and oxygen, so probably yes.

@tchrist What a silly convention.

@Cerberus You have a strange sort order.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Exactly.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 How is it similar?

The only similarity is that it's in a box.

@Cerberus Doesn’t matter. It’s what we call them. You can have a gas oven, an electric oven, a wood-burning oven, or a microwave oven. Or some combination thereof.

1:41 AM

Just like a fridge.

@Cerberus That's actually the point.

> an enclosed compartment, as in a kitchen range, for cooking and heating food.

Anonymous

Well, a fridge isn't used primarily to heat food.

@tchrist All of those heat up the air and radiate heat, except a microwave.

You cannot start slinging around "microwave oven" in English and pretending it does anything but microwave. It leaves you incomunicado.

Anonymous

It does explain the unusual hyphen, though.

1:43 AM

@snailboat It can be, if it breaks down or if the wired are connected the wrong way...

Anonymous

It's a microwave oven-oven.

@Cerberus But a fridge just cools down the air and radiates cool, so it's exactly the same as an oven.

@tchrist I did use a hyphen.

@snailboat Of course not, that’s what a dishwasher is for.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 How about a sous-vide machine, then?

1:43 AM

English, dear.

It's a box. It heats up food.

@Cerberus Those are so uncommon we don't even have an English word for describing how they cook.

@tchrist You can also cook food in a dishwasher...

The only place I've heard of sous-vide is on cooking.se

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Would you call it an oven?

1:44 AM

@Cerberus Only if you’re a poacher.

And how about rice cookers?

@Cerberus I don't know. I've never seen one. I

@Cerberus rice cookers are more like pots than ovens.

They don't have doors.

@tchrist How do you mean? As in poached eggs? You have to sous-vide the food, that is, put it in sealed bags.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 The door is at the top.

Anonymous

I've never sous-vided anything.

@Cerberus My rice cooker has a lid.

1:45 AM

Or poached venison or poached salmon or anything else you care to steal from the royals.

This is a fun non-discussion, I love it.

@snailboat Nor I.

Anonymous

I made habanero fajitas today.

Anonymous

That's about as fancy as my cooking gets.

This is a combo oven.

@tchrist You can also cook legally obtained food in it, you know.

1:46 AM

It’s a wee bit dear.

But seriously, do many people have boxen that only microwave in your countries?

Why not buy combo boxen?

I’ve never ever heard of anything else.

Odd.

Anonymous

I've only ever heard people use boxen to refer to multiple computers before.

It saves you space and money.

1:48 AM

Same reason we have washers and dryers: because we have ｗｉｄｅｏｐｅｎｓｐａｃｅｓ .

And 2½-car garages.

@snailboat Microwave boxen. And that was the only time in your life you could ever say that. The moment is gone now, forever.

Very very very expensive.

Anonymous

@Cerberus Our kitchen has a microwave over a steam/convection oven. They're two different things, but they're styled to look the same and almost as though they're part of one big, um, thing.

@tchrist At least a separate dryer is functional in that you may want to use both at the same time. But not so with microwaves and ovens.

@Cerberus False.

1:50 AM

@snailboat You never considered buying a combo boxe?

I constantly use both simultaneously. It’s like a nearly daily event.

Really?

Anonymous

@Cerberus Nope. I have never been made aware of their existence.

Yes, really and truly.

@Cerberus Most people don't buy a separate small oven that duplicates the functionality of their full-size oven.

1:50 AM

@tchrist So what do you do that you need both at the same time for?

So buying a fancy microwave that's ALSO some other kind of oven is not saving money.

Anonymous

Yeah, our full-size oven is a convection oven, and the little one under the microwave is a steam oven.

@Cerberus Cooking various things.

Anonymous

I think we've managed to use all three at once.

Students get toaster ovens. Those are something else again.

1:51 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Why not? It's cheap, and then you can have two ovens in case you need them (and many people don't have a large oven, only a small combo one).

@Cerberus I defrost stuff in the microwave while baking stuff in the oven. while cooking on the stove.

I see.

@Cerberus Here, nobody doesn't have a large oven. And microwaves are cheap. combo units are not.

passes Cerberus a 26-pound turkey for Christmas: Happy Baking!

Good evening.

1:52 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Exactly.

Evening.

Hi M..ax!

Hi!

How're you doing?

Even people with tiny condos in the most crowded cities we have will have a full-size oven and stove.

Interesting.

1:53 AM

(tiny condos: 500 sq ft.)

It’s true.

How much is a microwave, normally?

I’m . . . ok.

Anonymous

Is it strange that I didn't even know combo ovens like these existed?

A microwave? Oh, $50 or $100 or $200. Pends what you want to pay.

1:54 AM

I see a combo here for € 90.

Well, ok is better than not okay, so I'm happy to hear you're doing alright.

We got a microwave for free once. A lovely machine.

The cheapest microwave I can find with the same internal volume is € 85.

@Cerberus They have combo microwaves here for $150-ish which is news to me. But a basic microwave is $60.

For free, really? Who gave it to you?

@Cerberus What, with like a quarter cubic foot capacity? Our ovens tend to be like 5 ft³ in size.

1:56 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Then it will probably be tiny and have a low maximum wattage?

So we can bake those 26-pound turkeys. :)

Sure, normal ovens.

My parents actually have four ovens and one combo.

Depth (in.): 24.37
Height (in.): 29.5
Approximate Width: 27 in.
Width (in.): 26.75

@Cerberus Well, my dad was fixing it for someone, and one tiny part was broken. It didn't hinder the operation of the microwave (although opening and closing the door does create a fine dust that falls onto the counter) but the part is un-orderable, so the person gave him $50 to haul it away.

I'm looking at 23 litres internal volume.

1:57 AM

So 30" high and two feet deep.

They bought a new microwave, and everyone was happy.

@Cerberus What’s that in feet?

@Cerberus yes, it is tiny and low wattage. But honestly the only food I cook in a microwave is bacon; everything else is just warmed up. So it probably doesn't matter.

@Mahnax So he even got money on top of the microwave? Great.

@tchrist .81

1:58 AM

@Cerberus Yeah!

@Cerberus That's not very big, actually

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That’s an oven?

@tchrist I would try to squeeze my feet into the oven, but I'm afraid I'll damage it.

Sounds like a toaster-oven to me.

the cheap one I mentioned is 0.6 cu ft or 17L.

@tchrist yeah, microwave.

1:58 AM

@Cerberus Don’t leave change on top of the microwave, it might heat up.