English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

I have never, ever in my life showered together with other people. Except perhaps a few time at the swimming pool when I was 6, but with my trunks on.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

I'd like to see a shower with a head at each end.

@Robusto were they delicious?

Robusto

5:12 PM

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Not as good as cornbread with maple syrup.

@Cerberus Well, put that on your bucket list then. Showering with a lover can be spectacular.

Cerberus

Hah.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Until you get it in your eye.

Cerberus

@Robusto I have never done that either. But it sounds better than with strangers or team mates!

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 It's all fun and games until someone gets poked in the eye.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен By the way, how common is "trunks" in England these days?

Robusto

5:14 PM

@Cerberus They're called "boots" in England.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Heh.

Cerberus

Haha.

Of course.

I intuitively said "trunks" because I couldn't think of anything else except "bathing suit", but it vaguely sounded American.

Then the OED said "originally American" in the eighties, so I think it is now more universal?

Robusto

@Cerberus The "partner shower" decreases in attractiveness in direct proportion to the degree of sexual interest you have in the other party or parties.

Cerberus

@Robusto Hah, no doubt.

Robusto

@Cerberus Americans wear swim suits. Brits wear bathing suits (I think).

Cerberus

5:16 PM

One thing to consider, though, is that bathrooms usually have horrible lighting. Isn't it too...confrontational?

@Robusto Right, swim suit...but would you (still) say that for a man's swimming shorts?

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus swimming trunks is the normal word for swimming trunks. I think that's what most people would think of if you said trunks referring to apparel

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Ah OK, noted! Is there any alternative term that you might use yourself?

Robusto

@Cerberus Typically, in a non-gender-specific kind of way.

Cerberus

@Robusto Right, OK. But when referring to your own?

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Check +.

Matt Эллен

5:18 PM

@Cerberus I might say "swimming shorts", but trunks would be what I think of first

Cerberus

"I left my...in the trunk/boot".

Zoe

Tree trunk?

Cerberus

@MattЭллен OK noted. And would you ever say "bathing suit" for men? Probably too old fashioned?

@Zoe Could be!

Zoe

haha bathing suit

Maybe because I'm a teacher so when people say trunks out of context I will think of tree trunks and how they transport water from the roots to other parts of the plant.

KitFox

I wear a bathing suit.

Matt Эллен

5:20 PM

@Cerberus yeah, sounds Victorian :D

@KitFox Right now?

No.

aw

We call them bathing suits here, probably as often as swimsuit.

Zoe

some of us here say swimming costume as if it's a stage play

KitFox

5:21 PM

Costume sounds very Victorian to me.

Matt Эллен

yeah, for women cozzy or swimming costume are normal

@MattЭллен Right.

what else hmm

@KitFox For men?

@Cerberus Nothing.

5:22 PM

Quoi?

Zoe

I mean, men can wear nothing

Trunks are almost nothing

Cerberus

Just like women.

Zoe

I feel like men and women wear swimming costumes for different reasons

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Men get to wear culottes.

KitFox

@Cerberus Yes.

Zoe

5:23 PM

Mne wear it to be modest and women wear it to be careful.

KitFox

Or swim trunks.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Women have to wear clingy things that, as usual, leave nothing to the imagination.

Cerberus

Careful?

@KitFox OK noted.

Apparently, "New" England is very Victorian...

Zoe

Like, men wear it because if not, they'd be like flashing pervs. However..... Women wear it hide

KitFox

Trunks aren't almost nothing. Those banana hammocks that are popular in Europe are almost nothing.

@Cerberus Seems so.

Matt Эллен

5:24 PM

yeah Speedos are almost nothing

Zoe

G strings are almost nothing

KitFox

Those aren't swimsuits.

Cerberus

@KitFox Banana hammocks are not exactly popular here!

Zoe

They can be.

KitFox

@Cerberus Thank god for that.

Cerberus

5:28 PM

What I would consider an unremarkable hot day at the beach.

I don't see many banana hammocks!

Notice how horrible beaches are, by the way.

Why do people subject themselves to that...

Matt Эллен

I don't know. The beach can be nice, but not like that

KitFox

I've never been to a beach that crowded.

Cerberus

That is, alas, all too common here, at a popular beach on a hot day.

I don't know where that picture was taken btw., but it could be here.

KitFox

Drukstrand.

Cerberus

Druk = crowded, busy.

KitFox

5:32 PM

liesbethtettero.wordpress.com/2010/07/06/zwinnen-en-muien

Then whatever that says.

Cerberus

Yes, I checked the page, but she doesn't say where it is.

KitFox

I see.

Somewhere in the Nederlands though.

Cerberus

It could be some stock photo she got from a different site.

This is Scheveningen, though.

No better.

Then again, China always wins. This is a swimming pool:

Imagine how easy it would be to drown there for a child.

KitFox

@Cerberus Yeah, I'll pass, thanks.

Cerberus

But she's so pretty!

tchrist

6:09 PM

Prolly shoulda checked the Photography.SE first. Oh well.

0

A: Origin and meaning of the "-tar" suffix in photography

The -ar Suffix in Lens Names The -ar suffix does not stand either for argentum nor for anti-reflective coatings. As one poster suggests: It's really simple, Zeiss, Goerz, Voigtlander and several other top German makers introduced lenses with names like Unar, Tessar, Planar, Dagor, Protar, H...

Jasper Loy

6:25 PM

I sleep 12 hours a day sometimes but still feel tired.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I know someone whose house had that. Essentially, two showers in one big stall.

Jasper Loy

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I remember you answered "stall" for "cubicle".

MετάEd

Howdy.

Jasper Loy

Seems that the latest firefox copies features from chrome and internet explorer.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy No, I answered "stall" for "stall". Nobody here would ever call it a "cubicle". Cubicles are miniature offices.

MετάEd

6:32 PM

@JasperLoy Copying is an act of respect.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Do they ever sublet?

KitFox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 My friends have one like that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I'm not sure. Probably not. But maybe you could sneak in there while they're away at the cottage.

Jasper Loy

Why is the toilet called a bathroom when there is usually only a shower but no bath?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Sounds good.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

6:39 PM

@JasperLoy define "usually"?

Jasper Loy

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Most of the time? I don't know.

KitFox

Is 1em small?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy I would guess that the majority of home bathrooms in, say, north america, have baths in them.

Jasper Loy

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I see. I did not know that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox it's relative to the font size.

KitFox

6:40 PM

I know, but why does the font seem so tiny when in this window it's fine?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

> An em is a unit of width in the field of typography, equal to the currently specified point size. For example, one em in a 16-point typeface is 16 points wide. Therefore, this unit is the same for all typefaces at a given point size.

because whatever container its in has defined a font size as small.

try inspecting the element in firebug or dev tools

Cerberus

> Bitcoin now back to $680 / €500.

KitFox

I did. Says 1em. I must be looking in the wrong place.

Oh, the computed is 11-point.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

font sizes inherit

so that element has a parent element that sets the font size

usually in CSS you don't set the font size in ems. you size OTHER things in ems.

KitFox

It's crappy. I can't believe how tiny the font is.

Jasper Loy

6:44 PM

I like tiny fonts.

So I used a vpn instead of a proxy to access blocked sites. Now I can see all of them with no problem, lol.

KitFox

I guess it's just 11-pt, but still.

grumbles

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox in Firebug, you can disable a CSS rule, and it will insert the next applicable rule, or it will show you where the inherited rules come from

a rule like "font size: 1em" is essentially a tautology anyway, so you can safely disable it.

KitFox

Oh...they actually styled it in a javascript file, font-size: 68.75%.

That's what's making it small.

Oh. And also "font: 68.75%/1.366 Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" is in there.

Wow.

There's just something really wrong with this text.

Jasper Loy

I use Arial for sans, Times New Roman for serif and Courier New for monospaced.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox yay for legibility!

Jasper Loy

6:55 PM

I think the most beautiful font is Georgia.

KitFox

This whole thing is so dumb. Let me complain for a few minutes?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

a more maintainable way would be to just add a class file using JS, and let CSS style that class.

@KitFox by all means.

KitFox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That's probably what is actually happening.

Matt Эллен

@MετάEd hi

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox well, is the "68.75%" value in the JS file or the CSS?

KitFox

6:56 PM

So two weeks ago, I was told in a progress meeting that they had decided in a meeting prior that I would meet with the contractor to discuss the datasheets.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 It's in a file called top.js.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox yeah so that's not how I recommend doing it.

KitFox

hahaha

Jasper Loy

Is there something associated to firefox called chromium? I see a chromium folder in my computer but I did not install chromium.

KitFox

Anyway. I said "what am I supposed to discuss with the contractor?" and the response was "the datasheets", which is, as much as I understand it, a separate project that everyone else keeps trying to make a part of the public web project, but it's not.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy chromium is the open-source version of Chrome.

@KitFox fun

Everyone hide! The Scope Creep is around!

KitFox

6:59 PM

So anyway, then at the next meeting the next week, the PM asks me if I've arranged to talk to the contractor.

I blink and say "no. I don't know what the purpose of the meeting is."

And I think "isn't the PM supposed to arrange meetings?"

Anyway, he arranges the meeting for me (since I told him that I thought he should), then he asks me how to describe it. I email back "I don't know. I don't know what the meeting is supposed to be about."

Then, on the schedule for the meeting is one of the stakeholders from business, whose idea this presumably was. She doesn't actually attend the meeting, but I get to spend 30 minutes of my time explaining to the contractor that I don't know why everyone seems to think that we need to talk.

Jasper Loy

They all need spanking.

KitFox

They kindly say that they are concerned that my requirements for the datasheets won't be finished for three weeks, and since they are doing a wireframe for them, they need the draft of the layout post-haste.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

heh. your requirements?

KitFox

I grit my teeth and explain, once again, how the project is independent of the redesign project, that the wireframe they are theoretically building is supposed to be an application container insofar as I understand it and really they ought to be talking to the guy coming up with the technical solution and not to me, since I don't have any damned authority here.

NOT TO MENTION that the f-ing datasheet redesign effort is supposed to be managed by a PM and we have no timeline set for it and nobody seems to have any idea what the plan is.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

This is more dramatic than your font story.

I think you should bring a whiskey-shot bingo card to work, and replace all the bingo numbers with office-bullshit.

But maybe start with half-shots so you don't get poisoned.

KitFox

7:06 PM

So the end result of the conversation is that they hijacked the rest of my day so I could put together a crappy draft layout based on my current notes and then I sent it to the PM, explicitly stating that I didn't have their contact info and if he was satisfied, he should forward it to them and also I added a bunch of commentary.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

uhoh. You're now the owner of that particular hot potato.

You've lost all plausible deniability.

KitFox

And then, not 30 minutes into this happy diversion, the PM IMs me to ask if he can change the timeline for the datasheets then.

And I said "No."

Then he says "But you said you'd have the layout by next week" and I said "The requirements are a lot more than just a diagram. And in any case, I have other projects that are currently my priority."

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I'll start pouring the whiskey now

Jasper Loy

I prefer coffee.

KitFox

I am so tired of having to explain this in every goddamned meeting.

And it's because this guy, the solution guy, will not take control of his projects.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:09 PM

It sounds pretty disorganized

KitFox

It's stupid.

It's ridiculous that business has any say in who I should be meeting with for technical design.

Jasper Loy

Maybe they are distracted by your cleavage? LOL.

KitFox

He should have told her to take a hike.

Not to mention the fact that I'm not the one who can answer these questions.

I have an idea of what the technical solution is. I don't know the details. I don't decide those details.

I don't know the timeline.

It's not my job to know.

And even if I did, I can't change any of it.

takes a deep breath

Anyway. I'm going home now.

Jasper Loy

You should explain to them what you said. Bye.

oerkelens

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

Jasper Loy

7:13 PM

There is no God, period, lol.

KitFox

@JasperLoy I've been over it with my boss.

Jasper Loy

I am going to make some coffee.

oerkelens

@JasperLoy Yeah - but "possibly figurative, maybe supernatural being of some sort of personalized flavour" didn't fit in th emeter :P

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

th' emeter... isn't that a scientology thing?

E-meter

An Electropsychometer, abbreviated to E-meter, is a modified ohmmeter used during Dianetics and Scientology auditing. The device is a variation of a Wheatstone bridge, which dates to 1833 and measures electrical resistance and skin conductance. It is formally known as the Hubbard Electrometer (although it is not an electrometer as usually defined) after the sect's founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Most of the Scientology concepts associated with the "E-meter" and its use are regarded by the scientific and medical communities as pseudoscience, and the E-meter has never been subject to clinical tria...

oerkelens

7:40 PM

Aargh :( :P

MετάEd

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yes, just so we're clear :D

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I have two e-meters, they work great.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MετάEd I don't think I can be clear. I use n-grams all the time.

Cerberus

Hello, Eddie.

MετάEd

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Thetanswers it.

@Cerberus I never went by Eddie. That was my neighbor across the street.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:44 PM

@MετάEd you probably went by Eddie all the time then.

Cerberus

@MετάEd Then why did you bring up E-meters in this chat?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus chill. nobody's getting xenuphobic here.

@Cerberus oerkelens brought them up.

oerkelens

Yes

I'm sorry :|

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Oh, is that the alien species from that madman's book?

@oerkelens Always you!

Are you Jomanda by chance?

oerkelens

mmmm :(

Cerberus

7:51 PM

What happened to her anyway?

/you

oerkelens

all I have is an eager spacebar :(

Cerberus

As long as it has been benignly radiated...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus No it's a religion.

Therefore you must automatically give it the respect it demands, and refrain from calling him a madman.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Xenu is a religion?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus part of a religion

Cerberus

7:55 PM

Ah, of course.

respects Scientology

Matt Эллен

8:11 PM

Scientology? More like scientoadligy

Jasper Loy

When I use Chrome 35 on Mint 17, some plugins are not detected. Shit.

That means I will need to use Firefox.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

8:35 PM

Can we get close votes on this GR please?

2

Q: What did "make love" mean in the 1920's?

This 1921 article gives "Ten Pointers for Domestic Happiness". Pointer V reads: Make love to your wife; continue to be her sweetheart. Neglect begets indifference that is fatal to married life. Every true wife expects to be a sweetheart, and rightly. More than bitter disappointment follows ...

history

And dammit FF, why would you answer it.

Jasper Loy

4

A: Gnome Shell Integration in Chrome not working

Chrome and Chromium dropped support for the NPAPI plugins (Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface) in favor of PPAPI (Pepper Plugin Application Programming Interface) so all plugins that use NPAPI (like GNOME Extension plugin) are just not supported. The only alternative is using anot...

This is the reason why the plugins failed in Chrome 35, shit!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

wow, they finally did that thing they promised to do years ago? and people were caught off guard? shocked

Jasper Loy

So what can I do now? I must give up Chrome?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

What plugin are you missing, anyway, that's so important you'd switch away from Chrome?

Jasper Loy

I want to use icedtea plugin to execute Java applets.

I also want to use totem plugin to stream DivX on stagevu.com.

However, I also want to use the latest flash only available with Chrome.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

8:41 PM

you have a legitimate use for java applets?! I'm a java dev and even I don't install that plugin

anyway those other plugins will need to be updated, I guess.

Jasper Loy

Well, to be honest, I almost never use those 2 plugins. But almost never is not never.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

There's always Firefox.

Jasper Loy

By the way, do you know that Firefox is also working on something to play flash?

It is the Mozilla Shumway project.

Matt Эллен

in the jungle / the mighty jungle / the firefox sleeps tonight

MετάEd

@Cerberus Mad? Maybe. Crazy? Crazy as a fox.

Matt Эллен

8:44 PM

a shumaway / a shumaway / a shumaway / a shumaway

Jasper Loy

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 The how do you test if they work on Linux?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy I don't develop applets. Applets are annoying and clunky and obsolete.

There are better ways to deliver Java apps to the desktop

Jasper Loy

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I see. Some sites use Java applets still though.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy I have not come across a legitimate use of Java in years.

Jasper Loy

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Currently I only know of one site which uses it, lol. So I don't really need it I guess.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

8:50 PM

I have come across legitimate sites that used it illegitimately, though. Like Jira: they had an "upload screenshot" feature that required Java. Fuck that.

The annoying part was that if you didn't have Java installed, the screenshot feature would just redirect you to an Oracle webpage with no explanation.

Stack Exchange

Limerick Machine: The lives of pop stars must be fraught So often it seems they are caught Somehow compromised In s…

posted on June 03, 2014 by sgdi

The lives of pop stars must be fraught So often it seems they are caught Somehow compromised In some scheme they devised To be in all the world’s thoughts

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

time to fly

flies

MετάEd

9:27 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Naah, if Edward was good enough for Momma, it's good enough for me.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 frog tonguesnap

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

aedia λ

AWWWH!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

:D

@Mahnax ^

@MattЭллен ooh, she's a little shumaway

Matt Эллен

a shum shum shum shum shumaway

Jasper Loy

Oh no, I hate cats!

Matt Эллен

9:35 PM

Why is it called Shumway?

Jasper Loy

No idea.

The website I found yesterday with many movies now requires a password, lol.

aedia λ

fa fa fa fa better shum shum shum shum awaaaaay

MετάEd

What is it that is so damned cute about cats. They are basically cute rats.

KitFox

10:09 PM

Cats have nowhere near the same facial structure as rats.

Also furry tails.

Jasper Loy

Bats, cats and rats are all different.

They all have fats, but none of them wear hats.

We can put them all on mats and give them pats.

Mahnax

10:22 PM

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 !!!

c c

10:37 PM

rats face is just a shearing of cat face

(sorry just learned that word shearing :)

$user image$

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Serious, why do people still use Java?

Those companies that still depend on old Java applications, can't they just hire someone to convert them to a more reasonable format, or rewrite them?

Mitch

11:05 PM

@Cerberus what do you think is so bad about Java?

Cerberus

@Mitch It is a major vector for viruses...

It is bloatware: 99% of the time, you can have other programs do the same thing, like browsers with html5 and stuff.

Mitch

@Cerberus Don't drink from other people's cups then.

Oh... you mean computer viruses.

Cerberus

No, I meant people's cups.

Mitch

Really? More viruses than C?

What about javascript?

Cerberus

Better.

I don't think C is relevant...

Mitch

11:11 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Normally (ignoring content) I would agree with you (also re FF), but I think there is doubt about the GR and so explanation is asked for...or at least implied.

@Cerberus C is more easily taken advantage of with array overflows. Also Java has a protected virtual machine.

Cerberus

@Mitch But normally nobody can make you execute C. You don't normally execute C from an untrusted source.

Whereas you do execute Java if you have it enabled in your browser.

The VM is routinely broken by malefactors.

Mitch

@MattЭллен ha ha... yeah they are so words. And even if not then they are now because google and shit.

@Cerberus OK. I don't know anything about that. I;d say turn off 'allow executing Java' in your browser configs.

Cerberus

@Mitch Exactly!

That is what everybody should do, or set it to "ask to activate", if that works reliably.

The same applies to Flash.

And some other plugins.

In Firefox, you can set it to "always allow Flash on Youtube", for example, but not on other sites.

Jasper Loy

Hello @Keyanagirl

Johan Larsson

11:38 PM

bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/27679847

Fake?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mahnax :D

My cat.

Cerberus

Haha cute!

@JohanLarsson Who knows!

But I think black bears with light snouts are usually fairly harmless?

Johan Larsson

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 what's her name?

Robusto

11:55 PM

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I like the eye patch. She's a pirate!

there's a word in spanish, italian, and german

> As for identifying faces, there is an area called the fusiform facial area dedicated specifically to this task.

@Cerberus I've pretty much dumped Flash.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…