English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2014-08-14 (page 7 of 9)

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2:05 PM

It looks like I might get another service contract.

I just talked to the dean and they are looking for a one-year support contract.

I had a very funny interaction with him at the end of the call.

Matt Эллен

what happened?

He said he thought the system was underutilized, and that it was a good design for extending into other disciplines. I said I thought so too, and that had been intentional. He hesitated a moment then said, "Were you, uh, in on...were you one of the uh, co-creators?"

And I said "I designed it, yes. So thank you."

Matt Эллен

:D

George Pompidou

@tchrist that would be awful. I have a friend who did a CS degree and they made him take intro engineering classes.

He's probably running through the implications in his head right now.

Since they are in essence talking about commercializing the product.

And I'm sure the douchebag ex-project lead and the chair both claimed credit for the system.

Matt Эллен

2:09 PM

so you could go free lance again, across the academic world!

Well...if I wanted to be poor, yes.

George Pompidou

ewww…

being poor must be awful

I am getting a fat paycheck where I work now, and I rather like it, despite the long drive.

Unfortunately, it leaves me little time to freelance.

Matt Эллен

I can imagine

@GeorgePompidou Some universities define engineering as applied science, in which case computer science automatically gets included.

George Pompidou

2:11 PM

well, obviously.

my uni has a whole school for CS. it's not associated with anything else.

We have a college of computing and information science. It's new.

did you hear about the record the new fields medal winner set?

Nope.

Matt Эллен

most number of 2 dimensional universes imagined in one go

lol

2:15 PM

imagines

Princeton hired him at the rank of tenured full professor within only two years of finishing graduate school, which is considered a record in the Ivy League.

What a wanker.

George Pompidou

@KitFox exactly this

but really it's just CS. there's other stuff like I Try and game design major… but nobody takes them seriously.

I try?

George Pompidou

IT

ITry

(cs department joke, sorry)

2:19 PM

Oh. I haven't heard that one.

There is a new chat room called Gender equality in IT

Matt Эллен

which site is it attached to?

workplace

Matt Эллен

ah

Reminds me of the other funny thing the dean asked me. After we had established that he was looking for tech support, he asks "So what's it cost for Kit's skill set on this?" I paused long enough to make him uncomfortable, then replied "Well, for tech support, I feel that the same figure as before is sufficient. You can get almost anyone to do that work."

Matt Эллен

2:22 PM

how generous of you!

It's annoying. They are so clueless.

George Pompidou

what do you do Kit?

I'm currently a business analyst.

George Pompidou

what does that mean?

For these people I'm talking about, I was a grossly underpaid software developer/systems designer/project manager with the title of "database programmer".

George Pompidou

2:24 PM

did you recently quit or summin?

hey, my dad's a database programmer

and systems designer/project manager/software developer

!!!

@GeorgePompidou It means I talk to scientists, find out what they want their computer to do, then I talk to the developer and tell him what the scientists need.

@GeorgePompidou I quit back in November, but they continued me for seven months as a temp employee because they are trying to limp the project along until they can get funding.

But they are academics and can't get out of their own way.

George Pompidou

oh, that's really nice. I wish we had something like that here where I'm working for the summer. we have developers talk to the business people and there's no communication at all, since we all have aspergers and they're all idiots.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox right, how easily I forget

I try to remember that they really don't know, not that they are fucking idiots.

@GeorgePompidou Yeah, that's precisely why BAs were invented.

Matt Эллен

user image

George Pompidou

2:27 PM

at my last job, the boss of Engineering was not a programmer. he was just a slick product designer/boss.

so he was really good at bridging that communication gap.

but here it's a wreck.

I was a competent coder. I have strong communication skills, and my data and design work is really good.

George Pompidou

my problem with the non-tech guys being idiots is not that they don't know. it's that they refuse to believe some of the things we developers tell them.

like if they suggest something illogical

they should trust the developers on things like that, because they don't understand

Well, they don't see what's so hard about it. That's what they say.

George Pompidou

pff, then they should come to my workstation and do it.

And couldn't you just...?

George Pompidou

2:30 PM

if it's not hard.

Those are the two worst phrases ever.

George Pompidou

mmmm. that's why I'm not a communication guy.

^.^

programs

The ex-project lead left every meeting after making it quite clear that he would do it himself if he had the time, but he had more important things to do.

George Pompidou

huh. was he a programmer?

And ffs, Google spreadsheets were a fine choice.

@GeorgePompidou Not even close, although I'm sure he thought so, since he knew how to use autosum in Excel.

I was always fighting him on everything. He had the dumbest ideas.

George Pompidou

2:32 PM

okay, that gets to me

I fucking hate when non computer people talk as if programming were easy

Like how we should keep all the usernames and passwords on a Google spreadsheet, so he could log in to people's accounts and help them.

George Pompidou

my roommates do it all the time. they claim that I have it soooo good since I just go dick around at a computer all day and get paid more than all of them put together.

so I'm like then why the fuck don't you do it?

that pisses me off. makes a fuss

@OliverSalzburg that vacuuming idea worked great, thanks for the tip :-)

Matt Эллен

now your apartment doesn't smell so bad?

George Pompidou

I'm not saying it's rocket science. just that it's a trade like any other, and you have to study it like any other.

2:33 PM

@MattЭллен no my laptop doesn't over heat

George Pompidou

makes a big fuss

Matt Эллен

@skullpatrol oh. nice!

Kbai!

See you later!

Matt Эллен

CU

George Pompidou

I got this super duper fine point pen to write checks with (since rent checks are all I ever write physically) and I tested the pen out by writing seven hundred and seventy-nine even and then my signature on a piece of paper.

that's probably not safe.

burns paper

2:35 PM

@MattЭллен but you have to jam the fan blades so they don't turn when you are doing it or you could fry the whole thing.

George Pompidou

I think this is all I know how to write by hand though.

only that particular set of letters in that order.

Matt Эллен

@skullpatrol good advice

I never knew

damn induction

I always prefered deduction anyway :-)

2:52 PM

magnetic induction

yep, the spinning fan blades will cause a current

and ZAP!!! there goes my laptop

and your short circuit

you have to jam the fan blades so they don't turn when you are doing it

jsbin.com/muquv/latest#eta how do you guys draw eta? the queue straight? toward the exterior or the interior?

Matt Эллен

there's no q in eta

3:05 PM

the tail I mean, sorry

$$\eta$$

a small second tail so

I draw it straight

ok

Matt Эллен

η

probably like that

George Pompidou

3:17 PM

@MattЭллен examines this with a loupe

hmm…

you know, I think you might just be right.

Matt Эллен

$$\pi$$

π

hmmm

George Pompidou

ugh. my new roommates are from the Dominican Republic

that country only has a medium human development index! pours gasoline on self and lights on fire

Matt Эллен

that an interesting way to protest the Dominican Republic government's human development policies. probably something you can only do once

George Pompidou

I am just upset because my friend and I wanted cool roommates and we judge people based on where they are from.

like they did to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war

3:29 PM

Vietnam war must have generated so much smoke

user image

@nosmoking do you think he^ cared about the smoke generated?

George Pompidou

damn, sucks 4 dat guy

what about the ones they bombed?

George Pompidou

sounds like they're dead

anyway, back to my papi chulo roommates

I was really hoping they'd be some smooth black guys from LA or something.

that'd have been dope.

@skullpatrol you can die from smoke you know, if not burned

oh didn't see the imolated guy

3:35 PM

@GeorgePompidou You have it backwards: being forced to take “engineering” courses is what would have sucked. A liberal-arts education is a keystone, possible even THE keystone, of Western Civilization; if you want to go to some MS-Certified TechEngr™ school, by all means do so, but don’t imagine this will earn you any respect worth having.

Is this torture strictly necessary?

I posses the means of banishing it, and I am more than half tempted to do so.

George Pompidou

@tchrist that's what I said, being forced to take engineering courses sucked.

we're on the literal same page here, what are you arguing?

the combustion of a body release many carcinogens too, as any combustion of an organic thing, like tobacco too

@tchrist he's worried about second hand smoke

@GeorgePompidou I read you backwards.

George Pompidou

ah.

I'm afraid you are using a defective English Grammar textbook. — John Lawler 35 mins ago

he needs to go to that publisher's office and Lawlersmash them.

3:38 PM

@GeorgePompidou There are so many of those, I sometimes despair.

It’s time for something completely different.

George Pompidou

yeah, I'm not surprised though. native English speakers tend to be really bad at English.

my immigrant parents would whoop most native speakers at grammar.

user image

George Pompidou

fancy kitty.

I hate cats.

user image

user image

My attempted "shock" therapy on second hand smoke didn't work :(

George Pompidou

3:41 PM

I always smoke with my second hand.

user image

George Pompidou

my first hand is for a glass of bourbon or something.

enough cats!!!

George Pompidou

that is, if you go left to right.

user image

3:41 PM

2 mins ago, by George Pompidou

I hate cats.

6 mins ago, by tchrist

I posses the means of banishing it, and I am more than half tempted to do so.

@skullpatrol on me?

user image

@nosmoking yep

pal

user image

I don't like exposure therapy, I'm doing it everyday though, with a mask

3:43 PM

@Reg Look above ^^^^ it is your tomato’s evil twin!!

@nosmoking It will pay off if you stick to it.

I challenge anyone to name any non-feline subject in the photos above.

At least two of them can be deadly.

@MattЭллен OK...what does that mean beyond 'victory rose' or the sister of the lead of some icelandic band?

@nosmoking think of it as exercise, you get a little stronger everyday, my friend.

@tchrist cats... argh... I failed!

3:45 PM

@skullpatrol ok, but I still try to be far from my unintentional enemies

@skullpatrol yeah, ok

@skullpatrol Mine did, though. :)

:D

I apologise for the images.

War is ugly.

Note that mass(cat1) + mass(cat2) < mass(cat3).

I like comparisons independant of gravity

@tchrist are they wasps?

3:51 PM

@skullpatrol Well done!

@Cerberus The book?

One is. The Chalybion californicum is nasty looking. It’s a Blue Mud Dauber. Surprisingly, its sting is not as excruciating as some of its brethren. But it can kill people with allergies, and anyone stung above the shoulders should always seek urgent care immediately.

The lightning bug that the superkitty is looking at had alighted upon his nose.

Yes.

:)

"Who with allergies" — "anyone stunk".

3:54 PM

The other scary one is Atropa belladonna — deadly nightshade. It is a reasonably close relative of the tomato.

We know.

> Atropa belladonna or Atropa bella-donna, commonly known as belladonna or deadly nightshade, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Solanaceae, native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. The foliage and berries are extremely toxic, containing tropane alkaloids. These toxins include scopolamine and hyoscyamine, which cause a bizarre delirium and hallucinations,[1] and are also used as pharmaceutical anticholinergics. The drug atropine is derived from the plant.

@Cerberus Yes, I bet it grows in your garden as well.

I think of it as a vampire tomato.

if you burn it, the smoke would be terribly carcinogenic

What does it look like? We do have vingerhoedskruid, digitalis. But I can't think of any other plants that our parents warned us against.

@nosmoking How do you know?

@Cerberus I guess, seeing it's composition, it would be a "powerful tobacco"

3:57 PM

How so?

@nosmoking try NOT to think about the smoke that comes from burning everything you see

@Cerberus Digitalis is foxglove, which is a nicer name you must agree.

Ah.

We need the Latin to communicate.

2

@Cerberus What does belladonna look like? Live a lovely lady dressed to kill.

@Cerberus the composition of this organic thing, when burned you'll have generic compounds similar to cigarettes

@skullpatrol ok :s

3:58 PM

@tchrist I have no idea, I have never consciously seen it.

@nosmoking Well, all smoke is carcinogenic. But this one more than others?

@Cerberus It looks like this.

@nosmoking I know blocking it out is hard, but you have to try pal

Wood smoke, for example, is said to be 30x as carcinogenic as tobacco smoke.

@tchrist Oh, that looks nice.

I'm sure I have seen similar flowers, but the berries?

It grows on a vine. Its blooms are deep violet with a dark yellow cranesbill-like center, and its berries are red. DO NOT EAT

I also saw black berries.

Oh, we were also warned against eating taxus.

4:01 PM

user image

you can't confound it to tomato.. the black tail

I don't recall ever seeing those.

@Cerberus There are several Atropa species, but they all take after their namesake.

That is, they take after Atropos.

Who, it turns out, was never a Musketeer after all.

The Moira?

Is that bittersweet nightshade?

I love that plant.

So pretty.

scrolls up That's not deadly nightshade/belladonna. Deadly nightshade has black berries.

Bittersweet is also poisonous though.

4:29 PM

@KitFox Nice new avatar!

George Pompidou

Google Translate is so much better English -> German than the other way around.

I suppose that's no surprise, since English is so simple.

but not fair!

I'm surprised it gets idioms like "I used to" and "Right off the highway" correct when going to German

but equivalent idioms in German get completely literally turned to their English words and it makes no sense.

4:47 PM

This must be a duplicate:

0

Q: Past Perfect in Stories

As you'll may notice, I'm not a native speaker, so I apologize for any any mistakes in my English. I haven't read many books in English yet, but in the few I have, I noticed the Past Perfect tense was used in them a lot, and I didn't always understand why. (Talking about books because they made ...

grammar past-tense past-perfect

Although maybe the dupe got sent to ELL.

George Pompidou

double whammy then.

0

Q: Classification - There is/are

What is the official 'name' for the 'there is' / 'there are' construction? Is it a verb phrase or a lexical verb? I'd say possibly a verb but it must be the most difficult term to Google.

grammar verbs adverbs structure

didn't we all just fight about this in a very recent question?

jesus, there are a trillion of those too.

@GeorgePompidou No, the question you are probably thinking of was about what part of speech there had in there is/are/could be. The answer was that it doesn’t have one.

George Pompidou

eh, splitting hairs imo.

@GeorgePompidou I have no idea what that means nor how it applies here.

George Pompidou

yes you do, that's just your tchrist way of saying you disagree with me.

4:59 PM

No, it is my way of saying I don’t know what the fuck you are trying to say.

possible duplicate of Why do people sometimes use the past perfect form of a verb when the past would suffice? (e.g. "you had mentioned") — tchrist 1 min ago

George Pompidou

I am saying that asking what part of speech "there" in "there is" is is very similar to asking what the "name" for "there is" construction is.

how can you not gather that from what I said?

and they are both useless questions to me

that are idiotic.

you need to tell that hippo to shut his mouth

George Pompidou

you mean me?

no no. I'm always a fussy hippo.

success = work + play + keep your mouth shut

George Pompidou

not for me.

heh. @tchrist I always forget to check the site because I'm even more upset that people don't google first.

am I the only one who always googles first?

my link was the literal "I'm feeling lucky" result.

this pen has such a fine point, it cuts straight through sticky notes when I write on them.

hehehehe.

5:20 PM

@GeorgePompidou let me google that for you

hehehehehe

George Pompidou

that was literally not clever at all.

had I written something that un-clever, I'd have deleted it, burned my computer, and killed myself.

@GeorgePompidou Unclear, but you’re provably one of those who never searches first, that’s for damned sure.

you are not me

George Pompidou

@tchrist I know. that's what I said. I tend to only google. but eh, does not matter. a correct answer can't hurt.

5:25 PM

@GeorgePompidou Yes, it can.

Because it is a duplicate.

George Pompidou

how can it hurt?

does it hurt you deep inside?

do you need some soothing?

needless repetition hurts

@GeorgePompidou Your sexual proclivities don't need to be bandied about. Stop it.

George Pompidou

@AndrewLeach yes sir.

I'm not stupid. And I can see the history (even if I missed it, which I didn't).

5:32 PM

Why this type of language?

George Pompidou

then you should realize it's still not sexual. it's just an expression to indicate my indifference to someone disliking my correct, non-rule-breaking answer.

user image

George Pompidou

and I am hoping that my realization that I shouldn't speak that way and apology is worth something.

I'm on your side, but keep quiet for awhile please

6:12 PM

Limerick Machine: There once was a man as you know That is how most of these go He got in a scrape Some kind of...

posted on August 14, 2014 by sgdi

There once was a man as you know That is how most of these go He got in a scrape Some kind of jape Now laugh at the punch line, ho ho!

user image

the science book read by Einstein as a child:
Peoples Books on Natural Science by Aaron Bernstein
I paid $50 to get the book from inter-library loan 10 years ago, today it can be read for free on-line :)

@Cerberus I just want you to know that it is you who are responsible for American going into hock.

> “We will do everything we can to help secure an end to this conflict as soon as possible, so that there will be no more bloodshed in Ukraine,” Mr. Putin was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Actually, I’m sure the Russian original just said “We plan to win this one real soon now.”

It’s like @Reg's example from yesterday.

Rant:

-2

A: In Britain the word 'normalcy' is ridiculed

PregnanT : Pregnancy NormaL : Normality InfanT : Infancy FormaL : Formality VacanT : Vacancy DuaL : Duality Although English is constantly evolving the introductions of some US words often fails to observe simple established grammar (see above). Nor do they add to the langu...

The problem with ELU comes back to the problem of opinions being like <CENSORED>. But not only does everybody have one, here the two too often seem to be one and the same.

6:41 PM

@tchrist still too cumbersome. Should be a simple "vodka, your mother!" Which again is perfectly fine in German but is somehow a word in English.

Still feels like the prisoner awaiting sentencing being told by his lawyer that he has good news and bad news, with the good news being that he’s getting out next week and the bad news that he got a life sentence.

7:16 PM

@skullpatrol anoter example of Why? why barbecues are forbidden in my residence, but smoking allowed, no sorry I know I should NOT think about smoke, but that's strong , really strong, smoking is just a small barbecues, at the frequency of some smokers it creates more harm than a barbecue

7:40 PM

12

Q: "take a photo", but why take?

I don't understand why you write for example "take a photo", Why take? Is there any rule for this? ps: I am from Germany

PS: I don't care.

fhm.com/girls/news/…

Uh, nsfw I guess.

George Pompidou

what's a good word for someone who says bad words a lot?

I recall something that ends in -mouth but I forgot.

@GeorgePompidou Pottymouth

George Pompidou

@GnomeSlice exactly! thanks.

single-word-requests

!!

Germans say aufnehmen for videos. Why would you take up or accept a video? At least English makes sense, see the answers below. (And of course the only honest answer, for any language, is: you have to use some verb, so for all you care you can use any verb at all as long as enough people agree that that's the verb to use. If we collectively settle for "cat a photo" and "dog a video", then that's what you get. No word really means anything in and of itself. It is but a collection of sounds, and has whatever meaning we assign to it.) — RegDwigнt ♦ 8 mins ago

7:52 PM

snap a photo, snap a shot

George Pompidou

@Reg are you German?

where are you from?

@GeorgePompidou GnomeSlice

@GeorgePompidou a scrabblefinder.com/ends-with/mouth

George Pompidou

yo, everyone chillax

I got my answer.

it has been marked as accepted and I am downvoting the two others.

Do you know how to untie my knot?

3D puzzle

7:59 PM

@nosmoking Solved!

@GeorgePompidou no.

Apr 21 '11 at 20:18, by RegDwight

I've been deemed a French, a Lithuanian, you name it.

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