English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2014-11-14 (page 1 of 2)

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1:26 AM

@Robusto Hmm if it's worth it...

But perhaps someone who spoke better English would be slightly more expensive but compensate by saving everybody a lot of time.

$$$ also talks

And people listen.

Moral of the story: ?

He who has the gold; makes the rules.

Aka the other "golden rule".

Nothing gold can stay.

> Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

1:41 AM

@Cerberus Yeah. People way undervalue good communication skills.

Mar 16 '11 at 3:58, by Robusto

**Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock**

The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches tigers
In red weather.

Wallace Stevens

@Robusto And we all suffer for it.

Yes. No wonder the French are so snotty. Bunch of foreigners coming over demanding that they speak English? Sacre bleu !

At least nobody's expected me to speak Hindi. Yet.

1:57 AM

Hey, we can learn French.

It's a nice language.

I have been listening to Italian for 4 hours tonight.

We have watched Ludwig.

Have you seen it?

No.

With subtitles, of course. Although the Italian is exceptionally clear.

It is about the fall of Louis II of Bavaria. Neuschwanstein.

By Visconti.

The Mad King.

Wait. I think I did see that. Wasn't it made in the '70s or something like that?

It was!

Ludwig is a 1972 film directed by Italian director Luchino Visconti about the life and death of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Helmut Berger stars as Ludwig, Romy Schneider reprises her role as Empress Elisabeth of Austria (from Sissi (1955) and its two sequels). The film was made in Munich and other parts of Bavaria at these locations: Berg Castle, Castle Herrenchiemsee, Castle Hohenschwangau, Linderhof Palace, Ettal and Neuschwanstein Castle. Visconti suffered a stroke during filming. == Cast == Helmut Berger - Ludwig II of Bavaria Trevor Howard - Richard Wagner Silvana Mangano - Cosima von Bülow...

Then I saw it. I thought you were talking about a recent film, not something from 40 years ago.

2:00 AM

Of course not.

Would I watch recent films?

My boyfriend picked it, though.

@Cerberus Some people do.

Some people eat poop.

I don't.

Reductio ad fecam?

Or at least not when I think people are watching.

ad faeces

> Even though mandatory minimum sentencing reform has backing from some of the most powerful voices on both sides of the aisle, and even though it gave Congress a chance to have a rare camera-friendly kumbaya moment, and even though most of the Republican party’s 2016 presidential contenders publicly back this kind of reform, it hasn’t gone anywhere.

And its prospects in a Republican-helmed Senate might be even gloomier. That’s because the fate of this legislation would probably be in the hands of Chuck Grassley, who is on deck to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee. If he doesn’t want ma…

People who eat poop are out of ideas.

@Cerberus Stop trying to depress me.

2:03 AM

Alexander Grothendiek died today.

Can someone explain the dynamic here? Why do the ladies and gentlemen parliamentarians let one person block a major reform even though the large majority of both parties support it?

@Robusto Thinks are actually improving, more and more people are behind the reforms.

Well, we'll see.

Yeah.

But why do they let one senator block a widely supported bill?

2:20 AM

He’s the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He gets to say what bills from his domain are considered and promoted to the Senate Majority Leader, who them himself decides whether and when to bring that bill to the Senate itself.

So unless they both want it, it will never even have a chance to be debated, let alone voted upon — which is an extremely rare thing.

The Senate Majority Leader controls which bills the Senate considers.

They cannot consider one without his go-ahead.

Nice system, eh?

@tchrist Why not?

Can't any senator propose a new bill?

All representatives are theoretically equal.

2:41 AM

Well, the chair of the House Committee on Science is a creationist and a climate-change denier. So things couldn't get any more fucked up if they tried. And they're trying.

Haha that sucks.

But why are those committees so important?

3:43 AM

@Cerb

@Cerberus Because bureaucracy is the only retreat for their little minds

(Sorry, accidentally hit enter)

4:36 AM

@Cerberus Not to the whole Senate, no, I do not think they can. I believe it has to come out of a committee, which must be majority approved, and then it has to get by the Senate Majority Leader. I’m not sure, though. If they let just anybody put a bill to a vote instead of going through all the hoops, then things might make it to a vote that would be embarrassing to the majority party. That cannot be allowed.

In the House, their current Majority Leader will not allow a bill to be voted on unless his Whip has confirmed that a majority of his own caucus is in favor of it.

It’s a bit convoluted to get to the numbers, but it takes only about 11% of the US population’s elected Senatorial representatives to veto a bill ever seeing light of day.

That is, the Senators elected by 11% of the voters can veto a bill even being able to be debated.

The US system is a complete disaster right now. The Economist has quite a bit about this in the current issue, which I’ve just now read.

The gerrymandering system makes 96% of House seats “safe” from the other party, which means incumbents can only be challenged by their own party. Which means that anyone who isn’t a raving loon will be kicked out by somebody who is, since extremists draw more votes than centrists.

It’s totally fucked up, a disgrace to the world.

In the South, all House members are strictly racial: white if Republican, black if Democrat.

No black Republicans, no white Democrats.

Anything wrong with that?

5:01 AM

Yes and no :-)

Good.

Any idea how to fix it?

I’ve none.

The Economist suggests doing away with partisan primaries altogether.

And let the top two of the first voting round advance to the final.

It also wants gerrrymandering to go away. Of course it should. But there is no way in hell that the people who benefit from it (all 96% of them) will ever vote against their own comfy fat tushes.

This would give the reasonable people a chance to be elected, rather than always pushing increasingly unreasonable people into office.

This has been tried in California.

Computers should determine congressional districts.

Note the parties in power, who are always redrawing lines to make sure their party stays in power.

It is impossible to separate politics from business interests. Correct?

I have never paid the matter much thought, so cannot answer.

5:17 AM

The free enterprise system of the economy that has made the US the most dominant economy in the world intimately fuels its private interests through the government.

US House members are told they need to spend four hours a day making fundraising calls. Each. And. Every. Day.

Then there are the business lobbyists, who if not quite run things, certainly control them.

If there the South has no black Republicans and no white Democrats, I propose that they rename their parties to the more honest Black Party and White Party, irrespectively.

Did you read what happened in Mexico to students who protested the corruption in their government recently?

Never happened.

The story is at the bottom of the front page of Wikipedia

I didn’t know Wikipedia has a “front page”.

5:25 AM

Yep, they have a featured article and recent events at the bottom.

bbc.co.uk/mundo/ultimas_noticias/2014/11/…

> Las autoridades afirman que los 43 estudiantes de la escuela Normal de Ayotzinapa fueron arrestados por la policía tras atacarlos a disparos. Luego fueron entregados a narcotraficantes. Según versiones de tres detenidos, fueron asesinados e incinerados.

Hard to tell the one from the other, eh?

And they call that Normal.

To think that mass grave sites were found in this day and age...

And they’re sacking the supermarkets.

prensalibre.com/internacional/…

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Iguala_mass_kidnapping#Aftermath

> A casi un mes del crimen que ha conmocionado dentro y fuera de México, las autoridades siguen buscando al revocado y prófugo alcalde de Iguala, José Luis Abarca, a quien se acusa de ordenar el ataque por temor a que los estudiantes sabotearan un evento público de su esposa, también fugitiva y hermana de tres destacados narcotraficantes.

However, they appear to have caught the mayor now.

Again, no way to tell who’s who.

What with the major’s wife sister to three of the druglords.

Mexican governors cannot resign?

And are beholden to the federal Congress?

That’s pretty weird.

5:42 AM

Drug lords whose number one market place is the USA.

Naw, they ship it all to Iceland.

The obvious solution is a big push for more Made-in-USA stickers.

I’m pretty sure that the pot at my corner potshop isn’t imported from Mexico.

That would, of course, be illegal.

And why do something illegal when you can produce it legally and locally? Probably angers the Mexicans, but tough noogies.

Which just proves that making shipments illegal isn’t the way to halt them. Making local production legal is.

This is just an example of an illegal business working together with government to make drug lords rich.

And?

When legit business teams up with government we get the current system.

6:04 AM

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Damn.

That's just the way I see it.

6:23 AM

I don't like seeing those signs outside churches and mosques that tell me I will go to hell.

6:39 AM

Don't look at what you don't like to see. @JasperLoy

Look at what you like to see :-)

2 hours later…

8:58 AM

2014 Iguala mass kidnapping

On September 26, 2014, 43 students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers' College of Ayotzinapa went missing in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. According to official reports, they had travelled to Iguala that day to hold a protest against what they considered to be discriminatory hiring and funding practices by the Mexican government. During the journey local police intercepted them and a confrontation ensued. Details of what happened during and after the clash remain unclear, but the official investigation concluded that once the students were in custody, they were handed over to the local Guerreros...

3 hours later…

12:08 PM

Before buying a book on amazon with a CD, make sure the book indeed comes with a CD. Check the ISBN if necessary.

Matt Эллен

12:53 PM

and writers.se members here?

in The Overlook Hotel, 2 mins ago, by Stack Exchange

0

Q: Is there a site similar HireWriters.com?

The site is amazing, have connections with thousands of native English speaking writers with all different types of backgrounds, writing styles and experience. Posla ima mnogo, ali ... They have the lowest prices online...

business-writing

spam

@Arradras Haha nice one. I'm sure it's true...

@Cerberus Are you still using XP? If so, any problems with it after its EOL?

@JasperLoy Nope, no problems! Why should there be problems?

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus because it is decaying. it's a rotting hulk!

My computer's functioning does not depend in any way on Microsoft or some other company.

Matt Эллен

1:03 PM

soon bits will fall off

@MattЭллен Like which?

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus bits of the file system

then maybe some of the task scheduling code will start glitching

@tchrist So those 11% that can block any bill from being discussed: I presume that is because of internal party rules, not the constitutional workings of parliament, isn't it?

@MattЭллен Then I defrost a fresh clone!

Matt Эллен

lol

I have clones lying around.

Matt Эллен

1:05 PM

in vats?

On a hard drive.

The one I'm using now.

I can flash the OS partition back to its youth in ten minutes.

Matt Эллен

I've upgraded my motherboard and now my computer won't boot. I've tried reinstalling windows, but that made the ssd disappear from the boot options. it's not looking good at the moment

@Cerberus Well, internal Senate rules, not party rules. 41 Senators can block debate.

@Cerberus Because EOL should be one character, not two.

@MattЭллен Oh no!!

That sucks. Could the motherboard be broken?

@MattЭллен Shut The Front Door! — Mitch 9 secs ago

1:16 PM

@MattЭллен Have you tried updating the firmware on the mother board? Or is it perhaps wiser to return it to the shop?

That said...who can read deleted comments?

@tchrist So...the parties have made those senate rules, and they are thereby "law"?

Isn't that rule unconstitutional?

@Cerberus Lazy bums. Get them to work!

@tchrist Who's EOL?

@Cerberus I don't think process rules are 'laws'. They are extra-constitutuional. Like the virginity of Jesus's mom.

1:18 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 How is your phone doing? Still the Nexus 4, isn't it? I am contemplating getting an LG G2, @Rob's phone... I crave more RAM and more battery. GSM Arena has a really good battery comparison: gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3 And look, what phone is at the bottom of the list?

@MattЭллен it's virus proof because no virus maker cares about XP.

@Robusto Is 11+ hours of web browsing accurate for your battery's capacity (see the ranking above)?

@Cerberus I don't know, never pushed it that far. I can only tell you that I've never run the battery out of power in a single day's use. Not even close.

@Robusto Not even on days where you spent 5 hours on a train with nothing to do?

@Cerberus I usually have a tablet or a Kindle with me at that point.

1:22 PM

Hmm.

The most I've ever run the battery down in a day is like 30%.

user image

Down by 30%, or down to 30%?

The former, as should be clear from the way I phrased the sentence.

I suppose "in a day" would mean "by", but one can never be 100% sure.

user image

3 hours sounds about accurate for my Galaxy Nexus...when the battery was new. Now it is more like 2 hours.

Substitute "used" for "run the battery down" and you should see the difference.

1:26 PM

I am very surprised, though, that it says your phone has only about 60% more video time.

I seldom watch videos on my phone.

I have never tried watching videos on my phone for longer than, say, 10 minutes.

So I couldn't care less.

I have enough talk time too.

I could.

Yeah. I wait until I have a larger form factor for video watching, unless it's some clip someone sent me.

I just never watch videos when I am travelling.

1:28 PM

The single biggest battery drain on my phone is cell standby, searching for connection to a tower. And that happens when I travel from one place to another, or get in a place of poor reception.

There are very few situations where I could put on sound. Except through headphones, but I rarely use those: too much fuss.

I will listen to podcasts for hours sometimes.

@Robusto Right, that is for me no. 2, after screen time.

When I'm bored, I either browse the web, or I don't use my phone.

Perhaps if I were to cycle in the country, I might want to listen to stuff.

I'm old-fashioned. I prefer a desktop computer for most interactions, because it's just easier. I don't have this breathless I-need-to-say-it-now attitude you see in so many people today.

I don't tweet what I think of the bananas at the grocery.

Same here, except for messages. But only when I feel like it.

I don't do Twitter or Facebook posts or whatever.

But I enjoy texting with a friend on the train.

Not always.

Today, I haven't texted anyone yet.

You know what? I hate this constant flood of messages from people who want a reply from you. E-mail is the worst.

I make sure people know they should never expect a quick reply from me.

1:43 PM

@Mitch - I think the votes are going in Lightness's favor. :(

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:11 PM

@Cerberus I see the HTC Titan II at the bottom

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Hmm if you click to sort by web-browsing?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

oh, the GN is at the bottom.

Yay!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Well, I like my N4. The battery life could be better.

I saw it had 50% longer browsing than the Gnex, at 4.5 hours or so.

And the Nexus 5...also 4.5 hours.

The Nexus 4 isn't even sold here any more.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:14 PM

At this point I'd probably recommend something newer than the n4 or G2

Unless you're getting it really cheap

And the G2 is a lot cheaper than the Nexus 5. It's €190 on top of the SIM-only plan I already have.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Wait.. the G2 is the same, or previous generation as the n5? I forget

Same.

But better than the N5.

In some ways.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I guess check CM's support level? LG is not known for long-term support or timely releases of Android

I pay €14/m now for my plan; If I smear out €190 over 24 months, that is an extra €8/m, resulting in €22/m total.

I checked, and CM supports the G2—that is, there are plenty of snapshots for Kitkat.

And LG has announced the G2 will get Lollipop from LG.

And I read about people using a certain ROM based on the G3, CloudyG3, which is apparently good.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:18 PM

I'm still waiting for lollipop from google for the n4.

It will come soon, won't it?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

it seems whatever nexus device I own is the last one to get updates

I can't use Lollipop in the foreseeable future anyway because of Xposed.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

What do you use xposed for

Whatever Nexus device I own didn't even get Kitkat!

For a tons of things!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:19 PM

yeah you're on 4.2 or something

Xprivacy being no. 1.

Yes, I am. Although there have been stable Kitkat CMs for ages.

They appeared soon after Kitkat broke out.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I went through the xposed modules when I installed it on my tablet. There was so much useless junk there. I installed only one module, "root hider"

Right, that is one, if you need it.

There are thousands of modules. It's like its own ecosystem, and many of the most useful ones are in there.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I only needed it for a shitty movie-studio app that has "drm" on its "free digital downloads"

Take Smart Network: it switches to 2G when the screen is off, saves a lot of battery when you have poor reception.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:21 PM

Well, "thousands of modules"... I literally found nothing useful.

hm, that's neat.

that could be a tasker thing.

I had to drop Tasker.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

??!?

Too heavy on my phone, and it wasn't always reliable.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

who are you and what have you done with the real cerb?

I know!

Xposed modules are a lot more reliable than Tasker.

They feel as though they were baked into the OS; Tasker would get kicked out of memory and stuff.

I will reinstall Tasker on my future G2...

I miss it dearly.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:23 PM

I mainly use tasker for one thing: disabling my lock screen when I'm at home

Android L has that feature built-in

well, sorta

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That didn't work for me.

At some point, it worked, but then it didn't.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I needed a plugin called "secure settings" to make it work

it works pretty flawlessly.

I have been using SS since the beginning.

I have tried all methods I could find. I have Googled the entire Internet, spent countless hours on it.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus I'm not sure. could be the board, could be windows being shit. linux works from a live CD or USB stick, but the network card isn't picked up

@MattЭллен That sucks! I know what that must feel like.

Perhaps returning the board is the easiest option now? What board is it?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:26 PM

@MattЭллен wow it's like you time-travelled back to 2004

Shh.

Matt Эллен

msi z87-g45

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Or maybe you have a motherboard from 2024

Matt Эллен

:O

that would be an amazing board for 2004 :D except that it's not fully functional

Oh, that's a pretty fancy board...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:28 PM

> Gaming Device Port: Optimized with Triple Gold-plating for High Polling Rate Gaming Devices

Do people still fall for that stuff?

Matt Эллен

ha! I didn't, I just bought one with a good review

OMG triple! I need triple.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Why do you think Monster Cables are still seen in stores? Or people still buy Alienware custom gaming computers (when you can build much better gaming boxes for much cheaper on your own)?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto sigh you're making me lose faith in humanity.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Oh, if only I could believe that I'd be the happiest cynic in the world.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:35 PM

But anyway I thought Alienware things were bought because they looked cool, not because they were better performers than what you could build yourself

user image

user image

user image

I want a tablet stylus that looks like a No. 2 pencil and has to be sharpened every five or ten minutes.

user image

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Those are most of the Xposed modules I have installed.

Xposed Torch is a cool example: I enable the torch by long-pressing the volume-up button when the screen is off.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Oh, I installed that toast one that shows the app icon.

Right, that is Xtoast.

Or one of a number of others, I think.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:38 PM

no, Burnt Toast

I think

Ah, right.

I think I used to use that one.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Most of those don't interest me that much

Skipping tracks by long-pressing the volume button while music is playing?

There are so many options.

And I don't regularly check all new modules.

And they are all improved and expanded continually.

But Xposed won't work on ART for the time being.

No fix is in sight yet.

And ART has been out for a while.

So no Lollipop for me; I'll get the features I need from Lollipop through Xposed modules, which are bound to pop up within weeks, as they always do.

I'm wondering what's the point of unit tests that always fail.

"Oh, that's normal. Just build using the -DskipTests flag."

facepalm

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus I have that feature already in one or more of the music players I use.

2:55 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Right, that works too. The same applies to turning the volume button(s) into a photo button.

But so you are still happy with your N4?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:10 PM

@Cerberus Happy enough.

There is a game I've been playing lately that has some performance issues but I think it's the game

my Nexus S and Transformer TF101 are both dog slow these days though.

The latest app updates have not been kind.

Right!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I had to uninstall Google Play Movies on my Nexus S because its service was using too much ram

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 So you think part of the reason why old devices begin to feel "slow" is that applications become more demanding as they update?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

and that phone has only 512 MB

yes

The app developers stop optimizing for old phones

Hmm but is the Movies thing active in the background?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:13 PM

It had a service

I wasn't using Movies on that phone anyway

I have disabled some Google services too. Especially the ones related to Wear kept waking up my phone. It wasn't horrible, but my battery is bad enough as it is.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But memory pressure was so bad I couldn't start Google Search or Chrome or anything.

That's horrible, why would Google enable such a useless service?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

The app would start, then when I'd load the keyboard, the app would get killed.

Now that is bad.

I can still use my phone normally, except with memory-heavy applications.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:15 PM

Now, I suspect the Nexus S is in a rare situation: it's running KitKat but its last update was JB 4.1

But the home screen will often be kicked out of memory. And basically any previous task.

Huh.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

so possibly Google would have left disabled some memory-hungry features on that phone if it were still on JB

You flashed CM onto it?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yes

Ah, right.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:15 PM

But still. I had to switch back to the Android AOSP keyboard on both that phone and my tablet.

although, my tablet has 1Gb of ram

it's not in as bad shape.

But it still gets really slow.

Swype/Swiftkey would use too much RAM?

Swype eats 47B on mine. Probably less if I restart it.

Google Services 60MB.

I hate how it updates in the background.

Google Play Services another 12MB.

Dropbox 22MB.

Whatsapp 35MB.

Morning.

But I have Whatsapp Greenified.

Morning!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah I don't even have any of those things on the nexus s

How is student life these days?

3:19 PM

Hello :D

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Dropbox or whatsapp or swype, I mean

Right.

@Cerberus Not bad, very busy. Lots to do! How are you?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax morning

Not too stressful, I hope?

All is well here too.

3:20 PM

@Cerberus Nah, I can do it. We're coming up on the end of the semester anyway.

When does it end, and for how long?

It's over December 3, final exams run until December 19, and then we start school again January 5.

How many Finals are you writing?

Five.

:O

3:23 PM

Last May I wrote almost twenty exams, so I'm not concerned. They're quite spread out.

Ah, that is what one would expect.

December 9, 10, 11, 15, and 19 are the days I have exams.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax Pretty standard. One year my wife had to write 9 finals in 7 days.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yeah, five is normal. Why did she have nine? Multiple exams for one class?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax It was Pharmacy. They do their own thing.

3:25 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Ah, yeah. Those faculties just do whatever the hell they like, really.

I talk to a lot of med/pharm/etc. students at work. They like to study at Starbucks.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah, even in Engineering we never had anything so sadistic.

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