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08:00 - 15:0015:00 - 00:00

3:00 PM
What if you're not Kosher?
 
@Cerberus what, you didn't think of Robusto?
62
Q: Is Python a snake or a programming language? If the latter, why is it choking my dog?

RobustoWe've been getting a rash of questions asking, essentially, what a programmer should name methods or properties. One such was a request for a word that meant both "add" and "remove" because the programmer wanted to have a method that could add or remove an element. Does this really fall under E...

 
Right!
 
Think of the Robusto! Nobody ever thinks of the Robusto!
 
Actually, I could've thunk of many people in this room...
 
@Robusto: To which I would add the caveat that the title of this particular question seems exceptionally bad to me. I notice some moderators seem to have time to make minor stylistic changes to other question titles in the interests of site consistency. So why does no-one think it's worth revising this one so it at least nods in the direction of its topic? — FumbleFingers May 9 '11 at 1:23
Hehe, that Fumble. I think this was the first time I had ever gotten into a blind-beat-the-blind exchange with him.
 
3:01 PM
@Robusto if you are not Kosher, then you must be the other half of the duo, Sonny.
 
But whom I meant to think of what actually @Mahnax, since he used to sport the Python icon! Somehow I thought it was Matt, but I realise it wasn't.
 
@Robusto Well. That's because only some moderators do that. But those moderators are currently on Ibiza.
 
@Robusto Fumble is fickle.
 
As the German saying goes, "left is where the Fumble is right".
 
Very germane.
 
3:11 PM
@RegDwigнt Isn't the web all about "fahren nach links"?
Which is correct?
 
Nach links fahren?
 
Did you miss the x-lingual pun?
 
Ah!
That figures; your line seemed...disconnected.
 
You need more coffee. Or something.
 
@Robusto that's not x-lingual. That's monolingual. What do you think the German word for link is?
 
3:19 PM
Wurst?
 
No, that's the word for cheese.
Jeez, dude, you know nothing.
 
Anyway, it is too x-lingual. Spoilsport.
 
LMAO like I'm dissing you or something. I'm dissing Cerberus here, for not getting a pun that was even more gettable than you'd think.
It's not all about you, you know.
What do you think the Dutch word for "link" is.
 
@RegDwigнt That would be the non-solipsist viewpoint, a view I don't necessarily subscribe to.
 
That sounds like you do subscribe to it occasionally. What is the price?
I am sure Cerberus can pay you in ananaes.
 
3:23 PM
@RegDwigнt It is...link!
 
See.
 
But link also means risky; it is a bit slangy or informal.
 
Hey cool, they got to interview Noah himself!
@Cerberus yeah yeah we all know Dutch. The point here was that apparently you don't. Without enough coffee.
 
I know you do.
But you don't know German, apparently.
 
3:25 PM
You still haven't figured out what pijnder means. You had like three days.
 
What?
 
QED.
 
A child might say that to indicate the comparative of "pijn".
 
See @Rob, and you expect him to get X-Tina puns.
@Cerberus cold.
 
I don't think so!
 
3:26 PM
And that's the problem.
Bring forth some more. What else you've got.
 
@Cerberus Are you trying to prove that Dutch is some kind of pijn English?
 
@RegDwigнt What is the context here? Is it some kind of joke?
@Robusto Pijn means pain.
 
No joke. The context is Repin, if you have to ask.
 
The painter?
 
@Cerberus Not in pijn English it doesn't.
 
3:27 PM
But that's giving away too much already.
@Cerberus yes the painter. How many Repins do you even know?
 
Why do I waste my x-lingual puns on you.
 
@Robusto because he's not paying you.
 
One. But I'm sure there must be many.
 
Pro tip: make him pay you.
Then they won't be wasted.
 
@Robusto Neither of you is making much sense, as usual.
Pijnder sounds a bit like an American's pronunciation of painter...
 
3:29 PM
See, that would be an x-lingual pun.
 
Is it Rob? Is Rob the answer?
 
Rob is never the answer. Rob is not even the question.
 
Then I fold.
 
He's just Rob.
@Cerberus name some Repin paintings.
 
But haven't you listened to Alle Menschen werden Bruder?
Without the umlaut, apparently.
 
3:30 PM
<link rel='x-lingual-pun' type='pun/pijn' href='/word-stem.pijn'>
 
@RegDwigнt I couldn't name a single one. I remember the large portrait of Nicholas II.
Was it in the Pushkin Museum?
 
@Cerberus Himmlischer dein Heligtum?
 
Who is Nicholas?
 
@Robusto Yes, that.
 
@Cerberus hopefully without the Capitalization, too.
 
3:31 PM
@RegDwigнt Some Russian guy you wouldn't know about.
 
I am pretty sure he spole himself differently.
 
@RegDwigнt That was an Anglicism.
 
0
Q: If I was or If I were

asgharI am perplexed at this sentence: If I was asked who I wanted to become, I could not give a specific answer Is it correct, or should I instead say If I were asked who I wanted to become, I could not give a specific answer

 
@RegDwigнt But I spole him as I did.
 
What, this again?
 
3:33 PM
Anyway. Think of a movie with Brad Pitt, Robert de Niro and Kevin Bacon. Then think of Repin again. Then move to Gemeente Dordrecht. That is how you will learn the meaning of pijnder.
It's not hard, you just have to get your ass up.
 
You are asking me to think of movies?
I don't know any.
Okay, I know a film with Brad Pitt: Fight Club. That is all. The other actors I wouldn't recognise, so I have no idea whether they were in that film.
Any conexions (this is the new official spelling) with Repin or Dordrecht elude me. Did Repin ever paint Dordrecht?
 
0
Q: Distance Between Modifiers

Stephen Ceveryone. Recently, I have been trying to improve my independent clauses. I'm not exactly sure how to describe the problem I've been having, but one of the main things I've been concentrating on is the distance between words that modify other words. For example, I used to write things like th...

Of course, improving one's independent clauses is greatly to be desired.
 
I've actually never been to Dordrecht, though I should like to visit it someday.
 
This just in: Cerberus would not recognize Robert de Niro. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
 
@Cerberus You should visit Boston instead.
 
3:38 PM
Yeah you'd like it there, even their vaginas are male.
 
I'm not sure what your problem is. If you want to avoid too much distance between a modifier and its noun, what is preventing you from doing that? — Robusto 7 secs ago
 
Yeah.
Like.
I keep leaving comments that go "if you don't want to overuse X, then do not overuse it".
But people never seem to be able to arrive at this spectacular conclusion themselves.
 
@Robusto Why?
@RegDwigнt I recognise the name. You should be proud.
 
@Cerberus I would buy you dinner.
 
"I use the word therefore in every sentence. What are some alternatives?" FFS. The one and only alternative is not using the word in every sentence.
 
3:40 PM
@Robusto +1
@Robusto Yay! That's good enough for me.
My friend Joep lives in Boston.
Researching solar cells and stuff.
 
Well, there you go. Two meals. How can you stay away?
 
Yay!
So you live in the city proper?
Somehow I thought you lived closer to New York or something.
 
@Cerberus No. Suburban Boston.
 
@Cerberus Joep is Russian for arse.
 
Oct 17 '12 at 12:51, by Robusto
@tchrist I'm about 2 miles from "the rude bridge that arched the flood."
 
3:43 PM
Huh, I thought you just grew up there.
So confused.
I recall your being on Manhattan for some job.
 
@Cerberus Haha, mistyped Chicago for Boston.
 
@RegDwigнt Really? But Joep is pronounced yoop.
 
Yup.
 
@Robusto My, God. And they blame me!
But I will make a note.
Boston would be high on my list of North-American cities.
 
Boston is always fairly high. Bostonians even more so.
 
3:46 PM
Wait, Boston is in north America? I'm not going. That's too cold.
 
I just need to be blindfolded when near modern architecture, that's all.
 
And since we're (presently) above sea level it will seem high to you.
 
@RegDwigнt Very cold in winter.
@Robusto Very high.
 
@Cerberus Good grief. No, thanks. I'll continue saving up for my vacation on the South Pole.
 
Winter is coming!
 
3:47 PM
Okay, South Pole wins.
 
Don't mention the war.
 
Some mountain on Antarctica must be the coldest place on Earth?
@RegDwigнt Actually, they lost.
They were the first to be cut off and given to Austria, weren't they?
 
Yeah. To Ukraine. Who then lost to Russia. Who then will lose to China I think.
What a bunch of losers.
 
Ummm.
Poland lost what to Ukraine?
 
Lemberg, for starters.
And their dignity.
 
3:49 PM
Ukraine as an administrative region?
 
Ukraine is not even a region at this point. It's just a vague idea in a couple people's heads.
 
That's what I thought.
So the south went to Austria and Russia.
 
@Cerberus ah, Wilno as the center of the world. Good times.
Alas.
 
It is sad that Poland-Lithiania should have been so weak.
It would have been so nice for the balance of Europe if there had been a large country there during the 19th century.
Germany and Russia might have been kept in check, pace Reg.
Holland-Belgium was created in order to keep France in check.
 
I gotta mute commies.
Please do keep Belgium in check while I'm away.
Thanks.
 
3:54 PM
But we bullied the Belgians until they rebelled, only 15 years later.
Bai!
 
@Cerberus Yeah, but let's not forget how you capitulated to Spain.
 
@Robusto We did not! We fought them off and won, silly.
They inherited us, then we drove them out and became independent.
 
4:12 PM
@Cerberus How did they inherit you if you weren't dependent at some point?
 
We were dependent because Charlemagne had conquered most of Europe.
He appointed counts and dukes everywhere.
 
Oh sure, blame it on the French.
 
Germans.
 
Wevs. Franks were, frankly, Frankish => French.
 
The Holy Roman Empire inherited us from Charlemagne's empire.
Fair enough, the Franks.
The dukes and counts appoint by Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire were our first rulers.
Of course it is true that the Franks and the Saxons eventually beat the Frisians.
But never 100%.
 
4:17 PM
Wait, Frisians are the forebears of the Dutch?
 
To a significant degree.
 
Then why don't they speak Frisian?
Or a language descended from that?
 
Because the Franks and the Saxons invaded and captured more and more of the land.
The 10th century.
The 8th century.
 
Still, can you really say you won if you're speaking a derivative of your conqueror's language?
 
We may have lost partly to the Franks and the Saxons, but not to the Spaniards!
The Frisians are a noble people, if awkward and provincial.
Very down to earth.
Is it a coincidence that the border between Magna Frisia and Francia roughly coincides with the modern border between Protestant and Catholic lands?
Even though Utrecht (Traiectum on the map, a former Roman fort) was then (and still is) the seat of the Archbishop?
Willibrord came from England to christen the Frisians and became their first archbishop.
Utrecht even brought forth a pope later.
 
4:36 PM
@Cerberus I had a creative writing prof in college who was Frisian.
 
5:02 PM
@Robusto Great.
Didn't she talk funny?
 
He was a 7-foot frost giant.
He was American, but of Frisian ancestry. Third-generation, I believe.
 
This happened just now.
Quite disastrous.
 
Ouch! Hope nobody was hurt.
Is brug "bridge" in Dutch?
 
Yes.
Apparently, only 20 people were injured, but perhaps they don't have the facts yet.
Several houses and shops were crushed.
In the main shopping street.
Many people had come to watch the operation, but this wasn't what they expected...
The bridge segment crushing a house. Warning: loud screaming by the woman recording it.
 
Pass.
I don't get off on other people's suffering.
 
5:15 PM
She is not being crushed, just upset by what she is seeing.
From far away.
Which is understandable.
 
Yeah, but she's still suffering.
 
I suppose, mentally.
 
Mental suffering is still suffering.
 
Yeah.
 
What were they trying to do? Replace a bridge segment?
 
5:17 PM
Yes.
 
That will be in court for ages.
 
I don't know, our justice system works differently.
But yeah it will be a complex case.
 
Over here it would be a feeding frenzy of lawyers.
 
Here you can't really claim anything but actual damages.
And health insurance covers everything.
So it will be quicker.
 
Commute. Laterz.
 
5:21 PM
Bai!
Don't get crushed by any bridge segments!
 
I will try not to.
 
Very good.
 
I don't believe it
 
 
2 hours later…
crl
6:54 PM
I've a primate diet, 5kg of fruits per day
a mix of tomatoes, peaches, apricots, grapefruit or orange (and bananas at midday)
with vegetables, or rice, or some turkey escalope
 
7:27 PM
@feetwet That's a standard rejection message. Most likely they felt the edit was superfluous.
 
As a mod, do you think the rejections were warranted?
I think they clearly were not.
@KitZ.Fox Oops, probably should have pinged response @KitZ.Fox
 
Jez
hi guys
oh and hi @KitZ.Fox, long time no see
anyway i need to come up with a term for "things a user can subscribe to" - any ideas?
basically it can be a forum or a mailing list, but i don't want to use either term for the table name as they are too different
so im thinking something like SubscriptionSource or SubscriptionTarget
but neither of them sound good
 
7:45 PM
subscribable?
Like a food you can eat is an edible.
 
Jez
yeah
that could work
 
8:18 PM
SubscriptionItem
Hey, I want to be an owner.
 
@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 add a 'b'. it'll flow better
 
@Mitch like a babbling brook?
 
ha. none of the spellings are recognized
@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 that's not what I was orginially thinking of, but is better
 
[ SmokeDetector ] Email in body: An old toasting phrase by Nancy Drummond on english.stackexchange.com
 
 
1 hour later…
9:58 PM
@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 +1 exactly what I thought
 
@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Lunchable!
 
 
1 hour later…
11:15 PM
@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I could whip something together, yes.
 
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