English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

00:35

Right!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

00:48

Sesame Street: Evelyn Glennie Plays the Drums

►

RegDwigнt

08:44

@Cerberus err, I first showed that image to you a couple years ago.

Stop trolling me.

RegDwigнt

09:09

There's an app for that™.

Mr_Green

09:22

Hi English professionals

I need help in reviewing a sentence.

I need to know whether a guy had fixed a issue or not? To want to know this, I asked a third person like this:

"Did mahesh fixed that issue?"

^ is it correct?

RegDwigнt

No.

12

A: Question about interrogations in past tense

The rule is that there is at most one tense marker in each clause. There may be no tense markers, as in the gerund clause going to the Moon or the infinitive clause to go to the Moon; but there can't be more than one. In I visited the bank the single (past) tense marker is the -ed in visited....

Only one tense marker. You have two.

That is ungrammatical.

Additionally, names in English are capitalized. That's another mistake.

And as an aside, the question mark in your "I need to know..." sentence is wrong, too.

It is a declarative sentence, not a question.

Mr_Green

ok thanks

Any help to rephrase the above sentence?

RegDwigнt

Why would you need to rephrase?

You don't need to rephrase. Just fix the two mistakes.

And it will be perfectly fine.

Mitch

13:21

@Mr_Green Nice...we're going to be paid for this!

(No one here is paid for nothing)

TRiG

13:34

Always write your code in comic sans. For readability — Ewan Jun 16 at 20:45

Mr_Green

@RegDwigнt "Did Mahesh fix that issue?" right?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

14:47

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 One of my friends is a composer and he got Evelyn Glennie to play his works

@Cerberus It'd be interesting to see the R&D costs broken out on a per-phone basis

RegDwigнt

@Mr_Green yes.

@Mitch now pay me.

Mitch

15:12

@RegDwigнt Electronic bank deposit made.

Where's the image of the Peanuts comic where Lucy throws all the fake money at Charlie Brown when you need it?

RegDwigнt

It is on the Internet, that's where it is right now.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 awesome!

RegDwigнt

Meh. I am a composer and I got myself to play my works.

I win again.

Translation is hard, let's go shopping.

The proper translation, of course, is Institute of Protein Research

Cerberus

16:22

Are you really?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Indeed. But I expect them to be in the single digit dollars per phone, for popular phones. Or even less than a dollar, perhaps.

Consider how the One Plus One was supposed to net a small profit even selling very low numbers, as in a few hundred thousand.

R&D can't have been more than single-digit millions.

Marketing, on the other hand, cost Samsung billions.

Faheem Mitha

I think the technology is fairly mature. It's just a matter of putting it together, presumably.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus lol

Cerberus

Lol?

@FaheemMitha Yeah.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah, that was a joke, right?

Cerberus

Of course not.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

16:27

rolls eyes

Cerberus

If you sell 50,000 phones, you cannot afford R&D costing 20 million.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So I guess Samsung probably just had a couple guys working out of a starbucks designing this.

Cerberus

I was talking about the One Plus One.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus they claim to have sold 500,000 phones.

Also, they and every other low-end phone maker in China are struggling with long-term profitability.

Faheem Mitha

Mobile phones are big business in India.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

16:29

In fact every phone maker except Samsung and Apple is struggling.

Cerberus

If they can do it for a million, then you could look at that as a reference point for what the R&D for a flagship should cost if you do it efficiently. If you iterate on your own, previous model, then it should be cheaper, if you are efficient. Now of course Samsung will be the opposite of efficient...

Faheem Mitha

Most people don't have computers, so...

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yes, but they expected to sell far fewer.

If you expect to sell 50,000, you cannot have R&D cost €400 per phone.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Look, just do the math. Engineers are expensive. Multiply salaries by headcount.

Cerberus

I have done the math. Please point out the flaws in my reasoning above.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

16:31

@Cerberus You can, if you expect to re-use the engineering later on, and only reach profitability in a few years

@Cerberus What math have you done? How many employees does OnePlus have? Or samsung?

What is the average salary of an engineer in China or Korea?

or in the US?

@Cerberus What if you expect to sell 50,000 of this phone, but 500,000 of the next phone, and 5,000,000 of the next, etc? Then can you spend €400/phone on the first one? Starting a business often requires a big up front investment with no hope of profitability for years.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 They didn't need to, because they probably reused much of the knowledge from Oppo.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 You can, but then the 1+1 wouldn't be profitable. And yet it is.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus enh. They say it is. Is the company as a whole profitable? Or do they just declare this one product profitable using accounting tricks?

What I've seen suggests that OnePlus is making no money on the One.

They are selling it at cost, according to media reports.

Example: phonearena.com/news/…

@Cerberus And "reusing knowledge from Oppo" is just capitalizing on someone else's investment.

but I have to run. ttyl

Cerberus

16:47

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That is what they claim, I have read it. But phone manufacturers always try to make you believe that, also to avoid taxes.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Someone else's? They are Oppo's daughter.

Don't forget that by far the most R&D is done by the component manufacturers, and those are paid off when you buy the components.

Mitch

17:33

I want a phone component that makes money

Wait... Doesn't square do that?

Just swipe anybody's card?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

18:48

@Cerberus You are speaking to me as if I wasn't a computer engineer by profession.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 You need to move the mouse to the big "Start" button, then press the left button on your mouse, then move to Bonzi Buddy, then press the same button again, to start your favourite programme.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I don't have a big "Start" button

Cerberus

sigh

Then your computer is broken.

You need to buy a new one.

I happen to have a very fast computer for you. And it's on sale!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Will the new one come with Interent? The other day I ran out of Internet and don't wanna run out again

Cerberus

Hmm.

Did you make sure to download all the Internet?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

18:52

Right now I have 16 MB of Internets

Cerberus

Maybe your pipes are clogged.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Hang on, let me flush the toilet

nope, works fine

Cerberus

Umm I think you misunderstand your computer.

It has very small pipes, like the telephone.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

well, did you mean my computer, or my pipes?

Cerberus

The pipes that come out of your computer.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

18:53

Cerberus

Hmm I think you have been bought by Philip Morris.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Ew, why them?

They're awful

Cerberus

Why else would you show us those killing devices?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

They're not killing devices.

Pipes don't kill people. Cancer from tobacco smoking kills people.

crl

smoke doesn't do any good

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

19:02

You can smoke whatever you want in those pipes, including, but not limited to, tobacco.

crl

seriously apart from cancer it's not good to pretty much all the body

reducing smoking to lung cancer would be silly

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

19:25

I think you're taking my posting of a photo of a pipe too seriously

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Nah, the cancer doesn't kill people. It is the lack of oxygen resulting from cancerous lungs that kills people.

@crl I think few people here would encourage smoking.

And most will know that it's not just cancer that you can get from smoking.

crl

19:57

sorry, I'm just really traumatized by cigarettes since a bit of time

Cerberus

20:14

I know.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@crl yeah... but I posted pipes! totes different, yo!

Mitch

21:54

@Cerberus what? There's other stuff? If you don't get cancer then what else?

Oh. Emphysema.

What else then?

Cerberus

> Among the diseases that can be caused by smoking are vascular stenosis, lung cancer,[46] heart attacks[47] and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.[48] Smoking during pregnancy may cause ADHD to a fetus.[49]

Probably many other diseases too.

Mitch

Badbreathosis

Yellowfingeritis

Friends with other cigarette smokers? You know how they are!

Cerberus

Those, too!

Anonymous

22:53

Hello.

Anonymous

Do we have an opposite idiom for "a pat on the back"?

Anonymous

Non vulgar.

Robusto

@samaYo "A kick in the pants."

Anonymous

That's what I would define as "vulgar".

Anonymous

"A slap on the wrist", would be a better candidate, but it would convey another idea.

Robusto

23:16

A. It's hardly vulgar. B. If you know so much, why ask in here?

Anonymous

@Robusto Do you have a talent for reading invisible words? How and when did I imply that I Knew so much?

Robusto

Did you come in here to pick a fight?

Feels that way.

tchrist

Kindly banish this:

0

Q: Edwin Ashworth should be banned because he always treats people horribly

Your user Edwin Ashworth routinely fails to respond to the actual question being asked, and instead returns answers such as "it should be obvious" or "off-topic." If this is truly an English usage journal (by the way, Mr. Ashworth is an expert in maths, not English), shouldn't the users be requir...

Robusto

Did what I could.

tchrist

Tanks.

> Every once in a while, Hollywood pulls in all its resources, organizes itself, and everything comes together to create a perfect movie to skip. Last night, I really enjoyed not seeing Fantastic Four. I can’t tell you any details about it (because, you know, I didn’t see it), but I can say that I’ve rarely had such a wonderful time not seeing a movie.

Mitch

23:26

What a dick post.

Cerberus

No doubt right, though.

Mitch

About Edwin? I suppose he votes to close enough.

Robusto

we all do that.

It's what responsible folks do.

Mitch

But he doesn't treat people horribly and shouldn't be banned

Exactly

I don't always agree, but hey it's sorta a democracy

Cerberus

I was talking about Tom's line.

Mitch

23:29

Oh

Nevermind

Robusto

65

A: What is the difference between "nevermind" and "never mind"?

Nevermind is an album by Nirvana. "Never mind" means don't bother with something.

Mitch

Oh yeah. Hilarious. I enjoyed not seeing to. I would have preferred to not see Pixels. But I didn't.

Wait... I did.. Not see it.

I tried to spell it with a space but it got autocorrected out

'Nevermind'. see?

Robusto

On the other hand, sometimes those movies are good. I very much enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy. Also, surprisingly enough, Mad Max: Fury Road.

tchrist

23:45

It’s an unregistered troll. Please just downvote and delete it. It’s abusive.

@Mitch From here

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