English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Matt Эллен

2:00 PM

DynamicDataDisplay

it's an open source library

JSBᾶngs

meeting. laterz.

Matt Эллен

cya @JSBngs :)

KitFox

@JSBᾶngs Bye! Thank you!

@MattЭллен Oh. Maybe I can't be so helpful then.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox no worries :D it's a weirdly coded thing

the axis ticks have a "value" property that sets the length of the tick line. The Tick property of the ticks has a value in it that is some sort of context free number that puts the tick on the axis, but it's not related to the values on the chart. Yet the ticks have labels that tell me what part of the chart they represent. Where does this information come from?!

hi @Cerberus. do you have ticks?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

►

mocpages.com/moc.php/313534

3

Matt Эллен

2:14 PM

that is so cool

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I've been asking myself for decades why LEGO wouldn't bring out any Transformers sets.

It's only logical.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Hi! I usually bite them off.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus that's an advantage of three heads!

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Wowie!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwightѬſ道 I think because it's really hard to make a transformer out of lego

Cerberus

2:18 PM

@MattЭллен Yes it is! But I have a hunch that you were talking about a different kind of tick?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@MrShinyandNew安宇 It's exceptionally easy to make a transformer out of LEGO.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Even a recent clone brand (Hasbro, I think) tried and their solution was "build it one way as a truck, another way as a robot"

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Hmm why? Lego would seem quite suitable.

Jinx.

aedia λ

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Whoa awesome!

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus nah :D I had been talking about a different kind of tick, but I meant the bug kind

Cerberus

2:19 PM

So I figured. But what's with the other kind? It's bothering you and you can't bit it off?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwightѬſ道 by "transformer" do you mean "A robot that transforms into , eg, an airplane"?

Cerberus

Yes.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Well LEGO has all those industrial designers working with CAD tools. They could if only they wanted to.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yes.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus on the other hand, maybe having so many heads gives you nervous twitches :Þ

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I suppose it's a licensing issue.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:19 PM

I dunno. I haven't seen many examples of transforming robots in lego.

Cerberus

When left head says go left, and right head go right, then, yes.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Well it's not easy to do if you're a five-year old child. But then again, five-year old childs wouldn't be able to come up with any of the recent Technic models, either.

Cerberus

I have a confession to make. I'm made of Lego. turns into a toaster

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwightѬſ道 No, I mean, I can't recall a single example of any creation that resembles "Transformers" toys that actually transforms.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

2:21 PM

You can't build this one by accident.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus The f**K? Amazing. And such good toast

Cerberus

With genuine Hellbreath™.

Of course the fuel pads are dreadfully expensive.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Essentially: The actual Transformers toys are made with entirely unique customized parts for each different component of the robot. And some of them were still fairly crappy transformations. I think achieving that in Lego would be pretty hard. And it might resemble conventional lego even less than Bionicle did.

But I'd love to be proven wrong.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus don't they come with the job?

aedia λ

Speaking of LEGO, I know you weren't hugely excited about the Moleskines @MrShiny but I was, and I got one as a belated bday present! It's the little ruled one with the yellow dudes on the front. It is soooo cute.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

2:24 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yeah that's the thing. It would be so awesome if someone actually did that. And who if not LEGO. That's all I'm saying.

Mahnax

Hello.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I don't have CAD tools, and am not an engineer by any measure, so I would just have to go down the path of trial and error.

Matt Эллен

@Mahnax Hi Therrre

Mahnax

Mobile, can't help it.

Matt Эллен

I thought you did it on purpose :)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:26 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 Oh, I agree that it would be awesome. But I think it's much harder than it seems. I tried making a really rudimentary transforming spaceship once. It was a total disaster. The lego pieces are just too big for the fine connections and nesting that a transformer needs.

Mahnax

Nope.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@MrShinyandNew安宇 well yeah it's absolutely clear to me that you wouldn't be able to build anyrhing pocketsize. It would have to be a giant robot. But hey, all the awesomer!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@aediaλ yeah, they are nice looking notebooks. But the lego doesn't add much.

@RegDwightѬſ道 I suppose if it were, say, two feet tall. But it'd cost OVER 9000 dollars.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Nah. I think you'd do fine with around 900 parts, 1300 tops.

youtube.com/…

I mean, look at this. Once you are on such a large scale, inside the model is basically empty. Tons of space in there.

So you could twist and turn the parts any way you wanted.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Oh no, some profit has to be made! I am cheap, but I only eat the most exquisite dog cookies.

aedia λ

2:36 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Fair enough. I'm just a sucker for notebooks and blank stationery of any sort. It's like... like fall when you get new school supplies and the leaves are crunchy on the ground underfoot and there's potential hanging there in the crisp cold air. I'm surprised I haven't become a blank notebook hoarder.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@aediaλ I can totally understand that.

Matt Эллен

get off my internets damnit

RegDwight Ѭſ道

1

Q: What do you call someone who is easy to relate to?

What do you call someone who is easy to relate to? For example, someone who has been through something you have been through, like similar life experiences.

single-word-requests

Somehow every single answerer seems to have missed her point.

So I'm closing it as too vague.

Matt Эллен

OK. I forgot to vote that after I left the comment

Although Bidella's Kindred Spirit is along the right lines

RegDwight Ѭſ道

2:51 PM

The way I read it, and actually I have trouble reading it in any other way, so the question is not all that vague after all, you have person A who has a dog, (or lost his wife, or bought a Ferrari) and then you have person B who, too, has a dog (or lost her husband, or bough a Lamborghini). So person B can totally relate to person A.

But that doesn't make person A "sociable" or "outgoing".

Matt Эллен

indeed

or gregarious

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Yeah. Whatever that is.

Matt Эллен

an adjective that means "Living in flocks or loosely organized communities."

so Google tells me

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Matt Эллен

LOL wtf?

KitFox

2:54 PM

Gregarious? Lively and outgoing, you mean?

Matt Эллен

So not someone who has shared similar life experiences with you?

KitFox

So I made a new class, and in that class I made a public function, and in that function, I explicitly type the query. And in that query there was a tree. The tree in the bog, and the bog down in the valley-o.

@MattЭллен Not remotely.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@KitFox but were there goats in the tree?

Matt Эллен

@KitFox I was with you up to the tree.

aedia λ

> We like to drive in convoys, we're most gregarious! The big six-wheeler, scarlet painted, London transport, diesel engine, ninety-seven horsepower omnibus.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

2:58 PM

KitFox

@RegDwightѬſ道 In the tree, there was a goat—a rare goat and a rattlin' goat—the goat in the tree and the tree in the bog and the bog down in the valley-o.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

In the house Jack built?

KitFox

In the goat there was a house, a rare house and a rattlin' house, the house in the goat and the goat in the tree and the tree in the bog and the bog down in the house that Jack built.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Damn ASP.NET really is complicated.

KitFox

Installing update 10 of 271465709...

RegDwight Ѭſ道

3:01 PM

Wow, weren't you at 13 already?

KitFox

No, I just looked it up.

I thought I was at 12 actually.

Haha. Also found where I was romancing @aedia:

Nov 16 '11 at 22:15, by Kitḫ

Update People
Set in_room = False

Update People
Set in_room = True
Where person In ('aedia', 'Kit')

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Yeah I'm looking at the same results page right now.

You sure have to hurry up before the end of the world.

KitFox

shrugs

RegDwight Ѭſ道

With update 271465709 installed, Kith is become death, the destroyer of rooms.

KitFox

Haha. You are too kind.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

3:04 PM

I'm just foretelling and futurecasting.

KitFox

futurecasting?

What is the English language coming to?

Cerberus

German.

KitFox

Well, my thingy is behaving much better now.

I hope this isn't a huge mistake.

aedia λ

@KitFox Haha nice.

KitFox

Pretty suave, eh?

Kinda makes you want to taste the rainbow, dunnit?

;-)

nudge

Know what I mean?

Now I'm going to go get lunch.

Matt Эллен

3:10 PM

*wink*
no idea

Mahnax

A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat.

aedia λ

nudge nudge Say n'more, say n'more.

Matt Эллен

a hod's as good as a sink to a blind norse (because in the UK we say blind horse, not bat)

Robusto

@aediaλ Does she go? Is she a goer?

Mahnax

Likes games, knew she would, knew she would.

Robusto

3:15 PM

@MattЭллен I dunno where Mahnax got the bat. I've heard horse and pig, never bat.

Mahnax

@Robusto Ehh?

Matt Эллен

@Robusto maybe because bats are blind.

Robusto

@MattЭллен Not true. They can actually see. But they rely on their hearing because they hunt in the darkness.

Mahnax

I hear bat.

Robusto

This one is definitely blind.

Matt Эллен

3:17 PM

and without conscience

aedia λ

@Robusto So am I when there are balls coming at me

2

Robusto

@aediaλ I am so going to not respond to that statement.

Matt Эллен

resisting the urge to star...

Mahnax

@aediaλ …

Matt Эллен

gods, I'm so childish!

aedia λ

3:18 PM

giggles uncontrollably

Mahnax

Naughty.

aedia λ

I couldn't resist.

Robusto

Someone couldn't resist also.

Mahnax

It's not useful.

Matt Эллен

but it is interesting

Mahnax

3:20 PM

In your opinion.

Matt Эллен

which is interesting

aedia λ

still trying to stop giggling

KitFox

Oooh! Free chocolate bars for lunch.

I must've done something to make Debbie happy.

Robusto

That's Li'l Debbie to you.

KitFox

Or I inadvertently shoplifted them.

Oh, dear.

Matt Эллен

3:29 PM

still resisting

KitFox

But she winked at me!

But maybe the wink meant something else...

Matt Эллен

Something sinister...

KitFox

So style people, if I have an image button next to a label, but I want it to align on the right corner of the listview instead, how do I do that?

Someday, I probably ought to learn HTML.

Robusto

Holy cow, one of my answers must have hit the multi-collider.

KitFox

Which? Where?

Answers don't multicollider...

Robusto

3:35 PM

Simple question about adjectives for fall and spring.

@KitFox The question hit it. But when the question hits, the answer does as well.

KitFox

Huh.

Matt Эллен

like how the head of a detergent dissolves into the water and the tail into the grease and they all go down the sink together

KitFox

@Robusto Vernal and autumnal, just like you said.

Stupid markup.

I hate my job today.

Oh, did you type your password? I missed it.

Matt Эллен

:D nah, I was going to ask you if your html is something like

<div>
  <input type="image"/>
  <label>label</label>
</div>

but premature carriage return

KitFox

Matt Эллен

3:44 PM

You want the label to be on the other side to the image button?

KitFox

I want it to be on the right side of the page.

Matt Эллен

and the image button the the left?

KitFox

I'd like the label on the left and the button on the right with respect to the listview. Is that possible?

Robusto

Yeah, if you roll your own HTML.

Matt Эллен

oh! ok

KitFox

3:46 PM

Jesus, a cigarette sounds so good right now.

Matt Эллен

yes, it's possible.

there should be a css thingy...

Robusto

The problem with asp and asp.Net web controls is they are very leaky abstractions.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox like this?

KitFox

Oh! Lemme see.

user19161

Finally the goodies question is closed, yay!

Matt Эллен

3:51 PM

keep your hands off my goodies!

Robusto

@MattЭллен That won't work reliably cross-browser. You'd have to do a lot more to it.

KitFox

float is good, but not quite right. Maybe if I set the size of the p to the width of the listview?

oh. it's not cross-compatible?

user19161

@MattЭллен Do you have any?

Matt Эллен

@Robusto it looks the same in Firefox, Chrome and IE 8, although that's with only one div

RegDwight Ѭſ道

2

Q: 'All that' vs 'all what'

How can I be sure when to use 'all that' or 'all what' in making sentences. Is there any differences in their meaning. I've tried googling but the results just didn't match. For instance: All that the president said was published in the dailies. or All what the president said was publ...

word-choice grammar differences grammaticality pronouns

This is a dupe. But I gotta run.

KitFox

3:53 PM

Milk chocolate or dark chocolate?

Robusto

@MattЭллен Well, presumably you want it to look better than that. There's a little golf left.

user19161

@MattЭллен Wow, you have three browsers installed!

Matt Эллен

hmmm, multiple divs breaks IE8 :(

@WillHunting I R web dev

as well as other stuff

5

Q: "all that" vs. "all what"

I've heard somebody say: All what is needed is ... I thought the correct way to phrase it was: All that is needed is... However, thinking about it more, the former doesn't sound too incorrect, albeit a bit odd. Is the former grammatically correct? Am I alone in thinking the latter sou...

word-choice relative-clause

there's yer dupe

user19161

@KitFox I prefer dark chocolate. I like bittersweet.

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting some might say so

KitFox

3:58 PM

This Newman's Own milk chocolate is pretty decent.

Matt Эллен

New man's milk? suspicious

Robusto

Newman!

Matt Эллен

please can we terminate this:

0

Q: Is the expression "congratulate sb. for" correct?

That's it, I just wanted to ask that. Thank you!

grammar

Robusto

@MattЭллен You're welcome.

KitFox

Wow. Bam!

user19161

4:09 PM

@MattЭллен Actually I think there is some subtlety there. There might be some difference between "congratulate sb on" and "congratulate sb for".

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting but that's not the question

user19161

@MattЭллен I usually try to extrapolate!

user19161

@MattЭллен The usual man has no milk but maybe the new man does. The new man has not come into existence.

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting I understand, but that question is truly terrible

user19161

Anyway I checked six dictionaries and I am surprised they all have slightly different things to say about on vs for in the case of congratulate.

Matt Эллен

4:12 PM

but, is "congratulate somebody for" correct?

they don't want to know anything else

user19161

On the other hand, I find no subtlety on the goodies question, which took half a day to be closed!

Robusto

"We congratulated Ted for his achievements at the company."
"I congratulate you on your courage in the face of so much popular disapproval."

user19161

@Robusto Thank you for your input!

Matt Эллен

"I poop on your spaghetti"

Robusto

@MattЭллен Stop trolling for used stars.

Matt Эллен

4:14 PM

But I must be popular! Like me people LIKE ME

KitFox

I like you.

Matt Эллен

yay!

KitFox

Can a div base its width on another element?

user19161

@MattЭллен "I poop for your spaghetti"

KitFox

I figured out how to make my buttons move properly, but my div is too big. I'd like it to be the width of my listview.

Matt Эллен

4:16 PM

@KitFox if you set its width as a percent, then it will be based on the width of its enclosing element

user19161

"I poop on your spaghetti" means my poop goes onto your spaghetti. "I poop for your spaghetti" means I poop so that I can eat your spaghetti.

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting lo-

@WillHunting aww, you explained it

user19161

@MattЭллен Yes I like to over-explain for completeness!

KitFox

@MattЭллен Except I can't put it in the listview. So maybe a div around both that stretches to fit the listview?

Matt Эллен

@KitFox that might work

Robusto

4:20 PM

@KitFox A div bases its width on its container's inner dimension if you don't specify a width.

KitFox

Today is just a day of frustrations, I guess.

Robusto

@KitFox Welcome to the Wonderful World of HTML and CSS.

user19161

"Seeing how many do this, he is shocked" seems to have two interpretations. One is "Seeing the way many do this". The other is "Seeing many people do this". Cool!

Matt Эллен

ayup

@KitFox how does the listview get its width?

KitFox

Fine. Screw it. It can stay where it is.

@MattЭллен Um. I'm not sure. Let me see if I actually set it anywhere. It may be autosized.

Matt Эллен

4:26 PM

0

Q: Properly formatting ellipses

“Not a problem, gents, fire away . . . ” Piece of dialogue in the middle of my story. Now do I put a space on either side of those periods, or just the right, or . . ?

punctuation ellipsis

duped

3

Q: What is the proper way of using triple dots and spaces before/after them?

... part of a sentence ... ...part of a sentence ... ... part of a sentence... Notice the spaces before/after the dots. Which usage is the correct one ?

punctuation ellipsis

user19161

@MattЭллен The mysterious two dots have appeared.

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting I thought that too :)

user19161

@MattЭллен Of course, there are only so many things one can think of in a second.

KitFox

813px? Where would I have set that?

Matt Эллен

@KitFox hmmm, maybe ASP.NET sets it under the hood?

but you can just set the div's width to be that

KitFox

4:28 PM

Maybe. But other stuff is "auto." Maybe that's because it is inherited.

user19161

Some settings might even be a consequence of other settings.

Matt Эллен

or you can use jQuery to set the div's width after the page loads

Robusto

@MattЭллен But you can't change ugly markup, at least not without a lot of effort.

40 mins ago, by Robusto

The problem with asp and asp.Net web controls is they are very leaky abstractions.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto it's true

KitFox

I guess the markup will just have to wait.

user19161

4:30 PM

The movie "Waiting" had the f word almost every minute.

KitFox

I liked that movie.

Matt Эллен

I don't know it

user19161

But it knows you!

JSBᾶngs

@WillHunting honestly, that would turn me off

KitFox

Wasn't that the one that had the longest pan shot ever?

Matt Эллен

4:31 PM

@WillHunting eep!

JSBᾶngs

i'm not sensitive to swearing most of the time, but there's a line

KitFox

Not pan. The other kind. Moving shot.

Robusto

►

@KitFox Dolly shot?

KitFox

Yes. That's it, I think.

Anyway, there is a very long one in it. Two minutes or so.

I thought it was a record breaker, but damned if I can find anything about it.

user19161

@robusto I saw your argument with Marcin on the haircut question!

user19161

4:41 PM

By the way, note that if you joined sites in beta and check your accounts tab where you see all your accounts, the beta site icons appear differently.

Skullpatrol

This movie clip is an excellent example of the over use of the "f" word in all parts of speech.

user19161

I once heard a clip which expounded on the definitions of f. It listed about 20 or more, saying f is the most interesting word in the English language.

Skullpatrol

@WillHunting Do you think I need the quotation marks around the f?

user19161

@Skullpatrol I am not too sure. I have forgotten my punctuation studies.

Skullpatrol

I seem to remember something about use and mention.

user19161

4:49 PM

@Skullpatrol And you still have no account?

Skullpatrol

@WillHunting That makes me unaccountable ;-)

user19161