English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

KitFox

00:03

wants a nugget in a biscuit

Timothy Mueller-Harder

@KitFox I haven't tried it, but I wouldn't expect it would be all that good...

KitFox

Well, really I want a sausage patty in a biscuit.

With pepperjack cheese melted on it.

The patty, not the biscuit.

Timothy Mueller-Harder

What brand?

Of cheese, not the patty or the biscuit.

KitFox

Oh, I don't know. Some local brand.

Timothy Mueller-Harder

Say, Cabot?

KitFox

00:09

Can't remember the name.

Not Cabot.

Timothy Mueller-Harder

:(

KitFox

You own stock or something?

Timothy Mueller-Harder

That's my hometown.

Oh, cool.

Robusto

01:02

I freaking HATE printers. I'm using the word HATE. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE. They never freaking work when you freaking need them to. ALWAYS a problem. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE.

Printers should be banned. If it can't be emailed, it ain't worth a shit.

Cerberus

@Robusto How are they pestering you?

@TimothyMuellerHarder Cabot Cove?

Robusto

Whenever I need to print anything out, they cause me an hour's worth of work. Paper jams, out of ink, clogged inkjets, etc., etc.

Printers should eat shit and die.

Cerberus

Weird.

Buy a cheap black-and-white laser printer.

Timothy Mueller-Harder

@Cerberus Is there a reference or something I'm not getting, or are you actually asking me if I live in Cabot Cove?

Robusto

I need to print something out about once every 3 or 4 months. And they can't even be bothered to do that.

Cerberus

01:07

@TimothyMuellerHarder You know Jessica Fletcher?

@Robusto You have my sympathy.

I seriously recommend a b-&-w laser printer. Never lets me down.

Timothy Mueller-Harder

@Cerberus You mean the writer in Murder, She Wrote? Never heard of her.

Robusto

I just wasted 15 sheets of paper to print out ONE letter, and it comes out in light blue type because the black cartridge is hosed.

Cerberus

@TimothyMuellerHarder Yes. She lives in Cabot Cove. I just finished watching an episode.

Timothy Mueller-Harder

@Cerberus Ah. No, Cabot, Vermont, where Cabot Cheese comes from.

Cerberus

Okay, well, I won't hold it against you (I don't live there either).

Timothy Mueller-Harder

01:10

@Cerberus Haha, sounds good.

Cerberus

It seems that Murder, She Wrote is more popular outside America! None of you Yankees seem to know it, while everybody here does.

Timothy Mueller-Harder

@Cerberus I know of it, I've just never partaken of it.

Cerberus

Yeah OK.

It's still funny.

Timothy Mueller-Harder

As a side note: it feels like a bug of some sort is crawling around on my neck, but nothing's there. Am I going crazy, becoming sleep-deprived, or have I accidentally been taking meth?

Cerberus

@TimothyMuellerHarder So what are you feeling? Your skin is tingling?

Timothy Mueller-Harder

01:23

@Cerberus Very locally.

Cerberus

Where exactly?

And are you sleep deprived (how badly)?

Timothy Mueller-Harder

Like a single insect was walking around on the front of my neck.

It's stopped now, though.

Cerberus

Did you feel anything else out of the ordinary?

Timothy Mueller-Harder

I've gotten an average of maybe 6 hours per night the past week. Nothing extraordinary, but not as much as I might hope. ;)

@Cerberus Not really.

Cerberus

Hmm. If everything else is normal, I wouldn't be too worried myself.

Timothy Mueller-Harder

01:25

I'm kind of thinking maybe there was a bug for real but I just brushed it off unknowingly or something.

Cerberus

Oh, if that is possible, then sure.

It could also be a hair or something?

Timothy Mueller-Harder

Mm, no, it was definitely moving.

I'm just gonna forget about it now.

Cerberus

So you rubbed it or wiped at it with your hand?

And then it stopped?

Timothy Mueller-Harder

(When we're through overanalyzing this, I'd like to have at least an hour-long discussion on what could be causing my hiccoughs.)

(/hiccups)

Cerberus

(Haha.)

(Hiccoughs are unpredictable. Have you tried drinking a glass of water upside-down? Don't forget to breathe in as deeply as you can, hold it, then bend over and drink.)

Timothy Mueller-Harder

01:32

@Cerberus Yeah, that's what always works for me.

Cerberus

Ah, good.

Timothy Mueller-Harder

Mine seem to be a bit different from non-weird people's, though—I do it around 48 HPM and then it slows down exponential over the course of maybe two minutes if left unchecked.

JSBᾶngs

what's with the parens?

Timothy Mueller-Harder

@JSBᾶngs They were denoting an aside of sorts.

JSBᾶngs

well, ok

Cerberus

01:38

@TimothyMuellerHarder Oh, that is very fast.

Nice little unit you introduced there.

@JSBᾶngs Are you relieved? Satisfied? Disappointed?

JSBᾶngs

nonplussed.

that's what parentheses always mean. i was more inquiring why we had the sudden abundance of whispered asides

Cerberus

They always mean "nonplussed"? (I am puzzled.)

JSBᾶngs

perhaps i'm being deliberately cryptic

Cerberus

Perhaps you are.

David Wallace

05:59

@Cerberus What?

OK, don't bother answering. I would delete my question if I could.

Mahnax

07:40

-2

Q: Hi i m gettng an Type mismatch error in ASP when im trying go for next option can any one help me m sending the code

If strMode =4 Then Response.Write DisplayPageNumbers( "caseListOrder.asp? Mode=" & strMode & "&Rep=" & intRepID & "&Column=" & strColumn & "&Order=" & strColumnOrder & "&", intPage, intPages ) Else Response.Write DisplayPageNumbers( "caseLis...

asp-classic

Good grief.

David Wallace

07:50

@Mahnax What exactly is wrong with this?

Oh, I see. You saw it before Reg's helpful edit. I'm seeing it after. Sorry :-)

Meysam

09:09

What happens to spams like this? english.stackexchange.com/a/62711/3690 shouldn't it be removed by a moderator?

David Wallace

Thanks @Meysam, I flagged it for attention. I'm sure a moderator will be along soon.

That's what the "flag" link under every answer (and next to every comment) does.

Meysam

@DavidWallace I flagged it too, but it just was edited by someone.

Matt Эллен

Yeah, I did that to hide the spam. When a mod is around they will delete the answer

maybe 10K users can delete spam too?

I don't know yet

apparently they can

english.stackexchange.com/privileges/moderator-tools

Meysam

@MattЭллен Maybe we need a feature like this: if some answer is flagged as spam by like N users, the post gets automatically removed, without needing a moderator to take action

Matt Эллен

Maybe. you could suggest it in meta

Vitaly

09:19

@Meysam actually, I think that this is what happens, I could be wrong though

we can figure it out right now if we get enough users to flag it (there should be 4 of us already, right?)

Matt Эллен

yep. looking at the flagging privilege 6 spam flags will lock and delete the post

Vitaly

ah, nice.

user19161

09:34

@MattЭллен I don't do that. It's nice to let everyone see the spam to be entertained.

Matt Эллен

Heh, maybe so :)

and I do want a cheap new era hat

user19161

Also letting others see the spam lets them flag it so that they can increase their flag weight.

Matt Эллен

it will help me look stylish

user19161

I think I look silly in hats and caps.

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting the answer is still spam

it still looks like spam

but the actual advert is gone

user19161

09:37

Wow, I still have 10 stars on the wall, this is a miracle!

Matt Эллен

12 stars, even

user19161

Oh I had to click on show 1 more to see that, amazing. I think miracles must be going to happen in my life...

Matt Эллен

excellent

user19161

There can be miracles when you believe.

Gigili

Oops, I flagged it as not an answer but it was spam.

Matt Эллен

09:46

you've doomed us all, @Gigili

user19161

Doesn't matter. Some things are not clear cut.

user19161

One flag to doom us all.

user19161

The auto rep recalc is very good. No need to do rep recalcs anymore.

Gigili

@MattЭллен I'm sorry.

Matt Эллен

@Gigili Well, I guess we can forgive you this time ;)

Gigili

09:50

@MattЭллен Thank you, How can I ever repay you ...

user19161

@Gigili You may give him some presents.

Matt Эллен

@Gigili we're even - you did get my ear back after all

Meysam

The question is, where are the moderators? Aren't they meant to be around?

Matt Эллен

I'm sure they're floating about

user19161

@Meysam Er, they are not on the site 24 hours you know.

user19161

09:52

That is peeving disguised as a question!

Meysam

@WillHunting But on stackoverflow they are always there, 24 hours a day :)

user19161

@Meysam Really? I guess they are all from very different time zones and relatively free then.

Meysam

@WillHunting true, and there are lots more users there than here

Matt Эллен

I think the stance is, we have a bunch of high rep users so they should do a lot of the leg work

Mar 19 at 19:44, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

Okay so we've got OVER 9000 10k users in here right now, and that question is still open?

user19161

I see many purely linux questions on superuser. Hmm, why don't they post the question on unix instead?

user19161

09:56

Also, there are many purely Ubuntu questions on unix. Why don't they post on askubuntu instead?

Matt Эллен

17 hours ago, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

The site should moderate itself. I should not be even doing anything. My job is to lean back and be invisible.

user19161

That's the thing with having different overlapping sites. Sometimes you don't know where to post your question.

Matt Эллен

NARQ or NC:

0

Q: Another way to say "perfectly imperfect" - for a class project

What is another way to say "perfectly imperfect"?

slang

@Will you are two faced!

user19161

@MattЭллен Meaning? I can think of two interpretations.

Matt Эллен

user19161

10:00

@MattЭллен Well, you should know by now that my life is full of strange occurrences.

Matt Эллен

true, true

Gigili

Had a clever thought, but it died

user19161

@Gigili Resurrect it!

Meysam

@MattЭллен Having two faces is really cool...

Matt Эллен

maybe it's only had a heart attack. defibrillate it!

user19161

10:01

@MattЭллен It's supposed to be the Mariah one now.

Matt Эллен

aye, I guessed as much

Gigili

Too late, it's now somewhere in a graveyard.

user19161

I just thought of something interesting and useful that I shall use myself, the rest can follow if they want.

Matt Эллен

then I'll leave some flowers on its tomb

user19161

I will use GR, TL, NC, NR, OT from now.

user19161

10:03

general reference, too localised, not constructive, not real, off topic

user19161

two letters each for standardisation

Matt Эллен

I think NR will confuse people. NARQ is quite well established

plus it's easy to pronounce :D

user19161

@MattЭллен I was inspired by your NC.

Matt Эллен

Which in turn was inspired by someone saying TL

user19161

Taylor Lautner=TL=TeX Live

Matt Эллен

10:05

OT is standard already, I think

yeah, OT is at least a de facto standard

user19161

But once we start using these two letter abbreviations they will also become standard in time!

user19161

Also ED for exact duplicate. Not to be confused with erectile dysfunction.

Matt Эллен

or Ed

Gigili

Also, TV

user19161

Actually now I think if you look at the dialog box presented to you these abbrevations make a lot of sense.

David Wallace

10:11

@Gigili I did the same.

Meysam

@WillHunting TL could be mistaken by Too Long

Matt Эллен

I can roll back the edit if you think it will make things less confusing?

Gigili

@DavidWallace I saw "it is spam" when it was too late.

user19161

@Meysam "mistaken for"

Meysam

@WillHunting TL could be mistaken for Too Long

user19161

10:13

@DavidWallace Does not really matter.

David Wallace

@MattЭллен I'm sorry, but I don't see you being invisible at all.

Matt Эллен

not me! Reg wants to be invisible :D

Vitaly

@WillHunting Yes it does. You need 6 spam flags for it to be auto-deleted.

user19161

@Vitaly Aha!

Matt Эллен

I'm too hands on. If I were a mod people would know it

Damnit @DavidWallace. I get the joke now. /facepalm

David Wallace

10:14

No, I started with "it is spam", read the description in more detail, and decided it didn't fit. "Not an answer" seemed the most accurate of the available options.

user19161

Maybe they should combine some of the options. Sometimes I don't know what to flag it as too.

Matt Эллен

I've rolled it back, so people know

David Wallace

@MattЭллен Yes, I thought I was replying to Reg too. I was surprised when it came out @MattExxeh.

They should be checkboxes not radio buttons, so that you can select several.

user19161

And I still think comments should be shown in chronological order, not the highly voted ones first.

David Wallace

Are they? I didn't realise that.

Gigili

10:18

Then people won't spend time to find out which fits best, they'll check them all.

user19161

@DavidWallace I mean if the number of comments exceed the maximum shown immediately.

David Wallace

My computer is really starting to annoy me. I'm typing about twice as fast as the letters are appearing at the bottom of the screen, which means I have to stop and wait for them to catch up before I click Send.

Vitaly

So @DavidWallace or @Gigili, does it let you switch your flag now that you have already flagged the post?

user19161

@DavidWallace What hardware?

David Wallace

@Gigili What does it matter if they check them all? The moderator can always ignore them if they disagree. Happened to me twice.

Vitaly

10:20

For me, it says “You can flag this as spam only once” or something to that effect (I have flagged it as spam initially)

user19161

Also they should let people remove a close vote.

David Wallace

An HP NC 6220 laptop. It's about 6 or 7 years old. Maybe it will improve if I close some of these tabs that I have open.

Gigili

@Vitaly Eh yes, I changed it.

Vitaly

Thank you. Fascinating. 7 downvotes and the post isn't gone yet.

Is the privileges FAQ wrong? Surely we should have 6 spam flags by now.

user19161

@Vitaly Maybe it takes some time to take effect.

user19161

10:23

Or you need to refresh your browser, that too.

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting can you see how many flags the answer has?

and what they're for?

user19161

@MattЭллен Don't think so.

David Wallace

I have just closed all my other windows and all my other tabs in the browser window. I am still typing about twice as fast as the letters are appearing.

Matt Эллен

have you depressed the turbo button?

user19161

@DavidWallace Is anything else happening on your comp?

Gigili

10:28

Maybe you should type slower.

David Wallace

@Matt - it's not that old.

user19161

Maybe there is a large number of updates coming in.

user19161

I know Windows updates can slow down a comp while they are being downloaded and installed.

David Wallace

@Gigili Yeah, I'll go on a slowness-typing course.

I seem to have an awful lot of services running. I'll try stopping some of the ones that I don't need, and see if that helps.

Gigili

Did you switch your flag? I guess it isn't six flags yet or whatever number it needs to auto-delete the post

David Wallace

10:34

Who, me?

No, I'll do it now.

Gigili

G, J, V, M^2, D.

Vitaly

It's gone.

Matt Эллен

woohoo!

David Wallace

OK, I just put a spam flag on it. It seems to be a different answer though. Maybe it's a bot that keeps posting whenever the answer gets deleted.

Matt Эллен

the system works

21 mins ago, by Matt Эллен

I've rolled it back, so people know

David Wallace

10:38

Yay! I am the straw that broke the camel's back.

user19161

I am the camel that eats the straw.

David Wallace

So now that the spam's gone, there's nothing for us to talk about?

Matt Эллен

just like every day

David Wallace

One of my workmates misplaced three apostrophes this morning. I wonder what the world is coming to.

Meysam

@DavidWallace We can now talk in memory of that spam

David Wallace

10:44

Although two of them were greengrocer's apostrophes behind Ss that shouldn't have been there anyway; they were attempts to make plurals of Maori nouns.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

yawn

See, I'm not really needed.

Matt Эллен

:D

morning @Reg

RegDwight Ѭſ道

That's right.

Meysam

Where have you guys learned about the punctuations? I mean the way they should be used: no space before and one space after punctuations.

Matt Эллен

School

reading things

Meysam

10:46

Has there been any specific lesson for them in school? I mean, any strong focus on them?

David Wallace

I refuse to put any fewer than two spaces after a full stop. I don't care what the whitespace nazis say.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@DavidWallace I don't see two spaces after your stops. YOU FAIL.

David Wallace

You can't see them. They're there.

Gigili

So they're useless.

David Wallace

SE doesn't escape them properly.

Matt Эллен

10:48

@Meysam I'm English, so I guess it comes up in primary school.

Meysam

@DavidWallace I can see them too, very cool

Matt Эллен

one space
two  spaces

RegDwight Ѭſ道

With your last breath, you will look back onto your life and say, "Lord, I wish I hadn't spent so much of it on typing spaces no one will ever see".

4

David Wallace

If you type two non-space characters with many spaces between, only one space will appear in the normal view. Unless you do the Ctrl-K thing like Matt just did.

Meysam

@MattЭллен But we havent been taught about that, and it sucks!

Vitaly

10:49

one space
two spaces

David Wallace

I spend more time waiting for them to appear than actually typing them.

two spaces. three spaces. ten spaces.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Hold on while I am typing 9000 spaces after this full stop.

David Wallace

What are you guys doing differently from me?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

We rule!

David Wallace

So I have to rule in between the spaces?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

10:51

Yes. Just don't govern.

Meysam

@DavidWallace It's not the number of spaces that matters, the only thing that matters is their quality

David Wallace

Matt - if that had worked, it would have been way open to abuse.

Actually, I think I know how it's done.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Gesundheit.

Gesundheit again.

Meysam

(removed)

David Wallace

three spaces

RegDwight Ѭſ道

10:53

Y A Y !

Matt Эллен

:( I don't get it

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@MattЭллен I will resend it via snail mail.

Vitaly

May 13 '11 at 21:11, by Vitaly

‍

Meysam

@DavidWallace They are only two. How do you count three?

David Wallace

Matt - you have to press the space bar with both thumbs at the same time.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

10:54

And the nose.

Don't forget the nose!

David Wallace

two spaces

one space

Matt Эллен

mao I jubt look silly

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Mao is dead.

He doesn't care.

Matt Эллен

L o n g live Mao

Gigili

Umm ...

David Wallace

10:56

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?

Meysam

Who is Mao?

Matt Эллен

what makes your   work, and my   not?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Meysam He is dead. Move on.

@MattЭллен Magic. Also, good beer.

David Wallace

Matt - aren't you a web programmer by profession? You should be able to work it out.

Gigili

I want to learn amazonian.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

10:58

Start today.

Mar 9 at 20:11, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

A Ma Zone

Virgin Ben (Virgin (EMI))

David Wallace

@Gigili I'm told it's a jungle out there.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Hello Randy Newman.

Gigili

Hi.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…