English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

KitFox

14:00

@Mitch I blame @Vitaly. He's a hot perestroiking Russian.

Matt Эллен

KitFox

gasp

Matt Эллен

I KNOW

Google is broken

2

it can't find cromulent in literature

user19161

This reminds me of the question on sparseness and sparsity.

KitFox

It's...it's...because only really cool people use that word, and...there aren't many people who are THAT awesome.

Matt Эллен

14:01

exactly

Mitch

@KitFox good point...maybe Doris is a sock puppet for Rudra, so that Rudra can answer of of the preposition questions by Doris.

user19161

I checked four dictionaries to give the answer that sparsity is not listed in the smaller ones.

KitFox

@Mitch This is what I'm saying, yes.

user19161

But then JLG showed using ngrams that sparsity is actually overtaking sparseness.

Matt Эллен

Mitch

14:06

@JasperLoy dictionaries are stupid.

user19161

@Mitch Stupid is better than broken. Google is broken (v. above).

Mitch

There's a difference?

simchona

-1

Q: The Scar Grew Out

"The scars grew out fast." Does the above mean that 1) the scars disappeared as a result of the body/skin's growing/healing process? or 2) the scars got bigger?

user19161

1

Q: "Participate in" or "participate on"?

Which is the correct preposition in the sentence below? Why? Participated in/on producing quality software solutions for leading global insurance and reinsurance companies.

word-choice grammaticality prepositions

simchona

Does this user do absolutely no research?

user19161

14:08

I may need to edit my answer. I am not sure about participate on now.

user19161

0

Q: Participate on/in

"He participated on the report." "He participated in the report." "He participated on the project." "He participated in the project." "He participated on the rescue effort." "He participated in the rescue effort." How are "in" and "on" different?

grammar prepositions usage

user19161

The problem with these prepositions is that sometimes one can use the weird one for weird cases.

Cerberus

@Robusto "Jesus, wegwezen!" sounds like an appropriate reaction.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

hey so I had another really odd dream the other day

didn't involve anyone here though

KitFox

disappointed

user19161

14:15

Go on...

user19161

Anyway last time I dreamt that Robusto was being interviewed for his ELU rep.

Cerberus

You're all crazy!

Mitch

Where did "I'm awesome like that" come from? It's so -awesome-.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus coming from a three headed dog who guards hell, that's rich!

Cerberus

What's so crazy about that?

Just a fact of life.

Or death, rather.

Matt Эллен

14:18

lol

simchona

-1

A: The Scar Grew Out

Grow out: disappear because of normal growth Colette’s old perm had almost grown out. But such a use for scars is quite unusual.

Mitch

@simchona I'd find it hard to do looking up on it. Google ngrams (for the pairs) might work but that's always troublesome.

user19161

@Mitch Yeah I want to know its origin too.

user19161

@Mitch Also, your use of -xxx- is so awesome!

simchona

@Mitch But even his other questions are at least Googleable to an extent. Maybe not all the way, but certainly not so hard as to result in a sentence dump on every question

Mitch

14:21

@JasperLoy Your use of triple X is a common mistake. You should capitalize.

user19161

By the way, did someone here vote to delete many of Carlo's questions?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So I'm at a shopping centre, in a department store, and Nik Wallenda's 14-year-old sister is there, trying to do a tight-rope act, only she's trying to walk across one of those racks you hang clothes on (it was an IKEA "Mulig" rack), only the rack broke, so I was trying to fix it.

Then a nun came out and started yelling at the girl, calling her a lesbian, then talking about how in the good old days of the Spanish Inquisition this would never have happened. I yelled at the nun to get lost, and then got a phone call from my parents saying "We just read in the newspaper that you yelled at a nun!" and I thought "that was fast"

user19161

I see the delete vote list and found many of them there.

Mitch

@MrShinyandNew安宇 For real?

Oh...-in- the dream.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah, in the dream

KitFox

14:23

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Wow, that is weird.

Matt Эллен

@MrShinyandNew安宇 lol

Mitch

Really, the Spanish Inquisition was mentioned in your dream? You know, they really haven't been much influence for a while.

Matt Эллен

that was pretty fast

I blame bloggers

Mitch

All the good writing is in tweets now.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch yeah, it really was the Spanish Inquisition, and I was yelling at the nun "Of all the parts of the Church's history, you chose THAT as your example? GET OUT!"

Jez

14:25

hello

Mitch

You're so articulate in your dreams. I usually just watch.

Jez

free from crappy job and it's a lovely day outside and i just spent some time out in it. :-)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Jez hey I noticed that your submission got accepted on /.

Jez

did get a rather irate call from the recruiter earlier though. it was rather farcical

yeah, that was cool

as i predicted, a lot of useful discussion and opinions split

Mitch

canyou link to it? (Or is that not appropriate)

Jez

14:26

i'd rather see more support for "https should not be violated", but anyhow

mitch: me?

Mitch

yeah you.

Cerberus

@Jez Oh, that's cool! What did he say?

Jez

ask.slashdot.org/story/12/06/16/223208/…

Mitch

(cause, I'm guessing...oh thanks.

Jez

@Cerberus he was pissed that i didnt tell him (i only had to tell the company of my resignation) and didnt appreciate how important (or why) https snooping was for me

Cerberus

14:28

@Jez Hmm I see.

Jez

finished up by saying something like "i hope you learn to be less picky and i wish you good luck, you're gonna need it" to which i responded "thank you for your kind words" and hung up

Cerberus

Well, he will now realize how much of a problem people have with https snooping.

Jez

lol nah, he'll think i'm an anal tosser

user19161

@Jez So you left?

Jez

yeah

user19161

14:29

@Jez Aww, I thought it paid well...

Jez

i wasn't the only one there who hated those factory conditions, either

yeah but the conditions were crap and no internet security was possible

in my view that prevented me from logging in to anything

i wasnt prepared to compromise my password

Cerberus

@Jez Even if he should think that, everyone at the company must be at least a bit worried about how HTTPS snooping can turn people away, don't you think?

Jez

and that Slashdot discussion is about that

@Cerberus i'd hope so, but it's a big company. i will prob be forgotten.

@Cerberus the Slashdot discussion revealed that even privacy-conscious nerds are split on the issue

generally the opinion seems to be that you should use your cellphone and tethering for real security, not the company's network, or the company should provide another WiFi network on which you can do secure stuff

Cerberus

Or your former superior might berate the IT department. Or mention the case to his superior.

Jez

but my company didn't provide that WiFi network, and my cellphone signal was dead in the building

Cerberus

14:32

I still don't understand why they did it anyway.

Jez

i guess the key question is, why does the company need to monitor HTTPS

Cerberus

Against stealing company secrets?

Jez

they had in their documents some generic stuff like "business/legal purposes", you know

saying nothing, really

i guess any reason for monitoring http would apply to https

Cerberus

Annoying.

Jez

yep. i read that it was illegal in Sweden to do it, though. wish it was over here.

our government is more concerned with trying to snoop HTTPS itself :-)

Matt Эллен

14:36

@Jez Have you head about the draft bill for storing everything ever about what we do online?

Jez

of course

Matt Эллен

They opposed it in opposition, now they want it when they're in power

Jez

of course

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Well, @Jez, for my part, I sympathize with your desire to work in a place that doesn't snoop on you. That said, I also feel that it's not unreasonable for some employers to do that, as long as they're open about it, so I'd say if it bothers you then you save that computing for home/phone, or find work elsewhere.

Jez

@MrShinyandNew安宇 yeah, i'm doing the latter. i may have done the former if i'd been able to get a phone connection from within the building

but i do take umbridge at this "dont do personal stuff at work" attitude. no, that doesn't work for everyone.

my brain switches off after hours of work

i need the odd break

it's worked fine in past jobs

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

14:39

@Jez I mean, we are spoiled now because we have such powerful toys on our desk that can access the whole internet and do fun things and useful things that are not work related; and the doing of those things doesn't make us less productive (unless abused). So it's a shame if you can't do those things because your employer gets snoopy or annoyed. But whatevs.

Jez

@MrShinyandNew安宇 but before computers (and in non-IT jobs), people still goofed around a bit

just talking to each other, gossipping

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Jez I agree, however, there are tons of jobs where you can't just surf the web. In fact, pretty much any non-desk job is like that.

Matt Эллен

EL&U is work related - the better my English the better I can communicate.

Jez

this is our equivalent of a bit of gossip. no, these companies want to treat their workers like drones and give them less in the way of personal privilege

not the same amount

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Jez yeah, and you could theoretically do that at your former employer too.

Jez

14:40

@MrShinyandNew安宇 but in those other ones, i bet people dont concentrate on work 100% of the time

i guess. IT people are more likely to want to do their personal stuff online though

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Jez Well, they might.

Jez

it depends on the person i guess. some people's minds can, and they tend to be the kind of people who say "i don't see why you need to be doing personal stuff at work"

KitFox

I abuse it terribly, but you all have saved me hours of wasted effort trying to fix things, so I figure it balances out.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Let's say you are a busy cashier. While you are at the cash you are working on processing transactions. There is no youtube or banking or chit-chat with friends. Only punching up groceries.

Jez

you know, there's a joke in the the UK version of the office where Tim asks what the IT guy is doing with his computer. The IT guy says "um, it's not your computer, is it? It's Wernam Hogg's." That's meant to be a joke; it's meant to be attacking the IT guy for being so pedantic

but these companies are saying that with a straight face

not your computer, ours. our rules. dont use it for anything personal, fucker. :-)

JeffSahol

14:42

Is this old already? xkcd.com/1070 I liked it.

Matt Эллен

@MrShinyandNew安宇 only while there are customers, otherwise they'll be chatting away.

Cerberus

@Jez It has been pretty much proven that it doesn't work for most people, I believe.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MattЭллен well, I did say "busy"

Jez

"you're not a human, you're a drone while you're in this office"... an atmosphere in which i have no desire to work

Matt Эллен

@MrShinyandNew安宇 oh, sorry.

Jez

14:43

the harder they clamp down with this crap, the more i want to leave

KitFox

@JeffSahol phew Thank goodness Reg is on holiday.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

My wife worked at a store as a pharmacist where they literally had to work as fast as possible for the whole shift. No breaks or even lunch (for some reason, pharmacists are legislated separately in Ontario and it isn't required to give them breaks... ). There was no "personal time" in that job.

KitFox

Otherwise he might have thumped you.

JeffSahol

I did a quick search to see if anyone had posted it...and saw some wrath from Mr. Dwight. Glad I dodged that bullet.

Why is he anti-xkcd?

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I would organize all personnel and threaten with a strike or something!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

14:46

@Jez Well, to what degree were they saying "no personal stuff" as opposed to "some personal stuff is fine, but we're watching you maybe"

KitFox

@JeffSahol I am not sure.

Cerberus

@JeffSahol I have never found out to this day.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus What would that accomplish? They are not unionized. They would just be replaced.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 A break?

Jez

@MrShinyandNew安宇 well, no personal stuff except during the lunch hour (frankly i like the odd mini-break even at other times), and of course monitoring EVERYTHING including online banking and passwords. so yeah, some would find that ok, i wouldn't.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 she couldn't eat lunch?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

14:47

@Jez She wasn't given a lunch break. The reason has to do with the fact that by law a pharmacist has to be present and working in order for the store to be open and serving customers.

So the pharmacist can only go take a break if another pharmacist is there to cover.

Jez

one would think they'd shift somebody else in to cover

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Jez There was only one pharmacist on duty at any given time

Jez

bad setup

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Can you replace everyone at once? That usually breaks a business.

KitFox

Probably couldn't afford two.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

14:49

@Jez It's like that everywhere. Some stores have low enough volume of Rx's that they can eat in between customers. But not the store in my example.

KitFox

@Cerberus I seem to remember a certain president firing all of our air traffic controllers at once.

Cerberus

As in, noöne would now how the administrative system worked, etc.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus It's only the pharmacists that are in this situation.

Cerberus

@KitFox Really? Which president? And how did that work out?

KitFox

Good lord. Anyone here know anything about Google Sites?

Cerberus

14:49

looks away

KitFox

@Cerberus Reagan. The gov hired a bunch of scabs.

Cerberus

By the way, if you want a delightful puzzle game that you can play in extremely short sessions:

kongregate.com/games/TheGameHomepage/3-slices-2

You have to slice the blocks such that all red and blue blocks fly out of the screen.

KitFox

Damn it, @Cerberus! I just lost The Game!

Cerberus

@KitFox Ah, scabs. And those were enough?

Matt Эллен

Damnit @Kit. Now I've lost the game.

Jez

14:51

@Cerberus 40 second ad? forget it

Cerberus

@KitFox Aww...you are truly handicapped!

@Jez There is an ad? Perhaps it is time to use Adblock!

I've never seen ads on Kon that I remember.

Nor on Youtube.

By the way, it is the most fun if you can get 100 % in one slice.

It is possible in most levels I think (but probably not all).

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus damn that's addictive

Cerberus

Hehe.

user19161

0

Q: Most of the books explain it + singular or plural

Should the following be singular or plural? Most of the books explain it in a way that's difficult to understand. Since books are plural, shouldn't the part in bold be also plural?

grammar

user19161

3 people answered within a minute, so I deleted mine.

Cerberus

15:15

Where is everybody all of a sudden?

Matt Эллен

I have to w*rk

KitFox

Bloody stupid Google Sites. Man, I hate my project lead some days.

Cerberus

EWww.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox what are you using g sites for?

KitFox

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Help and tutorial information.

Anonymous

15:20

Hi.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox odd choice

Anonymous

I have question about this phrase "Those that say they can should get out of the way of those that are doing it."

KitFox

I desperately want to make it look like the main site, but I guess you can't style anything on Google Sites.

Anonymous

I want to know what does it mean?

KitFox

@MrShinyandNew安宇 IT WAS THE PROJECT LEAD'S CHOICE! He thinks we should use Google docs for everything.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

15:20

@Anonymous Those who X should [get out of the way of those that are doing it]

Anonymous

Does it mean those who say but doesn't do anything should get out of the way and let anyone who does the work do their work?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

where X is "say they can", and the only way I read that is "Those who [merely] SAY they can should get out of the way of those who are doing it (i.e. actually CAN do it, as opposed to just claiming that hey can)"

Matt Эллен

Those that say they can lower CO2 should get out of the way of those who are lowering CO2

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox of course, I'm not blaming you. It just strikes me as odd to host your docs on a third-party site.

Anonymous

Ahh, I see.

KitFox

15:23

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I know, I'm sorry. I am incredibly frustrated by it.

Matt Эллен

@Anonymous see All mouth and trousers

KitFox

But I didn't/don't have time to create the pages on our site. Or do I?

And I shouldn't even be thinking about it.

It was just that I thought it would be some knitting work to pop over and change the colors.

Except it is not.

erggg

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox Isn't it the same amount of work to create a page for one place or another?

KitFox

@MrShinyandNew安宇 He's responsible for the Google site.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox hm

KitFox

15:24

So, there's work and then there's work, if you know what I mean.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox yeah. well, afaik Google Sites is not meant as a general-purpose CMS where a team stores tons of documentation.

KitFox

This guy is an idiot. Have I mentioned that?

He posted usernames and passwords on a Google spreadsheet.

Not the brightest bulb in the packet.

He's also got 8 minute tutorials on basic tasks, like "How to log in."

Matt Эллен

are seven minutes of it the intro music?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Ok, so I've just poked around Google Sites. I guess if you're starting from scratch and don't have a web host or an app or any place to put docs, it could serve. It wouldn't necessarily make things easy for you or future maintainers.

KitFox

No, he just loves to hear himself talk, and he doesn't take these things seriously enough to think about/practice first.

It is probably one of the worst content management setups I have ever seen.

Cerberus

15:33

Even hosting a page on Dropbox would seem easier.

KitFox

It's about as intuitive as a brick.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox it's meant to allow you to quickly whip up a static site.

Matt Эллен

I, um, think bricks are quite intuitive...

4

Cerberus

You smash people's heads in, and that's that?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus hosting a page on Dropbox just SCREAMS "I'm a professional!"

KitFox

15:34

All we need is someplace to post a series of tutorial videos and help documentation. He's added some other stupid shit, like a blog.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 D'oh. And how about Google Docs?

KitFox

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Well, like Google Sites is any better?

Matt Эллен

@KitFox tumblr!

KitFox

jinx!

Cerberus

Hehe.

KitFox

15:35

Because of course I have time to blog to my users about what I'm doing with the site.

And they care about that.

Cerberus

And of course they will be terribly interested in a blog about an administrative site.

Jinx.

Matt Эллен

> Hello dear users. today I will be mostly fixing your mistakes.

Cerberus

Thanks!!

KitFox

"Dear Users,
Here is the stupidest request you've sent me this week. Now let's the rest of us make fun of this user.
Love,
Kit
ps F-ck you."

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Using Google Docs is not the same thing as hosting a website from Dropbox. But we're talking about Google Sites, which is at least one notch more professional than Dropbox. It's "amateur stamp collecting club's website" professional instead of "disorganized group of acquaintences" professional

Matt Эллен

15:36

@Cerberus It's a quote! I'm quoting someone else. you can't make me!!!

Cerberus

OMG dear site creator, I just wanted to thank you for styling this button just right, because I immediately realize, tech-savvy as I am—for I am your Average User!—how much work it must have been to get it right!!

KitFox

sighs and cries a little bit

I can't do this.

What they want me to get done by August 1st is just impossible.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Too late?

Matt Эллен

noooooooooooooooooooooooooo

KitFox

I don't have the first clue how to even accomplish what they need.

Mahnax

15:39

Hello.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox formulate your problems into good subjective questions and ask them on Programmers?

Hi @Mahnax

Cerberus

I don't know, I tried it once, and it seemed worse: you can at least just host your own html page on Dropbox, and I wasn't able to do that when last I tried the Google site thing, I think...I recommend Drop Pages for anyone who wants a really really quick and easy site that actually looks fairly good. The only disadvantage is that it will be called sitename.droppages.com.

Mahnax

How is everyone today?

KitFox

@MattЭллен Haha. I couldn't. It's TL;DR.

Cerberus

Hello.

KitFox

15:40

Hi @Mahnax.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox you could break it down into bitesized chunks and ask multiple questions?

KitFox

I am doing that. And going to meet with my boss in a little bit.

Mahnax

Today is the first weekday on which I do not need to attend school.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox Sounds good :)

Cerberus

How was it?

Exhausting?

user19161

15:42

I am thinking of whether "fart in your general direction" could have two meanings...

user963241

What do you guys think?

2

Q: Can I separate events with period to form past perfect?

Can I say the following? The door bell rang. He had finished his meal. I know I could join the sentences into one sentence to get the same meaning. I want to know if this would be correct if I write it this way? In this, door bell ringing comes after he finished his meal.

grammar past-perfect

user19161

1

Q: Meaning of "in your general direction"

I'm not a native English speaker, and I don't understand the meaning of the phrase "in your general direction". I have found it's use in the line from Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail: I fart in your general direction.

meaning phrases

KitFox

Ohhhh. I think I just got some bad news. brb

Cerberus

Bad news?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus oh, dropbox has a feature just for that! well, that's different. That raises it up from the disorganized acquaintances to "teenage video game enthusiasts holding a swap meet" level of professionalism

Matt Эллен

15:44

5

Q: What's the adjective for the Republic of Ireland (Eire)?

What's the adjective for the country of Ireland (Eire in Irish) that specifically excludes Northern Ireland? For example when referring to the accent of people from the the Republic of Ireland but not to Ulster. Ireland is geographically the whole island and politically consists of two countries...

adjectives

user19161

@user963241 Actually I don't understand your question.

user963241

About what?

user19161

@user963241 Are you asking whether the two sentences are correct the way they are written?

Mahnax

I need to go get my hair cut, so I'll be off now.

Bye everyone!

Matt Эллен

Byeee

user963241

15:47

Bye

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 It's not a Dropbox thing. It is a separate company. And you should perhaps look at the pages first before you ridicule them.

@Mahnax Bye!

user19161

@Mahnax That sounds like Mr Shiny!

user963241

@JasperLoy I'm asking If I can form a past perfect tense with those two sentences. If I write, He had finished his meal. alone it won't be correct.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus well, it's not a dropbox thing, it's a thing that's built on dropbox.

user19161

@user963241 Why won't it be correct? A sentence is a sentence.

user19161

15:49

A sentence is not two sentences.

KitFox

And a fragment is a fragment.

Even if you punctuate it like a sentence.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Let's drop it, Dropbox or no.

KitFox

puts head in hands

user963241

@JasperLoy Are you saying He had finished his meal. is correct?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus anyway it still doesn't look that professional. You don't start looking professional until you have your own domain.

user19161

15:50

@user963241 It is a grammatically correct sentence.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

and even then, your content can betray your non-professional nature quite easily.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Ignoring you!

See above, by the way.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus do you have a domain name?

user963241

Ok, now I'm confused.

Cerberus

See above!

user19161

15:52

@user963241 I am confused by your question as well. I suspect the two answerers are not sure what you are asking as well.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh, I forgot: for a small fee you can get your own domain name with Drop Pages, actually. With the same extreme ease of use.

KitFox

How did you two end up arguing?

Cerberus

If you think this is arguing, you have seen nothing!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus cool! That lets you don an air of professionalism. It's like putting on a nice suit when you go to an interview

Cerberus

D'oh.

KitFox

15:53

I am very sad here, and you are all in a snit!

Cerberus

> The only disadvantage is that it will be called sitename.droppages.com.

Remember?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus That's not "your own domain name"

Cerberus

I know how people perceive these things.

user19161

@user A sentence may only be understood from the context so you have to look at the surrounding sentences. But whether it is grammatical does not depend on other sentences.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@JasperLoy I disagree. A sentence can be grammatical or ungrammatical based on disambiguating context.

Cerberus

15:55

@MrShinyandNew安宇 That there was the disadvantage of not having your own domain name. When I said that, however, I had forgotten that you can in fact get it at your own domain name (it just isn't free).

user19161

He is short. He is only one metre tall.
We don't understand why he is short till we read the second sentence.
But the first sentence is still correct.

Cerberus

So you didn't need to remind me that not having your own domain name looks less professional (however irrational that makes people, but no matter), because I know that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Fine. So DropPages adds functionality onto Dropbox in such a way that it lets you use that tool in a more professional manner.

Cerberus

The main advantage is ease of use. The "professionalism" is secondary.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus "looking" professional is all about appearance and not about function, and whether that's rational both irrelevant and up for debate.

@Cerberus Not disputing that they have "ease of use" handled well. For some definitions of "ease" and "use".

Cerberus

15:58

Well, I actually find a site that looks efficient easy to use, and it improves my impression of the company to some degree. The current standard with respect to "professional" retail websites, however, I find horribly inefficient and off-putting, although I think those people consider it very professional.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But I can think of some fairly typical tasks that one might want to do with a website where editing the files on the live site is not a good idea. Even if they are version-controlled in Dropbox.

user19161

@user If that is an exercise in a grammar book you really have to find out what you are supposed to do there.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 You basically put a .txt file with text using Markup in a folder on your computer, and BAM you have added a new page to your site, navigation and all. And the layout + style is pretty good.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus well, yes, some "professional" sites spend too much time on shiny and not enough time on useful. But that's not the point.

user963241

-1

A: Can I separate events with period to form past perfect?

I would say not correct. The second sentence, "he had finished his meal", isn't really a complete sentence, in terms of being one coherent thought. It needs a time phrase such as "when the doorbell rang". I know you have that, but putting a full-stop between them separates the ideas.

Cerberus

15:59

You can pick and change styles, of course, including CSS and whatnot.

user963241

@JasperLoy According to this, he had finished his meal isn't really a complete sentence.

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