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ΜετάEd
ΜετάEd
5:03 PM
Why don't the committees that mandate American and British English grammar, vocabulary, and spelling just get together and force the Canadian committee to choose? Then we can throw away all those books on Canadian English.
And why hasn't the American committee acknowledged receipt of my application for membership?
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
The boors!
 
Gigili
Gigili
@Cerberus Hey, did I mention that I have a GN now? Go through all those tariffs and nonsense alone!
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@Gigili Oh, congrats!
What do you mean by "Go through all those tariffs and nonsense alone!"?
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
A what?
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Did you just buy it locally? How much did you pay?
Galaxy Nexus.
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
5:13 PM
Ah
One of those
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Yup.
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
I still can't buy one on play. I can only buy a Nexus 7
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
I agreed to get one and ship it to Gigi. It involved all sorts of difficulties.
 
Gigili
Gigili
@Cerberus It was one of my birthday gifts, from umm my ex-boyfriend or whatever sh!t it is called.
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
I see
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
5:15 PM
@Cerberus like what?
 
Gigili
Gigili
@Cerberus You're awesome like that.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Thanks.
@MattЭллен For one thing, we hadn't found a way for her to wire me the money.
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
oh
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Then there was the shipping method.
And carrier compatibility.
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
@Cerberus not in a parcel? used single euro bills?
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
5:17 PM
@MattЭллен That might have been an option, but...hardly optimal.
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
@Mitch hello! there is blog chat
@Cerberus but think of all the fun you would have had throwing it around!
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
I'm not generous like that.
Or rich.
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
I mean in your flat, like some kind of millionaire
then pick it up and safely deposit it in your bank
 
Mitch
Mitch
@cornbreadninja well, first I was making more of a joke about my giving away the plot (you know a sports story will end with the underdog winning; it is -how- that happens which is the plot magic.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@MattЭллен Haha, very practical.
 
Mitch
Mitch
5:22 PM
But then of course things are complex and the informant (the former teenager now 90 years old) confessing to lying sounded a bit too convenient for the benefit of the makers of the movie who were pro Derek Freeman. And a confession through a translator...I guess it's questionable the whole thing. what if it's not lies, but just nuance and exaggeration?
 
Gigili
Gigili
@Mitch Pfts, close parenthesis.
I normally ignore parentheses while reading a sentence.
 
Mitch
Mitch
If I don't close a paren it's because it probably wasn't important to begin with.
too many years of IDEs creating auto- or electric- parens.
@Gigili what are you, some kind of compiler?
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
AFK running.
@Mitch It's all a tangle!
 
Mitch
Mitch
5:38 PM
They're all out to convince you otherwise from what you think, including that (what you just thought (and that too))
 
Gigili
Gigili
@Mitch What are YOU? A thingy ohne-close-parentheses?
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
luckily I only think one thing and it's unrelated to that
 
Mitch
Mitch
@Cerberus exactly.
actually, one can ask that and expect a reasonable answer.
but 'why' is not the literal why, even if the asker and the listener intended it literally as though Canada were an deciding sentient being deciding to have a given spelling or France deciding to have a border that is hexagonal.
 
Gigili
Gigili
One should expect to be killed with one bullet instead for asking such questions.
 
Mitch
Mitch
The 'why' is really 'how did it come to be'. And that is a reasonable question. Did some person or committee decide it? was there a (bureaucratic) battle where each words spelling was decided? Or was there a group of people who naturally came from Britain but had one copy of Naoh Webster's reform dictionary, but it was split in half? Those are reasonable questions.
@Gigili that may also be reasonable.
@Gigili definitely a thingy (but maybe you're right, maybe I am missing a close paren on the keyboard let me check...
 
cornbread ninja
cornbread ninja
6:02 PM
@Mitch yes, yes exactly
There's an inner anthropological study here.
 
John Junior
John Junior
Anyone good at Poetry here?
 
cornbread ninja
cornbread ninja
a limerick? @Matt
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
limerick?
I can do those
 
John Junior
John Junior
I think to really understand the flow of the words in Poetry you have to be able to "see" the syllables of the words. Am I on the right track?
 
cornbread ninja
cornbread ninja
it helps to understand the way they are naturally stressed or unstressed
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
6:05 PM
yeah, you need to know the stress patterns and how words sound when they're put together
 
John Junior
John Junior
Is there a Poetry stack exchange?
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
not so far as I know
 
cornbread ninja
cornbread ninja
that would be swell
there's writers
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
I think the proposal might have been merged with literature, which has now closed, but I could be wrong
 
cornbread ninja
cornbread ninja
pours a 40 on the curb for Literature.SE
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
6:07 PM
maybe it was merged into writers
@Robusto knows about writing poetry. way more than me
 
John Junior
John Junior
Also English has a certain flexibility with prepositions and synonyms that allows the writer to use to increase or decrease the number of syllables in a phrase, no?
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
yes
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@JohnJunior What language doesn't have this?
@Mitch Yes, that is how I would read it. Even then, the question is too vague, but yeah.
 
John Junior
John Junior
@Cerberus All must have it, I'm just using "English" as an example :)
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@JohnJunior Good, good.
 
John Junior
John Junior
6:18 PM
@MattЭллен When the writer puts these phrases on paper should he put each one on a separate line?
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
@JohnJunior I don't know. that would depend on how he wants the poem read, I suppose.
 
Robusto
Robusto
Jul 19 '11 at 19:37, by Robusto
@Shog9 — It'll never fly. Nobody has bite-sized, unequivocal answers for literature questions. Literature is all about discussions, which SE abhors.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
I can has concerted effort to reopen this pls kthx.
 
John Junior
John Junior
@Robusto As a beginner trying to decipher the meaning of a poem do you think it would be a good idea to put these phrases on paper with each one on a separate line?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
And dis.
The closer we come to the required threshold, the more questions get closed. Sabotage!
 
Robusto
Robusto
6:24 PM
@JohnJunior Which phrases?
 
John Junior
John Junior
@Robusto The phrases within a poem.
 
Robusto
Robusto
But they're already on paper, or some other medium. Why would you have to put them somewhere else?
 
John Junior
John Junior
As a beginner trying to decipher the meaning ...
 
Monica
Monica
Hello
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@ЯegDwight Done.
I have also redistributed my superfluous votes over the questions.
 
Robusto
Robusto
6:27 PM
@ЯegDwight Why wouldn't you say that? It's perfectly acceptable.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Robusto Wow that was unexpected.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@JohnJunior A lot of times you have to understand the meaning strictly in context. So if you pull a phrase out of context, it will lose its attachment to the rest of the poem, and so perhaps become indecipherable.
@ЯegDwight I think you mean long overdue.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
If it took you seven months to come to that conclusion, it's not that acceptable after all.
 
Robusto
Robusto
Anyway, for once you didn't have a chance to say "I knew you were going to say that." Hahahaha.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
Anyway. I know what you mean. But you don't know (anymore) what I meant.
@Robusto I knew you were going to say that.
 
Robusto
Robusto
6:29 PM
@ЯegDwight It took me seven months for that to come to my attention. If not longer. You said that while I was away, remember?
@ЯegDwight Too late.
 
John Junior
John Junior
@Robusto As in breaking it down into analyzable parts before putting it back together to look at the context?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Robusto You have a long... um. Neck.
@Robusto no, not too late. Look at where the gray arrow is pointing.
 
Monica
Monica
I appreciate your sense of humor, ЯegDwight
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Robusto That I totally saw coming.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@JohnJunior Well, sure, but very often there are antecedents to words in a particular phrase that are not clear due to enjambments or other poetic techniques.
 
Monica
Monica
6:31 PM
You said today that 4/II-1936 is said as Four slash Roman two hyphen nineteen thirty-six.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@ЯegDwight Anyways, you made that statement 19 months ago, not seven. Learn to do minuses and pluses.
 
John Junior
John Junior
@Robusto Thanks for the help :)
 
user19161
@Monica He is not as funny as me.
 
Monica
Monica
A few native speakers on a different site say that's not correct. Which of you is right? I am lost
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Robusto FFFFFUUUU
I can go back and edit.
 
Robusto
Robusto
6:32 PM
Uh-huh. Busted.
 
Monica
Monica
Will, what's your opinion?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Robusto Nope. I was counting in base, um, something.
Base seven-eleven.
 
Robusto
Robusto
You debased yourself. Admit it.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@Robusto In the common situation where you were the crown prince and you you have become king, in a normal European kingdom, you wouldn't use the article. That's probably what Reg meant. In certain less common contexts, it could be "a king", especially if there are several kings to be considered.
 
user19161
@Monica Opinion of what thing?
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
6:33 PM
Now I must leave.
Bye!
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
CU
 
user19161
@Cerberus Enjoy your date!
 
Monica
Monica
4/II-1936 is said as Four slash Roman two hyphen nineteen thirty-six.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@WillHunting Thanks!! I'm having pizza with a friend.
Ciao!
 
user19161
I have a date every day. Today's date is 13 Sep.
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
6:34 PM
@WillHunting dates are good for digestion
 
Monica
Monica
Do you agree?
 
user19161
@MattЭллен Hmm, I thought they are good for indigestion.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Robusto Anyway. You should read that statement in context. We were discussing something else entirely. Of course you can say, "I became a president" and have it be correct in certain contexts. However, I was talking about, like, you have Obama and he says, "I became President in 1998". And in that context he would be ill-advised to say "I became a President".
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
@WillHunting same diff
 
user19161
@Monica I think it is possible. But I am not sure if there is a standard way to read such things.
 
Robusto
Robusto
6:35 PM
@Cerberus Mess Light up a room and leave, that's just like you.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
I know it's tough for you to understand examples with kings. what's with buddies in mud and shit.
 
Monica
Monica
So many people with so many different opinions
 
Robusto
Robusto
@ЯegDwight I just wanted to rattle your cage, 19 months after the fact.
 
user19161
@Robusto What building is that?
 
Monica
Monica
So it's not uncommon to pronounce the "slash" or "hyphen"?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
6:37 PM
@Robusto little did you know that it took me less than 19 months to get out of the cage.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@WillHunting Das ist nicht ein Gebäude.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@WillHunting that's the official Whoosh building.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@ЯegDwight You are a prisoner of your own thoughts. That is enough.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Robusto Gebäude.
 
user19161
@Monica Very common indeed.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
6:37 PM
From bauen, build.
 
user19161
@ЯegDwight Ah, I am trapped in it!
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Robusto if my thoughts are cage, then my name is nicolas.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@ЯegDwight Of course.
 
user19161
@ЯegDwight Non Sequitur!
 
Robusto
Robusto
@ЯegDwight Now you're just trying to be cagey.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
6:39 PM
@WillHunting he who's sitting in the whoosh building, don't whoosh others.
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
@ЯegDwight not John?
 
Robusto
Robusto
-1
Q: Which statement is correct "daily bread for web developers" or "daily bread of web developers"?

raynThe question is self explanatory.I want a subtitle for my new blog.That's it

grammar
Subtitle for your new blog, eh? Who was your subtitle monkey last year?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@MattЭллен why would anybody's name be John? What galimatias is that?
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
monkey number 12: self immolation
 
Gigili
Gigili
No monkeys in this room.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
6:41 PM
We have enough mess without monkeys.
 
Robusto
Robusto
Nothing but monkeys in this room.
 
Gigili
Gigili
OK, except #12.
 
user19161
@gig I see you don't go to the other room anymore.
 
Gigili
Gigili
@Robusto Now you're insulting me.
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
 
Robusto
Robusto
6:42 PM
@Gigili I am just trying to bring you down to our level.
 
user19161
Humans are worse than monkeys, infinitely more evil.
 
Robusto
Robusto
I dunno. There are some mean-ass chimps out there.
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
 
Monica
Monica
Maybe I should post it on the main site and compare the opinions?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@MattЭллен Yeah like people who designed that, um. thing.
 
Monica
Monica
6:44 PM
:D
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
@ЯegDwight words on a gradient.
 
user19161
@Monica Yes, I think you can. Also, it is quite rare to have a silver default avatar.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@MattЭллен Ooh, interesting anagram: gradient => e-trading
 
Monica
Monica
:D
is it?
 
user19161
@Robusto You are the master of anagrams.
 
user19161
6:45 PM
@Monica I have not seen any others on SE it seems.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@WillHunting now that you say it!
 
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
e-trading sounds like something that would go down hill fast...
 
user19161
@ЯegDwight I am Captain Obvious!
 
Monica
Monica
I was thinking about it
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
There is no hyphen in gradient. Pineapples.
 
Gigili
Gigili
6:46 PM
@WillHunting You don't need an optometrist.
 
Robusto
Robusto
You get punctuation free with every anagram. That's the rule.
 
user19161
Is slope or gradient more common in your parts of the world?
 
Gigili
Gigili
@Robusto Don't say that. I need to climb up a ladder to your level.
@WillHunting You don't need an optometrist.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Robusto where are my exclamation marks, then?
 
Robusto
Robusto
I think slopes are more common in your part of the world, @Will.
 
user19161
6:47 PM
@Gigili I only need a miracle.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
You owe me thousands of punctuations for past anagrams.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@ЯegDwight I have put those in escrow for you. You will get access to them when you grow up.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
Escrow is an anagram of O screw!
 
Robusto
Robusto
Also cowers.
 
Gigili
Gigili
@WillHunting Go to a shopping center and buy one.
 
Robusto
Robusto
6:48 PM
Also e-crows.
 
user19161
@Gigili It actually exists. It's called Miracle SKII, some facial product.
 
Robusto
Robusto
Don't say SKII. Too close to ASKII, which is too close to ASCII, and then that will get tchrist back in here with his text walls.
Which wouldn't be a miracle.
Or if it was a miracle, it would be of a disappointingly low order.
 
Gigili
Gigili
That's right. Don't say SKII. Say Cerberus but don't say SKII.
 
user19161
Oh I got a notification just now saying that an event was going to take place in the blog room.
 
user19161
@Gigili What has Cerberus got to do with this?
 
Robusto
Robusto
6:54 PM
Every balrog has a blog, built in.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
So what does AR stand for, then? Anti-religious?
 
Gigili
Gigili
@WillHunting You ask me? I've never been Cerberus.
 
user19161
@Gigili You are not making much sense today.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@ЯegDwight Assault Rifle. Every balrog has one of those too. A blog and an assault rifle.
 
David Wallace
David Wallace
Good morning everyone.
 
Gigili
Gigili
6:56 PM
@WillHunting Umm. I wonder why.
 
Robusto
Robusto
I leave it to you which does more damage.
 
user19161
@Gigili Must be the birthday cake stuck in your head.
 
Robusto
Robusto
AR-15
The AR-15 is a lightweight, 5.56 mm, magazine-fed, semi-automatic rifle, with a rotating-lock bolt, actuated by direct impingement gas operation or long/short stroke piston operation. It is manufactured with the extensive use of aluminum alloys and synthetic materials. The AR-15 was first built by ArmaLite as a selective fire assault rifle for the United States armed forces. Because of financial problems, ArmaLite sold the AR-15 design to Colt. The select-fire AR-15 entered the US military system as the M16 rifle. Colt then marketed the Colt AR-15 as a semi-automatic version of t...
See? I'm not making this up.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
I just randomly entered a room, it happened to be DIY, and turned out to have a mod:nonmod ratio of 6:5.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@ЯegDwight Sounds more like DWI.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
6:58 PM

 Home Improvement

General discussion for diy.stackexchange.com
4
 
user19161
@ЯegDwight Probably the actual numbers are 6 and 5 then.
 
user19161
It is quite hard to have more than 6 mods in that room.
 
user19161
Therefore 6 and 5, QED.
 
Robusto
Robusto
I think I will go to Home Improvement and ask how one gets relatives to leave before they become annoying.
2
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
Too basic. Ask how to get them to leave after they become annoying.
 
user19161
6:59 PM
@Robusto Just tell them to leave. QED.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@WillHunting and now it's 5 and 4.
 
user19161
@ЯegDwight See, some have left after Robusto told them to.
 
Gigili
Gigili
No, "what to do when they are annoying by default".
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
No, "why have relatives?"
 
David Wallace
David Wallace
@Robusto Are you anticipating your relatives becoming annoying and not leaving?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
7:02 PM
Sounds more like fear than anticipation to me.
 
Gigili
Gigili
No, "why not kill them all with one bullet?"
 
Robusto
Robusto
It's a common problem. That kind of information would be good to have in case you needed it.
 
user19161
I did not know that Google uses a customised version of Ubuntu LTS.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
Make the internet a better place! One Robusto at a time!
2
 
Gigili
Gigili
@ЯegDwight I can guess the pattern: 4 and 3, 3 and 2, 2 and 1, 1 and 0.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
7:03 PM
@WillHunting so, do you know it now? And do they actually use it?
 
Robusto
Robusto
Actually, inviting Jasper over to talk about Linux distros would probably get the relatives to leave tout de suite. But then you'd have to find a way to get Jasper to leave.
 
user19161
@Robusto Eats, shoots and leaves.
 
David Wallace
David Wallace
Does he?
 
Gigili
Gigili
Gen-very-Ref?
0
Q: Which is proper: "to debate X" or "to debate about X"?

mac389Which version of this sentence is correct? Is debate transitive, intransitive, or both? Doctoral students about to graduate, like me, often debate about what qualities make a successful scientist. Doctoral students about to graduate, like me, often debate what qualities make a successful...

word-choice grammaticality verbs prepositions transitive-verbs
 
user19161
Anyway, they are trying to decide whether to call the spin GNOMEbuntu or Gnobuntu or Gubuntu.
 
Robusto
Robusto
7:05 PM
Yes, thank you. We're all sober again.
 
user19161
GNOME might not be happy with GNOMEbuntu and Google might not be happy with Gubuntu because it sounds like Goobuntu.
 
David Wallace
David Wallace
@Gigili Much as I hate to disagree with you, there's a very real difference between "debate" and "debate about", which it would be hard to find in any general reference.
Maybe I should post an answer.
 
user19161
@DavidWallace Might not be so hard to find.
 
user19161
But you can post an answer.
 
David Wallace
David Wallace
I'm not very good at finding stuff.
 
user19161
7:07 PM
First, look in 5 dictionaries.
 
David Wallace
David Wallace
Why 5?
 
user19161
Arbitrary! Meeting for marshmallows is just as arbitrary as meeting for coffee, says WH to Skylar.
 
Gigili
Gigili
Stupid people everywhere.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
Cool grass blowing up the pass
Don't you know I'm feeling marshmallow?
 
user19161
@ЯegDwight That sounds like a song.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
7:15 PM
 
user19161
@ЯegDwight Looks like you!
 
David Wallace
David Wallace
@Gigili Can you kill all of them with one bullet too?
 
Gigili
Gigili
I'd keep that bullet for something worthwhile.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
7:52 PM
4
Q: Help! There are a hundred of me - Puppy Overflow

DeadMGThe other Loungers decided to have a bit of fun whilst I was afking, and a truckload of them or so changed their username and Gravatar to match mine. Whilst this was hilarious for a time, now I'm back and some of them can't change back. I've got highlighting for my own messages and even I can har...

support
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
8:07 PM
►
2
@Cerberus
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
8:19 PM
Hello.
@ЯegDwight Hahaha.
Brilliant!
Exactly my point.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
Well it's also exactly Apple's point.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
The average Apple user does not make rational choices.
True.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
Which is to say, that is their official strategy to make money.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
They aren't Apple's target group for nor eason!
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
I applaud them.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
8:22 PM
@ЯegDwight Oh, I believe it. They want people to be hysterical about their brand and maybe their (childish) design.
@ЯegDwight I do not.
I curse them.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
They have invented, and are collecting, a stupid-people tax.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
That is true; but they are also trying to kill the rest of the market.
And I happen to have many stupid friends whom I would like to spare this waste of money.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
The rest of the market is irrelevant because stupid people is moar.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
No, they are a fairly small minority, thankfully.
Android rules the day.
But your typical urbanite is a bit more sensitive to this silliness, alas.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
Stupid people are not a minority. Stupid people with money are. But for stupid people without money, Apple has a strategy, too. See iTunes. Or think how they still sell iPhones 3 to those who can't afford iPhones 5.
It's only 400 dollars instead of 800!
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
8:25 PM
That will stop once the 5 is available.
@ЯegDwight eyes bulging
400 dollars for that piece to obsolete junk.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Cerberus Yeah, but iPhone 4 will continue. That's just an example. They do the same thing with other products of theirs. Apple groks market segmentation.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Well, other companies keep selling older models too...
And they have budget models.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
Apple has become like airlines who will sell the exact same seat on the exact same flight for $800 and $400.
@Cerberus see, Apple has no such thing. You miss the point I'm afraid.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@ЯegDwight True. But other manufacturers do the same.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
I read a nice article just the other day (or was it today, even?), but it's in German.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
8:30 PM
It is always like that with electronics: they drop in value tremendously in a year or so.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
Again, you miss the point. iPhone 3 is three years old. And they still sell it for $400. That's not tremendously.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@ЯegDwight I know they don't...so what is your point about market segmentation exactly? What does Apple do?
@ЯegDwight True.
@ЯegDwight My German is fine, you know that—as long as I only have to read it or listen to it.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Cerberus Rather than producing 100+ phone models ranging from $10 to $2000, and let them become obsolete in six months, they make one model, that becomes only ever so slightly obsolete in a year, and never drops below hundreds of dollars.
@Cerberus hold on, then.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@ЯegDwight Yes, but with two caveats: a Samsung phone from 2010 is still absolutely fine; and Apple's phones are usually significantly behind the top Samsung and HTC models, so aren't they almost obsolete from the beginning?
I don't see how Apple's strategy is so ungewöhnlich, but OK...
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Cerberus sure, but that's also why it's irrelevant. Because it's from the beginning. People who buy that stuff obviously don't care about its behindness right from the beginning.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
8:36 PM
True.
They care about the way it looks (which is to me incomprehensible on two counts: 1. its design is childish, and 2. it shouldn't matter that much), and about the fact that their friends have that phone.
> Für das iPhone 5, diese Prognose sei gewagt, wird das Gleiche gelten:
Does this mean "—this prognosis is a bit daring—", or "—we are not afraid to give you this prognosis—"?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
The latter. We'll go out on a limb and say.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Ah OK.
That's what I thought.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
The sentence after that was interesting.
> Unsere Smartphones sind heute längst Geschenke für Leute, die schon alles haben (auch ein Smartphone): im Zweifelsfall uns selbst.
I never saw it that way, but that's how it is.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Yeah, this applies to most people. Not to me, so far, because I only bought this one because mine old one finally broke down after 5 years.
> im Zweifelsfall uns selbst.
I don't get this.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
I still don't even know what a "smart phone" is.
I always just had phones.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
8:43 PM
Geschenke für uns selbst? Or die schon uns selbst haben?
@ЯegDwight I'd say basically a phone that you can navigate, browse, play games, and watch videos on.
A hand computer.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Cerberus I could do that with every phone since 1998. None of them was marketed as a smartphone.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
All of that?
I remember those things were somewhat inconvenient on my phone from 2007.
Possible, but slow, and on a very small screen.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Cerberus smartphones are presents for people who have everything, including a smartphone. Even if those people are us.
@Cerberus big screens are a rather recent phenomenon, especially on cheap phones.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@ЯegDwight Hmm they mean, even "we", good people, are irrational like that?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
No.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
8:47 PM
I still don't get the "im Zweifelsfall".
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
It means that if you can't find anyone to buy a smartphone for, you say what the heck and buy it for yourself.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@ЯegDwight Yeah, and you need at least QVGA to be able to see anything...
@ЯegDwight OK, so Geschenke für uns selbst. Im Zweifelsfall, as in, if we are in doubt as to whom to give this phone to?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Cerberus If I knew where to look it up, I'd tell you how small the screen was I was watching videos on back in 2004.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Heh.
Oh, and it has to be a touch screen.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Cerberus yeah.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
8:49 PM
@ЯegDwight OK.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Cerberus see, now you're just inventing stuff. The term "smartphone" predates touch screens by a decade if not more.
Again, nobody actually knows what that even means. It's just a buzzword.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@ЯegDwight I know: the kind with a touch screen was called a pocket pc.
Without, a smartphone.
But the word has changed.
That was Microsoft terminology anyway.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
This is a smartphone. If the 90s are to be believed.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Oh, very smart.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
It had what, a C16x processor? And cost 1600 DM.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
8:51 PM
Yes, those phone could do some stuff.
That is a lot!
So to what end were we discussing the definition of a smartphone again?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
My keychain has more computing power than that thing. And my keychain has no computing power.
@Cerberus we weren't discussing. I was complaining. That the word was vapid. And is. And will be.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Even I have more computing power.
@ЯegDwight Oh. Well, in a way, yes; but, in modern times, I don't feel that there are many phones that are sold as smartphones but that really can't do the things you want to do with an advanced, modern phone.
So I don't really feel it is an issue now.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
My point. I don't see a difference. There is none. And as far as I'm concerned there never was one.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
There is no clear-cut difference, no.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
But if you call it a smartphone, you can charge a premium.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
8:54 PM
But is there such a difference between phones and other electronic devices?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
Money for nothing, chicks for free.
@Cerberus I dunno. But I don't think I've ever saw smartcoffeemachines or smartrefrigerators or smartstoves.
 
David Wallace
David Wallace
16 hours ago, by David Wallace
9 hours ago, by David Wallace
Why is everyone in this online community so obsessed with telecommunications technology?
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@ЯegDwight How about the difference between a laptop, a notebook, a very small notebook, a tablet, and a smartphone?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
"I've ever saw." I like that. I can safely move to NJ now.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
I chose not to take notice.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
8:56 PM
@Cerberus yeah.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@DavidWallace I don't know what to say.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Cerberus you would have to do a lot of choosing in New Jersey, then.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
We're crazy?
@ЯegDwight I prefer not to go there, thank you.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@DavidWallace I know what to say. I only happen to discuss phones. For the second time in the history of this chat. It's an accident.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Suuuure.
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
8:57 PM
I could discuss Game Boys instead. Or daffodils.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Is daffodil bashing as much fun as Apple bashing?
Fruits > flowers.
 
user19161
@cerberus Sorry for being a busybody, but how did the date go?
 
ЯegDwight
ЯegDwight
@Cerberus there was exactly one other discussion. And you were involved. And it was more about cost plans than phones. And I'm not even sure if it was in this room. Find me two distinct long discussions about phones with my participation, then you can suuuure to your heart's content.
Remember that I remember and you don't remember.
 
user19161
@ЯegDwight Wow, you used 4 u's just like he did, no more no less.
 
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