English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

08:00

What are you counting?

Answers?

David Wallace

You have to guess.

Oh, you just did.

simchona

Y'all are making me look like a dictator, closing questions!

David Wallace

@simchona Sorry about that.

210.

simchona

Look, I'm being nice too!

-1

Q: Does 'agemates' have a space or not?

How is it correctly spelled? agemates or age mates

MετάEd

@simchona Damned nice.

David Wallace

08:04

You're always nice.

Cerberus

Very nice.

simchona

@DavidWallace Heh.

Cerberus

Everyone, this is the way it ought to be done.

simchona

If only I followed my own example.

David Wallace

About not asking GR? When did you ever ask GR?

simchona

08:05

No, about being nice.

David Wallace

Sorry, I have never thought otherwise. 211.

Cerberus

Kindness towards strangers is the best of the few virtues that Christianity stands out in.

simchona

Hi @CalvinLin

David Wallace

Who says it's a Christian virtue?

Cerberus

It was sort of newly emphasised by Christianity when the Mediterranean world was christened.

More so than before.

David Wallace

08:08

Hmm, yes, I suppose you're right.

Cerberus

Not always followed, of course.

David Wallace

The New Commandment and all that.

Cerberus

And of course it was hardly new.

David Wallace

was that a jinx?

Cerberus

I have to admit I don't know what this new commandment is.

I only know Christianity as an historian.

Okay, it's bed time.

Good night!

David Wallace

08:11

Right. 9am and all.

Good morning!

Cerberus

You know my time too well.

Good night!

David Wallace

It's not very hard.

libjup

09:58

hi guys :-))

any1 here?

Rory Alsop

10:28

@libjup I am now :-)

libjup

great :D hi @RoryAlsop

does this sentence sound right to you?
"I was able to learn everything from about how a CPU works, as well as how an operating system functions"
or should it be
"I was able to learn everything from how a CPU works to how an operating system functions"

Rory Alsop

your second sentence is much better

libjup

ok and last question:

Rory Alsop

it would be the way I would expect it to be written - the first sentence has mismatched parts of speech

libjup

ok; also the 2nd covers the whole range: CPU to OS

and not only two parts, right?

Rory Alsop

10:32

@libjup yes - it implies everything about the computer, from hardware to software

libjup

ok thought so :); thanks! and last one:

"I was far away from all the hectic and smog you would normally have in a city."

OR

"I was far away from all the hectic and smog I would have normally had in a city."

i am talking about my childhood

Rory Alsop

ahh - neither of these work, as 'hectic' doesn't fit in this situation

what you could write is:

"I was far away from all the hectic bustle and smog you would normally have in a city."

hectic is an adjective, so it requires a noun - bustle is commonly used in this context

libjup

ok I see... very hard to know these things as a non native speaker :) thank you so much, rory!

also I wish you and all the others here on SE a happy new year :-)

Rory Alsop

@libjup You too - have a good 2013!

Johan Larsson

11:19

Gott nytt år killar

RegDwighт

Gott ist tot.

Johan Larsson

haha

Johan Larsson

11:37

in C# on Stack Overflow Chat, 1 min ago, by Johan Larsson

ok you who speak the language, is digit the equivalent of char as it is written here i.e {1, 2, 3, ... , 8, 9}

KitFox

11:55

Moin.

RegDwighт

Ahoi.

KitFox

Hullo, vizcacha friend.

Or however you spell that.

RegDwighт

I hate this day.

KitFox

Why? Year end?

RegDwighт

Only came to work to pick up the package with the presents for New Year. Guess what, no package in sight.

KitFox

11:58

Oh no!

RegDwighт

I do have like one present, but it was going to be many.

Stupid DHL.

KitFox

I no rite?

I had something that a seller shipped via them, they sent it from Maryland to Georgia to North Carolina to Pennsylvania to Delaware where they handed it to USPS to deliver to me in Maine.

So it kind of went around in a little circle for a few days.

So where is your big box of presents, then? Nowhere near you? Or maybe showing up later?

RegDwighт

Looks like they store it to deliver it on Jan 2nd or something.

KitFox

Hola @Jasper.

@RegDwighт Jerks. You should go knock on their door.

user19161

@KitFox Hello!

user19161

12:06

There will be plenty of fireworks here later.

KitFox

Yeah. New Year coming and all.

RegDwighт

@KitFox I was thinking about that. But they're probably closed anyway, plus I don't have proof that this is my address.

KitFox

My production server is down.

user19161

@RegDwighт Truth needs no proof, but proof needs truth.

KitFox

@RegDwighт You could call. Bring a business card. Tell them you'll be in big trouble with the boss.

Let them feel like they are doing a good deed. Or alternatively, that you are saving them some work at this busy time of year.

RegDwighт

12:08

Anyway, I'm off to the city, see if any shops are still open and have any of these things at a comparable price. Then I'll just return the package to Amazon, their loss.

Meanwhile, don't forget to get hats.

KitFox

Good luck!

RegDwighт

It's on! Post something, star someone, get a free hat.

4

KitFox

I don't think I can get any more hats.

RegDwighт

Well, watch this.

KitFox

I was in rehab for the last week.

RegDwighт

12:09

Over and out.

KitFox

I still need one more +1 question to get the first question hat. It's terrible.

Yay hat!

Commutes. Laters.

tchrist

13:15

@KitFox What, you haven’t even answered your own question yet? There’s a hat for that. Or a hatban. Depending on whether it’s a real answer.

Robusto

How d'ye do?

Hey, many of us are musicians. We could form a hatband.

tchrist

Or a hatfield.

Robusto

That would be the real McCoy.

tchrist

See, where you would you be without me?

Robusto

I would be in n-space.

Yay, my article is finally up on the blog!

2

tchrist

13:19

@KitFox My apologies.

I sit corrected.

But at least you don’t get the rep ding from CW. And no, it wasn’t me.

@Robusto Why was it delayed till Party Day?

Robusto

Ask @Matt.

tchrist

Interesting. I just Approved an edit as the only voter. I feel Powa.

Robusto

We fear your approval.

0

Q: Meaning of twenty testosterone-charged men

what is the Exact meaning of bellow lines. and what is the exact meaning of phrase "twenty testosterone-charged men" "I’d have much preferred her place, as I didn’t want her to be the only woman in the dorm with * twenty testosterone-charged men *"

meaning grammar phrases verb-agreement sentence-patterns

Look what Yoichi started.

I can tell you what they mean. They mean business.

tchrist

Really?

They say that by age 80, horniness in men is much diminished.

Perhaps he does not connect testosterone to horniness, but to brawniness?

KitFox

@tchrist Well, it was only just this morning. And I did not wish to gain rep from self-answering, either plus or minus. It doesn't sit well with me.

Are you feeling better today?

tchrist

13:28

Yes, thank you. Finally. Three days of Z-pak, sleep, and no shortage of other (duly Rx) powders and elixers have much improved me. I’m actually going to log into work today.

Robusto

@tchrist That would be a relief, I think.

Elixers? Do they elix?

KitFox

It's funny to get a downvote on that answer though. Humorous, I mean, not odd.

And trying to think of a fifth question...argh.

tchrist

Well, they aren’t elixors.

KitFox

No, they are elixirs.

tchrist

Getting to five questions was exasperating beyond belief.

simchona

13:31

@kit do you ever check MSO?

Robusto

I couldn't make it. I fell off the hat wagon at two questions. It just wasn't worth the effort.

KitFox

@simchona Not frequently.

tchrist

I’ve even tried thinking of good questions whose answers I knew, which I could ask/answer, but nothing seemed worthy.

simchona

@kit check the recent questions when you get a chance.

Robusto

Pretty much nothing is.

tchrist

13:32

There is that.

Robusto

Quit fucking tweening me! pouts

KitFox

@simchona Hahahaha.

simchona

I almost feel bad, but then I stop myself

Robusto

Coffee ... bacon ... newspaper ...

I may not eat the newspaper this morning.

tchrist

@Robusto Twit fucking queening me! spouts

I remember coffee.

I don’t remember bacon.

But what’s a newspaper?

I trust it is the Times?

Or is it the local?

tchrist

13:45

@sim @kit I seem to me missing whatever it is on MSO you’re laughing at. Could you please elaborate if not elucidate? I do have a weird caching bug related to the MSO front page, which I do not know how to clear in Safari so use Opera there, so maybe that it hiding something from me.

KitFox

@tchrist It's what you might call an internal issue.

tchrist

Oh, I profusely apologize if I accidentally pried into a mod matter. I did not mean to.

KitFox

You might be able to figure it out on your own, but I think I probably shouldn't help you.

tchrist

Ok.

KitFox

Since it involves user discipline.

And suspensions.

tchrist

13:46

Yes, exactly.

I understand completely.

Not completely.

KitFox

nods

tchrist

But I do not want to be poking my concerns into that stuff.

Rat hole.

KitFox

One of the perks of being a mod.

I mostly missed the show though, since holidays and all.

tchrist

@kit The death spiral of endlessly recursive meta-meta-meta-chatter that this place would bog down in if regular users were normally part of active conversations about disciplinary actions is just mind-numbing. It is one of the several SE policies that shows real wisdom.

KitFox

No kidding.

Democracy is fundamentally flawed.

2

tchrist

13:51

What isn’t?

Plus, we’re more a republic, in a way. :)

With star chambers. :)

Matt Эллен

@tchrist I post blog posts on Mondays.

tchrist

I see.

Matt Эллен

if possible, then every other Monday

tchrist

I know other places where blog posts show up only on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Preferably Tuesday.

I think the idea is that there are too many Monday holidays.

Matt Эллен

I see

tchrist

13:56

I don’t know that I agree with it or anything.

But the people doing it have good site-visitation data to backup their policies.

Matt Эллен

It is a point I hadn't considered

tchrist

No one has gotten a hat on ELU over the past hour. Must be the Hour of the Commute or something.

Matt Эллен

I need to write something star worthy

tchrist

Hm, light snow showers here this morning. High only in the 20s.

KitFox

I can't think of any more questions! Agh!

Matt Эллен

13:59

I wish I could remeber the question I thought up this morning

lol

tchrist

Kit@Meta: “Why can’t I think of any more questions?”

KitFox

And I need upvotes on my eslf-answer, and a couple more answers.

@tchrist I don't think those count.

tchrist

Does the self-answer count only if positive?

KitFox

I can think of plenty of Meta questions.

@tchrist Yeah, it has to be +1.

tchrist

@KitFox They do, but for a different hat.

KitFox

14:00

I already have that one.

tchrist

They count only for the Consta... hat.

Exactly.

KitFox

Istanbul was Constantinople.

Which is probably why we are swimming in meta questions.

Matt Эллен

Why did Constantinople get the works?

tchrist

I dunno. The recent swimmage on meta is um, recent.

KitFox

That's nobody's business but the Turks.

tchrist

14:04

And it isn’t like the Christmas Truce stemmed the tide. It just changed its tenor, so it isn’t 110% whinging over closed questions by a cadre of new users/socks whose collective reputation couldn’t even examine vote cotes.

I guess that it is a good thing.

Maybe the increased meta “popularity” is linear with respect to number of new users, or number of ELU postings. I don’t have that data, but it is an interesting question, almost.

KitFox

I think it is strictly hat-related.

Johan Larsson

Would you be interested in the chat-bot thing, CC is a really nice kid who put a lot of effort in it, but he does not get any love for it and that makes me a little sad.

Matt Эллен

we need more random nonsense in this chat?

Johan Larsson

Yes, it is a bit spammy if misused

KitFox

What's that now? Chat bot?

Johan Larsson

14:06

@MattЭллен maybe not, but it is not completely random, would be up to us

Matt Эллен

it could be switch on only during the hours we're not here, around 00:00 and 08:00 GMT

to keep the place alive

tchrist

Chat bot? Until recently semi-disabused of the misled notion, I had thought chat-bots a banned scourge in SE chat rooms.

Matt Эллен

although, Cerb and David are often here then

Johan Larsson

@KitFox demo starting here yes it is spammy

tchrist

Keep alive?

Matt Эллен

14:07

well, give the illusion of liveliness

tchrist

I’m here at 00:00 GMT. Nobody has anything to say.

Johan Larsson

@tchrist did you see it yesterday?

KitFox

Maybe the Hotel could use it.

Matt Эллен

@tchrist exactly

tchrist

@JohanLarsson No.

Matt Эллен

14:08

@KitFox maybe!

tchrist

Unless it can pass the Turing Test and then some, I don’t see how it could help provide someone with something to say.

macbook# date ; date -u
Mon Dec 31 07:08:51 MST 2012
Mon Dec 31 14:08:51 UTC 2012

It is only 5pm here midnight UTC.

Johan Larsson

@MattЭллен It does not work that way, it can google images, merriam webster etc and paste links here in chat. Think of it more like an automation

Matt Эллен

OIC

well, we have people for that :D

tchrist

What was its user name so I can look for the demo in the logs?

Johan Larsson

@MattЭллен that would be cc/define OIC

KitFox

14:10

It could be helpful, I suppose. Like the mod daemon.

Johan Larsson

@tchrist HangBot I think

tchrist

What mod daemon is that? What does it do? Is there a Community chat agent?

Matt Эллен

was it here? Or in a different room?

Johan Larsson

13 hours ago, by Johan Larsson

Anyone here?

Chat bot demo starting there^

I'm not selling anything btw :)

tchrist

Hm.

Johan Larsson

14:12

pretty bad demo, to spammy but maybe it shows the idea

KitFox

@tchrist In the mod area, you can ask the bot certain things.

We use it mostly for hailing mods from particular sites when doing migration requests.

tchrist

That seems useful. I wondered how you quickly found mods for random to-be-migrated-to sites to ask whether they would be willing to take a question.

KitFox

Yep. That's how.

It does a few other simple queries.

It's not spectacular, but it is handy.

Matt Эллен

@JohanLarsson uh... too late?

Johan Larsson

He is extremely helpful in the C# room but all he gets is flaming for his bot :(

KitFox

14:14

Is he embarrassed about his age, or worried about the bot?

Johan Larsson

@MattЭллен fixed that :)

Matt Эллен

lol

tchrist

How do you write a chat bot? Is there an API?

Johan Larsson

@KitFox embarrassed I guess

tchrist

I mean, for here.

13 is an embarrassing year.

KitFox

14:15

Oh. Damn it. I have been on vacation so long, I forgot that I'm at work. I'm supposed to be doing an implementation.

Johan Larsson

@tchrist I don't know much about it other than that it is js and it polls the chat I think

Matt Эллен

yay! hat!

KitFox

Yay Matt!

Matt Эллен

I must away to remove excess hair from my face. Toodles!

Johan Larsson

26 mins ago, by KitFox

Democracy is fundamentally flawed.

You're going Churchill on us now?

KitFox

14:19

Blast. You have discovered my secret identity.

Johan Larsson

One of my favorite quotes of all time is from a poker forum it was:
"Its over, I suck in poker and life" I even made a T-shirt with it.

Don't remember the username of the guy who said it.

I could really feel his pain in that short sentence

KitFox

Especially with that awful punctuation.

Robusto

@tchrist The Globe. I'll probably discontinue home service now that Bones, our cat, is gone. We only kept home delivery around because he liked to sit on the paper while we tried to read it.

KitFox

14:35

@tchrist Well, we do some kinds of etiquette questions.

tchrist

Yeah, I know.

I couldn’t think how to phrase it.

Which is why I hedged with really.

Somebody with better corpusfu than me should scout out the most common values of of FOO in “FOOly request” instances from various corpora.

Johan Larsson

@KitFox why, how?

KitFox

@JohanLarsson missing apostrophe, semi-colon, and period.

Johan Larsson

It's over, I suck in poker and life.

Where does the semi-colon go?

KitFox

It's over; I suck in poker and life.

But that's because I dislike comma splices.

Splices? That's not what I mean.

Commas as conjunctions.

Johan Larsson

14:45

hmm, I don't think I ever used semi-colon outside programming and maths

KitFox

gasp

Johan Larsson

<- Not good in Swedish nor English

KitFox

Do you happen to know how I can tell if there are users logged into my website right at this very moment?

Oh. I suppose I can probably check for live sessions.

If I knew how to do that.

Johan Larsson

<- not good with web stuff either but sessions sounds about right. Or maybe tcp connections lacking sessions, idk.

@KitFox starred that :) can remove the star if you feel unconfortable

KitFox

Haha. Let it ride.

0

A: a word/couple to express eagerness to win

Ambitious describes an eagerness to succeed and also implies that success has not yet been attained.

I'm thinking my only hope at Necromancer is to answer old word choice questions.

Johan Larsson

14:50

gtg, I don't have account on ELU so can't upvote.

KitFox

Thesaurus is a good idea! Thank you! — Stefanie Dec 19 at 22:07

@JohanLarsson Bye!

tchrist

@KitFox I always do old SWRs.

@Kit I added some hedging politesse bits.

Bikeshed alert:

1

Q: What do you call someone who exploits people and their confidence using 'clever speech'?

I am referring to someone who makes people 'buy' what he says and gets things done by them through nothing but clever speech – something one can describe as crafty or beguiling, but not fraudulent. I pondered over con man and con artist for a while but those terms seem to hold a hint of crime, s...

single-word-requests phrase-requests

Johan Larsson

15:10

@tchrist CEO, politician, lawyer? All professions doing meta-work maybe.

Mitch

@tchrist the question is underspecified. but that's not really the OP's fault.

tchrist

I was looking for adjectives.

Still, let’s paint it puce.

#4 on collider.

Johan Larsson

Was it Nietzsche who said something like: "What is eloquent becomes true" or is often confused with truth I don't remember

@KitFox problematic punctuation in that one ^

Mitch

@tchrist which puce? squashed bug brownish-red? or the mistaken sickly green?

@JohanLarsson He spoke English?

Johan Larsson

15:26

@Mitch Translated from German -> Swedish -> memory -> English, probably pretty obfuscated by now

Mitch

words like 'eloquent' can have so many different ranges in all those languages (including in memory!)

all I could find for 'Nietzsche eloquent' was:

"What is eloquent is the passing moment and the moment that will come after it."

poetic and inscrutable, but I can't connect it with your idea. so probably not the literal word we're after.

MετάEd

Can you end a sentence with a particulate?

Mitch

What's a particulate?

MετάEd

That's the question.

Andrew Leach

It's a minute separate particle, but only appears as a plural.

So... probably not.

MετάEd

15:38

@AndrewLeach Right. It's like fume. However, it can also appear as a mass noun. You can refer to the amount of particulate in the atmosphere, for example.

Mitch

@AndrewLeach but he just did!

you can use it as an adjective..particulate matter.

a particulate might get in your eye.

Johan Larsson

@Mitch nope not that one, I will give it a try

Mitch

but that's not at the end of a sentence.

what's the swedish word you're thinking of? we can follow the synonyms of translations of synonyms game and see if we find anything close.

Johan Larsson

"Det som är välformulerat blir sant" (from memory, can be off by orders of magnitude)

Mitch

well- formulated?

Johan Larsson

15:43

@Mitch yeah if that is a proper word, I used google translate for that one :)

Don't remember which book it was, not a famous quote but it caught my eye while reading. 15 years ago or so.

Mitch

'well written' is what google translate gives me. also ... 'eloquent'!

Johan Larsson

I guess you understand the gist of the quote despite my poor translation

KitFox

OK, here goes. Taking my site down for a few hours.

Johan Larsson

@Mitch What sources do you use for finding quotes? I have nothing better than just random googling

KitFox

crosses fingers

Mitch

15:52

@JohanLarsson yes, just that for me too. that's the problem though, you have to get the keywords just right.

and that's hard when translation is involved because of word choice.

@KitFox nobody's using the site right now. really. who in their right mind would be at work right now?

Andrew Leach

@Mitch Counting the minutes to leaving!

KitFox

@Mitch I think I have one user logged in. And possibly this one other user might still be logged in.

Mitch

@JohanLarsson you'd be spending all day flipping through everybook just loking for the right page...impossible.

@KitFox They shouldn't be logged in.

Johan Larsson

@Mitch Ok, I'll let it go now before committing then. Committing could mean one lost week. :)

Mitch

@JohanLarsson What? you can't roll back to a previous version?

KitFox

15:55

@Mitch They should have checked their email liked I asked them to. Instead, I have no valid email, so phbblt to them.

Johan Larsson

@Mitch pun right?

Mitch

@KitFox Exzactly. and add that word to the OED (the new name for wiktionary). if you say it enough times it become true.

I have successfully brought two worlds together. They collided. Both were destroyed. Mayans...what a bunch of goddamn morons.

@JohanLarsson Actually unintended. In fact, I don't know what the pun could be. YOur sentence sounded like you were talking of another conversation about some software change you were making.

@JohanLarsson So if he didn't say it, then now you can claim it. Watch the riches pour in.

My search found this:

voices.yahoo.com/…

in "On Truth and Lie in an Extramoral Sense" which I've never heard of.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…