English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Q: Replace accept rate with citizenship level

2:11 AM

Poor Yoichi.

This would have long ago hit the MC but for being on MSO:

37

I see that accept rate has now been removed from display on questions. I think this not a great solution for reasons that waffles explained well. Take it away waffles! On one hand accept rate bothers me a lot, it is a one-dimensional metric that does not really give me enough information about...

Q: Where was Benjamin Franklin [1706–1790] on September 11th, 1752?

2:36 AM

The site has disappeared again.

Still gone.

I wonder why this happens.

2:51 AM

Maybe one of the developers dropped the production data by accident.

3:18 AM

I love the "three new questions" part above the blankness. It is surely because I haven't refreshed. But still.

I’m wrong!

I refreshed, and nada.

Ok, you can get at it from the newest questions tab, just not the default one.

Now it’s back. Long hiatus.

3:45 AM

►

Sudhir

4:35 AM

Hi

@tchrist

5:18 AM

@Mahnax flowing locks!

@cornbreadninja Haha, my hair was getting kind of long.

@Mahnax OIC.

@cornbreadninja Jasper kept bringing it up, so I was sort of teasing him about it.

How are you these days?

Can't complain. Waiting for foamguy to come home from a party.

How are you?

I'm doing well. I got my hair cut, as you know, which is nice. I get to work at 6:30 AM tomorrow, which means an easy shift and missing church :-)

5:21 AM

:D

Take that, church.

I'm taking two classes this semester, both online.

Oh, on what?

I have to take a two-chapter quiz before 11:55PM tomorrow.

Mass Media and Society, and Fundamentals of Advertising.

Are they interesting classes?

Oh yes.

And they're very compatibly different. MM&S work is due Friday nights, and Ad work is due Sunday nights.

Ach, I'm at -1 on minesweeper.

@cornbreadninja doesn't know whether that is sarcasm

5:24 AM

@Mahnax It is not.

@cornbreadninja OK.

I didn't think so, but I had to be sure.

OMG

I just won minesweeper!

Oh!

Congardulayshuns!

thanks! :D

I finally know what happens when you win.

I am glad. I like playing Pinball on Windows XP.

5:27 AM

I like mah jongg on 7

Mahjong isn't really my thing, but sometimes it's nice.

good evening folks

howdy!

Hi Mr. Shiny. It's late!

11:28

5:28 AM

yeah

it's late

but I'm trying to wrap my head around my lego problem

also I'm making roofs

rooves?

slopey things

Hahaha.

making the grade?

it's amazing how few roof pieces accumulate in a collection

since I was a kid I knew that there was the potential to make a roof that was sloped all the way to the top, and turned corners, etc. but I never had the parts

now that I've sorted my collection (sorta) I am finally trying to make roofs out of what I have

it's pathetic

The best I can do is a tiny little dark-blue roof

I simply don't have enough corner roof pieces

What sort of roof pieces are these?

Could you give a link to the brick or whatever on that one site?

5:31 AM

Oh!

I had lots of those in grey.

Although the corner ones were significantly less common.

I might have some light blue.

hm, kinda hard to see that one

I know which one that is, though.

5:33 AM

so anyway

Er, yes.

Can you order specific bricks?

with pieces like that, I am putting together a nice little tiny dark blue roof, and a larger shitty multi-coloured roof

You could order some and make a very lovely monochromatic roof.

@Mahnax you can now, yes. I don't know if the roof bricks come in the colours and variety that I want. Or what they cost.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Hrm, OK.

5:34 AM

One kit I bought has a full-size red roof, no corners, no top bit, but still. But I went over to get it and that's when I noticed that it's dark-red, not regular red. I have no dark-red corners.

wait, not true. I have 6 outside corners, but no inside corners.

Anyway, the conclusion is that I should buy more roof pieces.

Or else, build things that have roofs made differently. Like, put some plates on an angle.

But my real lego problem isn't the lack of roof pieces. It's that I am trying to sort the whole collection and I am not sure how to do it. I've sorted probably 75% of it according to part. But I'm out of room in my boxes and I also think I need to further sort by colour.

Build some Mindstorms robots that will sort the pieces for you.

haha, that's what my massage therapist recommended too

I have never had a massage.

The problem isn't that the sorting needs doing. The problem is that if I want to build, say, a blue house, and to do that I need 25 different kinds of bricks, then I will need to bring out 25 different boxes.

I already have over 60 boxes on the go

Solution: dump it all into one big box and rummage about aimlessly every time you need to find a piece.

5:41 AM

I could probably use another 30 boxes

I have over 20k pieces. Maybe 30k.

Woah.

How long have you been collecting Lego?

I have a big freezer-sized XXL ziplock bag full of just

@Mahnax as an adult? about 12 years

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That one specific colour?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Nice.

@Mahnax yeah

that exact brick

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Lordy.

5:43 AM

158 of those

but I have 1000 in old-light-grey.

just that brick

1000?

yeah

I have 1600-ish 2x4 bricks total

Wow.

but 1900 2x1 bricks

How many 1×4 bricks?

2×3?

5:45 AM

There are 59 pieces of which I have over 100.

1x4: 590

2x3: 377

those numbers are estimates. They are low.

not TOO low though. most of my sets are inventoried.

The most popular brick of all time is the 2x1. I was surprised to learn that. I figured it'd be the 2x4, which is more iconic.

My most popular colour by piece count is black, but mainly because of

(285 of those)

Oh, those.

The grey ones spun.

They were more fun but often less useful.

Although I can't imagine why they'd be any less useful.

it depends on what you wanted to do with them. Personally I like the grey ones better. I usually don't care if it spins or not; the black ones spin enough that whatever I'm building is usually constrained by more than one pin, at which point it doesn't matter if it spins or not.

Right.

So I think what I need to do now is find some boxes big enough to hold, say, all the black pieces, or all the tan pieces, or all the grey pieces.

At least, the basic bricks and plates in those colours

Then if I want to build a spaceship or castle or ... something tan... I can open just ONE box.

plus the boxes of embellishments and tweaks.

and the arches.

arches are so important. And yet, despite having dozens, I never have enough of the colours I want.

MετάEd

@tchrist I assume this has to do with the adoption of the new calendar.

5:54 AM

Hmm. I can't think of which method of sorting I would use if I were in your situation.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I always felt like that with every piece.

@Mahnax heheh yeah, true. there are never enough of anything. Well, except old light grey 2x4s. I have 1000.

So shop.lego.com sells roof pieces, but not in very good piece/colour combinations and at 20 cents each.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Not enough if you need 1001.

@Mahnax I've never needed them all. The problem is that a wall that would use up all the bricks is really boring unless you jazz it up with a bunch of other stuff, none of which I have because I don't have enough other parts in that colour.

MετάEd

@JohanLarsson Are you suggesting someone should tongue the other cheek?

anyway it's even later now and I am no closer to a conclusion. So I am going to head out. bye!

5:59 AM

Bye!

6:18 AM

@Mahnax how strong of a curse is sacre bleu?

@cornbreadninja I don't actually know. The only curse I know in French is one of the worst ones. They don't teach us any bad words in French at school.

zut alor.

or something.

Hehe. I'm off to bed, good night.

!

7:00 AM

hi @Cerberus

Yo.

Man, it's early.

8:02 AM

I have just up-voted a comment by Lawler.

'Tis not seldom that I disagree with him, so I was proud of myself.

8:20 AM

Look how badly Mozilla search sucks!

I type "greasefire" and the add-on named exactly that doesn't show up at all in the results.

The search box uses an entirely different algorithm, apparently.

9:14 AM

►

This lot is to be auctioned starting at € 350,000.

Doesn't it look like unremarkable junk you would walk past in a thrift store?

9:28 AM

hej @Cerberus

Heej!

you know the song White wedding by Idol?

Nope.

old song, pretty good imo

I have to run, groceries before the rain begins again.

BRB

9:32 AM

ok always groceries :)

Masterpiece editing

10:20 AM

Milk is essential.

I need it in my tea.

And I had run out.

10:45 AM

I do not understand one line of the lyrics "Hey little sister shot gun", why shot gun out of the blue?

Perhaps it is about sitting in the front seat of a car?

When you call shotgun.

shotgun one word, noted

Oh, I don't know about the space.

urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shotgun

ok, ty sir

still a little strange line imo

11:14 AM

Yeah it doesn't make a lot of sense in context, but that's what songs are like.

Perhaps he is trying to evoke childhood memories in his plea to his sister.

And calling shotgun is typical for children.

still a good song, I prefer to not fully understand lyrics to understanding that the lyrics are totally without soul, industry lyrics.

Heh.

Yeah, lyrics can disappoint.

But they can also improve your experience. It depends.

By the way:

you made it? looks nice

patakk.tumblr.com/tagged/gif

@JohanLarsson No!

I couldn't make that.

Paolo Ceric from Zagreb did.

@Cerberus you can do anything!

11:22 AM

Nope.

yope

looks like fun programming, but requires a lot of creativity

he managed to create a nice organic feel in the motion, nice contrast to the lifeless and slightly evil looking crystals.

11:59 AM

Yup.

They are a bit like an aggressive shoal of fish.

1:04 PM

@Cerberus nice. those are some interesting gifs :D

user19161

@MattЭллен Did you notice that google is changing its image search algorithm?

no. what are they doing to it?

user19161

Well, I first noticed when I got different results from before and also a different interface.

user19161

At first I thought it was because of my location.

user19161

Then I looked online and found out the same thing is happening in the US.

user19161

1:10 PM

It seems they are in the process of modifying it, so things vacillate strangely.

user19161

I think they are trying to filter out more explicit images compared to before.

I see

user19161

So protip: if you find that you are not getting the same things as before, try modifying your search terms and it will be alright.

@MattЭллен Yeah, that guy is good.

@JasonBourne Yes, I read about that.

And hello.

1:44 PM

Good morning, sinners.

@JohanLarsson @Cerb Look up "shotgun wedding."

Novice

Good morning, sinnerwhocallseverybodyasinnerwhentheyretheonlyone.

Uh, it's Sunday. You're here instead of church. Ergo, you must be a sinner.

@KitFox ok makes some sense, still wtf with sister but maybe that is just addressing a female

Novice

First: It's not Sunday morning here.
Second: I don't follow any religion whatsoever.

@JohanLarsson "little sister" is a term of affection, like calling a boyfriend "big daddy."

See, for instance, "Sister Golden Hair."

1:49 PM

ok, I mark it as answered then :)

I danced to that at my wedding.

Have you seen the video?

That was popular back when I used to watch MTV.

Idol is good, I don't listen to rock much but can definitely stand Idol. I can even stand the synthesizer sounds in rebel yell

@KitFox looking it up

I always thought that the singer was supposed to be the big brother literally though. I never listened closely to the lyrics though. Maybe I should.

@KitFox the lyrics are not very special imo, they are bearable. I was just annoyed that I had no idea about what the shotgun meant so I came crying here without even googling it first :)

@KitFox Yes, but I believe the song is addressed to his sister?

Or about his sister.

@KitFox Right, that must be it.

2:01 PM

@KitFox the video is ok, he manages to look pretty cool given the outfits & hair. Not many would pull that off.

He's a character. I knew a guy who came to karaoke nights dressed as Idol, and he did a great impression.

very energetic.

Speaking of videos, this is a masterpiece imo

The same guy would sing Elvis songs as Idol as well.

user19161

@KitFox Is the server crash thing resolved now?

2:18 PM

@JohanLarsson It seems to suggest that beating fat people and culling redheads is bad or something. I don't really get it, I guess.

@JasonBourne You mean, the mistake I made on Friday? It's as resolved as it is going to be.

I just like the brutality paired with the song for some reason, idk why really. gtg and clean poo for gf's horses now

Have fun.

2:59 PM

@robusto congratulations on 300 bronze badges.

@MετάEd Yes, certainly: Ben Franklin was nowhere on September 11th, 1752, because he was British, and therefore that date never happened.

Robusto has more bronze badges than 94.3% of the registered users have reps.

Heh.

Novice

I'm in those 94.3%

I don’t know how there can be a non-slang term for a guy who always has a bunch of female friends, other than saying just that.

3:02 PM

Well at least you're not in those 50-something% that have never posted anything at all.

They register but post not?

Well at least they register.

We probably have tens of thousands of unregistered users.

What is the difference? The latter are anonymous cowards without verified email addresses?

(AC being a /. term)

Something like that. At any rate, they are not on the Users list.

I used to think it was the user12345 thing, but I guess not.

3:04 PM

I don't remember the technical details.

I know that ElendilTheTall got to 3k as a non-registered user.

Before he deleted his account.

Strange. I don’t understand deletions. I guess they are done for as many reasons as there are deletions though.

Huh, have they updated the data dump just today?

The badge stats are up-to-date.

user19161

@RegDwighт Yes, we were trying to figure out that one that time.

@RegDwighт They update the data dump every few days now, I think. There is a query that will tell you exactly when, but I forget what it is.

Oh.

Then the longest-post data I posted yesterday was perfectly up-to-date, and Barrie suffers from recency illusion.

3:14 PM

Don’t know the Barrie context.

Wait, I do.

Complaining about lengths.

Hugo has me beat, IIRC.

Our top 200 longest posts. Six questions, one mod nomination, one tag wiki, the rest are answers. Barely any are younger than three months (then again, no idea how old the data dump is.) We've had quite a few more that have been deleted (for copyright infringement or just being plain incomprehensible). Our longest answer, in fact, was so long that it was split in three. Can't find it for the life of me. — RegDwighт 19 hours ago

user19161

OK, finally the rep graph for my other accounts have disappeared as well from my network profile.

There was that pair of Q+A that Cerb and I did, which Rob thought was long, but which really wasn’t. I’m used to SO standards. I often bump up against the size max there.

I'm still looking for that longest answer ever.

And for that other guy who would post incomprehensible ramblings for weeks on end.

data.stackexchange.com/english/query/53112/…

user19161

3:18 PM

For the shortest posts, just look at mine.

@tchrist I see.

@JasonBourne you mean for the nonexistent ones.

News flash: we can't look at your posts anymore.

user19161

@RegDwighт Just look for userXXXX!

so Jasper and David Wallace's posts are by the same person!

@JasonBourne that could be ElendilTheTall. Or 9997 other people.

@MattЭллен yes, Thursagan.

woo!

3:21 PM

@JasonBourne You mean look for user2683, Ghostboy,

user19161

Why haven't you guys lost the reps yet!

sticky reps

maybe we paid for rep insurance

That is not dead which can eternal lie / and in strange aeons even death may die.

user19161

Did TPTB specially change the algorithm for this case?

@tchrist Even that is not trivial. The site search won't let you.

@JasonBourne what do you care? You obviously never cared, man!

3:22 PM

@RegDwighт Something about no lists of deleted stuff, maybe.

user19161

I checked on TeX. Even they still keep the reps.

So your ploy went swimming belly up.

user19161

But guys, I still have my association bonus!

Have you tried smoking it in a pipe yet?

user19161

But maybe just like the graph took a day to disappear, the reps will take another few to disappear. So don't be too glad yet!

3:24 PM

They only allow bongs in Singypoor.

It looks like Jasper did lose his Mariah hat, though.

He's no longer on the list.

winterba.sh/leaderboard/english.stackexchange.com

Ah.

user19161

Hat? I never wore any of them!

Nortonn S still has his four. And Mr Shiny his three. Tee hee.

user19161

I think I got more than that.

user19161

3:31 PM

Over and out!

Tease.

Google Images sucks less now.

3:53 PM

I’m having a mindscrew with batten and batted.

What does one do with the hatches on a ship, and why?

Did you batten down the rushes once they were beaten, or were they merely batted down?

And is the simple past of bat just bat or batted?

Robusto

@RegDwighт Thanks. I honestly didn't notice. I mean, once you're over 100 you lose track.

@tchrist etymonline.com/index.php?term=batten&allowed_in_frame=0

A batten is a strip of wood, apparently.