English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Sudhir

15:00

What happened?

Are you busy@MattЭллен

?

Matt Эллен

I am very busy right now :)

Sudhir

Ok, tell me I'll left

I want to know all persons of SE as I am newbie to it.

@KitFox: you can tell

Jez

i should be busy right now but i'm finding this work extremely boring

yet more CSS layout. UGH.

KitFox

@Sudhir I can tell what?

Sudhir

@Jez: you are dealing with css

?

Jez

15:06

yeah

Sudhir

Robusto has the highest reputation in SE. Am I right? @kitfox

@Jez: can I have a look on it?

Jez

why

Sudhir

To see how you have done it

KitFox

@Sudhir english.stackexchange.com/users?tab=reputation&filter=all

You tell me.

Don't they teach kids observation and research skills these days?

Sudhir

No

KitFox

15:08

When I was a youngster, we had to figure shit out.

Sudhir

Oh

KitFox

And if we couldn't, then we'd ask questions.

Good questions. Not the kind of questions you see these days.

Questions that had proper punctuation and were designed to elicit specific, useful information.

Sudhir

Oh! I didn't know much about SE

MετάEd

@KitFox Also, we had to walk to school. In the snow.

KitFox

Uphill both ways.

MετάEd

15:10

Absolutely.

KitFox

And in the winter, I had to get up extra early to chop the ice out of the river so I could swim up it to school.

Sudhir

@KitFox: How many days gone ?

KitFox

I don't understand the question.

Also, unless you are on mobile, you should investigate the reply arrows.

Sudhir

How many days gone after you left the school

KitFox

So we know what your statements are connected to.

@Sudhir How long since I went to school?

Sudhir

15:13

Ya

KitFox

It depends on how you count.

Sudhir

how?

KitFox

Well, first you have to define "school" and "going to school."

Sudhir

I mean when you done your 12?

Matt Эллен

you also have to define time, which physicsts can't do, so what hope do we have?

KitFox

15:15

I forgot about that. It's all relative, innit?

Sudhir

ok, Guys bye

need to leave

KitFox

OK bye.

Matt Эллен

bye!

KitFox

Oh damn. I forgot about Writers Chat, and I have that date to linger over.

And nothing written.

Unless I cheat and post the erotica as my assignment.

That's a pretty good punchline.

Matt Эллен

well, we can put off revealing for 4 more hours then...

KitFox

15:18

Um. Revealing?

Matt Эллен

revealing what we have written

KitFox

Gah. I have to pee so bad, my back teeth are floating. brb

So have you done it then @Matt?

Matt Эллен

15:35

no. I'll do it when I get home

@KitFox have you done yours?

maybe I'll just copy/paste the transcript

RegDwighт

-1 Wow you edited your own answer to include mine, and then deleted mine! — Joshua Drake 17 mins ago

This guy has got quite some balls.

Matt Эллен

shiny?

RegDwighт

I don't care for shiny balls.

I do care for people who come along and steal my answer and then claim I have stolen theirs.

Pffft.

Matt Эллен

do you wrap them in a blanket and give them some sweet warm tea?

RegDwighт

15:50

Ah, now he has taken it to meta.

Well, then.

I'm curious what kind of response this generates.

KitFox

Oh @Reg.

RegDwighт

Yeah I'm fucking sad right now, I can tell you.

KitFox

I'm about to head out on a non-date. I will look when I come back.

Matt Эллен

have fun!

RegDwighт

Jinx!

Matt Эллен

15:53

you can't jinx thoughts

or are you abusing your admin powers?

RegDwighт

No, I am merely forgetting to press Enter to be faster than you.

Matt Эллен

I'll raise this in meta then

RegDwighт

I'll call.

Matt Эллен

I'll wait for the dealer to show us the river

RegDwighт

Well lesson learned: never do yourself what another mod could handle for you.

That's what I usually do anyway, but this one time I failed, and lo and behold, I'm paying the price.

Johan Larsson

16:01

@RegDwighт what does this ubiquitous jinx mean in this context?

RegDwighт

When two people say the exact same thing at the exact same time, the one who then says "jinx" faster gets a free coke from the other.

In this case, I applied it very loosely.

I had typed "Have fun!" and then Matt's "have fun!" popped up. So rather than hitting Enter, I just proceded directly to claiming my free coke.

Johan Larsson

ah, SFW coke?

RegDwighт

I thought all kinds of coke were SFW in Sweden. Well, obviously except the ones that have >0.0000000000000001% alcohol.

Matt Эллен

@JohanLarsson yes

Johan Larsson

It's bad for your teeth

RegDwighт

16:09

Teeth is one of very few things alcohol is relatively unbad for.

Johan Larsson

How come you know English @Reg?

RegDwighт

It's only bad in that it gets converted to sugar, and that's what bacteria feed on, yada yada, karies. But hey, what does not get converted to sugar? (Except sugar.)

MετάEd

@RegDwighт dentalgentlecare.com/alcohol.htm

RegDwighт

@JohanLarsson I met him at a Destruction Derby once and we became close friends.

Johan Larsson

Say hello from me, I have only heard about him

RegDwighт

16:12

Seriously though, how can you be on the Internet and not know English? What is this, Russia?

MετάEd

@RegDwighт In Russia, English know you.

RegDwighт

Only in Soviet Russia, alas.

After the fall of the Soviet nobody gives a damn about you, even in Russia.

I'll give that a shot. — Joshua Drake 17 mins ago

Well.

prepares to finally hear from Grace Note again

@MετάEd so yes, exactly what I said.

Teeth don't get cancer.

Johan Larsson

I just tried how deep a google search can be drilled down, number of pages. It capped at 78 pages when I searched for 'Britney Spears' & 'test'

RegDwighт

Page size? 10?

What happens if you set the page size to 781?

Johan Larsson

where do i set it?

How many pages do you get to?

RegDwighт

16:29

Ah, looks like 100 is the maximum.

...and it doesn't work for me anyway.

Supposedly it's &num=<number>.

Johan Larsson

you get to 100? Why do i only get to 78? trying on smaller screen

RegDwighт

No, not pages. Results per page.

100 results per page.

And I am not getting anything at all, the URL parameter doesn't work.

It's always 10 for me.

Matt Эллен

Google Instant is limited to 10

I guess if you turn that off, you can up it to whatever

RegDwighт

Ah, that %"§%$& thing again.

I thought I had turned it off a zillion times by now.

It always suggests and then actually submits stuff I have no intention of searching for.

Matt Эллен

turning it off has allowed me to set the number of results to 7

@RegDwighт yeah, that is a bit weird. don't search for stuff! I've not finished typing!

user19161

16:37

@reg I saw that meta post.

RegDwighт

So did I.

Or do you mean that meta post about Google Instant Search?

user19161

2

Q: Where does a user go when an admin abuses their privleges?

In the following question: What's the English equivalent of the Japanese saying, “A fart ruins 100 days of sermons by the priest (bishop)”? An admin deleted my answer that addressed the entirety of the OPs phrase and had received 6 up votes, after having edited their own answer to include mi...

RegDwighт

Ah yes. That is not about Google Instant Search.

user19161

Well, unfortunately I am no longer on this site, so I can't do anything there.

RegDwighт

See. I told you not to no longer be on this site.

And this is not the last time you'll regret it.

user19161

16:39

Anyway he has probably emailed the entire SE team now, LOL.

user19161

Nah, I don't regret it.

RegDwighт

In fact, I will start deleting all answers first thing in the morning, so that meta posts keep popping up reminding you of how you can't do anything there.

user19161

Haha, anyway I didn't follow everything, but what's happening there?

RegDwighт

I will also comment on all your answers how you look much better in brown than blue, and you won't be able to comment back!

user19161

Just get ready to give an answer to the SE team when they swoop in.

user19161

16:41

Well, I wanted to switch to red, but my new Maria told me she likes blue.

RegDwighт

@Joshua: wow, your answer was so bad that even you are downvoting it now! Seriously though, my answer had always included yours. I posted an idiom, five hours later you posted its etymology — which was already included, with more detail, in the Wikipedia article I had been linking to right from the start. So, at best, your answer should have been a comment on this post; at worst, it was completely uncalled for. I had to edit my answer to spell that out because obviously some people don't follow links. You can take it to meta if you wish. — RegDwighт 56 mins ago

Matt Эллен

I imagine the SE team will read Reg's comment, look for themselves and sigh

jinx!

RegDwighт

Well you can have your never-materialised coke right back.

Matt Эллен

thanks!

I hope there's no backwash

RegDwighт

Only a little. An ounce perhaps.

The other day I was amazed to learn how much an ounce is!

My wife found out it's like 24 grams or something.

I thought it was like three.

simchona

16:45

0

Q: English proverbs: "The life is like a stair..."/"the world is made of stairs..."

There's a motto in my native language which is metaphorically expressed as follows: “The world is made of stairs¹, and there are those who go up and those who go down; those who are clever take the elevator.” Note that, in the context of the sentence above, in my native l...

proverbs

This makes no sense to me.

user19161

From your nemesis no less.

RegDwighт

28.3495 grams. Holy moly. That's 18% more still.

simchona

@RegDwighт Ounces! Now with 18% more grammage

RegDwighт

I'll take it, as long as it's not pil grammage.

user19161

Oh @sim I have deleted my ELU account in case you don't know, but it seems that everyone gets to keep their reps still!

RegDwighт

16:48

I did lose 10 reps yesterday.

simchona

@JasonBourne I very well knew, since you publicized it repeatedly

RegDwighт

Now I wonder what user that was.

user19161

But do any of you know why you lose rep from those users only?

RegDwighт

Because they are nowhere as ~~cool~~ blue and ~~lovely~~ rectangular as you.

user19161

In any case, if there are different kinds of deletions, this should be made known on MSO.

RegDwighт

16:50

I do hope some smart person just looked at the numbers and realized that deleting the second-most active voter wasn't a shiny idea.

@simchona we are stair dust. There's a song.

user19161

Anyway @reg I wish you good luck should TPTB confront you about that thing, not that you need it.

RegDwighт

Thank you.

I'm holding my breath from time to time.

user19161

You should breathe easy. Life is too short. Go for a walk instead.

RegDwighт

I am not into shopping malls.

Jez

hmm

what do you call those GUI elements that are numeric text fields with little arrows beside them to change the value?

RegDwighт

16:56

I'd ask the colleague opposite me but he's gone home already.

Jez

like them

RegDwighт

He's a QT guy.

Jez

better ask on shudder UX

RegDwighт

Right!

Reps for grabs.

Jez

as much as i hate "UX experts"

RegDwighт

16:57

..., they are still better than EX uxperts.

Jez

what they're not better than is a decent programmer programming thons own interface

RegDwighт

I don't blame them. It's part of their job description.

Jez

what, arrogantly ignore the opinion of experienced users and those who disagree with them? heh

RegDwighт

Yes, that's the top bullet on the list.

Arrogance is optional. Perseverance is more annoying.

Jez

well i blame them for choosing to inflict that on the world

anyway home time. later

RegDwighт

17:00

Yes I'm packing for commute as well.

tchrist

Got snow last night. No muting for me.

RegDwighт

You spend enough time in India as is.

tchrist

#$^#$^!@#^^&@

RegDwighт

Yes, that's what I called Google just ten minutes ago.

Lators!

MετάEd

@tchrist I'm thinking # = k.

We're going to have to work on your speling.

tchrist

17:10

My Glasperlenspieling?

Matt Эллен

Plaiters!

Mahnax

Good day.

-28˚C with a 27km/h wind. Whee.

tchrist

Mahnax

Oh god.

The wind adds another -14˚C here.

tchrist

It is not being very windy, but it is enough to cut through the north side of my house. I have lame windows.

Mahnax

17:24

@tchrist That's not so bad…

tchrist

Mahnax

tchrist

No, it is not so bad. I just have a drafty house.

Mahnax

I think when this house was built, they installed good windows. We've never had a problem with any of them, thankfully.

tchrist

I am used to normal northern windows, at least double paned and with storm windows. This dumb house has neither.

Mahnax

17:27

Really? That's a bit odd.

tchrist

It came with screen windows but no winter glass ones to swap in during winter.

Mahnax

Is it worth the investment to get new ones?

tchrist

Probably.

Need more bucks.

Mahnax

Ah yes, the age-old problem. Bucks.

Cerberus

Hello.

Mahnax

17:39

Hey Cerby.

How goes it?

Cerberus

Good.

How do you do?

I am sad because our Queen is going to step down.

At least yours will cling to the throne till the end.

Mahnax

I am well. I heard about her abdication, it is sad.

Cerberus

Yeah. But expected.

Mahnax

Oh, was it?

Cerberus

Yeah. Just not at this exact moment.

Abdication at a certain age is normal.

Our future king was once known as Prince Beer.

Mahnax

17:43

Oh… dear.

Cerberus

He may turn out to be OK, we'll see. His mom will no doubt control things in the background.

Mahnax

One can only hope.

Cerberus

Yeah.

tchrist

There are things to control?

Cerberus

Of course.

tchrist

17:47

Zapped: -20 User was removed.

Cerberus

There is some footage of her preparing for a hunt at our country house, when she was young, 16 or so.

She looked cute.

tchrist

I didn’t know that these titular heads of state actually “controlled” things.

Cerberus

She used to appoint the formateur, the person who leads cabinet formation. It's not a terribly important appointment, because parties will pick whichever coalition they want, but still.

tchrist

For some reason, I seemed to have confused Beatrix with Margrethe.

Mahnax

OK, time for a shower. BBL.

Cerberus

17:49

Bye!

coleopterist

I see that there's been a slight market crash today. "User removed" -45 rep :|

tchrist

At least Beatrix has a better name than Willy.

coleopterist

Anyone I know?

tchrist

I just took a -20 hit.

Can’t be Jazpur.

Cerberus

Willy?

Hello there!

tchrist

17:51

The prince who would be king.

coleopterist

Jason Bourne = Jasper, yes?

tchrist

Yes.

Cerberus

Willem, you mean?

tchrist

Aye.

Looks kinda willy to me.

Cerberus

That's a perfectly normal name, as you well know.

tchrist

17:51

Nominatively.

user19161

@tchrist Can't be. If 200, maybe.

Cerberus

We've had Willems since the 16th century.

coleopterist

I wonder how the economy fared the day Thursagen had to make a forced withdrawal.

tchrist

I always forget that the older ones tended to be renamed in translation.

user19161

@col What happened to your pic?

user19161

17:52

@coleopterist Were you around then?

tchrist

@coleopterist Didn’t. No effect.

Cerberus

Oh, it's fine to rename monarchs. It is still standard in historiography.

coleopterist

@JasonBourne Nope. I just see his nick around so often that I got curious.

Cerberus

We speak of Jacobus II of England, Hendrik VIII, etc.

tchrist

William III of England

William III & II (; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702) He is informally known by sections of the population in Northern Ireland and Scotland as "King Billy". In what became known as the "Glorious Revolution", on 5 November 1688 William invaded England in an action that ultimately deposed King James II & VII and won him the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland. In the British Isles, William ruled jointly with his wife, Mary II, until her death on 28 December 1694. The period of their joint reign is often referred to as "William and Mary". A Protestant, William participated in several wars...

Cerberus

17:53

And the next British King will be Karel the so-manieth for us.

tchrist

Hah, they struck out the Dutch.

coleopterist

@JasonBourne No idea about my pic either. It might be a caching thinggy.

Cerberus

That is normal.

tchrist

Befkingzarre.

Cerberus

No, normal.

tchrist

17:54

Evil.

> William III & II (Dutch: Willem III; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702)[1] was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange (Dutch: Willem III van Oranje) over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic.

Cerberus

You're crazy.

tchrist

Why the hell should they remove text?

Censorship is dumb.

Cerberus

I don't know. The Dutch name is not entirely relevant.

tchrist

It is why I think of him as William, not Willem, and so is relevant.

Cerberus

?

tchrist

17:56

You said you’d had Willems from the 16th century, and my memory turned up a William instead. It is the translation thing.

Cerberus

I don't know what you're talking about, and I don't see any problems.

tchrist

This seems to happen less now than it used to.

It used to be that when speaking of foreign rulers, we would always translate their names into something less offensive to our tongues. We do not do that so much any longer.

The offensive thing is in cheek.

Every country had its King John.

In our old books.

Cerberus

As I said, that is still standard.

tchrist

Whether he was John, or Johannes, or Juan, or Jean. But not usually Ivan, oddly enough.

Cerberus

The Slavic names are probably too far removed culturally and phonetically.

coleopterist

17:59

Speaking of Ivan, /me goes back to his book.

ciao

Cerberus

But all Western-European names are converted.

Bye!

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…