English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@RegDwight — And also of course, you never tell me anything. You deflect and evade and pull up random non-sequitur self-quotes, just to avoid telling me anything. That's how your basic Commie works.

RegDwight

May 20 at 16:06, by Robusto

Bulgarian, like Dutch, is a made-up language.

Robusto

Bravo. Let's extend the list to include random quotes from others, too.

Kit

Hahaha.

RegDwight

12:36 PM

Tab number 4166624. Note the 666. Easy to remember.

Robusto

Whoa, here's one designed and implemented strictly for the multi-collider.

0

Q: In sex talk, how many bases there are and what do they all mean?

I always hear people say "I hit the third base" or "I hit the second base" (sex related). I am not 100% sure what they all mean. Additionally, in one of the House MD episodes, there was a dialogue: Dr. Wilson: How are things going with Cuddy? House: Great. We've gotten to fifth base. T...

idioms

Kit

I used to live across the street from 665 1/2. We called him "the neighbor of the devil."

Robusto

I mean, it's got everything except C# and Ubuntu.

RegDwight

@Robusto Not enough Ubuntu vs. Windows blather.

Robusto

Semi-jinx.

RegDwight

12:39 PM

Jinx!

Whatever.

Have another cokefee.

Anyhow, I thought you would know by now that Ubuntu and C# is all that matters.

Robusto

I'm maybe more interested in a bagel at the moment.

RegDwight

Mar 4 at 12:18, by Robusto

I can only conclude that nerds outnumber sexually active men on these sites then, since the "poured into dress" question has recently bowed to a question about Microsoft Office.

Robusto

But the sex part sells the question. You should know that by now. They come for the sex, but they stay for the geekfest.

RegDwight

Okay, but I'm not seeing anyone staying.

Kit

"How do I get a girl to have sex with me by using clever Ubuntu and C# jokes?"

RegDwight

12:42 PM

Cut to the chase.

Kit

And are nerds necessarily sexually inert?

RegDwight

"Ubuntu, Ubuntu, Ubuntu. Also, sex with girls."

Tagged cowbell.

Kit

Ubuntu, ubuntu, ubuntu. Also, girls having sex with girls who will let you watch and take pictures.

RegDwight

TL;DR

You had me at Ubuntu.

Kit

Hahaha! I love you, Reg.

RegDwight

12:44 PM

Hey now. The transcript is public. Don't say things you can't take back.

Kit

Why would I take that back?

I love everybody, especially you.

And Lyle Lovett.

RegDwight

Loverflow.

Kit

Well, now. That's a bit awkward.

RegDwight

You have to parse it as L-Overflow. Which is certainly a valid way to describe a name such as "Lyle Lovett".

Kit

Is it on-topic to request a neologism for people who use excessive exclamation points and ellipses?

RegDwight

12:49 PM

Neologism requests are certainly not what the main site is there for.

Kit

@RegDwight I was thinking Love Overflow. Was that your original intent?

@RegDwight No fun.

RegDwight

@Kit The original intent was actually L-Overflow, but then I noticed that the collapsed form has love in it.

Kit

I mean ... come on!!!!!! Those people ... totally!!!!! ... need to like ... be punished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RegDwight

Why do you need a neologism, there are enough synonyms for idiot already.

Kit

I'm not convinced that that is true. Superfluous punctuation abusers really should be expunged from the digital universe.

RegDwight

12:54 PM

But "excessive exclamation" and "ellipses" just asks for a word beginning with an e. How about excelleptic?

Kit

Like cataleptic?

RegDwight

I was thinking epileptic.

Same difference.

Kit

Yeah. Not bad. I was thinking of a play on "punctilious."

RegDwight

Punctidiots?

Kit

☺ Yes. I like that very much. Thank you.

RegDwight

12:57 PM

Darn, another Friday, another 3 p.m. meeting.

Kit

Well, that's like six hours from now.

RegDwight

Thankfully, six hours from now the meeting will be 5½ hours over.

Laterz!

Robusto

@Kit — I think the term is "marked for deletion" ...

Kit

Bye!

@Robusto Funny! LOL.

I dislike being called supercilious by punctidiots.

Robusto

Meh, me computer wants me to restart to install updates. A perfect day for banana fish ... er, I mean bagels.

Laterz.

Kit

1:01 PM

Yes. I like the way that sounds.

Ciao.

Jez

1:29 PM

there's a distinct lack of unicorns in here today

Kit

I was feeling a bit foxy.

Robusto

foxed != foxy

Kit

felted != felt

Robusto

Have you been felted? In the poker sense, i mean.

Kit

That's a rather personal question. giggle

Poker sense? I'm not familiar with that.

Or do you mean "poke her" sense?

Robusto

1:38 PM

Getting "felted" in poker means losing all your chips. You have nothing left in front of you but the felt of the table.

Kit

I see. Yes, frequently.

Kit

1:52 PM

Mostly when I'm playing strip poker.

@Robusto Your kanji is related to The Lathe of Heaven? I'm much more impressed than I was originally.

Robusto

Only tangentially.

Kit

Then I'm tangentially impressed.

RegDwight

2:18 PM

Okay, so let's see.

See that? Ubuntu, GIT, cheese.

Kit

Silly gits.

RegDwight

Meanwhile, the sex-talk question is 26th.

Easily beaten even by Drupal.

And our very own "you vs. You", "neither... nor...", and "destination language vs. target language".

What the heck is that you vs. You anyway? Let me check.

Hm. Okay.

Jez

can someone ask for me, on Meta, "how does one change one's SEN timezone?"

Gigili

@Jez Please don't ask it, you'll get downvotes at 1000dps speed

RegDwight

1. why don't you ask yourself, you ain't banned; more importantly, 2. what is "one's SEN timezone"?

Jez

2:25 PM

1. i can't

2. why?

RegDwight

LOL.

Jez

@RegDwight banned i am

RegDwight

Jez, United Kingdom

152 8

feature-request chat global-inbox support discussion wmd status-declined

Jez

from asking questions.

RegDwight

Doesn't look banned to me.

Ah!

Oh.

Wow.

Gigili

2:26 PM

@Jez Nowadays, people downvote questions for fun.

RegDwight

K, whatever, whaddaya mean by "changing one's SEN timezone"?

Kit

What? Banned?

Jez

@RegDwight changing the timezone that the stack exchange network sites consider you to be in

it tells me that 'message xyz was said at 10PM 01/02/2003'

but that assumes my timezone

RegDwight

Um, that's your browser, methinks.

Jez

i see so there's no way to override that

Gigili

2:28 PM

Or your computer's

RegDwight

Yes, the OS.

RegDwight

2:40 PM

@Cerberus Oh and the chat will jump to sections in wiki, only the inlined preview won't.

Public sphere

The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. It is "a discursive space in which individuals and groups congregate to discuss matters of mutual interest and, where possible, to reach a common judgment." See also: G. T. Goodnight, "The Personal, Technical, and Public Spheres of Argument." Journal of the American Forensics Association. (1982) 18:214-227. The public sphere can be seen as "a theater in modern societies in which political participation is...

Cerberus

Oh, hullo.

Martha

The timestamps on SE are all GMT (or UT or what have you). They don't depend on the user's time zone.

Cerberus

@RegDwight Yeah I meant the preview.

RegDwight

UTC, to be precise.

Zulu time.

7

A: What's the time zone of Stack Overflow chat?

Everything on Stack Exchange is based on UTC time. In your screenshot where it says 12:00, the bar for 12:00 is above the 1 in 12:00, so the time it is indicating as current is 14:30, which matches up with it being 16:30 at UTC+2.

Jez

it might be a nice feature request to be able to override timezone, in case you're using a PC whose clock is set wrong

RegDwight

2:44 PM

Well, that feature already exists: set your PC clock right.

Jez

sometimes that's shut off in a corporate or kiosk environment

RegDwight

Well, as @Martha will tell you, you're not supposed to log in into SE from public places. :P

And in a corporate environment, there's people whose whole job it is to fix clocks.

Oh wow, we have a guest.

Cerberus

Oh?

Kit

It's @RobertCartaino!

Cerberus

Hey Kit!

RegDwight

2:49 PM

Yeah, @RobertCartaino has either clicked the wrong link, or he's typing a longish essay right now...

Cerberus

Hmm I remember his name, but from where?

Robusto

@Cerberus — I'm still trying to think of a favor you can do for me.

RegDwight

@Cerberus SE community coordinator.

He has accounts on more SE sites than me.

Cerberus

By the way, do you have an opinion about using commas in sentences like this: Marta said, "you suck!" v. Martha said "you suck!"

@RegDwight Really? My God, then... he won?

RegDwight

Stack Overflow Blog: Welcome Stack Overflow Valued Associate #00005

Posted by Jeff Atwood on April 19th, 2010

As we embark upon the next phase of the Stack Overflow adventure — much of which is documented in Stack Exchange 2.0 — we realized that we desperately, desperately needed someone whose full time job is to engage with the community. Both on a technical level and on a human level.

I’m pleased to announce that we’ve hired our first full time community coordinator — Robert C. Cartaino.

I can’t imagine anyone better suited for this role than Robert. He’s a programmer with a deep background in online community going all the way back to the modem and BBS e …

Kit

2:51 PM

@Cerberus Hey pooch!

Cerberus

@Robusto Heh I am forever in your debt, so take your time!

Kit

@RegDwight He was hailed, remember?

Cerberus

Besides, I asked that because I needed the regex for a favour I was doing for someone else.

RegDwight

@Robusto He could bark at communists approaching your backyard. Or something.

Kit

Maybe you weren't here. Dori pinged him for someone. Maybe Jez?

Cerberus

2:52 PM

@RegDwight barks

Robusto

@RegDwight — Communists have already figured out the dog-biscuit angle.

RegDwight

But that dog won't accept a biscuit, and communists are too poor to afford thrice that many!

Cerberus

True!

Robusto

@RegDwight ...

yesterday, by Robusto

I like to see them fight over the one.

Cerberus

By the way, that guy we're supposed to be fighting has nearly the exact same deck as I have.

No way I can beat that.

Jez

2:54 PM

@RobertCartaino Ah, hello.

RegDwight

@Cerberus When I got to like 4 won, 10 lost, I just said, to heck with it, we're not winning this one anyway, and started trying things out. That's how I got to 5 to 30+ in the first place.

Cerberus

Yeah so I figured.

RegDwight

Oh, and those 4 won... That wasn't me winning, that was him attacking and losing against my defense deck.

Cerberus

It really sucks that just sitting still and doing nothing is often the best way to win: he had lost five times to my deck when I woke up.

@RegDwight Exactly.

So you didn't find any deck that could beat his?

In a way, that is good, because that means my deck is hard to counter as well.

RegDwight

Not yet, but I've written it down, so I can experiment in the arena.

Cerberus

2:57 PM

Oh, cool.

RegDwight

I don't have some of those cards right now.

But once I do, I will set up the exact same deck and try to fight against myself in the arena.

You can do that now.

Cerberus

Right.

RegDwight

I've written down two or three other decks in the past two weeks as well.

Cerberus

I have battled my own deck in arena, and no way I could beat it. But his deck isn't exactly the same: do you have this list on hand? I can make it off this guy myself as well, of course, since our losing again won't matter.

I have recently kicked out II for Hatchet because someone on chat advised me so.

RegDwight

Hatchet (R), Exodrone (UI), Predator (UX), Havoc (UR), Tiamat (UI), Shapeshifter (UB), Omega (LR), Hunter (UR), Stealthy Niaq (UX); Commander: Atlas (R)

Jez

3:01 PM

hum, Robert seems a bit quiet.

RegDwight

R = Raider, X = Xeno, B = Bloodthirsty, I = Imperial; U = Unique, L = Legendary.

Cerberus

OK thanks!

Right. I am using the same deck, except Havoc, Shapeshifter, Hunter (rather a bad card imo) and Niaq (don't have it, alas),

Robusto

@Jen: Did you really get banned from EL&U?

RegDwight

Who is Jen?

Robusto

Ah, meant @Jez

Typeau.

RegDwight

3:06 PM

Ah, okay.

Cerberus

I use Aegis (heals all 2, Imp), Poseidon (Imp, heals all 1, siege, anti-air, 6 hp), the Raider siege thing (speed 1 / attack 1 / hp 5), and Chaos Wave (because no EMP).

RegDwight

In that case, the deal is that Jez has like three questions between -10 to -25.

Cerberus

Oh, huh, seriously?

RegDwight

So he's not banned (by a mod), he just can't ask any new questions (the system won't let him).

6

Q: Should users with many down-votes on a meta site be banned from asking questions?

When a user (on a regular or a Meta site) gets a particularly high number of downvotes, it seems an automatic filter kicks in which bans them from asking any more questions, with the message: Sorry, we are no longer accepting questions from this account. See http://goo.gl/C1Kwu to learn more....

discussion status-completed down-votes

Jez

huh? I didnt get banned from EL&U

Robusto

3:08 PM

@RegDwight — Not on EL&U, right?

Jez

i'm banned from asking Qs on meta

Cerberus

Oh, that! Yeah that's annoying.

Jez

i don't get it. Jeff is happy to disable the ban mechanism on all other metas

it's very inconsistent.

Cerberus

Huh?

He said he would disable it on our meta?

Jez

6

Q: Should users with many down-votes on a meta site be banned from asking questions?

When a user (on a regular or a Meta site) gets a particularly high number of downvotes, it seems an automatic filter kicks in which bans them from asking any more questions, with the message: Sorry, we are no longer accepting questions from this account. See [here] to learn more. This makes...

discussion status-completed down-votes

"Ah, good point -- I never meant for this to be enabled on linked (child) metas. Disabling that now."

RegDwight

3:10 PM

Slow jinx.

Jez

oh heh

Cerberus

@Reg: I was thinking perhaps a deck with lots of Evade, Mimic, and Payback might work against my deck?

That deck would be a bit one sided, then, but if it were only facing my deck...

RegDwight

@Cerberus I wasn't very scientific about my approaches. I just kept throwing spaghetti at the wall...

Cerberus

I usually do that too. But in this case I should be doubly motivated to beat it.

RegDwight

@Cerberus Yeah, right. That's one thing that really sucks: if he were in a faction with five other people with completely different decks, it would be completely unbeatable.

Cerberus

3:13 PM

Exactly.

By the way, you only mentioned 9 cards?

And I also use Chronos:

RegDwight

@Cerberus Yeah, I never figured out if he only had nine, or if I just couldn't survive long enough to see them all.

Cerberus

@RegDwight Haha, aww.

RegDwight

@Cerberus I dunno, 5 health vs. 3 waiting rounds? I don't think I would have any problem with killing that one off.

The real problem with his deck was that the cards were fast.

Cerberus

True.

RegDwight

So I had no time to prepare.

Chronos? Pfft.

Cerberus

3:15 PM

But any fast deck still needs a few slower, stronger cards too, I think; I usually throw them in when it's reasonably safe, or when I absolutely need 5+ hp, as against II.

The core of my deck is supposed to be that half the cards are speed 1:

RegDwight

Anyhow, back to the point I was making: I have even figured out how to beat those clowns with All-Irradiated-Infantry decks. The problem is, they are usually in a faction with 3+ other people against whom the anti-clown deck is worthless.

So if I want to win the war as a whole, I have no other choice but lose to the clowns.

Which makes them think they are unbeatable, which they aren't.

Cerberus

Oh, well, I don't have a problem against those decks: I begin with a card that can survive one hit (so 5+ hp if they have Thaedius or Atlas), then add in my own speed-1 cards, and a flyer as well, so they will eventually miss, after which their fate is sealed.

RegDwight

@Cerberus That was my approach at first, too. The problem is, I had to rely on them missing.

I didn't want it to be 50:50, or 60:40, even. I wanted to crush them.

Annihilate them.

Cause those clowns are really ruining the fun for everyone.

Cerberus

Against II, I will start with any of the 5+ hp cards you see above; second card will be any of the speed 1 guys. 99% success.

RegDwight

Lots of new faces today. Hi @bckbck.

Quick, we must pretend that this chat is somehow tangentially related to English.

Cerberus

3:21 PM

The thing is, as soon as they miss once, their deck crumbles.

Oops.

I asked this question about commas...

RegDwight

No prob, try again. :P

Cerberus

Do you have an opinion about using commas in sentences like this: Marta said, "you suck!" v. Martha said "you suck!"

RegDwight

Wow, you scared off Robert.

Cerberus

Hehe.

Hey you started about English...

RegDwight

I picture him staring at a stop watch, waiting for a language topic to come up.

Cerberus

3:23 PM

Yeah, he needs stats.

RegDwight

So let's see... when did he show up, again?

Cerberus

Will all chats be ordered in on-topicness next update?

bckbck

@RegDwight oh hai ther

RegDwight

16:44 to 17:22.

Cerberus

@RegDwight By the way, I can't remember the last time my deck above lost to to an II deck. It really works: no-one is using all-II decks after a certain level.

Kit

3:25 PM

@bckbck You're a gamer. Are you friends with @Jez?

RegDwight

And note how 44 + 22 = 66, 1* 6 = 6, and 7 - 1 = 6. 6666!

Cerberus

No way!!

RegDwight

Robert had satanic intentions.

Cerberus

He is... the Antichrist?

RegDwight

Everything makes sense now.

bckbck

3:25 PM

@Kit nope

Robusto

Well, if you ever hear someone say "Two out of three ain't bad," just remind yourself that 2/3 = .666... So it's as bad as bad can be.

Cerberus

Oh shoot I need to get to the library fast.

Later!

RegDwight

Have fun. I will kick off another war in the mean time.

Robusto

I'd rather go to a library feast. Library fasts are so not fun.

Cerberus

Good luck!

Kit

3:26 PM

@Robusto THWACK!

Cerberus

It closes in 30 mins and I need to photocopy an entire book.

RegDwight

F-f-f-f-f-ast breaker!

Robusto

You're too late already.

Kit

Should "Use of 'them' as an article" be tagged as idiom?

@Cerberus Copyright infringer!

Pirate!

Cerberus

Okay, I will go to another library, where I have to take it off the shelf before 6, but can still photocopy it until midnight - just can't take it our of the building.

Robusto

3:30 PM

I just snarked up the Dalai Lama question. Couldn't be helped.

RegDwight

@Cerberus The war is on, and two of them are half-clowns. The rest is Xeno.

Kit

@Robusto Are you being a twit?

Robusto

No. I really meant that. In the nicest possible way, of course.

RegDwight

"In about one hour, the chat will be unavailable for approximately 30 minutes because of a hardware upgrade."

I gotta commute anyway.

TTYL.

Kit

Sounds like lunchtime to me. TTFN.

Robusto

3:37 PM

CYA @$RegDwight

I may as well leave as well.

Kit

4:46 PM

Mmm-mmm. These are my taco salad days...

RegDwight

0

Q: Decoding time vs time of decoding

what's the difference between "decoding time" and "time of decoding", "data compression" and "compression of data". And why isn't it "decoding's time", but "decoding time"?

grammar

This is a dupe of at least three other questions, which are next to impossible to find.

Halp!

Jez

5:40 PM

wow i must be one of the lucky ones that got some free chat credits!

Kit

Sorry, couldn't find it.

Jez

i didn't know they were charging now.

Kit

@Jez ?

Jez

didnt you see the msg whilst the chat was down?

Kit

Nope.

Jez

5:41 PM

oh. well the joke would indeed be lost on you then.

Kit

Care to enlighten?

Jez

i dont have a screenie

but it said something about chat credits

Kit

Ah. I see.

I've been wasting my time with Doctor Who while chat was down.

That and actually working, of course.

RegDwight

Darn, that stupid dupe is unfindable.

The closest I could get is this, which is not that close at all:

3

Q: Where can I find a list of ways to get rid of the preposition "of"?

I'm learning English. Unfortunately I have some obstacles in writing and speaking. In particular I often note that there are too many "of"-s in my sentences. For instance I want to get rid of them in the phrase "quality of this approach to the conundrum of enhancing my vocabulary" and I don't kno...

grammar prepositions

Kit

You need some regex power, eh?

RegDwight

5:53 PM

I was thinking just that.

Kit

Welcome IPU!

RegDwight

I need a way to google for "'(...) of (...)' '$2 $1'"

Kit

Weird. That made "Ace of Base" pop into my head.

What kind of evil Commie trick is that?

aedia

Hello!

RegDwight

I've tried everything, even browsing obscure tags such as programming. (Somehow I remember that those questions were about data/analyses/algorithms/somesuch.)

@aedia Moin-moin.

Kit

5:56 PM

@aedia has found stuff for me before. Maybe she can solve this conundrum!

RegDwight

Oh, and before I forget, can we have some linguists look at this?

2

Q: Use of "them" as an article, not a pronoun

I've seen a lot of times the pronoun them used like an article. For example, in the title of the Delta Rhythm Boys Them bones, or in the first sentence of "Money for nothing": Now look at them yo-yo's, that's the way you do it. I know that it's not "proper english" (i.e., not something you'...