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1:49 AM
@RegDwightѬſ道 The owner of the other account was an American woman, which is the same woman I referred as Calabrian because her roots are Calabrian and Greek, even if she was born in USA.
@GraceNote I was not talking to the merger, because the merger was not replying. After all, there is nothing that cannot be done, once two accounts have been merged.
The funny part is merging two accounts, and then asking about the identify of who logged in those accounts; I shown I am Italian, living in Italy, and the other person is living in USA.
Anyway, there is nothing more that needs to be said.
@RegDwightѬſ道 It's from ages I am not moderator anymore; exactly, I am not moderator since 71 days. The reason I am not moderator is because the merger situation put me in the wrong mood.
 
 
2 hours later…
user19161
3:27 AM
@kiamlaluno Sorry to hear about the misunderstanding!
 
user19161
Oh dear, my roof may collapse from the heavy rains! Hope it gets fixed for free since it's not our fault.
 
user19161
@kiamlaluno Thursagan is supposed to be Thursagen's brother, but then Thursagan's daughter used the account too, so at times Thursagan became Thursagan's niece. Does this make sense? Anyway Thursagan's account has been suspended for sharing or underage or whatever I don't know!
 
user19161
Last year the water leaked through the roof too, and they got it fixed, but not properly. That's why this time it cracked again, the false ceiling or whatever they call it. If we have to pay for this then I'm definitely going to make a complaint man!
 
4:51 AM
Dear @Reg, Penelov is now Dalton. I flagged him for low-qual posts, and I noticed that a lot of his questions just got deleted. Is it possible to keep an eye on him?
 
user19161
@simchona My eye is here, though it is not of much use...
 
user19161
And congrats on hitting 5k!
 
Thanks!
I'm just worried "Dalton" will bring in low quality posts. A lot of low-rep questions just got deleted (so he's back up to 88), but I'm keeping an eye to make sure it doesn't happen again
 
user19161
I really hope my roof does not collapse.
 
ah ><
 
user19161
4:59 AM
You see, my mum and I stay on the highest floor of this 16-storey building. There are advantages and disadvantages to being the highest.
 
Great views, first to feel the effects of a roof collapsing. It's monsoon season?
 
user19161
Fresher air, no water from other's laundry dripping on yours, less cockroaches, but also more lizards, more noise when they do work on top.
 
user19161
Not really monsoon but just happened that the weakness in the rooftop decided to show its effect now.
 
user19161
And I noticed probably you starred Chao's typos, naughty!
 
user19161
And Chaos didn't say if he was scared by me...
 
user19161
5:04 AM
Chances are, he was not scared but there was no need to say anything.
 
user19161
And he is busy enjoying his kimchi.
 
5:53 AM
@JasperLoy I just loved the irony of it all. I didn't star all of them though.
 
 
4 hours later…
9:24 AM
"What do you call an experiment without a hypothesis?"
You call it a waste of time, you imbecile! Get off my internets.
 
user19161
9:59 AM
@MattEllenД I believe you mean internet.
 
1
Q: A question on a point of grammar, derived from another question

ThursagenIn this question, there is a part that I'm a little confused with. In the original question, before it was edited, this sentence appeared: Both Free Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionaries had entry of 'cum grano salis' Seeing this, it kind of looked wrong to me, so I edited it to: Both...

Worst title ever, plus a dupe of like five or six other questions.
See my comment there for links.
 
user19161
10:11 AM
@RegDwightѬſ道 I vote to close as duplicate of first one, though I am not sure of the answer to the issue myself.
 
user19161
@fallen Any news of the stolen stuff? How are you feeling today?
 
Jez
Heh, I just downloaded IE9.
It's a close call, but I think Microsoft have managed to make it look worse than even the default Firefox skin.
 
user19161
@grace Your meta answers are very informative, Jeff will be very happy.
 
Hm?
 
user19161
@GraceNote Like what I said, that's all.
 
10:15 AM
Just seemed spontaneous, is all. Thanks, though.
 
user19161
@Jez I've given up on ie after trying ie8. FF for eternity.
 
Jez
The default IE9 skin does the usual 'copy-Chrome-and-Opera' thing
translucent glass means that noisy background colours pollute my tab bar
hideous.
 
user19161
I've given up on chrome as well, can't not save history.
 
Jez
the only half-decent interface is FF with my skin installed. :-)
 
@JasperLoy No news, and okay, how are you?
 
user19161
10:17 AM
I save no history or bookmarks. I type all addresses from scratch each time.
 
user19161
@FallenAngelEyes Bad as usual, still trying to get better as usual.
 
Jez
@JasperLoy oh, and in IE9 there is a larger back button circle... but the bottom is chopped off by the tab bar, looking... well, ridiculous
look at that back button with the bottom chopped off
lol
 
user19161
@Jez I seem to have seen that somewhere. It seems they are trying to copy FF and chrome together.
 
@JasperLoy I hope things get better soon.
@Jez That's... awful.
 
Jez
@JasperLoy I'd say Chrome and Opera are leading the way and the others are following
 
10:20 AM
@Jez I'm assuming from your icon you're a Mozilla fan :P
 
Jez
IE badly, Firefox badly
@FallenAngelEyes yes, but only with my skin and my extension installed to fix all the crappiness the firefox UX team impose on it
otherwise it looks hideous, like IE9
 
user19161
It's sth as simple as not saving history, why can;t google get it right?
 
user19161
I actually submitted that as feedback when I uninstalled.
 
user19161
That was a year or two ago.
 
10:22 AM
Firefox has sucked ever since it stopped being Firebird.
 
Jez
What I find with browsers is that rendering and JS engines are getting better, GUIs are getting dramatically worse
it's strange
I could and have come up with a better GUI than Microsoft for a browser
much better
 
user19161
@RegDwightѬſ道 There are too many name changes. I first used FF when it was called FF, and I only know Debian renames it to IceWeasel.
 
The whole idea behind Firefox was minimalism. A blazing fast browser, nothing else. No bloat. Since version 0.7 they have given up on that idea, for whatever reason. Now it's just bloat on top of bloat, with some bloat thrown in for bad measure.
 
user19161
@Jez Good, I look forward to sudo apt-get install jez.
 
I can't effing use anything with Firefox running. Including Firefox itself.
 
Jez
10:24 AM
 
user19161
@RegDwightѬſ道 But the addons are unmatched, at least as far as my usage is concerned.
 
I keep hearing that argument. I'm not buying it.
 
@RegDwightѬſ道 This is why you be like me, and run FireFox version Ancient
It's still bloaty, but at least it ain't got everything. I also don't use any addons but that's just because I'm lazy in that regard, hehe
 
Jez
@RegDwight That's not really my experience with FF5. its speed is OK.
(in Windows)
 
Even MS have decent developer tools by now, and keep improving them.
 
user19161
10:26 AM
@Jez Sorry, I never visited your website, looks like I will take a look soon, but I've got no money to donate to any project now. :)
 
@Jez Its speed is okay when compared to FF4 or FF3. Its speed is abysmal when compared to Firebird 0.6 on a decade-old PC.
 
Jez
@RegDwight why bundle developer tools? it's stupid. Mozilla bang on about how the browser is really dedicated to novices and not power users, and then they bundle tools for a tiny percentage of users
 
user19161
My prediction: Windows and IE will rule for the next 10 years, after which Linux and FF will take over for eternity.
 
Jez
@RegDwight firebird 0.6 doesn't do JS or rendering nearly as well
 
user19161
@RegDwightѬſ道 So what do you use now?
 
10:28 AM
@JasperLoy FF has taken over Germany (>50% market share) long before other countries even noticed its existence. Now what? It's on decline.
You can't take over for eternity. Especially not if you are Linux or Firefox.
 
user19161
@RegDwightѬſ道 Ah my favourite country, my choice of birth next life as mentioned!
 
Jez
@RegDwight Mozilla needs to accept that Firefox is going to have a certain base of users, and that's it. It's falling a bit at the moment because some people want a minimalist GUI. They copy the rest, they have bugger all that's unique to them.
 
@Jez My point exactly. Once you reach a certain market share, there's nowhere to go from there but down.
 
Jez
You can plateau
 
user19161
OK if chrome can not save history, I will reconsider it.
 
Jez
10:30 AM
they're going down because their GUI is a bad copy of Chrome
if it had stayed at the FF3 GUI, i suspect a decent chunk of users would stick with it
 
@Jez The thing is, plateau is the best-case scenario. You screw up the tiniest thing, you no longer have the best case scenario.
 
Jez
screwuing up the UI doesn't help
i guess you have to go back to the fact that FF is at least highly customizable.
I don't like this IE9 GUI, but what can i really do to customize it?
 
user19161
I am happy with FF as it is. Nothing is perfect.
 
Jez
i suppose there are skins but MS don't emphasize them
 
@JasperLoy But some things are closer to perfect than others.
 
Jez
10:33 AM
@JasperLoy you're happy with a transition from full-color icons on an opaque background that you could click on to tiny monochrome icons on a translucent, noisy background, that you can barely see? pfft.
 
@Jez My wife can't customize the new FF. She's been using it for ages, and she's giving up on it.
And that's something.
 
Jez
@RegDwight well if you right-click, you have 'customize' in the menu. not so with IE.
 
Because she's not a power user or an early adopter or a geek or what have you, at all.
 
Jez
but why is she giving up on it? the default GUI?
 
@Jez She cannot customize the stuff she actually wants to customize. And she doesn't want to customize stuff she doesn't want to customize.
 
Jez
10:34 AM
what does she want to customize?
 
Oh I dunno some shit she's been using for years.
The address bar, the home button, the Google toolbar.
 
Jez
helpful
 
The latter in fact no longer works at all.
 
user19161
KDE has too many options, so GNOME all the way.
 
user19161
And KDE is slow.
 
Jez
10:35 AM
@RegDwight generally if something's name ends with '...toolbar', it's probably best that it doesn't work ;-)
 
@Jez Same with "...fox".
 
Jez
nah... Fox news begins with that.
 
user19161
Actually the only addons I use are flash, java, silverlight, divx. I don't do too many kinds of things online.
 
Jez
they're plugins, not addons
 
I actually still use Seamonkey :x
 
Jez
10:38 AM
divx is a codec
 
user19161
The latest version of Adobe Reader seems to be less customizable.
 
Jez
@FallenAngelEyes ah yes, i havent tried that. maybe its default interface is still decent.
 
user19161
@Jez OK the divx plugin then.
 
user19161
@FallenAngelEyes Do you use Linux?
 
Jez
@JasperLoy I always stick with Reader 7.0. it was fast and had a nice dynamic zoom and interface. no need to upgrade beyond that ;-)
 
10:39 AM
@Jez I've been using Mozilla since 2002ish and I was... stubborn when FF came out.
 
Jez
@FallenAngelEyes I did find FF refreshingly fast and Spartan compared to the Moz suite.
I think the addons approach is better. But I also think the default GUI sucks bigtime.
(since 4.0)
 
user19161
I don't use email client either. It makes things complicated, sync here, sync there.
 
@JasperLoy I do not. I actually have very little compsci background or skills at all, so I'm somewhat of an anomaly in these parts. My b/f runs a Debian server that functions as our firewall and somewhere through which I can connect to irssi.
Firewall and router and whatnot, that is.
 
user19161
And Ubuntu One storage takes so long to upload I don't use it anymore.
 
Jez
Ubuntu. There's an OS I can live without.
I got out just at the right time.
 
user19161
10:42 AM
@Jez You don't use Linux?
 
Jez
I got sick of stuff not really working properly and the answer was always "get Debian to fix it and it will make its way into Ubuntu upstream", so I thought, "why not just run Debian?"
I use Debian. and I never looked back
now that they buggered up the Ubuntu GUI, i'm particularly happy
 
user19161
I tried Debian which has its problems too, so back to buntu.
 
Jez
what problems? only niggles really.
 
user19161
I announce I will use Ubuntu the rest of my life.
 
user19161
@Jez No firmware in default installation image, no live CD, harder initial configuration, overall not so smooth.
 
Jez
10:45 AM
no firmware?
 
user19161
Finally Fedora is fixing its yum. I announce that by Fedora 16, yum will finally be able to remove unused dependencies properly when removing software.
 
user19161
@Jez No nonfree firmware, that is.
 
Jez
what do you mean firmware?
and yes, lack of nonfree stuff is a feature, not a bug
 
user19161
@Jez Some wireless for laptops require firmware to work.
 
Jez
you mean drivers?
 
user19161
10:46 AM
No, firmware.
 
user19161
I am very sure.
 
Jez
so it gets flashed onto the ROM? of what?
 
user19161
You can install via wired, enable the nonfree repositories, install the nonfree firmware.
 
user19161
That is one way to do it.
 
Jez
i give up trying to understand your definition of firmware.
 
user19161
10:48 AM
Because your hardware doesn't need it.
 
user19161
Well on Debian wiki they talk about nonfree firmware too.
 
Jez
if your hardware comes without firmware installed, I'd ask for a refund :-)
 
user19161
It's because I am trying to wipe out Windows with Linux you see.
 
user19161
Of course if it is preinstalled with Windows then Windows will work.
 
user19161
FL at 92 per cent.
 
user19161
10:52 AM
In time for Oct 7.
 
user19161
OK you seem to be the only person who explicitly announced it, so we must all remember the date!
 
Jez
heh
yes we need 15 more
 
user19161
Mine is in 12 days time here, I shan't announce it explicitly.
 
user19161
Of course it depends on time zone too...
 
Jez
how old will you be
 
user19161
10:57 AM
Any luck with romance Jez? Maybe one will come soon.
 
Jez
heh
 
user19161
turning 30.
 
user19161
Mine is a number that always appears on watch advertisements and T-shirts, don't know why.
 
user19161
I mean the date.
 
Jez
o.O
 
user19161
11:00 AM
Just like watches usually show 10.10 for time.
 
Jez
wouldn't it suck if your birthday was 9/11?
 
@Jez I have a few friends whose birthday is then
 
Jez
you must have oodles of friends
 
They celebrate it like anyone else. They were born before it after all.
 
user19161
Yeah. I don't really believe in conspiracies, but it is possible that 911 was an insider job.
 
Jez
11:01 AM
what if you were born on 9/11/2001?
 
user19161
I mean the way the buildings collapsed made it look like there was some bomb inside already.
 
Jez
@JasperLoy a well-trodden path of argument.
 
user19161
Ya that's what I read, I have no theories of my own on this.
 
user19161
And how can the US so advanced in technology allow planes to just fly in and crash like that?
 
user19161
Terrorist can be smart, but not that smart.
 
user19161
11:08 AM
Anyway talking about controveries, there is also the AIDS controversy. You may want to read virusmyth.com if still there.
 
user19161
And also the psychiatric drugs controvery, at drugsandyourmind.com if still there.
 
user19161
I spent some hours reading these websites, very enlightening...
 
user19161
Ah I just discovered the tab complete function for pinging here!
 
11:33 AM
Hello
Someone on Apple asked this question
0
Q: What is the difference between the variant language dictionaries in OS X?

g .Inspired by this question... There are several English variants in the list of languages/dictionaries available in Mac OS X. English Australian English British English Canadian English U.S. English Is there a way to see the differences between these variants? Similarly there are multiple va...

is it something English Language and Usage-material?
 
11:47 AM
I think the question is too specific to Mac OS X, and not specific enough to English.
FWIW, I would keep it where it is.
 
2
Q: Confused about the phonetic symbols

NL500I'm confused about the difference in pronouncing "er" in words such as "farmer" and "earth". I hear them the same, but they have different phonetic symbols. Is there any difference in pronouncing "er" in these words? example:

the accepted answer, by Thursagen, drives me to despair
 
12:10 PM
@JSBngs Gypsies comes from Bosnia; I know because one of the kings of Italy married their queen, before or during WWI.
 
@kiamlaluno what do you mean by "come from"? there are certainly plenty of them in Bosnia, but they are believed to originally be from India
 
Well, the Gipsie's queen in this case was from Bosnia.
 
user19161
@JSBᾶngs Indeed, he can't read phonetics.
 
@kiamlaluno it's a mistake to think that there is only one "gypsy" queen. there is no international gypsy monarchy. there are lots of people who are "king of the gypsies" in their country or region
 
user19161
@JSBᾶngs You can look up for inspiration or look down in desperation, but don't look left or right in an examination.
 
12:22 PM
@kiamlaluno nonetheless i had no idea that the King of Italy had married a gypsy. how very interesting
 
@JSBᾶngs There isn't a Gipsy's queen in Italy. Anyway, you asked about a phrase that you associated to gipsies; if that is not in Romanian, then there is a chance it's in Bosnian.
 
@kiamlaluno ah, yes. that's true. i believe that Reg also suggested it might be Bosnian
 
@JSBᾶngs That is the reason they can freely come in Italy; the royal decree from that king is still valid.
 
@kiamlaluno i think the EU also has something to do with it
 
@JSBᾶngs I doubt; the decree was created before one of the WW ended. :-)
I think it is from before WWI.
 
12:28 PM
were gypsies coming into italy in large numbers before Romania and Bulgaria entered the EU?
maybe, but i doubt it
i know that a big trigger was those countries, which have tons of gypsies, entering the EU, and therefore all of the gypsies there getting the right to travel throughout the EU
 
@JSBᾶngs I can tell you that my grandmother told me stories about gipsies coming to their house. Actually, my grandfather, who was under the army during WWII in Albany, made them run saying mafis.
I later discovered that mafis means Mafia, in Albanian.
 
user19161
Since when did punctuation become punction?
 
user19161
0
Q: What is the proper punction to use when joining a pro-sentence with an independent clause?

WipqoznI recently said the following in chat: Okay, you left out the zero so I wasn't sure. Afterwards it occurred to me I could have replaced the comma with a semi-colon. This lead to a discussion with @ArdaXi over what the correct punctuation mark to use in this situation is: a comma, semi-colon...

 
user19161
And the same in thurs answer.
 
@JasperLoy Since it is used by a bee. Don't you say "a bee puncted me"? :-)
 
user19161
12:34 PM
@kiamlaluno I only heard of spelling bee, not punction bee. :)
 
user19161
Anyway punction is not a common word. It is not found in the smaller dictionaries.
 
user19161
But I checked first to see if it is really a mistake.
 
@JasperLoy Yes, it's a mistake. He is asking about punctuation.
 
user19161
@kiamlaluno Exactly. I learnt to check first because there were things I thought are wrong but are actually right.
 
@JasperLoy Yeah, that is quite more common that one would expect.
 
12:48 PM
(Who would have imagined there are punction bees, for example?)
 
Jez
Only in America
ironic, considering the US is on average quite bad at SPAG
 
Spag?
 
Jez
spelling, punctuation, and grammar
 
It should be SPG, then. :-)
 
Jez
not really
 
1:02 PM
Well, it's USA, not USoA.
 
1:17 PM
@kiamlaluno some people say "US of A"
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yeah, but it still is "U.S.A." not "U.S.o.A."
 
1:37 PM
@kiamlaluno Sure but I don't think that's a hard-and-fast rule. I can't think of a counterexample right now except AT&T.
 
1:53 PM
@kiamlaluno — You mispelled spaghetti: Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, Homonyms, Etc., That's True, Innit?
 
SPaG because it's easier to say than SPG.
 
1
Q: "Had entries" or "had an entry"?

ThursagenIn this question, there is a part that I'm a little confused with. In the original question, before it was edited, this sentence appeared: Both Free Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionaries had entry of 'cum grano salis' Seeing this, it kind of looked wrong to me, so I edited it to: Both...

^ terrible question, should be closed
1
Q: Way to say that someone looks young

DaltonI'd like to say "she looks as young as a 20 year old girl, although she is already 40" by stating that she looks younger than her real age. Is this correct?

^ so is this one. i voted "not constructive"
 
Is there a name for this typeface style of "a" (as opposed to the kind without the hook on top)?
 
2:10 PM
@KitΘδς Roman vs Italic?
A
A (; named a, plural aes) is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives. Origins "A" may have started as a pictogram of an ox head in Egyptian hieroglyph. It has stood at the head of every alphabet in which it has been found, the earliest of which being the Phoenician. {| class="wikitable" |- style="background-color:#EEEEEE; text-align:center;" ! Egyptian ! Phoenician aleph ! Greek Alpha ! Etruscan A ! Roman/Cyrillic A |- style="background-color:white; text-align:center;" | | | | | |} In 1600...
Or actually single-storey vs double-storey
 
@KitΘδς what's the groaning for?
 
@JSBᾶngs "I though that possession is written without apostrophe. From the basic example it's (it is) vs. its (something belonging to it)."
@MrShinyandNew安宇 That's it. Thanks!
 
@KitΘδς Don't thank me, thank the countless wikipedian authors who are the source of everything I know. :)
 
Argh! Stupid formatting!
 
@KitΘδς Ow
 
2:16 PM
Can you delete it, @Grace?
 
@KitΘδς The comment?
Or did you mean to fix it like that?
 
There must be a term for the spread between the version of the framework you're allowed to use and the one that actually fixes the bugs you encounter in your supported version. Maybe I'll call it the Unhappy Valley.
 
@GraceNote That works. Thank you.
@Robusto The Great Divide?
 
@KitΘδς — The Painful Threshold?
 
@GraceNote I feel like I got tangled in metaphorical shoelaces and fell flat on on my formatting face.
 
2:19 PM
Happens to the best of us
 
@Robusto The Sad Medium?
 
@KitΘδς The obsolescence chasm?
 
The Short Bus?
 
@MrShinyandNew安宇 The Senescence Gap?
 
@KitΘδς good one
 
2:22 PM
This is how I feel today:
Slightly Not Stoned Enough To Eat Breakfast Yet Stoopid is an album by California band Slightly Stoopid, which was released July 22, 2008. It contains all 7 tracks from the EP of the same name, "as well as other outtakes, rarities, and brand new studio joints." While many of this album's tracks are originals, there are some tracks that are either covers or re-recordings. The track "Tom and Jerry" originally appeared as a hidden track in the group's previous album, Closer To The Sun. "Sensemillia" first appeared as a live track from their acoustic album, Acoustic Roots: Live & Direct. "D...
 
2:39 PM
@KitΘδς yes, the OP is very confused, but at least he's been corrected in comments
 
@JSBᾶngs I'm sick and sleepy, so my patience is short.
I'm feeling rather unkind today.
So I'm refraining from voting.
 
while i am holding a sick, sleepy baby and trying to type
 
Oh, you poor thing. I am sending you many hugs. ((hugs))
Croup?
 
Hey, what's with all the germs?
 
They were here before us. They're trying to reclaim their turf.
 

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