English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@Robusto "Football season is in full swing, so you can keep up with the scores in real-time even if you can't catch all the games on TV." That's what I get.

Robusto

Not much of an easter egg.

KitFox

1:06 AM

@Robusto Augh! You broke the Internets!

Robusto

They were made to be broken.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto Is that your zip code?

KitFox

Oh they was borken already.

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Could be it thunk so.

tchrist

@KitFox Since when have you been reserved about revealing personal infobits? :) But I bet you haven’t been pung lately either.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:08 AM

so I get ping sounds.

KitFox

@tchrist Nah it's your OS. It hates the flash.

Robusto

Pings are expunged.

ЯegDwight

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 where? My results are identical to Rob's to a T. And I'm not in his backyard just yet.

tchrist

Lose something? :)

user19161

@tchrist She is reserved, unlike me. I talk about my bowel movements as well.

KitFox

1:09 AM

@tchrist And always. You don't know anything about my personal infobits.

tchrist

She is reserved?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@ЯegDwight there was a city, state, and zip in the right hand column

tchrist

A reservation system can always be hacked.

ЯegDwight

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 ah. Who the hell looks there.

user19161

@tchrist A reservoir as well.

tchrist

1:10 AM

There is always tomorrow.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@ЯegDwight I guess not Rob, or he would have cropped it before uploading :)

ЯegDwight

Funny, I don't have anything in that spot. Does that mean I'm omnipresent or nonexistent?

KitFox

Both.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@ЯegDwight Or not logged in, or on a machine that doesn't present its location

tchrist

Ubibubous.

KitFox

1:11 AM

So do you all get the impression that tchrist is threatening me?

ЯegDwight

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I am logged in alright. With my real name in my real alphabet. And it forces me to click "do not translate into X" on every page I visit. So.

tchrist

@KitFox You should use smileys. People won’t know you’re kidding.

KitFox

I'm not kidding.

Robusto

I'm trying to remember what life was like before we all sat around for hours on end blowing gas through our keyboards into all the tubes that make up the Internets.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@ЯegDwight Maybe it doesn't do local results the same way in your country. Are you on google.com? or google.wherever-you-live

tchrist

1:12 AM

Uh oh.

I have no earthly idea what you are talking about then. Truly.

KitFox

You're talking about hacking my system, neh?

tchrist

Kids!

If you are on reserve, then there must be a waiting list somewhere, like for boarding a plane.

Either that, or you’re an Indian.

Robusto

The Internet should be more like Bioshock. A steam-punk nightmare, sure, but one you can win and be done with.

tchrist

But if you honestly think I am threatening you, then you are on drugs.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto Bioshock is "steam punk"?

ЯegDwight

1:14 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 there, happy now?

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Well, it has the trappings. And the art style.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@ЯegDwight Yeah, well, it still may be that it doesn't do "local" for your country

I mean, I'm just speculating

ЯegDwight

@Robusto you already won all the internets. It was right here in this room, too. Whatcha complaining aboot.

tchrist

More slumming.

Robusto

user19161

1:16 AM

@ЯegDwight I feel like watching the clip.

KitFox

@tchrist Well, see, I know what a reservation system is. And you were drawing parallels between that and me by way of saying that they can be hacked. What did you mean then?

@Robusto Oh pretty.

Robusto

That's a Little Sister on a Big Daddy.

tchrist

I was talking about finagling you off of reserve.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto The art style is supposed to be "Art Deco"

Robusto

Yeah, it is.

ЯegDwight

1:16 AM

May 4 '11 at 18:05, by RegDwight

Wow, I can't believe @Kosmonaut tackled that Tehran question. He should be getting over 9000 kudos or something. (We're out of Internets, thanks to @Robusto.)

KitFox

@tchrist In an involuntary manner, see?

tchrist

I wasn’t talking about anything other than chatting away your reserved demeanour, silly girl!!!!!!!

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 But there is a steam-punkish feel to it. All the valves and water and stuff.

KitFox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Art Deco, steam punk, same diff.

tchrist

If that is a threat, then you have a problem.

ЯegDwight

1:17 AM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Art Deco is just lipstick on the pig of Steam Punk.

KitFox

slaps exclamation points off of @tchrist's face

tchrist

Because many many many other people are doing to say "threatening" things to you.

DADDY SHE HIT ME!

Robusto

And the doors open with a psshht sound.

ЯegDwight

So they do in Louvre.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Well, I don't really consider Bioshock to be steampunk, but whatever.

tchrist

1:19 AM

That would be louvers.

KitFox

I should play Bioshock sometime. Looks pretty.

ЯegDwight

She hit is an anagram of he shit. And we are so amazed, we're crippled and we're dazed.

Robusto

@ЯegDwight Dude or Alouvre.

user19161

Hmm, some more mods are here.

Robusto

@KitFox It is teh awesum.

tchrist

1:19 AM

Why do we always attract the azure legion?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox Bioshock is amazing. And Bioshock 2 is also amazing.

tchrist

I haven’t seen any flags, even.

user19161

@ЯegDwight After she hit him there, he just had to shit.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

And you can get it cheap on Steam.

ЯegDwight

I shit my pants playing Tetris. Not to mention Super Mario Land. Bioshock is not for me.

tchrist

1:20 AM

Maybe David flagged my fufu.

For the Samoans’ sake.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

And I can't wait for Bioshock Infinite, which actually WILL be steampunk for realz

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 My son has steered me away from Bioshock 2. Apparently the original design/dev team completely disavowed it. The new Bioshock (Infinite or something) will be out soon. I'm waiting for that.

Jinx.

Still, there is a fine line between steampunk and deco, at least the way Bioshock did it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto I dunno... I liked it. I don't know why they would disavow it. It improves on the gameplay of the original.

@Robusto Aren't they like 100 years apart?

Robusto

No.

David Wallace

@tchrist No, because it's also some type of African food. I was also surprised to find that it doesn't actually mean the same thing in Samoan as most New Zealanders think it does.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:22 AM

Anyway, in bioshock 1, you can't fire plasmids and weapons at the same time. in 2 you can. Automatic win right there.

ЯegDwight

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 tell that to the people who label Bach through Tchaikovsky as "classical".

Robusto

Art Deco was '20s to '30s-ish. Steam was still around 30-40 years before. And steam locomotives lasted through to the '50s, I believe.

user19161

@ЯegDwight I shit my pants once when I could not hold the shit till I got into the loo.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto Well, I admit to not being really into steampunk. But I had the impression that most steampunk is set in Victorian times.

David Wallace

@WillHunting Hey, thanks for sharing.

Robusto

1:23 AM

@ЯegDwight Monteverdi through John Cage — it's all "classical" music.

user19161

@DavidWallace You are welcome, more episodes on the way.

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Which lasted into the 20th century. Old Queen Vic reigned for like 60 years.

ЯegDwight

Noob queen.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto alright. I'll allow it.

KitFox

I thought it was closer to 90 years.

tchrist

1:24 AM

@ЯegDwight Funny you should choose two non-Classical composers to illustrate your point.

ЯegDwight

@KitFox That was Methusalem.

tchrist

More evidence of drugs.

ЯegDwight

@tchrist because that was my point?

KitFox

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

ЯegDwight

Seldom do I illustrate my point with not my point.

tchrist

1:25 AM

Be nice or I’ll rag on your floop.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

anyway @kit Bioshock is well worth playing.

David Wallace

Oh grow up, people. "Classical" has more than one meaning. We all know it. There's little point in arguing about which definition we prefer.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Also, @Kit, have you played Half Life?

ЯegDwight

@DavidWallace which was my point, too.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@DavidWallace One of my friends writes classical music.

KitFox

1:26 AM

I was just going to mention Half Life.

Robusto

@DavidWallace I agree with you. See my point above.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox As in, you have, or haven't played it yet?

KitFox

I think I mentioned that I obtained Portal via The Orange Box.

David Wallace

Hey, you all disagree with each other until I point it out; then suddenly you're all in agreement? You people are all incomprehensible!

KitFox

I started Half Life, but didn't play much.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:27 AM

@KitFox I remember you played portal

Robusto

The Classical period, which came between the Baroque and the Romantic periods, is something else again.

user19161

@DavidWallace Oh, I don't know it. Really?

KitFox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 It's tough because my husband isn't into survival horror.

tchrist

pokey(tchrist)% cd Music/Genres
pokey(tchrist)% lf
AlbumList    Club/        Flamenco/    Metal/       Queer/       Showtunes/
Alternative/ Comedy/      Folk/        NewAge/      Rap/         Soundtracks/
Ambient/     Drama/       Jazz/        Pop/         Rock/        Xmas/
Bluegrass/   Ethnic/      Meditation/  Punk/        Serious/

No "classical" there.

ЯegDwight

►

Now that is some classical music.

David Wallace

1:27 AM

@WillHunting May I assume you're being ironic?

user19161

@DavidWallace No, I really don't know. I am rather ignorant.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox The classic Half life? Well, there is a new fan-made edition out now with better graphics, called "Black Mesa". Anyway, the great thing about half-life is how cinematic it is. And HL2 is even moreso.

Robusto

Also, there was a Baroque era, but music didn't follow it with a Rococo period the way the visual arts did.

tchrist

Thankfully.

KitFox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Um, whatever was in The Orange Box. Probably HL2 actually.

Also Team Fortress.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:29 AM

@KitFox Did it look like it came out in 2004 or 1998? :)

Robusto

Oh, I forgot to finish playing Half Life 2. I knew I was forgetting something.

David Wallace

@WillHunting There are at least three different things that the expression "classical music" can mean.

ЯegDwight

@tchrist so you labeled classical "queer". Big deal.

KitFox

Maybe I'll play next week while my husband is in LV.

user19161

@DavidWallace Hmm OK, this is new to me.

user19161

1:29 AM

@KitFox "What happens in Vegas" was a nice show.

David Wallace

@KitFox Who is the cat and who is the mice in your relationship?

Robusto

@KitFox Where is 55, exactly?

KitFox

stunned that @Will knew the abbreviation

@DavidWallace I don't know what that means.

David Wallace

@WillHunting If none of the other people in this room care to enlighten you, I could do so at a later date. But right now, I'm off to play with some people. Laterz.

user19161

@KitFox I happen to know what LA stands for too.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:30 AM

@KitFox There are three variants of HL: the original, which was amazing in 1998 but is visually dated now, the "Source" port, which is the same game updated in 2005 to use the HL2 tech, but which most people thought wasn't well made, and the new fan-made one that I just mentioned, which I haven't seen yet but which is free.

KitFox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 OK I'll look. BRB

cornbread ninja

I just saw some new HL thingy

user19161

@DavidWallace No need to enlighten me, I can look it up myself. I just wanted to confess my ignorance.

cornbread ninja

looky what I bought.

Robusto

UNLV is the opposite of LV.

KitFox

1:31 AM

It's HL2.

cornbread ninja

ЯegDwight

And it's with this Geto Boys song in my head that I'm off to dream land.

KitFox

And Episodes one and two.

cornbread ninja

Check out the ampersand. squee

ЯegDwight

Arrividerciae's.

KitFox

1:31 AM

@cornbreadninja Are those stamps?

tchrist

@cornbreadninja Sqwabble!

Ciao time!

@ЯegDwight Night!

@KitFox yes'm!

@cornbreadninja Sweet.

cornbread ninja

1:32 AM

@Robusto bon voyeur!

@KitFox from the Target. They have a new one of those "shops"

KitFox

Now you can print your own ransom notes!

cornbread ninja

@tchrist squeegee

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox Episode 1 was okay. ep 2 was way better. But remember that the story goes HL, HL2, HL2:E1, HL2:E2

KitFox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yeah. Kinda sensible like that.

cornbread ninja

@KitFox I know; it will save so much time over cutting out all those letters.

KitFox

1:33 AM

@cornbreadninja Make sure you mix up the order for each one though, or they might catch on.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Or if you want the expansion packs, HL, Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift, HL2, HL2:E1, Portal, HL2:E2, Portal 2

cornbread ninja

@KitFox I'll have to get another couple of sets.

give me teh cheezburgers or teh bunny gets it

3

KitFox

@cornbreadninja It was supposed to be...oh, I get it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

All this talk of old games. Makes me want to play HL again

I am currently working my way through Quake 1 again, for old time's sake

KitFox

I was thinking about Hexen not too long ago.

Speaking of Quake. I think I played it and the Heretic games with a crack on the Quake disc.

...or was that Doom? God, it couldn't have been Doom, could it?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:39 AM

I never finished Hexen. But I did love Hexen 2

KitFox

Oh right. It was Heretic, Hexen, Hexen 2, wasnit?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

The Quake 1 disc had Doom, Doom 2, all the expansions for doom, Heretic, Hexen, and ... I forget what else

There was also Heretic 2

and an expansion pack for hexen 2

I still have most of those on CD

KitFox

Oh shit, you can get that on Steam too?

reconsiders Steam

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I think you can get ALL the ID games on steam

While I'm recommending games, I also recommend Jedi Outcast and Jedi Acadamy

And Dark Forces, and Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight

these are all very old games now though

KitFox

Geezis. Maybe if I ever upgrade my home rig.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:42 AM

Nah, if you can run Portal, you can surely run all of these

KitFox

I'm not rigged for PC games anymore. My shit got flabby playing gaming consoles.

Portal is via PS3.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

ah

well, how old is your PC?

KitFox

I've still got a postage stamp 4:3 800x600 monitor on my box.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

it can't be more than 10 years old, can it?

you're kidding

KitFox

The build is fine. It's the peripherals that suck ass.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:43 AM

well, 800x600 is enough to play those games

KitFox

That's not entirely true. The monitor is awful. I don't know how my husband can stand to watch pornographies on it.

But there's not any room to really use it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

does your PC have a TV-out?

does your TV have vga-in?

KitFox

The keyboard and mouse would be suitable, although I used to have a swank stick.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Maybe, but the box has HDMI out, so that's not the issue. It's the way it is set up.

The TV is right next to the computer desk. It makes for a really difficult angle.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Well, anyway, if you like old FPSes, you can get many good ones on Steam for cheap

Some games may require some tweaking to make it work.

To get Quake working I had to download a Quake port, i.e. a rewrite of the Quake 1 engine from Id's source. None of the native Quake binaries worked properly on my Windows 7 system.

KitFox

Well, I'll certainly think about it.

You don't run an emulator?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:48 AM

No

But I might have to one day to get some games working. So far all my games work.

KitFox

I had a DOS and and C64 emulator on my last computer.

Oh, and an Apple emulator that I played Oregon Trail on.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I don't have any DOS games left, I don't think. Well, except for Doom..Heretic/Hexen. I think they work fine in Windows. Maybe not Windows 7 (64-bit).

My old Sierra On-Line quest games (King's Quest, etc) I run using a clone engine that just reads the game data

KitFox

I played Below the Root a few years back. Twenty-five years I had waited to play that game again. Wow. It was. Something.

I'd played it at a friend's house one time, but never got a chance to play it again.

I was obsessed with it. We couldn't ever get past this one point that was like, five minutes into the game.

I played through the whole thing in five hours.

I mean, when I played it most recently.

Anyway, I should probably go to bed.

Night!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

cya

tchrist

2:05 AM

Now that is really funny.

Notice the suspected, that it couldn’t manage to OCR.

Dumb software.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Well, what did you type?

suspected, or fufpected?

tchrist

suspected, of course.

It’s the right answer.

Nile

2:22 AM

@tchrist actually, it's not the right answer

the right answer is ecautsh whateverthefuckyouwant

reCaptcha gives you 2 random words. one word that it knows, one from some writing that needs to be digitalized

it takes the word that it knows and sees if you get it right. If you do, then it assumes the other word is right also.

clearly, in this case, the word it knew was the first one. usually its the one that looks more corrupt/distorted

give it a try ;)

Mitch

sigh...

english.stackexchange.com/questions/82730/…

tchrist

@Mitch How did you find that?

Mitch

Yeah the front page is messed up. I looked at his activity and saw it.

tchrist

Ah.

Lots of sites are messed up. Including MSO.

But not SO.

Mitch

Was there a software change that 'played' with the ordering? for 'active'?

tchrist

2:28 AM

Meta-Elu is also hosed.

And the Linux and Unix site/s.

Reg told Shog9 in the Teacher's Lounge.

There are other weirdnesses, too.

@Nile that's really amusing

I think that tomorrow, we are going to wake up to a whole slew of questions.

And imagine if it were Monday.

They switched some servers today.

Nile

@tchrist yeah. whenever I'm lazy I just type on word and the next one is iadfogfdg

Mitch

Eternal Monday?

tchrist

Apparently things just didn’t work out.

Mitch

Usually when things don't work out, they work out terribly and it is easy to see that 1 bit is out of place. For things to fail so subtly takes real talent.

tchrist

There are a few voting problems, even.

Mitch

2:32 AM

'few' or 'a few'? ah 'a few'

tchrist

And things won’t autobox in chat.

Mitch

autobox = auto matically get source from just a link?

tchrist

Yeah pretty much.

Or unbox. Not sure the word.

Mitch

that's always (or not in the past day) been a intermittent difficulty.

tchrist

Really? I didn't know that.

Mitch

2:34 AM

when I say always, I mean once or twice out of the 10 or so times I've tried it.

before today

tchrist

Hi, @waiwai. Any word on the messedupness thing?

waiwai933

@tchrist Not that I know of. Let me check with them just in case, though.

tchrist

@waiwai933 Thanks.

Mitch

@tchrist: have you read "The Reader Over Your Shoulder" by Graves and Hodge (1943)? I think you would appreciate it.

tchrist

@Mitch Nope.

BTW, pings aren’t working. At least, not for me.

Others reported the same.

Mitch

2:39 AM

the ping sound or getting an inbox message?

tchrist

Ping sound. And it is not my box.

Mahnax

Hm, would someone ping me real quick? I want to know if mine works. It did earlier today.

tchrist

@Mahnax zap

Mahnax

@tchrist Mine works.

tchrist

Whoa!

That is the first audible ping I have had all day, including those a few lines up.

Somehow you’re special.

Mahnax

2:44 AM

Yay! :-)

tchrist

So very strange.

BTW, how did you know that old song of yours on the starboard?

Mahnax

Oh, my mum used to sing it.

waiwai933

No real updates right now (as far as community team is aware, devs are not in office right now; may have left before the bug was noticed). It'll probably take until morning at the earliest.

tchrist

Ah ok. I mean, it’s before my time.

Mahnax

OK, thanks @waiwai933.

tchrist

2:46 AM

Yes, thank you.

I didn’t know what TZ the devs are in.

Mahnax

@tchrist Hmm, that's interesting, because my mum is definitely younger than you.

Maybe her mother would sing it.

waiwai933

@tchrist Mostly in New York, although I think there are a few spread around the world.

stackexchange.com/about/team

tchrist

It was written in 1893.

Mahnax

Well.

tchrist

@waiwai933 That explains it.

Mahnax

2:47 AM

There goes that, then.

tchrist

The Cat Came Back

"The Cat Came Back" (originally published as "The Cat Came Back: A Nigger Absurdity") is a comic song written by Harry S. Miller in 1893. "The Cat Came Back" has since entered the folk tradition and been recorded under variations of the title—"But the Cat Came Back", "And the Cat Came Back", etc. It is also a popular children's song. The song is humorous in nature, telling a silly tale about "ole Mister Johnson" who had an "ole yaller cat" that he did not want, and when he tried to get rid of the cat, the cat kept coming back: But the cat came back, he couldn't stay no long-er, Yes th...

Wow on the orig name.

Mahnax

Um, yeah.

Interesting. How are you all?

tchrist

I’m about to go to bed with this week’s Economist.

Mahnax

That sounds steamy.