@psmears Of course, you could stop saying "of course", but (of course) is just a matter of style; you would be (of course) still welcome, and (of course) you would still be our friend.
@MrHen I understood what your new gravatar means: your passion for parentheses.
OK, I said my silliness of the day. I actually said all of them.
If anybody has suggestions about more silly things I could say, phone me on lunch time.
When I was walking home, a woman called and said: "I know this is a bit of a cheeky thing to ask, but you don't happen to have any condoms on you, do you?".
There is now a new experimental close reason, as previously discussed:
general reference
This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information.
Give tha...
See the help link in the lower right corner: it only works for Wikipedia, SE questions, SE blog, Amazon products, YouTube videos, and some other stuff.
I've tried to install this Apple Emoji TTF font but even the Font Viewer doesn't render them correctly.
Does anyone have an idea about whether this kind of font is supported in 10.10/Gnome 2.32 ?
I've always been yawning at hackintoshs... There might be other B&W fonts covering the unicode range though. Not that I'm particularly eager to change this chat room in a fish tank though !
I'm not interested in reading it per se, you understand, but you did say that would get you to retire. So I just want to help you on your path of discovery.
Oh, and don't click on the English article, it gives away too much too early. In fact, so does the Dutch article. I'm replacing it with a link to Amazon.
Hmm ... I renenber Diotallevi and Casaubon. Oh, and of course Belbo.
Novels are about characters. Sometimes I don't remember the names of the characters, but I do remember who they are.
By the way, I was thinking that the translation of The Club Dumas was much superior to the one of The Flanders Panel. That may have accounted for at least some of the difference in impression the books made on me.
WTF? My SE score is given as 10.8K now? It was 40K just yesterday.
About a book that I admire, I wrote in an SE computer-programming group:
"The material seems old -- well, it is old -- because it's been around for long and, while by no means trivial, is well understood. A solution you can lift is published in W. Richard Stevens's superb and unparalleled book ...
@Robusto Yeah, kind of like you Americans are the most friendly people to walk on the face of this planet, but then you vote for Dubyas who go to wars.
There are many words that in English are conjugated in the past tense to end in "-n": grow goes to grown, sew goes to sown, throw goes to thrown, etc.. I'm guessing it was probably the regular ending in English in some long past time. But as every growing child knows, the more common form has...
someone with time should write a very long answer that traces the history of ablaut all the way back to PIE and explain the multiple waves of regularization that have affected it in the millenia since then
Are there any alternative standards to the IPA for phonetic transcription without the use of special characters? For instance, in this chart of ICAO phonetic alphabet, phonetic pronunciations are listed without the use of any special characters.
Is there a standard for mapping IPA to such phonet...
@RegDwight I thought badges were permanent, but maybe tag-badges are different? I remember already having two tag badges, but now I only see meaning & usage. :/
What happens to the tag badges assigned to users, when the relative tag is deleted, or it is merged with another one?
Do the users keep the badge even if the tag doesn't exist anymore?
Tag badges are the only systematically revokeable badges. They will be removed if you disqualify for the requirements, and the ensured non-existence of the tag is indeed a way to lose the badge. The same applies to vote undoing if you're right on the threshold, you would temporarily lose the badg...
What happens to the tag badges assigned to users, when the relative tag is deleted, or it is merged with another one?
Do the users keep the badge even if the tag doesn't exist anymore?
Proposed Q&A site for professional linguists working in academia, industry, or the field, students of linguistics at the university level, and others with an interest in linguistic research and theory.
Currently in commitment.
extrapolating from the linear regression suggests that we'll actually launch in early 2012
Proposed Q&A site for exactly the same as Stack Overflow but the Q&A would be in Italian only. This is because many Italian programmers are not confident enough with English to post questions/discuss them on Stack Overflow.
There's a long list of languages proposal on Area51, varying from an all encompassing language site to a focus one language site like the successful English Language & Usage.
When I say they vary, I do mean that.
As I just said, there's a site to contain all the languages question, whether...
@RegDwight Sunday afternoonish, I think. I suppose I ought to look that up, because we need to log onto British Airways as close as possible to 24 hours beforehand, so we can reserve seats.
(These modern airlines find every way they can to squeeze more money out of you. BA charges extra for reserving seats ahead of time, for example. Dunno how that makes life any easier for them.)
I'm wondering if native speakers understand all the words in songs? For me it is very very difficult, I can understand only 30% of words and phrases in songs usually. While listening to people conversations (e.g. podcasts) I understand much more, perhaps about 80%.
This was the first part of th...
@RegDwight Nope, sis is actually going for longer than I am. I'll only be gone for two weeks, she's going for three.
@Cerberus I'll probably be able to check my email, but StackExchange doesn't make it easy to log in & out on a stranger's (or worse, public) computer, so I doubt I'll be able to show up here.
I'm wondering if native speakers understand all the words in songs? For me it is very very difficult, as I can understand only 30% of words and phrases in songs usually. While listening to people's conversations (e.g. podcasts) I understand much more, perhaps about 80%.
This was the first part ...
@Martha: Perhaps it would be a good idea to forge a subsidiary hammer in a cruder metal, for temporary assistant vice-thwackers of the third class, if such should be appointed? Not that I should aspire to such a lofty position.
@Cerberus In my experience, thwacking is actually better done with something with a bit of "swish" to it. A cork-backed metal ruler is ideal, but a simple wooden yardstick can work almost as well, and a bamboo back-scratcher will do nicely in a pinch.
So if you can acquire any of those implements, you are welcome to act as vice-thwacker while I am AFK.
@Martha: Ah! This is exactly why you will be missed. I was thinking of hammers and swords in my brutish way. Would your elegance be charmed by the use of a rolled-up newspaper? Or are those only for low-degree, unintentional puns?
In my part of the world, we refer to highways without any article. So we drive on "Highway 64", or "Interstate 64", or "I-64". But when I go to California, they say "The 101". Is there any explanation for this difference?