Wiki manual for x2

A collection of especially useful xplorer² topics and ideas. New users may find it helpful to look here before searching the other forums for information. >>>>>> Please post new material in the relevant forum. (New stuff posted here will be removed.) Thanks. -fg-

Moderators: fgagnon, nikos

Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

Well, I was barred from helping because of fears that I'd turn what was already War and Peace into a new translation of the King James Bible.  Or... maybe I just dreamed that admonition?  I would, of course, just amuse myself by coming up with myriad ways of circumventing narayan's absurd stricture about using American Spellings, so I know not how much help I would be in the end...

However, if the wee three kings are drowning in their row-boat, I could lend a fourth oar...

(Making it quite clear that I know nothing whatsoever about Wiki-nonsense to begin with.  I see no Wiki, hear no Wiki, and speak no Wiki.  I am, though, astoundingly good at shovelling horse-shite.)
Tuxman
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1610
Joined: 2009 Aug 19, 07:49

Post by Tuxman »

Yeh, Kilmatead as a sysop would bring the fun into dysfunction.
Tux. ; tuxproject.de
registered xplorer² pro user since Oct 2009, ultimated in Mar 2012
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

Me being me, I just want to bring the unction in dysfunction.  What's one more messianic complex amongst peers?
Tuxman
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1610
Joined: 2009 Aug 19, 07:49

Post by Tuxman »

Given that I'm not sure if the Imperium Romanum is still erecting the Cross, probably this is not the best idea.
Tux. ; tuxproject.de
registered xplorer² pro user since Oct 2009, ultimated in Mar 2012
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

I don't think so either, so at least this way no one can say I didn't publicly volunteer to be a sentinel perdue for the cause of the damned.  Now I can go out and slaughter a bunch of rabbits in the real world with a clear conscience.  Happiness is a warm shotgun... (it really is, too!)
User avatar
nikos
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 15760
Joined: 2002 Feb 07, 15:57
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by nikos »

we need contributors with concise style, lest the wiki ends up like the encyclopaedia brittanica ;)
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

Eh, concision, derision. :yuck:
narayan
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1430
Joined: 2002 Jun 04, 07:01

Post by narayan »

All this is (Greek and) Latin to me.
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

Exactly!  What does it say about the state of the world when a bunch of bleedin' foreigners are dictating how English ought be wrought?  The Saxons only invaded once, you know, twice would have been a literal form of overkill.  I'm going to start my own Anti-Manual just to prove a point.

Bloody technocrats. :D
narayan
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1430
Joined: 2002 Jun 04, 07:01

Post by narayan »

Hey you are a foreigner too (and a fellow subject of the good old Brittania), nae?

We Indians speak the tongue of our economic masters. First the British were our lords, now it is America. If Alexander the Great had not turned back, I could be writing the manual in Greek! :)

But just as well- There is no question of writing the manual in Greek, Irish, Portuguese, French, in that order (This list could grow, based on Ms Merkel's decision).

After 2nd August, if Obama closes down America, I may even write the manual in Simplified Chinese, because now they have all the bucks.

But I am sure you will object to this too, and write your anti-manual in Full Chinese (which, with its 2000 characters, lends itself well to writing complicated messages).

Come to think of it, you may be even programming in an objection-oriented language!  :twisted:
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

narayan wrote:...you may be even programming in an objection-oriented language!
:D Now there you go - if you put more of that kind of wit in the manual even I'd subscribe to your hamburger-free newsletter!
narayan wrote:Hey you are a foreigner too
In more ways than you know - but at least I'm not a bleedin' foreigner.
narayan
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1430
Joined: 2002 Jun 04, 07:01

Post by narayan »

if you put more of that kind of wit in the manual...
I would love to, but most wit actually creates problems for the non-bleeding foreigners (especially yellow). :D

The initial manual had a few cracks at witticism, but after answering a few queries, I stripped them all.

But my schooling in Queen's English came in the way, and some idiomatic English coupled with American spelling has created a strange cocktail that has  not gone well with native Americans, I know (I don't mean the Apache, Cherokee, etc, but people who were raised in the US).
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

So the only solution is to aim things squarely at the uneducated, lowest common-denominator Google-Generation?  I can (unfortunately) see that from a business point-of-view, although if ever there was a sense of koyaanisqatsi to things (in the American Indian sense of the word, not the other one), modern finance is it.

I sometimes wonder if the reason I don't have any children is that I eternally strive to extol the value of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, come what may - metaphors be damned.  There seems to be absolutely no justification for growing up anymore - being spoonfed on blenderised, homogenised, and amalgamised nutrients will kill you every time, it seems.

Hieronymus Bosch had the right of it, all along. :cry:
User avatar
nikos
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 15760
Joined: 2002 Feb 07, 15:57
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by nikos »

Kilmatead wrote:In more ways than you know - but at least I'm not a bleedin' foreigner.
so how do you pronounce FILM, the american way or the father ted filUM way ;)
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

Ah, the great Zorba speaks!  Great, you get Kojak and Anthony Quinn as cultural ambassadors and we get Father Ted.  Kinda like how you picked up a Geordie while living in London, yeah?  Bish, Bash, Bosch.  Had a Glaswegian girlfriend once, that messed up everything - fine in a quiet room, impossible in a theatre.  And never go out with a girl from Cork, it bears no relation to comprehensible English.  I remember they put subtitles on Trainspotting for its American release - did they do the same for the Commitments?

Fekkin' Father Ted.  If the manual doesn't come out with a South Carolinian abomination of an accent (where, it would seem, no locals ever pronounce the last three letters of any word) what's the point in livin'?

And exactly what was Gary Oldman speaking in True Romance?  Detroit just is isn't the same as it used to be.  I really hope Brig volunteers for this.

And I'm always freaked out when I see the lads from Band of Brothers in BBC productions speaking naturally.  And it actually took me three episodes of Battlestar Galactica to identify that young Adama lad, 'cause he didn't sound anything like he did when he was home.

We're all actors, of one type or another.  I do hope narayan speaks like Ben Kingsley in real life, else all my illusions will be lost.  And if Tuxman isn't Klaus Kinski, there's just no point in going on anymore.
Post Reply