Any question answered...

58008618 ftw

Is it wrong I still remember that number off the top of my head and yet I don't know my gf's (or anyone else's) mobile number?

But what if you're talking about olive oil exports in the nineteenth century...? :)

For better or worse, I think the current standard usage is that "data" and "media" are both singular. But I'm not sure whether economics still clings to the more prescriptive usage.

I am not a native english speaker, its my 2nd language, but at university (in The Netherlands) we were taught when writing business reports to refer to Data (plural) , group of collected information. And Datum (singular) individual record from the group. However in practice no one ever used the word datum, simply always referring to data.

The same is true for criteria

several criteria ,or one criterion (people just never use this, as they are un familiar with it so commonly also refer to one criterion as a single criteria, in fact a mistake).

And The dictionary says:

USAGE Strictly speaking, [B][B]the singular form (following the original Greek) is criterion and the plural form is criteria[/B][/B]. It is a common mistake, however, to use criteria as if it were a singular, as in : a further criteria needs to be considered.

And for Data it says:
USAGE Data was originally the plural of the Latin word : datum, 'something (e.g., a piece of information) given.' Data is now used as a singular where it means 'information': : this data was prepared for the conference. It is used as a plural in technical contexts and when the collection of bits of information is stressed: : all recent data on hurricanes are being compared. [B][B]*[B]Avoid : datas and : datae, which are false plurals, neither English nor Latin.*[/B][/B][/B]

I think you can conclude that you can use data for both the singular and plural correctly, as long as you do it consistently throughout the paper, and your target audience are not scholars of latin, or english but concerned with the content of the paper I do not think it would be an issue.

Very Long answer but I hope this helps give you peace of mind.

Another thorny question about English usage:

When we describe a country using a relative clause, do we use "who" or "which"?

These countries, who were all signatories to the treaty....

or

These countries, which were all signatories to the treaty....

I want to say "which", but I think it might be "who", what with countries being motherlands and all that.

FML

I think: " which were all...." just sounds more correct who seems more personal to a person or living being, not a landmass defined by borders.

But what do I know, I am a foreigner....

Other wise couldnt you say: "these countries are all signatories to the treaty"

Or " These countries did all sign the treaty" ???

it is "which" i believe as you have already introduced an essential clause with "these"

or you could just leave it out.

these countries were all signatories to the treaty

it is "which" i believe as you have already introduced an essential clause with "these"

I'm not sure that's the issue. The same word is used to start a relative clause, whether the clause is essential or non-essential. Isn't it?

I'd love to leave the bastards out as you suggest, but I'm already having to sort out garbled syntax every couple of lines and I have 40 pages of the stuff to do before 9am. So I probably shouldn't start trying to change the order of what are otherwise OK sentences...

And anyway, it's bugging me now. Even if I leave them out, I want to know the answer...

Neither of them sound 'nice'. Can't you rewrite it?

The countries were all signatories to the treaty and..

Neither of them sound 'nice'. Can't you rewrite it?

The countries were all signatories to the treaty and..

I'd love to leave the bastards out as you suggest, but I'm already having to sort out garbled syntax every couple of lines and I have 40 pages of the stuff to do before 9am. So I probably shouldn't start trying to change the order of what are otherwise OK sentences...

.

That wasn't there while I typed..

Anyway, what the hell are you typing shit on here for if you have 40 pages of shit to edit?

yeah!!!

Good point.

New question:

Is it normal to sing in my sleep?

I'll be checking back after I've rewritten 200 relative clauses.

No.

Get the fuckery back to work.

Will a 26mm bar fit on a 25.4mm stem?

inverse shim?... :)

Well, it's only 0.6mm and its its an ahead stem.

yeah it will work, not the best solution but it will do for a bit.

Good point.

New question:

Is it normal to sing in my sleep?

I'll be checking back after I've rewritten 200 relative clauses.

Probably as normal as it is to sleep talk/ walk and all other things people have been know to do in their sleep...

google sleep cycling

and presto google delivers:

All though not quite what I meant http://www.roadcycling.com/training/Sleep_Your_Way_to_Better_Performance_001858.shtml

could this be the secret to improve your times, track, commute etc?

I'm useless with formatting but I am trying to tidy up my programming style.

Is there a standardised formatting / good practice for local vs global variable naming i.e something simple like this:

Local

rider_weightL = 120

Global

mirror_angleG = pi/3

or is it best just to presume people will work out the scope and not bother with this, am I getting anal?

i think I was taught to use camalCase for local variables, and CapitalisedCamelCase for global variables... but I might be making that up...

It's up to you T - if you want to use: 'l_variable_name' versus **'g_variable_name' **that is A-OK.

ta, my programming has changed so much over the last few years and working on old stuff is so horedouse, I've realised that I'm still making some terribly unclear code so am working towards some "best practice" ideas.
but am I getting anal?

(tonight or any night.)

ta, my programming has changed so much over the last few years and working on old stuff is so horedouse, I've realised that I'm still making some terribly unclear code so am working towards some "best practice" ideas.
but am I getting anal?

Indeed. What does 'horedouse' mean? (Genuine question, tried Googling but can't work it out.)