Sadly, I've read of college English teachers who don't know the difference between a passive or a present progressive or a gerund.
27 2024-06-04 01:19:58
Re: The evils of ing verbs? (17 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Anyone who asks that question doesn't understand participles vs. passives, gerunds vs. progressive aspect--in other words, doesn't know the English language verb system.
28 2024-05-20 02:10:55
Re: Bugs & Maintenance Requests (113 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
The fix ought to be easy:
Change the label on the red button to Add New Work and add a warning below the button something like: "To ADD A CHAPTER to an existing book, use the Action buttons below." ADD A CHAPTER really needs to stand out in some way because the red button draws most of the attention. Although not foolproof, this should stop most new members from doing it wrong (the ones who slow down long enough to read).
There is some online help that shows the "Add New Content" button that probably should be updated as well.
Thanks
Dirk
Maybe "Start New Work"or "New Story or Poem" ?
29 2024-05-15 14:07:55
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Something about virtue, reward, gifts? In DS9 we learn that the Ferengi believe in a great river of wealth, and they have a need to find it.
30 2024-05-15 08:54:26
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
So put the name on steroids.
31 2024-05-15 05:40:17
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Isn't that like the Prosperity Gospel movement?
32 2024-05-15 05:37:41
Re: Satan's Last Stand (the Connor series) - Dirk B. (1,355 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
You mean like guacamole? How anyone ever convinced humanity that something so disgusting of look, smell, and taste might be a fancy foodstuff is a truly diabolical wonder. Mashed avacado makes cat scat coffee (look it up!) positively appetizing by comparison.
33 2024-05-09 06:29:12
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Good grief. Word tells me I have 2100 -ing words in the first act of Archangel and 1000 -ly words. That's going to take a wee bit of time to address.
You mean like "bring", "thing", and "fling" ? If they are auxiliary verbs, the complaint might have merit. If they are present participles ("let loose a stinging reply") or gerunds ("He loved singing") then Word can just take its ever-loving de-ing-ing campaign and put it where the pixels never light.
34 2024-05-02 02:39:47
Re: Satan's Last Stand (the Connor series) - Dirk B. (1,355 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
35 2024-04-12 00:00:09
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Picking them off like wine goblets at the cardinals' feasts?
36 2024-04-11 23:58:06
Re: Bugs & Maintenance Requests (113 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
I dunno. Chrome don't do that to me
37 2024-04-11 08:29:01
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Shooting meatballs off a pizza? Shooting tiramasu at a Roman feast? Plinking wine goblets at a Roman feast?
38 2024-03-28 17:04:19
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
See what it took to sink Yamato: https://youtu.be/xCkfPeMls7s?si=geEOvj6M5_zd_xv- . It may give an idea of how to kill a ship slowly. Obviously your ships won't involve water. (The actual attack comes in the last third or so of the video, but Drachinifel is generally worth listening to.)
39 2024-03-27 03:05:04
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I rather like inxplode. But some self-important editor or, worse, some smaraifishul intelyjint ottokurruptor will change it everywhere to either 'explode' or 'exim bank'.
40 2024-03-27 01:28:48
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Ximplode? Imexplode? Some reference to (turning into) a shell as they pop? Bubplode?
41 2024-03-26 15:41:55
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Heinlein and "shipstone"s
42 2024-03-17 06:09:57
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Begin the handwavium here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_diode and here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonan … ling_diode .
43 2024-03-15 07:20:20
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Quanrum Tunneling with some handwavium to let 90% or more of the energy through.
44 2024-03-13 17:09:46
Re: Satan's Last Stand (the Connor series) - Dirk B. (1,355 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Why is that a problem?
45 2024-01-31 18:35:32
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Saw this recently: https://www.sciencealert.com/tapping-in … nsane-bomb
46 2024-01-05 00:02:58
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
You put cocoa puffs in milk. You take milk out of coconuts. There's a difference.
47 2024-01-04 23:45:59
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I don't think that a breakthrough in fundamental physics would interest our journalists half as much as a political scandal or a seahorse romance. Besides, most of then couldn't pass high school physics, much less get Einstein's 1930s work right. Heck, they couldn't even get it wrong! (High school physics: show that the units are consistent in e = mc² .)
I read a mostly excellent popular history of precision. But in discussing electronics, the author applied something about field effect transistors to bipolar junction transistors, or vice versa. It shook my confidence in the whole book. Yes, the topic sounds esoteric, but if you know electronics it's like confusing a steam engine with a diesel engine, or an oil filter with an air filter.
48 2024-01-04 18:04:36
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Interestingly, I came across an article where scientists were able to test indirectly for the existence of a fourth spacial dimension, and two different teams using different tests found evidence that suggests it actually exists. It's not conclusive proof, but a cool result nevertheless.
Dirk, do you have a link to that article? What I've seen recently involves alternate solutions to the General Relativity field equations in which there are two or three timelike dimensions and two or one spacelike dimension, which allows for quantum mechanics' "spooky action at a distance" to emerge within Einstein's framework--and lab work that suggests that these are possible. I probably posted these before the "blip" but I'll try to find them again if you like.
49 2024-01-02 08:31:13
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (302 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
But the combined ((tech)) fields might overload local space, or the emitters might interfere with each other in a multidimensional phase relationship.
Did you know that a spectrum is a space of infinite dimension, of the sort called a Hilbert space? Just throw in Hilbert Phase Space and you can tech-abracadabra almost anything. Multiple powertrons driving a single load must be aligned in their Hilbert phase space. Perfect alignment is impossible, and the effect of misalignment grows faster than exponentially with increasing power ... . (Remember that the factorial grows faster than any exponential in the limit toward infinity. That's why power series converge. And the continuous equivalent to the factorial is the gamma function, offset by one in its argument.)
50 2023-12-31 16:56:34
Re: Hello! (14 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Actually, there is one copy of my Comma Heresy Manifesto, here: https://www.thenextbigwriter.com/forums … tml#p34847 . Read it if you dare!