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Author Topic: The small random questions thread [WAAAAAAAAAAluigi]  (Read 969087 times)

TheBiggerFish

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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1861 on: December 19, 2015, 07:14:47 pm »

I'm going to visit my dad in London for this Christmas - can someone recommend some cool things/places to visit with him?

I've already been there a whole bunch of times so I've seen all the usual suspects and museums, I'm looking for something different than the standard fare.
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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1862 on: December 19, 2015, 07:18:03 pm »

Well, my dad was born in London but he'd never heard of Monument (to the Great Fire) until I mentioned it. Maybe it's not standard fare? Don't know. I liked it.
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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1863 on: December 30, 2015, 06:19:59 pm »

So, I live in Northern Ireland and have decided to enter into a university exchange type thing for next year - it's called Erasmus. I've decided to go for Denmark, Germany or the Netherlands. I'm rather undecided - I'm taking German language lessons next semester, so maybe there. But I really want to see Denmark - but it's so expensive. The Netherlands is mainly because I'm interested in Dutch history, which is probably a bad reason to pick a country.

So - were you me, which would you go to? Not that I'll accept your word as Gospel (hell, I don't even accept Gospel as Gospel :P) but a second opinion would help.
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GiglameshDespair

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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1864 on: December 30, 2015, 06:22:32 pm »

So, I live in Northern Ireland and have decided to enter into a university exchange type thing for next year - it's called Erasmus. I've decided to go for Denmark, Germany or the Netherlands. I'm rather undecided - I'm taking German language lessons next semester, so maybe there. But I really want to see Denmark - but it's so expensive. The Netherlands is mainly because I'm interested in Dutch history, which is probably a bad reason to pick a country.

So - were you me, which would you go to? Not that I'll accept your word as Gospel (hell, I don't even accept Gospel as Gospel :P) but a second opinion would help.
Personally, I would probably pick Germany there, if you can speak the language a bit better.
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Helgoland

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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1865 on: December 30, 2015, 10:26:40 pm »

Pick Germany.

For me, the main reason to learn a new language is to gain access to the associated culture. From that perspective, you can't do much better than with learning German: Brecht, Kafka, Goethe, Heine - and those are just the ones I've read in the past six months :p Living in a country gives you a whole new perspective on a language, a deeper, more intuitive understanding which is invaluable when reading literature. Besides the wordsmiths consider the German philosophers: Marx, of course, but also Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, Hegel and Fichte. History-wise there's a lot of interesting stuff too, even leaving aside the Anstreicher, and it's intertwined - to a degree - with that of the Netherlands. Hell, it's fairly easy to imagine an alternate history in which our Netherlands is replaced by a Hanse-turned-nation-state.
Additionally consider that it's very easy to travel from Germany to both Denmark and the Netherlands, as long as you pick a place in the North-West - I'd suggest Hamburg or Cologne. Berlin is ugly and overhyped.

Oh, and if you end up somewhere along the Rhine, I'll buy you a beer sometime ;)
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TheBiggerFish

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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1866 on: December 30, 2015, 11:14:48 pm »

Well yeah.  That makes much sense.
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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1867 on: December 31, 2015, 03:11:54 am »

Suppose this is a sound file, converted into a .raw, opened on Photoshop to be edited somewhat by writing on it (yes, seriously. See Glitch Audio). How do audio players play the file if I were to scratch the third top most pixel to the left? Do they play it from left to right, escalating downwards? Play it all at once from the left side to the right? Top-down? Bottom-up?
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TheBiggerFish

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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1868 on: December 31, 2015, 03:15:48 am »

I don't get it.
What does that byte do?
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i2amroy

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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1869 on: December 31, 2015, 03:53:25 am »

Also if you want to get further into a language, basically being thrown into the deep end is apparently one of the best ways to go about it. You're basically forced to learn the language, so you pick it up pretty quickly.
Note on this; being thrown into the deep end for language is the best way to go from knowing absolutely nothing to "Soon bus coming. Me want know how many till arriving." (i.e., understandable and able to get your point across, but people will probably look at you funny). It's one of the worst ways to reach a natively fluent and literate level in a language; there's a reason why we have to take grammar classes even in our native languages, because "just picking it up as you go" is the type of approach that takes decades of corrections before you fully grasp everything. You'll learn more about the proper way to speak in a month of regular classes than you will in years of osmosis.

In short:
"Deep end": Good at learning basics and forming a "workable" vocabulary. Great for learning the "what" of what you say. Bad for not sounding like a caveman.
Traditional Class: Good at learning grammar and parts of speech (conjunctions, contractions, etc.). Great for learning the "how" of how you talk. Bad for learning basics and vocabulary.

Suppose this is a sound file, converted into a .raw, opened on Photoshop to be edited somewhat by writing on it (yes, seriously. See Glitch Audio). How do audio players play the file if I were to scratch the third top most pixel to the left? Do they play it from left to right, escalating downwards? Play it all at once from the left side to the right? Top-down? Bottom-up?
Generally pixel data is given from left to right and top to bottom. However this is not necessarily standardized, and as such there are actually two fields you can set (Pixel Order and Scanline Order), that can be used to invert either of these; some applications actually require you to read the image data from right to left or from bottom to top (or both). Specifically what's going to determine how it's read is going to be bytes number 19 and 20 of the file (for Oracle standard RAW image data that is). Since any audio files using the MPEG audio format (including mp3 files) use a much shorter header (around ~4 bytes), this means that the actual order in how the pixels relate to the data is going to be determined by whatever bytes 15 and 16 of your audio data are. Specifically if you're going to be handling any RAW images (which that linked file is not, it's a .png there), then most likely you're going to be able to see the actual settings at some location in your editor (alternatively you could crack open the raw hex and take a peek at the first 20 or so bytes of the file).

Of course, that's just based on the Oracle RAW image data format, which we are lucky enough to have documentation for. All bets go out the window if you are using a different file type, many of which have no view able documentation given by the companies that made them (that way they can sell you software to work with them). ".raw", for example, is made by Panasonic, and a cursory googling is revealing a grand total of 0 documentation on the file header formats. I can guarantee you that it's certainly possible for your data to be read some other way, and in fact the way it's read is almost certainly going to depend on the early bits of any audio you convert into an image file (since audio headers are somewhat documented, if only by people who liked messing with them, and they are as a rule much shorter than image headers), but beyond that it's a total crap shoot in what you are going to get (heck, it's even possible you could end up with weird things depending on what the image editor and audio player you are trying to use actually support, on top of what file type you are using to store the image data).
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Sheb

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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1870 on: December 31, 2015, 04:12:47 am »

Berlin is ugly and overhyped!

Hey! :p

I'm off to Berlin in February for an Erasmus myself. I guess it's a weeny bit different from yours, since mine is a research internship Erasmus, so the quality of the lab played much more of a role in the decision process, and I had much more choice (basically, any biological research lab in Europe, or the world with some extra paperwork).

So, it depends a lot of what you want. Denmark is nice (Friend of mine just finished his Master's in Copenhagen), but a bit pricey. Germany or the Netherland shouldn't be too bad (your Erasmus grant should cover rent at least). I agree that "I like the place's history' is a terrible reason to choose a country. Are you going for a short or long Erasmus? Some people have a gift for language, but myself I know that I'd have no hope to get even remotely fluent in six month. Part of the reason I chose Germany is that I have some German that I can hope to improve.

Also, if it's a standard Erasmus, I guess you can't choose just any city in those countries? Maybe if you give us more details on the cities, we could give better advices :p.

In short:
"Deep end": Good at learning basics and forming a "workable" vocabulary. Great for learning the "what" of what you say. Bad for not sounding like a caveman.
Traditional Class: Good at learning grammar and parts of speech (conjunctions, contractions, etc.). Great for learning the "how" of how you talk. Bad for learning basics and vocabulary.

Well, yes and no. Classes only if they're not great runs the risks of you never really becoming confident. Classes+immersion (or at least significant exposure: I learned most of my English from reading books) is best.
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i2amroy

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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1871 on: December 31, 2015, 04:25:29 am »

Classes+immersion (or at least significant exposure: I learned most of my English from reading books) is best.
That was kinda what I was getting at in my statements about learning basics (personally I consider confidence an important basic in most languages, since it's pretty much linked to repetition/exposure). Sorry if that was a bit unclear. :P
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Arx

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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1872 on: December 31, 2015, 04:55:28 am »

Classes are the best way to learn grammar. Immersion is by far the best way of learning vocabulary, idomatic speech, and pronunciation.
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Comrade P.

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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1873 on: December 31, 2015, 04:56:57 am »

Berlin is ugly and overhyped.

Or so my great-grandfather in Red Army used to say after he visited.

Sorry, I've been looking for a moment to make at least a little comeback after this one, you had me pretty good there.
« Last Edit: December 31, 2015, 07:14:40 am by Comrade P. »
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Helgoland

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Re: The small random questions thread [Talk about stuff I pretend to understand]
« Reply #1874 on: December 31, 2015, 07:58:05 am »

Man, now I have to think of a comeback :P
Classes are the best way to learn grammar. Immersion is by far the best way of learning vocabulary, idomatic speech, and pronunciation.
I guess one has to differentiate between different kinds of immersion. Classes generally are great for giving you a proper foundation to build on, but they'll never really teach you how a language is supposed to feel. Depending on what sort of native language you're exposed to, you'll get a different feel for it, and a different focus of style and vocabulary: A friend itscomplicated of mine is from Spain, went to a German-heavy school there, and has spent three years studying here. She's perfectly fluent now, only having a bit of an accent and making the occasional grammatical mistake here and there, but she still has a rather hard time reading literature: Kafka gave her trouble, and Kafka's not that difficult. On the other hand you'll have to spend time with native speakers to learn all the nuances of words like doch - which is like a chameleon, really - or Scheiße, which is wonderfully malleable too but hardly ever elaborated upon in language classes.
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Arguably he's already a progressive, just one in the style of an enlightened Kaiser.
I'm going to do the smart thing here and disengage. This isn't a hill I paticularly care to die on.
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