Mutable

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 16:00

Rotty said:
How did I know this thread was going to go this way

Well it is simple.
I offer an opinion such as "in my limited experience of the Independent newspaper it is not politically independent" and like bees around a honeypot you can be sure that Arcadefire / Visage / RichL or robmiller will tell me I am wrong.
It appears to be one of lifes little certainities.
They appear to feel a need to try and score points over anything I post.
I think they suffer VIRIIphobia

I have no idea why after all some of them have stated that they believe that they are superior people ....

I forgot to mention the debate will always end with "VIRII you are wrong and if you can't even accept that you might be wrong....."
Strange how they never entertain their own fallibility, comes with being superior beings I suppose....

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 16:22

Van_Dammesque said:
I think people sometimes like to be sesquipedalian.

I like it, but I'm inferior, what does it mean?

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 16:31

semi-pro waster said:
Serious question or not? It means a word that is literally a foot and a half long.

You know me I don't know "long" or "big" words .......

From earlier ....

VIRII said:
"long" words?
You can use words that are as long as your arm.

The point was OBSCURE words...... don't you understand the term "obscure" because 4 times now you've replaced "obscure" with "big".......

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 16:33

Van_Dammesque said:
As VIRII says he is inferior (copmared to the rest of us) and so is only a foot long

copmared .........

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 16:43

Arcade Fire said:
Not at all - I just think that it's good to correct people when they have misconceptions about something. If you see that as picking on you then I'm very sorry.

Correction would require facts yet in your case it amounts to you believeing that your opinions are correct and those who disagree are wrong. The very thingyou accuse me of infact.

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 21:15

starscream said:
Pretentious? il?

Send
Them
All
Beer

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 21:26

vonhelmet said:
I've used immutable, and I'd guess I've probably used mutable, but I couldn't say for sure.

I've definitely used obfuscate.

In general conversation or in more technical discussions?

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 22:01

NathanE said:
Rob is a nice guy. I think it's a bit sad to have started this thread. If anything you've invalidated your argument simply by starting this thread IMO (as you're now effectively trying to "one up" him like you say he was). Maybe you should add Rob to MSN and settle your differences that way...

It was not my intention to make this thread about him hence I obfuscated his name

The thread is about the words themselves.

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 22:02

MrWhippy said:
i've used obfuscate plenty, but i am a software engineer so...

Where would you use that in software/programming. I know nothing about programming but it seems a common word within programming and amongst programmers.

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 22:13

MrWhippy said:
several situations.

it's not uncommon in the software engineering industry to over-engineer a solution. it happens all the time, and in the worst cases, the design and/or code can become a mess, to the point of obfuscation. kind of the opposite of the ideal, "elegant" solution.

then some engineers just take delight in producing terse code, kinda keeps lesser mortals away from meddling.

etc.

Ahh right I thought it was some sort of industry standard speak or term.

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 23:00

Arcade Fire said:
You may or may not know that Rob is a freelance programmer in his spare time. Hence it's not inconceivable that 'obfuscate' and 'mutable' are not obscure words to him, and certainly not inconceivable that they would slip into his day-to-day language from time to time.

As I said earlier, I frequently find myself using words or phrases in non-mathematical conversations which aren't so common outside of mathematics. You get into the habit.

That is highly possible, the point of the thread was to examine how common these words actually are in conversational useage.

Perhaps we should ask how many people also use autodidactically in the same breath

VIRII · 31 Jan 2007 at 23:02

NathanE said:
OK in that case... I use the words now and then, but only in my day job.

'Mutable' in programming is used to describe any object instance that can change. An Integer object in Java for instance is NOT mutable.

'Obfuscation' is a procedure to make it difficult to reverse engineer a compiled program.

If I'm feeling really geeky I might use them in normal speech but I'd probably apologise straight after

Ahh right so they are fairly industry standard terms then within programming.

VIRII · 1 Feb 2007 at 08:40

phykell said:
The question is Virii, are you going to start using these words now?

Well my language is mutable depending on alcohol content but that might obfuscate the issue...

Nah, I have never liked "obfuscate". I don't like the form of the word, not sure why it is just one of those words I dislike, unlike "galoshes" which has a lovely form.