Don't put me on a pedal stool

[matts-uk]

Double spacing is an interesting one. Given that modern word processors can do type setting, then manually inputting two spaces rather than just changing the setting does seem like user error.

Yeah, but... Real Devs (still) use mono(!)

Generation Z can stick their single space evangelism the same place as all those, 'Beautiful,' complimentary colour schemes - Light text on a light background is Devil spawn. Proportional fonts are not suited to column alignment and single spaced sentences are difficult to read when rendered in a mono-spaced font. Double spacing has the advantage of being 'cross platform,' in so far as the additional white space has no pertinent consequence when rendered in a proportional font.

And is a question mark after quotation ok, and/or should I have included a full stop inside the quote?

Punctuation inside the quote or consider restructuring the sentence.

And when is it acceptable to start a sentence with 'And'?

When the author considers it is acceptable to start their sentence with, 'And.' A sentence started with, 'And,' without consideration is always a mistake, however.

And should that have been single quotes?

Strictly speaking, 'And,' should not be in quotes at all. The recent evolution of inverted comma use is a little interesting though.

It's a minefield!

Yes. The English language is a hodge-podge of invading and invaded foreign influence. The Romans, Vikings, Saxons, Normans all introduced their own words into the vocabulary, creating many duplications. Pronunciation and meaning were modified by regional dialect and it took Caxton's printing press to impose any semblance of standardisation. The period of rapid colonial expansion, started by Elizabeth I, then created a need for new words and the language expanded, with bastardised phrases imported and exported, to and from over-seas vocabularies.

After a couple of drinks at a dinner party, if anyone claims to be, "Good at English." I'll challenge them to recite this little verse.

The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenité

[Saracen999]

ah but what about triplicate forms for submitting paperwork? One for you, one for the reviewer, one for head office etc? They're not strictly carbon copy I guess, that black sheet is long gone, but you write on the white and the blue, yellow and pink layers below all get the same markings.

That precisely is NCR. As in No Carbon Required, because the carbonising bit is built into the form back itself, meaning you don't have it to faff about inserting carbon paper to get the carbon copies. You would normally stick a bit of blank card between last page of current form and first page of the next, though.

Believe it or not, I still see it in use from time to time. Last time was an order for reupholstery, where one copy was (IIRC) for Customer (i.e. me), one for Office, and one for Sales Rep.

One advantage, I guess, is that being hand-written and signed by both parties, it's hard to argue with. But a digital copy, even with a 'signature' could be argued to be fake. After all, I've been using my own signature, scanned, to "sign" business letters for about 20 years, maybe more. It doesn't take much with a WP package, form package or DTP (like PageMaker or whatever the current name is) to fake up such a document but a handwritten NCR form is MUCH harder to fake.

[matts-uk]

Yep, basically the same as we had and is the traditional grammar school way. It is also what my kids went through.

A comprehensive school was supposed to be mixed ability in class.

Really?

My understanding is comprehensive schools were introduced to replace the academically streamed intakes of secondary modern, secondary technical and grammar schools. Whatever the intention of the 11+ exam, academic entry requirements for secondary schools perpetuated the segregation of social class within the post-war public education system. By comparison, comprehensive school pupils received similar education, and so similar opportunity, until their fourth year, when there was some choice of specialism in elective subjects and streaming by ability might take place. I am of the generation who were, for the most part, streamed into GCE and CSE sets at age 14. We all got the same lessons in the same subjects until then.

Everyone helps each other, everyone gets the same chances, and I remember at the time some MPs etc getting quite militant about sticking to the idea.

Seems like faulty thinking to me. Helping someone of less ability may be useful revision but you aren't learning anything new. Seems to me there are more pertinent learning opportunities for the pupils who need the help and fewer for those who have to provide it.

So we had eg Brian was in our top set Science class. The fact he was really happy to be there and showed plenty of enthusiasm and work ethic perhaps shows there is some merit in the mixing idea.

Mixed ability teaching tends to cluster results around the average. That's great for those below the average, adequate for those near the average but completely fails those above. As a pubescent teenager Brian may have been happy to coast as the leading light within a small group of mediocre peers. What Brian could have achieved, had he been stretched and challenged, we will never know.

[DanceswithUnix]

By comparison, comprehensive school pupils received similar education, and so similar opportunity,

That is what I remember people latching onto, a level of "fairness" that I think people went too far with. The idea that there shouldn't be an entrance exam, and all children should be educated together to the same level. OFC it is all nonsense, the entrance exam for a school is whether your parents have enough money to buy into the catchment area. All the kids that get into a school get the same chances, not all of them take what is offered.

I think the school I went to picked a decent balance. It was a good enough school that I didn't even bother sitting the local 11 plus, and nearly all of my friends ended up with good degrees. I think Brian went on to become a car mechanic, I don't know if he got a Physics qualification

[ik9000]

Mixed ability teaching tends to cluster results around the average. That's great for those below the average, adequate for those near the average but completely fails those above. As a pubescent teenager Brian may have been happy to coast as the leading light within a small group of mediocre peers. What Brian could have achieved, had he been stretched and challenged, we will never know.

An interesting perspective. Having gone state comp. and then to a leading uni I can say it can work, but there was a noticeable gulf in class at uni with the talent coming out of private schools. I always felt like an imposter comparatively. I also landed there completely unprepared for how to approach uni work. It took a while to click what was expected and how to tackle it and by that point there was no catching-up. I got by overall but I could have done so much better with a bit more serious A-level tuition in "non-essential optional modules" that were poorly taught in too much of a hurry alongside all the major coursework instead of properly timetabled.

I could also have done with a bit more prep and practical advice on how to land on your feet in uni itself. Even basics like get your work placement done before you arrive, and read XYZ would have been useful. Everyone from private school seemed to have done this. By the time my reading list arrived it was 2 weeks until the start of term, and I was busy having to pack and find a sodding regulation gown and get my wand from Ollivanders etc. So I agree with your point, not stretching those at the top does stunt them. But it's not to say they're automatically disadvantaged and unable to excel. It's just harder by comparison. What I will never know is whether, had I gone to private school, would I a) have had the balls to apply where I did and b) been accepted. I do slightly wonder if I got the pity vote.

[ik9000]

All the kids that get into a school get the same chances, not all of them take what is offered.

Partly true, and I've definitely seen that myself, but some folk just aren't academic and if that's all the school is pushing they will always struggle comparatively. It's why vocational training and apprenticeships are so necessary, and valuable, and successive governments have been wrong IMO to push people into further and higher education and defund (however much they claim they didn't) apprenticeships. The whole thing is crackpot, and then they complain about skills shortages!

[j1979]

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3563...es.html?page=2

"pedal to the medal"

same article

"the chains are off"

[Output]

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3563...es.html?page=2

"pedal to the medal"

I think I thought that was the actual saying as a kid, as that was what it sounded like people were actually saying.

I believe it was only in TV shows that I was hearing the phrase though, so it was likely a matter of poor TV speakers muddying the words.

same article

"the chains are off"

What's wrong with that one? As far as I am aware it means that there is no longer something restraining them (whether it is actually true in the context of the article is another matter entirely though).

[Zhaoman]

Yeah pedal to the metal confused me as a child too. I thought people were saying anything between petal to the metal and pedal to the medal and all variations in between.

That reminds me as well of "champing at the bit" vs "chomping at the bit".

[Ttaskmaster]

I believe it was only in TV shows that I was hearing the phrase though, so it was likely a matter of poor TV speakers muddying the words.

No, just more American TV influencing kids...

For example, I hear people using the term 'Two Bid Hoe' quite often, which again is American TV destroying the spoken language.
It should be two-bit whore... and indeed it is, but when spoken with a thick, heavy Southern accent by a black-toothed, slack-jawed disease-ridden redneck cowpoke henchman* in a Western film, the loss of distinction between prostitute and gardening implement becomes beter understood... and it's even worse when the new term is spoken with perfect British diction, a la Keeley Hawes!



*Picture the bloke early on Young Guns 2, who goes to sever Billy's first digit, with the line, "Ah figguh ah ged me least a hunnrd dawlluhs fu' 'is trigguh fangur"... before being shot in the face, presumably for his awful verbiage!

[j1979]

What's wrong with that one? As far as I am aware it means that there is no longer something restraining them (whether it is actually true in the context of the article is another matter entirely though).

Well if we're talking about phrases.. the phrase is "the gloves are off"

The phrase "the chains are off" is not a phrase and it doesn't make sence even if it was just a string of words.

What could it mean? The chains are going bad and past the use by date?

as a string of words you could say "let off the chain" or "unchained". But it can't be "the chains are off" because chains here is used as a tether, in the same way "the tethers are off", you would have to say "let off the tether / tethers".

It would only make sence, if in that case the chains were being worn as a peice of jewellery, like the phrase "the gloves are off", if the chains are jewellery "the chains are off". even then im not sure it makes sense.

But then again im dyslexic so im to•tal•ly out of my depth in the thread and probably wrong, but it just seems completely wrong to me.

[g8ina]

Their there they're

Borrow me a quid.

Affect Vs Effect

I could care less (Merkins)

Baited breath

A mute point

Excetera

Like (one of the rare ubiquitous words - works in any sentence at any point)

[matts-uk]

[

By the time my reading list arrived it was 2 weeks until the start of term, and I was busy having to pack and find a sodding regulation gown and get my wand from Ollivanders etc.

Must have been terrible for you

More seriously. You had the aspiration and the opportunity to try.

When I left school <2% of the UK population went to Uni. The majority (of us) spent 14 years in education being prepared for an indentured Apprenticeship. Unfortunately the year I left education coincided with Maggie's war with the Unions and the collapse of the Apprentice scheme; followed shortly by the employers who had provided them. We got the Youth Training Scheme instead.

So I agree with your point, not stretching those at the top does stunt them. But it's not to say they're automatically disadvantaged and unable to excel. It's just harder by comparison.

I had the new Computer Science syllabus in mind. State schools perceive the course as 'too difficult' and are refusing to offer it, to protect their Ofsted results. However hard pupils try they can not excel when the educational opportunity is being withheld.

I am coming to this as an employer of young people. I try not to be a grumpy old man about it but what I hear in interviews suggests state schools are fixated on inclusion and mediocrity. Pupils appear to be neglected just as soon as their predicted grades reach C or above. It worries me a great deal. My recollection of secondary education is endless repetition of problems and principals I had already learnt. I was so bored by the 3rd year, my reasons to visit the principal turned from commendation to being told off. I became a frequent truant and could not leave fast enough. It put me off formal education for a long, long time. (My whole career is the fluke of a Physics teacher being prepared to stay after hours to teach a dozen spotty faced oiks how a computer works; just as much as we wanted to learn.)

It's why vocational training and apprenticeships are so necessary, and valuable, and successive governments have been wrong IMO to push people into further and higher education and defund (however much they claim they didn't) apprenticeships. The whole thing is crackpot, and then they complain about skills shortages!

The whole thing has become politicised and commercialised. Essentially school leavers are now prospective customers with training courses offered for sale like sweets on a super-market shelf. The cart is before the horse. The modern Apprentice scheme, and now the new Kick Start scheme, appear to be more about creating revenue for training providers and a pool of labour for low wage, high volume industries. Anything to keep the numbers off the unemployment books. Small businesses (like mine) are awash with valuable experience based skills but rules and disincentives effectively keep the youngsters who could benefit locked behind a wall of red tape and training provider middle-men.

[matts-uk]

Back on topic.

I was very interested to see a Peugeot hatchback for sale on Facebook Market Place this week, complete with, "Catholic converter."

Over the weekend I also read the town I live in had become, "Grind locked," after an Amazon lorry turned over on the motorway.

[j1979]

Back on topic.

I was very interested to see a Peugeot hatchback for sale on Facebook Market Place this week, complete with, "Catholic converter."

Over the weekend I also read the town I live in had become, "Grind locked," after an Amazon lorry turned over on the motorway.

Did it have a Guy Fawkes logo/ badge on it?

[j1979]

https://youtu.be/CqWhZbdd40s?t=185

Drill bit or Dribllit ?