David Schwartz

5,183 reputation

11018

bio	website
	location	Murphys, CA
	age	43
visits	member for	1 year, 9 months
	seen	May 12 at 19:12
stats	profile views	388

I am OpenCoin's Chief Cryptographer and one of the architects of the Ripple payment system.

I live in California's Gold Country, east of Sacramento.

Bitcoin: 1Gonhezk1ScHaFqUSYH9VQThaDS4PJSq1o

	5,183 reputation	bio	website		visits	member for	1 year, 9 months
11018 badges		location	Murphys, CA		seen	May 12 at 19:12

summary answers questions tags badges favorites bounties reputation activity

720 Actions

suggestions reviews revisions comments badges posts accepts all

Nov 7	comment	What is the adjective form for the word “integrity?” @GeoffreyvanWyk: What's the difference?
Nov 5	comment	Explaining the apostrophe in this quotation It's possessive. The union belongs to the teachers. If a bunch of engineers own a blue car, you can say "... the blue cars, like the engineers', ...".
Nov 5	comment	Synonym for “aforementioned” without the past-tense connotation Just leave out "aforementioned". You can say "As Jack argued" or "Jack's statement".
Oct 29	comment	What is the verb for removing spaces from a sentence? If whitespaces inside the string are removed, then it's "normalization".
Oct 29	comment	Meaning of “Schemas are changed infrequently, if at all” In this context, the "if at all" is probably trying to reinforce that the goal or intention is that schemas not change at all and that at worst they'll change infrequently. (We'd need more context to be sure, but that's one way this construct is commonly used.)
Oct 29	comment	What is the correct form of address for a police officer? Rule of thumb: Use "Officer" unless his car has the word "Sheriff" on it, in which case, use "Deputee". If he takes offense at following this rule of thumb, he's a jerk and there's not much you can do to avoid offending a jerk who's looking for a reason to get offended.
Oct 26	comment	What is the meaning of “A is not as old as B”? Are you trying to ask whether "A is not as old as B" means "A is not precisely as old as B" or "A is less old than B"?
Oct 24	comment	Is “sushis” the plural form of “sushi”? I really can't accept either "most popular sushis are" or "most popular sushi are". For me, it really has to be "types of sushi". Some uncountables, of course, have well-established plurals -- times, wines, and sands, for example. And some you can slip in without anybody noticing, like "What bottled waters do you carry?"
Oct 24	comment	Is “sushis” the plural form of “sushi”? @Ina "The most popular sushis in the United States are maki and nigiri." But I admit, "types of sushi" reads much better.
Oct 23	revised	What is going on in this sentence? added 3 characters in body
Oct 23	revised	What is going on in this sentence? added 585 characters in body
Oct 23	comment	What is going on in this sentence? Yes, you are correct. The problem is that the context we need to figure out what "it" refers to only comes much later in the sentence. When we hear the word "Eric", we hit a point of confusion. (Perhaps you should point that out in an answer. I updated mine.)
Oct 23	comment	What is going on in this sentence? None of these are garden path sentences at all. They would only be garden path sentences if you intended a meaning other than the most obvious one. However, my point is that which meaning is obvious comes not from grammar but from logic. Everyone one of these is completely ordinary except the last, which is jarring largely because people don't realize there's no grammatical requirement that the noun reference be mentioned nearby. (And, of course, it should be avoided because it's jarring, even though it's valid grammar.)
Oct 23	answered	What is going on in this sentence?
Oct 23	asked	Romney, “regards to”, and disfluency
Oct 22	comment	What word can be used to describe someone you're following? Guide only makes sense if you mean literally following, as in going where they tell you to go. In this context, "following" means you are keeping track of where they go -- they are not leading you but informing you. So guide doesn't really work.
Oct 21	comment	Is this noun used as an adjective? @RoaringFish: You can describe anything as a "modification" and thus make any word an adjective. This is just not what "modification" means when we say an adjective modifies a noun. This "modification" causes it to name a different thing. Determining what is named is what nouns do, not what adjectives do. Yes, you can describe a "points victory" as a "victory that is won by having more points". But that is nothing remotely like a "victory that is also points", which is what it would have to be if it was the kind of modification adjectives do.
Oct 21	comment	Is this noun used as an adjective? The same way a chemistry lab is not chemistry or a Iran report is not Iran. A points victory is not points. Yes, you modify it into one that has the property of being won on points. That is, it is not points, but is actually a specific type of victory that is being named (that you can describe as "a victory won on points"). See the difference? A "green car" is green, green being an attribute the car has. A "points victory" is a thing that is not points that is being named. The victory doesn't have the attribute of points. This is nothing like the way an adjective modifies a noun.
Oct 21	comment	Is this noun used as an adjective? @RoaringFish: A "points victory" is not points, it is a victory. When a noun is modified, it is changed with an additional property. A "green dog" is green, it has this property it was modified to have. We can imagine a "small lab", a "medium lab", a "large lab", even a "very small lab". This modifies the lab. But a "chemistry lab" cannot be modified into a "physics lab". They name completely different things, though both are labs.
Oct 21	comment	Is this noun used as an adjective? @RoaringFish: Here, it names. In the phrase "points victory" both "points" and "victory" name the thing referred to, namely a points victory. It is distinct from other victories, but it is also distinct from a blue car, or a points loss. It is nothing like a case where a noun is modified, like a "green car" where the car is modified to be green. A points victory is not a victory that is also points. "Points" works with "victory" to, together, name the specific unified thing referred to, namely a points victory.