Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[CatalinaWOW]

Just a thought experiment for the OPs interpretation of mass ratios.

So I have a one kg weight, and another that is 142 times as heavy.  By the OPs logic this second weight comes in at 143 kg

No. I would call that one 142kg. 142x1
If it was 142 times heavier it would be 143kg.  1+(142x1)

And there it is from the horses mouth.  times heavier = again as heavy.   times heavier <> times as heavy.

Those equalities and inequalities don't exist in my mind.  I suspect it is one of those English language foibles like the meaning of "tabling a motion"  which has exactly opposite meanings in England and the USA.  There is no absolutely correct answer, the answer depends on where you are.  If you are one of those snobs who says England and only England defines the English language I will just stop speaking English and speak American.  And the Australians can speak Australian and the Indians can speak Indian English.

[Circlotron]

It could be worse. Imagine if pre 1974 an Englishman said to an American "I say, old chap, is this thing a *billion times more than that, or is it a *billion times as much as that?"

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion

[vk6zgo]

Why do some call a 1nF capacitor 1000pF or 0.001uF? Is there some "nanophobia" that I'm not understanding?

Hey.

What gets easier to pick up the heavier it gets?

A woman.

Heavier because of more fat or more muscle?

Windows has a far better/freindly gui for starters.

The surprisingly useful "always on top" button still seems to be missing from Windows. Linux had that when I started using it 20 years ago.

The capacitor thing is mainly just a historical curiosity.
People weren't as invested in Engineering Notation, whereas Decimals were pretty much mainstream.
Also, 1nF/1000pF/0.001uF were pretty much in the "sweet spot" of common usage.

In audio, 0.001uF was getting towards the low end of commonly used values, all of which where widely referred to in Decimal parts of a uF,  & towards the high end of commonly used values in RF, where, to fit in with other values like 220pF, 470pF,etc, 1000pF just seems easier.

Even now, I have to think twice, & mentally translate, when I see higher values in nF.
It only takes a second, but it is there.
On the other hand, it takes a second to relate ".001uF",(without the leading zero, as it was often printed) with "1000pF"!

[Siwastaja]

Just a thought experiment for the OPs interpretation of mass ratios.

So I have a one kg weight, and another that is 142 times as heavy.  By the OPs logic this second weight comes in at 143 kg

Lets try one that is twice as heavy.  3 kg. 

Now 1.5 times as heavy.  2.5 kg.

Now 1.001 times as heavy.  2.001 kg.

You apparently can't do ratios for masses that are close to the original mass.

I'll stick with the news stories interpretation.  I think nearly identical masses do exist and need a way to be described as a ratio.

You missed the (flawed) point of the OP.

Their idea is that there are two different phrases, "x times as heavy", and "x times heavier", with the different meanings. Obviously, as seen in real usage through centuries, these phrases do have the exact same meaning (the former one, not the +1 one).

[richard.cs]

As a native English speaker in the southern UK I would interpret both of the OP's constructs as a multiplication rather than 1+. We do have a 1+ construct with again: "half as heavy again" would be 1.5x and "as heavy again" = 2x, but it would sound very weird to use it for any larger numbers. It also feels a little archaic to my ears, like something my grandparents would say or I'd read in an older book.

[TimFox]

In the US, I believe normal usage is "half again as heavy", but it still sounds quaint.  However, "50% more" always means x1.5, and "200% more" means x3.0.

[free_electron]

“Export quality”

if it comes from alibaba/dealextreme : ok if it falls apart upon opening the box

[free_electron]

When people call a generic tablet an iPad.
Or call any old vacuum cleaner a Hoover.

i'm still taking pictures with my canon kodak !
let me grab a cola  ( grabs pepsi , or that cheap no-name brand from aldi / costco / walmart )

[TimFox]

Sloppy, careless use of non-synonymous verbs:  e.g.,  imply and infer, comprise and constitute.
In patent law, proper use of comprise is vital:  if an invention X comprises A, B, and C, that does not preclude adding D.
Yes, I know that there is historical precedent for the inappropriate use of these words, but we are all technical people and should be careful when communicating. 
If imply and infer become synonymous, how can we distinguish between the two meanings?

[Tomorokoshi]

Sloppy, careless use of non-synonymous verbs:  e.g.,  imply and infer, comprise and constitute.
In patent law, proper use of comprise is vital:  if an invention X comprises A, B, and C, that does not preclude adding D.
Yes, I know that there is historical precedent for the inappropriate use of these words, but we are all technical people and should be careful when communicating. 
If imply and infer become synonymous, how can we distinguish between the two meanings?

There is a regional language pattern around here that follows this style:
* "Will this transistor work or no?"

as opposed to:
"Will this transistor work or not?"

[TimFox]

There is a regional language pattern around here that follows this style:
* "Will this transistor work or no?"

as opposed to:
"Will this transistor work or not?"

I grew up in Northern Minnesota, where there is a strong Scandinavian background, and I found that many local English idioms were literal translations from Scandinavian languages.  In fact, I didn't learn that "Are you coming with?" (as opposed to "coming along") was incorrect English until we got in trouble in high-school German, when we translated "Kommen Sie mit?" (which is correct German) accordingly.  Your example may be the same effect.

[Tomorokoshi]

There is a regional language pattern around here that follows this style:
* "Will this transistor work or no?"

as opposed to:
"Will this transistor work or not?"

I grew up in Northern Minnesota, where there is a strong Scandinavian background, and I found that many local English idioms were literal translations from Scandinavian languages.  In fact, I didn't learn that "Are you coming with?" (as opposed to "coming along") was incorrect English until we got in trouble in high-school German, when we translated "Kommen Sie mit?" (which is correct German) accordingly.  Your example may be the same effect.

That's very interesting. Specifically, I notice it north of a boundary line at approximately Interstate 694.

To me, both "Are you coming with?" and "Are you coming along" sound natural. I never would have noticed that the "coming with" form has grammatical issues.

The perceived correctness or incorrectness may have to do with which unsaid, yet implied, words would be filled in by the listener. For instance, a Minnesotan, don'cha know, would fill in with "me", resulting in:
"Are you coming with me?"

while someone else might expect the element that is to be brought would be clearly specified:
"Are you coming with a pack of beer?"
"Are you coming with a multimeter?"
"Are you coming with Dave from EEVblog?"

Such that their angst would result in a feeling of, "What is it! I have no idea! Finish the sentence for sake of Ole and Lena!"

[mathsquid]

So many people don't know the difference in its and it's.

it's is a contraction. It usually means it is, but can also mean it has, as in "It's been an hour since I got home."

its is the possessive pronoun.

[basinstreetdesign]

How about those who still do not know the distinction between
"there"
"their"
and "they're"

or between
"your"
"you're"
and not to mention "yore" ?

And one thing I cannot listen to for more than 3 minutes is someone who MUST start every sentence with "So..."

These drive me nuts.

[rdl]

I was watching a movie or something recently and one line of dialog was "Coming with?". If I happen to remember what the title was I'll add it.

[free_electron]

english is a very complicated language !

[HobGoblyn]

How about those who still do not know the distinction between
"there"
"their"
and "they're"

or between
"your"
"you're"
and not to mention "yore" ?

And one thing I cannot listen to for more than 3 minutes is someone who MUST start every sentence with "So..."

These drive me nuts.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.


I was unlucky enough to start school in 1969 and be part of a stupid experiment where they taught my class ITA (both my sisters escaped this madness).

I was being taught to read in a way that bears no resemblance to English, for example

See pic at bottom of post

Then I was going home and my mum was trying to get me to read from a normal English Ladybird book and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t read a word. 

End result, like many others taught this way, I remained in the bottom group of English throughout my entire school life and still can’t spell or grasp the rules 50 years later. The greatest help for me was when MS Word first started underlining misspelt words, over time words I continually used, I began to memorise. But rarely a week goes by without me having to ask my wife (or children when they were still at home) how you spell xyz.

[eugenenine]

And back in the 1960s the general public would often call a portable radio a transistor. 

I've heard them called transistor radio, maybe someone just shortened it.

[eugenenine]

- ANY programming language that requires semicolons to denote end of statements. there is a cr or cr/lf pair in the file already. use that. and , in case a line really is too long you should either : rewrite the code , or have a line continuation character. there are much less cases where you need to split a long line.

ANY programing language that requires ; for some statements but lets them be optional for others

[eugenenine]

Wndows has a far better/freindly gui for starters.

I've never found Windows GUI better/friendly.  I much prefer Workbench 1.3

[Tom45]

And back in the 1960s the general public would often call a portable radio a transistor. 

I've heard them called transistor radio, maybe someone just shortened it.

No, that started in the '50s. Transistor radios were becoming very common and "in". But hardly any non-technical people had seen a transistor (the device) let alone knew what it was. So this new word "transistor" obviously referred to the newly common small battery powered radio.

I vaguely remember telling a classmate I had lost a transistor when I dropped it and it fell into a crack, or something like that. She was astonished that I had managed to lose an entire transistor just by dropping it. Back then, and being a student, losing one transistor depleted my stock by a significant percentage.

A CK722 was about a dollar 60 years ago. Equivalent to $9 now.

[Bassman59]

I was watching a movie or something recently and one line of dialog was "Coming with?". If I happen to remember what the title was I'll add it.

This is a variation on the "You're from Place X? I've never been," with an implicit "there" at the end of the sentence.

[Nominal Animal]

My pet peeves fill a frigging zoo.  The biggest is probably people who refuse to acknowledge errors or mistakes they have made, because of their ego or insecurities; leading others astray.

In Finnish, one of my pet peeves is missing the possessive suffix in formal contexts.  (I don't mind everyday speech, I consider it something like an accent.)

One of the most annoying cases of that was a series of advertisements by the Sonera (now Telia) phone company, and their "Minun Sonera" ad campaign.
(The possessive suffix, and the correct form, is "Minun Sonerani".  The difference is something like my/me in English to my ear; analogous to pirate speech in English: "me Sonera, arrr!".)

If they had used any of the local dialects in Finland, like "Mun Sonera" (which would match common spoken Finnish), then I'd be okay with it, but butchering proper Finnish like that to avoid a suffix in the trade name just grinds my gears.  It sounds fake and contrived!

And one thing I cannot listen to for more than 3 minutes is someone who MUST start every sentence with "So..."

I apologise.  I do not do it in speech, but in writing, I too often start a sentence with "So," or "Thus," to indicate the following paragraph is based on the axioms/facts/assumptions/preliminary conclusions stated in previous paragraphs.  (Me fail English. Any and all suggestions on how to do better are very welcome! )

[Circlotron]

News agencies, when reporting an event, use the same word or phrase over and over and over again. Several examples, during the 1991 Gulf War our ears got worn off hearing again and again about “columns” of tanks. And 9/11 getting continually referred to at the time as “ground zero.” And now whenever something happens, reporters are not “at the scene”, they are “on the ground.”

[eugenenine]

So around here   everyone adds s to the end.  I'm going to Krogers or I'm going to Meijers.  Some say they are making it possessive but even then they are using it wrong.

Or referring to a driver's license as they, I always ask where their other one is from.