New Experts

I am pleased to anounce the following people (in no particular order)
have received Expert status.

usetheforce2
Robby
Laurent
Yoda
orufet
Banjo
Timbo

Congratulations!

In addition, in case some of you haven't noticed, The_Hand has accepted
the duties and responsibilities of a Moderator. You should all notice a
kinder, gentler Hand images/icons/wink.gif

Thanks a lot! this is an honnor!!!

congrats to everyone!

Am I the sole Guru now?

Congrats to all fellow *Experts* !!!!! images/icons/smile.gif

Ha ha now theres millions of <font color=orange>ORANGE</font color=orange> ppl!!!

Just a quickie - are we gonna get badges?

Chief

Mill, all of our Experts have the potential to become Gurus. The standards
for Guru are a bit higher so I can't guess when you might have peers
again.

Ever since I deserted the clique, yes. images/icons/wink.gif

But I'm still a <font color=purple>GURU</font color=purple> at heart.

Regards,

Hey Chief, 9 = millions. We do have higher mathematical standards for
Expert/Guru. Maybe we need to reevaluate you. images/icons/wink.gif

Badges - well, we can hope.

COOL! Thanks! I can't leave a long Thank you message now (I'm at school), but THANKS!

<font color=blue>lol</font color=blue> @ <font color=red>Thinker</font color=red>

Yeh I tend to get the two mixed up.... my maths teacher kept marking me down because of it.
i call it discrimination..... images/icons/wink.gif

Chief

Save me a seat will you guys? images/icons/wink.gif

Welcome, yous millions of experts!

LOL - I just noticed, Hand is back to Junior Contributor again

I'd watch out Squirm. You're making fun of a moderator and his many friends.
I'd watch your back if I were you...

-cl

Only for another 16 posts, Squirm so kiss my thumb. images/icons/wink.gif

Thanks, I appreciate it.
With the lack of replies on my part lately, I don't know if I deserve it.

Cheers images/icons/blush.gif

I thought something looked different - how did we come by this?
Does this mean we've skipped grade, or have you taken our brains to another dimention??

gdathiasas muchocho's!!

We all want to know when we read a post, can this person's advice be
taken seriously. No one here knows everything, so we realize that a title
doesn't mean everything posted will always be the best, most correct
answer. This step of recognizing certain people here both lets people
know they have shown a desire and ability to help with the problems and
questions posted here. It also should have the secondary effect of both
rewarding for effort already put out, and encouraging even more effort and
growth in these people.

As both an incentive AND a reward.......

Or is that a carrot and a stick images/icons/smile.gif.

Ah, you brits really know how to cut to the chase.

How colourful this thread is....... orange, purple, green, red, and blue.......

So where's the Leprechaun? .... and the gold for that matter!

are there any stats for the thread with the most number of posts?
I was just wondering - in case we were getting close to breaking the record....

----------edit------------
hmmm... I think internet software to date doesn't support dry wit - still, it's raised a few interesting responses images/icons/wink.gif.

Nowhere near...... the one in Game Programming is around 60-70

This (http://www.visualbasicforum.com/bbs/showflat.php?Cat=&amp;Board=visbas&amp;Number=11890&amp;page=&amp;view=&amp;sb=&amp;o=&amp;vc=1) holds the record, and was posted wen BillSoo was a *gasp* Guru!

The "Who ARE You?" thread beats ALL!

Congratulations one and all!

Haven't been at the forum in a couple of days, so i haven't noticed the new titles. Thanks!

Congrats to all.

Mill

You have forgotten a Guru by the name of Karimahata. One of the brightest we have. So I guess it's just you two for now.

Karimahata doesn't post that much, but what he does post is always pretty good.....

Like Hand, he was offered a Mod position once and turned it down. Of course the Hand has since reconsidered...

As am I... I didn't used to get to spend much time here, but it seems that lately I've been here quite a bit so I'm reconsidering...

Thank you very much for the honor.
I'll try and live up to it !

Oops, we forgot to close the barn door and one more got loose.
Welcome Squirm as the newest Expert. He has been doing quite a bit of
DirectX programming and has shared much of what he has learned with us.

a BIG welcome for Squirm! Congrats ! Welcome it the group. this site is getting pretty colorfull, lots of post got some orange, green....

Cool........ cheers all...... images/icons/wink.gif

Arrggh! The pressure!

I will hope to live up to my status.

Welcome Squirm. A deservedly given title methinks. images/icons/smile.gif

It certainly is getting colorful... not quite enough <font color=purple>purple</font color=purple> though.. hint hint...... images/icons/wink.gif

Chief

Want to get that lovely purple color? Here are a few tips to get you there:

1) Post a lot of useful code examples, and a tutorial or two
2) Keep learning, we like to see effort on all fronts
3) Keep being helpful around the forum (a perfect example of what NOT to be like is me)
4) Visit us in IRC chat, we'll get to know you all much better
5) Large sums of money sent to the following people: BillSoo, Thinker, JDT, PWNettle

Regards,
-cl

While CL would like you to believe that only Admins select Gurus/Experts,
all the moderators nominate and vote on candidates. Perhaps a few well-
places checks to CL might help too.

AH.... how I miss the <font color=purple>purple</font color=purple>...

But <font color=green>green</font color=green> definately has its benefits as well...

Looks like you have enough of both colors there Hand!!

Oh and Thinker, despite all your godlike knowledge and thinking power... its spelt "cheques" not "checks". heh heh
They're in the post.

images/icons/wink.gif

Chief

Chief - in America/Canada they're lazy and write cheques as checks quite a lot.......

Oh, and cl, do you take plastic?

It does not matter how you spell it since I only accept cash images/icons/wink.gif

You mean cache?

No. I only make deals under the table. Non-traceable.

-cl

Hmmm, Brits, never could spell worth a tinker's **** could they! images/icons/wink.gif Here on this side of the pond we spell it "CHECKS" and our cars have "Hoods" not "Bonnets" too. images/icons/smile.gif

BTW Congrats new Experts, one and all.

- Extreme VB Court -

All rise for the honorable Judge C.L.

Please be seated

Today we will settle the debate regarding the true spelling of "checks/cheques". Some of you may not be aware of the fact that there is more than one form of the English language: American and British. Each is acceptable in the nation in which they developed. However, today we raise the question as to which one is valid on this forum.
Those who represent "checks" may now present their case.

Now for those of you who think we should spell it "checks" on the forum please reply and state your case. Those who favor "cheques" will have an equal turn after the other side has presented it's case. Also, the same rules apply here as they do in a real court, except I am the judge, jury, and executioner, as well as the baliff, stenographer, and the girl screaming in the audience to let her husband free. And I will not hesitate to hold you in contempt of court and throw your butt out of here. So keep it civil, as is this case.

Our cars have BOOTs whereas yours have TRUNKS........

lol @ cl.

Right. Me first then. images/icons/smile.gif

(posh english lawyer voice)"Cheques" should be spelt thus merely because it is her majesty's correct spelling. Not that I'm even mildly patriotic to the queen or the country, more i am to myself, and that's how I spell it. Since the Americans adopted our language, they could at least do it properly, and not turn it into some inbetweeny creole variation.

I rest my case....

Chief

not wishing to imply ignorance on the part of the honorable CL, but on a point of order -
English is, well ...English.
Irish is Irish, Welsh is Welsh, Scottish is (go on, have a guess) Scottish and even Cornish is (gor bless'em) Cornish! (Ok, most of those are Gaelic).
Together with the English, they are British; one thing they all had to learn, was English...

IthankU.

How do you guys think I feel being an american in england? Do i call it a torch or a flashlight? boot or trunk? bonnet or hood? And does it really matter if color is spelled colour or color? favorite or favourite? It just dont matter, at least I can understand most people here (except for cockney) :)
Shawn

I'm in Canada and we have more of a British way of spelling.
I prefer to use Check, Color, and MM/DD/YY NOT DD/MM/YY.

But I do have to say I write Night, some Americans write Nite.

I'm not really too bothered about spellings, what gets my goat images/icons/mad.gif is how you Americans have tried to steal the name Football for a sport where only one guy on the team uses his feet on the ball and he's only on the pitch for about a minute of the game, and then you call the real football Soccer, baahhimages/icons/tongue.gif . Face it, your version is rugby with big girly pads so you don't get hurt images/icons/wink.gif

What is it with MM/DD/YYYY. That's just weird and out of order. I mean why specify the month first?

Being an expert depends on the number of messages you've written on this forum?
Is it assigned automagically like "centurion" when you've added your 100th message??
Or is it done by the moderators?

I just wanted to know images/icons/smile.gif

Expert and Guru are now moderator assigned titles.

Ok, thanks!

dragnut - just don't forget that if you come back to America, a rubber isn't the thing at the end of your pencil over here. LOL

Robby - people who write "nite" are just lazy. It's not correct anywhere. It's similar (to me, anyway) with another EXTREMELY annoying habit that has become popular in America lately - adding an apostrophe when you make a noun plural (i.e. car's instead of cars, computer's instead of computers, etc)... or worse yet, with verbs (get's????). It make's me wun-derrr if theeze peepul every tuk an Englash or grammer klass.


And oh poor Ad1. Call me silly, but I'd MUCH rather watch the Bears and Packers beat each other up on a cold December day in Lambea Field for a 21-17 game than sit for 2-3 hours to watch a game that ends 1-0 and the fans are car-bombing their own goalie. images/icons/wink.gif

As for check/cheque - I say "to-MAY-to", you say "to-MAH-to". They speak English, we speak American. If we have any Australians in here (and I think we do), then we'd have 3 forms of "English", none of which are really the same... and only one of which (the kind that Ad1 speaks) is truly proper English, but that's not to say that the others are not correct.

I must admit that I still find it iritating that Windows lists them as:

English
English (British)

Surely it should be:

English
English (American)

come on poeple, for most of you, english is you primary language but a lot of us struggle to wirte a few lines (like my self) so don't scare us with grammar...

and please! ! ! ! Critisize the American football but not the Canadian... they got the easy one! 4 shots for only 10 yards while we are limited to 3, and the field is so much smaller, 10 yards less on the lenght and a few on the widht. lol

and most of all the steal are players because the pay them more! lol

I'm not being critical of you, Laurent, but at the engineering college that I attended, I had a class in which half of our semester grade was based on a group project paper. Two or more spelling or grammar errors on that paper would automatically knock you out of the "A" range.

For example:
<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>


and most of all the(y) steal (are)our players...


<hr></blockquote>

Before even getting to the content of the paper, you'd be down to a mid-B. I'm here, I'm anal, I can't change. LOL

And unfortunately, when you're trained your brain to look for stuff like that, it's very difficult to turn it off.

that's OK, i know my english is poor but my french is good!

Actually, Mill, you are wrong about one thing. To thieve is spelt steal. Steel is the alloy.

tks Banjo

Gee..... I shoulda kept my big mouth shut!! images/icons/wink.gif

I reckon we should have a day to honour our foreign collegaues where we all use french, or italian, or whatever and then maybe we'll see how much which version of english we all use matters so little. images/icons/smile.gif

Shall we say - the 25th. Which language though? Votes?

Chief

hey that would be good one day per month we could write everything in our language!

On pourrait alors voir qui parles quelle langue! &lt;- like this is french

we could see who speaks our language and exchange a bit!

LOL Ummm... I don't know what you're talking about. LOL

images/icons/blush.gif

Righto then - here goes. Mon francais est mauvais, mais je reste lengtemps en france cet annee, alors je suis affinant.

Hows that? I know.. terrible....... images/icons/wink.gif

Chief

theres a few mistakes but we get the message!

Do tell. My french is even worse than Chief claims his is!

!Hablo espenol, pero es muy terible!

Here's some information for the Brits...about 300 years ago the world revolved around the British Empire, thus the "adoption" of the English language in parts such as Australia (a penal colony), central N. America (we Yanks are a rebellious bunch, aren't we?), S. Africa, etc. However, as time passed Great Britain has fallen off the map (as far as the empiric status is concerned) and is considered a great power only by benefit of their relation with the United States. If the victor defines the rules and how history views the interactions, would not the influence of American English (oooh, that probably ****es of the Canadians on the board) be the standard English form at this time? Really, who in this day and age ACTUALLY speaks the Queen's English, even in London? The latest stat I heard was a mockery if you were to define that as the "standard" form of English.

SO, if you are attending a party in which royalty is in attendance and they require an essay to be written for renewal of your noble ranks, then it would be proper to use "cheque". However, among the rest of the world of which the United States is the current Empire, it would be more acceptable to use "check".

As the rules were written by Great Britain in their time of glory, might makes right, so we too take for ourselves that privilege at this time.

Thank you, cl, for your indulgence on my opening statement.

LOL

Bravo! Except that N. America didn't really "adopt" the English language, we exported it when we emigrated from Great Britain.

lol Yeah, thus the "s around adoption. hehe

------------------------------------------------------------
"Great Britain has fallen off the map (as far as the empiric status is concerned) and is considered a great power only by benefit of their relation with the United States.."
------------------------------------------------------------

big words KesleyK images/icons/tongue.gif, and were you addressing someone lacking a sense of humour with those words, you might find you had started a nasty little flame-war..
though it seems you are more knowledgeable that your statement indicates; as you corrently assume, us Brits are famed for something perhaps lacking in *other* parts of the world - humour images/icons/wink.gif.

It might also be of interest that "might makes right" stopped being a valid foreign policy when the British abandoned it last millennium...

This ends the history lesson images/icons/cool.gif.

images/icons/tongue.gif Very good, m8, thx. images/icons/laugh.gif

9...more...posts...till...centrion

One more to add to the list.

<font color=orange>ArnoutV</font color=orange> has been moved up to the Expert level.

Keep up the good work!

Congrats to ARnoutV !!!!

Chief

I'm very pleased!

a big welcome

We have one more Expert to anounce.

Welcome Merrion to the orange ranks. (Hmmm, hope this isn't the wrong
colour for him, being from Ireland. ;)

He has posted some really good controls (in the code library, come and get
them.)

Welcome!

Thankyou.

Orange is not a problem, as I'm actually an Ex patriat Brit

We welcome another person into the ranks of Expert, Helmar.
Congratulations!