Things I don't understand

You really think so? I just click a button and I have created a brand new tough-to-crack password. Saved in a file. Encoded. I have never used the same password twice.

If you have to have passwords that you can remember, you have my sympathy.

I have three devices -- desktop, iPad and iPhone -- where I might need to access password-protected data. Saving passwords to a file would be supremely insecure, if the password file was included on all three devices.

Of course, using the same 2 or 3 passwords (or variants) on everything is also pretty insecure. But at least I don't have to fumble with opening a text file before I can start working.

NoCoPilot wrote:

 Saving passwords to a file would be supremely insecure, if the password file was included on all three devices.

I use a program that saves the passwords encoded in the file. Additionally, to access the data, you have to have a password to open the file with the program so you can read them. The program can also copy your user name and password to the clipboard for cut and paste.

I also have the program and data file on a USB drive for access from other computers.

I don't understand why Pandora requires a password. What's somebody gonna do, listen to my music?

Hot Cocoa Mix

There are two kinds, the stuff that you mix with hot milk and the kind you mix with hot water, which has the milk solids added into it.  They're both called "hot cocoa mix" and the mixing instructions are usually printed so small that old people can't read them in the grocery store without their glasses.

Mimic and mimicking

Why not mimicing?

Americans pronounce "vitamins" as vite-amins. The first time I said vit - amins to Montez, she said that was wrong. I said, OK, why isn't it mine-erals?

Explain aluminium.

Quote :

Two variants of the name are in current use: aluminium ( /ˌæljʊˈmɪniəm/) and aluminum (/əˈluːmɪnəm/). There is also an obsolete variant alumium. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) adopted aluminium as the standard international name for the element in 1990 but, three years later, recognized aluminum as an acceptable variant. The IUPAC periodic table uses the aluminium spelling only. IUPAC internal publications use the two spelling with nearly equal frequency.

If a place is habitable, you can live there. If a place is inhabitable, you can live there.

in-
1.
a prefix of Latin origin, corresponding to English un-, having a negative or privative force, freely used as an English formative, especially of adjectives and their derivatives and of nouns ( inattention; indefensible; inexpensive; inorganic; invariable).

Flammable and inflammable, same deal. Engrish she not so rogicle.

richard09 wrote:

Americans pronounce "vitamins" as vite-amins. The first time I said vit - amins to Montez, she said that was wrong. I said, OK, why isn't it mine-erals?

Vita-mins versus min-eral. You wouldn't say vit-Amins or mine-Ral. It's all about putting the emPHAsis on the right sylLABle.

In high school, I knew a girl who could not pronounce electricity. She was intelligent and spoke well, but that one word she was unable to pronounce; it always came out with an extra syllable: "elecatricity".

Nucular

NoCoPilot wrote:

richard09 wrote:

Americans pronounce "vitamins" as vite-amins. The first time I said vit - amins to Montez, she said that was wrong. I said, OK, why isn't it mine-erals?

Vita-mins versus min-eral.  You wouldn't say vit-Amins or mine-Ral.  It's all about putting the emPHAsis on the right sylLABle.

I've heard that argument before, and remain unimpressed. When I say vitamins, I put the emphasis on the first syllable. When you say vitamins, you put the emphasis on the first syllable - you just get the vowel wrong.

The "eye" sound is wrong for an "i"?

Yes.

It seems there may be a rule about the pronunciation of the "i". Consider these:
Bite - Bit
Tile - Tilt
Wile - Wilt
Tripe - Trip

When the "i" is followed by a consonant and an 'e", the 'i' takes a long sound - at least in American English. So Richard's pronunciation would seem to follow the rule. Of course, if we want to go the source and use the Latin sounds, then the 'i' is pronounced as a long 'e'.

Two more examples, from LA gang names: The Cripes and the Crips.

It only works at the end of the word. So we have mine - mineral.

Any time one is looking for consistency in the English language, one is wasting time.

How about minute (time) and minute (small)? Same spelling, different pronunciation.

In high school chemistry class, we were taught that the element was aluminium and the metal was aluminum.

I was just describing how an alarm went off. When it stopped, I started to type, "the alarm went off..."

No wait. The alarm went ON before? Now it's off? "My smoke alarm is going off..." but really, it's going on.

I don't understand why, when our pets get too old or injured, we can take them to the vet to be humanely euthanized.  They inject a sedative so the animal relaxes and goes unconscious, then they inject another chemical to stop the heart.  Takes less than a minute. Seen it done.

So why does Alabama have to take 22 minutes to execute a criminal, by depriving him of oxygen and letting him writhe in agony for a third of an hour?

Just grossly incompetent. Give the guy a sedative so he goes to sleep. Now deprive him of oxygen. Dying won't take more than 4 or 5 minutes at the outside, and since he's not conscious, "writhing in agony" just isn't a thing.