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Michael Martin wrote: Whatever the Yanks want to do is wrong
No, no, it's just 'American', that which has been corrected was 'English'  or at least my native version of it, I dare say you have another 
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And tell the yanks to folk off !
MVVM # - I did it My Way
___________________________________________
Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
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For interest (if indeed anyone is so), and it's just one view whereas there are indeed many views (probably more than versions, official or unoffical, of English):
The plurals problem[^]
dr lim chin lam: Then there are the nouns where the singular and the plural forms have slightly or entirely different meanings. For example, folk refers to people in general or people in a community (the folk at Tanjong Rambutan), whereas folks is a more intimate term, referring to members of one’s own family (he reminisced about the old folks at home); and desert is an arid, desolate area of land (there is scant vegetation in the desert), whereas deserts, pronounced “dizzerts”, is what one deserves as reward or punishment (he finally received his just deserts).
I don't know to what version of English this particular writer is referring.
M
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Mike-MadBadger wrote: I don't know to what version of English this particular writer is referring.
Olde or archaic English. Just Deserts is archaic at least and in modern English deserts is the plural of desert, that place where Roger lives.
Generally speaking if there is an erroneous S at the end of a word or even an expected S missing, it is a Yank thing.
For instance Lego is correct, Legos not even a word. Math is the first 4 letters of Mathematics and when shortened is spelt (not spelled) Maths.
And lets not even get started on their inconsistent use of French pronounciation in words, places and products.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Michael Martin wrote: Just Deserts is archaic at least
I've definitely said that recently (and heard it recently) so unless archaic means before 2010 I'm not sure I agree
Whereas I totally agree about Maths and Lego 
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Mike-MadBadger wrote: I've definitely said that recently (and heard it recently) so unless archaic means before 2010 I'm not sure I agree
The saying is still in common use, deserts as the meaning deserving of is definitely archaic and not used outside of said saying.
Google and Wikipedia back me up.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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I hate to be pedantic, but I think you will find the expression is just desserts
Of course, if you commute between the Sahara and the Kalahari, then you are quite right - it's just deserts. 
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Chris C-B wrote: I hate to be pedantic, but I think you will find the expression is just desserts
Of course, if you commute between the Sahara and the Kalahari, then you are quite right - it's just deserts.
Yeah...No, you're wrong it is Just deserts[^]
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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"Folk" is a collective noun; don't pluralize it -- says the representative from the great state of Arizona.
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Are you referring to the collective nouns rule?
If the sentence suggests a group you should use the singular form. If it implies more individuality you should use the plural form.
A couple of folk is dancing together.
A couple of folks are in their own cars.
That's how I was taught English, I am not sure that it has anything to do with being American or British.
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Hmmm, I suspect differences in usage as opposed to rules.
I would expect to hear:
A couple of folk are dancing.
My old folks (parents) are at home.
The old folk (parents again) are at home.
The s is optional and comprehensible in the second of those.
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Trivial. You both are totally incapable of understanding or using the concept of genders in a language. 
Sent from my BatComputer via HAL 9000 and M5
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I'm currently learning French (because I now live there), in that context I agree I am totally incapable of using genders in language 
Although I would argue that French gender and pronunciation rules are sufficiently intertwined and confused thaat it's not my fault 
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1. You should avoid using idiomatic speech in texts that are to be read outside of your idiom. This usage of "folk/s" is idiomatic, so the correction is no better or worse than the original text.
2. You should be as precise as possible, without adding words that do not add meaning, i.e:
-- What were these "folks" really? Developers? inventors? Users? Idiots?
-- By "a couple of", do you mean "two", "Dave and Arthur", or just developers/inventors/users/idiots?
The whole phrase could be replaced by a single word, which would communicate meaning better and to more readers.
3. You should show the written language the same respect that you do a programming language -- written languages are far more sophisticated and harder to use, granted, but that does not mean that using them badly is acceptable. Do you redesign "IF" statements, every time you use one? If not, don't screw with English, either. And note that "clever" use of written language doesn't communicate well; it just shows that the writer is a dick.
4. You never write for yourself -- actually, you can, but it's become a bit more difficult since Geocities went under -- so look at words you have written, think of the poor buggers who will have to read them, and make sure that they're a good match.
TBH, if I saw the phrase "a couple of folk/s" in a technical document, which is intended to inform people of how to do technical things that they don't already know how to do, I wouldn't release the document until it had been fixed.
The stuff people have to learn, and the hoops they have to jump through to make things work, are difficult enough already, without someone making it harder by writing instructions that do not communicate well to the reader.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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At the risk of being a complete arse, I would say a "couple of people" as "folk" has rather a vernacular ring to it.
I would not use that term outside of speech.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Folk can hardly be singular; making it plural is redundant. It's only used in Simplified English (aka, American).
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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For something like this you should do ngram searches.
British English[^] uses the non-pluralized version almost exclusively; in American English[^] folks has ran away with the lead since 1980.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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So I was playing cards with my friends at my home and my 2TB external Seagate HDD was sitting on top of DVD case holder. One of my friend accidentally hit it and my HDD dropped and started making clicking noise... One drop from about 2 feet height and HDD is gone.. All my movies and tv series collection that I managed to collect over the years has gone..  ..No hope to recover it as I took out the HDD from its case and here the head making clicking noise..I m not too much fussed about movies but some of my TV Series and documentary collection is hard to find..
Now I have ordered new Synology NAS as a replacement for my HDD ..
Lesson learned : Always backup the backup.. Never buy Seagate HDD again (It cannot sustain a 2 feet fall !!! )...
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Math is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
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virang_21 wrote: Never buy Seagate HDD again (It cannot sustain a 2 feet fall !!! )...
Feets doesn't matter, it's the shock/impact that matters, specially when it's running. No running HDD will sustain 2-3 feet fall.
I never store anything permanent on an external HDD, for this same reason. All your important stuff should be on a non-portable place. with at-least one more copy on different location.
Now, when you get your NAS, don't be greedy and setup a RAID 1.
Backup is like Exercise, we always learn its value the hard way.
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I learned that lesson, thankfully many years ago, I worked two weeks on a project got a printout and then went to copy to another floppy and mixed up source and destination and overwrote the work I had done. Luckily I had a printout and it only took me a couple of days to retype and correct before getting back my work. After that it was double backup.
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Rutvik Dave wrote: don't be greedy and setup a RAID 1.
Agreed!
RAID 5, minimum 3 disks, from different manufacturers if possible, if not then different batches. That way, that should fail at different times...
And keep the NAS on the floor! 
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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OriginalGriff wrote: RAID 5, minimum 3 disks, from different manufacturers if possible, if not then different batches. That way, that should fail at different times...
What do you use for your NAS?
I got the following hardware just haven't set it up yet.
Asrock B75M R2.0 M/B with 3 x SATA3 and 5 x SATA2 ports
Pentium G2120 CPU
2 x 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws-X DDR3-2133
3 x Western Disgital 2TB Caviar Black HDD
5 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD
Planning on running FreeNAS 9.1 and having 2 separate RAID5 arrays. The 3 x WD 2TB will be iSCSI targets for virtual machines. The 5 x Seagate 3TB will be network storage for Movies, TV shows, ISO's, software and family data.
Got anothe Asrock B75M R2.0 M/B, Core i7-3770 CPU and yet to get another set of the G.Skill RAM mentioned above so I can setup my server. Hoping to run VMware ESXi 5.1 as the host, but if I have issues with the hardware will have to play with Windows Server 2012 and HyperV.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Acer Aspire Easy store with 4 x 1Tb HDD. It's a few years old now, but it has power management and intelligent cooling, so it spins the disks down when they aren't in use which preserves the bearing life, and Works well to keep the temperatures nice and cool.
And it's a damn sight quieter than the NetGear ReadyNAS I tried replacing it with a couple of years ago. Plus that was way, easy too fussy about it's drives - it wouldn't accept two of the new drives I got at all. Big plus it had was hot swap, and automatic upgrade if you added a clean disk.
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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How much power does such a NAS consume? (In use, and stand-by)
I was considering buying a NAS for storage but I'm a bit concerned about an ever running "server" in my home 
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