User talk:Smack/archive1

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Colonial America

Thanks! I plan on expanding more when I have time. --Alex S 21:48, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Butt rot

Perhaps you should describe the fungus-caused butt rot tree disease in a stub (or more if you can!) to avoid future complication in the future. It has happened twice already! :-) --Menchi 05:10, 12 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Sahel

Smack, I have reverted your recent change to the Sahel - the Sudan is only south of the far eastern end of the Sahel, which runs right across Africa. The previous version was essentially right, though I guess "rain forest" is going it a bit for southern Sudan, so I have qualified the previous text a bit. seglea 05:04, 2 Dec 2003 (UTC) (also of UCB, incidentally).

OK, apologies, I've now looked more closely... I didn't realise there was a region called the Sudan as well as a country. But if I didn't know, nor would most nonexperts, so I have expanded the text a bit. And I'll put a live link in the pointer to the region article at the top of the country article. seglea 05:16, 2 Dec 2003 (UTC)

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Thanks for supplying the semicolons (for special characters) I left out of the article on Menander. I'm still new at this, though I think I've improved a bit since editing that article! Flauto Dolce 14:41, 11 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I suggest that you research Settlers of Catan. You are behind the times. All 23 boards are official boards. ~ stardust 01:09, 16 Dec 2003 (UTC)

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no problem, anytime. Now you've motivated me to go look through my pictures from my Philmont trek, to see if there's anything worth uploading. Gentgeen

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I rewrote the last part of Westron, what do you think? Darkelf 15:20, Dec 24, 2003 (UTC)

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Ok, I've given my views at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Games. If you'd like to join in the discussion, please do. Gentgeen 08:38, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC)

--- Thanks. I've corrected my spelling. Secretlondon 14:16, Jan 22, 2004 (UTC)

On test (student assessment)

Hi Smack, I just read what you wrote last September about multiple choice tests:

If a subject makes an error and produces an answer that is not an option, the subject will see that he or she is wrong. As a result, he or she will probably continue working until an allowable answer is achieved. If the subject fails to produce an allowable answer after an inordinate amount of time, he will probably suffer from dramatically increased anxiety, leading to a cascade of further errors not representative of his actual level of knowledge.

I was about to write a new article on multiple choice tests when I found out -- just in time -- that you had included a paragraph or two on that subject in the general article on testing. Now I've been trying hard to understand the passage quoted above, but I think I failed. How can an examinee "see that he or she is wrong"? Where does that form of instant feedback come from?

All the best, <KF> 22:13, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC)

rocks and minerals project

Since you've contributed in the rocks and minerals area before, wanted to let you know that I created a WikiProject Rocks and Minerals if you'd like to join. Elf 04:56, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

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Press Release

I see you contributed to the creation of the press release. Might you be willing to follow these steps, and send off the press release? -- user:zanimum

Marduk (planet)

Somebody's put the content of Marduk (planet) and Nibiru on the same page as you requested at Pages needing attention, but they're not really "merged" yet. Yeah, it's a crackpot theory, but quite popular among the New Age "scientist" types. --zandperl 16:07, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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Hi, there have been some suggestions that we need to start cleaning out the old requests posted to Wikipedia:Peer review. You are receiving this because you have posted one or more requests that have been there a long time. When you have a moment, please check it out and remove the request(s), along with any related material, if you have received adequate feedback. Thanks! -- Wapcaplet 23:18, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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Hello, I've just found your comment concerning "flint and steel fire" Smack. The answer to your question (why it was a separate page to "campfire") is that it felt right that way at a gut level. If you'd prefer to merge the two I wouldn't be at all worried. Either way is fine with me. I suppose it felt right the way I wrote it because of particular history of flint and steel fires and the way this particular method is celebrated, but it's no big deal either way. --wayland 14:44, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)

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Is there a way to place a caret symbol over a character, as for unit vectors in physics? Smack 02:55, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

use \hat. i added a thing to the meta page. - Omegatron 14:52, Apr 13, 2004 (UTC)

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Hi, please reconsider your opinion of molbo, I have now expanded the article a little to try to clarify. Fuelbottle | Talk 14:47, 16 May 2004 (UTC)

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Hi :) Not quite a fellow Scheme programmer, but I am a big Common Lisp fan...Cadr

Biochemical oxygen demand

Compliments on your rewrite/merge of biochemical oxygen demand -- well done. --Diberri | Talk 23:46, May 26, 2004 (UTC)

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On Catbar's talk page, Smack said: Gee willikers, do you plan to upload a map of that nature for every town in Missouri?

• Yes, I am a masochist.  :-( I learned it from User:Seth_Ilys.  :-) --Brian Rock 00:39, May 28, 2004 (UTC)

Russian Wiki

I answered the question you posted on my talk over a year ago...it's on your russian talk. Ilyanep (Talk) 20:16, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

5000 people?

what is the 5000 people test? Lethe 12:10, Jun 27, 2004 (UTC)

You mentioned the 5000 people test in the Talk:Jefferson Davis page a long time ago Lethe

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(Faedra);; No offence taken, I am currently a 46 year old single father with a 17 year old college daughter named Gabrielle (logged in against my advice at faceparty.com) and so damned an(*noy)ed (*nothing to do with local murderers and masons) that I will give in anger my knowledge of '''''life''''' to all but alcholics, and idiots. I have a sister who is learning to use the PC after at least 25 years of smack and morphine and sulphate abuse, and an ex alcholic, who lived on the streets of Brighton (UK) trying to save the souls of the lost.

I am an ex anarcho punk, ex new age traveller, squatter, and satanist, the founder of the first critical mass cell (1983:uk): Fester (the Ramsgate flat earth soc.), the first official renegade of IOT, and founder of Riot, and enjoy an English heritage that makes me angry at toffs, tories, socialists and general flufies. Secretary to the South East region of Class War 1984-7 I get easily pissed of with bull shit. This gives me a right to belive in the wikifairy, whose strength has led me to upload several photos I have taken to the wk <--!> project, in the hope of ... (must play ball with the dog..)
00.00 uk time out. [reply invited]@ Faedra

SpaceShipOne diagrams

I'm rather impressed by the technical diagrams you've produced. I've been working a lot on the articles about SpaceShipOne, and I think its main article would greatly benefit from a diagram illustrating the standard flight profile. There's room there for some other diagrams too if you feel like it. TIA. 81.168.80.170 21:19, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Peterhof

Nice edits to the Peterhof page. I did change Nazi back to German Army, as I had previously some time ago. I think this is better because it emphasizes the awful things that the military can do in wartime, independent of political leadership (although I have no doubt this was encouraged by the Nazis). The former is kind of like saying that the Democratic Party was responsible for the Me Li Massacre.

Also, I added a Meteor Hydrofoil picture, but It could probably be better placed as it is too close to the chapel picture.

Leonard G. 23:43, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

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Crikey! I went through enough trouble trying to fit the seven existing pictures onto that one page, and hydrofoils aren't terribly relevant anyway. I think I'll take it out. --Smack 23:51, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

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Actually, I was about to put the Hydrofoil pix in the Tourist Info (where it belongs, but conflicted with your edit.

I notice you orphaned the western part of the Grand Cascade at the bottom. Perhaps this should be deleted. I have a nicer detail pix that could go below the initial overview.Leonard G. 00:02, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)

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communist parties

I agree with you on disputing the proposed merger of Communist Party of America and Communist Party USA]. They are two separate entities; the CPUSA was not simply a continuation of the Communist Party of America. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help; feel free to copy or quote this remark elsewhere. -- Jmabel 04:28, Sep 2, 2004 (UTC)

Kardeş Turkuler

Hi - I've been a bit busy for Wiki for a while, but the translation of Kardes Turkuler is pretty awful. I'll try and tidy it up over the next few days. They do some fantastic music. 212.137.57.25 16:31, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

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Hi Smack. I would like to ask you couple of thinks about spliceosome. Where do the informations about its involvement in polyadenylation and caping come frome? I saw it for the first time. Thanx --Wireborne 14:32, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Disambiguation

Yeah, hi, sorry about that. I hadn't forgotten about you (you no doubt saw that I'd left the header in my Talk: page, to remind me), but I always had urgent fires to water. Things are calmer now, let me try and gather my thoughts. I'll create a sub-page of my user page, and get back to you with the address. Noel (talk) 01:03, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

OK, check out User:Jnc/Disambiguation. I'm interested in both comments about how comprehensible the page is, as well as reactions to the idea itself. Noel (talk) 02:16, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

PS: I don't usually check other User_talk: pages (so that I don't have to monitor a whole long list of User_Talk: pages - one for each person with whom I am having a "conversation"), so please leave any reply for me on my talk page.

PS: Thanks for taking up the flag for me on this! I have so many of these going on that I just don't have time for one more! Noel (talk) 22:10, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

list of exponential topics

Just in case you missed it:

A topics list cannot be superseded by a category. Categories are a tool of primitive cave-dwellers who communicate only by grunting; topics lists are used by civilized people who can read and write and have refined tastes. I would rather abolish categories completely.

• You cannot change the title of a category without editing every page that links to it.

• You cannot exploit invisible links to discussion pages in a category the way you can on a topics list (so that when you click on "related changes" you see changes to discussion pages as well as to articles).

• You cannot put "red links" in a category, inviting people to create pages.

• You cannot adapt the organization and layout of the list of categories to the topic.

• You have to read that "There are 1 subcategories [sic!] ...."

If we're going to use categories to replace topics lists, why don't we abolish computers while we're at it and just use paper? And then abolish that and carve words in stone? And then abolish language and go back to grunting. And then abolish communication.

Michael Hardy 00:32, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Dillonism

• I meant to write "Actual condition?" on the listing, meaning that I wasn't sure whether Dillonism existed. [[User:Poccil|Peter O. (Talk, automation script)]] 04:50, Dec 5, 2004 (UTC)

The Humungous Image Tagging Project

Hi. You've helped with the Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax, so I thought it worth alerting you to the latest and greatest of Wikipedia fixing project, User:Yann/Untagged Images, which is seeking to put copyright tags on all of the untagged images. There are probably, oh, thirty thousand or so to do (he said, reaching into the air for a large figure). But hey: they're images ... you'll get to see lots of random pretty pictures. That must be better than looking for at at and the the, non? You know you'll love it. best wishes --Tagishsimon (talk)

Article Licensing

Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 1000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:

• Multi-Licensing FAQ - Lots of questions answered
• Multi-Licensing Guide
• Free the Rambot Articles Project

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

Option 1

I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}

OR

Option 2

I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions to any [[U.S. state]], county, or city article as described below:

{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" with "{{MultiLicensePD}}". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk)

Mooney Falls

How do you see this[1] as a copyvio of this[2]? The original version was indeed a copy of the latter, but I re-wrote it mostly from scratch, referencing info from two other websites that isn't included on the waterfallswest.com site--different height, different lat/long, etc.. Niteowlneils 19:36, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Hardware RNG

I've moved this back from Hardware random-number generator; usage seems to favour leaving out the hyphen. See this Google test. — Matt Crypto 19:07, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Pickle

Hello. I'm curious... which info from Gherkin were you proposing should be merged to Pickle? As far as I can see, all the info in Gherkin is specific to that topic (but I'm ready to be enlightened, and Pickle might well benefit from some more attention). Man vyi 20:19, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation. I'd be inclined to leave it myself - but then I'm no expert on North American pickles. Man vyi 18:07, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Check

Moved from Wikipedia:Translation into English (I'm doing cleanup there):

• Article: Check
• This isn't really a translation request. I just made this page into a disambig, and tried to comply with disambig policy by moving all of the interlanguage links to the appropriate pages. I know enough about European languages to know if a German is speaking of a financial instrument or a state of a chess game, but Japanese is entirely beyond my capability. Could someone put that link where it belongs?
• Originally requested by: Smack 02:59, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)
• Status: Fixed interlanguage links in en and jp. -- Felix Wan 03:05, 2004 Dec 24 (UTC)

You might want to check (so to speak) and make sure everything is in order there, but I figured there is no point in having this notice keep hanging our when someone says the task is complete. -- Jmabel | Talk 03:19, Feb 11, 2005 (UTC)

WP:RfD

Ah, how did you managed to miss the big "If you modify this list, do the same to the copy at Wikipedia:Redirect" notice at the top of the "When should we delete a redirect?" section? Also, your addition is somewhat superfluous, since such redirs are already speedy candidates. Finally, you didn't need to do anything in this case; see your RfD entry. Noel (talk) 20:39, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I know the feeling. I took a long Wikibreak at one point, and things had change a lot when I came back. Oh well. Noel (talk) 22:36, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Legendre polys etc.

Hi, no problem, I replied on my talk page. Ask a question any time. linas 05:33, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)

ho there

Your (Kremlin) image links don't work. Ground 23:40, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I found the error on your user page. Ground 23:18, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Garibaldi

Hello. I'm sorry, but it wasn't me who made the changes you reported, but 209.50.129.121; he/she made several good changes, but Cadenza and Ebola are vandalisms, that I am going to revert. I was thinking also to remove the description of the battle of Lissa, first because is not so fitting in the article, second because there's a good article in Battle of Lissa (1866). --Panairjdde 07:49, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Moved from top of page

Hey, Smack! Sounds like your a pretty big BSA fan (I am too). Check out my troop's site, if you want: www.troop1018.org Specifially, this part: http://www.troop1018.org/Hints_info_checklists/a_helpful_hints_index.htm It has a lot of useful BSA and camping information, so don't fear that I'm just spamming you. --Will 04:10, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Legendre polynomials

Answered your question on legendre polynomials; in short, they're the same thing. linas 17:04, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

TeX

Right:

$f_{lm}(\theta )={\frac {(sin\theta )^{|m|}}{2^{l}l!}}\left[{\frac {d}{d(cos\theta )}}\right]^{l+|m|}(cos^{2}(\theta )-1)^{l}$

Wrong:

$f_{lm}(\theta )={\frac {(\sin \theta )^{|m|}}{2^{l}l!}}\left[{\frac {d}{d(\cos \theta )}}\right]^{l+|m|}(\cos ^{2}(\theta )-1)^{l}$

Notice the difference between the following:

$\cos x\,$

$cosx\,$

The preceeding backslash not only prevents the letters "c", "o", and "s" from begin italicized as if they were variables, but also provides proper spacing. Similarly write \det, \log, \sin, \max, \min, \exp, \sup, \lim, etc. In the case of \max, \min, \sup, \inf, and \lim the preceeding backslash also causes subscripts to appear directly under the operator rather than below and right, thus:

$\max _{x\in A}f(x)\,$

Michael Hardy 21:44, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

Image:Arhangelsky Sobor (Kreml).JPG

Hi Smack, how are you?

About this image you submitted to commons, you never assigned it a license. Is this a copyrighted image, did you take this picture yourself or what? In the future please specify a copyright license.

Thanks--Orgullomoore

Backpacks

Hey smack, i editted your bit about external-frame backpacks in the US basically because I don't see that many externals here. There are only 2 or 3 companies that still offer external frames (kelty and camp trails, being the biggest) and most gear pages (backpacker.com, for instance) don't even mention external frame backpacks anymore. I'm looking for a figure, but I can imagine that a huge majority of backpacks sold in the US are internal frame. Here in Iowa anyway, external frames are rare finds anymore. I think if you're going to note that externals have dissappeared from the UK, you might as well also note that they're dissappearing in the US as well. Also, props for picking Snow Peak GigaPower over the pocketrocket for your portable stove article. Gigapower's durability makes it the better purchase. :) Pwilt328 18:34, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Hm. Guess I need to buy a new backpack :-) -- hike395

Cleanup of Hiking

Hey, Smack. I just did a major refactor of hiking. What do you think? Can we remove the cleanup notice, or is there more to do? Please respond at Talk:Hiking. Thanks! -- hike395 02:19, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Spectrum disambiguation

Moved to Talk:Spectrum (disambiguation) --Smack (talk) 9 July 2005 04:52 (UTC)

analog things

Hi Smack. I'm a bit concerned at the recent disambig you've done on the various occurences of analog. Some of the choices you've made have yielded a set of redlinks to articles that don't exist. It is surely better to link to analog signal or analog than to nothing at all? In the particular case that turned up on my watchlist (modulation), I had deliberately linked to digital and analog to provide meaning to the difference between the two; linking to a pair of articles that don't exist doesn't really achieve that. I also chose just digital than digital signal because I wanted to give a link to an overview of digital comms (which IMHO is the sense in which 'digital' is meant in this case), rather than a link to a stubby article that doesn't really do the job.

Perhaps instead of making redlinks, you should be WP:BOLD and write the articles to which your 'disambig' redlinks point and then link to them? Let me know what you think.

By the way, I think most of the rest of the disambig you've done is great! -Splash July 3, 2005 22:41 (UTC)

I just this minute noticed your reply from days ago on my talk page. I didn't notice in among the other stuff that turned up there. I see you've been writing some handy stubs to help clear up these redlinks (that was how I noticed it — on of the redlinks I pointed out had turned blue). Good work! -Splash 9 July 2005 13:36 (UTC)

Double spaces after periods

But it goes against modern typesetting and style (Chicago Manual of Style for one), increases file size and it wasn't consistent. On the other hand, the Wikipedia Manual of Style explicitly states that the question is unimportant as only one space is displayed in normal view. I apologize for imposing my preferred style on you, and you are, of course, welcome to revert to a previous version. Grika 02:55, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

It's really a question of download speed; stored files don't affect the casual user. Anyway, as I stated, I am humbled by Wikipedia's lack of definitiveness on this subject and hope you will accept my apology. Grika 03:04, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

Disambiguation

Thanks for starting Wikiproject Disambiguation! —Wahoofive (talk) 07:37, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Case opened at the Wikipedia:Computer help desk

Hi Smack, I've opened a case for you at Computer help desk/Smack 20050724. I would like to centralize all communication there so please add it to your watchlist if possible. Triddle 17:29, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

Stay in school SMACK!

Smack, Stay in school at Berekely. I too am Conservative Jewish-American, with Polish Russian ancestory. Miss the Bay area weather, with the Marine layer.

Cheers, Scott 23:02:47, 2005-09-03 (UTC)

Smack, my apology about putting message on your user page, LOL My mistake... Thanks Scott 12:28:29, 2005-09-07 (UTC)

Definitions Headings

Please see WikiProject Science for a discussion on this topic and please add your comments. THanks--Light current 21:08, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Johnson

Why do think people named Johnson should go in a list rather than directly on the dab Johnson? --Commander Keane 06:23, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Edited one of your images.

Check out the new version of Image:Cerkov Rizpolozhenia (Kreml).JPG I uploaded. I used Hugin to straighten out the lines, as one would do if one had a view camera. You seem to have some experience with panorama software; did you know that you can use Hugin on a single image to do perspective correction? grendel|khan 03:59, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

Image:Cloverleaf.JPG

please update with copyright inforamtion or it will soon be deleted. --Duk 20:54, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

Lord of the Rings

Hello, Smack. I noticed you used your Tolkien writings as an example in Wikipedia_talk:Do_not_use_subpages in 2003, then I saw that you were highly commended for some of those writings at the top of this page.

In case you aren't aware of it and might like to get back to some wiki fiction from time to time, allow me to commend to your attention Lord of the Rings, one of the wikicities, which has a few enthusiasts and some material respectfully copied from Wikipedia (with sufficient acknowledgment, we hope) but would be improved by the attentions of someone such as you who is both a polymath and an experienced MediaWiki user.

Kind regards

Robin Patterson 04:01, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Technical question

Howdy, Smack...I saw your name on the computer help desk page and had a question that perhaps you could answer or redirect me to where it could be answered. I am interested in running a wiki locally, on my home computer. I know Mediawiki is programmed in PHP and thus designed to run on a server, however I want to look into perhaps mimicking a server and running it off there. Anyway, this is kinda complex and as you can probably tell, I'm an ubernoob. Any info or direction you can give me would be fantastic. Mир, Paul 17:38, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Merit badge collecting

Smack: I've written an article on Merit badge collecting, submitted it for peer review, and thought you may like to look at it and provide feedback. Thanks. Rlevse 14:19, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Merit badge FAC

I have re-submitted the article Merit badge types (BSA) as a FAC. Your suggestions were key to the last rewrite. Thanks. Any input you may have would be appreciated.Rlevse 13:45, 29 December 2005 (UTC)