User talk:Heron/2003

Move v. Cut & Paste

Hello Heron
Chemoorganoheterotrophy : next time you think a title is improper, could you please rename the page instead of creating a new one, and doing a copy and paste of the text as you did with the chemo article ?
When you do a copy paste of an article, you lose its history. Renaming it instead keep the history, and create a redirect just as well. Thank you user:anthere

I hadn't thought about losing the article's history. I copy and paste because that's the only I method I know: I don't know how to rename an article. As soon as I find out how to rename, I shall start doing so. I'm sorry for any information loss I might have caused. Heron

Since you seemed (by the dates) to be an "old-timer", I thought you knew...Go on the page you want to rename. Then, on the tool bar, click on "move this page". You will have a field-box where you can indicate the new title you want. Validate. The page is renamed (with the old history). The old page is kept with a redirect to the new one. I am sorry I misnamed the page. That's the way we do in french with these long-unreadable names. But, I saw this is not your way.

Thank you, anthere.  :-) Heron

15:1

From your recent contribution to light bulb I would guess that you've just been watching Fifteen to One. Mintguy

No, I've not been watching TV, but I'm sure that 15-1 is a good source of factoids for the Wikipedia. -- Heron

Firefighting

We really appreciate your invaluable monitoring of the Recent Changes. May you be well and happy! Usedbook 20:50 Mar 17, 2003 (UTC)

Glad to have been of service. I had to take a break to preserve my sanity, but I'll be back! -- Heron 11:12 Mar 18, 2003 (UTC)

Standford Fleming

Sorry Heron, I managed to ruin some of your copyedits on the Standford Fleming article while we were both working on it. Do you mind trying again?

Geez, nevermind, I see you have already done it! Thanks.

No problem. I'm not quite sure what happened, but the article seems OK now, except that the bit about the 1887 honour has disappeared. Perhaps I'll put it back in. -- Heron

Sorry, it wasn't on purpouse, but I think one of you updated while I was editing. It happens.. -- Sigg3.net

Swans

I've tried to make the Bewick's/Tundra a bit clearer, but if there is anything more, please add it.jimfbleak 18:08 Mar 22, 2003 (UTC)

Image Editing

Hi, thanks for dealing with my spelling mistake on Image:Microscope_diagram.png. How did you do it? Did you draw the letter a in manually? Theresa knott 15:12 Mar 24, 2003 (UTC)

I used my trusty copy of Paintshop Pro. Luckily I didn't have to guess the font you had used: I just copied the letter a from elsewhere in the diagram and adjusted the spacing. -- Heron 21:36 Mar 24, 2003 (UTC)

I too like PSP. Yesterday, I started the page Wikipedia:How to draw a diagram with Microsoft Word, a couple of others have run with idea and produced Wikipedia:Graphics tutorials. It occurs to me that a tutorial on cleaning up images with Paint shop pro might be useful, but at the moment I' still working on the Word one. Perhaps you would like to start the page ? If you do I'd be happy to collaborate, though you should read the talk page for Wikipedia:How to draw a diagram with Microsoft Word first as some people dissaprove of "how to" pages. Theresa knott 09:27 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)

Sorry to jump in the middle like this, but, well, I'm going to anyway. ;-) About the "cleaning up images with PSP" tutorial, I'd suggest that if such a tutorial gets rolling, a more generic name should be used. Something like Wikipedia:Basic bitmap image editing, maybe. You could use PSP as your reference editor, but the general techniques would apply to any reasonably powerful editor. Others could include information on the GIMP, Photoshop, etc. That way, we don't end up with a mass of nearly identical tutorials. That's assuming you're interested, Heron, which is a pretty big assumption at this point. :) -- Stephen Gilbert 10:30 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)

Thank you for adding that final qualification, SG. My only investment in the How To project so far is the changing of one letter in a diagram. I have no opinion on the desirability of How To pages, but I don't feel motivated to create any new ones right now. -- Heron 13:38 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)

Fair enough :-( I'll do it myself later on.Theresa knott 14:34 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)

Banned User

It doesn't matter if I agree with it or not because it was made by a banned user. Allowing the edit to stay only encourages this person to edit more and more until the ban becomes meaningless. --mav

I see. I didn't know the user was banned. In that case, I withdraw my comment, and I'm sorry about the lecturing tone I used. -- Heron

Ich bin ein Berliner

My Dear Heron,

I think the issue concerning the Berlin Doughnut was not what Kennedy 'meant'.

There may or may not have been a profound appreciation of the gratifying magnanimity of Kennedy's sentiment.

But there was a clear example of a pun.

Figurative language of this nature constitutes a phenomenon whose potential for humorous effect is not necessarily even slightly diminished by the sincerity, worthiness or even the clear and unambiguous nature of the evident intention of the utterer.

To someone who is aware that I own a telescope, whom I have previously informed that I was hoping to extend the telescope, in order to increase its light-gathering capability, the request:

"I wonder if you would care to come up and see my instrument after I have made it longer and more powerful"

This would be a request issued with no anticipated possibility of misinterpretation or 'double entendre', unless I have considered the possibility of a pun and decided to proceed anyway, in which case I should say something to 'udermine the pun'.

Oh, and by the way, substituting 'telescope' for 'instrument' in the above is not sufficient to prevent a giggle, the sentence would need to be 'formalised' more comprehensively.

Kennedy's attempt to say something which had no unintentional humour (which is a universal intention of politicians) was not successful.

However, as you say, nobody believed he wanted to claim that he was a doughnut.

This is what made those that thought it was funny, think it was funny.

ericross

Thank you, ericross. I think we agree that JFK's phrase was not an error, and was understood unambiguously by his audience at the time. He (or his speechwriter) may have used the phrase knowing its double meaning, but also knowing that the audience would disregard the inappropriate sense. Perhaps it is only later interpreters (like me) who have implied that JFK made a fool of himself. I notice that we now have an article, Ich bin ein Berliner, on the subject, which makes all this clear. I have altered my comment in the doughnut article to match. -- Heron

Thai Provinces

Thanks a lot for reviewing my articles about the thai provinces. I only wonder where you can find the common names of the species - I usually did a google search with the botanical name and often didn't found any name, except the thai one of course. -- andy 14:34 22 Jun 2003 (UTC)

You're welcome. You are doing a great job. My information is from Google, too, but perhaps I was just luckier with my searches. Some of your botanical names had subtle typos in them, probably mistakes made by a Thai source, which would have made your job more difficult. There's an excellent list of Thai names of trees at http://www.pangfan.org/forest6.html, by the way. -- Heron

Hi, thanks for correcting mistakes in article Dutch Golden Age. Erik Zachte 21:13 24 Jun 2003 (UTC)

You are welcome. I do that only for really good articles :-) -- Heron

Pseudoscience

ok, i see the point of your edit in pseudoscience, thought your simplified version doesn't have the same meaning- Novum

I didn't know whether the extra shade of meaning was intended or just accidental. If you like, I will make the wording more precise. -- Heron

Thanks, it looks good to me now. Novum

Adminship

I took the liberty of nominating you to be an admin, hope it's not unwanted. I think it would be great if you were able to easily roll back edits etc. - Hephaestos 21:39, 30 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Thanks, Heph. I don't mind becoming an admin, as long as the post doesn't come with any obligations ;-) -- Heron

Capitalization

Why is Caller Line Identification written with capital letters? Michael Hardy 21:41, 30 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Because BT (the UK's former public phone company, now privatized) spells it that way (see http://www.btinternet.com/new/content/payasyougo/cli.html, for example), and so do most web sites. Google has a predominance of capitalized versions (38 in the top 40), although I notice that one New Zealand site spells it in lower case. I don't mind if you change the article, as long as you don't claim that either option is the only correct one. -- Heron

ISO

Thanks for the comment on the ISO. My problem is that ISO doesn't fit the definition of a NGO included in the Wikipedia article for an NGO. From my perspective its more of a super-governmental organization (like the UN). So I felt like I either needed to change the NGO article or the ISO one to account for the difference. I think we disagree, and would like to see if we can reach a conclusion here or on my talk page before putting the result on talk ISO. Thanks for your attention.. Lou I 20:15, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)

My problem with NGO is not non-profit, I would never expect the ISO to make a profit. My problem is that many (a lot ?) of its standards wind up with the force of law. Sure its indirect through treaties, WTO regulations, etc. etc. But I see the ISO process (174 governmnts + big corporation) as closed when compared with the IETF proceses that I see as open. I'd actually amend the ISO article, maybe calling it a consortium rather than an NGO.

I see what you mean. Perhaps we could say that "ISO defines itself as an NGO, although its ability to set standards which often become law makes it more powerful than most NGOs, and in practice it acts as a consortium with strong links to governments." -- Heron

Sysop

Poof! You've got sysop rights. Use them well. As your first act, let me suggest that you update Wikipedia:Administrators, Wikipedia:Recently created admins and Wikipedia:Requests for adminship to reflect your new status. --Uncle Ed 18:50, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Thanks, Ed. I have just edited the list of admins. Somebody has beaten me to the other two pages. -- Heron

Flux & Potential

In the lowly task of cleaning up after my disamb of Battery, i found myself puzzling over the red links in Potential difference & Flux, re thru and across variables, but eventually got around to puzzling over this satisfying but for me obscure generalization of what, would you say field theory? Fine intellectual calisthenics for me, and glad to have found them.

But i'm concerned that elecrical PD is what almost everyone comes to Potential difference in order to understand, and it may be a terrible hurdle for the high-school seniors and non-major undergrads who come to the page to brush up on that. I was delighted to find recent edits on your Contributions, bcz i doubt i could do a very good job of what i am thinking; i hope you'll find the suggestion at least worth mulling.

It seems clear to me that Potential difference was incomplete w/o the initial paragraph and list you edited in. But most readers will not realize they can skip it for their purposes. (It strikes me as a situation similar to those solved w/ a page where a long article on Foo begins with a link to Foo (disambiguation), a short page that may lead only to stubs and red links. I don't mean that Potential difference (disambiguation) would serve for a place for the material you added, but i've no confidence in the titles i'd suggest, like Potential difference (generalization).) What i'm picturing is

This article concerns electrical potential difference, the most common sense of potential difference.

Strictly speaking, potential difference is a much broader concept discussed at Potential difference (whatever).

Would this make any sense in your view?

Dear Jerzy, I agree with your view on the meaning of "potential difference". In fact, my contributions to the article related only to the electrical meaning, and it was user:Extro who put in the list of alternative meanings. Like you, when I look up the term "potential difference", I expect to find the electrical concept, with perhaps a cross-reference to some more general concept. However, I do not know if my view is due to my electrical background or is common among all readers. Personally, I would support your proposed change. -- Heron

Many tnx, Heron, & my apology for whatever carelessness on my part led to my confusion & bothering you --Jerzy 00:33, 2003 Nov 23 (UTC)