Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 November 17

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November 17

2010 Infinity M35X/technology package

I have asked Infinity Consumer Division how many 2010 M35X with the Technology Package have been produced and they did not have an answer. I purchased a 2010 M35X in Nov. 2009. Infinity brought out their new model the 2011 M series and begun to sell them in March of 2010. My question based on the above is: How many 2010 M35X with Technology Package were produced? Short production?. I would appreciate your comments. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.163.251.137 (talk) 00:31, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

When you say they did not have an answer do you mean they told you they don't know/can't tell you or they didn't answer you? Nil Einne (talk) 15:19, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Bill Ayers

Why is it that every time I add that he was a terrorist someone deletes it and threatens to delete my account? He bombed buildings. He is a terrorist. It's a simple factual statement. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.12.236.171 (talk) 03:27, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Probably because it is not a Neutral point of view. This subject in question highly politicized and therefore you must 'walk on eggshells' when using terms like terrorist. You've heard the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure." Well, one man's terrorist is another man's patriot. Indeed, the American Patriots of the thirteen colonies were "terrorists." Think about it. schyler (talk) 03:36, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Of course, it couldn't possibly be as simple as you imply. "Bombed Buildings" does not equal "Terrorist". The definition involves intent. (And typically civilian targets.) "Bombed Buildings" could cover everything from a military attack, to resistance fighting, to mere vandalism.

I don't know enough about Ayers to give an opinion, and that's not what the ref-desk is for. (Neither is it for appealing consensus on articles, by the way.) APL (talk) 03:55, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Take it up on the talk page, not here. You probably want to familiarize yourself with the Contentious labels guidelines first, if you want to be able to discuss the matter without being simply ignored. My suggestion would be to argue that others have often referred to him as a terrorist (with citations provided), rather than simply saying he is or was a terrorist. That approach skirts the ontological, is-he-or-wasn't-he question altogether and the subsequent neutrality question. But I don't have any axe to grind on the issue. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:09, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

The main issue is that you are assigning values to his character based on his actions. That shouldn't be done. The article should (and I note, does in this case) report on what actions he has committed, like "bombing buildings". Wikipedia should not decide how such actions affect the kind of person he is. Your feeling that his actions make him a terrorist is colored by your own worldview; someone with a different worldview may see him as a patriot instead. Wikipedia isn't supposed to take a position on either of those worldviews, so the article shouldn't use words like "terrorist" or "patriot". It should just report on the actions he took, and leave it to the reader to formulate their own feelings on those actions. (full disclosure: I personally know the subject of the article at the "have had dinner with his family" level. However, the above analysis applies to any article in general, and not this one specifically). --Jayron32 16:26, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

"Terrorist" is one of Wikipedia's "words to watch", being a "contentious label". Even someone like Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the men who crashed an airplane into the pentagon on September 11, 2001, is not labeled a "terrorist" by Wikipedia. He's labeled a "hijacker" and even a "experienced and respected jihadist" (from Osama bin Laden's point of view, that is), but not called a terrorist by us. When sources label someone like him a terrorist, we usually try to make sure that we're reporting only what the source has said, and avoid making our own judgement on the matter. And this is for a man who is pretty universally considered a terrorist except among a small group of religious extremists. You can imagine how we're going to deal with someone like Ayers. Buddy431 (talk) 17:59, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Ayers' early protests were about the Vietnam war, where American forces bombed buildings. For consistency, we must call both terrorists, or neither. HiLo48 (talk) 18:06, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Repeatedly adding something contentious to an article can be unproductive. You should discuss it on the article's discussion page and find some resolution. --Sean 20:14, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I have a question for the OP. Was Menachim Begin a terrorist? For starters, see (to quote WP), "the Irgun’s bombing of the British administrative and military headquarters at the King David Hotel." 63.17.93.42 (talk) 04:32, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Questions about typeball

Just about everyone of a certain age and technical bent will recognize the artifact pictured to the right. I have two questions about it, neither sadly answered in our article about the IBM Selectric typewriter:

what is it made out of?

The typeball is hard and light. Hard so it will type clean letters without wearing out; light to reduce its rotational moment of inertia so it can be moved quickly. (Boy, did those things move quickly!) It seems to be both harder and lighter than aluminum. The friend who was recently examining one with me suggested it might be magnesium or a magnesium alloy. Anybody know?

Seem to remember that these where injection moulded plastic which were then metal plated to make it look like one was getting one's moneys-worth. Chrome looks good and is both hard and wear resistant to boot -so my money's on that. If you have a sharp scriber, you might find you can remove some of the plating from the inside. Alternatively, throw it hard at a concrete floor and it should shatter.--Aspro (talk) 16:07, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

what are the serrations along the bottom skirt for?

As shown in this second view, there are triangular serrations along the bottom edge of the thing. They're pronounced and clearly deliberate. I'm virtually certain they're not any kind of "gear" involved in the rotation of the typeball as it's positioned for typing. So what are they for? —Steve Summit (talk) 06:25, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

My memory, vague as it is (that's a problem with being old enough to remember!) tells me that the balls were intended to be quickly interchangeable (to give different fonts, etc) and the serrations were related to locking the ball in position. HiLo48 (talk) 06:31, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

My suspicion is that the serrations help the typeball turn with sufficient speed and accuracy for its use. I'm not an engineer but it would seem to reason that having more "gears" down below would assure a consistent fit and high degree of "grip" on the ball, which would be necessary as its job is to turn accurately at high speed. (Note that I have revised my opinion below.) --Mr.98 (talk) 15:51, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I used to love typing on a Selectric, you could go incredibly fast and it gave a wonderful feedback. The serrations are there to ensure registration and to prevent rotation. I think there was an index notch in the post that supported the ball, but it wasn't substantial enough to counteract the impact force and rotation, long term. Can't say what the material was, but a magnesium alloy would be a good guess. Acroterion _(talk) 16:00, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, the index notch is visible in this image, but I think the serrations are typical IBM overengineering to ensure that it would stay put. Acroterion _(talk) 16:03, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

It took me a little time but I finally found the dang IBM patent on the thing: 2895584. It is of note that the original patent required no serrations. I suspect, contrary to what I wrote above, that the serrations do not lock in — the ball has to rotate on more than one axis, which would make it pretty hard to do if its bottom was locked in, yes? Perhaps it is just aesthetic, branding or something along those lines. (I've added the patent, along with the design patent for the appearance of the typewriter, to the typewriter's page.) --Mr.98 (talk) 16:08, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately, ours disappeared fifteen years ago. As I remember, the post rotated about its axis, moved up and down to align the type row and tilted to strike the ribbon. Acroterion _(talk) 16:12, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

The patent shows it actually being able to tilt, which makes sense given the spherical nature of it. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:13, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

As it is a moulded item, and sort of spherical in shape, the dentilation round the bottom may simply be there as evidence of sliding guides being used to insure the mould segments come together correctly and are securely engaged. You would not be able to extract finished item of this shape otherwise. Several tons of pressure would be required to force the plastic in and you really do not want things to move about. Hot plastic shooting across the factory floor can ruin your day. --Aspro (talk) 16:31, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

While researching this, I found a fascinating pair of videos that describe exactly how the element was rotated and tilted. -- http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/11/the_mechanical_glory_of_the_ibm_sel.html -- No luck on the specific question, although one site I found indicated that if the wrong character was being typed, to check for broken teeth.

That makes sense. If they register the mould segments they can also serve to register the typeball through all its 22 positions. --Aspro (talk) 17:14, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Fabulous links, and now I've heard of a Whippletree (mechanism). Acroterion _(talk) 17:46, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I've played around with looking for more IBM patents on this. What's interesting is that none of them have serrations at all — I doubt they are necessary for proper functioning, and may, as speculated, be an aspect of the design process or maybe storage or aesthetics. Here is one from 1960; here is another from 1960; here is one from 1965; here is one from 1959. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:18, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Some free flow guesses - (i) Aesthetics - the triangles flow with the raised text; (ii) heat transfer/money - the removed material from the serrations caused heat transfer problems or saved on material costs so it was removed while retaining the required design/manufacturing height; (iii) the points of the triangles allow the typeball to sit flat as a stand-alone product and a flat bottom would have been too hard to mold flat; (iv) the serrations allow/cause air to flow into the typeball (A) so the typeball doesn't get stuck on a flat surface like a plunger (B) to cool off the high spining ball; (v) balance - the triangles are microdifferent from each other for a give batch of typeface balls to balance the high spinning ball similar to weights put on an automobile tire; (vi) safety - they discourage you from sticking your finger under the installed typeball. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 16:39, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Why do all but one bottom radiating rib have a Sprue (manufacturing) mark?

Why do all but one bottom radiating rib have a Sprue (manufacturing) mark (see this image? -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 16:39, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Tipping Computer Technicians in NA

In North America, is it customary to tip computer technicians from, say Rogers Cable or Time Warner Cable, that come to your house to fix and/or install your high-speed cable modem? If so, how much?

Thanks Acceptable (talk) 09:12, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

My cousin formerly worked as a technician for Rogers Cable (and for Bell Canada), hooking up cable outlets, phone outlets, and such. He rarely got tipped in cash. When he did get a gratuity, it was almost always non-monetary, such as a beer or some food or (with surprising frequency) sex with the lady of the house. If you feel you're getting particularly good service, I suppose you could pick whichever of those options you're comfortable with ;) 64.235.97.146 (talk) 14:07, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Are you sure you trust your cousin on the sex bit? It's not uncommon for people (particularly males) to greatly exaggerate such matters... Nil Einne (talk) 15:04, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

No, the North American compulsion to tip for service does not extend to cable installers or computer technicians. Like all people, however, they will certainly appreciate the offer of tea, coffee, juice, and/or cookies. (If they turn down your offer, don't be offended; remember that they often make many service calls in one day – connecting a cable modem should be a pretty brief visit – and there's a limit to how much food or drink that most people can or want to consume.) You can offer beer if you want to, but I wouldn't recommend it — they're almost certainly not permitted to drink on the job, and usually they're going to be driving between service calls. If caught, they could face disciplinary action or dismissal. Offers of sex are at your discretion, but please wait until the end of the service call (so that a rejected offer doesn't lead to ongoing awkwardness) and use protection. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 15:25, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

For yourself or your IT equipment? Prokhorovka (talk) 23:48, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

220dc convert to 220 ac

I need to conveert 220dc to 220ac is this possible? How? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.246.54.210 (talk) 15:44, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

There are two obvious ways: 1) A motor-generator. The motor part works on 220 volts DC, and turns an alternator which produces 220 volts AC. The downside is, it is heavy and expensive,it makes a little noise, and since it has moving parts, it is subject to wear. It has losses, so you get less power out than you put in, and gives off heat. 2) An inverter, which electronically switches the DC on and off with solid state electronics to approximate a sine wave, and uses a transformer to turn out AC at the desired voltage. Again, it can be expensive, the more so as the kilowatt rating increases. No moving parts, long-term stable operation with minimal maintenance. It should be more efficient than a motor generator set, but still has some losses and gives off some heat, and it may hum a bit. You would be well advised to consult an electrical engineer to help you select a good solution. A vendor of inverters might be able to advise you. I see lots of low power 12 vcd to 220 vac inverters when I Google "220 inverter." You might have to look around for one which starts with 220 vdc. Where do you get such an odd power source, with no AC on site? If there is AC, you only need a transformer to step it up or down to 220 vac, at a far lower cost than an MG set or an inverter. Edison (talk) 15:52, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Remember that 220 V AC is the average (RMS) value. It is $220*{\sqrt {2}}$ or 311V peak for a sine wave, which is the most common AC waveform. An AC signal RMS voltage will deliver into a resistor the same amount of energy as the same voltage DC. CS Miller (talk) 19:13, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

(Putting on the pedant hat) The average value of a sine wave is zero. Edison (talk) 20:15, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

(Putting on the pedant ten-gallon) I think you are confusing the average and the arithmetic mean. I was referring to the quadratic mean, which is a type of average. CS Miller (talk) 21:35, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

It is misleading to say "The average value of a sine wave" is the RMS value, without any such modifier as "quadratic." RMS and "average" are not interchangeable terms. It is worth clarifying in a Ref Desk response, since beginning physics or electronics students are likely to confuse the various types of voltage measurement circuits. Edison (talk) 01:16, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

220V DC is a lot of batteries! it may be easier to use a petrol-engined generator with a 220V AC output as these are probably more widely available.MilborneOne (talk) 20:30, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Ryan Fitzpatrick photo

Is there a way for you to update/change the photo currently shown for Ryan Fitzpatrick, Buffalo Bills quarterback? We have had several complaints from fans regarding the "action" photo being shown. A different action photo, perhaps of him throwing the football, would be more appropriate and appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to consider this request. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.45.245.205 (talk) 16:29, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

The topmost photo from our American football article. Colorado State is playing ... Navy, of course.

I'm not sure who the "we" in your "we have had complaints" is, but generally, Wikipedia relies on its contributors to provide photos. If you have access to a better photo that meets our guidelines (short version: licensed for commercial use and alteration), feel free to upload it and replace the photo in the article. Please note that virtually all photos common to sports media don't meet these requirements. (Also, for convenience: Ryan Fitzpatrick and File:Ryan_Fitzpatrick_Bills_vs_Jets.jpg) — Lomn 17:43, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I "second" Lomn's comment that very few freely licensed sports photos are ever made available for Wikipedia editors to use in articles. The Wikimedia Foundation doesn't send photographers to NFL football games to take great photos from the sidelines, unfortunately; and all the photos from Sports Illustrated and ESPN and the NFL itself are all copyrighted and not freely licensed. It's so bad that many of our sports articles rely on photos from the US armed forces, which are in the public domain by law; so the Navy and Army football teams get a lot more exposure on Wikipedia than anywhere else. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:53, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

• In all seriousness, that is a picture of Ryan Fitzpatrick throwing the football. If you go to the File:Ryan_Fitzpatrick_Bills_vs_Jets.jpg page and scroll down, you'll see the original image from which this picture has been cropped. In the original, it's clear that Ryan Fitzpatrick has just released the football, which is in the upper-left corner of the frame, despite the attempt of Jets defender Harris to block the pass. It may not look graceful, but it is a real action shot. --M@rēino 15:09, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

OT here I know but I figure someone would know. Isn't the proper thing to do when cropping in that way to upload a derived photo rather then replacing the original? Nil Einne (talk) 19:52, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

It's a "real action shot" but one that appears to be specifically intended to make fun of its subject (look at its title on Flickr). I'm not a Bills fan nor a Fitzpatrick fan specifically, but I have to agree that this photo is not suitable. If there's no free substitute, then maybe just go without a photo until someone can take one. --Trovatore (talk) 19:56, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Oh, I take it back about the title — it's making fun of the defender, Harris I think, not the quarterback. Just the same. The cropped version still looks like it's making fun of Fitzpatrick. --Trovatore (talk) 19:58, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

What is the hottest/coldest temperature in Connecticut?

The all-time hottest temperature is 106˚F in Danbury,CT. It happened on July 15, 1995. All sources say it, except wunderground.com which shows it was only 97˚F on that given day. http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KDXR/1995/7/15/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA

The all-time coldest is -32˚F which has been recorded at several locations. The most recent was Coventry,CT on January 22, 1961. Also, Falls Village, CT and Norfolk,CT have reached this temperature on February 16, 1943. Some sources say that a -37˚F reading was recorded in Norfolk on February 16, 1943, but that hasn't been made official. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Weatherboy96 (talk • contribs) 18:11, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Strange fruit

I was in Seattle this last week, and while there noticed a weird fruit on an unidentified tree. They looked a bit like strawberries, only slightly bigger, and when you broke them open, the inside smelled almost like pumpkin. No one I talked to had any idea what they were, and none of us were stupid enough to try them. Anyone have any idea what this could be? Sorry for the vagueness, but they were fairly nondescript, as far as fruit goes. --69.144.28.36 (talk) 18:58, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Strawberry tree? --Sean 20:29, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't know the answer, but you might find out from the Seattle Tree Portal at www.seattle.gov/trees. There is a place at the bottom of the website where they take questions. — Michael J 20:35, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Or maybe a mulberry tree?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:17, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Post letter online

Which website lets me post a letter online? That means, I write the letter, upload it as a PDF, and then pay the website to put it an an envelope, attach a stamp and send it (then it gets received like any other letter). I remember it costs UK£0.70 by credit card, or something ridiculous like £1.12 by debit. --81.98.97.252 (talk) 20:05, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Googling "post letter online" shows many such companies. --Sean 20:25, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank you. (And yes, I could have found that one myself.)--81.98.97.252 (talk) 21:44, 17 November 2010 (UTC)