text:
Classroom Management Theorists and Theories/Alfie Kohn

=Alfie Kohn=

The theorist
Alfie Kohn is a contemporary academic who studies and writes about issues of education, parenting, and human behavior. He has published many books on these topics including Punished by Rewards (1993), No Contest (1986), and The Homework Myth (2006). Alfie Kohn lectures at Universities and groups with related interests and has been a guest on The Today Show and Oprah. He lives in the Boston area with his wife and two children.

The theories of Alfie Kohn
Because of the extensive list of published articles and books by Kohn, one could discuss his specific theories on a wide variety of topics. There is, however, an overarching theme throughout much of Kohn’s work. Kohn is very critical of the use of competition or any external factor as a motivator, whether that is in the home, the classroom, or the workplace. He believes that societies based on these extrinsic motives will inevitably be inefficient. Building on this critical view of competition, Kohn questions the effectiveness of hierarchical structures because they rely on the assumption that people will be competitive and want to move up the ladder and these structures make positions of authority unnaturally scarce. In the workplace, this overarching idea manifests itself in Kohn’s belief that workers should be given more autonomy over their own work. In the family, Kohn’s fundamental beliefs are visible as he argues that parent should utilize a “cooperative, loving, guiding form of parenting which places children on more equal footing with parents” (Wikipedia, 2007). These fundamental beliefs are also clear in his many discussions of education. The ideal classroom, according to Alfie Kohn, is one in which curiosity and cooperation are emphasized above all else. This is true throughout Kohn’s discussions on standards, standardized testing, homework, and classroom management. Kohn believes that the students’ curiosity should govern what is taught inside the classroom; therefore, if standards are necessary at all, they should be kept very general. Because of this belief, Kohn is critical of standardized testing. This sort of testing is extrinsic to real learning and also enforces a strict curriculum that is not flexible to students’ interests and needs. Again, going back to Kohn’s focus on curiosity and intrinsic rewards of education, Kohn feels that most homework serves to undermine these two goals as opposed to reinforcing them. Kohn’s most recent book deals with this topic extensively. In addition to these ideas about curriculum, Kohn has made his thoughts clear on classroom management. Kohn believes that most traditional methods of classroom management foster extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic. Because of this, he is a proponent of what could be termed a very “hands off” type of management approach. Kohn believes that if the classroom is run with cooperation in mind, and if the students’ curiosity is being nurtured, then students will act appropriately and neither rewards nor punishments will be necessary. Overall, curiosity and cooperation should govern the classroom. In addition to understanding some of the basic foci of Kohn’s ideas, it is important to be able to place these ideas into a greater context. For example, one should consider the predecessor of this type of thinking and the time during which Kohn is writing. While there are divergences, Kohn’s beliefs are generally aligned with Critical Pedagogy, or the application of Marxist principles to the educational system. There are many other radical educational theorists, many of which have preceded Kohn, who would concur with many of his thoughts. Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, and Michael Apple are just a few who come to mind and have surely influenced Alfie Kohn. In addition to this piece of context, it is important to note that Alfie Kohn has been writing and publishing during a time when there is a strong movement to standardize education and create more accountability within the system. This has clearly influenced the focus of much of Kohn’s writing and is important to keep in mind when considering his contributions to the field of education.

Practical ways to implement in a classroom
In order to implement the ways of Alfie Kohn in the classroom, teachers need to allow their students to explore the topics which interest them. Kohn insists that teaching to the standards or teaching to the test are not effective ways to help students learn. Instead, students “should be able to think and write and explore without worrying about how good they are” (Kohn, 2004, p. 37). Kohn believes that there is an overemphasis on achievement rather than on the process of learning. According to Kohn, students should not be working towards success or charting their progress on the wall. Alternatively, “students should be immersed in learning” (Kohn, 2004, p. 37). He does not support the idea of strict standards to ensure that all students are learning the same thing at the same time because not all students learn at the same pace, and “research has demonstrated the importance of making sure students are actively involved in their own learning, invited to play a role in formulating questions, creating projects, and so on” (Kohn, 2004, p. 48). Standards and alignment do not take into account the fact that students are different and have different interests. Kohn encourages teachers to help students to pursue their own interests. Kohn also discourages the use of positive reinforcement, particularly the repetition of trite phrases like “good job.” As he explains, positive reinforcement may work for a while, “but it’s very different from working with kids – for example, by engaging them in a conversation about what makes a classroom (or family) function smoothly, or how other people are affected by what we have done – or failed to do” (Kohn, 2004, p. 107). He says that positive reinforcement does encourage students, but it only encourages them to seek out more positive reinforcement. After a student receives praise for an action, the point is no longer to repeat the action. Now, “the point is to get the goody” (Kohn, 2004, p. 109). Kohn encourages teachers to avoid positive reinforcement and instead to engage in discussion with the students about their actions.

How to Adapt It for Elementary School
There are several practical ways to implement the ideas of Kohn in the classroom at the elementary school. The teachers should avoid doing their favorite units of study, and they should adjust their units of study to fit their students. Although the teacher may have developed an excellent unit on dinosaurs and a dinosaur unit may be in the standards and on the test, if the students do not want to learn about dinosaurs, then they will not benefit from the study as much as they would had the unit been created to fit their interests. A more individualized learning plan will work better for the students. One student may want to do a project on dinosaurs, and the next student may be interested in a project on bears. A more successful classroom will have students learning about their personal interests. In addition, the teacher should resist the urge to constantly provide positive reinforcement for his or her students. The teacher should meet with students individually to discuss their behavior, their successes, and their weaknesses. If a student understands the thinking behind a positive or negative behavior, then the student is more likely to act accordingly without needing the reassurance of praise.

How to Adapt It for Middle School and High School
One of the easiest ways to allow students to pursue their own individual interests in middle school and high school is through research. Research can be done in almost any content area. The students can research a virus that interests them in science or a culture that interests them in social studies. Just as a teacher creates the unit for the students in elementary school, the students can create their own units in high school. The teacher can guide his or her students through the research process, and by picking their own topics, the students will be immersed in the learning. Again, teachers at the secondary level should also avoid using positive reinforcement with their students. They can offer their students more specific feedback that is not as general as “excellent work!” Teachers should make an effort to communicate with their students and discuss both positive and negative behavior with their students. This will help the students reflect on their own behavior and performance in a way that is more meaningful than if they just seek out the teacher’s praise. The students should learn to be responsible for their own behavior whether or not it is recognized or rewarded by somebody else.

Kohn’s Place in Classroom Management Theory History
While many early classroom management theorists, like Redl and Wattenburg, Dreikurs, and Kounin, focused on the psychology behind misbehavior and how to control it, and many later 20th century theorists like Ginott, Canter, Jones, and Albert, looked at a mixture of reward, punishment, and environment, to create a certain controlled classroom setting, Alfie Kohn flies in the face of all of them with his theory of moving beyond discipline. There is much more to say about theorists who have or would have disagreed with Kohn than those who would agree. The same seems to apply for parents and fellow educators. However, like any theory, Kohn challenges people’s thinking leading to growth whether one agrees or disagrees with part or all of his ideas.

Kohn’s ideas, published mostly from the 1990’s on, seem very disconnected from earlier theories except that they provided a foundation for him to react against. As is summarized by Charles (1999), Kohn rejects all systems of reward and punishment in favor of community and student decision-making, saying that all systems of discipline assume students are troublemakers, learning occurs in quiet controlled places, and the teacher’s role “is to make students obedient, compliant, and above all quiet”(p. 229). With Kohn’s dramatic stance on dropping all previous discipline systems, it’s no wonder that Fried (1998) comments, “I SUSPECT that over the years Alfie Kohn has made a lot of people angry”(p. 264).

Coloroso, a Theorist Who Aligns with Kohn
There are many critical or radical theorists, modern and otherwise, who would agree with Kohn. Barbara Coloroso is one contemporary of Kohn's who shares many of his principles. Like Kohn, Coloroso gives students a lot of credit. Rather than approaching students as creatures capable of great destruction, needing to be controlled, she, according to Charles (1999), aims to treat students with respect and empower them with their own inner discipline (p. 217). She seems to view the teacher’s role as mentor and guide. This is a more authoritarian role than the title Kohn might give the teacher as a mere facilitator. Unlike Kohn, Coloroso also still has faith in “natural and reasonable” consequences and rewards. Charles (1999) states her principals as, “Natural consequences are events that happen naturally in the real world… [And] reasonable consequences are events imposed by the teacher that are related to a violation of rules” (p. 219). An example of the former would be receiving negative feedback from peers when you didn’t work cooperatively in a group and the latter, apologizing to a classmate you hurt or offended in some way. Coloroso’s and Kohn’s greatest area of agreement is their faith in students’ capability to police themselves. However, they still disagree on how to encourage this and how directly the teacher should be involved. Kohn would say that challenging curriculum and classroom community are all that is necessary where Coloroso would call for teacher help in producing good student decision-making and would keep a set of rules and consequences at hand.

A Summary of Unsupportive Voices
It does not take too much imagination to guess what kind of feedback Kohn receives for his theories. Many people believe that without discipline policies there is chaos. Especially when Kohn’s classroom management theory is isolated from its placement in his total reform of the public education system, it appears radical and a bit preposterous. Rochester (1998) sums up many concerns with Kohn’s ideas in an article, “What’s It All About, Alfie? A parent/educator’s response to Alfie Kohn.” As Rochester (1998) voices, “In my judgment, the poor quality of the average student admitted to our colleges and universities today can be traced mainly to the trends of the past two decades in K-12 education, particularly to the emergence of the self-indulgent, nonjudgmental, nonhierarchical classroom that —in fusing a radical libertarianism with a radical egalitarianism — has resulted in the near total collapse of standards” (p. 168). Kohn encourages this trend by giving students the full responsibility of disciplining, or not disciplining, themselves and having the teacher in a non-authoritative position as producer of riveting material that will seduce the students into functioning well in their tight knit classroom community. Rochester is also arguing against the amount of voice the student has in Kohn’s model of classroom meetings, determining many decisions about the class. In a different conversation, Kohn presents a rebuttal to this issue as O’Neil (1999) captures him saying, “It’s hard to ask kids how we might solve a problem together because then we no longer have unilateral control over them. And that is frightening. It carries with it a whiff of something utterly unfamiliar and terrifying to most Americans: democracy” (p. 21). As seems to be usual, Kohn is a witty instigator.

Closing and Critical Thoughts
Alfie Kohn provides much fodder for thought about previous assumptions on discipline and classroom management. He has alternatives to a public school system of teacher authority and, what some would call, student subjugation that has not been totally successful. However, his prescription raises some challenges for the inexperienced teacher, if not teachers of any level. While a positive classroom environment and venues for student input and feedback are crucial, abolishing all traditional systems of rules and consequences seems brusque and frankly unsafe for the new teacher. Likewise, involving student reflection on consequences for their misbehavior sounds very reasonable but trusting all students’ ability to self-monitor seems risky. Kohn’s ideas could be crafted to work well for 80% of students but I wonder what his answer is to the students with chronic behavior problems stemming from emotional or physical triggers? Alfie Kohn’s ideas about student respect and input are inspiring. I appreciate his willingness to not only test the waters of the traditional classroom management models but completely break them down and start fresh. He gives many ideas from which to glean and perhaps integrate with other models in order to create a personalized and effective classroom management plan.

Lingering Questions
What does Alfie Kohn think of positive reinforcement? What does Alfie Kohn think of negative reinforcement?

Answer: Alfie Kohn is strongly critical of both positive and negative reinforcement. He is anti-behaviorism, and does not believe in any type of reward or punishment; even praise is suspect. Rather than manipulating children to change their behavior, his focus is on helping children develop curiosity, love of learning, empathy, and internalized morality. Internalized morality comes from feeling good about yourself and wanting others to feel happy. This is true morality rather than obedience based on consequences. Children are not to be controlled, but guided and their learning facilitated.

Apply Alfie Kohn's thoughts about the ideal classroom to society. What would an ideal society look like to Kohn?

Answer: Alfie Kohn strongly disagrees with competition. His ideal society would likely be highly cooperative, but he also values freedom of expression and individuality. His ideal society would likely be libertarian left- either social democracy or Anarcho-syndicalism.


text:
Learning Talmud

Welcome to the Learning Talmud Wikibook.

Aim of the Book
The Learning Talmud Wikibook is a heavily annotated version of the Babylonian Talmud, aimed at increasing readers' ability to read the text itself. Rather than presenting a direct or transcluded translation of the text (ala Wikisource's Mishnah Tractate Berakhot), the Learning Talmud Wikibook will present the Talmud text as a series of hyper-linked terms, using footnotes to translate entire sentences. This will allow students to build their Aramaic reading skills as well as their ability to interpret the text.

A Demonstration of the Learning Talmud Wikibook Methodology
Here is a sentence from Bava Batra 58a, presented in the textbook's schema. Some readers may find this example familiar, as it is used in the first lesson of David Marcus' A Manual of Babylonian Jewish Aramaic.

 * /rabbi
 * /ban'ah(rabbi)
 * /havey
 * /qa
 * /tzayein
 * /m'arata

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Learning Talmud


text:
User:Zacman2019

Hello! I have recently begun working in Blender. I am an incredible artist and editor (just wait and see some of the work I put into this book!)

You can contact me at the following sites: zacharyiwanicki@yahoo.com zacman495@hotmail.com

title: User:Zacman2019


text:
HSC Physics/Core/Motors and Generators

Contextual Outline
Text excerpt is from Physics Stage 6 Syllabus

Modern industrialised society is geared to using electricity. Electricity has characteristics that have made it uniquely appropriate for powering a highly technological society. There are many energy sources that can be readily converted into electricity. In Australia, most power plants burn a fuel, such as coal, or use the energy of falling water to generate electricity on a large scale. Electricity is also relatively easy to distribute. Electricity authorities use high-voltage transmission lines and transformers to distribute electricity to homes and industries around each state. Voltages can be as high as 5 x 105 volts from power stations but by the time this reaches homes, the electricity has been transformed to 240 volts. While it is relatively economical to generate electric power at a steady rate, there are both financial and environmental issues that should be considered when assessing the long-term impact of supplying commercial and household power. The design of a motor for an electrical appliance requires consideration of whether it will run at a set speed, how much power it must supply, whether it will be powered by AC (alternating current) or DC (direct current) and what reliability is required. The essentials of an electric motor are the supply of electrical energy to a coil in a magnetic field causing it to rotate.The generation of electrical power requires relative motion between a magnetic field and a conductor. In a generator, mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy while the opposite occurs in an electric motor. The electricity produced by most generators is in the form of alternating current. In general AC generators, motors and other electrical equipment are simpler, cheaper and more reliable than their DC counterparts. AC electricity can be easily transformed into higher or lower voltages making it more versatile than DC electricity. This module increases students’ understanding of the applications and uses of physics and the implications of physics for society and the environment.

Chapters

 * /Motor effect and DC electrical motors/ [[File:00%.svg]]
 * /Generating electricity/ [[File:00%.svg]]
 * /Generators/ [[File:00%.svg]]
 * /Transformers/ [[File:00%.svg]]
 * /AC electrical motors/ [[File:00%.svg]]

title: HSC Physics/Core/Motors and Generators


text:
HSC Physics/Core/Motors and Generators/Generating electricity

/Notes/

 * Eddy currents and applications

/Questions/

 * Mathematical problems
 * Multiple choice
 * Written responses


text:
HSC Physics/Core/Motors and Generators/Generating electricity/Notes/Eddy currents and applications

Induction cooktops
An induction cooktop has a coil wound on ferromagnetic material under it. A high frequency alternating current in this coil produces a rapidly changing magnetic field. Placing a magnetic-based leads to a change in magnetic flux, because the magnetic field B varies. From Faraday's Law, $$\mathcal{E}= \frac{\Delta\phi}{\Delta t},$$ an emf (electromagnetic field) is induced. From Lenz's Law, eddy currents flow in the pan. The resistance in the pan to the oscillating AC current results in heat being produced directly in the base of the pan. Unlike gas cooking, the ceramic cooktop is not heated directly. This makes induction cookers much more energy efficient than traditional cookers.

The direction of the eddy current is determined by Lenz's Law. In addition to efficiency, other benefits include safety (because the cooktop is not heated directly) and speed of cooking.

Electromagnetic braking
When a rotating metal disc passes through a magnetic field, there is a change in magnetic flux. From Faraday's Law, an emf is induced. From Lenz's Law, this induces eddy currents whose magnetic field interacts with the external magnetic field in a way that causes in magnetic flux in the disk. That is, the currents inside the magnetic field experience a force that acts in the opposite direction to the motion of the disc. Therefore, the speed of the disc's motion slows down.

One benefit of electromagnetic braking is that the braking is smooth. This is because the strength of the eddy currents is proportional to the speed of the disc. This means as the disc slows, eddy currents reduce. There is no physical contact between the disc and brake. Another benefit is that it is more effiecient at high speeds because the opposing magnetic forces is larger at higher speeds. These useful properties of electromagnetic brakes serve them well in many applications, such as amusement park ride brakes and brakes in some types of trains.


text:
Learning Talmud/rabbi

Literal translation
Rabbi

title: Learning Talmud/rabbi


text:
Learning Talmud/ban'ah(rabbi)

Literal translation
Ban'ah.

Explanation
Rabbi Ban'ah (also Bana, Bana'ah, etc.) was a sage during the time of the composition of the Mishnah, and is in between the categories of Tanna and Amora.

Further information

 * Tannaim
 * Amoraim
 * Jewish Encyclopedia entry

title: Learning Talmud/ban'ah(rabbi)


text:
Learning Talmud/havey

Perfect
Masculine Singular

title: Learning Talmud/havey


text:
User talk:Cronholm144~enwikibooks

'''Important-Please Read If I have made an erroneous edit on a math page, correct it! If there is still a problem drop me a line here, thanks ;).

P.S. I will reply here unless otherwise specified, so remember to watch this page.

Calculus
I looked over your edits, the trig proof looks fine to me, some skipped steps. Other than that, what I've seen looks fine.

There seems to be two ways the book can be written:

1) A more intuitive look and a fact depiction of the rules of it.

2) A very rigorous and accurate approach.

In terms of classes, there's usually a normal calculus class that does 1, and a Real Analysis (or sometimes proofs class) class that does 2.

What sort of book are you looking to try to construct?

Other than that, I'll see what I can do from what you leave on the talk pages.

Fephisto 03:41, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Is 1.65 a valid answer :) ? I would really like to create a rigorous and accurate approach that does not leave anyone stranded or confused. Rigorous approaches that do not convey the essence of the topic are fairly useless to the prospective student.--Cronholm144 08:27, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Hidden Divs
If you get tired of writing out all those divs, you could use the template instead. That should make alot of your work easier. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 00:17, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

What would that do? I am not familiar with that template (or any template really, it is the one area of the wiki software that I avoid scrupulously). Anyway, I am copying an pasting and it isn't that bad at all.--Cronholm144 00:22, 20 June 2007 (UTC) Oh I got it now, but I am not really comfortable with templates :S--Cronholm144 00:23, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Featured books/Nominations
I just wanted to let you know that the Calculus book has been nominated for featured status. The vote is generally going well so far (although it could always use more support), but there are criticisms about the book as well. Some of these comments could serve as a good starting point for you, as you look for more things to improve in this book. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 01:24, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Cronholm144. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Cronholm144~enwikibooks that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

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Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 04:49, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Cronholm144~enwikibooks


text:
User:Cronholm144~enwikibooks

my page on en.wiki Hello all, I am primarily an en.wiki contributor, but I make the occasional edit here. I you want a swift reply post on en.wiki. Cheers --Cronholm144 07:37, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

I have two subpages

User:Cronholm144/Calculus User:Cronholm144/Images

title: User:Cronholm144~enwikibooks


text:
User talk:89.26.139.190

Please do not add inappropriate external links to Wikibooks. Wikibooks is intended to be read without the need for external reference and requires content rather than external links particularly those which are for advertising or promotion. Inappropriate links may include (but are not limited to) links to personal web sites, links to web sites with which you are affiliated, and links that exist to attract visitors to a web site or promote a product. If you feel the link should be added to the article, then please discuss it on the article's talk page rather than re-adding it. See the welcome page to learn more about Wikibooks. Thank you. Webaware talk 09:50, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:89.26.139.190


text:
Spanish/Tener que ...

Tener que in Spanish grammar is used to convey the idea of having to do something.

It is relatively simple to form and these are the following steps to take:

1) Take the appropriate form of tener:

To do this you need to decide which tense you are going to use: the present tense(for actions that one need to do now), the imperfect (for a past, continuous action), the perfect tense (for past, complete actions) and the future.

For learning purposes it is useful to look at the present tense:

2)To all of these verbs you add que to get the desired effect.

3)Moreover, for other tenses, you simply use the appropriate form of tener and again add que.

title: Spanish/Tener que ...


text:
User talk:Bba~enwikibooks

Radiation Oncology
Bba, thanks for your help with the Radiation Oncology wikibook! — Brim 13:36, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Bba. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Bba~enwikibooks that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:01, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 04:37, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Bba~enwikibooks


text:
Template:Departments

There are 5 departments: Humanities and arts | Social sciences | Natural sciences | Computing | Miscellaneous

title: Template:Departments


text:
Ruby Programming/Reference/Objects/String

String Class

Methods:
crypt(salt). Returns an encoded string using crypt(3). salt is a string with minimal length 2. If salt starts with "$1$", MD5 encryption is used, based on up to eight characters following "$1$". Otherwise, DES is used, based on the first two characters of salt.


title: Template:Cc-by-2.0


text:
User talk:207.203.17.135

Please stop. If you continue to use Wikibooks for advertising, you will be temporarily blocked from editing.

Xania talk 16:12, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:207.203.17.135


text:
Cookbook:Charoset (Maghrebi)

Maghrebi charoset is a variety of charoset served during the Jewish celebration of Passover by Jews from Northwest Africa. Serve as part of the seder. The northwest African tradition uses bitter greens such as endive rather than horseradish with the Charoseth.

Ingredients

 * 1½ cup white raisins
 * ½ cup dried apricots or dried peaches, chopped
 * 2 oranges, juiced
 * ¼ cup chopped almonds
 * 1 tsp cinnamon
 * 1 tsp ginger, preferably freshly-grated
 * 2 tbsp honey
 * 2 tbsp matsoh meal

Procedure

 * 1) Soak dried fruit in juice until plumped.
 * 2) Mash reconstituted fruit with almond and spices to get a mortar-like texture.
 * 3) Adjust texture with matsoh meal and if needed, sweeten with honey.

title: Cookbook:Charoset (Maghrebi)


text:
Cookbook:Charoset (Iraqi)

Iraqi charoset is a dried fruit and nut-based paste served during the Jewish celebration of Passover by Jews from Iraq.

Ingredients

 * 500 ml Iraqi dates, chopped and seeded
 * Water
 * Salt
 * 125 ml chopped walnuts or pistachios

Procedure

 * 1) Boil dates in lightly salted water stirring frequently until it is a thick paste.
 * 2) Mix in finely chopped nuts.

Notes, tips, and variations

 * A traditional variant is made by straining the pulp out of the paste producing a honey-like date syrup. This procedure uses considerably more dates and can take several days to produce sufficient syrup.

title: Cookbook:Charoset (Iraqi)


text:
Radiation Oncology/Head & Neck/Unknown primary

Epidemiology

 * SCC of unknown primary represents 3-5% of cancers of head and neck.

Natural History

 * Likely a result from subclinical primary malignancy in upper aerodigestive tract.
 * Primary identified in approximately 40% of cases (80% of identified primary cancers are from either tonsil or base of tongue).
 * Most commonly affect jugulodigastric and upper jugular nodes.

Diagnostic Workup

 * Clinical examination
 * Complete head and neck exam.
 * Examination of the skin of the head and neck region.
 * CT or MRI
 * Imaging should extend from base of skull to thoracic inlet.
 * Panendoscopy with directed biopsies
 * Endoscopic evaluation should include direct laryngoscopy and nasopharynx survey.
 * For Level II node, directed biopsies should include base of tongue, nasopharynx, pyriform sinus, tonsil.
 * Tonsillectomy
 * Tonsillectomy improves yield over focally directed biopsy.
 * Question ipsilateral vs bilateral tonsillectomy is controversial.
 * Johns Hopkins, 1998 PMID 9818813 -- McQuone S "Occult tonsillar carcinoma in the unknown primary."  Laryngoscope. 1998 Nov;108(11 Pt 1):1605-10.
 * PET
 * NCCN recommends only if other workup does not identify the primary.
 * After FNA of the neck mass, can increase diagnostic yield by 20-30%
 * However, after negative PET, pan-endoscopy with directed biopsies can detect primary in 10-20% cases.
 * Therefore, combination of PET and pan-endoscopy with directed biopsies is probably best, with a yield of almost 50%
 * UT San Antonio, 2008 PMID 17657782 -- Miller FR, "Management of the unknown primary carcinoma: long-term follow-up on a negative PET scan and negative panendoscopy." Head Neck. 2008 Jan;30(1):28-34.
 * Emory Review, 2004 PMID 15517576 -- Rusthoven KE "The role of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in cervical lymph node metastases from an unknown primary tumor." Cancer. 2004 Dec 1;101(11):2641-9.
 * PET detected previously unidentified primary in 24.5% of patients
 * Level IV/V LNs
 * Also perform bronchoscopy, esophagoscopy and CT of chest/abdomen/pelvis

Staging
AJCC 8th edition (2017): To be used for staging beginning Jan 1, 2018.
 * Cervical Lymph Nodes and Unknown Primary Tumors of the Head and Neck
 * Used for squamous cell carcinoma and salivary gland carcinoma of all head and neck sites except HPV-related oropharynx cancer, nasopharyx cancer, melanoma, thyroid carcinoma, and sarcoma.
 * New staging chapter for 8th edition

Occult primary tumor: Staging is T0 and the N category is according to the respective anatomic site based on EBV and HPV status:
 * EBV-related cervical adenopathy -> Staged according to Nasopharynx
 * HPV-related cervical adenopathy -> Staged according to HPV-mediated oropharyngeal cancer
 * All other pts with EBV-unrelated and HPV-unrelated -> Staged according to main H&N staging listed here

For non-EBV and non-HPV related:

Overall Stage:
 * EBV-related cervical adenopathy -> Staged according to Nasopharynx
 * HPV-related cervical adenopathy -> Staged according to HPV-mediated oropharyngeal cancer
 * All other pts with EBV-unrelated and HPV-unrelated -> Staged as below

For non-EBV and non-HPV related:
 * III - T0 N1
 * IVA - T0 N2
 * IVB - T0 N3
 * IVC - T0 Any N M1

Treatment Overview
Stage
 * N1 disease can be treated with neck dissection alone.
 * Patients w/ an excisional biopsy should be tx'd w/ definitive xrt.
 * N2A-C and N3 disease can be treated with definitive xrt alone.
 * Planned neck dissection following xrt if persistent disease
 * Some institutions consider planned neck dissection standard after definitive xrt for N2 disease

University of Florida algorithm (in Gunderson, 2nd ed, 2007)
 * cN1: neck dissection
 * If pN1, no ECE - observe
 * If pN2+ or ECE - adjuvant RT
 * If excisional biopsy done - definitive RT
 * cN2:
 * If early N2: definitive RT
 * If advanced N2-3: definitive chemo-RT
 * For both, CT scan 1 month after RT, if residual disease, adjuvant neck dissection

Volume
 * Classically, RT fields would include bilateral neck nodes and mucosal sites of putative origin (nasopharynx, oropharynx, hypopharynx, larynx)
 * Modified mucosal volume may include only nasopharynx and oropharynx, since University of Florida data shows that hypopharynx and larynx primaries are rare. Nevertheless, for isolated Level III-IV LN, these should probably still be covered
 * Modified neck volume may include ipsilateral Level Ib-V + RP nodes and contralateral low Level II-V lymph nodes.
 * Treatment of bilateral neck + mucosal sites of risk appears to improve rate of neck control and even overall survival in some series as compared to unilateral neck irradiation. This issue is considered somewhat controversial and must be weighed against the added toxicity of comprehensive irradiation

Surgery Alone

 * Mayo Clinic; 1992 PMID 1618667 -- "Cervical nodal metastasis of squamous cell carcinoma of unknown origin: indications for withholding radiation therapy." (Coster JR, Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 1992;23(4):743-9.)
 * Retrospective. 24 patients, unknown primary, unilateral neck disease, curative resection by neck dissection or excisional biopsy. N1 (n=14), N2a (n=6), N2b (n=3), N3 (n=1). ECE (n=8). Median F/U alive patients 8.5 years
 * Outcome: Primary developed in 4%. Neck recurrence 25%, median TTF 3 months. In 5/6 patients with recurrence ECE+. Both N1 patients who recurred had ECE. 5-year CSS 74%, OS 66%
 * Conclusion: In pN1 and no ECE, surgery alone sufficient. If pN2+ or ECE, consider adjuvant RT

Definitive Radiation

 * Gainesville, 2001 (1964-97) PMID 11316546 -- Erkal HS et al. "Squamous cell carcinomas metastatic to cervical lymph nodes from an unknown head-and-neck mucosal site treated with radiation therapy alone or in combination with neck dissection."  Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2001 May 1;50(1):55-63.
 * 126 pts w/ SCC of cervical neck from unknown primary. >90% tx'd w/ comprehensive nodal/mucosal site irradiation.
 * 5yr neck control 78% (10% persistent dz, 12% nodal failure.
 * 5yr OS 47%
 * Factors that affected OS on multi-variate analysis were ECE, N stage, RT dose to mucosal sites.

 * Danish, 2000 (1975-95) PMID 10799723 -- Grau C et al. "Cervical lymph node metastases from unknown primary tumours. Results from a national survey by the Danish Society for Head and Neck Oncology."  Radiother Oncol. 2000 May;55(2):121-9.
 * 277 pts tx'd radically for unknown primary of H&N. 81% tx'd with comprehensive fields (b/l neck, nasopharynx, hypopharynx, oropharynx and larynx).
 * 5yr OS 37%
 * Mucosal primary emergence rate 16% (50% of emerging primaries in lung or esophagus).
 * Comprehensive xrt fields appeared to decrease neck relapse and development of distant mets. Comprehensive xrt fields also improved median overall survival.

Volume
Larynx/Hypopharynx Sparing
 * University of Florida; 2005 (1997-2002) PMID 16199981 -- "Larynx-sparing radiotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma from an unknown head and neck primary site." (Barker CA, Am J Clin Oncol. 2005 Oct;28(5):445-8.)
 * Retrospective. 17 patients, curative intent. RT 64.8/36 parallel opposed fields to nasopharynx, oropharynx, and upper cervical LN. Matched anterior neck field at thyroid notch 50/25. Majority had >2 year follow-up
 * Outcome: No SCC in H&N mucosa. 1/17 (6%) persistent nodal disease, 1/17 (6%) recurrent nodal disease. No distant mets. 5-year CSS 88%, 5-year OS 82%
 * Conclusion: Larynx-sparing Rt appears effective, and likely reduces toxicity

Unilateral vs Bilateral Neck
 * Princess Margaret; 1995 (1970-86) PMID 7480823 -- Weir L et al. "Radiation treatment of cervical lymph node metastases from an unknown primary: an analysis of outcome by treatment volume and other prognostic factors."  Radiother Oncol. 1995 Jun;35(3):206-11.
 * 144 pts tx'd for unknown primary H&N CA. 85 tx'd to involved nodes; 59 tx'd to both nodes and potential primary sites.
 * 5yr OS 41%
 * Nodal control 51% (94% neck failures failed within initial tx volume).
 * Trend towards improved survival for treatment of both potential primary and nodes.

 * Loyola; 1997 PMID 9128954 -- Reddy SP et al. "Metastatic carcinoma in the cervical lymph nodes from an unknown primary site: results of bilateral neck plus mucosal irradiation vs. ipsilateral neck irradiation."  Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 1997 Mar 1;37(4):797-802.
 * 36 pts irradiated to b/l neck + mucosal sites, 16 pts tx'd to unilateral nodes (electrons).
 * Contralateral nodal failure 44% (unilateral xrt) vs 14% (bilateral xrt)
 * Mucosal primary emergence rate 44% (unilateral xrt) vs 8% (bilateral xrt)
 * No difference in 5yr OS.

IMRT

 * Memorial Sloan Kettering; 2008 (2000-2005) PMID 17980501 -- "Intensity-modulated radiotherapy for head and neck cancer of unknown primary: toxicity and preliminary efficacy." (Klem ML, Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2008 Mar 15;70(4):1100-7. Epub 2007 Nov 5.)
 * Retrospective. 21 patients treated with IMRT (5 definitive, 16 postoperative). Target volume bilateral neck and mucosal surface. Median dose 66 Gy. Median F/U 2.0 years
 * Outcome: 2-year PFS 90%, OS 85%
 * Toxicity: PEG required in 72% combined chemo-RT and 43% IMRT alone. Acute Grade 1 57%, Grade 2 43%. Three esophageal strictures
 * Conclusion: Acceptable toxicity and encouraging efficacy

Reviews

 * Nieder, C et al. PMID 11395241 "Cervical lymph node metastases from occult squamous cell carcinoma: cut down a tree to get an apple?"  Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2001 Jul 1;50(3):727-33.
 * Coster, J et al. PMID 1618667 "Cervical nodal metastasis of squamous cell carcinoma of unknown origin: indications for withholding radiation therapy" Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 1992; 23(4)743-9


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User:Millosh/Internet and Programming for Linguists/The Big Picture/Computer

A computer is a machine for manipulating data according to a list of instructions.

Computers take numerous physical forms. Early electronic computers were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers. Today, computers can be made small enough to fit into a wrist watch and be powered from a watch battery.

Society has come to recognize personal computers and their portable equivalent, the laptop computer, as icons of the information age; they are what most people think of as "a computer". However, the most common form of computer in use today is by far the embedded computer. Embedded computers are small, simple devices that are often used to control other devices—for example, they may be found in machines ranging from fighter aircraft to industrial robots, digital cameras, and even children's toys.

The ability to store and execute programs makes computers extremely versatile and distinguishes them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: Any computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore, computers with capability and complexity ranging from that of a personal digital assistant to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks as long as time and storage capacity are not considerations.

 * History of computing

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Computer components
A minimal setup of a typical contemporary computer would be: The motherboard connects everything together. The graphics card and processor are mounted directly onto the motherboard (the processor in a socket) and the graphics card in an expansion slot). The mass storage is connected to it with cables. Same for keyboard and mouse, except that they are external and conenct to the back plate. The monitor is also connected to the back plate, except not (usually) directly to the motherboard, but to a connector in the graphics card.
 * Computer case with power supply (usually sold together)
 * Motherboard
 * Processor with fan (usually sold together)
 * At least one memory card
 * Mass storage
 * Keyboard and mouse for input
 * Monitor for output
 * The mass storage can be:
 * Hard disk
 * Floppy drive of zip drive (both with media)
 * Optical drive (CD or DVD)
 * The operating system (eg Linux of msWindows) can be located on either of these, but typically it's on one of the hard disks. A live cd is also possible, but very slow and used for either installation of the OS or problem solving.

On top of these, a typical computer also has: Common additions are: Several functions (implemented by chipsets) can be integrated into the motherboard, such as typically USB and network, but also graphics and sound. But even if these are present, a separate card can be added if what is available present isn't sufficient.
 * Sound card
 * Speakers
 * Network card
 * Modem and possibly router
 * Printer
 * Scanner
 * Webcam
 * Microphone
 * Headset
 * Card reader
 * Gaming devices such as a joystick

The graphics and sound card can have a break out box to keep the analog parts away from the electromagnetic radiation inside the computer case. For really large amounts of data, a tape drive can be used or (extra) hard disks can be put together in an external case.

These components can usually be put together with little knowledge, to build a computer. If something shouldn't go somewhere, it usually doesn't fit (this used to not always be the case in the past) and if it does fit it can usually do little harm.

Stored program architecture
The defining feature of modern computers which distinguishes them from all other machines is that they can be programmed. That is to say that a list of instructions (the program) can be given to the computer and it will store them and carry them out at some time in the future.

In most cases, computer instructions are simple: add one number to another, move some data from one location to another, send a message to some external device, etc. These instructions are read from the computer's memory and are generally carried out (executed) in the order they were given. However, there are usually specialized instructions to tell the computer to jump ahead or backwards to some other place in the program and to carry on executing from there. These are called "jump" instructions (or branches). Furthermore, jump instructions may be made to happen conditionally so that different sequences of instructions may be used depending on the result of some previous calculation or some external event. Many computers directly support subroutines by providing a type of jump that "remembers" the location it jumped from and another instruction to return to that point.

Program execution might be likened to reading a book. While a person will normally read each word and line in sequence, they may at times jump back to an earlier place in the text or skip sections that are not of interest. Similarly, a computer may sometimes go back and repeat the instructions in some section of the program over and over again until some internal condition is met. This is called the flow of control within the program and it is what allows the computer to perform tasks repeatedly without human intervention.

Comparatively, a person using a pocket calculator can perform a basic arithmetic operation such as adding two numbers with just a few button presses. But to add together all of the numbers from 1 to 1,000 would take thousands of button presses and a lot of time—with a near certainty of making a mistake. On the other hand, a computer may be programmed to do this with just a few simple instructions. For example:

mov     #0,sum     ; set sum to 0 mov     #1,num     ; set num to 1 loop:  add      num,sum    ; add num to sum add     #1,num     ; add 1 to num cmp     num,#1000  ; compare num to 1000 ble     loop       ; if num <= 1000, go back to 'loop' halt               ; end of program. stop running

Once told to run this program, the computer will perform the repetitive addition task without further human intervention. It will almost never make a mistake and a modern PC can complete the task in about a millionth of a second.

However, computers cannot "think" for themselves in the sense that they only solve problems in exactly the way they are programmed to. An intelligent human faced with the above addition task might soon realize that instead of actually adding up all the numbers one can simply use the equation

 * $$1+2+3+...+n = {{n(n+1)} \over 2}$$

and arrive at the correct answer (500,500) with little work. In other words, a computer programmed to add up the numbers one by one as in the example above would do exactly that without regard to efficiency or alternative solutions.

Programs

In practical terms, a computer program might include anywhere from a dozen instructions to many millions of instructions for something like a word processor or a web browser. A typical modern computer can execute billions of instructions every second and nearly never make a mistake over years of operation.

Large computer programs may take teams of computer programmers years to write and the probability of the entire program having been written completely in the manner intended is unlikely. Errors in computer programs are called bugs. Sometimes bugs are benign and do not affect the usefulness of the program, in other cases they might cause the program to completely fail (crash), in yet other cases there may be subtle problems. Sometimes otherwise benign bugs may be used for malicious intent, creating a security exploit. Bugs are usually not the fault of the computer. Since computers merely execute the instructions they are given, bugs are nearly always the result of programmer error or an oversight made in the program's design.

In most computers, individual instructions are stored as machine code with each instruction being given a unique number (its operation code or opcode for short). The command to add two numbers together would have one opcode, the command to multiply them would have a different opcode and so on. The simplest computers are able to perform any of a handful of different instructions, the more complex computers have several hundred to choose from—each with a unique numerical code. Since the computer's memory is able to store numbers, it can also store the instruction codes. This leads to the important fact that entire programs (which are just lists of instructions) can be represented as lists of numbers and can themselves be manipulated inside the computer just as if they were numeric data. The fundamental concept of storing programs in the computer's memory alongside the data they operate on is the crux of the von Neumann, or stored program, architecture. In some cases, a computer might store some or all of its program in memory that is kept separate from the data it operates on. This is called the Harvard architecture after the Harvard Mark I computer. Modern von Neumann computers display some traits of the Harvard architecture in their designs, such as in CPU caches.

While it is possible to write computer programs as long lists of numbers (machine language) and this technique was used with many early computers, it is extremely tedious to do so in practice, especially for complicated programs. Instead, each basic instruction can be given a short name that is indicative of its function and easy to remember—a mnemonic such as ADD, SUB, MULT or JUMP. These mnemonics are collectively known as a computer's assembly language. Converting programs written in assembly language into something the computer can actually understand (machine language) is usually done by a computer program called an assembler. Machine languages and the assembly languages that represent them (collectively termed low-level programming languages) tend to be unique to a particular type of computer. This means that an ARM architecture computer (such as may be found in a PDA or a hand-held videogame) cannot understand the machine language of an Intel Pentium or the AMD Athlon 64 computer that might be in a PC.

Though considerably easier than in machine language, writing long programs in assembly language is often difficult and error prone. Therefore, most complicated programs are written in more abstract high-level programming languages that are able to express the needs of the computer programmer more conveniently (and thereby help reduce programmer error). High level languages are usually "compiled" into machine language (or sometimes into assembly language and then into machine language) using another computer program called a compiler. Since high level languages are more abstract than assembly language, it is possible to use different compilers to translate the same high level language program into the machine language of many different types of computer. This is part of the means by which software like video games may be made available for different computer architectures such as personal computers and various video game consoles.

The task of developing large software systems is an immense intellectual effort. It has proven, historically, to be very difficult to produce software with an acceptably high reliability, on a predictable schedule and budget. The academic and professional discipline of software engineering concentrates specifically on this problem.

Example
Suppose a computer is being employed to drive a traffic light. A simple stored program might say:

 * 1) Turn off all of the lights
 * 2) Turn on the red light
 * 3) Wait for sixty seconds
 * 4) Turn off the red light
 * 5) Turn on the green light
 * 6) Wait for sixty seconds
 * 7) Turn off the green light
 * 8) Turn on the yellow light
 * 9) Wait for two seconds
 * 10) Turn off the yellow light
 * 11) Jump to instruction number (2)

With this set of instructions, the computer would cycle the light continually through red, green, yellow and back to red again until told to stop running the program.

However, suppose there is a simple on/off switch connected to the computer that is intended be used to make the light flash red while some maintenance operation is being performed. The program might then instruct the computer to:

 * 1) Turn off all of the lights
 * 2) Turn on the red light
 * 3) Wait for sixty seconds
 * 4) Turn off the red light
 * 5) Turn on the green light
 * 6) Wait for sixty seconds
 * 7) Turn off the green light
 * 8) Turn on the yellow light
 * 9) Wait for two seconds
 * 10) Turn off the yellow light
 * 11) If the maintenance switch is NOT turned on then jump to instruction number 2
 * 12) Turn on the red light
 * 13) Wait for one second
 * 14) Turn off the red light
 * 15) Wait for one second
 * 16) Jump to instruction number 11

In this manner, the computer is either running the instructions from number (2) to (11) over and over or it's running the instructions from (11) down to (16) over and over, depending on the position of the switch.

How computers work
A general purpose computer has four main sections: the arithmetic and logic unit (ALU), the control unit, the memory, and the input and output devices (collectively termed I/O). These parts are interconnected by busses, often made of groups of wires.

The control unit, ALU, registers, and basic I/O (and often other hardware closely linked with these) are collectively known as a central processing unit (CPU). Early CPUs were comprised of many separate components but since the mid-1970s CPUs have typically been constructed on a single integrated circuit called a microprocessor.

Control unit
The control unit (often called a control system or central controller) directs the various components of a computer. It reads and interprets (decodes) instructions in the program one by one. The control system decodes each instruction and turns it into a series of control signals that operate the other parts of the computer. Control systems in advanced computers may change the order of some instructions so as to improve performance.

A key component common to all CPUs is the program counter, a special memory cell (a register) that keeps track of which location in memory the next instruction is to be read from.

The control system's function is as follows—note that this is a simplified description and some of these steps may be performed concurrently or in a different order depending on the type of CPU:

 * 1) Read the code for the next instruction from the cell indicated by the program counter.
 * 2) Decode the numerical code for the instruction into a set of commands or signals for each of the other systems.
 * 3) Increment the program counter so it points to the next instruction.
 * 4) Read whatever data the instruction requires from cells in memory (or perhaps from an input device). The location of this required data is typically stored within the instruction code.
 * 5) Provide the necessary data to an ALU or register.
 * 6) If the instruction requires an ALU or specialized hardware to complete, instruct the hardware to perform the requested operation.
 * 7) Write the result from the ALU back to a memory location or to a register or perhaps an output device.
 * 8) Jump back to step (1).

Since the program counter is (conceptually) just another set of memory cells, it can be changed by calculations done in the ALU. Adding 100 to the program counter would cause the next instruction to be read from a place 100 locations further down the program. Instructions that modify the program counter are often known as "jumps" and allow for loops (instructions that are repeated by the computer) and often conditional instruction execution (both examples of control flow).

It is noticeable that the sequence of operations that the control unit goes through to process an instruction is in itself like a short computer program - and indeed, in some more complex CPU designs, there is another yet smaller computer called a microsequencer that runs a microcode program that causes all of these events to happen.

Arithmetic/logic unit (ALU)
The ALU is capable of performing two classes of operations: arithmetic and logic.

The set of arithmetic operations that a particular ALU supports may be limited to adding and subtracting or might include multiplying or dividing, trigonometry functions (sine, cosine, etc) and square roots. Some can only operate on whole numbers (integers) whilst others use floating point to represent real numbers—albeit with limited precision. However, any computer that is capable of performing just the simplest operations can be programmed to break down the more complex operations into simple steps that it can perform. Therefore, any computer can be programmed to perform any arithmetic operation—although it will take more time to do so if its ALU does not directly support the operation. An ALU may also compare numbers and return boolean truth values (true or false) depending on whether one is equal to, greater than or less than the other ("is 64 greater than 65?").

Logic operations involve boolean logic: AND, OR, XOR and NOT. These can be useful both for creating complicated conditional statements and processing boolean logic.

Superscalar computers contain multiple ALUs so that they can process several instructions at the same time. Graphics processors and computers with SIMD and MIMD features often provide ALUs that can perform arithmetic on vectors and matrices.

Memory

A computer's memory can be viewed as a list of cells into which numbers can be placed or read. Each cell has a numbered "address" and can store a single number. The computer can be instructed to "put the number 123 into the cell numbered 1357" or to "add the number that is in cell 1357 to the number that is in cell 2468 and put the answer into cell 1595". The information stored in memory may represent practically anything. Letters, numbers, even computer instructions can be placed into memory with equal ease. Since the CPU does not differentiate between different types of information, it is up to the software to give significance to what the memory sees as nothing but a series of numbers.

In almost all modern computers, each memory cell is set up to store binary numbers in groups of eight bits (called a byte). Each byte is able to represent 256 different numbers; either from 0 to 255 or -128 to +127. To store larger numbers, several consecutive bytes may be used (typically, two, four or eight). When negative numbers are required, they are usually stored in two's complement notation. Other arrangements are possible, but are usually not seen outside of specialized applications or historical contexts. A computer can store any kind of information in memory as long as it can be somehow represented in numerical form. Modern computers have billions or even trillions of bytes of memory.

The CPU contains a special set of memory cells called registers that can be read and written to much more rapidly than the main memory area. There are typically between two and one hundred registers depending on the type of CPU. Registers are used for the most frequently needed data items to avoid having to access main memory every time data is needed. Since data is constantly being worked on, reducing the need to access main memory (which is often slow compared to the ALU and control units) greatly increases the computer's speed.

Computer main memory comes in two principal varieties: random access memory or RAM and read-only memory or ROM. RAM can be read and written to anytime the CPU commands it, but ROM is pre-loaded with data and software that never changes, so the CPU can only read from it. ROM is typically used to store the computer's initial start-up instructions. In general, the contents of RAM is erased when the power to the computer is turned off while ROM retains its data indefinitely. In a PC, the ROM contains a specialized program called the BIOS that orchestrates loading the computer's operating system from the hard disk drive into RAM whenever the computer is turned on or reset. In embedded computers, which frequently do not have disk drives, all of the software required to perform the task may be stored in ROM. Software that is stored in ROM is often called firmware because it is notionally more like hardware than software. Flash memory blurs the distinction between ROM and RAM by retaining data when turned off but being rewritable like RAM. However, flash memory is typically much slower than conventional ROM and RAM so its use is restricted to applications where high speeds are not required.

In more sophisticated computers there may be one or more RAM cache memories which are slower than registers but faster than main memory. Generally computers with this sort of cache are designed to move frequently needed data into the cache automatically, often without the need for any intervention on the programmer's part.

Input/output (I/O)
I/O is the means by which a computer receives information from the outside world and sends results back. Devices that provide input or output to the computer are called peripherals. On a typical personal computer, peripherals include inputs like the keyboard and mouse, and outputs such as the display and printer. Hard disks, floppy disks and optical discs serve as both inputs and outputs. Computer networking is another form of I/O.

Practically any device that can be made to interface digitally may be used as I/O. The computer in the Engine Control Unit of a modern automobile might read the position of the pedals and steering wheel, the output of the oxygen sensor and devices that monitor the speed of each wheel. The output devices include the various lights and gauges that the driver sees as well as the engine controls such as the spark ignition circuits and fuel injection systems. In a digital wristwatch, the computer reads the buttons and causes numbers and symbols to be shown on the liquid crystal display.

Often, I/O devices are complex computers in their own right with their own CPU and memory. A graphics processing unit might contain fifty or more tiny computers that perform the calculations necessary to display 3D graphics. Modern desktop computers contain many smaller computers that assist the main CPU in performing I/O.

Multitasking
While a computer may be viewed as running one gigantic program stored in its main memory, in some systems it is necessary to give the appearance of running several programs simultaneously. This is achieved by having the computer switch rapidly between running each program in turn. One means by which this is done is with a special signal called an interrupt which can periodically cause the computer to stop executing instructions where it was and do something else instead. By remembering where it was executing prior to the interrupt, the computer can return to that task later. If several programs are running "at the same time", then the interrupt generator might be causing several hundred interrupts per second, causing a program switch each time. Since modern computers typically execute instructions several orders of magnitude faster than human perception, it may appear that many programs are running at the same time even though only one is ever executing in any given instant. This method of multitasking is sometimes termed "time-sharing" since each program is allocated a "slice" of time in turn.

Before the era of cheap computers, the principle use for multitasking was to allow many people to share the same computer.

Seemingly, multitasking would cause a computer that is switching between several programs to run more slowly - in direct proportion to the number of programs it is running. However, most programs spend much of their time waiting for slow input/output devices to complete their tasks. If a program is waiting for the user to click on the mouse or press a key on the keyboard, then it will not take a "time slice" until the event it is waiting for has occurred. This frees up time for other programs to execute so that many programs may be run at the same time without unacceptable speed loss.

Multiprocessing
Some computers may divide their work between one or more separate CPUs, creating a multiprocessing configuration. Traditionally, this technique was utilized only in large and powerful computers such as supercomputers, mainframe computers and servers. However, multiprocessor and multi-core (multiple CPUs on a single integrated circuit) personal and laptop computers have become widely available and are beginning to see increased usage in lower-end markets as a result.

Supercomputers in particular often have highly unique architectures that differ significantly from the basic stored-program architecture and from general purpose computers. They often feature thousands of CPUs, customized high-speed interconnects, and specialized computing hardware. Such designs tend to be useful only for specialized tasks due to the large scale of program organization required to successfully utilize most of a the available resources at once. Supercomputers usually see usage in large-scale simulation, graphics rendering, and cryptography applications, as well as with other so-called "embarrassingly parallel" tasks.

Networking and the Internet
Computers have been used to coordinate information in multiple locations since the 1950s, with the US military's SAGE system the first large-scale example of such a system, which led to a number of special-purpose commercial systems like Sabre.

In the 1970s, computer engineers at research institutions throughout the US began to link their computers together using telecommunications technology. This effort was funded by ARPA (now DARPA), and the computer network that it produced was called the ARPANET. The technologies that made the Arpanet possible spread and evolved. In time, the network spread beyond academic and military institutions and became known as the Internet. The emergence of networking involved a redefinition of the nature and boundaries of the computer. Computer operating systems and applications were modified to include the ability to define and access the resources of other computers on the network, such as peripheral devices, stored information, and the like, as extensions of the resources of an individual computer. Initially these facilities were available primarily to people working in high-tech environments, but in the 1990s the spread of applications like e-mail and the World Wide Web, combined with the development of cheap, fast networking technologies like Ethernet and ADSL saw computer networking become almost ubiquitous. In fact, the number of computers that are networked is growing phenomenally. A very large proportion of personal computers regularly connect to the Internet to communicate and receive information. "Wireless" networking, often utilizing mobile phone networks, has meant networking is becoming increasingly ubiquitous even in mobile computing environments.

Hardware
The term hardware covers all of those parts of a computer that are tangible objects. Circuits, displays, power supplies, cables, keyboards, printers and mice are all hardware.

Software
Software refers to parts of the computer that have no material form; programs, data, protocols, etc are all software. When software is stored in hardware that cannot easily be modified (such as BIOS ROM in an IBM PC compatible), it is sometimes termed firmware to indicate that it falls into an area of uncertainty between hardware and software.

Programming languages
Programming languages provide various ways of specifying programs for computers to run. Unlike natural languages, programming languages are designed to permit no ambiguity and to be concise. They are purely written languages and are often difficult to read aloud. They are generally either translated into machine language by a compiler or an assembler before being run, or translated directly at run time by an interpreter. Sometimes programs are executed by a hybrid method of the two techniques. There are thousands of different programming languages—some intended to be general purpose, others useful only for highly specialized applications.

Professions and organizations
As the use of computers has spread throughout society, there are an increasing number of careers involving computers. Following the theme of hardware, software and firmware, the brains of people who work in the industry are sometimes known irreverently as wetware or "meatware".

The need for computers to work well together and to be able to exchange information has spawned the need for many standards organizations, clubs and societies of both a formal and informal nature.

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User:Millosh/Internet and Programming for Linguists/The Big Picture/Computer/History of computing

Lesson
It is difficult to define any one device as the earliest computer. The very definition of a computer has changed and it is therefore impossible to identify the first computer. Many devices once called "computers" would no longer qualify as such by today's standards.

Pre-computer age

Originally, the term "computer" referred to a person who performed numerical calculations (a human computer), often with the aid of a mechanical calculating device. Examples of early mechanical computing devices included the abacus, the slide rule and arguably the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism (which dates from about 150-100 BC). The end of the Middle Ages saw a re-invigoration of European mathematics and engineering, and Wilhelm Schickard's 1623 device was the first of a number of mechanical calculators constructed by European engineers.

However, none of those devices fit the modern definition of a computer because they could not be programmed. In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to the textile loom that used a series of punched paper cards as a template to allow his loom to weave intricate patterns automatically. The resulting Jacquard loom was an important step in the development of computers because the use of punched cards to define woven patterns can be viewed as an early, albeit limited, form of programmability.

In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable mechanical computer that he called "The Analytical Engine". Due to limited finance, and an inability to resist tinkering with the design, Babbage never actually built his analytical engine.

Large-scale automated data processing of punched cards was performed for the US Census in 1890 by tabulating machines designed by Herman Hollerith and manufactured by the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation, which later became IBM. By the end of the 19th century a number of technologies that would later prove useful in the realization of practical computers had begun to appear: the punched card, boolean algebra, the vacuum tube (thermionic valve) and the teleprinter.

During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation. However, these were not programmable and generally lacked the versatility and accuracy of modern digital computers.

Early computers
A succession of steadily more powerful and flexible computing devices were constructed in the 1930s and 1940s, gradually adding the key features that are seen in modern computers. The use of digital electronics (largely invented by Claude Shannon in 1937) and more flexible programmability were vitally important steps, but defining one point along this road as "the first digital electronic computer" is difficult. Notable achievements include:

 * Konrad Zuse's electromechanical "Z machines". The Z3 (1941) was the first working machine featuring binary arithmetic, including floating point arithmetic and a measure of programmability. In 1998 the Z3 was proved to be Turing complete, therefore being the world's first operational computer.
 * The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (1941) which used vacuum tube based computation, binary numbers, and regenerative capacitor memory.
 * The secret British Colossus computer (1944), which had limited programmability but demonstrated that a device using thousands of tubes could be reasonably reliable and electronically reprogrammable. It was used for breaking German wartime codes.
 * The Harvard Mark I (1944), a large-scale electromechanical computer with limited programmability.
 * The US Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory ENIAC (1946), which used decimal arithmetic and was the first general purpose electronic computer, although it initially had an inflexible architecture which essentially required rewiring to change its programming.

Several developers of ENIAC, recognizing its flaws, came up with a far more flexible and elegant design, which came to be known as the stored program architecture or von Neumann architecture. This design was first formally described by John von Neumann in the paper "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC", published in 1945. A number of projects to develop computers based on the stored program architecture commenced around this time, the first of these being completed in Great Britain. The first to be demonstrated working was the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM) or "Baby". However, the EDSAC, completed a year after SSEM, was perhaps the first practical implementation of the stored program design. Shortly thereafter, the machine originally described by von Neumann's paper—EDVAC—was completed but didn't see full-time use for an additional two years.

Nearly all modern computers implement some form of the stored program architecture, making it the single trait by which the word "computer" is now defined. By this standard, many earlier devices would no longer be called computers by today's definition, but are usually referred to as such in their historical context. While the technologies used in computers have changed dramatically since the first electronic, general-purpose computers of the 1940s, most still use the von Neumann architecture. The design made the universal computer a practical reality.

Toward modern computers
Vacuum tube-based computers were in use throughout the 1950s, but were largely replaced in the 1960s by transistor-based devices, which were smaller, faster, cheaper, used less power and were more reliable. These factors allowed computers to be produced on an unprecedented commercial scale. By the 1970s, the adoption of integrated circuit technology and the subsequent creation of microprocessors such as the Intel 4004 caused another leap in size, speed, cost and reliability. By the 1980s, computers had become sufficiently small and cheap to replace simple mechanical controls in domestic appliances such as washing machines. Around the same time, computers became widely accessible for personal use by individuals in the form of home computers and the now ubiquitous personal computer. In conjunction with the widespread growth of the Internet since the 1990s, personal computers are becoming as common as the television and the telephone and almost all modern electronic devices contain a computer of some kind.

Basic concepts

 * electricity -- Electricity is a general term for the variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. Together with magnetism, it constitutes the fundamental interaction known as electromagnetism. It includes many well-known physical phenomena such as lightning, electromagnetic fields and electric currents, and is put to use in industrial applications such as electronics and electric power.

 * electromechanics -- In engineering, electromechanics combines the sciences of electromagnetism of electrical engineering and mechanics. Mechatronics is the discipline of engineering that combines mechanics, electronics and information technology.

 * electronics -- Electronics is the study of the flow of charge through various materials and devices such as, semiconductors, resistors, inductors, capacitors, nano-structures, and vacuum tubes|. All applications of electronics involve the transmission of either information or power. Although considered to be a theoretical branch of physics, the design and construction of electronic circuits to solve practical problems is an essential technique in the fields of electronics engineering and computer engineering.

Basic mathematical and computer science concepts

 * analytical engine -- The analytical engine, an important step in the history of computers, was the design of a mechanical general-purpose computer by the British professor of mathematics Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837, but Babbage continued to work on the design until his death in 1871. Because of financial, political, and legal issues, the engine was never actually built. In its logical design the machine was essentially modern, anticipating the first completed general-purpose computers by about 100 years.

 * binary numeral system -- The binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, is a numeral system that represents numeric values using two symbols, usually 0 and 1. More specifically, the usual base-2 system is a positional notation with a radix of 2. Owing to its straightforward implementation in electronic circuitry, the binary system is used internally by virtually all modern computers.

 * boolean algebra -- In abstract algebra, a Boolean algebra is an algebraic structure (a collection of elements and operations on them obeying defining axioms) that captures essential properties of both set operations and logic operations. Specifically, it deals with the set operations of intersection, union, complement; and the logic operations of AND, OR, NOT.

 * computation -- Computation is a general term for any type of information processing that can be represented mathematically. This includes phenomena ranging from simple calculations to human thinking. In a more narrow meaning, computation is a process following a well defined model that is understood and can be expressed in an algorithm, protocol, network topology, etc.

 * computer program -- A computer program is a collection of instructions that describes a task, or set of tasks, to be carried out by a computer. More formally, it can be described as an expression of a computational method written in a computer language. Computer programs, also known as software, may be categorized along functional lines. These functional categories include application software, operating systems, video games, and compilers, among others. Computer programs embedded in hardware devices are called firmware.

 * cryptanalysis -- Cryptanalysis is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information which is normally required to do so. Typically, this involves finding the secret key. In non-technical language, this is the practice of codebreaking or cracking the code, although these phrases also have a specialised technical meaning (see code).

 * decimal -- The decimal (base ten or occasionally denary) numeral system has ten as its base. It is the most widely used numeral system, perhaps because humans have four fingers and a thumb on each hand, giving a total of ten digits over both hands.

 * Internet -- The Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.

 * Turing completeness -- In computability theory, an abstract machine or programming language is called Turing complete, Turing equivalent, or (computationally) universal if it has a computational power equivalent to (i.e., capable of emulating) a simplified model of a programmable computer known as the universal Turing machine. Being equivalent to the universal Turing machine essentially means being able to perform any computational task – though it does not mean being able to perform such tasks efficiently, quickly, or easily.

 * von Neumann architecture -- The von Neumann architecture is a computer design model that uses a processing unit and a single separate storage structure to hold both instructions and data. It is named after mathematician and early computer scientist John von Neumann.  Such a computer implements a Universal Turing machine, and the common "referential model" of specifying sequential architectures, in contrast with parallel architectures.  The term "stored-program computer" is generally used to mean a computer of this design.

Types of computers

 * analog computer -- An analog computer (spelled analogue in British English) is a form of computer that uses electrical, mechanical or hydraulic phenomena to model the problem being solved. More generally an analog computer uses one kind of physical quantity to represent the behavior of another physical system, or mathematical function. Modeling a real physical system in a computer is called simulation.

 * personal computer -- A personal computer (PC) is a microcomputer whose price, size, and capabilities make it useful for individuals. The term was popularized by Byte magazine, as well as by Apple Computer with the Apple II in the late-1970s and early-1980s, and afterwards by IBM with the IBM Personal Computer. Personal computers are also known as home computers. Often, the term "personal computer" is used exclusively for computers running a Microsoft Windows operating system, but this is erroneous.  For example, a Macintosh running Mac OS and an IBM PC compatible running Linux are both personal computers. This confusion stems from the fact that the term "PC" is often used as a shorthand form for "IBM PC compatible" and historically Mac OS has run on non-IBM compatible hardware like the PowerPC architecture.

 * home computer -- The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of desktop computers, entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. They are also known as personal computers.

 * slide rule -- The slide rule (often nicknamed a "slipstick" ) is a mechanical analog computer, consisting of at least two finely divided scales (rules), most often a fixed outer pair and a movable inner one, with a sliding window called the cursor. The slide rule was used primarily for multiplication and division, and also for "scientific" functions such as roots, logs and trig, but does not generally perform addition or subtraction.

Parts of computers

 * central processing unit (CPU) -- A central processing unit (CPU), or sometimes simply processor, is the component in a digital computer that interprets computer program instructions and processes data. CPUs provide the fundamental digital computer trait of programmability, and are one of the necessary components found in computers of any era, along with primary storage and input/output facilities. A CPU that is manufactured as a single integrated circuit is usually known as a microprocessor. Beginning in the mid-1970s, microprocessors of ever-increasing complexity and power gradually supplanted other designs, and today the term "CPU" is usually applied to some type of microprocessor.

 * integrated circuit -- A monolithic integrated circuit (also known as IC, microcircuit, microchip, silicon chip, or chip) is a miniaturized electronic circuit (consisting mainly of semiconductor devices, as well as passive components) that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material. A hybrid integrated circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit constructed of individual semiconductor devices, as well as passive components, bonded to a substrate or circuit board.

 * microprocessors -- A microprocessor is a programmable digital electronic component that incorporates the functions of a central processing unit (CPU) on a single semiconducting integrated circuit (IC). The microprocessor was born by reducing the word size of the CPU from 32 bits to 4 bits, so that the transistors of its logic circuits would fit onto a single part. One or more microprocessors typically serve as the CPU in a computer system, embedded system, or handheld device.

 * punch card --

 * read-only memory (ROM) -- Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified (at least not very quickly or easily), it is mainly used to distribute firmware (software that is very closely tied to specific hardware, and unlikely to require frequent updates). Modern semiconductor ROM chips are not immediately distinguishable from similar chips like RAM modules, except by the part numbers printed on the package.

 * regenerative capacitor memory -- Regenerative capacitor memory is a type of computer memory that uses the electrical property of capacitance to store the bits of data. Because the stored charge slowly leaks away, these memories must be periodically regenerated (i.e. read and rewritten, also called refreshed) to prevent data loss.

 * transistor -- A transistor is a semiconductor device, commonly used as an amplifier or an electrically controlled switch. The transistor is the fundamental building block of the circuitry that governs the operation of computers, cellular phones, and all other modern electronics. Because of its fast response and accuracy, the transistor may be used in a wide variety of digital and analog functions, including amplification, switching, voltage regulation, signal modulation, and oscillators.  Transistors may be packaged individually or as part of an integrated circuit, which may hold millions of transistors in a very small area.

 * vacuum tube -- In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube, or (outside North America) thermionic valve or just valve, is a device used to amplify, switch or modify a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space. Vacuum tubes were critical devices in electronics technology, leading to the development and commercialization of such technologies as radio broadcasting, television, radar, high fidelity sound reproduction, telephone, analog and digital computers, and industrial process control.

Devices functionally or technologically similar to computers

 * abacus -- An abacus (plurals abacuses or abaci) is a calculating tool, often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on wires. It was in use centuries before the adoption of the written Hindu-Arabic numeral system and is still widely used by merchants and clerks in China, Japan, Africa and elsewhere.

 * Antikythera mechanism --

 * astrolabe -- The astrolabe is a historical astronomical instrument used by classical astronomers and astrologers. It was the chief navigational instrument until the compass in the 12th century, and the invention of the sextant in the 18th century. Its many uses included locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars; determining local time given local longitude and vice-versa; surveying; and triangulation. Astrologers of the European nations used astrolabes to construct horoscopes. In the Islamic world, they are and were used primarily for astronomical studies, though astrology was often involved there as well.

 * difference engine -- A difference engine is a special-purpose mechanical digital calculator, designed to tabulate polynomial functions. Since logarithmic and trigonometric functions can be approximated by polynomials, such a machine is more general than it appears at first.

 * film stock -- Film stock is the term for photographic film on which motion pictures are shot and reproduced.

 * Jacquard loom --

 * loom --

 * mechanical calculating device is a calculator which is using mechanic (not electric nor electronic) power for calculation. The most known device is abacus, but up to 1960s mechanical calculators are exclusively used. For more details, see the article calculator on English Wikipedia.

 * tabulating machine --

 * telephone -- The telephone is a telecommunications device which is used to transmit and receive sound (most commonly speech). Most telephones operate through transmission of electric signals over a complex telephone network which allows almost any phone user to communicate with almost any other.

 * teleprinter --

 * television -- Television (often abbreviated to TV) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving picture|s and sound over a distance. The term may also be used to refer specifically to a television set, programming or television transmission.

Other concepts

 * human computer -- Before mechanical and electronic computers, the term "computer", in use from the mid 17th century, literally meant "one who computes": a person performing mathematical calculations. Teams of people or human computers were used to undertake long and often tedious calculations. The work was divided so that this could be done in parallel.

Products

 * Atanasoff-Berry Computer --

 * Colossus computer --

 * EDSAC --

 * EDVAC --

 * ENIAC --

 * Harvard Mark I --

 * Intel 4004 --

 * Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine --

 * Z3 --

People

 * Charles Babbage --

 * Claude Shannon --

 * John von Neumann --

 * Joseph Marie Jacquard --

 * Konrad Zuse --

 * Herman Hollerith --

 * Wilhelm Schickard --

Institutions and companies

 * Ballistics Research Laboratory --

 * Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation --

 * IBM --

Papers

 * First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC --

Your input

 * Fix errors in this document if it is needed.
 * Find cites for this document wherever they don't exist. Use Wikipedia and other Internet places for finding other resources.
 * If you are interested in this matter, collaborate in effort to make a wikibook History of computing.
 * Talk about this article.


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User talk:Millosh

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally.West Brom 4ever 18:20, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
 * ;) West Brom 4ever 10:00, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Millosh


text:
Social Ballroom Dancing/Rumba/American Rhythm Technique

{moed from Rumba (dance)}

The basic move in American Style Rumba is known as a Box Step. It is similar in basic structure to Waltz and other box-step dances in step position, but uses a 4/4 timing versus the 3/4 timing found in Waltz. Assuming an eight count step (two measures of 4/4), steps occur on one, three, four, five, seven, and eight. This leaves a "slow--quick-quick-slow--quick-quick" pattern to the dance in its most basic form. The basic is only to provide a framework for the rest of the dance. Mastering the dance requires learning additional steps that fall within this framework.


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User talk:Garoth~enwikibooks

Hello, welcome to Wikibooks!

You will find more resources in Community Portal. If you want to ask a question, visit the Study help desk, the Staff lounge, IRC channel or ask me personally on my talk page. For site news, see the Bulletin board. It might be a good idea to add this page to your "watchlist" so that you can see when any new information is posted there. You can do that by clicking the tab labeled "watch" at the top of the page.

Good luck! --Derbeth talk 20:03, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Garoth. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Garoth~enwikibooks that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:11, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 04:59, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Garoth~enwikibooks


text: Category:Alphabetical/Uncategorized

title: Category:Alphabetical/Uncategorized


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Category:Alphabetical

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title: Category:Alphabetical