text:
Basic Computing Using Windows/The Desktop

There are no 'real' layers though; you can’t peel off the wallpaper and see the Desktop! However there are ‘virtual’ layers, arranged with the Desktop on the bottom. What you see behind the icons on the Desktop is called the wallpaper, whereas the whole thing is the Desktop, not just the picture/colour that you see behind the icons. Application windows are layered on top.

You can add shortcuts to your Desktop in a number of ways. The most common way is to right-click on the desktop, which brings up the popup-menu. On the popup-menu there should be a sub-menu labelled ‘New’, hover over this. When the sub-menu pops out find the item labelled ‘Shortcut’ and click it. A dialogue-box will come up asking you where the program or data collection is found. Later we will get into how to form something to type in the box, however it is easier to just click the button beside labelled ‘Browse...’.

The Browse button is a standard button that you will see often, clicking it always brings up a dialogue-box in which you can select programs and data collections. Select the program or data collection you want to make a shortcut to and click the button labelled ‘OK’. The OK button is also a standard button on dialogue-boxes that you click to tell it that you are done filling in information and it can use that data now. ‘OK’ is usually paired with ‘Cancel’, ‘Cancel’ closes the dialogue-box without doing anything.

When you have selected the correct program or data collection click the button marked ‘Next >’. The Next button is, again, a standard button that tells the dialogue box you are done this step and to go on to the next step in the process. It usually comes with the Back button to go to the previous step. This dialogue-box also has a Cancel button. After you have clicked ‘Next’ the dialogue-box comes up with a text-box asking what you want the text under the icon to be for this shortcut. When you have typed what you want into the box click ‘Finish’, another standard button.

If you do not like the text under a shortcut, you can change it. There are three primary ways to do this. The first one is to click on the shortcut, selecting it, and then push the ‘F2’ key on your keyboard. The text will become a text-box that you can type in to change what it says. The second way is to right-click on the shortcut, bringing up its popup-menu, and select ‘Rename’ from the popup-menu. The same thing will happen. Another way to cause it to happen is to select the icon and then click on it. Do not double-click! That will open whatever it links to, select it and then click.

If you want to change the icon (picture) one your shortcut, bring up its popup-menu and select ‘Properties’. Across the top of the window, just below the bar with the ‘X’ button on it (the title bar), there are a bunch of tabs, click the one labelled ‘Shortcut’. Then, click the button labelled ‘Change Icon…’, in the dialogue-box that comes up select the new icon that you want, or click ‘Browse’ to find more files with icons. In this same window where the ‘Change Icon’ button is, there is a text-box labelled ‘Target:’. It is the same as the box with a Browse button on the first step of adding a shortcut to the Desktop, only there is no browse button. That it what you change if you want the shortcut to link to something else.

You can also move or sort icons on the Desktop. To sort them right-click on the Desktop and hover over the sub-menu called ‘Arrange Icons By’. Then click on the way you want them sorted. If you want them automatically sorted make sure the ‘Auto Arrange’ option is checked (you can check or uncheck it by clicking on it). If you have Auto Arrange off, you can put the icons wherever you want them. Click on one and don’t let the button go back up. Move the cursor over to where you want the icon to be and it will move right along with it. When you have it where you want it, let go of the mouse button. This is called dragging-and-dropping.

If you want to take an icon off the desktop there are three major ways to do it. You can select the icon you want to remove and push the ‘Delete’ key on your keyboard. A dialogue-box will come up, click ‘Yes’. You can also drag-and-drop the icon onto the recycle bin, which is an icon on the Desktop labelled exactly that. Or you can right-click on the icon and click ‘Delete’. The same dialogue-box will come up for you to click ‘Yes’ on. If you did it by accident you can click ‘No’ and it won’t remove the icon.

There are other settings you can change on the Desktop. To access them right-click on the Desktop and select ‘Properties’ from the popup-menu. To change the wallpaper select the tab labelled ‘Wallpaper’ or ‘Desktop’. To change what picture is displayed for wallpaper select it from the list or if it is not in the list click ‘Browse…’. There is a combo box from which you can select whether to stretch, tile (repeat by picture with itself together likes tiles), or centre the picture. If you just want a colour for your wallpaper, then select ‘(None)’ from the list. Sometimes there is a combo-type box to select the colour right there and sometimes you have to change it under the ‘Appearance’ tab.

You can also change the Screen-Saver. The Screen-Saver is a program that shows up after your computer has not been used for so long so that the monitor will not get wrecked (which can happen if the same picture is displayed on it for hours at a time). To change the Screen-Saver click the tab labelled ‘Screen-Saver’. There will be a combo box that lists all the Screen-Savers on your computer. After you have selected the one you want you can change how long the computer waits before bringing it up in the text box with a spin button that is below the combo box.

You can also change the colour scheme of all the controls in almost all programs. Click the ‘Appearance’ tab. There is one or more combo boxes on this page that allow you to select different combinations of default colour schemes. On this same page, or sometimes you have to click ‘Advanced’ to get there, are other settings. You can select an element from one combo box, and then change it’s colour and how its text looks. You can try experimenting with this if you want, just be sure to save your current settings so you can change back (which some versions of windows don’t allow, so don’t worry then). You do this by clicking the ‘Save As…’ button and typing the name you want to call the colour scheme.

There is one final tab common to most versions of Windows. It is the ‘Settings’ tab. It is not recommended to change settings in this tab unless you know what you are doing. Some games will give errors when you try to start them like ‘256 colours required’ or ‘This program needs 640 × 480 to run’. This is where you set those. There is a combo box here, selecting a different option from this box changes the number of colours your computer can display. More colours mean more quality. There is also a slider labelled ‘Screen resolution’. It increases or decreases the size of everything displayed on your monitor. The larger the numbers, the smaller things are, and the smaller things are the more you can fit. When this is set to make things smaller, some programs (or you can manually) change their stuff so that it looks the same size, allowing them to have more quality in display.


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Basic Computing Using Windows/File Systems

Before we get into anything else we need a basic understanding of how a computer stores data. Inside the computer box there are many different pieces of hardware used for storing data.

Memory
One of these is the memory. A Computer’s memory is where it stores the data that is currently in use. So, for example, when you have a letter open and are looking at or working on it the computer stores it in memory. All the software currently running is stored in memory too.

RAM(Random Access Memory)
This kind of memory is called RAM (Random-Access Memory). Random-access means that any part of the information may be read or changed randomly, the computer does not have to look through all the data in order so that it can find the right piece. The disadvantage of RAM is that if power goes off, the data is gone.

ROM(Read only memory)
There is another kind of memory called ROM (Read-Only Memory). Read-only means that the data on it cannot be changed. ROM is used to store basic information that every computer needs.

Disks
When a computer is turned off, data stored in RAM is lost. Because this would cause you to lose your work all the time, disks were created. Disks are round flat objects, but in computer slang they are pieces of data storage hardware that do not need electricity to keep the data stored. There are other things that do this that are not disks, however the things inside of all things called disks are round and flat, so that is how the term came to be. All disks need to be in another piece of hardware that acts as an interface between them and the rest of the computer called a drive.There are two main kinds of disks: Magnetic and Optical.

Magnetic
Magnetic disks are the old kind and are slowly being replaced by flash systems(like SSD). They store data by aligning little pieces of metal inside differently using a magnet. Because of the way they store data magnetic disks can be erased or completely destroyed by magnets, heat, and dust. The two most popular forms of magnetic disks are Hard Disks and Floppy Disks.

Hard Disk Drive(HDD)
Hard disks are stored permanently inside their drive, which is normally installed into the computer box where you cannot see any part of it. Hard Disks can store a lot of data, and are used to store most of the information on computers. The advantage of HDD is cost and capacity. The disadvantage of HDD is that they create noise, are slow and prone to failure. They are slowly being replaced by solid state drives(SSD).

Floppy Disk Drive(FDD)
Floppy disks are small disks that you can pop in and out of their drive. All you can see of their drive is a slit in the computer box with a button and a light. You can put in different disks and then take them out and give them to someone so that you can transfer data between your computers. FDD's are now obsolete. They can store only about 1.44 MB, which is way too little. They are prone to damage and are now unsupported for many years.

Compact disk(CD)
The most popular kind of optical disk is the Compact Disc (CD). CDs can still be put into and taken out of their drive, making them good for buying programs on, and nowadays for transferring data. Normal CDs that you buy with programs on them are CD-ROMs. They are called that because, like ROM, they are read-only. You can also get CD-Rs and CD-RWs, which are not read-only and are not erasable and erasable, respectively. However, CD-R cannot be deleted once it is written(a process known as finalizing). CDs can store around 700MB. And, because CDs store their information with variations in the shape of the disk that reflects a laser differently they cannot be damaged as easily. However, you should still never touch the shiny surface of the CD. CD's are now being replaced by online media, and do not feature in many new computers anymore.

DVD
Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) are another kind of Optical disc that work identically to CDs, however they can store much more information than CD's can. DVD's can store usually about 4.3 GB, but dual-layered DVD's can store up to about 9 GB and DVD-RAM can store about the same amount. They are sometimes called Digital Video Discs because of their extensive use in video and films.

Flash memory
Today you can also get memory cards that are called flash memory or, more properly, EEPROMs. These are cards that operate just like ROM that isn’t read-only, so they don’t lose their information when the power is cut.

SSD(Solid State disks)
SSD's are based on flash memory. They are much quicker than HDD's, do not make much noise and heat , but they are costlier than HDD's , but the cost of SSD's are rapidly declining. Another concern with SSD's is that the cells on the SSD can last only up to a specific number of write cycles. However, they are not of much concern to home users , as SSD's utilize features such as TRIM to extend lifespan. The lifespan of the SSD will usually be mentioned, which could be anywhere between 30 - 150 TB , which is more than the average lifespan of the computer.

Note that defragmentation is not required on a SSD and actually not recommended, as they will not give much benefit and with reduce the lifespan instead.

Files and folders
All data on a computer is stored in collections called files and folders.

Files
Files are the most basic data collections, they store the data for a single thing. A file is the most basic collection of data on a computer. A file can store the instructions for a single program, or the data for a single letter. Folders are collections of files. So a file is like a piece of paper and you put it in a folder.

Folders
Also called directories, folders are collections of files.

Sorting files
It is very necessary to sort files properly into folders so that you can find them again. Many people have had to redo entire projects because they lost their file by putting it into the wrong folder. We'll be looking at this as we go on.

File extension
Most files are named with two parts. The first part of the filename is a description of the file. After this comes a ‘.’ followed by the second part. The second part of a filename is called the extension. Extensions are often three letters long and they tell you what kind of file it is. For example ‘exe’ files (files with an extension of ‘exe’) are programs. ‘Doc’ files are Microsoft Word documents.

Note that since Windows hides the main extension by default, hackers and spammers can use this to their advantage. For instance, a spammer could send you an e-mail inviting you to open a PDF file whose filename is 'Test.pdf' and that's what you see. But in fact, it could be 'Test.jpg.exe' and clicking the file could open up viruses. You can force Windows to show all file extensions by going to Folder Options.

Windows Explorer
Besides saving (taking a file you have open in a program and writing it from memory onto a disk) there are many other file operations. These can all be done using the same program. This program is a utility called a file manager. There is a file manager that comes with Windows called Windows Explorer, or sometimes just Explorer. To open Explorer go to ‘Start->Programs->Windows Explorer’ or Right Click Start, Click Explore, and the Directory should show. Yet in Windows XP, You go ‘Start->All Programs->Accessories->Windows Explorer’.

Sometimes Explorer will start you off looking at your ‘My Documents’ folder, and sometimes it will start you off looking at drive C (C:). There are some basic parts of Windows Explorer.

 * 1) The title bar
 * 2) The main menu. Below the menu is the toolbar.
 * 3) The icon representing a folder.
 * 4) The icon representing a hard disk, also called hard drive, because the disks and the drive are in one, sealed, box, (this one is called ‘C:’, all drives have a letter).
 * 5) The icon representing a file(6) is what you click to view sub-folders.

So, if there isn’t a tree (the part in the circle) below your hard drive (which should be the icon in the left-hand pane, the part in the square, and should have a name followed by ‘(C:)’ as seen above with (4)) then click the ‘+’ (6) beside it. This is a lot of new stuff so it may be a little bit confusing.

Now we have a tree open below our hard drive showing us all the folders that are directly in the root of the hard drive. Now should be a good time to look at the standard conventions for drives and paths. As you can see above, the drive letter is always is brackets after the name of a drive. The first (or only) floppy drive is almost always ‘A:’. If you have a second floppy drive it will be ‘B:’. Your first hard drive is ‘C:’ and your CD drive is ‘D:’. If you have more hard drives the other drives change accordingly (i.e. if you have a second hard drive that is ‘D:’ and your CD drive will become ‘E:’). You can have folders inside folders as well as files, and the drive itself acts like a folder. So if you wanted to designate a file called ‘Letter.rtf’ that is in the folder ‘My Documents’ and that folder is found in the root of the hard drive ‘C:’, you separate the elements with a back-slash ‘\’ and come up with ‘C:\My Documents\Letter.rtf’.

Navigate
Navigate means to make it so you are looking at that in your file manager. For example to navigate to ‘C:\My Documents’ you would open the tree on ‘C:’ like we did before (or by double-clicking on it in the right-hand pane). Then you would click the icon that is labeled ‘My Documents’, or double-click on this icon in the right-hand pane (that is, the part in the octagon).

Now navigate to your ‘My Documents’ directory. It should be found at ‘C:\My Documents’ or ‘C:\Documents and Settings\[Your Name]\My Documents’. Now, to open a file in its program, double-click on its icon in the right-hand pane.

Recycle Bin
If you accidentally delete a file you wanted, you can open the Recycle Bin (double-click on its desktop icon) right-click on the file and select ‘restore’ from the popup-menu. If you want to permanently get rid of all files in the Recycle Bin*, right-click on the Recycle Bin and select ‘Empty Recycle Bin’ from the popup-menu. Deleting or restoring folders works the same way.

''* That's not a truly permanent deletion. Shredding is a truly permanent deletion, when shedding, it actually overwrites with a series of zeroes and/or random characters before deleting. The deletion we use in Windows is better called "quick deletion", not "permanent deletion".''

Methods of deleting files
Recycle Bin: The deletion used for many people. It only moves files in a special container called the "Recycle Bin", which it's actually at "C:\$Recycle.Bin\%UserSID%" (for Windows 7) for example. Note that files deleted with this way doesn't show in a recovery software

Quick deletion: The deletion we use in Windows. It only removes bits of information, so they show as deleted. Note that files deleted with this way can still be recovered by special recovery software, like Recuva.

Permanent deletion: The deletion that has file shredding programs. It overwrites the file content with zeroes and/or random gibberish before it's deleted. This can be done in from 1 pass to tens of passes, depending on the algorithm of deletion. Note that files deleted with this way it's truly deleted, and doesn't show in a recovering software.

Sorting your files
If you are going to sort your files properly into folders, you need to know how to create them. To create a folder, navigate to the folder you want the new folder in. Then, right-click on a blank area of the right-hand pane to bring up the popup-menu.Then select ‘New->Folder’ from the menu. Type the name of the folder and press ‘Enter’. To arrange file in folders, you also need to be able to copy and move both files and folders. Moving means that the file or folder goes to the new location and is no longer in the old location. To move a file or folder, simply drag-and-drop the file or folder from where it is in the right-hand pane on top of the folder where you want it to be in either the right or left-hand pane. Copying means that the file or folder stays where it is, and a duplicate is created in the new location. To copy a file or folder you right-drag-and-drop (that is, drag-and-drop by holding down the right mouse button instead of the left one) from its old location on top of the new one. A popup-menu will come up asking if you want to copy, move, or create a shortcut to the file or folder. If you want to copy, select ‘Copy Here’.

Searching
If you want to search the whole computer for a specific file or folder there are two possible ways to do it. Some versions of Windows Explorer have a button on the toolbar that says ‘Find’, click on this. In all versions of Windows you can go to ‘Start->Find->Files or Folders’ or ‘Start->Search’. Some versions of the search have extra features to make it easier that it displays first. To bypass these click ‘All files and folders’. If your version came up with text boxes right away you don’t have to do this. Once the text boxes are up you can select what drive or folder to search from the combo box. The topmost text box is where you type all or part of the filename.

Wildcard searches
You can also create wildcard searches. To do this you type letters that are in the filename along with symbols called wildcards. The wildcards are ‘*’ and ‘?’. ‘*’ represents an infinite number of characters or nothing. ‘?’ represents exactly one character. So ‘?ello.doc’ would find ‘Hello.doc’ and ‘jello.doc’. ‘Si*.*’ would find all files that start with ‘Si’.

File properties
Finally there are file properties. Different kinds of files have different properties and different versions of Windows can have different kinds of properties allowed. You can experiment with these if you want. To open the properties for any file, right-click on it and select ‘Properties’. In the window that comes up you can change all the properties of the file that can be changed. In this window it also shows the name and location of the file and its size in bytes, kilobytes (KB, 1 024 bytes, usually estimated at 1 000 bytes), or megabytes. It also shows the attributes, the most commonly used and useful of which is the read-only attribute. When you check the read-only check box and click OK, Windows won’t let any program change the file. If you uncheck the box Windows will let programs change it again. This operation can also be done using the 'attrib' command in Command Prompt.

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


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User:Mgstough

Introductory Letter
Greetings and Salutations!

My name is MG Stough and I live along the United States--Mexico Border in the Southern end of the Texas Rio Grande Region. I am an Instructor of Criminal Justice at a dynamic, growing college whose mission includes serving the community by provided needed educational and training resources. I also serve the world wide community as the Chief Executive Officer and Director Of Consultancy for SHIELD.icse, an Open Source Free International Consulting Consortium. In the near future, I will be providing many resources for students and the general public to enjoy.

Have a very nice morning/day/afternoon/evening/night.

Sincerely,

--MG_Stough 14:07, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

MG Stough CEO/DOC SHIELD.icse

List of Writing Projects
I will be engaging in the following writing projects over the next several days... weeks... months... ages. If there is a topic that you would like to have included in one of the texts, or if there is a text that you want for me to address, then email me about it. Thank you.

 * Writing Projects
 * Professional Crime Fighting Science
 * Basic Concepts of Crime Fighting Science
 * Crime Fighting in The United States
 * The Law Enforcement System
 * The Judicial System
 * The Correctional System
 * The Future System
 * Intermediate Concepts of Crime Fighting Science
 * The Professional Crime Fighter As Researcher
 * The Professional Crime Fighter As Author
 * Advanced Concepts of Crime Fighting Science
 * The Professional Crime Fighter As A Supervisor
 * The Professional Crime Fighter As A Manager
 * The Professional Crime Fighter As An Administrator
 * The Professional Crime Fighter Deals With Difficult People
 * The Professional Crime Fighter As Metor For The Community
 * Wayward Youth Studies
 * Basic Concepts of Wayward Youth Studies
 * Defining The Wayward Youth
 * The Development Of Waywardness In Youth
 * Research Methods And Statistics For Wayward Youth Studies
 * Waywardness Prevention Strategies
 * Core Vocabulary For Criminal Justice Professionals
 * Programming The PlayStation Portable
 * PSP Programming
 * A Brief History Of A Revolution--The PlayStation Portable
 * The Monster Has A Face--Getting To Know The PlayStation Portable
 * Getting Started--The PlayStation Portable Laboratory
 * Resources For The PSP Laboratory
 * Intermediate PSP Programming Concepts
 * Programmer's Perspective For PlayStation Portable
 * PlayStation Portable Architecture
 * PlayStation Portable Emulation On The Personal Computer Desktop
 * PlayStation Portable Programming Environment--Installation And Configuration
 * PlayStation Portable Programming Environment--First Programs
 * Advanced PSP Programming Concepts
 * PlayStation Portable Entertainment Options
 * Advanced PlayStation Portable Architecture And Standards
 * UMD Architecture And Standard
 * Memory Stick Architecture And Standard
 * MP3 Architecture And Standard
 * MP4 Architecture And Standard
 * Game Architecture And Standard
 * WiFi Architecture And Standard
 * PlayStation Phone Keyboard Architecture And Standard
 * PlayStation WireLess Keyboard Interface
 * PlayStation Emulated Keyboard JavaScript Inteface
 * PlayStation InterNet Browser Interface
 * PSP Programming Futuristics
 * The Development Of Content
 * Personal Learning Content For PlayStation Portable
 * Personal Business Resources For PlayStation Portable
 * Criminal Justice Applications For PlayStation Portable
 * Government Applications For PlayStation Portable

As has been said above, I will be adding to this list as time goes by. When I complete a portion of my notes, I will submit them in the form of Chapters or Lectures. I certainly do welcome any suggestions or thoughts on these topics or any others that you might want to share with me.

Thank you.

--MG_Stough 15:42, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

title: User:Mgstough


text:
Cookbook:Thai Green Curry

| Curry | Thai Cuisine

Ingredients

 * 1 tbsp vegetable oil
 * 2 tbsp Thai green curry paste (according to taste)
 * 1 tbsp soft dark brown sugar
 * 1–2 thick stalks lemongrass, fat ends bashed with a rolling pin (optional)
 * 750 g (1½ lb) skinless, boneless chicken, cut into chunks (use breast and/or leg meat)
 * 6–8 kaffir lime leaves, torn into pieces (if unavailable, use the grated zest of 1 lime)
 * 400 ml (14 fl oz) coconut milk
 * 1 good shake of Thai fish sauce or light soy sauce
 * 1 small handful of coriander leaves, roughly chopped
 * ½–1 ea. lime, juiced

Procedure

 * 1) Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan.
 * 2) Add the green curry paste and sugar and cook over a fairly high heat for about a minute, stirring with the lemongrass, if using.
 * 3) Reduce the heat slightly and stir in the chicken pieces and lime leaves or zest until coated in the paste.
 * 4) Add the coconut milk, fish sauce or soy sauce and bring to a simmer, cooking for 25–30 minutes until thickened slightly.
 * 5) Stir in the coriander and lime juice.
 * 6) Check for seasoning, adding more fish sauce or soy sauce if needed.
 * 7) Leave the curry to sit for a few minutes so the sauce becomes creamier. You will also taste the true flavours of the curry paste ingredients when it's slightly cooler.
 * 8) Serve with lots of fragrant Thai jasmine rice.

title: Cookbook:Thai Green Curry


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User talk:82.131.15.70

Please do not add commercial links to Wikibooks. Wikibooks is not a vehicle for advertising or a mere collection of external links. See the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our project. Thanks.

title: User talk:82.131.15.70


text:
User talk:217.23.176.106

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

title: User talk:217.23.176.106


text:
User talk:129.97.68.149

Please do not replace Wikibooks pages with blank content. Blank pages are harmful to Wikibooks because they have a tendency to confuse readers. If it is a duplicate article, please redirect it to an appropriate existing page. If the page has been vandalised, please revert it to the last legitimate version. If you feel that the content of a page is inappropriate, please edit the page and replace it with appropriate content. If you believe there is no hope for the page, please see the deletion policy for how to proceed. Thanks for contributing to Wikibooks!

title: User talk:129.97.68.149


text:
Software Engineers Handbook/Language Dictionary/Assembly Template

Note: All assembly language sample code depends on the developing environment assembler and operating system.

Type

Execution Entry Point

Registers

General Syntax

Comments

Interrupts

Conditional Statements

Input/Output

Indirection

Physical Structure

Useful Commands

Tips

Web References

Books and Articles


text:
Bicycles/Maintenance and Repair/Tools and Supplies/Starnut Driver

A starnut driver facilitates installing a starnut into a threadless fork.


text:
Bicycles/Maintenance and Repair/Tools and Supplies/Crown Race Setting Tool

The crown race setting tool installs the lower race of a headset onto the crown of a fork.


text:
Bicycles/Maintenance and Repair/Tools and Supplies/T25 Torx Wrench

Torx T25 is the standard fitting for bolts securing disk brake rotors onto hubs, and hence this tool is required to tighten or loosen them.


text:
Bicycles/Ti prep

Ti prep is an anti seize compound used to prevent the cold welding of titanium parts. Common uses are in bottom brackets, seatposts and fasteners in titanium frames.

title: Bicycles/Ti prep


text:
Template:Movie Making Manual/cameraTR

 * Movie Making Manual/Cinematography/Cameras_and_Formats/
 * Movie Making Manual/Cinematography/Cameras_and_Formats/

title: Template:Movie Making Manual/cameraTR


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User talk:Will.law~enwikibooks

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Kellen T 17:44, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

WB:NP
You may want to look at Naming policy and consider using one of the appropriate forms for the Bike repair book. i.e. either subpage notation Bicycle repair/Crank puller or "namespace" notation Bicycle repair:Crank puller. Kellen T 17:49, 27 September 2005 (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 Will.law. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Will.law~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 23:54, 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) 05:38, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Will.law~enwikibooks


text:
Talk:Rhetoric and Composition/Researching

I think the citation information should all be in one area instead of in 2+ places in this section. - Mindy

Talk 1
In reading this page, it seems to that the tone is off. For example, here's an exmaple of the diction being used: "Evaluating your sources is a major component of researching. Making sure that the sources you choose are valid is a key point to making your essay more reputable. To determine the relibility of both print and internet sources there are key points to look for."

The information is accurate -- evaluating sources matters. But the diction is that of a student writer trying to sound like a textbook. So the use of the to be verb dominates the sentence structure because that verb defines, and you get a sentence like, "Making sure that the sources you choose are valid is a key point to making your essay more reputable."

Why am I drawing attention to this?

It seems to me the potential strength and value of a textbook written by students is the chance for students to talk to students like students. Why talk to other students trying to sound like a 45 year old writing teacher who has read too many textbooks over the years? Student writers come new to many of the ideas a textbook tries to convey. Write with that energy. Write in your own voices. Use the first person. Maybe something like this is an approach that can unstuck writers from imitating textbooks: The first time I did research for a project that I can remember was in the fourth grade. I had to write a report on spiders. I remember somewhere along the line the teacher saying that if we used something from a source, we had to quote it, but if we put that something in our own words or changed some of the souces words we didn't have to quote it. So for my report on spiders I went to the Encylopedia Britannica (Wikipedia didn't exist then.), and pretty much copied the entry on spiders, careful to change enough words --at least two or three-- in every sentence so that I didn't have to quote.

Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway because this is a textbook, that's not how you should do research. What worked in fourth grade, what may have worked in high school in some cases, won't work in college.

So what is research in college writing and why does it matter? As writers, can you find your natural voices? Can you talk to students as students? If you can, I think the book will be both easier to write, but also more useful to read. You can also imagine more inviting for other students to begin contributing too.

Nick

Hyperlinking within the same page
Whowever made the points about audience, etc...I think it is a great idea. I've been playing around with the format and if anyone knows how to hyperlink from those 5 points to an area further down the page that will explain the 5 points in more detail, let me know, or please do it.

Redundance of ADAM
To me, the section ADAM seems to be redundant to the section above it. For instance, date in ADAM matches current in the section above. --Dan Polansky (talk) 09:53, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Matt's Thoughts
Wow, this is a big, intimidating chapter. It seems a lot longer and involved than it needs to be. It looks like past editors have just added on text without really considering how it fits with the rest; we end up with a lot of redundancy and incoherence as a result.

Research is such a big topic that I'd recommend being focused here strictly on college writing and the type of sources most professors expect to see: peer-reviewed journal articles, which are now usually available online through university library websites, and scholarly books. I wouldn't even bother here talking about newspapers, magazines, and general websites, since most professors wouldn't consider them acceptable sources anyway.

It seems that this could be simply broken down into 3 processes: finding sources (focusing on library database search engines and Google Scholar), evaluating sources (maybe ADAM could come in here), and integrating them into your own writing (this could be briefly introduced and then send them to the links on citing sources and plagiarism). The division of print and web seems unnecessary, and the bit about ADAM just seems grafted on here (maybe it could be fit into the categories above). Finally, it might be worth mentioning some general note-taking strategies and tools like Evernote or Zotero.

Again, the They Say, I Say book by Graff et al. seems relevant here. I realize we can't just imitate them everywhere, but I really like how they frame it as a conversation. Research becomes more about familiarizing yourself with a conversation than just cherry picking facts and quotations to support your personal opinion. That's also why this section comes early in the process, since students who aren't aware of the conversation aren't likely to come up with a good thesis or draft a good essay, much less have an awareness of their audience. --Mattbarton.exe (talk) 22:36, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Matt H's thoughts
I like the section on considering audience, although I think audience consideration is perhaps a broad enough topic to warrant its own page.

The “Evaluating Web Sources” could benefit from a brief commentary on the perceived credibility of Wikipedia as a source.

“Using and correctly citing outside sources is hugely important to the ethical portrayal of you as a writer.” – This could be rewritten, although I’m not sure how as I am not confident I sufficiently understand the sentence’s meaning to rewrite the sentence itself.

--Matt.helm (discuss • contribs) 02:27, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Faith's thoughts
One of the things i missed in this section was field research. Interviews, polls, and surveys are not of huge importance to English majors, but are to students studying in other fields. An overview of this type of research might be useful.--SFaithL (discuss • contribs) 15:37, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Emily's Thoughts
I like the idea of breaking down this section into three areas. Visually organizing them that way can make an intimidating process look less so.

Perhaps something could be mentioned about online searches and using synonyms? In the age of Google, I find most of my students type in a word and if they don't find what they were looking for, they give up and go to Google. --Emily.isackson (discuss • contribs) 20:37, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

I like the three stage approach too: choosing sources, evaluating sources (with an eye to Widipedia's potential skewed articles) and how to incorporate sources into one's writing. As Faith noted, field interviewing is legitimate for academic as well as general media writing and could be included. And as Dr. B noted, this is an hulking intimidating section.

Karl's Thoughts
The section does seem to be all ove the place, and would probably benefit from a focus strictly on academic writing. I like the notion of 3 sections: Choosing sources, evaluating sources and using using sources in academic. That number is far less intimidating and would make the section easier to assimilate.


text:
User talk:195.93.21.7

Thanks for experimenting with Wikibooks. Your test worked, and has now been removed. Please use Sandbox for any other tests you want to do, since testing material in modules will normally be removed quickly. Please see the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our project. Thanks.

title: User talk:195.93.21.7


text:
CRE Loaded Features/Administration

= Administrator =

This is the part of CRE Loaded where you can assign permissions to individuals or groups. For instance you can create a group called 'Catalog Editor' and allow members only to access the catalog

Member Groups
To enter this section click on the following on the left-hand bar in CRE Loaded.

Administrator -> Member Groups

To add a new user
Click the following:

Administrator -> Member Groups -> new member

Then fill in the spaces for Firstname, Lastname, Email Address, and Group Level

To add a new group
Click on the following:

Administrator -> Member Groups -> groups -> new group

Then fill in the space for group name and click next.

Remember that before users can do anything with this group the group has to be given permissions.

To add or remove a group's permissions
Click on the following:

Administrator -> Member Groups -> groups

Then from the list displayed click on the relevant group. Clicking new permission from here will produce a list of permissions. To add a permission check the relevant check box.

A list of permissions will be given in Appendix_Administrator

true that

Update Account
Allows simple alterations to your account.

File Access
Allows an administrator to install and uninstall directories on the server.

title: CRE Loaded Features/Administration


text:
Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...c5/2. Nf3/2...Nc6

=Open Sicilian with 2...Nc6= Here Black has decided to play Nc6 instead of d6 or other moves. If Black plays pawn to d5 later on then they have saved a tempo by not playing d6 first.

Theory table
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6


text:
Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...c5/2. Nf3/2...Nc6/3. d4

= Open Sicilian with 2...Nc6 = Moves: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3.d4

The Open Sicilian is a very popular opening. There is a great deal of theory on the opening and it is also typically very tactical. For these two reasons some people who do not play the Sicilian will avoid playing the Open Sicilian to encourage slower maneuvering instead of sharp tactics.

Theory table
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4


text:
User:Hgmjr

I am an electrical engineer with 30+ years of experience in circuit design.

title: User:Hgmjr


text:
Category:Fried recipes

Recipes prepared by frying.

ko:분류:튀김 요리

title: Category:Fried recipes


text:
Category:Recipes by preparation technique

Recipes organized by preparation technique.


text:
User talk:81.79.75.8

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User talk:70.88.192.101

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User talk:69.232.151.165

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User talk:65.168.80.2

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User:AmishThrasher~enwikibooks

See my profile at Wikipedia

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text:
Wikijunior:Ancient Civilizations/Romans

What country did they live in?
At the start, the Romans lived in a region that now forms part of Italy. Through conquest of nearby peoples, the Roman Empire expanded. At its peak, the empire controlled most of Western Europe, North Africa, Greece, the Balkans, and the Middle East. The capital Rome grew from a simple village to a thriving metropolis. Even today, some 2500 years later, Rome is still a major world city.

What did their buildings look like?

Many public buildings built by the Romans were huge works of white marble complete with arches and grand architecture. The average house, by comparison, was smaller and plainer, being built of bricks and timber. Much of our extensive knowledge of Roman Buildings comes from ruins and remains left in the ground.

Inside a middle class home (a domus), there were many rooms, with distinct functions. These ranged in size, from small cubicles in which they slept, through medium sized rooms in which they eat, to large halls in which they would receive and entertain guests. The rooms in the house normally opened out onto a courtyard. Despite its often small size, the purpose of this courtyard was to provide light and air to the rooms. As well as a courtyard, most wealthy people would also have kept a garden behind the house, in which flowers, fruit, vegetables, and even grape vines would have been grown.

In the city of Rome most people lived in two or three-story apartment buildings called Insulae. Here a whole family lived in only one or two rooms, spending much of their time outside in the courtyards and streets. Water came from nearby public fountains and aqueducts.

The Romans also constructed many public buildings, including temples, marketplaces, forum, and amphitheaters. These public works also included things required for city living like aqueducts and sewers.

Military building was also undertaken, the largest construction being Hadrian's Wall at the northern Fringes of the Roman Empire. Even today, the remains of these roads are still visible in Northern England.

What did they eat?
Both the rich and poor ate bread and porridges made from wheat, barley and other grains. This was their main staple food. Some of the other common foods that they would have eaten were chicken and other birds, beans, lentils, walnuts, eggs, apples, cheese, milk, wine, figs, dates and grapes.

While most of their food would be familiar to us, Romans did have their share of strange or unusual feast items, including wild boar, peacock, snails, and a type of rodent called a dormouse. Another difference was that while the poor people and the woman ate their food while sitting in chairs, the rich men liked to have banquets together where they would lounge on their sides while they ate their meals.

Ancient Roman meals couldn't have included foods that came to Europe from America or from Asia in later centuries. For instance, they didn't have corn, nor tomatoes, nor potatoes, nor cocoa, and no ancient Roman ever tasted a turkey.

What did they wear?
People in Rome had three types of clothing. Firstly, they wore a loin cloth. This was worn like underwear. Then, over their loin cloth they would wear a tunic and women would sometimes wear two tunics. A tunic was usually made out of wool but occasionally linen. It was a loose garment that fitted over a person's head and was joined at the shoulders and sides. It would resemble a nightgown in our society. Finally, on top of a man's tunic he would wear a toga whenever he went into public, if he could afford one. Togas were large pieces of wool fabric that were wrapped all around the body. Interestingly, only Roman citizens were permitted to wear togas. It was symbol of peace because Roman soldiers also didn't wear togas. Togas were decorated in different ways to indicate rank, like a uniform. For example, a purple fringed toga indicated that the person wearing it was a leader.

Women in Rome also had an outside garment that corresponded to the male toga. It was called a stola and was also made of a large piece of fabric but it was wrapped and attached differently. Woman also wore a warm shawl called a palla when they went out.

Fashion changed as the empire progressed. Initially in Rome both men and woman wore togas but that changed fairly early in the Roman empire. Also, cloaks that were like large ponchos were first primarily used by poor people and soldiers but eventually became the standard dress for even the wealthy. Togas in that era had become purely ceremonial.

Roman men and woman also wore shoes or sandals unless they were extremely poor. They were completely made of leather, even the soles. When visiting one another they would wear them into their friend's home but remove them before eating.

What did their writing look like?
Romans developed what is now called the Latin alphabet for their writing. The Latin alphabet is nearly the same as the current English alphabet but originally it only consisted of capital letters. Also, the Romans didn't use a few of the letters that are a part of the modern English alphabet such as j, x and w. The Latin alphabet is the basis for most European languages.

The Romans also invented a way to write the capital letters in cursive. They didn't use punctuation the way that we do today.

Roman numbers were written with letters as well. These are called Roman numerals.

 * M = 1,000
 * D = 500
 * C = 100
 * L = 50
 * X = 10
 * V = 5
 * I = 1

2008 is written as MMVIII in Roman numerals.

When a smaller value followed a larger this indicated addition. E.g. VI means V+I = 5+1=6. But the other way around it meant subtraction: IV means V-I = 5-1= 4.

This made it very hard to do maths with these numbers, and Arabic numbers (the ones we use today) began to be used in the Middle Ages. People found that banking and doing maths was much easier with these new number symbols.

What did they believe?
The Romans, like many other ancient civilizations, were polytheistic; this means they worshiped many gods. Each god or goddess, a female god, would be connected to a certain part of people’s life. If you were a fisherman you might pray to Neptune, the god of the sea. However if you were a warrior you would pray to Mars the god of war. All these gods and goddesses had different stories. These long stories of the gods have lived on in writings on pots and in scripts, or books, by ancient people. Most of the Roman gods were taken from the Greek culture. For example, the Roman god Neptune was considered the same as the Greek god Poseidon. Today, the names of the Roman gods are still used as names for planets!

Romans were generally tolerant of other polytheistic religions and often adopted foreign gods into their religion including Egyptian gods. Emperors sometimes declared themselves to be descended from heroes or gods. Monotheists such as Christians, who believe in only one god, were distrusted because they refused to worship the emperors and were often persecuted.

Are some of them famous even today?

Roman history and literature have had a strong and continuous influence on Western culture for thousands of years, so many Roman statesmen, poets, and philosophers remain famous today.

Julius Caesar is probably the most famous Roman of all time. He was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men in world history. As a general, he led invasions of France and Britain. Most people in Rome thought Caesar was a hero, but his enemies said that he only cared about winning fame and power for himself. When the Senate ordered Caesar to disband his army, he was afraid of what they would do to him, so he began a civil war. Four years later, Caesar won the war and became dictator for life. A group led by Cassius and Brutus, who called themselves the Liberators, killed Caesar at a meeting of the Senate because they thought it was the only way to save the republic. However, Caesar's friends defeated the Liberators in the ensuing civil war, and the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire. Caesar is also famous for reforming the calendar and for several books he wrote about his military campaigns.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was another famous Roman statesman. Many of Cicero's books, speeches, and letters have survived, and we know more about him than any other Roman. Cicero didn't come from a noble family, but he rose rapidly in politics because of his talent for public speaking. Cicero began his career in public office as a quaestor, a low-level official who managed the finances of the state. Because the people of Sicily found him to be honest and fair, they asked him to prosecute the corrupt governor of their island. Cicero prepared for a full trial, but after his opening speech, the governor saw that there was little chance of winning against Cicero and chose to leave the country. Cicero became known as Rome's greatest public speaker, and his successful prosecution entitled him to take the governor's seat in the Senate, giving him a freedom to speak that would not normally have been available to such a young member. Cicero gave some of his most famous speeches denouncing a plan by Catiline, an impoverished nobleman, to murder Rome's ruling class and seize power by force. Cicero was called "father of his country" for stopping the conspiracy. After the fall of the Roman Republic, the new rulers had him killed for speaking out against them. One of Cicero's most famous books is On Duties, which was considered the greatest work of moral philosophy through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. When printing was invented, it was the second book to be printed after the Bible.

Vergil has been considered Rome's greatest poet ever since his own lifetime. He was born into a wealthy family, and spent his childhood on the family farm in northern Italy before being sent to large cities for school when he was 12. Vergil moved to Rome after the government seized his family's farm and he had to go to the capital to ask for it back. There, Vergil became a favourite of the emperor and other rich and important people. Vergil's most famous work is the Aeneid, a long poem about the founding of Rome that he worked on for the last 11 years of his life. When he was dying, he asked his friends to burn the draft, because he didn't want anyone to read his unfinished work. The emperor asked Vergil's friends to ignore his wishes and to prepare the poem for publication.

Another famous Roman was Pontius Pilate. He was the governor of the Roman ludaea (Judea) province from 26 AD until 36 AD. In modern times he is best known as the man who, according to the Christian Bible, presided over the trial of Jesus Christ and ordered his crucifixion.

Perhaps the most infamous of Rome's emperors, Nero Claudius Caesar, ruled Rome from 54 A.D until his death by suicide 14 years later. He is best known for his debaucheries, political murders, persecution of Christians, and a passion for music that led to the probably apocryphal rumor that Nero "fiddled" while Rome burned during the great fire of 64 A.D. (Reports from the time suggest he merely performed an epic song in stage costume — a piece called "The Sack of Ilium" about the destruction of the then-ancient city of Troy — while Rome burned.)

What is left of them today?
At its pinnacle, the Roman Empire covered much of Europe, northern Africa, and some of the Middle East. There are many different ethnicities in these regions. Some of them are the direct descendants of Roman citizens while other people and ethnicities emerged through immigration into these areas from other regions. In Rome, the capital city of the Roman Empire, there are currently Italian people who have a blend of Roman heritage and other people that emigrated to the area after the Roman Empire dissolved.

Many modern European languages have evolved from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. These are called Romance languages, and they include Italian, Spanish, and French. Today Romance languages are also spoken in many countries in South America and Africa.

Some other languages in Europe that didn't directly descend from Latin were influenced by it. For example, languages like English, Hungarian, and Turkish are all written with versions of the Latin alphabet, even if they had other writing systems of their own. The English language has been heavily influenced by Latin ever since 1066, when England was conquered by people who spoke French. In fact, over half of English words were borrowed from French or Latin, including joy, charity, continue, army, animal, actor, reptile, and library.

Beauty in Ancient Rome
The use of cosmetics in ancient Rome was not exclusively for women. Men also used them to improve their appearance. Perfume and body waxing was acceptable for both men and women. During the Republic, men took less of an interest in their appearance so they would not be ridiculed. However, many wore makeup, combed their hair and looked after their bodies with baths and massages.

To remove excess hair was considered too effeminate for men, but to show all body hair was considered rude for the Roman taste. Because of that, they had found a middle ground. To remove it, they used resin paste or pumice. The elderly didn't do much to improve their appearance because it would have been considered ridiculous, as was seen firstly as a preparation for romantic attraction.

For men to wear trousers was a disgrace because it was something typical of neighboring peoples. Romans typically considered them barbarians.

Men used to have short hair but women instead choose between a great variety of hairstyles. Because of Julius Caesar who returned after a war and was blond and tanned, then to be blond became fashionable. Sometimes they used wigs which were made of hair which they cut from their Gallic slaves.

For the Roman women was very important to had the skin white and soft with the cheeks a little bit rosy.

For the teeth they used pumice powder to whiten them. They had also fake teeth.

Baths made up of milk by donkeys were a very exclusive and expensive treatment to exfoliate the skin. Some of the important persons who had it were Cleopatra or Popea Sabina.

Plastic surgery was also known and used for example in scars.

Marriage in Ancient Rome
Romans didn't give a lot of importance to marriage, as we do today. Most couples simply lived together without any type of ceremony.

Only one of three couples married.

The oldest way of marriage was the usus which could come immediately into a divorce if the wife stayed out during three consecutive nights.

In Roman times, marriage was private. It didn't have any type of document or record as proof. However, the institution had certain legal effects, since the children had to inherit the father's name and fortune.

Women as property
Roman marriage could become legal in two ways:

 * the conventio in manum form, in which the bride's father gave the property of his daughter to his future son-in-law.

 * or the sine manu, in which the girl continued to be owned by the father and the husband only received the benefit. If she committed adultery, for example, the father could kill her even if the husband had forgiven her.

Slaves in Rome
The Romans took slaves from among the ones they took in battle or in conquered cities, among the children of slaves or children which were abandoned. Sometimes they bought slaves from other countries. Finally there was the case of men who were forced to be slaves as a result of debts.

The slavers (which were called mangones or mercatores venalicii) always followed the armies or bought their human merchandise in major markets of Rome and Delos. Ordinary slaves were sold on a rotating platform (catasta). A tablet (titulus) was around their necks as a sign indicating its origin, age, abilities and physical or mental defects, and the certification that were free of any crime. The best were kept in separate rooms in taverns, and showed only to wealthy clients.

The children of slave parents was given the name of vernae, as a distinction from the free-born. All the ones belonging to one owner were called a family. The employees at residences of the city were urban families, while the ones who lived in a villa were called rustic families. However, it was common for slaves to serve in both.

In ancient times their number was small, because the houses were very simple, often made by the owner. But as they grew larger and more splendid, the number of slaves increased. There was one for almost every task, which was characteristic of a large house. When the population of Italy was estimated to be about six million people, there was a slave for every three inhabitants, and population in the city of Rome was much higher.

The list of slaves tied to some Roman houses is long: tailors, barbers, cooks, bakers, teachers, also musicians, dancers of both sexes and mimes and jugglers groups to divert the host and his guests, especially when they were at the table. There were buffoons who by their faults, weaknesses or thoughts made people laugh. The favorite of the ladies were the dwarfs trained to fight and dance.

Doctors and surgeons also were mostly slaves or free men, at least in Republican times, and the same happened with the private secretary of the lord of the house.

Slaves of rich people
The rich Roman was always accompanied by one or more slaves (pedisequus) which had to carry any object his owner may need like to the baths or to a party. They also carried a torch at night. Another type of slaves were the lectiarii or the carriers of chairs. In the city, only ladies and senators were permitted to sit.

There were also the readers, which were the slaves who read to their owners while he was a the bath or at the table. There were also the ones who wrote documents and took care of the library of the house. The cellarius had the keys to the warehouse and the wine cellar.

The procurator was the principal in the family of slaves and was the one who managed the money and the expenses of the family.

The slave was absolute property of the house owner and had no legal protection against him.

Children in Ancient Rome
When a child was born in ancient Rome, the birth took place at home while the protection of the goddess Juno Lucina ("she is the goddess who brings children into light") was invoked.

The men did not attend births, not even the father of the child or the doctor who presented later. Everything was done by the midwife, except in the poorest families who couldn't afford any midwifes, since they used to be expensive. In that case, the woman had no choice but to be assisted by her own relatives.

It was the midwife who watched the baby to check its vitality and to find possible deformities. She announced the sex, but not with words but by signs, and cut the umbilical cord with a distance of four fingers from the womb. Because of this they didn't used any metal instruments. There were some alternatives like glass, ceramic or even a crust of hard bread. After that, she tied the cord with a wire of wool and cleaned and bathed the newborn.

Then, ceremonies began. Immediately a sacred meal was offered to Picumno and Pilumno, sons of Jupiter presiding over marriage and guardianship of children. To try to prevent the dangers since that time, at night three men met on the threshold, one armed with an ax, the second with a club and the third with a broom. The first two struck the door and the third was sweeping the floor, which was considered that the place was clean of evil spirits.

The child was placed at the foot of the paterfamilias (father or in his absence, the paternal grandfather, great grandfather or person in place). Tollere FILIUM, which meant to raise the newborn in his arms, meant he was recognizing as his, even if it was not his natural son, and because of that he was entitled to enjoy and spend all the rights and privileges as a member of a Roman family. This ceremony took place in dies lustricus, eight days after birth if it was a girl and nine when it was a boy.

The newborn (pupus) was then purified at the family altar in a ceremony called lustratio. The guests had to gave him his or her first toys (crepundia), small glass beads that were placed over the baby's shoulder so the metallic sound amused the child as a modern rattle. Toys were shaped like flowers, swords, axes and crescents, and also offered some special identification if the child got lost.

Shows and entertainment in Ancient Rome
Shows were one of the most important and characteristic features of Roman life, which occupied, on a schedule on the IV century, 176 days a year. Many came from the Republic, and others were initiated and added by the emperors. The extraordinary spectacles and shows were held on occasions such as anniversaries or triumphs. Along with free food distributions, were the most common ways of gain the sympathy of the people and to distract them from government issues and economic problems: panem et circenses, bread and circuses.

The organization of such events had many difficulties. One of them was to get animals for the shows and to train them. The emperors established a monopoly for hunting and for the possession of elephants and installed in Laurentum an elephant park, near Rome. In this regard there is an anecdote from Plutarch, who noted that in a show in Rome, (which had also dogs acting), an elephant missed a trick in the performance and was seen the next night rehearsing the trick on his own.

Emperors also like gladiators fights and maintained gladiators training schools in Rome, and later in other places like some people of the Republic did on the past.

The imperial ceremonies were usually accompanied by meals for everyone, that could be served in the theater or in the circus, or maybe in outside in different points of the city. In these cases the emperor attended personally. In other occasions the emperor threw a type of coins called missilia, which gave some advantages to the ones who could get one of those.

Nero gave birds, groceries, tickets for the distribution of wheat, clothes, jewelry, paintings, slaves, cattle, trained animals, and finally, boats, blocks of flats and parcels of land. Elagabalus gave gold and silver, food, costumes, camels, donkeys, cattle and deer.

In Emerita Augusta (now Mérida, Spain) the shows were announced on posters painted in red and black that were distributed throughout the city, and in the intervals between races, they also threw missilia or sparsiones.

title: Wikijunior:Ancient Civilizations/Romans


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French/Vocabulary/Dates, time, and numbers

Days of the week

 * The days of the week are not capitalized in French.
 * The calendar starts on Monday
 * For phrases relating to the day of the week, see the phrasebook.

The Months of the Year

 * The months of the year are not capitalized in French.
 * For phrases relating to the months of the year, see the phrasebook

Les nombres (adjectifs numéraux cardinaux et ordinaux)

 * This pattern changes slightly after the sixties:
 * Numbers seventy to seventy-nine are configured in the form of soixante-[10-19]. For example seventy is soixante-dix (60-10), seventy-three is soixante-treize (60-13), and seventy-seven is soixante-dix-sept (60-10-7).
 * Number eighty is configured in the form of quatre-vingts (4 - 20's) || catr vahn || eighty
 * Numbers eighty-one to ninety-nine are configured in the form of quatre-vingt-[01-19]. For example eighty-one is quatre-vingt-un (4*20-one), ninety is quatre-vingt-dix (4*20-10), and ninety-four is quatre-vingt-quatorze(4*20-14).

 * une dizaine (one ten)
 * une douzaine (one dozen)

 * The French commonly use '.' instead of ',' to separate thousands.
 * For 70-79, it builds upon "soixante" but past that it builds upon a combination of terms for 80-99.
 * Only the first (21,31,41,51,etc.) have "et un"; but past this it is simply both words consecutively (vingt-six, trente-trois, etc).
 * For 100-199, it looks much like this list already save that "cent" is added before the rest of the number; this continues up to 1000 and onward.

The Time

 * Use heure in between the hour and the minutes when telling the time, e.g., Il est cinq heures dix
 * Note that there is no "a.m." or "p.m." in French. Use du matin, de l'après midi, and du soir to disambiguate a given time. "Il est sept heures du soir" makes it clear that it is 7 o'clock at night, and not in the morning. Alternatively, you could use the 24-hour system: "Il est dix-neuf heures" has no ambiguity; time is often expressed in this fashion, particularly in professional/commercial settings.
 * Midi and minuit can be used without an article when telling the time: "Il est midi." (It is noon.)


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Talk:Gmail/Introduction

sorry, added year which wasn't found easily on gmail website, but it was confusing reading without it... someone may know... ah, found it, sorry i was so lazy

I thought that the 2gb thing was part of a fake April fool's joke? Or does this also coincide with Gmail's first anniversary? - RealGrouchy 16:43, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Gmail/Introduction


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Perl Programming/Reference Cards/Time and Date

A few basic functions are

localtime or gmtime from the Time::Local module in standard perl distributions.

Date::Manip and Date::Calc in CPAN modules


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Talk:Movie Making Manual/Cinematography/Cameras and Formats/Table of Formats

"analog" stuff
The 35mm film is only 1 bit per "pixel". (a "pixel" being a film grain spot that suddenly changes when hit by a number of photons in rapid succession) It is this property that makes resolution highly misleading. The film is naturally dithered. A digital setup with similar resolution would presumably have far more bits per pixel. So the film sounds better than it really is.

The eye is similar, but it also averages over time. The retina uses pulse modulation, from a high of about 1 kHz down to wherever the noise floor is... probably below 1 Hz. The longer you stare at something, the better you can sense the detail and the color.

AlbertCahalan 01:02, 28 September 2005 (UTC)


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Talk:Software Engineers Handbook

What is your quest?
A friend asked me what was the purpose of this wikibook, and how it was different from other wikibooks and references out there. I thought the answer was worth general discussion.

I see a whole lot of sites out there that try to answer the "what" about some software part. (Wikipedia is a really good example.) I would like the handbook to answer the "how" questions. A lot of times this will be a "How do I start?" or "How do I get started in XXXXX?" type question. Many times the answer will be Check out these references. or Here's the vocabulary you need to look on the web.

I have a different push with the language dictionary section. I would like to be able to find the concepts that I find hard to find in beginners' books. They're spending so much time teaching the basics of programming, that the basics of the language get hidden. I thought It would be really sweet to compare a language you know with one you're trying to learn in the same format. The second time you use the dictionary it would be even easier. --Christine Frayda 01:48, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Computer Programming
Do you mean something along the line of:

--Krischik T 10:37, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

That's not what I intended, but I'd love to hear from others. I was hoping to have roughly single page descriptions of each language, so that it is easy to compare between languages without being bogged down with too many details. I don't know that there would be much help in pointing to the sub-sections. Is the language dictionary section too redundant with the computer programming wikibook?

--Christine Frayda 00:23, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Red links in the language section
I am in favor of removing the red links from the language sections. It is a bad habit of many language advocates to add there language anywhere they see fit without providing an article to go with it. We should not tolerate such laziness and remove those vanity entries.

--Krischik T 10:37, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Krischik! I'll remove some red links that don't seem to add clarification to the category. I think some of them help, but definitely not all.

Christine Frayda 00:17, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Book is Redundant
Alot of topics in this book are heavily redundant. The only part of this book that couldn't (and probably shouldn't) be merged into other books would be the "software life-cycle" part. All the rest of this book, from paradigms to the "language dictionary" is already represented in the form of other books currently on the CS bookshelf. Also, this book certainly doesn't follow any naming convention that I am familiar with.

I think it is a waste of time and resources to try and make a single monolithic book that covers the same material as is already to be found on the CS bookshelf. I won't list this book for VfD or anything, but i think it would be better for everybody to contribute to the books that already exist on these topics, then to try and find new ways to say the things that have already been said. --Whiteknight (talk) (current) 19:34, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for looking into this Whiteknight. My idea wasn't to cover the material in detail, but to start people in the right direction. It may be that the computer science bookshelf does this already. When I last looked at it, the bookshelf was not beginner friendly, but this handbook may not be much more. Do you know of a place that compares languages well in a quick (1-page-ish) side-by-side reference format?

All that being said, I don't rule out that much of this work could be redundant. How can we best merge any missing bits back to the parent documents? Christine Frayda 01:41, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

 * If your goal here is to have a quick comparison guide and a series of reference tables, then I supposed I don't have much quarrel with that. That kind of information is not well tabulated here at wikibooks. --Whiteknight (talk) (current) 13:12, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Software Engineers Handbook


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Poker/7-stud8

Seven card stud eight-or-better high-low split is a variation on 7 card stud where there are two separate pots. One pot is for the high hand and the other pot is for the low hand. The high hand pot is paid off just like the pot for 7 card stud. The low hand pot is only paid off if a player has a 5 card hand that has a high card of 8 or lower. Just like in the variant ../Razz/, straights and flushes do not count for the low card hand. For all other rules, see 7 card stud.

title: Poker/7-stud8


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Poker/Razz

Razz is a variation on 7 card stud which has similar rules to the low hand rules for 7 card stud high/low. Instead of the best hand winning, the lowest hand wins in razz. Just like in high/low stud, straights and flushes do not count against the player's low hand. Unlike 7 card stud high/low, low hands do not have to contain 5 cards with a value under 8. Valid lows can include cards over 8, along with pairs and higher hands. Razz has a small, but loyal following online and in casinos. The frustrating aspect of Razz is that unlike all other forms of poker, pairs and 3 of a kind hurt instead of help. So it is common to have a beautiful looking hand after 4 cards, but then the cards start to pair up and it all ends in nothing. For basic stud rules, see 7 card stud.

title: Poker/Razz


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User talk:70.120.219.216

Thanks for experimenting with Wikibooks. Your test worked, and has now been removed. Please use Sandbox for any other tests you want to do, since testing material in modules will normally be removed quickly. Please see the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our project. Thanks.

title: User talk:70.120.219.216


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User talk:24.6.85.144

Thanks for experimenting with Wikibooks. Your test worked, and has now been removed. Please use Sandbox for any other tests you want to do, since testing material in modules will normally be removed quickly. Please see the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our project. Thanks.

title: User talk:24.6.85.144


text: User talk:68.19.48.188

title: User talk:68.19.48.188


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User talk:EugeneH

Any chance of you adding more to the Visual Basic Classic book? --kwhitefoot 07:12, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:EugeneH


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User talk:Batjew

Any chance of you adding more to the Visual Basic Classic book? --kwhitefoot 07:13, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Batjew


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User:Brittz

Give each new point its own paragraph and don't forget that all important topic sentence, which is usually the first sentence and presents your case in a generalised way. Then the following sentences provide the supporting details.

title: User:Brittz


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User:Singpolyma

My official name here and elsewhere is Singpolyma. If you don't like it, too bad. I've been using it a long time.

I contribute to multiple wikimedia projects, however I primarily contribute to the English Wikipedia (my user page).

Here, I am a major contributor to Basic Computing Using Windows

Please don't edit this page, if you want to leave a message do so on my talk page.

title: User:Singpolyma


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User:Shamantics

Shamantics description page

title: User:Shamantics


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User talk:Shamantics

Welcome to Wikibooks!

Use the watch tab on any page if you want to use my watchlist to see if items that interest you have been edited.

Use the history tab to view who did it and what they changed.

Use the discussion tab to raise points about a page.

Use four tilde ~ signs in a row to sign any comments on discussion pages.

Aristotle and Whitehead
I transferred the bulk of your piece on Whitehead's view of Aristotle to Whitehead's entry. The quotation you gave from de Anima (424b) could not be found in that part of de Anima - please could you provide the correct reference. Whitehead's views on the relational nature of science also need a reference. RobinH 08:37, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Shamantics


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German/Appendices/False friends

There are some words which are spelled the same in English and in German, but have completely different meanings. Even though the words are spelled the same, they are usually pronounced completely differently. It can sometimes be dangerous to use these words (for both native English speakers and native German speakers.) Think of that, next time someone wants to give you a " Gift" or opens a door and says " After you!"

Note: This list contains some items of etymological interest. For example, the transformation of the consonant 't' in German to 'd' in English in word pairs like Bart->Beard, Bett->Bed, Gut->Good, Hart->Hard, Rot->Red, and Not->Need.

Although not spelled identically in both languages, beginners are often confused by the similarity of the German "bekommen" and English "to become".

bekommen => to receive, to get

werden => to become

title: German/Appendices/False friends


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User:Stuckinkiel~enwikibooks

I'm a California boy who moved to Kiel, Germany on July 15th 2000. Initally, I planned to stay for only two years, but I'm still here. Even though I miss my home town of San Diego, I think I will stay here for a while. While I'm here, I'll try my hand at helping with the English-German WikiBook.

title: User:Stuckinkiel~enwikibooks


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Template talk:Basic Computing Using Windows/Table of Contents

We may need an extended TOC page at some point, but for now the main page can house the TOC, so I've moved it there. --Singpolyma 10:08, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Template
this actually makes more sense as a template because then we can include it on other pages if necessary, so I have again made the change

HR problem
The HRs in pages are going on top of the TOC, despite z-index specification... any ideas? -- SingpolymaT E 13:28, 29 September 2005 (UTC)


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Visual Basic/Credits and Permissions

Introduction
This is where you will find all the documentation regarding permissions to use material from other sites and documents.

Permission
Copy of email giving permission for use of coding standards and forum content.

Kevin,

In answer to both emails.

1. Copyright. All we would require is a general statement on the contents page, we certainly wouldn't wish the effort on you of somehow trying to keep track of AVDF content page by page... that would render it pretty much unusable I should have thought! A link to avdf.com would be nice if that doesn't cause any stress.

2. Licensing. Having reviewed your licensing arrangements, I can confirm that GUI Computing Pty Ltd, owner of all copyrights in the material contained both on avdf.com and in the GUI Coding standards, agrees for you to use our above referenced work under terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

3. Contribution. Keep me in the loop as the project moves forward. I shall mention it to my developers at our next meeting... these days, of course, most of them are .NET hotshots who consider VB "legacy", but there are a couple who might be interested.

Finally, if you need anything in addition to the above, please yell.

All the best,

Mark

> -Original Message- > From: Kevin Whitefoot [mailto:kwhitefoot@hotmail.com] > Sent: Wednesday, 28 September 2005 4:31 AM > To: Mark Trescowthick > Cc: kwhitefoot@hotmail.com > Subject: RE: Visual Basic Classic WikiBook > > > I've just skimmed the coding standards document. I think > that it would be > perfect addition. It is similar in many ways to the corporate coding > standards in force (though not enforced) at the company where > I work. I > can't use ours without rephrasing it completely because in such a big > company there is no one with the authority to allow it, > anyway, your's is > much better written. > > The Wikimedia project is a bit paranoid about copyrights and > so on so at > risk of sounding ridiculously finicky I think I should ask > for an explicit > statement from you that you are willing for the work to be > relicensed under > the GFDL. Here is an excerpt from the Wikibooks boilerplate > request for > permission > (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Boilerplate_request_fo > r_permission): > > =====quote > However, we can only use your materials if you are willing to grant > permission for us to use your above referenced work under > terms of the GNU > Free Documentation License. This means anybody will have the > right to share > your materials and update them: for example, to keep up with new > information. You can read this license in full at: > http://wikibooks.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License > (note: To keep things simple, we don't use Invariant > Sections, Front-Cover > Texts, or Back-Cover Texts) > > The license also expressly protects authors "from being considered > responsible for modifications made by others" while ensuring > that authors > get credit for their work. There is more information on our > copyright policy > at: > http://wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Copyrights > =====end quote > > > Kevin Whitefoot > >

Authors
Jim Karabatsos 1996

Mark Trescowthick 2004

Copyright Notice © 1996 GUI Computing Pty Ltd

Elliot Spencer
From : 	Elliot Spencer  Sent : 	11 September 2005 13:48:26 To : 	"'Kevin Whitefoot'"  Subject : 	RE: VB tutorials |		|		|	Inbox

You're welcome to use those bits from my site Kevin, I swapped over to DotNet as soon as it came out so I don't use vb6 anymore, haven't for quite some time. Sorry.

Regards

Elliot Spencer

-Original Message- From: Kevin Whitefoot [mailto:kwhitefoot@hotmail.com] Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2005 7:51 PM To: elliotspencer@ilook.fsnet.co.uk Subject: VB tutorials

I'm editing the Visual Basic book on WikiBooks (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:Visual_Basic_Classic) and I wonder if I might include some of your articles in it.

Of course if you felt like contributing to the book yourself that would be even better.

When I started adding to it I thought I would be one among many but it seems that VB6 programmers are a shy and retiring lot.

Kevin Whitefoot. (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:Kwhitefoot)

title: Visual Basic/Credits and Permissions


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User talk:Singpolyma

You can contact me by clicking the '+' button in the tabs above. Enter the title your want and the content of your message and sign your name using ' -- ~ ' and I'll reply to you here on this page. You can also try emailing me.

Fancy Signatures 1-2-3
No, I'm not Aya, just a busybody with a 200-page watchlist. :)

Anyway, open your preferences. Right under the email address you'll see a signature box. Whatever's in there is what is written when you sign off with the four tildes. For example mine is generated by. The "raw" box must be checked to prevent  being automatically placed around it, which limits the range of formatting you can use.

Anything that works in a standard edit box will also work in your sig. Anyway, enjoy! :) GarrettTalk 14:01, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Copyright problem with Image:UI-AlertBaloon.png
--Derbeth 11:29, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

 * You know, there is no strict policy at Wikibooks, but I assume it is allowed to upload free use images to Wikibooks. But remember to tag them as screenshot or something, see Image copyright tags. And a tip: if you need icons, check commons:Category:Icons. There's a plenty of great icons. --Derbeth 17:03, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Singpolyma


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Talk:Basic Computing Using Windows/File Systems

Figures
There is only one figure referenced in the text, however images of a floppy disk, floppy drive, cd, and cd drive, as well as a hard drive would be useful to include -- Singpolyma 12:31, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

The screen shot referenced in the text is no longer shown, although I don't know why. The previously requested device pictures are now shown, and the photo of the CD drive has the same figure designation as the referenced screen shot. Since this would confuse the novice computer user, I removed the screen shot reference.

Also, the text never mentions the Windows version referenced, although it seems to be Windows XP. While I'm sure it was done to make the guide more generic, there ARE some version-specific references, which should be identified as such. The reference to "Start->All Programs..." is clearly for XP (although could now be for Vista, too), and should be labeled that way. So, I did.


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Gmail/Contacts

One great benefit of Gmail is that when you receive an e-mail from someone who isn't already in your contacts list, Gmail automatically saves the e-mail address and the display name. You can add more information such as this person's real name, phone number, etc. by clicking the contacts hyperlink on the left panel of the Gmail webpage once logged in. If you don't want to keep any automatic contact entries, you select the addresses you don't want and delete them.

The huge benefit of the autosave is that when you are sending a new e-mail and start to type an address, Gmail gives you a dropdown menu to select names from. For example: If I was sending an e-mail to testuser@gmail.com and my contacts had test@gmail.com, test123@gmail.com and testing@gmail.com I could just click the appropriate one after typing just "Te."

Import and Export of Contacts As Gmail has continued to grow and expand features one of the more profound areas has been in managing the export and import of contacts.

This feature is extremely useful in assisting users in a move from or to an Outlook or Outlook Express mail client.

To Export Contacts 1) Go into your contact list and notice on the top right hand portion of the contacts area the text link "Export". 2)  After clicking this option a small window will open asking what type of format you would like to export your contacts to. 3) Once this decision has been made with the provided radio buttons click the "Export Contacts" button. 4)  At this point you can save the file and close the small window.

To Import Contacts 1) Go into your contacts list and notice on the top right hand portion of the contacts area the text link "Import". 2)  You will need to have a .csv (Comma Separated Value) file. This is typically the format that Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express export address books to. Keep in mind that additional formatting may be required for Gmail to accept the file. 3) Once this has been done you will see a failed message or see that all of your contacts are listed in this area.

title: Gmail/Contacts


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Talk:Statistics/Summary/Averages/Geometric Mean

The presentation in the linked page is unsatisfying in the extreme. While it is true that the calculation of the arithemetic mean is more complicated for fractions, this does not mean that the arithmetic mean is a poor representation of the central tendency, as the text claims. In fact, the arithmetic mean is the arithemetic mean, and is a perfectly valid expression of the central tendency of fractions. The geometric mean is another measure of central tendency. Compare with the harmonic mean, for which an example is provided of why the arithemetic mean is not great, or at least an example where the harmonic mean has an appealing interpretation.

Can an example be provided showing when one would prefer the geometric mean to the arithmetic mean, including an interpretation?


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Wikijunior:Ancient Civilizations/Persians

Persians were an ancient people living in western Asia. They founded the Achaemenid Empire, one of the bigger empire of the ancient world.

What country did they live in?

The Persian Empire started in the south of what is now Iran. It grew through military conquest to cover a huge region that roughly encompasses today's Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Afghanistan, Turkey, Bulgaria, many parts of Greece, Egypt, Syria, much of what is now Pakistan, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Caucasia, Central Asia, Libya, and northern parts of Arabia. The empire eventually became the largest empire of the ancient world.

Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of Persia, the ruins of which is remaining today. Susa and Pasargadas were capital cities at different times in Persian history. They were all in what is now Iran. Another capital was Sardis, an ancient city in what is now south west of Turkey.

What did they eat in Persia?
Persians were mostly eating meat and bread. Their main meal was simple, but they had many snacks or confectioneries. The bread was made from wheat or barley. Lamb and goat were the primary meats eaten by Persians. They were also consuming herbs and spices, and ate stews made from meat and fruit with herbs.

Apricots, artichokes, eggplants, lemons, lime, oranges, pistachios, spinach, saffron and tarragon all came to Europe through Persia. Other condiments and spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, coriander, dill, nutmeg, paprika, pomegranates, saffron, sumac, turmeric, as well as orange-flower water and rose water were used in Persian food.

What did their buildings look like?
The ruins of one of their capitals, Persepolis, is remained today. It was made of huge stones connected by metal clamps, and covered by wooden roofs. The roofs was supported with tall columns made of stones or high-quality wood. Their buildings were grand and were created by skillful workers from all over the empire, such as Egypt and Babylon. They also decorated the walls of their palaces with lions, bulls, flowers, as well as beliefs of people from various nations of the empire. Later, Persians created buildings using mudbricks, with huge domes and barrel-vaulted chambers.

Persian tombs were carved into mountains.

What did they wear?

The Persian king wore a robe of honor that was a large piece of fabric that was draped around him. For the king and other aristocracy, their clothes were often decorated with golden clothing ornaments. Some of these are in the form of roundels, while others are gold plaques with loops or rings on the back so they can be sewn onto the cloth. Rich people also liked to wear gold jewellery such as bracelets with animal head carvings.

Common people wore coats and pants made out of leather. Men's coats reached from their shoulders down to their knees and were fastened with a girdle. Their sleeves were somewhat tight and went down to their wrists.

Originally woman's clothing was quite similar to men's clothing but as time went their style changed. Initially their clothes were short and tight but when the style changed their clothes were made longer, more voluminous and were made out of softer materials.

Persian shoes were usually were pieces on plants that were wrapped around their feet and were tied up on the top. These would have look similar to moccasins. Persians also wore red clothes to show respect to their husbands

What did their writing look like?
Old Persian was written from left to right in Old Persian cuneiform script. Old Persian cuneiform script was supposedly invented by King Darius I, one of ancient Persia's famous kings. There were 36 letters in their alphabet, although some of them essentially represented different syllables. For example, they had one symbol for "ka" and another symbol for "ku". They used these symbols even though they also had symbols that represented "a" and "u".

Persians used to write administrative documents in Aramaic and Babylonian. Aramaic script was an early Semitic script. Babylonian was written in cuneiform.

What did they believe?

The Persian civilization spawned three major religions: Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, and Manichaeanism.

Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest religions of the world. Its prophet was Zoroaster, who lived around 18th century BC (although some believe as recent as 6th century BC). He rejected the old gods and introduced that a single wise god, Ahura Mazda, ruled the world. However, Ahura Mazda was often in battle with Ahriman (or Angra Mainyu), who was the prince of evil, lies, and destruction. On Earth, each person had to choose which side to support. It said that Ahura Mazda would conquer over the forces of evil, Ahriman, at the end. On that day, all the people would be judged for their actions. Those who did good would enter paradise. Those who did evil would be condemned to eternal suffering.

Zoroaster's teaching were later written in a book, the Avesta.

Are some of them famous even today?

Perhaps the most famous Persian of all time is Cyrus the Great who founded the Persian Empire. He is known not simply because of his military accomplishments, but his leadership, and his treatment of his people, who used to call him "the Father". He respected the religions of the lands he conquered, and treated people equally. For example, after conquering Babylon, he freed the Jewish people who were captivated there, and helped them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple, and therefore he is praised in the Bible.

Other famous Persian kings were Cambyses and Darius the Great, who according to himself, "fought 9 battles and took prisoners 9 kings" in one year, almost re-conquering the whole empire which was in chaos.

What is left of them today?
Persians are one of the few ancient civilizations who have made significant contributions to humanity from prehistoric times by their Persian empire all the way through to the modern day in their country Iran. Many Persians are now Muslims, although there are Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians still living and practising their religion in Iran.

Achaemenid Persians were the first to divide their land into smaller states or provinces (called "satraps") and appointing a governor for each of them, who were under command of the king. They also created a postal system, a road system, a professional army, and chose an official language for communication throughout their empire. All of these were adopted in later empires and eventually remains in modern countries today.


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Statistics/Displaying Data/Box Plots

Box Plots

A box plot (also called a box and whisker diagram) is a simple visual representation of key features of a univariate sample.

The box lies on a vertical axis in the range of the sample. Typically, a top to the box is placed at the 1st quartile, the bottom at the third quartile. The width of the box is arbitrary, as there is no x-axis (though see Violin Plots, below).

In between the top and bottom of the box is some representation of central tendency. A common version is to place a horizontal line at the median, dividing the box into two. Additionally, a star or asterisk is placed at the mean value, centered in the box in the horizontal direction.

Another common extension is to the 'box-and-whisker' plot. This adds vertical lines extending from the top and bottom of the plot to for example, the maximum and minimum values, The farthest value within 2 standard deviations above and below the mean. Alternatively, the whiskers could extend to the 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles. Finally, it is common in the box-and-whisker plot to show outliers (however defined) with asterisks at the individual values beyond the ends of the whiskers.

Violin Plots are an extension to box plots using the horizontal information to present more data. They show some estimate of the CDF instead of a box, though the quantiles of the distribution are still shown.

title: Statistics/Displaying Data/Box Plots