text:
Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 8: Instructional Strategies/Problem-Solving

Somewhere between open-ended, creative thinking and the focused learning of content lies problem solving, the analysis and solution of tasks and situations that are somewhat complex or ambiguous and that pose difficulties, inconsistencies, or obstacles of some kind (Mayer & Wittrock, 2006). Problem solving is needed, for example, when a physician analyzes a chest X-ray: the photograph of the chest is far from clear and requires skill, experience, and resourcefulness to decide which foggy-looking blobs on the X-ray to ignore, and which to interpret as real physical structures (and real medical concerns). Problem solving is also needed when a grocery store manager has to decide how to improve the sales of a product: should she put it on sale at a lower price, or increase publicity for it, or both? And will these actions actually increase sales enough to pay for their costs?

Problem solving happens in classrooms, too, when teachers present tasks or challenges that are in some way complex or for which the path to a solution is not straightforward or obvious. The responses of students to such problems, as well as the strategies that teachers use to assist them, show some of the key features of problem solving when it happens in school. Consider this example—and especially students’ responses to it. We have numbered and named the paragraphs to make it easier to comment on them afterwards:

 * Scene #1: A Problem To Be Solved
 * The teacher gave these instructions: “Can you connect all of the dots below using only four straight lines?” She drew the following display on the chalkboard:

 * The problem itself and the procedure for solving it seemed very clear: simply experiment with different arrangements of four lines. But two volunteers who tried doing it at the board were unsuccessful. Several others worked at it at their seats, but also without success.

 * Scene #2: Coaxing Students To Reframe the Problem
 * When no one seemed to be getting it, the teacher asked, “Think about how you’ve set up the problem in your mind—about what you believe the problem is about. For instance, have you made any assumptions about how long the lines ought to be? Don’t stay stuck on one approach if it’s not working!”

 * Scene #3: Alicia Abandons a Fixed Response
 * After the teacher said this, Alicia did indeed think about how she saw the problem. “The lines need to be no longer than the distance across the square,” she said to herself. So she tried several more solutions, but none of them worked either.

 * The teacher walked by Alicia’s desk and saw what Alicia was doing. She repeated her earlier comment: “Have you assumed anything about how long the lines ought to be?”
 * Alicia stared at the teacher blankly, but then smiled and said, “Hmm! You didn’t actually say that the lines could be no longer than the matrix! Why not make them longer?” So she experimented again using oversized lines and soon discovered a solution:

 * [Note: Displaying this solution will require a graphic here using lines—not sure yet how to do this on a Wiki.]

 * Scene #4: Willem’s General Strategy: Assume It Is a Trick Question
 * Meanwhile, Willem worked on the problem. As it happened, Willem loved puzzles of all kinds, and had had ample experience with them. He had not, however, ever seen this particular problem. “It must be a trick,” he said to himself, because he knew from experience that problems posed in this way often were not what they first appeared to be. He mused to himself: “Think outside the box, they always tell you…” And that was just the hint he needed: he drew lines outside the box by making them longer than the matrix and soon came up with this solution:

 * [Note: Use same solution as Alicia’s but rotated 90 degrees clockwise.]

 * Scene #5: Rachel Recalls a Specific Strategy Learned Previously
 * When Willem and Alicia began work, Rachel took one look at the problem and knew the answer: she had seen this problem before, though not for a long time and she could not at first remember what the solution was. She had also seen other drawing-related like it, and knew that their solution always lay with making the lines longer, shorter, or differently angled than first expected. After staring at the dots briefly, she wrote down a solution even before Alicia or Willem had begun serious work on theirs:

 * [Note: Use same solution as Alicia’s but rotated 180 degrees (i.e. rotated 90 degrees from Willem’s as well).]

This story illustrates several common features of problem solving (though not all of them). Consider these four features in particular: the structure or constraints set by the problem, the effect of structure on how to solve a problem, mental obstacles to solving problems, and common techniques for solving problems.

Well-structured versus Ill-structured Problems
Problems vary in how well they provide information needed to solve the problem, and in how many rules or procedures might contribute to a solution. A well-structured problem provides much or all of the information needed and can in principle be solved using relatively few clearly understood rules. Classic examples are the word problems often taught in math lessons or classes: everything you need to know is contained within the stated problem and the solution procedures are relatively clear and precise. An ill-structured problem has the converse qualities: the information is not necessarily within the problem, solution procedures are potentially quite numerous, and a multiple solutions are likely (Voss, 2006). Extreme examples are problems like “How can the world achieve lasting peace?” or “How can teachers ensure that students learn?”

By these definitions, the nine-dot problem is relatively well-structured—though not completely. Most of the information needed for a solution is provided in Scene #1: there are nine dots shown and instructions given to draw four lines. But not all necessary information was in fact given: it turned out (Scene #2: “A Hint”) that students needed to consider lines that were longer than implied in the teacher’s original statement of the problem. Students had to “think outside the box,” in this case literally.

Heuristics and Algorithms
Not only do problems vary in how completely they are structured, but so do solution procedures. An algorithm is a set procedure for solving a particular kind of problem in a particular way, like the procedures for multiplying or dividing two numbers or the instructions for using a computer (Leiserson, et al., 2001). Algorithms work best when a problem is very well-structured and there is no question about whether the algorithm is appropriate for the problem. In that situation it pretty much guarantees a correct solution. They do not work well, however, with ill-structured problems, where they are ambiguities and questions about how to proceed or even about precisely what the problem actually is. In those cases it is more effective to use heuristics, which are general strategies—rules of thumb—that often work or that may provide partial solutions. When beginning research for a term paper, for example, a useful heuristic is to scan the library catalogue for titles that look relevant. There is no guarantee that that this strategy will yield the books you most need for the paper, but the strategy works enough of the time to make it worth trying.

In the nine-dot problem, most students began in Scene #1 with a simple algorithm that can be phrased like this: “Draw one, then draw another, and another, and another.” Unfortunately this simple procedure did not produce a solution, so they had to find other ways to find a solution. Two of the alternatives are described in Scenes #3 (for Alicia) and 4 (for Willem). Of these, Willem’s response resembled a heuristic the most: he knew from experience that a good general strategy that often worked for such problems was to suspect a deception or trick in how the problem was originally stated. So he set out to question what the teacher had meant by the word line, and came up with a solution as a result.

Common Obstacles to Solving Problems
The example also illustrates two common problems that sometimes happen during problem solving. One of these is functional fixedness: a tendency to regard the functions of objects or ideas as fixed (German & Barrett, 2005). Over time, we might get so used to one particular purpose for an object that we overlook other possible uses. We may think of a dictionary, for example, as always “just” something to verify spellings and definitions, but it also can function as a gift, a doorstop or a footstool. For students working on the nine-dot matrix problem, the notion of a line was also initially fixed; they assume it something that connected dots but could not extend beyond the dots.

Functional fixedness is also a form of response set, the tendency for a person to frame or think about each subsequent problem in a series in the same way as the previous problem, even when doing so is not appropriate. In the example of the nine-dot matrix described above, students often tried one solution after another, but each solution was constrained by a set response not to extend any line beyond the matrix. Similarly, an even more complex example of response set is illustrated in Figure 8-1, which is about a classic problem of filling water jars to specified levels (Luchins & Luchins, 1994).

Both functional fixedness and response set are pitfalls or obstacles in problem representation, the way that a person understands and organizes information provided in a problem. If information is misunderstood or used inappropriately, then mistaken solutions are likely—if indeed the problem can be solved at all. With the nine-dot matrix problem, for example, understanding the instruction to draw four lines as meaning “draw four lines entirely within the matrix” means that the problem simply could not be solved.

But this is not the only kind of misunderstanding or misrepresentation possible. Consider this problem: “The number of water lilies on a lake doubles each day. Each water lily covers exactly one square foot. If it takes 100 days for the lilies to cover the lake exactly, how many days does it take for the lilies to cover exactly half of the lake?” If you think that the size of the lilies affects the solution to this problem, you have not represented the problem correctly. The information about lily size is not relevant to the solution, and only serves to distract from the truly crucial information, that the lilies double their coverage each day. (The answer, incidentally, is that the lake is half covered in 99 days; can you think why?)

Strategies To Assist Problem Solving
Just as there are common obstacles that often happen in all sorts of problem solving, there are also strategies that often help or support the process, regardless of the content specific in the problem (Thagard, 2005). One helpful strategy is problem analysis—identifying parts of the problem and working on the parts separately. Analysis is especially useful when a problem is complex. Consider, for example, this ill-structured problem: “Devise a plan to improve bicycle transportation in the city.” With a problem like this, try identifying its parts or component subproblems, such as 1) installing bicycle lanes on busy streets, 2) educating cyclists and motorists to ride safely, 3) fixing potholes on streets used by cyclists, and 4) revising traffic laws that interfere with cycling. Each component is itself a separate problem, and the solution of each contributes, but is not equivalent to, a solution to the original, larger problem.

Another helpful strategy is working backward, from a final solution to the originally stated problem. This approach is especially helpful when a problem is well-structured but also has misleading elements when approached in a forward or normal direction. The water lily problem described above is a good example: starting with when all the lake is covered (Day 100), ask what day would it therefore be half covered (answer: by the terms of the problem, it would be the day before, or Day 99). Working backward in this case encourages reframing the extra information in the problem (i.e. the size of each water lily) as merely distracting, not as crucial to a solution.

A third helpful strategy is analogical thinking—using knowledge or experiences with similar features or structures to help solve the problem at hand (Bassok, 2003). In devising a plan to improve bicycling in the city, for example, an analogy of cars and bicycles is helpful in thinking of solutions: improving car driving requires many of the same measures (improving the roadways, educating drivers) as improving bicycling. Even solving much simpler, more basic problems than this is helped by using analogies. A first-grade student can partially decode unfamiliar printed words by analogy to words he or she has learned already. If the child cannot yet read the word screen, for example, he can note that part of this word looks similar to words he may already know, such as seen or green, and from this observation derive a clue about reading the word screen. Teachers can assist this process, as you might expect, by suggesting reasonable, helpful analogies for students to consider.

(back to Chapter 8...)


text:
Talk:Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 8: Instructional Strategies/Problem-Solving

Note problem with the 9-dot graphic for this module. I do not yet know how to present this using HTML or wiki software. Maybe a public-domain image can be taken from elsewhere? Otherwise this material may need to be edited out of the module. KelvinLeeSeifert 21:10, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

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


text:
Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 8: Instructional Strategies/Major Instructional Strategies

Major Instructional Strategies and Their Relationships
Because the forms of thinking just described—critical thinking, creativity, and problem solving—are broad and educationally important, it is not surprising that educators have identified a lot of strategies to encourage their development. There are so many possibilities, in fact, that just keeping them all in mind—let alone choosing among them—can be difficult without a framework for organizing them. One such framework is shown in Figure 8-2, which visually classifies thirteen major instructional strategies according to two (somewhat approximate) dimensions. The first dimension is how much an instructional strategy is student-centered as compared to teacher directed. The second is how much a strategy depends on interaction and activity of groups as compared to individuals. The terms in the figure are all discussed in the rest of this chapter, but brief definitions of them are also listed in Table 8-1. As you will see later in this chapter, this two-way classification is not very precise, but it does give a useful overview of the major choices available for planning and carrying out instruction. And as you will also see, the more important of the two dimensions in Figure 8-2 is the first one—the extent to which an instructional strategy is directed by the teacher or initiated by students. We take a closer look at this dimension in the rest of this chapter.

Teacher-Directed Instruction
As the name implies, teacher-directed instruction is any strategy initiated and guided primarily by the teacher. It includes the classic expository method of lecturing (simply telling or explaining important information to students) and of assigning reading from texts. But teacher-directed instruction also includes strategies that call for more active responses from students, such as encouraging students to relate new information to prior knowledge, or to elaborate on new knowledge. Whatever their precise form, however, teacher-directed instructional methods include a lot of organizing of information on behalf of students, even when they also expect students to do some organizing work of their own. Sometimes teacher-directed methods are therefore thought of as transmitting knowledge from teacher to student—though in ways that are as clear and efficient as possible, and that often also require mental work on the part of the student.

Lectures and Readings
Lectures and readings are traditional staples of educators, particularly when teaching older students (including university students!). At their best, they are the good examples of pre-organized information, so that the student only has to remember what was said in the lecture or written in the text in order to begin understanding it (Exley & Dennick, 2004). The problem with lectures and readings, however, is the ambiguity of the responses which they require: listening and reading are by nature quiet and stationary, and do not in themselves indicate whether a student is comprehending, or even attending to the material. Educators often describe the problem by saying that “students are too passive” during lectures or when reading. But passivity can just as easily be attributed to the readings themselves or to the teachers who do the lecturing. Books just sit still, after all, unless someone makes an effort to read them, and a person lecturing may sometimes talk too much without noticing students’ responses (or lack thereof).

Advance Organizers
But in spite of such problems, there are strategies for making lectures and readings effective. Some of them amount to being especially careful about organizing information for students, while others turn some of the organizational task over to students themselves. An example of the first approach is the use of advance organizers—brief overviews or introductions to new material before the material itself is presented (Ausubel, 1978). Textbook authors (including ourselves) often try deliberately to use periodic advance organizers to introduce new sections or chapters in the text. When part of a lecture, advance organizers are usually created by the teacher herself in the form of brief introductory remarks, or possibly as diagrams illustrating relationships among the key ideas about to be explained (Robinson, et al., 2003). Whatever their form, advance organizers partially organize the material on behalf of the students, so that they know where to put it, so to speak, as they learn it in more detail.

Recalling and Relating Prior Knowledge
Another strategy for improving teacher-directed instruction is to encourage students to relate the new material to prior familiar knowledge. When one of us first learned a foreign language (in his case French), for example, he often noticed similarities between French and English vocabulary. A French word for picture, for example, was image, spelled exactly as it is in English. The French word for splendid was splendide, spelled almost the same as in English, though not quite. Relating the French vocabulary to English vocabulary helped in learning and remembering the French.

As children and youth become more experienced as students, they tend of their own accord to relate new information to previously learned information more frequently and automatically (Goodwin, 1999; Oakhill, et al., 2005). But teachers can also facilitate students’ use of this strategy. When presenting new concepts or ideas, the teacher can relate them to previously learned ideas deliberately and frequently—essentially modeling the memory strategy that students must eventually use for themselves. In a science class, for example, she can say “This is another example of…, which we studied before”; in social studies she can say “Remember what we found out last time about the growth of the railroads? We saw that…”

If students are relatively young or are struggling academically, it helps to remind them explicitly to draw on their prior knowledge. Teachers can periodically ask questions like, “What do you already know about this topic?” or “How will your new knowledge about this topic change what you know already?” Whatever the age or maturity of students, connecting new with prior knowledge is not always easy without help from someone more knowledgeable or expert—usually the teacher. When first learning algorithms for multiplication, for example, students may not spontaneously see how multiplication is related to the addition processes that they probably learned previously. But if a teacher takes time to explain the relationship and to give students time to explore it, then the new skill—multiplication—may be learned more easily.

Elaborating and Extending Information
Elaborating and extending new information means asking questions about the new material, guessing at ideas that may follow logically from the information given, and thinking of additional, unstated relationships among the new concepts. Such strategies are closely related to the recalling of prior knowledge discussed above: they enrich the new information and connect it to other knowledge. In this sense elaboration and extension make the new learning more meaningful and seem less arbitrary.

Teachers can help students to use elaboration and extension by modeling these behaviors themselves. A teacher can interrupt her own explanation of an idea, for example, by asking how it relates to other ideas, or by speculating about where the new concept or idea may lead. A teacher can also encourage students explicitly to do the same, and even give students questions to guide their elaborations. When giving examples of a concept, for example, a teacher hold back from thinking of all of the examples herself, and instead ask students to think of additional examples. Or when a reading includes descriptions of examples, teachers can instruct students to find or make up additional examples of their own.

Organizing New Information
There are many ways to organize new information, and some of them are especially well to teacher-directed instruction. A common way is to ask students to outline information read in a text or heard in a lecture. Outlining works especially well when the information is already organized hierarchically to some extent into main topics, each with supporting subtopics or subpoints. Outlining is basically a form of the more general strategy of taking notes, or writing down key ideas and terms from a reading or lecture. Research studies find that the precise style or content of notes is less important that the quantity of notes taken: more detail is usually better than less (Ward & Tatsukawa, 2003). Written notes help both by making a student think about the material while writing it down, and by providing permanent clues that help remind a student about the material later. These benefits are especially helpful when students are relatively inexperienced at learning in general (as in the earlier grade levels), or relatively inexperienced about a specific topic or content in particular. By the same token, of course, such students may need more guidance than usual about what and how to write notes. In elementary school, for example, it can be helpful for the teacher to provide a note-taking guide, like the one shown in Table 8-2.

In learning expository material, another helpful strategy—one that is more visually oriented—is to make concept maps, or diagrams of the connections among concepts or ideas. Figure 8-3 shows concept maps made by two people that graphically depict how a key idea, child development, relates to learning and education. One of the maps was drawn by a classroom teacher and the other by a university professor of psychology. They suggest possible differences in how the two individuals think about children, learning, and children’s development. Not surprisingly, the teacher gave more prominence to practical concerns (for example, classroom learning and child abuse) and the professor gave more prominence to theoretical ones (for example, Erik Erikson and Piaget). The differences suggest that these two individuals may be thinking about somewhat different ideas when they use the same term, child development. Such a difference has the potential to create misunderstanding between them (Seifert, 1999; Super & Harkness, 2003). The concept maps also suggest, however, what each person might need to learn in order to achieve better understanding of the other person’s thinking and ideas.

Mastery Learning
This term refers to an instructional approach in which all students learn material to an identical, high level, even if some students require more time than others to do so (Gentile, 2004). In mastery learning the teacher directs learning, though sometimes only in the indirect sense of finding, writing, and orchestrating...(read more...)


text:
Cookbook:Pumpkin Substitute

Pumpkins are unavailable most of the time in some countries. An excellent substitute for all uses is made from the following:

Ingredients

 * 1 kg (about 2 lbs) mixed carrot and swede
 * 500 g (about 1 lb) plain yogurt

Procedure

 * 1) Purée the vegetable mix until smooth.
 * 2) Add the yogurt.
 * 3) Use in place of pumpkin purée.

Notes, tips, and variations

 * Frozen carrot and swede mix makes this a very easy substitution.
 * Purée thoroughly to obtain a smooth mixture.
 * The ingredients can be added whole to foods that will be puréed later.
 * Other winter squashes may also be used as substitutes for pumpkin

title: Cookbook:Pumpkin Substitute


text:
Talk:Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 8: Instructional Strategies

Graphics, tables, and figures are more of a problem in this chapter than in the previous chapters. Solutions will have to be found, or else they will have to be simplified or even eliminated (that would be too bad). KelvinLeeSeifert 21:31, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Chapter 8 is now entirely posted in its basics. A serious problem exists, however, re the missing tables. Some of these are relatively important to the "messages" of the chapter--more important than in previous chapters. KelvinLeeSeifert 15:09, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Sequencing and "levels" of headings
I now find the "levels" of headings and links between them a bit confusing. Time to look seriously at how to reorganize them more sensibly. The problem is related to the "isolation" I sometimes perceive between webpages, even if they are linked. I can't assume that readers will read pages in a predictable sequence, as happens with a print book (at least it happens sometimes ). So tying sections of chapters together becomes a new sort of challenge--how to indicate it with the relatively short space of a single web page. I don't care if readers actually read pages in sequence; I only want to keep them from feeling "lost" because there is so much material.

The same issue probably is happening in some of the other chapters.

KelvinLeeSeifert 02:00, 9 September 2007 (UTC)


text:
Microsoft Project Crash Course

Welcome to the Microsoft Project Crash Course. This text book will provide you with what you need to know to get started on MS Project quickly!

The book is divided into levels which progressively elaborate on recurring topics. It's suggested that you first read and apply level 1 on all topics before you move onto the next level.

Working with tasks

 * Creating a basic schedule
 * Document progress and update forecasts
 * Displaying data effectively using views and tables
 * Sorting, grouping and filtering data

Working with resources

 * Capturing the project resources
 * Making basic assignments

Working with tasks

 * Document progress and update forecasts

title: Microsoft Project Crash Course


text:
Talk:Sound Synthesis Theory/Oscillators and Wavetables

Rounding vs. truncation
When resampling a digital signal, doesn't rounding produce a result that is identical in practice to truncation? The only difference between the two is a 1/2 sample group delay. And no, linear interpolation is not the most complex, most precise practical scheme. Cubic, quintic, and higher interpolations are used in some cases. --Damian Yerrick 21:48, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

 * Poor writing on my part; I was trying to say that it was the best of the three. I think rounding is more accurate because, for instance, a fractional jump calculated to 1.9 will be rounded to 2 rather truncated to 1 which is "further" from the desired position of the read pointer. Damien Karras 17:16, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

 * I just happened upon this page, and was about to add exactly what Damain Yerrick said years ago; Damian Karras: Rounding is equivalent to adding 0.5 and truncating, so the only difference between the two is a phase shift of Pi/table_length radians. Since you can't hear that phase shift in a free running oscillator, you can't consider it as error in the practical sense. I also thought it was a bit much to say that linear interpolation is "much more computationally demanding"—it's a modest increment, so some of that hyperbole should go (at least the "much"). And at that point it's worth at least mentioning that higher order interpolation methods further improve precision at the cost of increased computational overhead.—Earlevel (discuss • contribs) 09:46, 5 February 2012 (UTC)

Wavetables
"Wavetables are popular in digital synthesis applications because accessing a block of memory is computationally faster than calculating values using mathematical operations." Disagree—wavetables are not computationally faster. Take a (naive) sawtooth wave, for instance, as described earlier on the page. For the wavetable version, you need to create that same sawtooth, essentially, then use it to look up the corresponding wavetable entry. Wavetables are popular because of flexibility (the wavetable can hold any static waveform without change in the playback code, and it's easier to have control over aliasing by controlling the harmonic complexity of the waveform—something that is difficult with naive wave generation).Earlevel (discuss • contribs) 18:14, 5 February 2012 (UTC)

Using wavetables
"Digital systems, especially mixers that combine several synthesized or recorded signals, are designed to work at a fixed sampling rate and to make sudden changes to it is once again inefficient and extremely hard to program." If the hardware supports it—which it must or this wouldn't be in discussion—programming is extremely efficient and easy. The real reason is that you can't multiplex the oscillator—you can't generate several independent oscillators (or other functions) at the same time.Earlevel (discuss • contribs) 18:26, 5 February 2012 (UTC)


text:
User talk:Blinford

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally.

Don't worry about making edits. One of the best parts about Wiki technology is that people can make all sorts of changes without having to make everything perfect in the first edit. Make some changes, see how they look, and then make more changes! I'll look at the A-level book for you, but don't hesitate to make any improvements that you think are needed! --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 22:33, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Book Redundancy
What kinds of redundancy are we talking about? within a single book, or across multiple books? A book is supposed to be relatively self-contained. That means that the book needs to discuss the basics before it can move on to more advanced topics. To that effect, I'm certain that many books need to "review" certain topics (like newton's laws). Notice also that many books have different audiences and different prerequisties. This means that you can't consolidate all the review material because many books are trying to discuss the same topic in different ways.

However, if you find that many books share a common basis, that is that they cover the same kinds of materials in the same way, it would be acceptable to separate out this material into a single book, and then link your new book to all the old books that use it. For instance, if you wanted to write a book about "Physics Basics", and then use that as a prerequisite for other physics books, that would probably be fine. If you have doubt about something, ask me and I can give you some advice.

As to my user page, you are more then welcome to copy anything that you see on it. It is a result of a large amount of hard work on my part (perhaps too much). You are more then welcome to re-use some of the templates that I have created. Some templates, such as those that are highly specific to my own userspace, have been restricted from being included into other user pages. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 22:58, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Re:Incorrect Image
Which image on that page is not correct? Since those images look an aweful lot like ordinary tables, maybe you can delete the image entirely and just replace it with a table containing the correct information. Otherwise, if you can send me a description of what precisely is wrong with it, maybe i can take a stab at it myself. let me know. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 21:10, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Blinford


text:
A-level Mathematics/Advanced/Basic Mechanics/Momentum and Impulse

Momentum
Momentum is a construct of physics defined as the product of mass and velocity. Although it is just a construct, it is very useful as it has some very interesting properties, like being conserved in most interactions. In 4 dimension spacetime employed by relativity, it is also shown to belong with energy and other basic constructs that are conserved in interactions. Mathematically, it is represented by p.

Impulse
Impulse is simply the change in momentum, and is represented by I when used in mathematics. It is hardly ever used, and mostly only to demonstrate the concept. We will deal with it with forces in the next page.


text:
A-level Mathematics/Advanced/Basic Mechanics/Basic Concepts in Mechanics

Basic Concepts in Mechanics
See Time for a reasonable definition - or look at your watch for a while. This is time passing....
 * Time - frequently referred to as 't' and generally measured in seconds (s), but any units of time are fine, e.g. hours, minutes.

This is how far away one object is from a specified reference point. The reference point may be another object or the origin (insert link).
 * Distance - frequently referred to as 'd' and generally measured in meters (m). Also known as length.

 * Speed - frequently referred to as 's' and generally measured in meters per second (m/s), but any units of measurement and time are fine, e.g. km/h, feet/minute.

This is how fast an object is travelling - i.e. how much distance an object has moved in a given time. Direction is not relevant for speed - but q.v. velocity. Speed is a scalar (link).

 * Velocity - frequently referred to as 'v' and generally measured in meters per second (m/s), but again any units of measurement and time are fine, e.g. km/h, feet/minute.

This is how fast an object is travelling in a given direction- i.e. how much distance an object has moved in a given time. Direction is relevant for velocity - but q.v. speed. Velocity is a vector (link) in that it has speed plus direction (so more than one co-ordinate is required to define the velocity).

 * Acceleration - frequently referred to as 'a' and generally measured in meters per second squared (m/s2), but again any units of measurement and time are fine, e.g. km/h2, feet/minute2.

This is the rate of change in velocity over time

Mass is the amount of matter in an object. It is not the same as weight, except when the object is under the influence of gravity. Specifically an object always has mass, but for example in space it will have no weight.
 * Mass - frequently referred to as 'm' and generally measured in kilogrammes(kg).

 * Momentum

Also needs to cover : moments of inertia and force and ....(feel free to add suggestions).

See also Definitions


text:
Fossil Collecting

Table of Contents

 * 1) /Introduction/
 * 2) What is a Fossil?
 * 3) Finding Fossils
 * 4) Collecting Ethics
 * 5) Field Collecting
 * 6) Equipment
 * 7) Preservation and Documentation
 * 8) Collection Organization and Display

title: Fossil Collecting


text:
Wikijunior talk:World War II/Adolf Hitler

Is anyone going to add anything about the Holocaust, or his death? Might be too dark for Wikijunior, but he certainly did more than just paint and try to overthrow the German government.


text:
How To Build A Teardrop Trailer/Assembling the Body

Attaching the Sidewalls
The sidewalls will sit on the trailer frame and will be bonded to the wooden bed that is already bolted to the frame. Polyurethane glue is used to glue the sidewalls to the bed. Some builders use wood screws mainly to hold the sidewall while it dries.

However, the polyurethane glue, as good as it is, is really only gluing the top ply of the plywood. It is unlikely the glue will fail, but the plywood could fail. It does not take that much force to strip the top ply off plywood, especially if the plywood has been compromised by the elements.

So in addition to having the sidewall sit on top of the frame and polyurethane glued to the bed, it is a good idea to put 3.5 inch bolts through the sidewalls and through the wooden bed's wooden frame (made from 2x2s) with some big flat washers. Position the bolts about a foot apart.

Its really just a matter of having someone help you position the sidewall, drill the holes for the bolts, then take the sidewall down and coat the mating surfaces with polyurethane glue, and reposition and assemble with the bolts. Let dry overnight. You can use the wooden scraps cut off the sidewall profile as temporary bracing to hold the sidewalls up.

The Spars
Spars are simply the 2x2 pine wooden braces that will be placed across the roof line. These are polyurethane glued in place and held with wood screws. Standard 2x2s that you get from the lumber yard are usually pretty ugly and rough, so you might want to take the time to rip the sides of the 2x2s with a table saw so that you have nice looking spars. This is especially true if you decide not to have an interior ceiling.

You need to take a few items into consideration when locating the spars:
 * Roof seams - The 5.2mm luan only bends well across the narrow dimension (across the 4 ft dimension on a 4x8 sheet). So you are looking at a seam every 4 feet.  You should plan on attaching your first sheet to the front of the wooden bed frame (front of the trailer), so from the bottom of the wooden bed up 4 feet is the end of your first roofing sheet.  A spar has to run under the center of this spot. Continuing up and back, you'll need spars centered under each seam.
 * Curves - There needs to be multiple spars to support the front curve. This is a tight curve and even though the edges of the roofing luan will be attached to the sidewall's curved profile, the luan will tend to flatten out in the middle if there is not enough support. So going around the curve you want spars about every 6 to 8 inches.  Spars can be farther apart on the flatter parts of the roof.
 * Roof Vent - You need a couple of spars to support the edges of the roof vent and you might as well frame it in at this point.
 * Hatch Hinge - Finally, at the rear you want to put 2 spars adjacent to each other to support the hatch hinge.

So the process is to carefully measure and mark where your spars should be. Then counter sink holes through the sidewalls. Finally, apply polyurethane glue and screw the spars in place. You can then fill the counter sinks with wood filler.

Laying the Luan
This is actually one of the easier jobs. Unfortunately you will not be able to use the full 4'x8' sheet of luan for your roof unless your trailer is really narrow (like 46"). The reason is that the luan bends in the narrow direction not the long direction. This means cutting a 49" or 50" piece from the 4'x8' sheet and wasting the rest. You want the luan to overhang the sides.  Unless you are a top notch woodworker and cut the sides perfectly identical and attached them so they are perfectly square, there is little chance of cutting a piece of luan such that it will line up on the sides - so we won't even try.  Not to mention the glue and bending will consume all of your attention; you don't want to have to focus on lining up the sides too.

If you recall in the previous section, the front radius should not be smaller than 20" in order to bend the luan around it. The larger the radius, the easier time you will have with the roof.  At exactly 20" radius, the Author did actually snap a piece of 5.2 luan in half. The Author ended up fastening the luan at the top with screws then "just" starting the next row of screws and carefully tightened the entire row of screws incrementally (in a round-robin fashion) to slowly bend the luan over the curve. Hence the recommendation to consider a 25" or even a 30" radius curve if you want to avoid any issues.

You can cut the first piece of luan and start from the bottom front and work up and around to the back. Dry fit the first piece. The luan should line up square on the bottom front and the top of the luan edge should fall squarely in the middle of one of the spars - because that's how you planned it when fastening the spars. We don't care about the side edges of the luan as long as they are overhanging.

If everything looks good, remove the luan and apply polyurethane glue to the edges of the side walls and to the spar faces that contact the roof. Again place the luan so that it is lined up on the bottom and start a screw in the middle of the bottom spar. Check that the top still lines up to fall in the middle of the spar, then put in the remainder of the screws horizonally across the bottom. I used 7 screws across for each spar including two edge screws that went into the side walls.

You repeat this process to cover the entire roof. Clean off any excess glue and let dry. You can then use a router with a laminate trimming bit (with flush ball bearing guide) to trim off the over hang.

Other Options
There are other ways of constructing the roof. Many builders will install the interior roof paneling prior to the external roof. This allows them to easily slide the interior paneling through the spars to get it inside the trailer - a necessity on teardrop trailers constructed with a permanent galley. In addition they may join (glue) the entire interior paneling set together on a flat surface first. This is done to avoid seam covers on the inside and to facilitate bending around the interior curves. Also, once the interior is attached, builders may run wiring and insulate the cavities prior to putting on the roof.

Another alternative is to use 1/8 inch luan (hard to find) or paneling for the roof and apply 2 layers. This is typical on some styles where the curves are tight.

Furthermore, many woody builders take up the challenge of not using screws. They use lots of clamps and nylon straps to hold the luan as the glue dries. This has the advantage of a smoother outer skin.

With the build method we are using, the areas in-between the screws will not be perfectly flush with the area around the fastener and there is no built-in galley so getting materials inside the trailer through the back is not an issue.

>>Next:The Hatch


text:
Hacking/Tools/Network/Changing Your MAC Address

Although physical MAC addresses are permanent by design, several mechanisms allow modification, or "spoofing", of the MAC address that is reported by the operating system. This can be useful for privacy reasons, for instance when connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot, or to ensure interoperability. Some Internet service providers bind their service to a specific MAC address; if the user then changes their network card or intends to install a router, the service won't work anymore. Changing the MAC address of the new interface will solve the problem. Similarly, some software licenses are bound to a specific MAC address. Changing the MAC address in this way is not permanent: after a reboot, it will revert to the MAC address physically stored in the card.

Other methods of changing the MAC address are permanent; at least one network card manufacturer bundles networking hardware with software that allows the user to change the MAC address. These network cards usually come with a bootable CD-ROM that executes a utility that permits the user to change the MAC address burned into the EEPROM. When a hardware-based solution is not utilized, the user who intends to change the MAC address must instead rely on a software-based solution. The appropriate software solution is dependent on the operating system installed on the computer. Various software-based solutions are described below.

As a MAC address can be changed, it can be unwise to rely on this as a single method of authentication. IEEE.1x is a standard better suited to authenticating devices at a low level.

Table of contents

 * /Linux/
 * /Mac OS X/
 * /Windows/
 * /Other systems/


text:
Talk:Hacking/Tools/Network/Changing Your MAC Address

Page History on ensource

 * 17:22, 27 August 2007 202.159.244.12 (Talk) (6,818 bytes) (→Windows)
 * 04:34, 13 August 2007 24.186.183.105 (Talk) (6,576 bytes) (more advertising)
 * 04:33, 13 August 2007 24.186.183.105 (Talk) (7,065 bytes) (removed advertising again)
 * 07:38, 1 July 2007 202.159.240.146 (Talk) (7,307 bytes) (→Windows)
 * 07:35, 1 July 2007 202.159.240.146 (Talk) (7,065 bytes) (→External Links)
 * 01:03, 24 May 2007 Daveola (Talk | contribs) (6,954 bytes) (Adding info on non-root techniques)
 * 16:41, 22 April 2007 130.88.170.152 (Talk) (6,527 bytes)
 * 02:50, 30 January 2007 Newmanbe (Talk | contribs)
 * 00:11, 30 January 2007 24.177.55.45 (Talk) (→External Links)
 * 02:39, 29 July 2006 Etienne.Navarro (Talk | contribs) (Formatting and added external links)
 * 23:49, 28 July 2006 Etienne.Navarro (Talk | contribs) (started article, wikiformatting errors present, will fix later)


text:
Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Gawain Robards

Overview
Gawain Robards works in the Ministry of Magic as an Auror.

Half-Blood Prince
When Rufus Scrimgeour is visiting the Weasley family at Christmas, he holds out the possibility of discussions with Gawain Robards, who has replaced Scrimgeour as the head of the Auror department, as incentive for Harry to toe the Ministry line.


text:
Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Wilkie Twycross

Overview
Wilkie Twycross is the Apparition instructor from the Ministry of Magic.

Half-Blood Prince
Wilkie Twycross, an oddly insubstantial wizard, starts teaching Apparition to Harry's year group in February. It is a twelve-week course, and the expectation is that at the end of that time, any young Wizard taking the course would be able to pass their Apparition test. The cost of the course is 12 Galleons.

As is only to be expected, as the course progresses, Mr. Twycross is made fun of by many of the wizards taking his course. Ron, in particular, has unkind words for him and his teaching.


text:
Cookbook:Chiles en Nogada (Stuffed Chile Peppers with Almonds)

Chiles en nogada is a Mexican dish of stuffed chile peppers served with a nut-based sauce (nogada). Read the recipe carefully before preparing. Please note that this is a spicy dish.

Chiles

 * 20–30 peeled almonds
 * 6–9 peaches
 * 5–7 apples
 * 4–6 pears
 * Oil
 * 1 pound ground meat
 * Salt to taste
 * Raisins
 * 10–15 poblano peppers
 * 10 eggs
 * 1 cup flour

Nogada

 * 1 pound peeled walnuts
 * ½ cup rum (optional)
 * 5 cups milk
 * 5–6 slices white cheese

Chiles

 * 1) Cut the almonds in 2–4 pieces. Peel the peaches, apples, and pears, and chop them up in very tiny pieces. Set aside.
 * 2) Fry the ground meat in a pan with garlic and salt (to taste) over low heat in a spoonful of oil.
 * 3) When the meat is cooked, add the fruit and the raisins, and fry for about 4 minutes. Let cool.
 * 4) Put the poblano peppers on the stove and let them get toasted.
 * 5) After toasting them put the peppers in water and cut them on one of the long sides. Wash away the veins and the dark toasted spots on them.
 * 6) Stuff the peppers with the fruit-meat mixture.
 * 7) Crack and separate the eggs. Whip the whites until puffy, then beat in the flour and yolks until it reaches a yellowish point.
 * 8) Dip the whole pepper in the yellowish content that you just prepared and put in a pan to fry until light brown. Do repeatedly until done with all the peppers. Set aside while you make the nogada.

Nogada

 * 1) Grind the walnuts, milk, cheese, and rum in the blender for about a minute. After it will look white if done right
 * 2) Pour over the peppers and enjoy!

Notes, tips, and variation

 * To peel almonds yourself, boil them for 60 seconds and then soak them in cold water. You can then slip the skins off.


text:
SwisTrack/Using SwisTrack - an Introduction

SwisTrack uses a list of so-called components to process images. Each component is in charge of a specific processing step, e.g. image acquisition, background subtraction, thresholding, or blob detection. Getting the right result is a matter of putting the right components together - in the right order, of course. Each component can be configured, and SwisTrack provides a great interface to do this in real time, while showing all intermediate processing results.

This page tells you how to add and remove components, and how to configure them. If you want to know what components you should use for your task, have a look at the examples section. A reference of all components is available on the component list page.

Main Window
The main window of SwisTrack consists of three parts:

 * The main display in the center shows the current frame that is being processed. The frame can be displayed at (almost) all processing steps.
 * The component list at the bottom shows the currently selected components and their status. At the right of this list, you'll find two buttons to add or remove components, and two buttons to change the order of the components.
 * The configuration panel at the right allows you to configure the selected component.

In addition, SwisTrack shows a timeline at the very bottom of the window.

Editing the Component List
To add a component, click the plus (+) button on the right of the component list. A dialog will appear and allow you to select a component. Note that the available components are grouped by their category, and you'll often need a component of each category, in the order the categories are listed here.

Components are added to the end of your component list. To move them up and down, use the arrow buttons on the right side. To remove the selected component, simply click on the minus (-) button.

The component list consists of several columns which indicate the type and the state of the component. Next to the name of the component, a few columns are filled with Ws, Es and Rs. Each of these columns corresponds to a channel' (or a data structure), and the letters have the following meaning: Obviously, you first have to write something to a channel before you can read or modify it. Hence, if you look through each columns, all Es and Rs should be below the W's. If this isn't the case, then you either forgot to add a component or placed the components in the wrong order.
 * W: The component is writing to this channel.
 * E: The component is modifying (reading, then writing) this channel.
 * R: The component reads from this channel, but doesn't change anything there.

In the column right after the component name, you may also see some T's. These components include a trigger mechanism (which may be active or not), i.e. they tell SwisTrack when to process the next frame. A setup must have at least one trigger.

Configuring and Testing your Setup
Once your component list contains a valid setup, you can process one frame by pressing the Step button in the toolbar. This invokes each component in the order they are listed and displays the selected image (i.e. the output of the selected component). Once the frame is processed, the component list indicates the duration of each component, and perhaps error messages. (If you just added some components, it is quite likely that one or the other component will raise an error. You may have to configure them first.) Whenever an error occurs, SwisTrack stops the execution of the frame at that point and doesn't call the subsequent components.

When clicking on a component, SwisTrack displays its configuration panel on the right side of the window. You can now modify the settings and watch how this affects the image. Whenever you change a value, SwisTrack automatically performs a step - hence your modification becomes immediately visible on the screen.

As an advice, start at the top of your component list and configure the components in the order of execution. As the configuration heavily depends on component itself, refer to the online component documentation (link on the top of the configuration panel) for the meaning of each parameter.

While the Step button processes one frame, the Run button processes frames continuously. In run mode, the trigger components (those with a T next to their name) say when the next frame shall be processed. If you don't have any trigger component in your setup, add a Timer Trigger component to configure the processing speed.

Finally, the Reset button allows you to reset all components. Most of the time, SwisTrack finds out automatically when the setup must be restarted (especially when you change the configuration of a component), but there are cases where you want to do that explicitly. When you hit the Reset button, all components are adviced to completely reset their internal state and reload the configuration. This zeroes the frame counter and deletes the track history, for example.

Running an Experiment
Once your setup is properly configured and working, you probably want to use it for your experiments. This is where the Productive button enters the game.

Before you start your experiment, activate the Productive button. This resets all components and starts them in productive mode. At the end of your experiment, simply hit the Productive button again to release it and switch back to testing mode.

Productive mode has two main differences as compared to testing mode:
 * In productive mode, SwisTrack never resets the components automatically. Therefore, only a subset of the configuration parameters are available any more, namely those which do not change the processing completely. For example, you can still adjust the exposure time of a camera, but you cannot change from color to grayscale mode. In addition, it is not possible to add, remove or reorder components in productive mode.
 * Output components only write data to the file during productive mode. Hence, your the files contain the data of your experiments only. (Some other components also make slight differences between testing and productive mode. Refer to the component documentation for details.)

More Information
Now that you know the basics, you may want to have a closer look at the following chapters:

 * The Timeline
 * Configuration Examples
 * List of all Components


text:
SwisTrack/Version 3

 This page refers to version 3 of SwisTrack. Unless you are still using this old version, you may want to read the documentation of the most recent version of SwisTrack.

Introduction
Swistrack is a tracking tool for marker less objects. Swistrack builds upon a suite of open source toolboxes such as OpenCV, WxWidgets, and libxml++.

Contents

 * 1) /Installing SwisTrack/
 * 2) /Using SwisTrack/
 * 3) /Contributing/
 * 4) /Interfacing 3rd party software/
 * 5) /Change log/

title: SwisTrack/Version 3


text:
SwisTrack/Contributing

SwisTrack 4 is available under the GNU General Public License (GPLv3). This license grants you the right to freely use it for your research or industrial application.

The development of SwisTrack is indeed a collaborative effort and involves several research labs and researchers. Take part in this collaborative effort and help improving SwisTrack!

Components
If you implement a component that somebody else may find useful, send it to the SwisTrack maintainers for inclusion in the SwisTrack main branch. This not only allows other labs to use your work, but also makes it easier for your and your fellow researchers to install SwisTrack in a new setup.

Examples
Do you use SwisTrack for something out-of-the-ordinary? Did you run fancy experiments using SwisTrack? Did you interface SwisTrack with another program/system?

Write a wikibook page about your setup and send the files (SwisTrack configuration, scripts, source code, ...) to the SwisTrack developer mailing list for inclusion in the SwisTrack main branch.

Spread the Word
Let your fellow researchers know about SwisTrack, and show them how easy it is to track your robots, animals or other agents!
 * [[File:SwisTrack_4_Poster_IROS_2008.pdf]] (Poster, IROS 2008 conference)

If you use SwisTrack for your research experiments, mention SwisTrack in your publication and include a reference to the SwisTrack wikibook.

Bugs? Wishes? Ideas?
We are always open for bugs reports, wishes or ideas. Feel free to contact the current maintainer, or send an email to the swistrack-devel mailing list.

Developers and Contributors

 * Ezequiel Di Mario, EPFL, Switzerland -- current main maintainer
 * Iñaki Navarro, EPFL, Switzerland -- current deputy maintainer
 * Thomas Lochmatter, EPFL, Switzerland
 * Pierre Roduit, EPFL, Switzerland
 * Stefanie Tellex, MIT, US
 * Daniel Abel, ELTE, Hungary
 * Nikolaus Correll, MIT, US
 * Chris Cianci, EPFL, Switzerland
 * Iñaki Navarro, UPM, Spain
 * Julien Nembrini, EPFL, Switzerland
 * Clément Hongler, EPFL, Switzerland

title: SwisTrack/Contributing


text:
User:Reece/User/MessageArchive

Message Archive This page will serve as an archive of my talk page messages. Please do not alter this page.

Welcome
Hello and welcome to Wikibooks!

Here are some tips to help you get started:
 * You should sign your name on Talk and vote pages using four tildes, like this: ~~~~.
 * Remember to conduct any editing experiments in the sandbox.
 * If you're a Wikipedian, see Wikibooks for Wikipedians for a primer on how things work here (it's a little different).
 * If you want to base your work here on materials from Wikipedia, please use WB:RFI to bring the material over in compliance with the GFDL.
 * If you're an instructor and plan on using wikibooks for a class project, see Guidelines for class projects
 * Please say hello at the Staff Lounge with any questions or ideas.
 * Eventually, you might want to read the Manual of Style and Policies and Guidelines.
 * Please take a look at Naming policy before starting a new book.
 * Remember to maintain a Neutral point of view.
 * Explore, be bold in editing pages, and have fun!

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

Good luck! -- Herby talk thyme 19:43, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Todays work!
Very helpful indeed - thanks -- Herby talk thyme 18:21, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Bugs
I love the look of the bugs page - Wikijunior has such quality to it. I run a "bot" that can do things like change or add categories, check for typos and layout etc. I'd be happy to help - regards -- Herby  talk thyme 17:16, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
 * If/when you work out a category structure let me have the details and I'll happily place them on the pages in a semi auto way - regards -- Herby talk thyme 17:54, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Just let me know & I'll do it as soon as I can - I have a "soft" spot for Wikijunior's quality and presentation -- Herby talk thyme 18:01, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Visual Basic Classic
Please don't just summarily delete images that have no copyright info. It would be more efficient to notify the author first by adding an entry to the talk page of the author so that he or she can make an attempt to rectify the situation. Then if nothing happens after a week or so of course carry on and delete. --kwhitefoot 11:02, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I've responded to this directly -- Herby talk thyme 11:07, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi
As I have been in touch with you about some bits I hope you won't mind me approaching you about something specific. While vandalism is not the issue here that it is on Wikipedia we do still have a level of vandalism that needs tackling often by Admins as there are fewer users here than Wikipedia. One of the tools that allows us to tackle vandals more easily is Checkuser. This means that we can see the IP address a registered user has vandalised from and see if this may have happened before (it often has). To get these rights required 25 affirmative votes which on a small wiki is not easy. A hard working Admin is looking for just two more votes to get this. If you would like to look at this then go here Requests_for_adminship and you are welcome to vote. I must stress that you are under no pressure at all to do so and if you decide not to that is fine. I do hope you do not mind me contacting you in this way - thanks and regards -- Herby talk thyme 18:07, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
 * And thanks for responding - I felt it was a bit cheeky but I hoped you would say no if you felt it - cheers -- Herby talk thyme 12:10, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Bots
OK - this is someone who "uses" things rather than necessarily understands them! In practice there is far more on Wikipedia about bots too (I'm from there originally). The one I use is AWB. There is quite a variety of things it can do from very basic typos and formatting, through adding or taking away categories through to quite advanced "search & replace".

On WP the use of semi auto bot type software is quite carefully controlled, here far less so (AWB can be run auto but I generally review changes before accepting them and run on an ordinary user account that would have to be the way). However I have a bot account user:Herbys bot so I can run auto if I want (a bot account has to be approved). I know there are folks who have "written their own" (Whiteknight for example) but tha is beyond me.

Enough waffle I guess - better if you have particular queries to get back to me again (& you are welcome to do so). I intend running the bot later today on basic cleanup stuff. Regards -- Herby talk thyme 15:29, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Wikijunior New Title Votes
Are you aware that you voted in an old Wikijunior new title vote? The page you voted on was for the last few months of 2006. Now you should vote on: Wikijunior:New Book of the Quarter/2007-1st Quarter Vote Xania talk 16:44, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Er, it seems that that wasn't the correct page either. That vote finished on 31/Dec 2006. I'll try to find the link for the current vote. Xania talk 16:47, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Try this page: Wikijunior:New Book of the Quarter/2007-2nd Quarter Vote

Re: My Bot
My "bot" essentially consists of a set of library modules, written in Perl. I have all the basic functionality written to edit pages (download text, upload changes, etc), and I'm working to expand on that functionality with a set of higher-level modules and client programs. At the moment, most of my programs are semi-automated, but the ability is there to make programs that are fully-automated as well. I haven't done any development on it at all recently, but I am going to be working on it more in the future. I hope this answers your questions --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 23:29, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Very odd indeed
When I'm bored I look into that - think you must have got caught up in some vandalism. Should be ok now. Cheers -- Herby talk thyme 18:09, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Images
Bit late for me but if you don't get a good answer you'll get something from me tomorrow - regards -- Herby talk thyme 19:50, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Further to my bit in the Staff lounge this may "illuminate" things a little more -. If you have queries let me know (I probably asked the same things a fairly short time ago ) -- Herby  talk thyme 13:17, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Layout of New Bugs Main Page
Hey Urbane User I just checked out the new userpage, and it looks very great in my opinion, I like the new layout it's nice and neat, and easier to look around in (especially the contents), so great job on it! Avenue of Covina 04:52, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Sig
Not totally sure I understand you. For the sig (I can almost do it blindfold - better than my normal typing!) if I don't type it I use the button on the editor (if you have .js enabled). While you could template it you would have to type something to get the template (I'm guessing you have the sig set up in "preferences"). Get back to me won't you (adopted or otherwise! - btw I see timezones as another issue with adoption - there are some folk I never see and some I always see?) --Herby talk thyme 10:21, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
 * OK - to me "Welcome" consist of a copy and paste of and --~ which I find fairly automatic.  I confess I frequently use a text scratch pad which will have stuff like that it (used to have spedy deleted with frequently used reasons but I deleted then now!).  Equally I often do a batch at a time - for example take 500 on RC, exclude anons  and cast me eye over for red talk pages (sneaky if that put something on themselves!).  Then using tabbed browsing open them all up for a copy & paste session?? Let me know - cheers -- Herby  talk thyme 10:32, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Language project Freestyle
Welcome on board! I have recently set up the basic pages and templates for the project. You can access its main page following this link: Freestyle.

Generally, there are two ways of creating new articles for this project: either you write an article from scratch or you adapt an actual text from English Wikinews. All kinds of topics are welcome, e. g. breaking news, politics, gossip, texts about the English language and its dialects... choose what you thinkg might be interesting for a foreign reader.

Try to adapt your style of writing to the grade (beginner, mediocre, advanced) you write for. Here are some criteria that might be helpful:
 * Beginner: short (100-120 words), easy grammar (present, straight sentences, no conditional), mostly day-by-day vocabulary. Suggested topics: breaking news, gossip, ...
 * Mediocre: medium (150-200 words), mediocre grammar (present, past, future, easy conditional sentences). Suggested topics: usual daily press talk, ...
 * Advanced: long (150-400 words), everything is allowed. Suggested topics: politics, art, literature, ...

I suggest we proceed thus: choose a topic, write an article and post it to the site http://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/Freestyle/TEXTTITLE, replacing TEXTTITLE by the headline of your article. Please provide the sources from which you have compiled the text. If possible, also provide a suitable picture from Wikimedia Commons. Let me know when you have finished, then I will see to the formatting and annotating. Later on, I can show you how to do the basic formatting (headline, picture, date, sources) yourself. If you have questions, contact me at any time. --Bitbert 14:03, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism
Vandalism in progress or Administrators' noticeboard are both fine - thanks -- Herby talk thyme 14:22, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
 * OK - dealt with but always feel free to revert stuff yourself - look at the history and edit the one before the vandalism. Equally look at Template messages/User talk namespace to find the messages you vcan places to warn people against vandalism - works quite often - thanks -- Herby  talk thyme 14:45, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Please notify users whose images you tag
I noticed that you tagged Willem Bol's image Image:At class waves.jpg. Thank you for catching that! May I please ask, however, that you notify users whose images you tag. It is very helpful to them; and many times, they get your notice and appropriately tag the image right away! Just use {{subst:image copyright|Image:Image_name.ext}}  ~~~~ Thank you! Iamunknown 22:55, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Image delinking and Freeware
I wanted to ask if you could please stop deleting red image links from pages, especially in this book. We have several people who are working hard on the image problem, tagging images, tracking down users, and sorting through years of backlog. I know that you have participated in this project some as well, so I hope you can understand the importance of this request.

Once we get the image situation figured out, you can go back to business as usual. Thank you. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 02:27, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

 * No worries. Everybody wants to help out, but sometimes different people "help" in contradictory ways. I know that you are a good helper, and I don't want to see your hard work get undone by our other good helpers. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 15:35, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

AdnanSa
Thank you for nice words :) I shell try develop wikibooks on bosnian language, especialy books for kids, so I don't think I'll contribute much on this wiki, but who knows :) Maybe one day. AdnanSa 16:03, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Main page
I have started a discussion about this at Staff_lounge where it suggests Nearly_complete as a main page. RobinH 13:38, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

I agree with your comments on the staff lounge. The change to the Main Page that has turned it into a Library Catalogue looks like a retrograde step. It needs an admin to change it to something more relevant (See Main Page/test) RobinH 11:45, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

NoEditSection
Hi... this tag makes the blue "edit" link above the header sections on a page disappear. (I have no idea why it's used, but that's what it does :). -- SB_Johnny | talk 20:52, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Hi - apologies for the delay in the reply - I've been away for a few days. You seem to have had an answer to the query and I can only confirm what Johnny said - it prevents someone adding a section to a page via a top "+" tab. Cheers -- Herby  talk thyme 12:08, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Alphabetizing
Thanks. Makes things easier to find. ;P -- xixtas talk 21:05, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Page deletion
I know that we can track down blanked pages, but it does help out if you can leave the delete tags on the pages if you think they need to be deleted. I tracked down some pages you blanked, but had earlier marked them for speedy delete.

Anyway, thank you for trying to help out Wikibooks in your own way, and this sort of page cleanup is certainly helpful and important. Keep up the effort here! --Rob Horning 10:22, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Popups
OK - you would be best using Firefox as far as I know and some folk don't get on with it. Me - I really would not be without it. gets you to the info. Not an admin tool but is great for many tasks - regards -- Herby talk thyme 09:28, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Usernames
No problem - well I say that - it is a 'crat thing - they can "change" usernames so I guess a posting to Whiteknight would be best - cheers -- Herby talk thyme 19:25, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

 * I can change your username if you want, just let me know what the new user name should be. In the database, all users are identified by a unique ID number, and all your contributions are attributed to that number, not to any particular user name. To that effect, when your name is changed, your entire contribution history will be updated to use your new name and not your old one. Besides the signatures you've posted in discussions, there will be almost no record at all that this username ever existed. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 19:33, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Done. You are now User:Urbane. All the pages in your user and user talk namespace have been moved to your new username, and the old pages have been redirected to this new namespace. You can use your new username along with your old password to login to wikibooks from now on. On a side note, you may way to register a new account at User:Urbane User just to prevent other people from taking it and breaking those redirects. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 19:46, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

What is Wikijunior
What is Wikijunior" is proposed as a policy and has been included on the Wikibooks Policies and Guidelines Voting page. Please take time to comment and express your opinion in the referendum. -- xixtas talk 02:25, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Wikijunior Study (Moved from User_talk:Urbane_User
Hi Urbane,

I read your Wikijunior Bug. Very impressed and interested in knowing more about your experience related to this particular book project (Wikijunior Bug) I'm current a doctoral student at Indiana University. My advisor and I, we are starting a Wikibook study regarding to online authors' beliefs and perceptions (motivation to write a Wikibook, beliefs about the knowledge of the topic, previous experience and success in writing a Wikibook, and ability to help coordinate the Wikibook project and interact with other authors). We would love to invite you to participate in this study. Your input to this study will be greatly appreciated. If you agree to participate, please leave me a message or send me an email. (My email is cl17@indiana.edu.) We'll schedule a one hour interview with you at your convenience by phone or by email (email interview). Thank you very much again. inkeys

Wikijunior BOTQ
World War II is the winner. I am nervous about launching a book with so little support. (Particularly so because I myself have little interest in working on it.) But the system is what it is. This is one of the reasons I'm lobbying for changing this so that we just launch books whenever there are enough people who have expressed support, (and we don't launch books when there is not enough support.) We probably need to see if we can get some support from outside Wikipedia World War II talk might be a good place to ask for help. -- xixtas talk 13:36, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikijunior:World War II
You are listed as either an interested participant or at one time voted for "World War II" for Wikijunior New Book of the Quarter. This message is to let you know that we are starting work on World War II because it was selected for 3rd quarter 2007. -- xixtas talk 23:42, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Wiki research
Hi Urbane,

I read your Wikijunior Bug. Very impressed and interested in knowing more about your experience related to this particular book project (Wikijunior Bug) I'm current a doctoral student at Indiana University. My advisor and I, we are starting a Wikibook study regarding to online authors' beliefs and perceptions (motivation to write a Wikibook, beliefs about the knowledge of the topic, previous experience and success in writing a Wikibook, and ability to help coordinate the Wikibook project and interact with other authors). We would love to invite you to participate in this study. Your input to this study will be greatly appreciated. If you agree to participate, please leave me a message or send me an email. (My email is cl17@indiana.edu.) We'll schedule a one hour interview with you at your convenience by phone or by email (email interview). Thank you very much again. inkeys, 30 June 2007

Copyvio
For god's sake man, that is a copy-paste from a GCSE textbook widely used by British kids!! even if you didn't use it, that text is widely circulated!! --JohnBambenek 14:00, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

NP
There would have been a time when I would have not handled it well at all - we live and learn! Good to have you around -- Herby talk thyme 15:28, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Fhsst!
Hi - pretty much out of time for today. However I'd probably say the same thing - Staff lounge would be where I'd go with it - I'll take a look there when I'm on next - cheers -- Herby talk thyme 18:16, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

 * Maybe we could come up with some kind of "group project"? Every day, if each user fixed one image from the FHSST book (found or created a free alternative, or proved that the image was already under a free license), with enough people working on it the problem would be solved pretty quickly. All I've really got is inkscape and MSpaint, but anything that I can recreate I will try to do soon. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 18:33, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

 * Actually, I've done some more research about it, and I'm going to post a note about it at the WB:AN. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 18:40, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Main Page
If you missed my reply on my talk page. Sure you can copy User:Darklama/Main Page. --dark lama  20:55, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Re:Page Listings
There is a list at Alphabetical classification/All Books, which basically using DPL to transcludes the pages from the various alphabetical categories. This will only list books that have been properly tagged with (which isn't all of them). Unfortunately, I have yet to find a way to only list root-level pages automatically (such as by a special page). --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 21:38, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Questions Regarding Pre-university courses
Hi Urbane, I've started doing a little writing for the Primary School Mathematics course, which seems much more like a book than a course.

I've noticed three courses in the Pre-university courses section of the Wikiversity:School of Mathematics page

Basic Mathematics (numbers, arithmetic, fractions, decimals) Primary School Mathematics (numbers, arithmetic, pre-algebra)

High School Mathematics (algebra, trigonometry, pre-calculus, calculus)

The Primary School Mathematics course specifies on the first page that it is "not for students but for parents and teachers". I understood this to mean that the reader should have some competency in math and so I created and started writing what I thought the content of the Primary School Mathematics pages should be in an "Overview" chapter. However, I then noticed that the High School Mathematics course (in the same category of courses, is intended to actually teach the various subjects of mathematics.

I see a problem here. Actually, I'm not sure that the Primary School Mathematics "course" is really a course at all. I see it more as an aid to teachers and parents in understanding how the new math is taught.

It makes very little sense to me that the course should be to teach Primary school mathematics. Surely any adult (with very, very few exceptions) that is able to parse its pages has these basic math skills, so I am treating the book as more of a pedagogical treatise for the layman and/or the teacher whose specialty is not mathematics. Am I going about this wrong?

If you are unable to help me with these questions, can you please point me in the right direction? Thanks Leightwing 21:43, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Using Wikibooks
I hope you dont mind, but i'm going to just go crazy and work on this book until my fingers bleed. It's the kind of help resource that we desperately need around here, and it's long over-due. I'm trying not to screw up any of your work too badly. Once I get all the groundwork laid, I want to post a message on the staff lounge and try to get everybody here at wikibooks to donate at least a little bit of information. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 00:21, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Why are you categorizing?
The Wikimanual of Gardening chapters are already categorized in subcategories... I've tried to keep the top category (Category:A Wikimanual of Gardening empty so that new pages could be put there for later sorting. -- SB_Johnny | PA! 12:11, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

(BTW: there are many hunderds of pages in that book, hence the subcat structure) :). -- SB_Johnny | PA! 12:15, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

 * NP :). Thanks for the copyediting too though! I'll be back to work on that book come November or so... the Bloom Clock takes up most of my wikitime these days :). -- SB_Johnny | PA! 13:07, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Reverts
Thanks for the reverts, sorry I wasn't around a few minutes earlier to block that guy sooner. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 16:33, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

 * I've temporarily protected this page from anonymous editing because of the vandalism. It expires today at 17:46, or I can unprotect it for you earlier if you like.  – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 17:02, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Please use subst:
Please remember to substitute for Template:no license. Otherwise it will always say "to be deleted on or after" and then some date a week from whenever you view it. It is only static when you subst: it. It's also supposed to give a big "You forgot to subst: me; please change it" message if it isn't substituted, but I think that's broken because it keeps showing up fine.

Also, if you use it will automatically enter the date for you - it's a lot faster! Thanks for all the image tagging you do.  – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 02:47, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Both templates seem to subst: fine for me. Here's one instance: User:Mike.lifeguard/Sandbox and I tried it on Image:5percent-bar.png, which worked fine. Same goes to substituting . I'm not sure how your browser could be affecting it though. is exactly what you should be using. If it's still not working, you might try asking someone who worked on the template.  – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 14:28, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Actually, it looks like you used only one curly brace on either end. To subst: a template you still need two. Hope that fixes it!  – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 14:37, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

broken redirects
I remember deleting some stuff for you a while back - archives of your talk page, I think. It may have broken some redirects. Or they may be totally unrelated. But it involves stuff in your User Talk: space, so do you mind sorting them out? If anything needs to be deleted, you can tag them, or let me know and I'll do it. Thanks!  – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 13:18, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
 * 1) User talk:Urbane User/MessageArchiveDecember2006 (edit) (delete) → User talk:Urbane/MessageArchiveDecember2006
 * 2) User talk:Urbane User/MessageArchiveFebruary2007 (edit) (delete) → User talk:Urbane/MessageArchiveFebruary2007
 * 3) User talk:Urbane User/MessageArchiveJanuary2007 (edit) (delete) → User talk:Urbane/MessageArchiveJanuary2007
 * Figured it out. I have gone temporarily insane. The redirects have been deleted.  – Mike.lifeguard  | <font color="Indigo">talk 13:20, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Ha, no worries. We all go a little bit insane sometimes. Urbane   (Talk)   (Contributions)  17:21, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Your RFA
Will all positive support, you are now a sysop. Enjoy. -<font color="#000000">within <font color="#7A7A7A">focus 01:09, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I will use my new tools cautiously. Thanks to everyone who voted in support. Urbane   (Talk)   (Contributions)  09:42, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

PDF
I saw your question on withinfocus's talk page. This might be worth discussing in the staff lounge. I don't think including the GFDL license tag on the page would be enough. While the text is required to be released under the GFDL, images are not. I believe while it would be a pain to do, you or someone else would need to verify that the PDF file is actually based on a book here, that the GFDL is properly included within the file, that all images used are released under a free image license and include the license information within the file, and all attribution/required information by each license is properly included. I think it would be necessary to delete it if all that is not meet. Perhaps a new template is needed for including on pages within the Image namespace for pdf files that have had all that verified. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  11:15, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Yeah, I'm not the best person to ask about images and licensing issues. Best to go with darklama's comments. -<font color="#000000">within <font color="#7A7A7A">focus 23:27, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Deletion Question
Its me again, seeing another question you've asked. When I'm deleting due to a vfd decision, I try to delete all modules, talk pages, specialized templates only used by it, redirects and empty categories specific to it. So if the templates are orphaned, and were specific to that Final Fantasy book go ahead and delete them. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  12:55, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Deletions
Yes - play some more with the delete button. Someone (me maybe) missed them when doing the others (be careful when deleting entire "books" that you get everything, I've slipped up before). And congrats on the admin bit - cheers -- Herby talk thyme 13:17, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Image:FLYbarmutant.png copyright
I noticed your msg on JWSchmid's talk page concerning this image. While it did include on the page, if you looked further down, at the description the person included information that it was released under the GFDL. I've replaced nld with and removed the copyright notice from JWSchmid's talk page.

If you find any other images which describe what terms they releasing under, such as GFDL, just go ahead and rm the nld template if there is one and add the appropriate license. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  21:59, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Left you a reply on my talk page. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  19:13, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Info
Hi - kept meaning to get back to you today but got delayed! Pages such as Talk:Java Programming/wiki/Talk:Java Programming/Threads and Runnables/w/index.php this which you (rightly) deleted are created by spambots (anything with an index.php or a trailing /). They probably come from open proxies, however a quick way to deal with them and leave a form of warning is to block them (I've never seen good edits on any ip like that). I'll always block for a week at least, if I can find more info (with this maybe) then longer. Some block for longer anyway but at least then if you look at the block log when you find one you can see if they are returning. Let me know if I can help - cheers -- Herby talk thyme 17:49, 15 September 2007 (UTC)
 * No problem - just operating on auto pilot when I do that sort of thing! Keep at it and thanks for the wishes, it will be good to get away - cheers -- Herby  talk thyme 16:02, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Untagged / Unlicensed Images
I don't know if you've noticed yet, since it depends some on your browser's cache, your cache preferences on Wikibooks, and what skin your using, but there may be two links called "untagged" and "unlicensed" that show up now on user pages, that you may find useful in your quest to deal with images and other files missing copyright information and license tags. The untagged link shows any files uploaded by the user that haven't been tagged, not even with. The second shows uploads by that user which have been tagged with. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  15:58, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Re:Merging Edit Histories
Yes, i have heard of merging edit histories, although I cant remember whether I've ever had the pleasure of doing it. I have, however, written up some basic instructions for doing it at Using Wikibooks/The Wikibooks Administrator/Advanced Administration. I hope this should answer your questions, but if you need more information let me know and I will try to fill you in. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 21:34, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

ETD Guide Violation
Hello. I am new to Wikibooks so I am unsure what I need to do to make everything alright with my page. I am a student at Virginia Tech who is working on a project for class in accordance with one of the authors, Dr. Fox. Please let me know what I need to do so my page is not deleted.

 * I've now acted on the information provided and tagged it as a copyvio with a termination date of about a week. You or User:Urbane or anyone that has time and disposition could attempt to get the permission from UNESCO (I don't perceive that as improbable, since it falls on the dictates of the organization to enable such uses, I have provided information on were to look for it on the VfD page). Good luck it would be great if we can save the work. --Panic 23:30, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

ETD Guide Cvio Question
I have a couple questions about the how to correctly get copyright permissions. Myself and Dr. Edward Fox are getting in contact with UNESCO and am positive that it won't be a problem. However, being as there are multiple authors in this piece of work, is permission from UNESCO enough or do we need permission from all authors as well?

Also, being as this is something that we would like to have continually updated over the years but also keep the integrity of the work in the ETD guide, is there any way to lock editing of this ETD guide wiki to only certain users? Please let me know as soon as you get the chance. Thank you. --User:Kmill56
 * Only release from the copyright holder is required. If UNESCO holds the copyright, then they can license it however they want.
 * There is no way to restrict who can edit the book - that would be antithetical to the concept of wikis. If you want to control editing, this is not the place for it. "If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, then don't submit it here." – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  | <font color="Indigo">talk 22:26, 8 October 2007 (UTC) (Sorry to barge in like that - I though I was editing a more public page. *is embarassed*) – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  | <font color="Indigo">talk 22:27, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

UNESCO grants copyright permission for ETD Guide on 23 Oct 2007
I just received the following email, which grants use copyright permission from UNESCO. I can forward it to some email address if you prefer. Many thanks, Ed Fox

-Original Message- From: Plathe, Axel [mailto:A.Plathe@unesco.org] Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 2:35 AM To: Fox, Edward Cc: Moxley, Joseph; Nisbet, Miriam; Shawki, Tarek; Denissova, Natalia Subject: RE: Resending: Written permission please - RSVP ASAP

Dear Ed,

Nice to hearing from you.

It is with pleasure that UNESCO grants permission to publish the Guide on Wikibooks.

Best wishes

Axel _________________ Axel Plathe Chief, Executive Office Communication and Information Sector UNESCO 1, rue Miollis 75732 Paris cedex 15 Tel.: + 33 (0)1 45 68 44 67 Cell: + 33 (0)6 21 80 64 59 Fax: + 33 (0)1 45 68 55 81 www.unesco.org/webworld

-Original Message- From: Fox, Edward [mailto:fox@vt.edu] Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 1:58 AM To: Plathe, Axel Cc: Moxley, Joseph; Fox, Edward Subject: Resending: Written permission please - RSVP ASAP Importance: High

Hi!

I'm resending the msg below to be sure it reaches you.

Please see http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Guide_for_Electronic_Theses_and_Dissertations It will look bad for UNESCO and NDLTD etc. if we cannot get the label removed: POSSIBLE COPYRIGHT VIOLATION

Can you please send me a written permission statement allowing NDLTD to make available the Guide through wikibooks (and possibly have parts in wikiversity and wikipedia, to promote interest and visibility)?

It is important that:

only about a month left in our semester,
 * students working on this now be able to proceed, since there is now

the future, to support ongoing growth of ETD activities.
 * we have this as a way to update and keep the Guide current, on into

We thank you for your time and assistance!

Sincerely, Ed Fox (Executive Director, NDLTD)

PS We hope you are well!

-Original Message- From: Fox, Edward Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 12:34 PM To: 'a.plathe@UNESCO.ORG' Cc: Fox, Edward; 'Moxley, Joseph' Subject: Written permission please

Hi!

How are you?

It has been a while since we have been in touch.

First, I should thank you again for all your support with regard to ETD activities worldwide!

Second, I should ask if there are other things going on at UNESCO that might relate that we should discuss?

Third, I wonder if you can provide a written permission statement allowing the making of an updated version of the ETD Guide accessible through wikibooks (see http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page). I have some people ready to work on this now, but the wikibooks people won't allow us to proceed without written permission.

We look forward to your comments. Many thanks, Ed

Professor Edward A. Fox, Ph.D. Department of Computer Science, http://www.cs.vt.edu 2050 Torgersen Hall, M/C 0106 Virginia Tech, http://www.vt.edu Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA Ph: +1-540-231-5113, Cell +1-540-230-6266 Email: fox@vt.edu, FAX: +1-540-231-6075 WWW: http://fox.cs.vt.edu Chair, IEEE TCDL, http://www.ieee-tcdl.org Executive Director, NDLTD, http://www.ndltd.org Director, Digital Library Research Laboratory, http://www.dlib.vt.edu

The Guide for Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Are the licensing issues for this taken care of? I thought you had received an email, but it required verification? – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  | <font color="Indigo">talk 21:11, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

from m:User talk:Sj
Hi Sj,

I saw you listed on the OTRS page. I am an administrator over at Wikibooks and I was wondering if you could answer a question that i need answering. The book The Guide for Electronic Theses and Dissertations is not currenly licensed under the GFDL, it is copyrighted. The owners have expressed an interest in allowing the book to be used on wikibooks. However, they are not entirely sure how to do this.

Upon holding conversations with other user's and contributors to the wikimedia projects, I am under the impression that there are two key ways of making this happen. The first involves the copyright holder altering the copyright notice on their website, the other involves the OTRS system, through the permissions channel. However, i am not familiar with the OTRS system and before i can explain how it works to the copyright owner, I need to know myself.
 * I would recommend that they clearly state the new license on their website, preferably with a scan of a signed document that can be uploaded there and on wikibooks itself. They could also email the same image to the permissions mailing list.

Would the copyright owner need to send an email directly to the OTRS channel, or could correspondance be forwarded from myself? What exactly needs to be sent in the email outlining permission? Where exactly would permission need to be sent? etc...

If you could please mull over these questions and get back to me as soon as possible, it would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Urbane 15:53, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
 * No problem. It's great to find authors willing to freely license their works, and we should facilitate it as smoothly as we can.  +sj | help with translation | <font color="#ff6996">+  01:50, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Message received 20-Nov from User:Nputhika
Hi Urbane,

I removed so much information on the learning theories webpage because I posted on a wrong page. I was supposed to post information on the WebQuests in ESL/EFL contexts page, not on the main page.

Username change
Hi Reece. Would you like me to make a full name change for you? This would be a lot easier over the long run, because doing a "manual switch" like this means that your sysop tools are still under the old username. -- SB_Johnny | PA! 15:52, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

 * Oh nevermind... looks like that's already done. Please update Administrators :). -- SB_Johnny | PA! 15:54, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

US History
As I told Neoptolemus here, a simple merge would suffice quite well. Thoughts? Laleena (talk) 15:05, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikijunior Europe
I have seen that you have worked on a lot of wikijunior books so i was hoping you could help me with a problem. Croatia is marked as 75 percent done but i have seen more works that have more information then it does. Do you think i should move them up to 75 percent done or move it down to 50 percent done. I would appreciate it if you could check it out and see what i should do. Thanks.--Xxagile (talk) 23:44, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Recent vandalism
Thanks for catching that... that was annoying. Chazz (talk) 22:41, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, thanks a lot for sorting the recent vandalism out for me too. HYanWong (talk) 13:17, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

TwinkleSpeedy
If you recall, you had encountered an obscure bug with this script that I couldn't figure out. I just got the same error & managed to fix it. Do you mind trying it out again & let me know whether it's working for you? — <b style="color:#309;">Mike.lifeguard</b> | talk 14:54, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Archiving
Just wondering if there's a reason for this revert you made? — <b style="color:#309;">Mike.lifeguard</b> | talk 22:59, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

title: User:Reece/User/MessageArchive


text:
User talk:MartinDK~enwikibooks

I usually contribute to the en-version of wikipedia as user MartinDK. Please leave me messages on my talk page there, not here.

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 MartinDK. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name MartinDK~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 23:25, 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) 05:14, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:MartinDK~enwikibooks


text:
SwisTrack/Download and Installation

Downloading SwisTrack
SwisTrack is under continuous development, and since it is a tool created by researchers for researchers, there is no fixed release cycle. If you wish to have the latest version of SwisTrack, get the source code via SVN as described in the section Setting up a development environment. For some systems, precompiled versions are available.

Windows
On SourceForge, you'll find SwisTrack for Windows. If you plan on using video files, you may also want to install the K-Lite Codec Pack.

title: SwisTrack/Download and Installation