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Sociological Theory/Role Theory

Theory
Role Theory proposed that human behavior is guided by expectations held both by the individual and by other people. The expectations correspond to different roles individuals perform or enact in their daily lives, such as secretary, father, or friend. For instance, most people hold pre-conceived notions of the role expectations of a secretary, which might include: answering phones, making and managing appointments, filing paperwork, and typing memos. These role expectations would not be expected of a professional soccer player...

Individuals generally have and manage many roles. Roles consist of a set of rules or norms that function as plans or blueprints to guide behavior. Roles specify what goals should be pursued, what tasks must be accomplished, and what performances are required in a given scenario or situation. Role theory holds that a substantial proportion of observable, day-to-day social behavior is simply persons carrying out their roles, much as actors carry out their roles on the stage or ballplayers theirs on the field. Role theory is, in fact, predictive. It implies that if we have information about the role expectations for a specified position (e.g., sister, fireman, sex worker), a significant portion of the behavior of the persons occupying that position can be predicted.

What's more, role theory also argues that in order to change behavior it is necessary to change roles; roles correspond to behaviors and vice versa. In addition to heavily influencing behavior, roles influence beliefs and attitudes; individuals will change their beliefs and attitudes to correspond with their roles. For instance, someone over-looked for a promotion to a managerial position in a company may change their beliefs about the benefits of management by convincing him/herself that they didn't want the additional responsibility that would have accompanied the position.

Many role theorists see Role Theory as one of the most compelling theories bridging individual behavior and social structure. Roles, which are in part dictated by social structure and in part by social interactions (see the two approaches outlined below), guide the behavior of the individual. The individual, in turn, influences the norms, expectations, and behaviors associated with roles. The understanding is reciprocal and didactic.

Structural-Functional Perspective
The functionalist approach sees a role as the set of expectations that society places on an individual. By unspoken consensus, certain behaviours are deemed appropriate and others inappropriate. For example, it is appropriate for a doctor to dress fairly conservatively, ask a series of personal questions about one's health, touch one in ways that would normally be forbidden, write prescriptions, and show more concern for the personal well-being of their clients. Electricians or shopkeepers may also show concern for the well-being of their clients, but if they start touching their clients, especially where doctors are allowed to touch, they'll get in trouble; they will have stepped outside of the norms associated with their roles.

In the functionalist conception, role is one of the important ways in which individual activity is socially regulated: roles create regular patterns of behaviour and thus a measure of predictability, which not only allows individuals to function effectively because they know what to expect of others, but also makes it possible for the sociologist to make generalisations about society. Collectively, a group of interlocking roles creates a social institution: the institution of law, for example, can be seen as the combination of many roles, including: police officer, judge, criminal, and victim.

Roles, in the functionalist perspective, are relatively inflexible and are more-or-less universally agreed upon. Although it is recognised that different roles interact (teacher and student), and that roles are usually defined in relation to other roles (doctor and patient or mother and child), the functionalist approach has great difficulty in accounting for variability and flexibility of roles and finds it difficult to account for the vast differences in the way that individuals conceive different roles. Taken to extremes, the functionalist approach results in role becoming a set of static, semi-global expectations laid down by a unified, amorphous society. The distinction between role and norm (or culture) thus becomes sterile.

The functionalist approach has been criticized for its static understanding of roles. Even so, it remains a fundamental concept which is still taught in most introductory courses and is still regarded as important.

Interestingly, this conception has crossed over from academic discourse into popular use. It has become commonplace to speak of particular roles as if they were indeed fixed, agreed upon by all, and uncontroversial (e.g., the role of the teacher or a parent's role). This everyday usage nearly always employs role in a normative way, to imply that this is the proper behaviour for a teacher or a parent, or even for an entire institution.

Interactionist Perspective
The interactionist definition of role is more fluid and subtle than the functionalist perspective. A role, in this conception, is not fixed or prescribed but something that is constantly negotiated between individuals.

One of the ways Mead explained the idea of roles was by using a development model for children. According to Mead, children adopt roles in the development of a self. In so doing, they pass through three stages:

 * 1) preparatory stage - meaningless imitation by the infant; assumes roles but doesn't understand what they are
 * 2) play stage - actual playing of roles occurs; but no unified conception of self
 * 3) game stage - completion stage of self; child finds himself; must respond to simultaneous roles; the individual can act with a certain amount of consistency in a variety of situations because he/she acts in accordance with a generalized set of expectations and definitions he/she has internalized

Adults, of course, are beyond the game stage, but continue to adopt roles and adapt them through interpersonal interactions. This can be most easily seen in encounters where there is considerable ambiguity. For instance, let's assume person X has a friend who is also a lawyer; we'll call him Y. If X approaches Y as a friend but then asks for legal advice, this forces Y to either switch roles completely or merge the roles temporarily. Until Y decides on his course of action, role ambiguity will exist.

" A person should be physically, socially and spiritually strong".

Additional Approaches
(from Biddle 1986)
 * structural - little attention given to norms; attention is focused on social structures conceived as stable organizations of sets of persons (called social positions or statuses) who share the same, patterned behaviors (roles)
 * organization - focuses on social systems that are preplanned, task-oriented, and hierarchical; roles in such organizations are assumed to be associated with identified social positions and to be generated by normative expectations
 * cognitive role theory - focuses on relationships between role expectations and behavior

Propositions
Role Theory includes the following propositions:
 * 1) people spend much of their lives participating as members of groups and organizations
 * 2) within these groups, people occupy distinct positions
 * 3) each of these positions entails a role, which is a set of functions performed by the person for the group
 * 4) groups often formalize role expectations as norms or even codified rules, which include what rewards will result when roles are successfully performed and what punishments will result when roles are not successfully performed
 * 5) individuals usually carry out their roles and perform in accordance with prevailing norms; in other words, role theory assumes that people are primarily conformists who try to live up to the norms that accompany their roles
 * 6) group members check each individual's performance to determine whether it conforms with the norms; the anticipation that others will apply sanctions ensures role performance

Extensions of the Theory
Role Theory has been a fruitful approach to understanding humans and society. As a result, various derivatives and additional concepts have developed.

Role Confusion
Role confusion is a situation where an individual has trouble determining which role he/she should assume. For example, if a graduate student were to attend a department party at a professor's home, the student may find it difficult to determine if he/she should act as a student toward the professor, exhibiting deference or respect, or as a friend or associate, showing collegiality and familiarity.

Role Conflict
Role Conflict results when an individual encounters tensions as the result of incompatible roles. For instance, a mother who is employed full-time may experience role conflict because of the norms that are associated with the two roles she has. She may be expected to spend a great deal of time taking care of her children while simultaneously trying to advance her career.

Role Strain
Role Strain refers to the felt difficulty in fulfilling role obligations. In contrast to role conflict, where tension is felt between two competing roles, the tension in role strain comes from just one role. Returning to the example of a mother, if she were to find that she is unable to fulfill her obligations as defined by, say, an overly demanding spouse (or religion, or child), she would experience role strain. The role expectations may be beyond what she is able to achieve or may push her to the limits of her abilities.

Role Distance
Role Distance is the effectively expressed pointed separateness between the individual and his putative role. The individual is not denying the role but the virtual self that is implied in the role for all accepting performers. The concept of role distance provides a sociological means of dealing with one type of divergence between obligation and actual performance. For example, the maturing adolescent who is forced to ride a merry-go-round may display role distance by acting as though the ride does not challenge her physical abilities or frighten her. This may be displayed by riding backwards or leaning dangerously from her horse.

Immediate audiences figure very directly in the display of role distance; actors need an audience or a co-conspirator for role distancing to work. There are two ways of establishing role distance:
 * 1) isolating one's self from the contamination of the situation, which can be displayed through indifference (e.g., a waiter saying, "I'm just doing this to put myself through college.")
 * 2) joking about the situation (e.g., the young merry-go-round rider saying, "I can do this with my eyes closed.")

It is often possible to determine incidents in which role distance might be displayed solely on the grounds of the performers' gross age-sex characteristics. A seventeen year-old boy riding a merry-go-round (especially with peers) will likely display significant role distance.

Role Embracement
Role Embracement refers to the complete adoption of a role. When a role is truly embraced, the self disappears completely into the role. Three things seem to be involved in the earnestness with which people assume roles or the degree to which they embrace a role:
 * 1) an admitted or expressed attachment to the role
 * 2) a demonstration of qualifications and capacities for performing it
 * 3) an active engagement or spontaneous involvement in the role activity at hand, that is, a visible investment of attention and muscular effort

Limitations
Role theory has a hard time explaining social deviance when it does not correspond to a pre-specified role. For instance, the behavior of someone who adopts the role of bank robber can be predicted - she will rob banks. But if a bank teller simply begins handing out cash to random people, role theory would be unable to explain why (though role conflict could be one possible answer; the teller might have taken the job wanting to be a modern day Robin Hood).

Another limitation of role theory is that it does not and cannot explain how role expectations came to be what they are. Role theory has no explanation for why it is expected of male soldiers to cut their hair short, but it could predict with a high degree of accuracy that if someone is a male soldier they will have short hair. Additionally, role theory does not explain when and how role expectations change.

See ROLE-TAKING THEORY.

title: Sociological Theory/Role Theory


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Cookbook:Thyme

Thyme is a herb, the leaf (fresh or dried) of a number of related plants. It is often used to flavour meats, soups and stews. It is used in French cuisine, where it is an important element in a bouquet garni. It is also widely used in West Indian cuisine. In Jordan the condiment za'atar contains thyme as a vital ingredient.

Kookboek/Tijm

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

title: Cookbook:Thyme


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Sociological Theory/Reinforcement Theory

Theory
Reinforcement Theory proposes that social behavior is governed by external events (events outside the human psyche). The basic premise is that people will more likely perform a specific behavior if it is followed directly by the occurrence of something pleasurable or by the removal of something aversive. Additionally, the opposite premise is also included in the theory, but tends not to have as strong of an impact on behavior: people will less likely perform a specific behavior if it is followed by something aversive or the removal of something pleasurable. One of the benefits of this approach to understanding human (and animal) behavior is that the events are observable, as compared with cognitive theories of human behavior.

The external events that play a role in reinforcement theory are referred to as stimuli. They include any event that leads to an alteration or change in behavior. The change in behavior induced by a stimulus is a response.

Reinforcement theory has been operationalized in a process called operant conditioning. Positive reinforcement is the contingent presentation of a stimulus following a response, resulting in an increased likelihood of the response occurring in the future. Negative reinforcement is the contingent withdrawal of a stimulus following a response, resulting in an increased likelihood of the response occurring in the future. Unconditioned reinforcement, also called primary reinforcement, is the presentation of stimuli that are inherently reinforcing, such as affection, food, sex, or sleep. Conditioned reinforcement, also called secondary reinforcement, is the presentation of a stimulus which has acquired reinforcing power through association with primary reinforcers. Social reinforcement is a form of conditioned reinforcement in which the reinforcer involves some sort of interaction with others. Positive punishment is the contingent presentation of a stimulus following a response, resulting in a decreased likelihood of the response occurring in the future, whereas negative punishment is the contingent withdrawal of a stimulus following a response, resulting in a decreased likelihood of the response occurring in the future.

Successive approximation is the presentation of reinforcers after increasingly accurate productions of the desired response. For example, in training rats or pigeons to depress a lever or peck a key, reinforcement will initially be contingent on simply turning toward the lever or key. As training progresses, the response reinforced becomes progressively more like the response desired by the trainer (i.e., actually pecking the key). Behaviours developed through the reinforcement of successive approximations to the eventual desired behaviour are called shaped behaviours and the process is called shaping.

The study of reinforcement has produced strong, replicable results. The effects of different schedules of reinforcement (i.e., variations in the rate or ratio of reinforcement) have been extensively studied. Some of these schedules include:

 * Continuous reinforcement, in which a reinforcer is presented after every desired response,
 * Fixed ratio, in which a reinforcer is presented after every nth response,
 * Fixed interval, in which a reinforcer is presented after the passage of a specified length of time from the beginning of training or from the presentation of the last reinforcer, provided a response has been made during the period,
 * Variable ratio, in which the number of responses between reinforcers varies, but on the average equals a predetermined number
 * Variable interval, in which the time between reinforcers varies, but on the average equals a predetermined time.

Ratio schedules produce higher rates of responding than interval schedules, with variable ratio scales producing the highest rates of response. Variable ratio schedules produce the greatest resistance to extinction, which is the decline in response strength following the cessation of reinforcement.

Limitations
This theoretical approach to understanding human behavior has been criticized on a number of levels. First, it has been criticized as employing circular reasoning, since it appears to argue that response strength is increased by reinforcement while defining reinforcement as something which increases response strength. However, non-circular definitions have been proposed. For example, reinforcement can be defined as consummatory behaviour contingent on a response.

Another limitation of this theoretical approach is that it portrays individuals as primarily reacting to environmental stimuli rather than as initiating behavior based on imaginative or creative thought. In short, it downplays the role of cognition in human behavior. As a result, this theoretical approach downplays the influence of other motivations in explaining human behavior. Additionally, reinforcement theory cannot explain selfless behavior and altruism, instances where the individual acts to their own detriment in order to help another.


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Talk:World History/Prologue

I did some editing of this page, mostly typos, but also one or two grammatical errors. Nothing that would really ruin the understanding of the text, just making it look tidier. --CleanMan 21:35, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Are we sure that the prologue should be that casual? I think that it doesn't fit the theme of "textbook" but more of a dialogue. I think I'm going to change that. RenaissanceMan2144 (discuss • contribs) 03:56, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

title: Talk:World History/Prologue


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Cookbook:Savory

Savory is an herb, the leaf of a perennial plant that grows in temperate regions. It is best known as a flavoring for beans and the traditional Acadian stew fricot.

title: Cookbook:Savory


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Gujarati/Numbers

Though Gujarati has its own set of numeric signs (placed alongside their Hindu-Arabic [or Indo-Arabic] counterparts in the tables below), they are employed in much the same way as English employs its own; that is to say, they are put together in the same manner in order to express larger numbers. It is quite possible to simply substitute the Gujarati numerals for the Hindu-Arabic ones.

The Gujarati words for 1–10 are as follows:

The words for eleven through nineteen are completely irregular in Gujarati. Though they do bear some resemblance to their 1–10 counterparts, they must simply be individually memorized:

title: Gujarati/Numbers


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Cookbook:Tarragon

Tarragon is a herb, the leaf of either the French tarragon or the Russian tarragon plant. The flavour is similar to that of aniseed, but milder and grassier. The herb is frequently used with fish.

Kookboek/Dragon

title: Cookbook:Tarragon


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Marine Hydrodynamics/Small Amplitude Wave Theory

Introduction
Real water waves are exceedingly complex, however it is fortunate that a great number of observations can be explained on the basis of the small amplitude wave theory which makes many assumptions, but simplifies the mathematics involved considerably. The problem that is to be solved is essentially a boundary value problem. In order to solve this problem, we need to find the differential equation, and the conditions at the boundaries. We first begin by formulating the problem as a boundary value problem.

Differential equation
We are given that water waves form in some water body. What we need to find out are the essential properties of these waves and what parameters govern them. In short we need to develop a theory of water waves. The first step towards this end will be to find out what properties hold good in the water body while there are waves on its free surface.

Let us assume that the fluid is incompressible and only irrotational motion takes place. Basic hydrodynamics tells us that a velocity potential will exist which will satisfy the continuity equation. Therefore, the following equation will hold.

 * $$\nabla^2 \phi = 0$$

In three dimensions, this is the Laplace equation and is written as

 * $$\frac{\partial ^2 \phi}{\partial x^2} + \frac{\partial ^2 \phi}{\partial y^2} + \frac{\partial ^2 \phi}{\partial z^2} = 0$$

The Laplace equation is linear and therefore any solutions can be combined linearly to yield more solutions. Furthermore, there are many solutions to the equation and not all are valid for our problem. We will pick our solution depending on the boundary conditions.

Bottom Boundary Conditions
At the bottom, we basically see that the kinematic conditions must be satisfied. What this means is that at any interface, there must be no flow across the interface. The fluid cannot flow across the bottom. It is this limitation that we need to express in the form of an equation to form the bottom boundary condition. If we imagine that we are fixed with respect to the surface, the total derivative of the water surface will be zero, since we move with the surface. Thus on any surface,

 * $$\frac{DF(x,y,z,t)}{Dt}=0$$

Simplifying this equation leads us to the result that

 * $$ \vec{u}\cdot\vec{n}=\frac{\partial F/ \partial t}{|\nabla F|}$$ on the bottom surface.

Let us now imagine that we have a bottom described by $$z = h(x,y)$$. The above formulation if the condition leads us to the simple result that

 * $$u\frac{\partial h}{\partial x} + v\frac{\partial h}{\partial y} + w = 0$$

Free Surface Boundary Conditions
As far as the free surface conditions are concerned, there are two basic conditions that must be met. First, the kinematic condition must be taken up as described in the case of the development of the bottom boundary condition and then we also need to take up the dynamic free surface condition.

Kinematic Free Surface Condition
As described above, the kinematic condition is given by

 * $$\frac{DF(x,y,z,t)}{Dt}=w$$

If the surface is defined by $$z = \eta(x,y,t)$$, then

 * $$w = \left. \frac{\partial \eta}{\partial t} + u\frac{\partial \eta}{\partial x} + v\frac{\partial \eta}{\partial y} \right\|_{z=\eta(x,y,t)}$$

Dynamic Free Surface Condition
The water surface is not a fixed surface, nor is it a surface that can resist pressure variations. Thus the pressure on the surface is taken constant and the following equation holds on the surface.

 * $$-\frac{\partial \phi}{\partial t} + \frac{1}{2} (u^2 + v^2 + w^2) +gz = 0 $$

Lateral Conditions
These conditions depend on the specifics of the problem. It may require modeling of a beach or a wave maker. We will ignore this part of the problem for now and do an analysis having no lateral limits. We will study some lateral conditions later.

Other Conditions
Apart from the aforementioned boundary conditions, from the physical nature of the problem we see that the solution must be periodic in both space and time.

Solution
If we are looking for solutions that are waves, assume that the surface is $$ \eta(x,y,t) = a \cos(kx + ly - \omega t) $$. Given this choice of $$\eta$$, the boundary conditions suggest that the potential should be in the form

 * $$ \phi(x,y,z,t) = f(z) \sin(kx+ly-\omega t) $$

After applying the dynamic free surface boundary condition, we arrive at the dispersion relation

 * $$ \omega^2 = gk \tanh(kH) $$

or equivalently,

 * $$ c = \sqrt{g/k \tanh(kH)} $$

Special Cases
Shallow Water Limit

Deep Water Limit


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Instructional Technology/Enhanced Mathematics/Calculators

Calculators are a very controversial issue in the classroom. Some people feel that it is effective in changing students' attitudes toward math and that it gives them the opportunity to experience realistic applications. On the other hand, there are teachers and parents who expect students to be able to do basic mathematical operations mentally or at least with paper and pencil. However, some students truly struggle with basic mathematic calculations (ex: memorizing multiplication facts, long division and operations with fractions).

Website on the Benefits of Calculator Use in Mathematics Classrooms  http://education.ti.com/us/resources/research/therole.html

This links to a site that outlines the benefits of calculator use in mathematics classrooms from Kindergarten through the University level. Calculators are tools for doing mathematical computations. This site describes how calculators, when used appropriately, can also be a tool for learning mathematics. Appropriate use of calculators is a way of increasing the amount and the quality of learning afforded students during the course of their mathematics education. Be careful however, the site is sponsored by Texas Instruments.

Return to Using Technology to Enhance Mathematics Instruction.


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Instructional Technology/Individualized Education Program

The Individualized Education Program
[IEP] stands for Individualized Education Program and is the plan agreed upon by the parents/guardians and educators for every child that is designated as needing special education. They are reviewed yearly and altered if needed.

Examples of IEP goals and objectives:
The student will develop/increase their math application skills by identifying/using graphs and tables to obtain information 80% of the time on an informal test.

The student will develop/increase vocabulary and word recognition skills by recognizing/recalling common sight words, critical sight words: colors, numbers, months, days of the week, Dolch list, survival words 8 out of 10 tries.

Customizing for the IEP Using Reusable Learning Objects
In a nutshell, special education is customizing lessons to meet each students’ needs. Reusable learning objects will allow teachers to do just that. Students in special education need to be exposed to the same information as their regular education peers, but not necessarily in the same format. Since students with the same disability can function at different levels, it is very difficult to find a textbook to accommodate a given group of students. Another problem with textbooks is that they are usually written at grade level. Students with disabilities often do not read at grade level. They need other ways to access the information.

A well constructed learning object deals with a single idea or chunk of content. A teacher can string these objects together to create or support a lesson. Searching through learning object depositories, teachers would be able to review objects and find ones that met the needs of their students. Because RLO's are digital, they are limited only by the creativity of the author. The issue of reading level could perhaps be avoided by finding an object that taught through animation. Sound can also be incorporated into learning objects to assist with the reading level issue. as well, or for those student whose learning modality is more aural than visual. They may also need to have the content presented differently, or in a number of ways before they get the meaning. This can be easily accomplished with this digital medium.

In some cases, templates are available. Using a template for a learning object, even teachers with minimal experience can provide numerous opportunities for learning. Once a student is familiar with the interactivity of the particular learning object, the no longer have to worry about what to do and can focus on learning the content. For many students in special education, reading and following directions can be a problem. If a student is familiar with a particular format they can work on their own without having to wait for instructions.

Memory is also an issue for many students in special education. Some need a great deal more exposure to the content than their peers. If the teacher is also the author of the learning object he/she would be able to easily personalize these objects to make them more meaningful to the student. More importantly, they could be tailored to address the specific objectives from that student's IEP. Building quizzes and tests into the objects would also allow the student and the teacher to monitor the student's progress.

More and more, teachers are expected to individualize instruction. Reusable learning objects can make this much easier. Textbooks are expensive and districts aren't likely to purchase individual ones for students as teachers might like. Specialized packets aren't any more practical in the long run. The costs of paper and the purchasing and maintaining of copiers is a constant packets is extrememly time-consuming for teachers. Storing all these accumulated materials also gets to be a problem over time. Eventually, closets and storerooms become filled with leftover materials that either did not work out as expected or were extra because many materials have to be ordered in specified quantities.

Initially, creating and/or retrieving learing objects may be time-consuming, but, once assembled, the teacher need just review and edit them for use with another student and/or class. No more flipping through workbooks and hours in front of a copier or rummaging through dusty closets. With a well-organized favorites folder and a few clicks of a mouse, teachers will be able to construct customized lessons and for students that genuinely reflect the goals and objectives on their IEP's.

Links
[IDEA]

[Bobby]

Reusable Learning Objects in Special Education


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Self-Replicating Automata

This book is intended to primarily deal with detailed study of self-replicating code, "popularly" known as computer viruses.

There is an obvious lack of academic material available on this topic. It is indeed interesting how ingenious algorithms and techniques are being neglected by the academia in the name of legality.

Index

 * /History/
 * /Classification/
 * /Evolution/
 * List of Self Replicating Automata

A quine is also a kind of self-replicating automaton, except for the fact that rather than reproducing itself in the executable format, it produces as output the source code for the program.

For more details see quine program.

There has long been speculation about a self-replicating machine.

The RepRap Project is currently attempting to build the first generation of just such a device.

In 1986, Drexler suggested the possibility of grey goo, an end-of-the-world scenario in which self-replicating robots consume all matter on earth while making more of themselves.

title: Self-Replicating Automata


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Talk:Horn

Hornexcerpts.org
The webmaster of hornexcerpts.org has granted permission to allow the images on his site to be used on the wikibook... with reference back to his site. Ross Uber 04:33, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Sources to gain inspiration from
I found this site... It's chock full of awesome info that I'll try to incorporate into the wikibook over time. Ross Uber 22:27, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Question
I'm a high school trombone player and I'm sure that there are professional horn players who are editing this book. I was wondering if I were to start a How To for trombones, could I get help on explaining fundamentals from those who are more experienced in playing brass instruments. Just a question.--Helius 16:50, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Horn


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Cookbook:Brining

Brining is the process of soaking food in a solution of salt and water. Although a brine only requires salt and water, it is common to add flavouring agents to the brine as osmotic pressure will circulate any solutes in the brine throughout much of the food.

Brining is typically used for various types of meats, as well as fish. It can also be used to process fruits, with olives being a common example.

Modern Uses in Home Recipes
Brining is a technique used by modern cooks to improve the juiciness and tenderness of meat, such as chicken, turkey or lean pork, that may dry out due to modern breeding practices.

Commonly, meat is soaked in a brine solution overnight, then taken out of the brine and roasted or grilled. The result is juicier than without brining. Brining can affect the texture of the meat a little, but the flavor can be much improved.

title: Cookbook:Brining


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Self-Replicating Automata/History

Introduction
A self-replicating automaton is a mechanism which construct copies of itself; generally, it is assumed that building materials come from the environment hosting the automaton. Abstract models were first developed by John von Neumann in the late 1940s, termed kinematic and tessellation models. The kinematic model is based on now modern notions of robotics. The tessellation model is now know as cellular automata.

The origins of self-replicating code could be traced back to simple pranks and geek humour. The reluctance of society to accept inevitable changes and its inherent suspicion - both gifts of its adaptive response for survival - as well as the social animals' craving for individuality has resulted in these interesting forms being looked upon as a contagion rather than primary stages of artificial life.

This view of being a contagion has in turn influenced the whole linguistics of the community which itself is composed of “virus writers” and “anti virus writers”. Continuing the tradition it is sincerely hoped that every time the term "virus" is used it is in good humor.

Few highlights in the evolution of the present automaton are now discussed. Detailed analysis will follow in the Evolution section.

The 80s
By 1990 at least 50 viruses affecting IBM PCs and around 15 viruses affecting the Apple Mac machines were well known (analysed and studied by the antiviral community).

It is generally accepted that the first virus to spread in the wild was Elk Cloner which spread on Apple II floppy disks.It appeared around 1981-82. This period was followed by the legendary paper by Fred Cohen. By 1986 there were many strains of Brain virus prevalent. It was a boot sector infector. The common story is that it originated in Pakistan, its authors being two brothers. Virdem, the first file infector also emerged in the same year.

In 1984, A. K. Dewdney introduced the game "Core War" to the public, in an article in Scientific American.

In 1987, many file infectors started appearing, especially infecting COMMAND.COM The first one of these is considered to be Lehigh virus. The file infectors mainly concentrated on the simple binary format or COM files. But research on how to develop EXE infectors was also going on. This culminated in the production of the Jerusalem virus family. The Concept of Worms, code which is able to self replicate without infection, was also well developed by this time. Christmas Worm, with a high replication rate infected the IBM Mainframes during this period.

Robert Morris released an internet worm in 1988, resulting in the first internet crisis. Early 90s saw the emergence of Virus Exchange (VX)BBS allowing programmers to share ideas and code.

The 90s
Till this point the antivirus softwares mainly searched for the viral presence by using certain signatures or code traces which would be present in any infected file. But with the appearance of Polymorphic viruses this philosophy had to change. In 1991, the first polymorphic virus Tequila was released.

In 1992 Michaelangelo gained a lot of publicity from the Media. Then came the MtE from Dark Avenger. This year also saw the appearance of Construction Kits for Viruses with pulldown menus and easy interface requiring very little programming experience to create a virus.

1995 brought with it a new concept in viral technology – Macro Viruses. Concept was the first macro virus and it infected Word Documents. This marks one of the earliest deviations from simple infection of the executables to infection of data files.

After the launch of Windows 95, the first true Win95 virus Boza appeared in 1996. This year also saw the Laroux, or a Excel Spreadsheet infector, and Staog, a Linux virus. A java virus, Strange Brew was observed in 1998, further extending the possibilities of victim files.

In 1999 Melissa was released causing worldwide chaos. Corner appeared, which infected Powerpoint presentations. Tristate also emerged which infected Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations.

2000 onwards
A major shift from viruses to worms could be seen in the latter years of the 90s. More and more worms started appearing. In 2000 Love Letter worm became the fastest spreading worm till date. It was also an interesting example of social engineering used for maximisation of spread. Streams, the proof of concept virus was the first to utilise the Alternate Data Stream of NTFS file system.

With the appearance of more and more languages and platforms, new ways of coding viruses evolved. Pirus for example was coded in PHP Scripting Language. It tries to infect HTML and php pages.Another example is Gnuman specifically attacking the gnutella p2p system. Winux, a proof of concept virus which could operate under both windows and Linux was released in 2001. Another example is the PeachyPDF-A, the first worm to utilise pdf files for its propagation.

Continuing with the trend as discussed above LFM-926, the first virus to shockwave Flash files(.swf) was released in 2002. In March 2002, Sharp-A the first .NET worm written in C# (apparently by a female hacker known as Gigabyte) was released. In late May, came Benjamin which attacked kazaa p2p system. Another interesting specimen was the Perrun virus which attached a portion of itself to JPEG image files.

2003 was another year of the worms. Some examples of worms which started spreading in this year were sobig (which had its own smtp engine), Slammer, Lovgate, Blaster etc. Social engineering techniques also developed quite a bit.

In February 2004 it was seen that virus writers were starting to use their craft for money. A German magazine managed to buy a list of infected IP addresses from a distributor of the virus Randex. These IP addresses were for sale to spammers who could use the infected machines as mail zombies. The end of April saw the Sasser worm which is the first to effectively use the LSASS Windows vulnerability; a vulnerability that allowed the worm to spread via an open FTP port instead of through E-mail.

The proof-of-concept Worm W64.Rugrat.3344 showed up the end of May. This is claimed to be the first malware that specifically attacks 64-bit Windows files only (it ignores 32-bit and 16-bit files). It was created using IA64 (Intel Architecture) assembly code.

In June Symb/Cabir-A which infects Nokia Series 60 mobile phones. It uses the bluetooth technology to spread to all bluetooth enabled devices in the vicinity. Early September saw W32/Amus-A show up. The only thing that qualified this beast to even be mentioned here was that it uses the Microsoft Speech engine in Windows to read out loud: "hamsi. I am seeing you. Haaaaaaaa. You must come to turkiye. I am cleaning your computer. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 0. Gule. Gule."

On 14 September that paragon of virus-free file type, the JPEG image, came under attack. To be accurate, the image file itself is not so much to blame as a Microsoft common .DLL file that processes the image file type and has a buffer overrun error that could allow someone to add malicious code to a JPEG image which can then open holes in an attacked system. Shortly after, some Trojan exploits started to appear.

Santy worm appeared towards the end of 2004. It was written in Perl and used google to search for victims, which were phpBB forums and used certain vulnerabilities in phpBB code for spreading.

In 2005, at the end of January Bropia worm appeared which targets MSN Messenger for spreading. This is a sophisticated worm that spreads via E-mail and the MSN Messaging client. Its messages are very close to what a real user would send and, for the first time, attempts to spoof the return address as being from an anti-virus company (Trend or Symantec, and Microsoft, although coming from Microsoft has been a social engineering ploy for some time now).

Around 2006, some mathematicians explore the possibility of a computer program that generates, not merely another copy of the same program, but a better program.

title: Self-Replicating Automata/History


text:
User:Ant~enwikibooks

Who is Mad Ant?

That is an anagram of my name. I am a 22 year old guy (2006) presently undergoing undergraduate education in Architecture.But my foolish predilections are rather spread out.

madant@gmx.de

http://freewebs.com/asimpleton

title: User:Ant~enwikibooks


text:
Instructional Technology/Instructional Design/Rapid Prototyping

Instructional Design is the systematic approach to the development of instruction through Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. This ISD model is known as the Instructional Technology/Instructional Design/ADDIE model. Each phase in this model is done in a linear method. Rapid Prototyping is an alternate approach to the traditional instructional design. A prototype is an early phase of a system that has the same key feature components of the "real" thing. In ID technology,allows greater flexibility in defining the goals and form of instruction at early stages.(Wilson & Cole, 1993) Designers may opt to use Rapid Instructional Design (or Rapid Prototyping) when the following are factors: • Time • Budget • Environmental restraints When instructional designers are confronted with these demands, the use of rapid prototyping methodologies "should reduce production time because: (a)using working models of the final product early in a project tends to eliminate time-consuming revisions later on, and (b)design tasks are completed concurrently, rather than sequentially throughout the project." (Jones and Richey, 2000) With RP, the steps are crunched together to reduce the amount of time needed to develop training or a product. The design and development phases are done simultaneously and the formative evaluation is done throughout the process.

Rapid prototyping can be used in situations to: test out a user interface, test the database structure and flow of information in a training system, test the effectiveness and appeal of a particular instructional strategy, develop a model case or practice exercise that can serve as a template, give clients and sponsors a more concrete model of the intended instructional product, and to get user feedback and reactons to two competing approaches. (Wilson, Jonassen, & Cole, 1993)

Techniques for Rapid Instructional Design
George M. Piskurich(2000) lists the following rapid design techniques for instructional development in each phase of the ADDIE model: A-ANALYZE

1. Use retro assessment-ask the "right questions" to fill in the background on the program you are creating 2. Interview the top 10 people most and first for an organizational assessment 3. Perform a quick approach to a performance gap by 4. Forego time-intensive interviews and focus groups of a training needs assessment 5. Use electronic bulletins instead of live meetings to collect data 6. Interview two at a time or use net-based surveys to gather information 7. Choose individuals who are not over-experienced to do a job analysis so that the information is not too complicated or use job descriptors that are well-detailed for job analysis 8. Spend a day observing a Subject Matter Expert (SME) at work and ask questions for task analysis 9. Videotape experts doing their jobs and analyze it for the component points
 * Identify the problem
 * Analyze the tasks and conditions of the job
 * Analyze the current performance level
 * Identify the causes of the problem
 * Identify the desired performance outcome
 * Identify the expectations of your training related to the outcome

D-DESIGN 1. Use job analysis and distribute completed objectives and distribute 2. Keep formal reporting to a minimum-jot down what you need to know 3. Create a series of tests at various levels and distribute them to the trainees along with the objectives they are based on 4. Use logical sequencing of steps

D-Development 1. Use existing polices, procedures, annual reports, magazine articles, pamphlets, etc. for training material 2. Use games that let you alternate the content for instructional use or use templates 3. Strip training of "nice to know" to "must know" 4. Short cut video production by taping short video clips of SMEs doing their work and describing the process or tape a SME as he/she does the training process

I-Implementation 1. Have reviewers or validators of the design meet as a group 2. Allow the trainers train the trainers

E-Evaluation 1. Evaluate only what you need to evaluate 2. Use performance checklists as a transfer evaluation to re-check performance

With Rapid Prototyping the ADDIE model is not used as designed. It typically has several steps merged together to streamline the process. Rapid Prototyping should not be used by a novice, because even though it cuts out steps of ADDIE, the designer still must have knowledge of the whole process.

Representation of the Rapid Prototyping model:

Advantages of Rapid Prototyping
There are many advantages to using RP in instructional design. It allows for better communication between the designer and users because the needs are clearly expressed from the beginning. The user is able to offer immediate feedback which results in a better product. Its non-linear approach allows for more flexibility in the instruction and can catch problems early in the development stages. Moreover, RP reduces development time and costs.

Disadvantages of Rapid Prototyping
Some people believe that rapid prototyping is not an effective model of instructional design because it does not replicate the real thing. They believe that many important steps of instructional design are forfeited for a faster, cheaper model. Many problems may be overlooked and result in endless revision. The developments in this field like the poly jet printing, printing actual metal and functional parts. The disadvantages of Rapid Prototyping is gradually reducing.

References Piskurich, George M. (2000) Rapid Instructional Design. Learning ID fast and Right. San Francsico: Jossey. Stokes, Jones Toni and Richey, Rita C. (2000) Rapid prototyping methodology in action: A developmental study. Educational Technology and Development, 48(2), 63-80. Wilson, B.G., Jonassen, D.H., & Cole, P. (1993). Cognitive approaches to instructional design. The ASTD handbook of instructional technology, 21.1-21.22). New York: McGraw-Hill. Retrieved from http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bwilson/training.html on April 22, 2005.


text:
Beekeeping/Varroa Mite

Also known as the Vampire Mite, Varroa Mite, Varroa Destructor and often mislabeled as Varroa Jacobsoni.

The Varroa Mite is a parasitic mite that can cause serious trouble to beekeepers and their bees alike. This tick-like mite, around the sized of a pinhead, does its damage by feeding on the bee’s hemolymph fluid (akin to bee blood). Mites attach themselves to foraging workers in order to spread themselves from one hive to another. This mite can severally weaken a hive through vampire-like action and through the spread of disease and bacteria. An unchecked mite population will almost certainly lead to the premature death of a honeybee colony.

Within the United States, Varroa Mites have the largest impact when compared to other pests within the beekeeping industry. The Varroa Mite is also nearly completely responsible for the decimation and loss of feral honeybee colonies. Some beekeepers have resorted to reverting to small cell beekeeping and many hobbyist are moving towards top bar hives in an effort to fight against this aggressive foe. Others are attempting to use mite resistant races of bee with some success.

Origin
The Varroa mite was discovered in Southeast Asia in 1904, but now unfortunately spread mostly worldwide. More recently Varroa was discovered in 1987 within the US, 2000 in the North Island of New Zealand, 2007 in the South Island of New Zealand.

In June 2022, Varroa was detected in a sentinel hive in the port city of Newcastle an extensive eradication programme in which a kill radius was implemented around all infected hives failed to eradicate the mite as commercial pollination resumed and the mite spread. In September 2023, eradication plans ceased and Australia began a mite management plan.

Anatomy
Varroa is approximately 1.00 to 1.77 mm in length and 1.50 to 1.99 mm. Its body closely resembles that of a tick, it has eight legs and the apparatus to pierce the epidermal layer of both adult and larval bees in order to feed. The mite is red-brown in color and wide and plainly visible to the naked eye when on brood, and can be more difficulty spotted, on some occasions, on the adult bee.

Life Cycle
Within a hive mites can reproduce on a 10-day cycle. The female mite, after detaching from an adult bee, will enter the cell of an uncapped brood. The mite shows preference for the drone brood, but will select what is available. Once the cell is sealed, the female will begin to lay eggs and then expire. As the young bee develops, so will the mites. As soon as the new bee is able to leave its berthing cell, the mites attach themselves and start the cycle anew. The life cycle of the Varroa mite is dependant on the existence of brood within a colony.

Symptoms

 * Possible signs that a mite infection is underway may include, but is not limited, to the following
 * Mites obvious on brood, emerging bees, or foragers
 * Deformed bees
 * Discarded larva

 * Spotty brood pattern
 * Apparently sudden death of colony
 * Dead mites found near the entrance of the hive

Detection
If Varroa infestation is suspected, there is often nothing major lost by examining. However, a colony may be doomed if left unchecked. Checking for Varroa should be part of a beekeeper's regular regime. The following methods are some common ways to detect a possible mite infestation.

Ether Roll
The ether roll test is the grandfather of the sugar roll test, though effective it is not always the best method, as tested bees will die as a result.
 * 1) Using a wide mouthed jar, such as a mason or pickle jar, collect a sample of bees (not the queen) and fill the jar about 1/3 full.
 * 2) Using ether, such as that from a can of carburetor starter fluid, apply a small amount to the bees (approximately a tablespoon worth). The inside of jar should be slightly moist with all bees at the bottom.
 * 3) Place the lid on the jar and roll bees for about 20-30 seconds.
 * 4) If done quickly, the jar may be opened and some of the bees may escape alive, though this is doubtful and the ones that do survive will be ready to sting.
 * 5) Examine the sides and bottom of the ether filled jar. If you count one or more mites, it is advised that you begin some sort of treatment. If you count around a dozen mites, it means you have a significant infestation, and should immediately begin treatment. If you find more mites than you can easily count, your hive is in serious trouble
 * 6) Dump remaining dead bees and clean the jar before next use.

 * Notes
 * If you can do the either roll, there is little reason not to do the sugar roll instead, as it is not lethal to the bees and is takes no more time.

 * Soapy water or 70 percent isopropyl (rubbing alcohol) can be used with varying success instead of ether.

Drone Culling
Unfortunately, the drone culling method kills drones to determine if there is a mite infestation. Despite this fact, culling drones is a quick and reliable method to check levels.
 * 1) Select a frame (or comb) with a large patch of capped drone brood. Gently remove adult bees from the frame and locate it to an easy to work area.
 * 2) Using a capping scratcher to remove the cappings from the selected brood cells. The drone brood within unfortunately must be impaled during this step.
 * 3) Mites will be plainly visible on the pupae as they are removed from their cells. Two to three mites on single pupae indicate a serious problem. Two to three mites per 50 pupae indicate a low to moderate infestation.
 * 4) Remove the culled brood, especially if heavily infected, or allow the bees to clean up after returning the frame to its original hive.

 * Notes
 * Caped drone brood can be differentiate from capped worker brood as it has larger cells with slightly domed shaped capping.
 * When returning the frame be sure to return it to its original hive, unless you are absolutely sure it does not carry any disease or mites.
 * The sugar roll method for detection is a little more time consuming, but no bees must die for it to succeed.

Sugar Roll
The sugar roll method, also called the sugar shake method, is a technique that can be used to fairly reliably determine if bees have a Varroa infestation. In contrast to the ether roll and drone culling, when done properly there is no harm done to the bees in the sample.
 * 1) Using a wide mouthed jar such as a mason or pickle jar, cut a large hole in the lid and affix a rigid mesh from which bees can’t escape. Size 8 hardware cloth serves this purpose well.
 * 2) With the jar open, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of confectioners sugar to the bottom of the jar.
 * 3) Scoop the jar about one cup of bees (or 100 to 200 bees), being sure that you have not captured the queen. Quickly seal the jar with the lid you made.
 * 4) Covering the lid so as not to loose the sugar, give the jar several vigorous shakes, the more the better (to a point). This will surely aggravate the bees, but should not cause them any serious harm.
 * 5) Shake the sugar (and mites) out of the jar onto a piece of white paper or something with a similar white background. Set the jar of bees aside in the shade to calm down.
 * 6) If you count one or more mites, it is advised that you begin some sort of treatment. If you count around a dozen mites, it means you have a significant infestation, and should immediately begin treatment. If you find more mites than you can easily count, your hive is in serious trouble.
 * 7) Allow your recently jarred and jarred bees ten to fifteen minutes rest before returning them to the hive. This is mainly for the sake of the beekeeper, as the shaken bees may be ready to sting. Although some of your bees are now covered in sugar and appear to bee little ghosts, don’t worry. Their sisters are more than up to enjoying the task of cleaning the sugar off of them.

 * Notes
 * Some keepers choose to use a modified sugar roll technique on entire packages of bees, but be sure not to do so to the queen, to avoid risk of injury. This technique is most useful when there is no brood, so it may similarly be stretched to include recently captured swarms. When brood is present, the treatment must be repeated several times at ten day intervals.

 * Although it is not often recommended to use powdered sugar in conjunction with bees due to anti caking agents that may be present, it should not be a problem with this technique to the little exposure actually obtained.

Screened Bottom Board
Simply installing a screened bottom board allows you to keep mite levels in check with out having to actively monitor.

 * Notes
 * It is advisable to apply a sticky board, tacky adhesive, or a thin layer of Vaseline to the catch tray of the bottom board, so that live mites cannot return to the hive.

 * As with any passive technique, results are not instantaneous and therefore the results may not be dependable or the results may arrive at too late to be useful.

Observation of Bees
If you are easily able to observe mites on foraging bees, the colony is in trouble. Begin to remedy the situation as soon as possible.

Methods of Control
There exist many methods of controlling levels of Varroa mites, each with varying success. Unfortunately most methods are for control only, there may always be a level of mites once a colony has been infected. Only extremely drastic measure, such as culling the hive, can assure a zero mite population.

Any controls using any sort of chemical device should not be used for up to 30 days prior to a honey flow that will be used for collection of honey for human consumption, unless otherwise noted.

Apistan
Apistan is a readily available plastic strip that is treated with a form of miticide. Users should follow the instructions present on the packaging.
 * Notes
 * Understand the instructions fully before applying
 * Do not apply when honey supers on the hive
 * Most commonly, 1 strip per 5 frames should be used, do not over medicate
 * Do not use strips for longer than the time stated on the packaging, this will and has caused mite resistance to the poison.
 * Wear protective gloves when applying and removing strips
 * Once used, do not reuse strips
 * Treatment timing is extremely important for success, do not use more than once in the fall and once in the spring.
 * Do not use in conjunction with CheckMite+

CheckMite+
CheckMite+ is similar to the product Apistan in the fact that it is miticide on a plastic strip. CheckMite+ however uses a different miticide that that which is present on Apistan strips. CheckMite+ should only be used if you Varroa mite infestation has proven to be resistant to Apistan. Users should follow the instructions present on the packaging.
 * Notes
 * Understand the instructions fully before applying

 * CheckMite+ should only be used if you Varroa mite infestation has proven to be resistant to Apistan
 * Do not apply when honey supers on the hive
 * Most commonly, 1 strip per 5 frames should be used, do not over medicate
 * Do not use strips for longer than the time stated on the packaging, this will and has caused mite resistance to the poison.
 * Wear protective gloves when applying and removing strips
 * Once used, do not reuse strips
 * Treatment timing is extremely important for success, do not use more than once in the fall and once in the spring.
 * Do not use in conjunction with Apistan

Dusting
A dusting of powdered sugar or wheat flour in conjunction with a screened bottom board or a sticky board can cause mites to fall and be captured. Though this method can be used during honey collection, it should only be used as a last ditch effort. This must be repeated once a week for two to three weeks to make any kind of lasting effect.

 * Notes
 * Only dust the adult bees, as open brood may perish due to dusting. However it may be said that Dr Fakhimzadeh of Helsinki university has suggested that sugar DOES NOT has a negative effect on open brood and egg damage only seems to occur when dusting with sugar and Oxy-Tertra-Cycline (OTC) indicating that it is the OTC that is doing the damage.  Nevertheless Jim Fischer of WSBA points out that we should avoid open cells ready for laying as the queen will only lay in clean cells

 * This process must be repeated as it will not affect mites that are sealed in cells with brood or affect mites that are piggybacking on absent foragers

Drone Culling
Similar to the method of detection of the same name, drone culling can be used to reduce the number of mites infesting a hive. This process can be done as hone supers are on the hive.
 * 1) When starting a colony, use a sheet of drone brood foundation, per hive body.
 * 2) Occasionally when the brood comb is full simply cull the drones by placing the entire frame in the freezer.
 * 3) Once frozen comb has defrosted replace it in the hive to allow the bees to clean it and refill the comb.
 * 4) Repeat as necessary.

 * Notes
 * If drone foundation is not available, take about an inch tall piece of normal foundation and simply used this as a starter strip by installing it on the top of a frame. This method allows the bees to create their own comb, though it may not always be successful in creating drone comb.
 * Instead of freezing, uncapped drone brood can be hung in order to feed local birds, but do not replace the frame in this instance as it will be more than likely destroyed by the appreciative birds.
 * Instead of freezing drone can be culled by heating, though this often readily becomes a waxy mess is not kept under control.

Breaking Brood Cycle
The act of breaking the brood cycle, by culling the queen, and allowing the bees to raise their own queen will prevent Varroa mites from laying eggs and thereby end their life cycle.

 * Notes
 * Instead of culling a healthy and productive queen, she can be used to requeen a separate hive or begin a Nuc.
 * Instead of using a self produced queen, you can replace with a store bought queen, but you must allow for a natural broodless cycle
 * This method could be used during a honey flow, but a lack of new workers will cause it to be poor honey season.

Grease Patties
Using grease patties with or with out  essential oil will cause a decrease in  tracheal mites. They are sometimes used as a varroa mite control method. Though it is preferred to use patties with essential oils, it should not be done during a honey flow. To be effective, grease patties must remain on the hive year round.

Essential Oil Treatment
Using essential oil in a sugar syrup feed as been show to reduce mite levels. Syrup feed should not be supplied when honey supers are on the hive.

Tobacco Smoke
A heavy tobacco smoking in conjunction with a screened bottom board or a sticky board can cause mites to fall and be captured. Though this method can be used during honey collection, it should only be used as a last ditch effort. This must be repeated once a week for two to three weeks to make any kind of lasting effect.

 * Notes
 * When smoking, be sure that the smoke is not too hot, use cool smoke only

 * This process must be repeated as it will not affect mites that are sealed in cells with brood or affect mites that are piggybacking on absent foragers

Formic Acid
Formic acid is very caustic, and toxic to both bees and humans if not used properly. The liquid form of formic acid is somewhat dangerous to use, but is safe if handled carefully. Wearing gloves is essential. Beekeeper supply houses may sell a time-release gel form that is easier to use and less toxic.

 * notes
 * Follow directions before using
 * Take caution in use as it is toxic to bees and beekeeper alike
 * When used, formic acid will also treat tracheal mites

Food Grade Mineral Oil
Some beekeepers use an electric or propane insect fogger to apply a mist of food grade mineral oil to their bees. This has been shown to induce a grooming behavior in the bees which can reduce mite levels when combined with a screened bottom board.

title: Beekeeping/Varroa Mite


text:
Talk:Open Culture

I think this should be cleaned up a bit.

Yes, that is true, the user Jclee has allready done a great job in correcting my terrible grammar.Bobbyandck

--

Not an official user, but I have a few areas that you can draw inspiration from, or use as a reference:Democratizing Innovation, The Cathedral and the Bazaar (Along with ESR's other OSS writings), and The Pro-Am Movement.

It may be a good idea to add historic content and context to the book as well. That would require delving into things such as the foundation of the FSF and Wikimedia. Court battles should be included within this section, such as Eldred vs. Ashcroft. And the major players would need to be covered: Eric Raymond, Richard Stallman, Larry Lessig, The founders of Wikimedia & Creative Commons (I am too much an OSS guy to know), etc, etc.

Another good source of content may be internet radio stations that are run completely by volunteers. Some include "shows". Those that I have seen usually spring up around MMORPGs, but they are open collaborative efforts nonetheless. Examples include Eve Radio and Radio Free Zion.

-- Zak Jensen (zak.jensen AT gmail.com)

great ideas, I'll go over them a bit more in detail a bit later, for the moment I am really busy here at university. why don't you become a registered user and contribute a bit ? but thank you very much for your comments Bobbyandck 18:29, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Greetings
Hi there! This looks like a worthy project; I hope I get a chance to help out. I've passed word about this around to a few others; maybe they'll contribute too. Wanted to throw out a few ideas for sources:

 * Lessig's Free Culture is first in the canon -- probably other of his works, too
 * Blogs: Once this project has a bit of a framework, maybe it could get some blog exposure to draw in new contributors? Additionally, blogs could be considered part of the source material of this book: they are sort of the "newspapers" of this subject.
 * There are at least a few academics worldwide who either work in or study / have studied this subject. Soliciting their expertise could be an important way to get useful criticisms / contributions / editing. -- Tetraminoe 09:50, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

1) you're right about Lessig, I have to read the document through, havn't yet had the time, hope to do so this summer. 2) you're right, blogs are definitely part of the open culture movement, great idea. 3) Do you think that one could allready contact them ? people like Mr. Lessig would probably only accept to help if there is allready more content ? Thank's for your help. Bobbyandck 11:02, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

Living, etc v
If there's a Work section (todo: collaborative and cooperative models of working? links with political theory and practice?), should there not also be a Living (or such) section for things like open architecture and sharing resources on social platforms? I'll try work on something soon.. --Milk (talk) 23:37, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:Open Culture


text:
Danish/Lesson 1

^ Lektion 2: Familie ^ Lektion 3: Tal og Farver ^

A note on pronunciation
Danish words are rather difficult for English-speakers to pronounce correctly when given only the written form. Even after hearing the words being spoken, the sounds can be frustrating to reproduce. The pronunciation guide is an attempt to explain how the words should be spoken, but these rules are quite hard to follow when confronted with a word like Smørrebrødsjomfru (refers to a woman making something called "Smørrebrød", which is a slice of dark bread with butter and a lot of fillings on top, like salad, fish, "remoulade" etc.).

Here's a very incomplete list of tips for the simple greetings in this lesson:

 * Hej ("Hi") = almost like the English Hi. Sound sample [[Media:Hej.ogg]]
 * Dav = say Dau. Sound sample [[Media:Dav.ogg]]
 * Goddag ("Goodday") = the last g is silent. Sound sample [[Media:Goddag.ogg]]
 * Godmorgen ("Goodmorning") = "go-moarn". The r is pronounced in the back of the throat, nearly silent. Sound sample [[Media:Godmorgen.ogg]]

Hellos and Goodbyes in Danish
Hellos: Hello! Hej! Hejsa! Dav! Goddag! Good morning! Godmorgen! Good evening! Godaften! What's up! Hvad så!

Goodbyes: Goodbye/Farewell     Farvel! Bye! Hej hej! See you later! Vi ses senere! See you!(Shortened)  Vi ses! Good night! Godnat!

Samtale 1 ~ Conversation 1
Sofie and Louise are friends. They meet and talk about their day.

Louise: Hej Sofie, hvordan går det? Sofie: Det går godt, tak. Hvad med dig? Louise: Jeg har det fint. Sofie: Hvad så? Louise: Ikke noget særligt Sofie: Hej hej, Louise. Louise: Vi ses.

Ordforklaringer ~ Vocabulary
You can probably figure out the rest, with the help of the Hellos and Goodbyes table.

Samtale 2
Take a look at this short formal conversation to see how Danes address each other formally.

Hr. Nilsen: Goddag! Hvordan har De det? Hr. Klaaborg: Goddag! Jeg har det fint, tak. Hr. Nilsen: Godt, Farvel! Hr. Klaaborg: Farvel! Voice sample (one voice)

Ordforklaringer
You may have noticed that hr. Nilsen referred to hr. Klaaborg as De. This is the polite form for you, as opposed to the casual du, which Sofie and Louise used. This is rarely used in Danish today though, but can still be seen when people demand great respect, like, for example, the nobility.

Flere ordforklaringer ~ More vocabulary
besøge                   visit bro                      bridge ven, venner              friend, friends samtale, samtaler        conversation, conversations grammatik                grammar lektie                   homework lektion                  lesson gade, vej                street, road ordforklaringer          word explanations, vocabulary

at gå                    to go/walk med                      with at være                  to be

at møde                  to meet at besøge                to visit at forstå                to understand

men                      but, however også                     also, too, as well tak                      thank you; thanks det                      it (pronoun) nej                      no ja                        yes korrekt                  correct allerede                 already smuk                     beautiful meget                    very og                       and

Pronominer ~ Pronouns
The Danish pronouns shouldn't be too hard to memorize, as they are most of the time close to their English equivalents. vi = we and os = us, for example.

^ Lektion 2: Familie ^ Lektion 3: Tal og Farver ^

title: Danish/Lesson 1


text:
Danish/Lesson 2

This is an unfinished translation of Swedish/Lesson_4.

^ Lektion 1: Velkommen ^ Lektion 3: Tal og Farver ^

Forældre ~ Parents
Just like in English, the Danish language has several words for mother and father. Starting with the words for mother, we see: And sometimes: The most common word for father is: But occasionally is used.
 * Mor
 * Moder
 * Far
 * Fader

Søskende ~ Siblings
The words for søskende (siblings) are for brother: and for sister:
 * Bror
 * Broder
 * Søster

Børn ~ Children
In Danish, the words for son and daughter are close to English. They are søn and datter, respectively.

The rest of the family

 * Onkel = Uncle, used mostly for a man married to a moster or faster
 * Morbror = Mother's brother
 * Farbror = Father's brother

 * Tante = Aunt, used mostly about a woman married to a farbror or morbror
 * Moster = Mother's sister
 * Faster = Father's sister

 * Niece = Niece
 * Nevø = Nephew

 * Fætter = Male cousin
 * Kusine = Female cousin

Bedsteforældre ~ Grandparents
Grandparents are also quite simple. Keep in mind mor is mother and far is father.

Maternal Grandparents:
 * Mormor = Maternal grandmother
 * Morfar = Maternal grandfather

Paternal Grandparents:
 * Farmor = Paternal grandmother
 * Farfar = Paternal grandfather

The Danish word for grandchild is barnebarn.

Oldeforældre ~ Great-grandparents
The Danish word for great-grandchild is oldebarn
 * Oldefar/Oldefader = Great-grandfather
 * Oldemor/Oldemoder = Great-grandmother

Tipoldeforældre ~ Great-great-grandparents
The Danish word for great-great-grandchild is tipoldebarn.
 * Tipoldefar/Tipoldefader = Great-great-grandfather
 * Tipoldemor/Tipoldemoder = Great-great-grandmother
 * For every generation from this point forward you add another tip- to the title.

^ Lektion 1: Velkommen ^ Lektion 3: Tal og Farver ^

title: Danish/Lesson 2


text:
Movie Making Manual/Cinematography/Camera

What specifications would make your perfect camera? This incomplete list serves two purposes:

 * 1) To give you an idea for what specifications and possible camera choices you can make, considering you budget.
 * 2) It's fun to fantasize

=Low Budget Cameras= <$500 USD

Possible Specifications

 * 720x1280p - 1080x1920p
 * 4:4:2 Colour Representation
 * Records onto inbuilt HDD or external SD cards
 * Ability to record 24, 25 and/or 30fps
 * Video Component Out
 * Autofocus
 * Battery Operated

Examples

 * Canon: Legria HF R26
 * Panasonic Lumix: G5, G3

=Mid Budget Cameras= $500-$2500

Possible Specifications

 * <= 1920x1080p resolution.
 * Variable frame rate; 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 60.
 * Select-able Aspect ratio from 4:3, 16:9, 2.35:1.
 * 4:4:2 colour representation.
 * Custom and Auto Exposure.
 * User settable white balance.
 * Records to Internal/External HDDs, SD Cards or CF Cards.
 * Possible interchangeable lens.
 * Reasonable Low-light abilities.
 * Liveview functions.
 * Records video metadata (date, time)
 * Video Component/HDMI out.
 * Manual and/or Autofocus
 * User has direct, mechanical control over the focus and zoom.
 * Eye tracking to control where to focus and exposure
 * Audio inputs (3.5mm jack)
 * Manual Audio Levels
 * User-upgradable firmware

Examples

 * DSLRs
 * Canon EOS: 550D, 600D, 650D, 60D, 7D, 5DMII(I)
 * Panasonic Lumix: GH1, GH2 (Technically mirror-less)
 * Camcorders
 * Canon: XA10

=Higher Budget Cameras= $2500-$100,000

Possible Specifications

 * 1080p-5k resolution
 * 4:4:4 Colour Representation (Uncompressed RAW)
 * Interchangeable Lens
 * Manual Focus
 * Custom Exposure and White balance settings
 * Records to internal/external SSD
 * HD/SDI
 * XLR Inputs
 * Audio Monitoring
 * Manual Frame rates: 1-300fps+
 * Manual Aspect Ratios: 4:3, 16:9, 2.35:1.
 * Records video metadata (Date, Time, Scene number, Take number, Timecode)
 * Timecode in.
 * PL or other mount.

Examples

 * RED: Scarlet, One, Epic.
 * ARRI: Alexa
 * SONY: FS700
 * CANON: C300, 1D-C

=Hollywood Budget Cameras= $100,000+

Examples
EXPENSIVE
 * 45mm Film
 * IMAX film

/Cinematography


text:
Talk:Game Theory

Anyone have an outline for how this book should be organized? --Chuck Hoffmann 13:37, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Game Theory Handbook outline
Rough ideas on what should be here:

 * 1) Introduction
 * 2) What is a game? Definitions and classifications
 * 3) Non-cooperative games
 * 4) Bargaining theory
 * 5) Cooperative games
 * 6) Games in continuous state-spaces and differential games
 * 7) Auctions
 * 8) Mechanism design
 * 9) Appendix: theorems and proofs

Hey Chuck and whoever suggested the outline, I've been waiting here for a while for someone to get working on this book but it doesn't seem to be happening. If I get any spare time I'll try and add some stuff, but I think its probably pointless discussing stuff on the talk page now because no-one seems to be interested in this book anymore due to a lack of interest in writing it.

Stuff moved from duplicate book Game theory
We will first look at the game theory by von Neumann and Morgenstein and then later study multiplayer games, nonzero sum games, games with chance, and finally, combinatorial game theory. - 128.175.112.225

Is it on topic to include items on Combinatorial Game Theory, studying games such as Nim and such like? - Paul

The book should probably have some extensive information on evolutionary game theory. Much has been written by Maynard Smith and others. It seems EGT will be a big part of the future of GT. - 67.162.52.102

Edit war
We seem to have an edit war going on. I was going to use '/' rather than ':' as per WB:NP. - Aya T C 00:50, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

Dear god, I'm so sorry mate, having never been in something even near an edit war before (i seem to work on projects no-one else touches) I was a bit confused. Sorry. I think everything's sorted out now as per WB:NP...at least I hope so. Once again, sorry Aya...Serge 00:55, August 12, 2005 (UTC)

 * Nah. My fault. I'm on the RC IRC server at irc://irc.wikimedia.org/#en.wikibooks so I can see every edit pop up as it happens. I shouldn't assume you see the same thing. :-) - Aya T C 01:07, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

Ideas
There's loads of content from Wikipedia we could use here. Much of the stuff on Prisoner's dilemma seems too in-depth, so we could shift it to here. - Aya T C 00:54, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, OK, Ii'll see what I can do. Thanks again. - Serge 00:55, August 12, 2005 (UTC)

Actually, just had a look at Prisoner's dilemma and apparently it's a feature article over in Wikipedia, so the guys over there think its an excellent article and probably like the "in-depth" nature of it, even though I have to agree with Aya, it probably should be on Wikibooks. I might use it as a basis and expand from it. Serge 00:59, August 12, 2005 (UTC)

 * Don't be afraid to fork the content. This is now allowed as per About. - Aya T C 01:08, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Game Theory


text:
Danish/Lesson 3

^ Lektion 1: Velkommen ^ Lektion 2: Familie ^

In this section we attempt to teach you numbers and colors in Danish.

Tal ~ Numbers
The Danish number system can be confusing. Instead of saying twenty-one, in Danish the equivalent is literally one-and-twenty. This rule goes all the way up to the nineties. It can seem illogical at times, especially when reciting phone numbers. The hundreds, thousands, millions and so on are put in the same order as in English. If you want to say four thousand two hundred twenty-four it's fire tusinde to hundrede og fireogtyve which literally is four thousands two hundreds fourandtwenty. Notice that there aren't any spaces in numbers below 100 when written in words in Danish, but numbers higher than 100 are split up in several words. Also notice that thousands are mentioned in plural because there's more than one (fire tusinde-).

Farver ~ Colours

 * Red - Rød
 * Blue - Blå
 * Yellow - Gul
 * Green - Grøn
 * Purple - Lilla
 * Orange - Orange
 * Brown - Brun
 * Black - Sort
 * White - Hvid
 * Grey - Grå

^ Lektion 1: Velkommen ^ Lektion 2: Familie ^

title: Danish/Lesson 3


text:
Carpentry/Framing/Stairs

Stair Framing
Tread - The horizontal portion of a stair

Total Rise - the distance from top of finished floors that stairs span

title: Carpentry/Framing/Stairs


text: Carpentry/Framing

title: Carpentry/Framing


text:
Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Modeling a Wolf from Guide Images

This tutorial assumes that you have completed all previous tutorials.

Get the pictures of the model
If you have a puppy and a digital camera, take three pictures of the cute little rascal and upload them. If you don't have a puppy, any object or small animal will do. Ideally, the photos will be looking straight down at the top of the puppy, a side view, and a front view. It's important that the puppy be in the same pose in all three photos! Or at least close to the same pose...we all know puppies don't stand still very long.

You could use two mirrors. One is placed next to the puppy at 45 degrees to the camera and 45 degrees to the puppy. Another is placed above the puppy, also at 45 degrees to the camera and 45 degrees to the puppy. This produces three images, one of the puppy (front \ NUM1), one of its reflection seen 90 degrees to the right (side \ right \ NUM3)), and one of its reflection seen from overhead (top \ NUM7). Take the photo from a long distance away with a zoom lens to get close to an orthographic projection.

Or how about pictures of a toy wolf taken from 6 view points?:
 * Left view
 * Right view
 * Front view
 * Back view
 * Bottom view
 * Top view

Using your favorite image editor, such as PhotoShop or the GIMP (see detailed GIMP instructions below: Detailed steps to align images using GIMP), down-scale the images need to a reasonable size (I made mine 512x384), and then match them to each other. To match them, draw construction lines (pulled from the rulers above and to the left) on the left view for example to pick out key features. I picked the tail, the front of the back foot, eye level, tip of the ear, and the front of the nose:

I found when I picked out these features that this first image needed to be rotated slightly. That completed, I proceeded to scale, rotate and shift the other two views (top and front) until they matched fairly well as layers on top:

Once I had the proper results I saved the resulting images, and these are the ones we will use in Blender.

The results are the files you'll need for Step Two:

Just right-click and save them some place where you can find them to load them into Blender for Step Two. You may notice the photos aren't perfect, but we'll use them just to show how you should deal with your real photos. When you are creating your own pictures to import, note parallax. In this example, parallax is present, and we'll attempt to compensate.

Get the Picture into Blender
Getting the image into blender is the easy part. The more difficult part will be creating the mesh, but first things first. Create a new file (File → New) to see the familiar default objects. Don't bother deleting the cube, we'll end up using it in the tutorial. Just as was done in the "Making A Pyramid" section, split the 3D Viewer into four views with CTRL-ALT-Q.

Each window will show you different XYZ coordinates.

Go to View > Properties, or press. A new toolbar will open to the right of the viewport and by scrolling through you should see Background Images. Use the "Add images" bar and options will open up. Then check the box to display your images.

Click the Add Image button and several more buttons will appear. Now "Open" button. A new full-viewport window will appear. Explore this window a bit and end up selecting the image file of the wolf from the top view. What you should get is the picture of the toy wolf from above with the default cube on top of it.

Now load the top view of the wolf, click on "Open" select the picture and set "Axis:" to "Front". Repeat the procedure and load the picture of the wolf to the other views.

Noob note: the photo from the top goes into top view, the photo from the front goes into the right view, and the photo from the right goes into front view, if you have front in front, change it now!

The pictures are now loaded into the Blender viewports. If you look at the pictures on the grid, you may notice that the front view of the wolf isn't quite center. That is okay, Blender has a way to fix it.

Press Shift + SpaceBar, this expands the current viewport to a fullscreen view, then go to "Background Images" and go to the Front view. Notice that there are picture manipulation options available. One of these includes picture offsets. Click on right side of the 'X Offset: 0.00' to increase the offset to 0.20. The picture will be shifted over slightly so now the wolf is more centered. Press Shift + SpaceBar again to return to the window-setup you had earlier. Correct the other views also, and scale the cube if needed.

Noob Note: If you made, and aligned your own photos, you will need to use a different value than '0.20' to center the head in the cube in front view.

The setup work is now done! Let's start on actually making the wolf model.

Create a Rough Model
This is a brute force model creation using techniques discussed previously in this book. This section is meant to help you explore and become more comfortable with them. Do not try to follow the example to the tee. Your wolf and my wolf will probably not look the same since you may want to add more or have less detail.

Noob Note: If you are just getting started with blender, this step may likely take several hours to complete, since you must use your own creativity to position things in 3D space, using 2D views. Just like sculpting, drawing, or oil painting, it will be extremely fustrating at first, but once you get used to the way it works, "modeling" will be much easier.

The rough fit stage requires either some planning or on-the-spot decisions. Think about where the wolf will have parts of its body flex or require parts jutting out.

The first step is to create a blocky wolf. Start out with a column of blocks using the extrude face command (select face, ). Don't worry about snapping the vertices to the grid since we are working with an organic figure.

Noob Note: It is handy to do this in wireframe view, to see better how the rough model fits out

Figure 2.3.1 Body column formation

The next step is to split the ears and legs off of the body. Do this by subdividing (With "Quad/Tri Mode" checked) the appropriate faces. Save often, and if you make a mistake, go ahead and use the undo option (CTRL ). Also, if you find yourself looking at redundant faces, combine them.

Figure 2.3.2 Appendage formation ]

If you are having trouble with this, try mousing over the perspective window (the one you designated with NUM0) and using the MMB to rotate the view so that you are looking at the underside of the wolf. Click on the face underneath the wolf that is alongside his front legs (use the side view to check this). We are going to subdivide this face in order to grow legs off the new faces. To subdivide, press the and choose subdivide. You will see that the face has been divided into four. Take one of these faces and extrude it as many times as is necessary to make the right leg. Then do the same again for his left leg.

Noob Note: To avoid making the extruded faces share common vertices (and be connected to each other), either extrude the legs separately (as stated above) or select Individual faces in the Extrude pop-up menu. The same works for the ears.

Doing the ears is similar, except instead of working underneath you will start with the face on top of the wolf which is directly over the ears. Select this face and subdivide it once. Deselect everything using, then select one of these four faces and extrude it upwards once to make an ear. Do the same for the face alongside it to make the other ear.

Finally, extrude the tail end of the wolf one more time, so that your wolf has as many divisions as the picture above.

Refine the rough model
Let's start refining the model starting with the tail. Try putting your viewports in wireframe mode by pushing, it may make things much easier. Line up the vertices over the wolf in each viewport by lasso selecting multiple vertices (CTRL LMB, Drag). then move to the right location with grab.

Figure 2.3.3 Working on the tail

Continue onto the hind legs of the wolf. It is trickier to manipulate the legs so keep rotating a viewport to look at the model from multiple perspectives. Remember that we are working in three dimensions.

Figure 2.3.4 Working on the hind legs

Continue working up along the wolf fitting the blocks to the pictures. If you have problems seeing the picture because the model is in the way, let's hide the model. In Edit Mode, select the entire model by or by pressing  when you have the cursor over the model. Simply pressing will hide the selected items. To unhide the view, use +. By hiding and unhiding the model, or parts of the model, you should be able to keep using the picture as a guide. Note: It is much easier to just switch layers by, let's say, pressing (not the Num-Block one) to hide the entire model (thus getting a look at the picture) and  to reveal the mesh again.

Once you have the first pass done, you'll notice that the model just won't fit all three pictures correctly. This is due to parallax. The most obvious example is the side view. The four feet should be level, as they are all standing on a flat surface. Since they are not, we'll just ignore some of the aspects of each picture and continue with the model. (This is a helpful example to show what you need to consider when taking your own pictures.)

Figure 2.3.5 Completed rough fit

Subsurf the model
Now that the rough fit is done, let's smooth out the wolf. Add a Subsurf modifier and set the Levels to 2. The wolf will now be smoothed, but we want to add some of the hard lines back into the model. This may be accomplished with creased edges.

Select Edges or faces you want to crease and press SHIFT + EKEY. Use the mouse and pull away from the center until the Crease value is close to what you want. A value of +1.000 will give you the sharpest look and is useful for places such as the bottoms of the paws. When an edge has been creased, the edge will be highlighted in yellow (positive crease) or black (negative crease). These highlights are shown due to the 'Draw Creases' button being turned on.

In this example, I creased edges along the paws, tail, ears, and nose to give them some sharpness.

Figure 2.4.1 Creased edges

The last step is to refit the model to the pictures. You may have noticed that when the model was smoothed, the result didn't quite fit to the pictures. Now is a great time to tweak the vertices to fit to the pictures or add to/modify the model.

Noob note: if you see a weird edge on the body after smoothing, check the face normals (F9 > Mesh Tools More > Draw Normals; and then W > Flip Normals on the culprit faces).

And here is my basic wolf based on three pictures!

Figure 2.4.2 Final toy wolf model

Method 2 (using mirroring)
In this alternative method we will do half a wolf and then mirror it to create a complete wolf. You should start out by creating a silhouette of the wolf body in the side view, and then in front view start to shape the wolf head, tail and legs...

Noob Note: If you are attempting this method, it is best to avoid using triangles in rounded areas of a Mesh, because they tend to cause artifacts in your model (artifacts are protruding edges or other things that don't look realistic). Using quads is a much better alternative. Triangles should only be used on flat areas of your mesh if they cannot be avoided.

Here is what you should end up with

Using mirroring with method 1
You can also use mirroring with the first method (the one with cube extrusions).

This can speed up your work as you don't have to do the same changes on each side of the fox - just once.

To start the mirroring:
 * Go to Editing (F9)
 * In the Modifiers panel, add a Mirror
 * Check only the Y button

When modeling:
 * You may want to adjust the Merge Limit value (e.g. 0.14): this means vertices too close to each others (after the mirroring) will be merged, thus avoiding artifacts along the mirror's axis.
 * Remove the faces along the mirror's axis, otherwise Subsurf will be confused by the faces inside the body of the mirrored fox. Keep all the faces for the legs though.
 * To move the legs differently on each side: when you're done modeling the rest of the fox, apply the Mirror modifier, and then work on each leg independently.

Detailed steps to align images using GIMP
From this point forward there are multiple ways to do exactly the same thing, however for simplicity's sake and so that I can be more detailed I will be using one method (the one which I use) and be using GIMP.

I found it best to size all the photos to a known width, with an easy way to find center. (Mine happened to be 850x638 pixels, I don’t recommend that but you can choose any size you want really, as long as all of them are the same size). Then drag the construction lines to form a crosshair in the middle of the photo. To do this, click on the top ruler, and drag down to the middle (Exact middle) of the photo, then click on the side ruler and drag across to the middle (Again exact middle) of the photo.

If you are having trouble finding the exact middle of the photo, move the cursor to the very bottom left of your photo and the height of your photo will be listed at the bottom left of the GIMP interface. The numbers are listed in an (x,y) format so you want the first number to say 0 and the second to be the largest you can make it by dragging your cursor. The second number is the height, and half of that is the middle of your photo. You can do the same with the top ruler to find the vertical middle of your photo. Only this time the co-ordinates at the bottom left of the GIMP interface should list the second number (y) as 0, and the first number should be as large as you can make it by moving your cursor (to the upper right of the photo). Once you have your width again half of that will be the middle of your photo.

Then using construction lines put one at the top of your object, and the bottom of your object. Find the "height" of your object by the distance between them. Remove the construction lines from the top and the bottom, and place a new construction line above the horizontal center line by the half of the "height"(of your object). Now place a construction line on both sides of your object and find the “width” (distance between the new vertical lines), then remove those construction lines and place a new construction line vertically half of the "width"(of your object) to the right of the vertical center line. Now cut the object out, and drag it so that the point you used as the "top" is on the horizontal construction line that is above the middle. Then Drag the photo left or right until the right edge of the object is on the vertical construction line you put in right of the middle construction line.

Now the center of your object is at the center of your photo. This is a very important thing because when blender loads in the picture you will need this so that all of your pictures match up with each other 3d. You should repeat these steps with all 3 photos. I also don't recommend doing it in GIMP's "layered mode" as that caused more pandemonium for me. I recommend opening each photo in a new window.

Taking your pictures is the most important part, because if the pictures are not all in the same scale (object size to photo size) then your photos will not line up and you won't be able to place a dot on the same location from front view, side view, and top view.

As a recommendation I would recommend making your first model from a Lego man. That is what I did and it is very simplistic easy practice. To take my photos I took about 10 minutes to construct a photo platform for my object. It consisted of a cardboard box with two sides cut out. I covered the inside area with computer paper. I then used a 2”x4” and a ruler to make sure that the box stayed the same distance from the camera for all shots, as well as marking where the Lego man’s feet were positioned inside the box with a pencil. This will provide good pictures, providing you keep the camera at the same distance and zoom for all three photos.