User talk:Jeff Dahl/Archive 2

Anaerobic digestion article peer review
Hi Jeff, many thanks for the constructive comments on the anaerobic digestion article. I will take these on board and try to improve as suggested.

Kind regards--Alex 07:46, 22 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi Jeff, I have continued to spend a lot of effort copy editing and further improving the anaeorbic digestion article as per your comments. Do you think it is in a position to be considered as an A-class article or do you think it requires further work?--Alex 11:46, 24 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Hello again Jeff. As per your comments on the featured article nomination I have withdrawn the article for further work. Many thanks for your constructive comments, I have been working on it that long that it's not as easy to see any errors or inconsistencies. I would like to take you up on your offer of working together on the article to improve it further. Please see Talk:Anaerobic_digestion for progress against your comments--Alex 08:01, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the info on the talk page. I have been out of the office for the last couple of days. I have made the alterations, however I am not certain where the biochemistry element fits best. I think it should be earlier in the piece--Alex 12:21, 30 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi Jeff, I have worked on one of the section outlining the differences between aerobic and anaerobic systems. If you have a minute please take a look. I have included a simple wikitable comparison which has been expanded with text. Cheers--Alex 08:55, 2 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I have spent some time expanding the process stages section of the article. I would like your opinion if it is now enough to tick of the final one of your concerns from the origina FA nomination. I have also spent some time putting more structure to the applications section, especially expanding the potential for AD to help against climate change. --Alex Marshall 15:41, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Milner FAC feedback
Your feedback has been Transfered to this PR. Please reply there. Buc 14:52, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

I've tried to fix you problems. Buc 16:07, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Metroid Prime
My FA failed, but I'm willing to restart it next week - can you see if any prose issues remain? igordebraga ≠ 21:58, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Re:Image:Motor Cycle EB.jpg
Hi jeff, The secret, plenty of attempts :-P. You may know, this particular picture is a "pan" shot, That is, the camera was panned while taking the picture in an attempt to follow the subject (motorcycle in this case). You can get the same effect by taking a picture if you are moving at the same speed as the subject. As in, being in a car and driving alongside (I wouldn't recommend this technique if you yourself are the driver, : ). Try to shoot at a shutter speed of like 1/100th-1/250th for cars and bikes, 1/45th-1/100th for runners, etc. The longer the exposure the more blurred the BG will look. I may upload another pan shot from a rowing event I was at recently. I know Fir0002 has some good ones. Oh and it takes plenty of failed attempts to get a keeper. cheers -Fcb981(talk:contribs) 16:40, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * OK thanks. I won't get discouraged if I can't make a good one the first time. Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 17:05, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Thutmose II
Will Cuppy, who wrote satirical but truth-based history, essentially restated what the serous-sounding scientist just above him said. And it makes the somewhat-serious point that you had self-important guys making pronouncements over a 3,500 year old body as if he were freshly buried. Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? 10:28, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
 * In short, that's a good joke. Another good one, not exactly a joke, is "Once you open a can of worms, the only way to re-can them is with a bigger can." Now for a bad joke: "Opporknockity only tunes once." Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? 12:35, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Pharmacology Update
Here are a few updates in the realm of WikiProject Pharmacology:


 * The Pharmacology Collaboration of the Week has been changed to Collaboration of the Month, based on current participation levels. It is also more likely that articles collaborated on for one month are more likely to achieve featured quality than articles worked on for only a week or two.


 * The current Collaboration of the Month for November is Receptor antagonist. Please take a look at that article and contribute to it if you get a chance. Ideally, the article should adhere to the featured article criteria.


 * Therapies for multiple sclerosis is currently a featured article candidate. If you are familiar with the featured article criteria, please visit WP:FAC and review the article.


 * Anabolic steroid is the wikiproject's newest Featured Article, having been promoted on October 8, 2007.


 * Theobromine was delisted as a Good Article. The Peer review and GA reassessment discussions provide suggestions on improvement. Muscle relaxant was recently reviewed for Good Article status, but not promoted. Please see the full review full review here for details.

Dr. Cash 22:12, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

The Make-Up FAC
I apologize for taking so incredibly long to address the concerns you raised at the above FAC, but I've crazily busy the past few weeks. I finally got a few minutes to mess around on Wikipedia, so I've finally been able to give a little attention to the Make-Up article. I believe I have addressed some of the issues you raised, so I would appreciate it if you took another look at the FAC. Thanks! Drewcifer 04:52, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Mira Nomination
Hello, Jeff, Could you please specify what version of this nomination you've supported. Thank you.--Mbz1 19:21, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Bird beaks
The bird beaks image was made without text captions with the rationale that it could be used in any language wiki by changing the captions appropriately. I have no problem with the modified version as long as you respect the license. Creative Commons - share alike - by attribution - means that you can create a derivative as long as you credit the original author and release your derivative under the exact same license which means you too need to release the derivative under cc-by-sa-3.0. Shyamal 04:31, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I fixed the license to be the exact same one as the original, I hope this is satisfactory. On the English wikipedia I plan to substitute instances of the numbered image with the named version. Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 05:02, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks ! Shyamal 05:12, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Assesment?
I know that you are a member of WikiProject Ancient Egypt, and that you do a lot with the Egypt articles, so I was wondering if you could do something about the articles waiting for assesment here. One of them was put there at the beginning of October and hasn't been rated yet. Should I bring this up on the discussion page? I wanted to ask you because you are a member of the project and I'm not. Thank you very much for your time. -- θnce θn this island Speak! 02:38, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I sure can! I didn't know those were even there. If you want to join the project feel free, everyone is a volunteer here. By the way, I restored the top map on ancient Egypt because it shows a great many cities and regions not on the New Kingdom map. If you have suggestions for improving, you can be bold and try them out or you can let me know. Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 02:44, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Ok, thanks! -- θnce θn this island Speak! 02:46, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Tutankhamun
Seems like you were completely, 100% accurate, the vandalism was excessive on that page. I was just about to ask for Semi-protection but i see it now has it already. I think that the fact it is in the news over the new exhibition is a contributing factor, but is suppose it is just a high traffic page. You can have a rest from the vandals now! Regards. Woodym555 00:13, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Whew! This makes me realize how important the page is though; right now it could use some work. I've been working on ancient Egypt as my top priority, trying to get it to FA, but Tut really needs some work too. Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 02:58, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Oi Tuggy!
hi Jeff - The new diagram looks good (probably great for most users) but I am still having problems with the font. Interestingly - the problems are different. The left labels are all OK. The rightmost column is entirely missing, and the second leftmost column is largely truncated. I hope you can fix it - I'll change my vote for sure!de Bivort 22:16, 13 November 2007 (UTC)
 * The new version fixes the font problems for me. I've changed my oppose vote to support. Kaldari 00:46, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
 * P.S. - looks like you overlooked the "tugboat" label on the boat itself though. Not sure if that's important though. Kaldari 00:50, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
 * The tugboat label won't show up for me either in the thumb or on the image page, but it will actually show up in the zoomed one on my browser. I can't figure out how to make it show up though, sorry. Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 03:28, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

DYK
Hi. Just wanted to let you know that your article on Aloin has also been uploaded to Veropedia as some of the best that Wikipedia has to offer. You can find it here. If you can recommend any other articles you wrote, please let us know. Danny 09:16, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Re: KV62 -> Tomb of Tutankhamen
Thank you for adding your opinion/vote to the Talk:KV62 re: KV62 -> Tomb of Tutankhamen. I wanted to solicit opinions/votes from those I thought might have a real interest in the issue. Ultimately the main thrust of the argument for centers around WP:NC, which I think is being too broadly applied in this instance (but that's my opinion). Though I read more oppose votes than for, in the end there was no consensus (a simple majority may not apply in this case) to move, so there's every chance the debate will continue sometime in the future. I may not agree with your opinion in this case, but I do respect it. Cheers! Captmondo 11:06, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
 * This discussion has now moved to Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Ancient Egyptian). Can you add anything to the discussion? Markh (talk) 19:45, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

LOTD experiment
You voted for one of my prior proposals to institute a List of the Day Proposal. I may have already alerted you to an experiment I am conducting at WP:LOTD. Now that the experiment is running I can point out the benefits to the project of the method I am experimenting with that other alternatives don't offer. First, there is a set of orphaned articles for persons who do not have any featured lists of their own or persons that would like to take responsibility for more. Anyone can nominate such orphans. This benefits WP by getting people involved in list articles that might not have active editors to update them or defend them against vandalism. Please consider adopting one of our orphans.

There are several other advantages that will improve the project:
 * 1) Each list will be encouraged to respond to commentary and feedback during the candidacy period, which will hopefully improve the quality of the articles.
 * 2) Articles without pictures will be encouraged to find them. E.g., List of Harry Potter films cast members had no image before its nominator added an image for this experiment.  This type of thing, of course, improves the project.
 * 3) Articles are encouraged to add relevant projects to their talk page. This alerts other project to articles that they would likely have an interest in and would be able to either improve or protect.

Again come by and consider adopting one of our orphans this month or in future months either adopt an orphan or give feedback on the candidates.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:LOTD) 17:20, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

ancient egypt
hey jeff i dont mind moving it to one of the articles you sugested but the way those articles are set up i dont know work this in being those articles pretty much kind establish that myth of menes as fact.i mean im still pretty new to wiki--Mikmik2953 (talk) 02:29, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

ancient egypt article
thanks for moving it,but you think we could add something to that effect in the main article that .it is most likely a myth about king menes--Mikmik2953 (talk) 02:51, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
 * The article says: "Scholars have suggested the mythical Menes is the pharaoh Narmer based on an interpretation of the Narmer Palette, a ceremonial cosmetic palette depicting this ruler wearing pharaonic regalia." Which mentions Menes is mythical. Is this satisfactory? Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 02:54, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

okay because the most of the books i have read say that it was a myth,no different than the one like that of the founding of rome by romulus myth.and makes sence to me it's not very exciting to say your great civilization came to be by gradual and mutual need and trade. lol--Mikmik2953 (talk) 14:28, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Engravings
I generally use a scanner, not a camera. That said, though, it's probably the same in principle.

Looking at your photograph: It's quite good, though I can spot a few minor errors: the left side is blurry, probably because of the book's binding: this isn't usually a problem with many of my preferred sources, though there are some things where I've risked a book's spine to get the scan. There also appears to be a white hair sitting in the upper right, somewhat near that corner. Errors in printing engravings rarely cast shadows. It's probably a little bit low on resolution [I usually scan at 300-400dpi) compared to a scanned engraving, but certainly well in the acceptable range.

I normally pre-process my engravings using the scanner software, but the principles are the same: Basically, change it to greyscale (you can do this by dropping the saturation to the minimum) then adjust the contrast until the background goes white and the lines are appropriately black [though not so black that you end up with... what's it called - lack of anti-aliasing, I think I mean...] Sometimes it helps to adjust brightness as well as contrast, but I usually don't find it necessary. I'll sometimes then go in and fix minor errors - splattered inkblobs in the whitespace around the picture, etc.

I often start with a photocopy, since in some libraries you aren't allowed to take a book physically to a scanner, but are allowed to take copies. I'm not sure I can explain all the adjustments I make for fixing photocopies, but here's some:

For greyness around the side where it's bound, you can fix it by tweaking brightness and contrast in that area, then the picture as a whole to hide the join. It is often necessary to then go in and clean up some remaining splots and splatters caused by the greyness.

A certain type of graininess that you often get in photocopies can be fixed, provided all the engraving's lines can still be made out, by scanning at very high resolution (600 dpi or so), then using a slight blur and a downsample, tweaking contrast at each stage to try and emphasise the lines and deemphasise the grains. Sharpen can occasionally be useful on the end result. Image:F_C_Burnand_Charicatures_Shakespeare.png - ignore the typo in the file name - and Image:Captain Shaw - Entr'acte.png went through this process.

Also, if you haven't guessed, sharpen works a lot better on engravings than on photographs, but scans don't usually need them. If you're going to use a camera, though, it might be useful to fix the side near the binding.

If you catch me tomorrow, I'll try and help out with the adjustments on your book. Also, if you know of any photographers in reasonable distance of Edinburgh, I have a rather valuable Victorian art-photography book - yes, really - that really be scanned very well because of its size and weight. It contains photographs of all the worthies and professors in the University at the time - including Robert Bulwer-Lytton, John Dalrymple, 10th Earl of Stair, and various others, and they're all signed. (and you can tell they're really signed, not just reproduced, as some of the signatures go outside of the bounds of the photograph - you'd understand that if you saw it. Adam Cuerden talk 23:58, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Ancient Egypt map
The description helps a lot. Once you get the new 'italicized' version up I'll add my support. bad_germ 13:35, 27 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I've taken a bit of time to try to determine the accuracy or otherwise of the map. It seems that everything is in order, except the sources I've got to hand (an ancient book on ancient Egypt and this undergraduate text) agree with Durham University's Sais Expedition page here that Naukratis, Sais and Buto lie in pretty much a straight line; furthermore, Sais is roughly level with Alexandria, and also with Tanis (which appears too far South on your map, as does Avaris). Basically it looks like Alexandria - Tanis and Naukratis - Buto should roughly form a cross with Sais at the crux. Sorry for being a pain! bad_germ 20:22, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

The coordinates are: Buto: (31°11′47″N, 30°44′41″E) Sais: (30°57′53″N, 30°46′6″E) Alexandria: (31°11′53″N 29°55′09″E﻿) Naukratis: (30°54' N 30°35'E) (from here) Tanis: (30°58′37″N, 31°52′48″E)

Don't worry about being a pain, my goal with this map was to make it very accurate and complete. Durham University's Sais Expedition page here shows Buto as quite a bit to the east of Sais. But from the coordinates, you can see that Buto is actually west (by about 2′) of Sais. That said, Buto could use a little adjustment based on the exact coordinates which I can look up in google maps. Sais is not at all level with Alexandria, the latter is 14′N of the other. Tanis and Sais are at nearly the same latitude (58′N and 57′N respectively)

So I don't really place trust in any one printed map. In fact, some of my printed maps are way off on the placements of certain sites. All the placements I did for this map were based on multiple sources. I tell you what though, I'll cross-reference the coordinates on google maps, and then make a few adjustments if needed, and I can document it on the image description page. Buto and Naukratis look like they need a little adjustment, so I'll definitely do those. Thanks, Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 21:05, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Olmec map
Thanks for your kind comments regarding my nomination. Another editor also commented on the title box, so I removed it entirely, as you can see from the Featured Pictures nomination page. Let me know your thoughts on that. Regarding the river color, this is a bit of dilemma, since I am using the standard (English Wikipedia) river color, as can be seen here on the Maps project page. All my maps use this color for rivers, as do many other mapmakers. Let me think on this a while. Thanks again, Madman 14:25, 4 December 2007 (UTC)


 * In response to your 2nd post, I had thought that the scalebar was understandable. The upper one is for 25 miles and the lower one for 25 kilometres.  Is this confusing?  Would you put 25 on each scale??


 * Regarding the blue, I don't feel I can back off using the standard blue color on this map today. Above and beyond the work involved, I would at least want to raise this issue at the Maps project page first, rather than just change this one map (or all my maps).  I note that the proposed standard for Wikipedia Commons is #27AAEA --still darker than what you suggest.  If I were to change to a brighter color, I think I would have to change to that one, rather than trying to set out on my own.  I think map-makers here in Wikiland need to follow the suggested standards.  Thanks, Madman (talk) 04:36, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Decline and Fall
I find it funny and relevant, and you don't. And, naturally, your opinion counts for more than mine does. Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? 03:45, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Harmatchis
Hi! I created a page about a Egyptian god called Harmatchis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmatchis%22 Would you mind editing it please? Thanks! Neptunekh (talk) 10:32, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Harmatchis is really Re-Horakhty, which is in turn really Horus. The article now redirects to Horus. Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 17:40, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

SCR Article Review
Thanks for the review. You are correct in that it was written from a power plant perspective, as I was a PM on an SCR installation for the utility I was working on. I tried to generalize it as much as possible. Pictures are surprisingly difficult to get; while cameras are everywhere on job sites, the powers that be tend to get a bit freaked out when they are used for anything other than work. DJ Creamity Oh Yeah! 15:46, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

.svg help
Hi Jeff,

I visit the FPC page everyday, and recall your ancient egypt map that was quite good. I was wondering if you could take a look at this .svg map of Gibraltar and help edit it? Or, if you don't have the time, could you point me in the right direction? Namely, I have no idea where to begin or what software to use. The main thing is that the numbered location should have the names directly on the map, which would decrease the size of the legend.

Thanks!

--Malachirality (talk) 03:10, 8 December 2007 (UTC)


 * I replied on my talk page (I like to keep conversations in one place). --Malachirality (talk) 06:22, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Your NPWatcher application
Dear Jeff Dahl,

Thank you for applying for NPWatcher!

Ioeth (talk contribs friendly) 14:48, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Map of Gibraltar
Hello! I see you nominated Featured picture candidates/Map of Gibraltar. I was about to nominated it myself when I came across it, so thanks for the nom (and the edits)! Chris.B •  talk  15:42, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Merry Christmas
From Muhammad Mahdi Karim (talk) 11:09, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

If you object to the above message, please remove it, accept my apologies and notify me on my talk page.