Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 February 18

= February 18 =

Where to download public domain music
Is there any malware free sites that I could use to download public domain music (probably mp3's)? I assume that the restriction on downloadable music files only affect copyrighted material.--121.54.2.188 (talk) 02:09, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Public domain music may be of some help. SteveBaker (talk) 03:12, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Note that there is a difference between public domain (no copyright) and copyleft (copyrighted but under terms that encourage downloading, circulating, and re-use). You will probably find more copyleft music than public domain music. There is a lot of Creative Commons-licensed music out there. It is not public domain—depending on the license, there are some restrictions on what you can do with it—but it is all freely downloadable. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:49, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

http://www.archive.org/details/audio —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.27 (talk) 14:03, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * One place I can think of that has a large directory of public domain or Creative Commons licensed music is [Hexagon.cc]. There should be a link to the "Creative Commons" group on the front page (otherwise you can search for it, I suppose), which only includes music/movies/other files that are free and legal to download. It is a torrent site, though, so you'll need a Bittorrent client of some kind. (and remember that not everything on the site is in the public domain or legal to download; only the stuff under the Creative Commons group is more or less guaranteed to be legal to download) 24.247.163.175 (talk) 00:29, 19 February 2010 (UTC)


 * If I remember correctly, it is illegal to download copyrighted music in the US but not elsewhere. If it's not illegal, then LimeWire or a similar software could be used to download copyrighted files, but we will not give any legal advice on this matter. ~ A H  1 (TCU) 01:04, 20 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Err, what? You don't remember correctly (and are, in essence, giving fairly bad legal advice!). There are some questions about the laws of a few, specific countries, but in general, downloading copyrighted music is almost surely going to be seen as a violation of intellectual property laws. Even in these few countries it is likely just a matter of time before either their courts or lawmakers change the laws around. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:58, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Temperature
Why does my outdoor hottub feel hotter than my indoor bathtub when each is 100 degrees F?Accdude92 (talk to me!) 02:36, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
 * What you're probably feeling outside is a greater difference in temperature; the hot tub isn't necessarily warmer, but your body thinks it is because you're going to 38 C from 5 C, rather than from 21 C. Xenon54 / talk / 02:46, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Another possible factor is how much heat you lose through the part of your skin that's not underwater. If more skin is exposed, you feel cooler, so the depth of the water has an effect.  If the air is cooler or less humid, you lose more heat and again feel cooler.  --Anonymous, 05:08 UTC, February 18, 2010.
 * Perhaps the turbulent flow of the jets results in better heat transfer to your body, by disrupting the boundary layer. -- Coneslayer (talk) 12:25, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * or we could go with the practical solution - where is the temperature gauge located on each? the outdoor tub will have a greater differential in temperature between the heating element and the distal surface (since the open, colder air will allow for quicker evaporation and quicker cooling) and so its entirely possible that the outdoor tub is actually hotter if the temperature regulator is set in the colder part of the tub - the tub will be maintaining 100° at it's coldest region.  -- Ludwigs 2  22:01, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

Books.
Does anyone know any good books that cover Japanese wars and warfare before the industrial age? ¨¨¨¨ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joneleth (talk • contribs) 07:10, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * See the article Stephen Turnbull (historian), who is an Historian specialising in the Japanese Samurai/Feudal era. There is a list of his many books on the subject. See also Genpei War, Battle of Sekigahara, Battles of Kawanakajima and Sengoku Jidai—220.101.28.25 (talk) 16:12, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * List of Japanese battles may be useful for further references. I would personally suggest this book: "Secrets of the Samurai: A Survey of the Martial Arts of Feudal Japan" (9780785810735): Oscar Ratti, Adele Westbrook, Publisher: Charles E. Tuttle and Company Inc. See it here at books.google.com. Although a general "Survey of the Martial Arts of Feudal Japan", the close connection between martial arts and warfare in Japan means it covers a lot of history, Samurai weaponry, armour etc.220.101.28.25 (talk) 16:59, 18 February 2010 (UTC)'


 * A very readable overview of pre-Meiji Japan is Stephen Turnbull's "The Samurai - A Military History". Recommended. Alansplodge (talk) 18:17, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

software
I have a scan paper of a book, by a software I convert it into a ms-word but in ms word some mistake like spelling mistake , change some word occur. There is any software by which I can chek this where is the mistake is occur.Supriyochowdhury (talk) 14:29, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Microsoft Word has a built-in spelling and grammar checker which may help. However you should be aware that it only checks that the word exists, not that it is correct. So if your reader software read "rate" as "rat" then the spellchecker won't catch it. Better checkers are available, put reading the document is the only reliable way. DJ Clayworth (talk) 14:46, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * I suggest you try scanning the same words printed on a piece of paper but with the font OCR A Extended, which should be available in notepad on a Windows machine. That font was specifically designed to be machine readable. If you do this and it suddenly works without the spelling errors, then you know that the problem was with your converter program being able to read the font of your original document. If you get the same spelling errors, then that leaves the problem that the converter program might have a bug. Sorry I don't have any software suggestions per your request. 20.137.18.50 (talk) 14:51, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * The problem is often a poor scan (your brain is much better at recognising the text than any computer); a better scan can avoid many OCR errors. Some tips for improving the result are: scan at the highest resolution you can; make sure the document glass on your scanner is entirely clean; put a sheet of black paper behind the scan to minimise the transmission of light reflected off the back of the scanner shining back through the paper (so you get a ghost of the text on the reverse surface of the page); make sure the scanning software is using a loss-less image format (like TIFF), or if it must use JPEG make it use the least (ideally no) compression; experiment with contrast settings in the scan software (the OCR program should be able to do this itself, but some don't do a good job). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:57, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * OCR is a difficult problem and it's far from 100% solved. Many OCR programs proudly proclaim "99% accuracy!" - which means that in a typical page of text, there are going to be a dozen errors.  Many (if not all) of them use a spell-checker dictionary to help them to get better answers - so it's highly likely that the errors they make will pass a spell check with 100% success. SteveBaker (talk) 17:42, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

finding a hotel
Hello, I am looking to spend a weekend away in a hotel, I have two european eagle owls, which I am very devoted to and they never leave my side, they are what I would call my greatest friends. The thing is as they have been brought up around humans they believe themselves to be human and sometimes consider other people to be a threat to me as they are teritorial. If you have ever been attacked by an eagle owl you will know that it is not something you forget! Is it best to try and find a hotel where I can stay with my owls, or to bring them in under wraps and leave a do not disturb sign on the door, I cannot leave the owls and I must make this visit. Perpetualmotionlemus (talk) 17:14, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Saying where you want to go would be helpful. I would also suggest that you check on the legal situation of keeping birds of prey in the place you want to go to. It may be illegal. No hotel is going to welcome them without prior arrangements. I would suggest contacting a small hotel or B&B in the place you want to go to and explain your situation. DJ Clayworth (talk) 19:15, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * I think you'd find it difficult or impossible to find a hotel that would take them. I suggest leaving them in their cage (assuming they've got one) and asking someone to feed and water them while you are away. Or sleep in the car with them. I'm curious what you do when you go shopping or have other interactions with strangers away from home. 89.242.89.218 (talk) 15:00, 19 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Given that this question is the OP's only "contribution", I wouldn't necessarily assume that the question is on the level. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:08, 19 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Bugs, I wish you would stop complaining about IPs and "drive bys". Just stop it.  We IP users are not all trolls.  Some people with usernames occasionally edit under an IP.  This is not against any Wikipedia guideline or policy.  Knock it off, please.  24.120.166.97 (talk) 20:05, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
 * If you'll put aside your righteous indignation for a second and think logically, note that the OP said the owls "never leave his side". Assuming he works for a living, how likely is it that his company would be tolerant of an employee bringing wild animals to work? Not very. This is almost certainly a "joke" question. But whether a joke or sincere, you can't deny it paints a funny mental picture. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:59, 20 February 2010 (UTC)
 * No mention of IP editing was made, and I too am very suspicious of a question with a bizarre premise which is a named editor's first and only contribution. AGF or not, a little Occam's razor goes a long way.  -- LarryMac  | Talk  14:24, 20 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Isn't a "do not disturb sign" sign for when you are in the room? Won't the hotel cleaning service expect a moment to come in to tidy up? Bus stop (talk) 15:48, 19 February 2010 (UTC)


 * How the cleaners respond varies from one hotel to the next. IMHO, "Do not disturb" should mean "do not disturb" (don't knock on the door), so it shouldn't matter whether anyone is in there or not&mdash;it's none of their business.  There's been times that I've needed a hotel to sleep in all day when working nights, and cleaners who insist on knocking at 11:00 am "to make sure" are annoying.  Similarly, my wife has left crated dogs in hotel rooms (as permitted by hotel policy) and put the sign up so that the cleaners don't knock or come in, agitating the dogs.  -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:00, 19 February 2010 (UTC)


 * There's no way you should sneak the owls in. If they were discovered, the proprietor may be within their rights to call Animal Control and have them captured and destroyed.  This would be an extreme reaction, but a panicky maid with an exaggerated story would be bad news for you.  The idea above of contacting a bed and breakfast seems like a good one to me; they would probably be a lot more accommodating than a hotel that has to abide by a bunch of corporate rules, or a motel that's accustomed to occasional guests who trash the rooms.  24.120.166.97 (talk) 20:05, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
 * If the question is sincere, then calling ahead is the obvious course to take. Some establishments will allow pets, and if they don't, sneaking them in would put those "beloved" animals at great risk of being confiscated. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:02, 20 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Since you ask Baseball I (and the owls) work for a small airport, the owls keep pigeons and other birds away from the runways where they are a nuisance and can be sucked into the engines of planes. DJ Clayworth I am going to Manchester in the UK. I have called a few B&B and one of them sounded like they might be ok with the owls as long as I am with them at all times and take meals in my rooms. Thank you for all your help Perpetualmotionlemus (talk) 14:12, 22 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Since you're a professional owl handler (falconer? strigider?), Perpetualmotionlemus, you are probably already aware if there are (as DJ Clayworth mentioned above) any legal restrictions that might affect your importing owls (even temporarily) into and out of the UK. In case you're not, however, this page of a UK Government website site might be helpful. Note that European Union and International (e.g. CITES) rules potentially also apply. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 18:05, 22 February 2010 (UTC)


 * You'd be better trying a camp site, with a tent. Even if this involves driving a few miles into Manchester. If you are from outside the UK then you would have a lot of zealously enforced regulations about importing or exporting animals to deal with, possibly including long periods of quarantine. In your situation I would pay an avery or whatever to look after them while you are away. You may feel attached to your owls, but they probably couldnt care less about you. 92.29.57.43 (talk) 00:10, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

job
I'm a student.I want earn some money for helping my family and to carry on my study.There is any job on computer (om line or off line ).please give me the link which in not fake.Supriyochowdhury (talk) 18:21, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
 * You might find a job doing tech support via the telephone. Edison (talk) 20:05, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
 * It depends where you live, but many countries/continents have a healthy IT recruitment sector. In my experience, the jobs advertised on the websites of major recruitment businesses are never "fake".  However, as a student - presumably with no (or very little) experience in information technology - you will find the vast majority of potential employers have a need for at least some months relevant experience for even the most graduate/junior roles.
 * One thing to note: I don't know what it is like in your country, but here in the UK I would never expect to pay a recruitment company to find me a job (I suspect it is actually illegal). Recruitment companies get paid by the employer to find suitable candidates.  If they ask you for money, it creates a potential conflict of interest where they could put forward only the candidates that paid the most rather then the best suited for the job.  I think that if they do ask you for money, they are much more likely to be scamming you.
 * Alternatively, like Edison says above, tech support via telephone might be a good place to start and easier to find work as a student. Or, perhaps you could place an advert (eg. in the local newspaper) offering PC support services to people in your community. Astronaut (talk) 02:12, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm going to guess from your user name that you are from India or maybe Bangladesh. Most of us on the Reference Desk live in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia, where the job market may be very different from India's (or Bangladesh's).  You say that you are a student.  Most universities in the United States have offices that help students find employment.  Have you tried talking to someone at your university or college whose job it is to help students find jobs?  They would surely have a better idea how you can find work than any of us on the Reference Desk.  That said, I have just had an idea that may be totally useless, but I will share it anyway, in case it is some help.  When I was traveling in India, I found that there are Internet shops with computers in every town and in every part of every city.  Surely all of these Internet shops need technical support.  You could offer your services, at a low rate (at first) to some of these shops in your area.  The best way to do that would be to have some business cards made, dress sharply, and visit these Internet shops in person.  You will want to speak to the owner or manager in person, and come back again if he (or she) isn't in when you stop by.  If they try you and are happy with your work, they could become references who could attest to your experience and the quality of your work if you wanted to apply for a steadier position at a business process outsourcing firm.  Marco polo (talk) 02:40, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Think what you are good at - there are quite a few things one can do from home to earn money - graphics, web page design, proofreading, searching the internet for information... I once actually found a website where people post orders and you can give your price estimate on how much you would want for the task, but I can't find it right now...
 * I'll find it for you for only £5... Warofdreams talk 14:19, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
 * What about web developer or part-time job? ~ A H  1 (TCU) 01:00, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

I WOULD LIKE TO
HI, I USE EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG FEQUENTLY AND ENJOY IT. BUT I DO WISH THAT THE MORE I LOOK UP, YOU KNOW WHEN THE PAGES DOES'NT EXIST, I WISH THEY WOULD.

AND I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW I WOULD PUT YOU AS A CONTACT ON MY EMAIL'S CONTACT LIST, WHAT WOULD I PUT? WIKIPEDIA.ORG? OR EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.238.200.138 (talk) 18:58, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * First, please don't type in ALL CAPS. It is perceived as shouting and is considered rude.
 * Second, agreed, it's annoying when pages don't exist. But sometimes that is how it is.
 * Third, there is no single Wikipedia contact, so I'm not sure what the point of putting it on a contact list would be. It isn't one person writing these—it is an army of volunteers who write, edit, haggle, delete, etc. everything you read on here. There isn't one point of contact. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:28, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
 * For things to exist, they have to pass a lot of rules...WP:NOTE and WP:SOURCE should get you started. A lot of things aren't notable or don't have enough sources (the two go hand in hand; sources make something notable), so they get deleted. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:12, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * It's actually becoming rather unusual for a "notable" subject to not have an article. Often you need to search for it - or to try a different set of words or capitalisation.  However, if an article doesn't exist - and you think it should, you can suggest it at: Articles for creation.  The volunteers there may be able to help you to start the article - providing the subject is sufficiently notable and that "references" can be found about it...and if not, they will usually patiently explain why we don't have an article. SteveBaker (talk) 20:29, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * If you could provide us with a few examples of things you searched for and didn't find articles for, we might be able to help. 24.120.166.97 (talk) 20:00, 19 February 2010 (UTC)


 * On it being unusual for notable subjects to not have an article: I dunno. If you are interested in esoteric but notable subjects it is easy to find articles that do not yet exist. For example, I am interested in the early history and exploration of the Pacific Northwest. On this topic there are a number of notable people who have no Wikipedia page, such as James Hanna, Nathaniel Portlock, Frances Barkley, Juan Pantoja y Arriaga, and so on. I've also noticed we have no page on the great Spanish hydrographer, cartographer, and admiral, Vincente Tofino de San Miguel. Just a few examples here. But I regularly come across articles that could and should exist, but don't. Also, it is interesting how if you look at the page Trafalgar order of battle and casualties you find that every British ship and captain involved has a page, and every French ship has a page, but only some captain do, and almost every Spanish ship and captain do not. I suspect there is some lesson there about how English wikipedia editors choose what to write about. Pfly (talk) 11:07, 21 February 2010 (UTC)


 * People certainly do choose to write about what interests them the most - which introduces a certain systemic bias. We are a volunteer group - and if nobody happens to be interested in a particular topic, then probably no article will ever be written on that topic.  There is no "overseerer of all human knowledge" who's job it is to tell people what needs to be written about.  That's why we have really detailed articles about every single railway station in Japan - but nothing whatever about Nathaniel Portlock.  There are a bunch of Japanese railway 'nuts' who are incredibly productive in churning out articles - but (evidently) nobody here who cares very much about 18th century navigators.  But also it's a matter of finding verifiable/referenceable data about them - and for Spanish sea captains, that's going to be difficult for predominantly English-speaking editors who would probably need to glean information from books written in Spanish that are not to be found in British, American or Australian public libraries.


 * If you are interested in this subject area - then I strongly suggest you start writing some of these articles yourself. Join your local library - find books on the subject - learn what you can (and note those books for use as references in your articles).  From what I could see, at least some of the people you mention meet the Wikipedia WP:PEOPLE notability standards and they certainly should have articles.  You might also go to the "Talk:" pages of some of the biographies of other people from that era and ask there for people to help you put these new articles together.


 * A little detective-work reveals a lot about these articles. For example:


 * While Nathaniel Portlock doesn't have an article, Joseph Ellison Portlock (who was his son) does. Why is that?  Well, we can look at the "history" tab for that article and see who wrote it.  It seems that the first version was contributed by User:DanielCD in 2005 - who got it (along with about 100,000 other articles) from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition (which - being out of copyright - was typed almost entirely into Wikipedia without changes).  So the reason we have an article about Joseph - but not Nathaniel is most likely that the Britannica simply didn't write one.  Hardly any changes to Joseph's article have been made since then - probably because there are no editors here who care very much about that specific topic.


 * Another place to go to get help with biographical stuff is WikiProject Biography. There are a lot of experienced Wikipedia editors who support that project - and I'm sure you'd get a lot of practical support from them if you wanted to write something.  The way people become "experts" in a field of study is that they transition from being merely "interested" in it and reading avidly about it - to becoming an active contributor.  It sounds very much like (with a bit of prodding) you could become that person.  I sincerely hope so - because plugging important gaps in Wikipedia's coverage is a vital part of what we do here.


 * SteveBaker (talk) 19:39, 21 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Yep. Not everyone realizes these things. I think the original poster's questions/comments were addressed (you can request an article, write it yourself, etc). As for me, I'm slolwy doing just the things you say, and am already the kind of editor you hope I could become! Nathaniel Portlock doesn't exist yet (and I didn't know we had a picture, heh, thanks), but James Colnett does now, so does Ignacio de Arteaga y Bazán, Descubierta and Atrevida, Imperial Eagle, La Princesa, etc. Slow work. I've yet to have to dig into Spanish sources, which I couldn't read anyway. But for the Descubierta and Atrevida I might ask some Spanish WP editors to help--knowing that there is info in Spanish that I simply cannot find in English. Pfly (talk) 20:01, 21 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh! Great!  Another thing you might try would be to look into the Spanish language Wikipedia - if they have articles on these people already, then at Translation and Pages needing translation into English you might find people who would be prepared to translate the salient details and leave you to turn it into pretty English, set up categories and info boxes, find illustrations and such.  You could have a shot at some of the online translation services too.  At the very least, a Spanish article might have references for you to follow.  Another idea is to search other Wikipedia articles for information.  Nathaniel Portlock is mentioned in half a dozen articles.  If you go into those articles and put linking brackets around his name, so he shows up as a redlink - then sometimes that provokes people who "own" those articles to create at least a stub for the referenced name - but also you'll find references in those related documents that will probably lead you to more information about your subject. SteveBaker (talk) 20:29, 21 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Yep, already there again. :-) I'm actually in the process of writing up a question for a couple Spanish Wikipedia editors who have worked on pages that mention info I would like to know more about. I'll have to try to keep the wording simple and use machine translation tools (eg, Google translate), and perhaps ask a few people for advice. Unfortunately the Spanish Wikipedia is often not well referenced--the pages with info I'm interested in have no sources listed. So I'll just ask the main editors of them. And yep, I redlink things a lot--but often on esoteric topics that probably few people read and fewer care to edit. If nothing else they remind me to someday make a page! Pfly (talk) 22:06, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

Amazon 'shopping basket'
I sign in to Amazon, save a number of books to my "shopping basket", then sign out and delete all cookies. When I sign in again the next day, will the items still be in my shopping basket, or will they have disapeared? I am using Amazon.co.uk. Thanks 92.24.96.55 (talk) 22:45, 18 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Amazon stores its "shopping cart" information on its server, not in your cookies. So yes, they will be there. (They might not be saved in your "Items to buy now" cart but your "items to buy later" cart, but if you click on the basket, you should be able to see them.) --Mr.98 (talk) 22:53, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Now I wonder when I'm going to get a receipt or invoice for my purchases? Havnt had one online nor emailed to me. 89.242.89.218 (talk) 16:54, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
 * (It's been a while since I bought from Amazon.) Putting something in your shopping basket is only the first step towards buying it. After you click Buy Now and supply your credit card details I think Amazon gives you an order reference number that you can use to check the progress of your order. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 18:39, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, correct, but that is not the same as an invoice or receipt. 78.146.171.125 (talk) 00:11, 20 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Your "official" receipt is mailed inside the box of product. In addition, you will also get an email confirmation when your item ships. You can also view all the billing and shipping information (including subtotals, taxes, gift certificates applied and other stuff you'd expect to see on a receipt) on the website, under "Your Account". I've never purchased an item to be sent as a gift; I don't know how that works specifically as you'd likely not want a filled out receipt sent to your gift recipient. Matt Deres (talk) 13:54, 20 February 2010 (UTC)