User talk:Jitse Niesen

Jitse Niesen

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Thanks

Well, I'll try to make some edits (I am working on bijection), but watch my English - is faaaar from perfect :-(. Wojciech Świderski 03:38, 13 July 2008 (CDT)

Don't worry about your English. I think it's good enough, and if not, it will be corrected. I will watch the bijection article and see if I can improve on what you write. -- Jitse Niesen 16:18, 13 July 2008 (CDT)

Definition of a mathematical category

Thanks for the adjustment to the definition of a mathematical category. I'm working on an illustrated example. Peter Lyall Easthope 14:42, 13 July 2008 (CDT)

Wikimedia, copyright, etc.

Hi Jitse, when I needed a picture I always asked Stephen Ewen, but apparently he is on holiday, because he doesn't react to my messages. I like to have one picture of Hans Christian Oersted and perhaps two of James Clerk Maxwell. Wikimedia commons has plenty of those, but since I never bothered about copyright, I don't know if I can grab them. Do you know?--Paul Wormer 10:12, 4 August 2008 (CDT)

From your friendly neighbourhood mistress of ceremonies

I signed you in at The August Party Do join us on Wednesday September 2nd for what I hope will be a very active party with music, music, music. Theme: "My Favourite Band" (or, 'ensemble' or 'group' or 'orchestra' or 'singer' or 'recording' or...? Aleta Curry 23:28, 7 August 2008 (CDT)

Proposals results

Hi. Some months ago two proposals were presented, one concerning an "Internationalisation sandbox" [1] and another about translation of approved articles [2]. I went to the Proposals main page and to its associated subpages to find the result of those proposals (it says that they were assigned to the Executive Committee), but nothing. Is it possible that I missed the page were the results of those proposals were posted or they still haven't been analysed by the Executive Committee? --José Leonardo Andrade 13:15, 16 August 2008 (CDT)

These proposals have not yet been discussed by the Executive Council. I don't know what's happening. Your best chance is to ask the proposal driver (Pierre-Alain Gouanvic and Jens Mildner, respectively). I'm supposed to check that the proposals do not get stuck but I'm afraid I have been slack recently. -- Jitse Niesen 07:10, 18 August 2008 (CDT)

Thank you for the information. The drivers of those proposals haven't been particularly active on Citizendium lately, I've checked their contributions. It worries me that it takes so long to make a decision, the proposal looses momentum and perhaps even people loose interest. I'll see if I can contact those users. --José Leonardo Andrade 13:31, 18 August 2008 (CDT)

Link to an image

Jitse, in the bibliography of the Rene Descartes article I tried to add a link to the scan Descartes_Geometrie_matieres.png but the link is not visible. Please tell me what is wrong. Thanks, Peter Lyall Easthope 17:21, 1 September 2008 (CDT)

Hi Peter. I had a look and the link was visible, so I'm not sure what you mean. Perhaps you intended to include the actual image in the article? If so, you need to use Image: instead of Media:. Have a look at the edit I did just now (diff). If that's not what you want, then just revert my edit. Cheers, Jitse Niesen 04:39, 4 September 2008 (CDT)

jn>"I had a look and the link was visible, ..."
Yes, the link was visible but led to an empty page! The link should anchor to the image.

jn>"If that's not what you want, ..."
Its ok for me but I would expect others to prefer that the title be a link anchored to the image.

jn>"... then just revert my edit."
I tried it. Not satisfactory as explained above.

In any case, the image is now visible. Thanks, Peter Lyall Easthope 19:45, 10 September 2008 (CDT)

Discussion page for Category Th. article

There is also an issue on the discussion page for the Category Th. article. ...Peter Lyall Easthope 19:50, 10 September 2008 (CDT)

I finally got around to replying. This has proved to be a rather busy month. I copied your question from Talk:Category theory/Related Articles to Talk:Category theory. I think it's best not to use talk pages of subpages; it's just too easy to lose discussions and questions that way. -- Jitse Niesen 06:10, 21 September 2008 (CDT)

diff(approved, draft)

Jitse, there should be a one-click diff of a draft from the approved article. An editor needs to see quickly any suggested improvement and a contributor should also see the differences. Perhaps this exists and I haven't found it. Thanks, Peter Lyall Easthope 10:08, 29 September 2008 (CDT)

Yes, there should be. I believe there even used to be a button for that, but it stopped working after a software update. I'll think about it. -- Jitse Niesen 09:32, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

Correct, there used to be such a button. I don't know what changed but that method no longer works. I have not seen any other way of doing it, except the obvious and laborious cut/paste/compare route. Chris Day 09:35, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

P.S. I'll track down the old method and show you how it was done. Possibly that will give you a clue to a fix. And thanks for the {{localurl: idea. It works prefectly. Chris Day 09:39, 30 September 2008 (CDT)

Naming proposals for wars

Is the proposal process indeed the right format when I do not have a specific recommendation? In other words, I want to get some consensus on this, or at least the acceptance that the originator can come up with the name he or she thinks is most appropriate, and it's an accepted procedure that other names can be used, but they will become redirects in the interest of efficiency.

This is something that could and should be a matter for a group of Military Workgroup editors, but, as far as I know, I'm the only one. There have been several examples of problems: I referred to a U.S. operation by its code name, in the all-caps format that the U.S. uses, and got an enormous number of complaints. There was much arguing about whether Vietnam War was proper going back to 1959, 1954, 1945, 1937, or earlier.

There is merit to spending time on the argument if there are serious questions about the time periods, and if they should have different names. In cleaning up what was an impossibly large Vietnam War article, I kept that as a main article but spawned links to a number of somewhat arbitrary subarticles.

In other words, let's either have a policy, or accept the first author's working title (unless it is offensive) and put in redirects for every other proposal. Howard C. Berkowitz 17:38, 1 October 2008 (CDT)

The proposal process is not for brainstorming. You must have a reasonable definite proposal in your head before you start (or you may have two possibilities in your head), but not just a vague idea. If you have only a vague idea, then it's probably best if you conduct a couple of discussions first and that should give you an idea on what's the best.

The rule "originator chooses name" is a definite proposal, so you could try that. Whether it will be accepted is of course another thing. It seems to be in contradiction with CZ:Naming Conventions.

If something concerns only the Military Workgroup, and you're the only editor, then I think you can do whatever you like. The all-caps format is possibly an example of this. Just start a style guide for military articles, and write that U.S. code names should be all-caps. I can understand that many will dislike it, but I think within your discretion, as long as you're the only editor. Listen to the arguments, give them serious consideration, but in the end, the editors of the Military Workgroup decide. The only body who can overrule you is the Editorial Council, and if there are enough opponents they will probably petition it. Of course, it's another matter whether it's wise to do something that may alienate other authors and that may be overturned (personally, I think all-caps is odd, but I haven't followed the discussion and if this is the convention in the military and academics studying the military, that's a very strong argument).

The Vietnam War is rightly is also in the History Workgroup, so you will have to work with history editors on the scope of our article Vietnam War. -- Jitse Niesen 14:43, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

It's a little worrisome that I am the only active editor for Military. I did start a draft of a style guide for Computers on the Workgroup page. Is that, in general, where such should go, or perhaps a subpage (or equivalent) of the main workgroup page?

I'll propose some rules, once I know where to put them. I do have some specific things in mind, more where there are several ways to do it and I have no preference, and others where something is needed but I don't know what it is. In other words, for the latter two, I actively want discussion.

Objections to the all-caps conventions (and I have never said it should be used for everything) have been strong "I don't like it", as opposed to "the reason for not doing is..." For example, if I put Operation Barbarossa in all caps, someone could quite properly correct me because the WWII Germans did not use all caps. The current British do not, which is why Operation Granby (they didn't have sub-operations) goes with DESERT STORM/SHIELD/SABRE. It's a judgment call to use the English "operation" rather than the German "Aktion". Perhaps there should be a redirect of "Aktion Barbarossa". Howard C. Berkowitz 15:06, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

I can well imagine that it worries you to be the only active editor. Some guidance for style guides can be found in CZ:Proposals/Create workgroup style guides. It points to CZ:Chemistry style guide as an example. I think David E. Volk is the person to ask questions about workgroup style guides. As long as the style guide for the Computer Workgroup is very short, you can keep it on the main workgroup page, but once it grows a bit (which will surely happen), it's probably better to put it on a page by itself. -- Jitse Niesen 13:53, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Belated Happy B'day!

Many happy returns of the day! Supten Sarbadhikari 00:26, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Admissibility of an Article

I am interested to know whether an article about my grandfather's marine engine business would be admissible. Easthopes were the most numerous small marine engines on the west coast of Canada during the first half of the twentieth century. An article on Vivian Marine Engine Works is also possible. Vivian built larger diesel engines used in tugboats, ferries, small freighters and other workboats.

I've had a brief look for rules of admissibility and not found any.

Thanks, Peter Lyall Easthope 16:49, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

If the motors were fairly widely used in a broad area, sure, why not? Go for it! Hayford Peirce 17:10, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

I agree. For future reference, the rules are in CZ:Maintainability, but it is not clear (at least to me) how to apply them. -- Jitse Niesen 12:40, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Next step for disambiguation proposal

Hi, I'm trying to figure out what the next step is for my disambiguation proposal. I gather that I need to make a resolution in the EC that it be adopted - is that correct? Thanks... J. Noel Chiappa 14:37, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

That's correct. I believe you're a member of the Council yourself, so you can propose the resolution yourself. -- Jitse Niesen 12:20, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes, nice feature, that! ;-) I'll go read up on the resolution stuff, and put one in the queue. Thanks! J. Noel Chiappa 13:30, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

About Logarithm

Jitse, I am thinking of adding another section to Logarithm entitled "Numerical examples". It would include an example of multiplication of two numbers (say 135.683 times 2.5787) and an example of finding a cube root (say of 738.532). I realize that calculators are used for that now ... but I still think that the article should include examples to show how such calculations were done before we had calculators. Do you think that such a section would enhance the article? Please let me know. Milton Beychok 19:13, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

I think it would make a very nice addition. You could also write a bit about slide rules. At the moment, the article doesn't really explain why we should care about logarithms. -- Jitse Niesen 12:33, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments, Jitse. However, a Mathematics editor (named Dimitrii Kouznetzov) has now re-written the lead-in section and re-located the graph without any discussion or rationale on the Talk page. The net result is that the lead-in section which was easily understood before is now way above my head. Too much higher mathematics terminology. So I have decided to bow out rather than do any further work on the article. Milton Beychok 23:42, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

I'm looking at it. -- Jitse Niesen 13:06, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Milton, that's exactly when people like yourself should be commenting. If you, an informed scientist, don't understand it what chance do others have? I'd argue that while editors are great for checking accuracy they are not so great a judging the correct level for a lay reader. I admit I have the same failings in biology. Chris Day 13:11, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

I agree very much with Chris's comment. Milton, you can be useful in flagging things that are too complicated. As you may have seen, I also agree that the introduction that Dimitrii wrote is at too high a level. As for moving the graph, surely that can be discussed? My own opinion is that this is only a small detail. -- Jitse Niesen 14:00, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Chris and Jitse, I will take your words to heart. Next time, I won't "give up" so easily. Thanks, Milton Beychok 15:49, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Categories

Thanks for the follow up on Dmitrii's page. Now I think about it do we have a CZ: page on categories? I don't recall seeing one. If not I might take that section from Dmitrii's talk page and rework it into a short FAQ section on categories at citizendium. Chris Day 13:13, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

The only thing I know of is CZ:Article Mechanics Complete#Categories, which is hard to find and I think my explanation is a bit better. Oh, and there is also a paragraph at the pages about how we differ from WP: CZ:Introduction to CZ for Wikipedians and CZ:How to convert Wikipedia articles to Citizendium articles. -- Jitse Niesen 14:00, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

I'll try and collate it. Chris Day 14:24, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Sinus en cosinus

Hallo Jitse, ik heb dit geschreven: sine and cosine. Ik heb geprobeerd dit op VWO niveau te schrijven. Maar voor mij is VWO bijna 50 jaar geleden (of eigenlijk bestond het toen nog niet) en ik bezit ook geen VWO boek(en). Met andere woorden, ik heb de didaktiek zelf verzonnen. Mijn plan is om dit in het stuk van Dmitrii te schuiven, maar voordat ik dat doe wil ik graag dat iemand anders er naar kijkt. Zou jij dat willen doen? Als je geen tijd hebt zal ik het Milton vragen. Groetjes, --Paul Wormer 15:56, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Dat is inderdaad hoe ik het zou doen. Eerst via een rechthoekige driehoek en dan via de cirkel. Op details heb ik wel wat opmerkingen. Ik zou in het tweede stukje geen vectoren gebruiken, maar alles uitdrukken in de coördinaten van een punt op de cirkel. En ik denk dat je bij het bewijs van de somformules een beetje te snel bent in hoe rotaties m.b.v. de (co)sinus uitgedrukt kunnen worden. Maar het is beter geschikt voor een algemene encyclopedie dan de tegenwoordige versie (ik heb de aanpak in het huidige artikel trouwens wel eens eerder gezien). -- Jitse Niesen 16:36, 3 November 2008 (UTC)