User talk:Lambiam/Archive 4

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RD[edit]

One, I meant the left column as the "Search First" looks like it is its own column. As for thinking it's a stupid assignment, apparently so did my sophmore English teacher because she decided to change it from a mjaor grade to extra credit (i.e. she gave us the same assignment). schyler 01:56, 1 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Award[edit]

Dear Lambiam,

I'm awarding you The EMC² Barnstar!

		The E=MC² Barnstar
		Thanks for answering my math question about factoring trinomials! More specifically, for explaining in such great detail! Alex Ng 20:18, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Regards,

Alex Ng

I'm glad my question was interesting and not a no-brainer! No problem on the simpler way, haha - I guess both the helper and the helped can benefit =)

Thanks again, Alex Ng 04:51, 10 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Euclid's age[edit]

Good spot ... thanks.Abtract 20:25, 10 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Flammability of Oxygen[edit]

So...I should set my cat on fire? :) DMacks 20:58, 13 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Photon symbol[edit]

Your objection to the hv as a "symbol" is noted. I don't really mind having it not in the info-box, but the article's nomenclature section also says "In chemistry and optical engineering, photons are usually symbolized by $h\nu \!$ , the energy of a photon, where $h\!$ is Planck's constant and the Greek letter $\nu \!$ (nu) is the photon's frequency," which I stand by. I added the "optical engineering" part based on my own experience, and found references to back up both that and the chemistry. I think SBHarris's argument was stupid, but the point remains that this formula for energy is commonly employed as a "symbol" on optical detector diagrams, chemical equations that absorb or emit light, and things like that. It's not there for energy evaluation, but just as a symbol for a photon. Dicklyon 20:30, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mathematics: Canadian mass nouns[edit]

I wasn't aware that Canada follows U.S. usage on mass nouns. Does it? I don't see the issue addressed in Canadian English or North American English, so contributions to those articles would be in order. Finell (Talk) 17:27, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for getting back to me, and with such grace and wit. I did indeed mean mass nouns, as I suspect you realize (realise?). And thank you for setting me straight on Canadian English usage. I thought I remembered hearing Canadians say "Parliament are," but my recollection is probably faulty. Actually, I did look at the article's Talk page (and Canadian English and North American English) before making the edit, but not the Talk archives, so I was unaware of the discussion. With your explanation, though, I think that the article should say (and link) "North American English" rather than "North America". I intend to make this change. Thanks again. Finell (Talk) 02:09, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bosnia images[edit]

Hi.

I saw you message on Bosnian wiki.

Can you show me that list of images that will be deleted?--HarisM 15:03, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

thank you[edit]

for good humor on the talk page. :) --VKokielov 22:36, 25 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

(poop)[edit]

you should feel very proud of yourself. I hadn't read the text on your medal when I was about to give you one. --VKokielov 22:37, 25 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"The Barnstar of Good Humor This barnstar is awarded to Lambiam by Icarus3 for this funny comment in a AfD that's being conducted civilly, but is just touchy enough to really benefit from an injection of humor." --VKokielov 01:03, 26 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Soekarno[edit]

Thank you for your message. The picture of Soekarno is/was an foto official release of the Indonesian government and as such is in the public domain according to Article 14 item b of the Indonesia Copyright Law No 19, 2002.

It is not a copyright violation for:

Publication and/or distribution of country insignia and national anthem with its original form;
Publication and/or distribution of any objects that are published and/or distributed by or under the name of the Government, except if the copyright has been declared as protected, either by the law or by the statement of the copyright item itself or when the copyright item was published and/or distrbuted; or
Citing actual news, either fully or partially from a news agency, broadcasting agency, and newspaper or any similar sources, with the requirement that the source must be named completely.

I believe I found the picture on the following webpage: http://www.tokohindonesia.com/ensiklopedi/s/soekarno/index.shtml

Besides this webpage has made a statement that anyone could use their pictures on Wikipedia.

I hope this is sufficient. :-) Meursault2004 18:02, 30 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you[edit]

Hello Lambiam, I just wanted to thank you for helping me out at the Reference Desk. I asked about the thermohalin conveyer, and you gave me a link to exactly the article I was looking for. Thanks. | AndonicO Talk 12:33, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you[edit]

Thanks for helping me at the science reference desk. I asked the ice age question, and you gave me a very useful link. Thank you! | AndonicO Talk 19:18, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you[edit]

Thank you for your response in good faith to my problem posted to the Math reference desk. I have added my response that hopefully puts the problem properly in a maths framework. I look forward, eagerly and earnestly, to your further reply. --Peter Kirby 08:27, 10 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you[edit]

Hi - Thanks for your response and advice to my "linear programming" quandary. I will keep you updated on what routes I find the most efficient! Best --Yoyoceramic 23:05, 13 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you[edit]

Hi.Thank you very much for clarifying my "Travelling Salesman problem". I believe you are a Ph.D holder in Mathematics.Actually I wrote a program to find the shortest path for the travelling salesman problem using Hopfield network and it gave poor results.So my problem was whether my understanding of the Hopfield method was flawed or the method itself had a fundamental limitation.

Award[edit]

I would like to award you the Original Barnstar for your great work in the reference desks!

		The Original Barnstar
		For your tireless and helpful work in the Reference desks. PullToOp ə n ^talk 22:44, 15 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Keep up the good work! PullToOp ə n ^talk

Re: RefDeskBot[edit]

Hi - thanks for your suggestion. I think that it's been brought up somewhere in the past, and the problems we found were that we'd have to have a cut off date for the archival of date pages, it's difficult to do(!) with the level one as opposed to level 2 headings and it's quite susceptible to vandalism or small typo fixes, which could (effectively) wreck the desk if just a few users did it to old days. However, I don't want to rule it out as a proposal, though I'm not sure if I can readily do it. If you'd like to pursue the idea, can I ask you to post at WT:RD, where I hope we can see what, if anything, wants changing. M a rtinp23 01:31, 18 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pseudoscience (arbcom)[edit]

If HeadleyDown is involved then I will probably be a participant, as he has a sneaky style and few people will recognise him. If so I will be giving evidence. I thought about talk page or participant, but I would choose to become a participant if there is evidence, and the source that says there is, is a plausible source who asked me to involve myself.

So thanks, and it was indeed considered carefully. FT2 ^{(Talk | email)} 15:26, 21 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Daniel Colegrove[edit]

That is him, He was like the Cameron Crow of Photographers in the Hollywood club sceen in the early 80's. I was suprized he's still around. A lot of his work is "Orphaned" and was printed all over the place. Big controversy about copyright stuff.

happy Turkey Day!!!!![edit]

I wish you a very merry Thanksgiving! Hope you and your family have a magnificent day! So, what are you thankful for? Hooray and happy gormandizi^ŋ! --Randfan _{please talk talk to me!}

Have a great day! Please respond on my talk page (the red "fan" link in my signature). Cheers! :)—Rand fan !!]]

Cheers! :)—Rand fan !!]] has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling to someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Smile at others by adding {{subst:smile}}, {{subst:smile2}} or {{subst:smile3}} to their talk page with a friendly message. Happy editing!

Happy Thanksgiving Lambiam! ^{This method of wishing someone a happy thanksgiving has been stolen (with permission) from Randfan (talk · contribs).} | AndonicO ^{Talk | Sign Here} 01:05, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

File:Turkey Roast.jpg

I wish you a happy Thanksgiving! I hope you and your family have a magnificent day! So, what are you thankful for? | AndonicO ^{Talk | Sign Here} 01:05, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sufism[edit]

Dear Lambiam, On reading your comments I looked through the Sufism article. I have been a student of Sufism for more than 10 years, and I have never seen any source (other than M.T.O. Shahmaghsoudi themselves) refer to the Oveyssi order. There is now loads of bogus stuff in the article, so I've given it an NPOV tag. My problem is a shortage of time. I noticed that loads of external links which would have neutralised this bias have been deleted, one of the most authoritative of which was http://godlas.myweb.uga.edu/Sufism.html. Thanks for alerting me and others to this problem. Gwaka Lumpa 12:45, 26 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Flemish, Ghiselin, etc.[edit]

Hey, thank you for your excellent writeup of Flemish dialects on the reference desk! I see why some of the reference books dodge the issue, sometimes just saying "and he wrote songs in the local vernacular" or something similar. And yes, that's a good article on Ghiselin on the German wiki; there are some people over there quite knowledgable about early music: I'll probably pillage the works list from there. Regarding the Music of the Netherlands issue, I left a note on the article's talk page. I'm not quite sure how to approach it. There needs to be historical perspective in all of those "Music of Modern-Day Country" articles, and putting some there has been on my to-do list since mid-2004. Oh well ... Happy editing! Antandrus (talk) 16:10, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Homework questions on WP:RD[edit]

I'm sorry; I'm new at the reference desk. I only just started there after asking a question there myself. THanks for informing me. I'll keep that in mind later. --May the Force be with you! Shr e shth91 15:24, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Reference desk boundary value problem[edit]

Hi Lambiam, and thanks a lot for your help on reference desk. I'm pasting a note that I made on the desk here. Regarding the problem, one thing I can do is to make the x, y and theta boundary conditions approximate at s = 1. That is, x(1) Є (X-ε, X+ε) , y(1) Є (Y-ε, Y+ε), theta(1) Є (T-ε, T+ε). That is, any solution with x(1), y(1) and theta(1) within a distance ε around X, Y and T respectively, are fine as long as x(s) and y(s) avoid certain regions. There may or may not be solutions, depending upon the size and location of holes, and the values of X, Y, T, and ε. Would that help? Cheers! deeptrivia (talk) 16:26, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Probability of article selection[edit]

Hi! Belated thanks for the ({{CURRENTDAY}}+31*{{CURRENTMONTH}}) mod X formula to my question on the math ref desk. It seems to be working quite the way I want. But before I employ it on Portal:Kerala, can I have a confirmation from you that the values it produces wont be biased in any way (like my original formula)? Also, will it give me ALL values up to X over a years time? Thanks again. I really appreciate it.--thunderboltz ^(Deepu) 13:56, 13 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Splendid! You can see the formula in action now on the Kerala portal. Thank you!

--thunderboltz ^(Deepu) 04:51, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks[edit]

Thanks for your enlightening answer to my "Contradicting Articles" question on the Reference Desk: Science. BeefJeaunt 20:17, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Hamsi" song, thanks[edit]

Thank you so much for your research. It's something I've always wondered about, and never thought I'd be able to find the answer. I was pleased with the short answer, but am just thrilled to have a more complete story! Thanks for taking the time to study my question. Ingrid 05:16, 21 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Spelling[edit]

Why are you needlessly reverting my edits that correct spelling, are you trying to prove a point? "Snorkel | Talk" 10:31, 24 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Please stop reverting my edits to the more acceptable spelling for International users. "Snorkel | Talk" 10:37, 24 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think you need to read Wp:bold#Reverting, before you go off making wholesale reverts"Snorkel | Talk" 10:45, 24 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Merry Christmas![edit]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Lambiam! | AndonicO ^{Talk | Sign Here} 01:04, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

May you and your family have a Merry Christmas, as well as any other Holiday you may celebrate. I hope that warmth, good cheer, and love surround you during these special days. May God bless you during the Holidays. | AndonicO ^{Talk | Sign Here} 01:04, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

File:Julekort.jpg

Thank you[edit]

Lambian, thanks for taking the time to read and comment my proof of the four color theorem. I´ve just made a comment on the Reference Desk, answering David Eppstein´s original comment that invalidated my proof. Please read it and tell me what you think about it. It´s not an answer only to him, but also to you. I´m really learning a lot with you and the other people who are trying to make me understand the answer to my question. FoCoTh 05:29, 27 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Function[edit]

Hi Lambiam; I am happy with your rephrasing at Polar coordinate system, but I wanted to let you know that the Archimedean spiral is a function, it's just a function of r with respect to theta, as is customary in polar coordinates. —Mets501 (talk) 20:02, 27 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Portrait of the Librarianiam[edit]

Hello Lambiam, your answers at all the desks are outstanding. Is this what you look like? ---Sluzzelin 00:26, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Re: RefDeskBot[edit]

Thanks for reporting that - I've fixed that diff, and another error it had made elsewhere, and all seems to be in order now. Were there any other problems you noticed? I've just ported the bot over to a new wiki-editing framework (my own creation this time, after I decided that I preferred the speed of a better system). Thanks, Mart inp23 01:15, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks (again) for Helping Me Out![edit]

Dear Lambiam,

Thanks for helping me understand the equation for a line - this is the second time you've helped me. I really appreciate the time you took to explain in full detail, step by step. I'm glad Wikipedia has such kind and helpful people like you.

Thanks once again and Enjoy the New Years,

Alex Ng 07:50, 30 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]