User talk:Max Naylor/Archive5

English dictionaries - a favour

I want to ask you a favour or opinion, if you like. The only English dictionary I possess is the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, which is rather limited, although it has served me well for over 20 years. Now I am for almost the first time in my life (well, at least my adult life) encountering words which are neither there nor do I know them beforehand. I just had to figure out (ironically enough, using knowledge of linguistics) the meaning of the words meronomy and troponymy. So, here comes the favour: Which reasonably priced, but very comprehensive English-English dictionary or dictionaries would you recommend? Keep in mind that my vocabulary, be it in the dictionary I have or in my head, runs to thousands of words (bragging, I know, but I think it's a fact nevertheless). I need something more. I suspect that the word Oxford will turn up in the process, but I need something very thorough. All the best Io 21:29, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Quite, the best authority for the English language is indeed the OED. In would recommend the 2112 page Oxford Dictionary of English (see here) for an extremely comprehensive dictionary, although the Concise Oxford Dictionary of English (see here) will probably suffice, I mean there are over 240,000 words in there for goodness’ sake. This page lists all of the current Oxford dictionaries, take your pick, I mean, you know what you need more than I do. Your best bet if you don’t want to go for the OED is Collins, here’s their latest edition. They’re also about to launch online access for those who have bought the book, which could prove to be useful. Anyway, those are your choices, I wouldn’t recommend buying a generic dictionary or one that is published by neither of these two companies, and the OED is my dictionary of choice. Hope this helps! Max Naylor 14:13, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

I jumped the gun yesterday and ordered the Shorter Oxford Dictionary by Trumble and Stevenson (it runs to 3750 pages with more than half a million definitions). You did not mention that book, but in my mind Oxford stands for quality when it comes to publishing. I also couldn't resist adding The Oxford Style Manual by Robert Ritter. That is apparently 1056 pages, which I think is pretty hefty for a style manual. But the price was reasonable, 17,50 pounds, so if it is as good as I hope I'll never have anyone to blame but myself for faulty style, i.e. not having bothered to look things up. To make a personal confession, although I am reasonably salaried, I am also an Amazonholic, so my wallet will hurt quite a bit, come next month. By the way, do you have an opinion of those two books I ordered? (Ordered yesterday, dispatched today, one can't complain about the service.) All the best Io 14:52, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

LOL, you have Amazon in Iceland? Well, to be honest I would recommend any publication by Oxford, but as I said before you know your needs better than I. I was going to say, you must have quite a lot of dough to spare, forking out on all of these books! Best of luck with your order! Max Naylor 15:00, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

I was just looking at my Amazon page. Have you noticed, that whenever you buy anything, your recommendations change based on the assumption that you want more of precisely the same thing, just by another author? :-) Cheers Io 15:03, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Not that much dough, but I am a compulsive book collector in certain fields. I even it out with a fairly simple life in some other areas. :-) But I'm in the red at the moment, so I have put an Amazon-embargo on myself after this last spending spree (and you don't know the half of it). :-) At the moment I'm reading Mallory and Adams' work on Indo-European, and it is magnificent. Of course, I'm reading their account of the story, but I have other sources to compare with. But, man, is it fun! Cheers Io 15:19, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

How about buying the 12-book set? --Stefán Örvarr Sigmundsson 04:34, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Diacritics

Do you know how to put, say, a ring directly under a letter, or for another instance, a letter, then a macron on top and then an accent directly over the macron? It's probably some HTML-related stuff I don't know. Thanks in advance. Io 18:30, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

I’m not sure how you’s go about it on a Windows machine, but you need a font that supports the characters in the first place (try Gentium for starters). Saying that, however, there may be a way round this using the combining diacratics found in many newer fonts, try Arial as an example (i.e. open up Character Map and find the combining diacratics), which should, theoretically, combine with any other character. Have a go, and tell me your findings. Max Naylor 18:46, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

As requested, here are two examples: ḁ and e̅́ (I don’t know if these will display correctly, you may have to change your browser encoding). Max Naylor 18:49, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

The first one displays correctly (assuming it's in italics), the second does not - the macron is a bit to the right of the e, and the accent follows the macron directly, i.e. not on top. Does Wikipedia understand the Unicode (hexadecimal) codes? Thanks and cheerio. Io 20:08, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

I’m not sure, I think it’s just a rendering error, it displays correctly in my edit box. Max Naylor 20:24, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

I made a slight mistake. The accent is in its correct place above the macron, but the macron starts where the accent ends, i.e. moved to the right. I'm using Unicode, and in the character map there are all kinds of combinations (for instance an e with macron and accent in the right place), but no similar a. Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice said. I'll check out Gentium, but it's evening now, and I'm a poor working hack, so I'll probably postpone it till tomorrow. :-) Cheers. Io 20:49, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Messenger

Most people I know regard the messenger as a bloody nuisance and turn it off at the earliest opportunity. But to get it straight, it enables users to communicate in real time (something like the old UNIX write-command), or have I got that wrong? Gmail offers the same or a similar facility, and somehow I trust them better. I avoid Microsoft if possible - this is written in Firefox, although on Windows XP. But if you want a gmail address, which is by invitation only, I can provide you with one. They have a very good reputation, and you get 2 Gb without further ado. I haven't bothered to find out, if one can extend that, I've been using it for close to a year and I'm only up to 2% of used space. But shall I invite you an account? All the best Io 17:00, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary

Arrived today, worth every penny. I'm reading some pretty academic texts right now, and words like desinence and meronym are there. Troponymy, regrettably, was not, but all to gather a rating of 10. And, they use the IPA, they give the etymologies and a hundred other things to make it your last stop. We shall forgive them a bit of hyperbole, when they say on the cover that the OED is the greates dictionary in any language. In the fields of dictionaries (of any kind) and scientific publications of any kind, every language faces some stiff German competition. :-) The Oxford Style Manual was bought because it was affordable, but as I partly write for a living, I may very well have to concoct something in English, so I think it was not a bad choice. Get them if you can. Cheers Io 16:19, 12 July 2007 (UTC) PS: No, we don't have an Icelandic Amazon. Everything I've bought through Amazon has been from the USA, the UK or Germany. Io 16:19, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

A question, answer much appreciated

I just got a mail from Wikipedia telling me:

Someone from the IP address 200.121.200.11 requested that we send you a new login password for the English Wikipedia.

A quick run of whois in Cygwin revealed the following (copy and paste from screen):

The command is the next line:

/cygdrive/c/cygwin/home$ whois 200.121.200.11

Output begins:

% Joint Whois - whois.lacnic.net

% This server accepts single ASN, IPv4 or IPv6 querie

% Copyright LACNIC lacnic.net

% The data below is provided for information purposes

% and to assist persons in obtaining information abou

% related to AS and IP numbers registrations

% By submitting a whois query, you agree to use this

% only for lawful purposes.

% 2007-07-13 15:44:04 (BRT -03:00)

inetnum: 200.121.200.0/25

status: reallocated

owner: PE-TDPERX3-LACNIC

ownerid: PE-PETD9-LACNIC

responsible: Telefonica del Peru

address: Av. San Felipe 1144 Surquillo, 1144, edi

address: 34 - Lima -

country: PE

phone: +51 1 210-6771 []

owner-c: GRT2

tech-c: GRT2

created: 20040924

changed: 20040924

inetnum-up: 200.121.192/19

inetnum-up: 200.121.128/17

nic-hdl: GRT2

person: Gestion Dir. IP Telefónica del Perú

e-mail: gestionip@TELEFONICA.NET.PE

address: Calle San Felipe 1144, 1144,

address: LI34 - Lima - LI

country: PE

phone: +51 1 2106771 []

created: 20021204

changed: 20030923

% whois.lacnic.net accepts only direct match queries.

% Types of queries are: POCs, ownerid, CIDR blocks, IP

Output ends.

Am I justified in asking, what the fuck is going on, or should I have dispensed with the expletive? Anyway, do you have any insight? Cheers Io 18:55, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Er... I really don’t know, that’s quite scary. Could just be a junk e-mail, try posting a message over here or place {{helpme}} on your userpage. Max Naylor 19:07, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the link. I asked the question and got an answer (three actually) within minutes. Short version: Nothing to worry about. Cheers Io 22:20, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

N-crap

I think I have finished this terribly boring translation. I'm not gonna revise it but get straight to bed. It was fucking boring and I hope I won't have to do that shit again anytime soon. --Stefán Örvarr Sigmundsson 04:37, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Viaduc de Millau

As a professional technical translator with knowledge of the Millau region, I've put in several hours' work on this article and labelled it "translation finished". I hope you'll agree it's improved. I'll have one more pass through it tomorrow. Cheers. El Ingles 20:37, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Template nomination for deletion

Hello, you were the creator or a main contributor to one of the following templates which has been nominated for deletion: Template:Infobox UK schools, Template:Infobox UK school, Template:Infobox College GB and Template:Infobox English Public School. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the templates' entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. CR7 18:59, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Aqua - Apple Menu.png

Thanks for uploading or contributing to Image:Aqua - Apple Menu.png. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is not a suitable explanation or rationale as to why each specific use in Wikipedia constitutes fair use. Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale.

If you have uploaded other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on those pages too. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any non-free media lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. — Moe ε 16:37, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

iPod Touch

Looks like you got beat by a few minutes. Someone already got the article going and I redirected your version to it. Spryde 17:47, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I fixed your redirect error. Max Naylor 17:48, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:BT Home Hub.PNG

Thanks for uploading or contributing to Image:BT Home Hub.PNG. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is not a suitable explanation or rationale as to why each specific use in Wikipedia constitutes fair use. Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale.

If you have uploaded other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on those pages too. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any non-free media lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. — Moe ε 07:40, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

This is OK to be deleted now as I have replaced it with a free image. Max Naylor 09:45, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free media (Image:Screen-1-.jpg)

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Orphaned non-free media (Image:BT Home Hub.PNG)

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Wikipedia:WikiProject BSAC

This is to inform you that the project page above is being considered for deletion in accord with wikipedia policy. Please feel free to take part in the discussion at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject BSAC. Thank you. John Carter 14:20, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Sanna Annukka

A {{prod}} template has been added to the article Sanna Annukka, suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process. All contributions are appreciated, but this article may not satisfy Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and the deletion notice explains why (see also "What Wikipedia is not" and Wikipedia's deletion policy). You may contest the proposed deletion by removing the {{dated prod}} notice, but please explain why you disagree with the proposed deletion in your edit summary or on its talk page. Also, please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Even though removing the deletion notice will prevent deletion through the proposed deletion process, the article may still be deleted if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria or it can be sent to Articles for Deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached. If you endorse deletion of the article, and you are the only person who has made substantial edits to the page, please tag it with {{db-author}}. B. Wolterding 15:51, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Education in Iceland

The article Education in Iceland you nominated as a good article has failed , see Talk:Education in Iceland for reasons why the nomination failed. If or when these points have been taken care of, you may apply for a new nomination of said article. If you oppose this decision, you may ask for a review. King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 05:46, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Fair use disputed for Image:Monopoly.svg

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If it is determined that the image does not qualify under fair use, it will be deleted within a couple of days according to our Criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 04:42, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Fair use disputed for Image:Gucci.svg

Thanks for uploading Image:Gucci.svg. However, there is a concern that the rationale you have provided for using this image under "fair use" may be invalid. Please read the instructions at Wikipedia:Non-free content carefully, then go to the image description page and clarify why you think the image qualifies for fair use. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If it is determined that the image does not qualify under fair use, it will be deleted within a couple of days according to our Criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 04:59, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free media (Image:Havering Sixth Form College Logo.png)

Thanks for uploading Image:Havering Sixth Form College Logo.png. The media description page currently specifies that it is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, it is currently orphaned, meaning that it is not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the media was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that media for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

If you have uploaded other unlicensed media, please check whether they're used in any articles or not. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that all non-free media not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. BetacommandBot 16:31, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

The image has been replaced with a new logo. Max Naylor 16:37, 17 September 2007 (UTC)