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User talk:BillC

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Welcome!

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Copyright

Hey, thanks for catching the potential copyright problem at this page. Nice work! --HappyCamper 23:43, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

Well, if you're interested, you can check out Misplaced Pages:Copyright problems. The instructions there are much simpler to follow than votes for deletion, if you've ever tried processing VFDs. On the very odd occasion when I first started, I've encountered other users complaining about these things being handled incorrectly by me, but I sort of shrug it off and think there's a first for everything and try to learn from it. At times I find it really enjoyable to combat copyright problems and vandalism of sorts on Misplaced Pages, and it only takes practise to do it well. If you want to dabble in this sort of stuff just make sure along the way you don't get burned out, and you'll do fine :) Thanks for those links - I'll process them right away! --HappyCamper 00:10, 6 August 2005 (UTC)
For your hard work on the Red Links Project

Barnstar

BillC,

Thanks for finishing up the Red Links Project! For your dedication, I award you the Working Man's Barnstar. Use it only for good, and never for evil. Thanks again! – Quadell 12:58, August 21, 2005 (UTC)

gothic vs. gothic revival

thanks for pointing out the important difference re. Charles O'hea page Eric A. Warbuton

Hey there!

Hi BillC - I remembered a while ago you helped out with some copyright issues here on Misplaced Pages. I am now an administrator, and I just wanted to let you know if that if you ever need me for something, I'll try my best to help out - always feel free to leave a message on my talk page. See you around the Wiki! --HappyCamper 13:15, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

Crowns and rebels

Only articles about individuals are covered under CSDA7. --Ryan Delaney 07:43, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

DYK

Updated DYK query Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article Hertfordshire puddingstone, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently-created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.


Updated DYK query Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article Codex Calixtinus, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.


Updated DYK query Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.


Updated DYK query Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article adynaton, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.


Updated DYK query Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article Cyril Arthur Pearson, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.


Admin

I have nominated you for adminship. Go there to accept if you feel like it. --Wonderfool t(c) 16:18, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Guestbook

My first guestbook signature on Misplaced Pages - what a neat idea! Plus, it rhymes too! :-) --HappyCamper 16:46, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Dominic Preston

I've now deleted its talk page. Usually, the talk page is deleted as well, unless there are reasons that it should be kept; here are no real reasons to do so. Thanks. Enochlau 22:27, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Enduro

Thanks for your comments and pointers on the enduro page I updated, I have now removed the stub tags. Slowly finding my way around! Kcordina 10:57, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the transformer

Thanks for the new picture at transformer. Could you do one for leakage inductance that shows that not all the flux links both windings? --Wtshymanski 18:45, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Very nice illustration for leakage inductance, thanks! I have some drawing tools, maybe over the Christmas break I'll get a chance to do an equivalent schematic. --Wtshymanski 18:21, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Demkina article

I agree that it would be useful to get rid of the disputes and opinionated rambling in the article. Doing this, however, does not necessarilly require getting rid of detail. It should be quite possible to have extensive encyclopedic detail about a topic without having POV pushing occur, it just requires some restraint placed on those who want to push a POV. In this case, this should probably be done by gaining a consensus among the other editors. I also think that the article replacement needs to have sufficient detail within it to warrant a full replacement of the original article. It should probably even have a summary description of the points regarding the experiment which were subject to critical debate, I just think this should be written by someone who can write it in a neutral way which simply describes the areas disputed, rather than tries to persuade that opinions are correct. FRJohn 20:44, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

The statistical analysis is essential, because most people have no intuition for the statistical likelihood or unlikelihood of getting a result. Many people have intuitions that place "half right" as the typical value, so they think someone would get 3 or 4 right just by guessing. But this is quite wrong, as shown by the math, where the actual expectation value is 1 correct. It is important to specify this as part of any meaningful description of that test design. After all, the goal here is to write an informative encyclopedia entry which can help readers make their own decisions, rather than to placate the agendas of people involved with a situation. As such, the reader needs to be given the knowledge necessary to make those decisions. I believe this includes a detail of how likely each result is, as well as a description of the major points of criticism regarding the experimental setup. Then the readers are equipped with the necessary information to make their own informed decisions about how to interpret the events, rather than being fed an answer. FRJohn 20:58, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
One group of people think the test is valid, one group of people think the test is invalid, and of course, an additional much larger group do not know if it is valid. If the test is valid, the statistical analysis tells exactly how to interpret it. If the test is invalid, or dubious, then it is invalid or dubious. Since the test WAS performed, the proper approach is to explain how to interpret the results if you assume it is valid, and to explain what the major criticisms are which question its validity. The statistical analysis is fact because that IS how you interpret such a test if it is valid. The problem is, the article has been focusing on a banter back and forth between whether or not she has an ability, and reads like a playground argument. So the solution is simply to equip the reader with the available information, and then not try to interpret whether or not Natasha Demkina has any ability. This requires editors who are determined to demonstrate to the world that Natasha Demkina does or does not have any ability, to either change their editing habits, or refrain from editing the article. Unfortunately, there will not be a resolution until one of those two occurs, and I'm afraid that you and I will not be able to hammer out a lasting solution until something is changed with the combating editors. The article will simply expand with time and each side will keep trying to prove their point to the world. Misplaced Pages does not work well when this occurs. I don't believe that removing all relevant information will provide a solution. FRJohn 22:54, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

I am about at (or have passed) that point myself. My mistake was offering a comprehensive NPOV rewrite, which I've generally had good success at in the past. Askolnick is not familiar with WP or perhaps even with a general purpose encyclopedia; he is more familiar with scientific journals, such as those he writes for and has edited for. - Keith D. Tyler 19:32, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

SVG version??

I have seen the picture Image:Single-phase_transformer.png: it is very nice. In the comment, you say you created it with Inkscape, so why didn't you upload the SVG version?? as far as I know, Inkscape is meant to be used mainly for creating SVG images. Alessio Damato 19:23, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Weeze

Hello BillC,

Thanks very much for the message. All the copyright and related information to Weeze is okay for use in wikipedia, because I work in the Town Hall in Weeze in Germany and am responsible for the PR-stuff, whether on the internet or other media. I have personally translated all the german texts into english and am also responsible for the photos which I placed on the weeze-wikipedia-website. In the rush to get the information placed on the site, I made the mistake of not always logging on! Sorry. The German and English websites (which I also linked) - to include information on Weeze's twin-town Watton has also been cleared for use by me because it is also on the Weeze website - were my doing and as such I would be grateful if you would release them for public viewing again. Thanks very much. Khalid Rashid 12:57, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Hello Bill, Thanks for the response and the information. Once again I would like you to know that I am responsible for the content of the information provided on the Municipality of Weeze website and as such have my employer's approval for the use of the contents contained on this site. However, I will take your advice and try to improve upon copyright and tone issues. The text on the twin-town of Watton will also be improved. So give me a couple of days to sort things out. This was my first venture into wikipedia and I am more than willing to learn as to how to use wikipedia. And sensible advice from some one with experience in wikipedia is more than welcome. Therefore thanks for the tips. 194.77.253.245 07:29, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Bundi

Hi, Actually I have neither added not removed any information on the Bundi page -- only composed it to read better. Many of my page-changes appear more major than they actually are, because I also get rid of white space and repositon images: this gives the impression of largescale paragraph erasures/additions, which in fact has not been attempted. ImpuMozhi 14:15, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Hi, sorry but I have very little experience with images. I ventured to upload some images a few days ago, to embellish some film-star pages with, on the premise that film-star images can be disseminated without fuss; I was however mistaken, and the images the images were soon erased. So I am no good at this, sorry. ImpuMozhi 18:39, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

SVG does it better :-)

The SVG format is harder to create but it works much better: PNG is a bitmap, with a limited definition, while SVG draws pictures using vectors. It has a higher quality and it needs a very small space.

Make this test. Put the following code wherever you want (in the Misplaced Pages:Sandbox, for example):

] ]

check how the SVG version looks better :-) Just find a way to fix the subscripts and to remove the empty white space at the bottom, and we'll use it on the Transformer page. If you can't, I'll try to do it when I have some time.

By the way: it is a very good picture: did you make it from scratch, drawing anything without any help?? Until now, I used Inkscape just for minor changes in already-made pictures... Alessio Damato 19:15, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

The subscripts look alright. Why did you change the flux symbol?? it was absolutely perfect before. It was exactly like a Φ {\displaystyle \Phi } while now it looks like an empty set... Alessio Damato 20:19, 21 December 2005 (UTC)


Sorry, I can't help you that much. SVG is a new format, and its support within software is increasing, but it is still far from being stable and consistent. I have several programs supporting SVG, but they have different outputs one from the other. Moreover Misplaced Pages has its own engine, so you can't be sure of the output as long as you don't upload it.
Here is what I can suggest you to do. If you create an SVG image, make it consistent, with its own structure. For example, the idea of putting the subscripts manually won't work very good because the rendering engine (whichever you are using) doesn't know you want to make a subscript, so it will behave differently from what you expect. I don't know if SVG provides a way to write subscripts. When I had to write one, I just used Ns instead of Ns. I know, it is not exactly the same thing but it works. Moreover I can't add Greek letters to any SVG, that is why I have been quite surprised to see a proper Φ {\displaystyle \Phi } in your first graph. But then I realised you couldn't see it properly, so I think it is a problem within Misplaced Pages.
About now, just publish the SVG version of the PNG you updated, then we'll be waiting for the Misplaced Pages engine to be improved. Report on the PNG page that there is an SVG version, too, and vice versa, maybe somebody else will note the problems and will find a way to fix them. Alessio Damato 15:02, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
the picture in Transformer is absolutely great, congratulation! I have to start using Inkscape as well. How did you sort out all the problems you got?? what about that matter of the arrows? and the greek Phi? Alessio Damato 15:49, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
the very last thing: I noticed you proposed the image as a featured one. As you have seen I supported it but: why did you make the current pointing outside the transformer? I think it is widely accepted to make it pointing inside. Moreover, why did you uploaded it and candidated it here in en.wiki, wasn't it better to make it in commons.wikimedia?? Alessio Damato 01:50, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
about the arrow: it does not matter that much, as long as it is consistent with any mathematical formula within the document. There isn't any mathematical model for the Transformer in its page, but I might add it as soon as I have some free time. As you say in the featured images page, conventionally, in a 'two-port network' as is shown here, current is defined as positive for flows into the device; that is absolutely right. Since the encyclopedia has to be consistent, I think it is better to use the same conventions for all the two-port networks. Aesthetically the picture is not affected at all. About commons, since the second colored version looks better I suggest: upload the final version overwriting Image:Transformer3d_col.svg, remove (or request it) Image:Transformer3d_col3.svg because it will be just a copy, finally upload it in commons with the name Image:Transformer3d_col.svg, using the same description. The wiki-engine will take care of the fact that the two images have the same name. It will create no problem at all. Bye :-) Alessio Damato 18:26, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Transformer

Be bold Bill. Just do your thing on transformer. We could do with some action!--Light current 20:07, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

THanks Bill. I think your diagram looks pretty cool now- and we can read the legend. Well done!--Light current 21:46, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Flux_leakage.png

I really like this diagram but i was jus wondering if its possible to increase the text size for the labelling of the currents? Theyre a bit small when the image is produced at normal size like in leakage inductance. THanks for reading.--Light current 20:20, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

How about now? --BillC 23:33, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Luton flashover

I have started a section on substation design and protection, and I would value your input on something. It is the Luton flashover and related matters.

The Luton flashover was interesting becuase what happened was that an arc from a HT conductor to earth occured. This short then caused circuit breakers to open becuase of the overcurrent. Too many protection devices were activated and then everything went to pot. The defense against such an overreaction in the event of such a fault which I was told about was that a substation has all 'earthed' metal work isolated from earth except for one cable which passes through a current transformer. If current is detected in the earth cable then the location of the fault is clear to the protection electronics. Hence with good design of the protection systems it is possible to open fewer circuit breakers then it would be otherwise. The problem is that I do not have the references to back up this design concept which I was told about some years ago by a substation expert.Cadmium 21:31, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

What I do know about the Luton flashover is that it occured at a very large substation/switching station in Luton ( you can see it from the M1). The event started as a phase to earth arc/short. I do not know much more about the event, I do not know the date on which it occured. But I imagine that it was pre 1970s.Cadmium 22:18, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice, I do not think that the section was too UK centric. I have seen that some of the other parts of the world do things differently. eg I saw at a Czech substation that sheep can be used as a means of controlling the grass in one part of the compound (or somewhere to graze them) but I imagine that while the Czechs use different voltages for transmission lines (and different grass control) the basics of how the system works will be the same.Cadmium 00:58, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Dear Bill, Thanks for your input on the subject of power outages. I have heard of quite a few cases of big outages which have started with small foul ups which then snowball into a big outage. Would you feel OK about improving the Power outage page to explain more about the physics of how power grids can fail in this Cascade-based way.Cadmium 21:31, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Animated GIF

This looks broken to me.
This looks fine to me.

Hi Bill!

To begin I would say that on my system, Image:3-phase flow.gif runs pretty nicely - it doesn't seem jerky or anything to me. I'm not on a fancy system (Athlon XP 1500+ w/512Mb XP/FF)

I put together that animation by making a solid model in Autocad, animating it in 3d studio max, exporting it as (if I remember correctly) an uncompressed AVI (functionally identical to a series of bitmap frames, just all in one file), then opening it in Jasc's Animation Shop (makers of Paint Shop Pro), which I used to compress it into an animated GIF.

Certainly, Animation Shop did some optimisation on it (mapping identical unchanged pixels to transparent, reducing number of colours) which might lead to better performance... as I say, though, I don't see a problem with your current animation. I could take a shot at recompressing yours for you if you're sure there's something wrong with it.

I wasn't sure whether the optimisation got lost anyway if/when the software resizes our images so I decided to have a look at what happens. Looking at the images to the right, I see mine broken and yours fine. Perhaps my map-identical-pixels-to-transparent causes the brokenness in my image - that would also fit with yours not having the same problems.

Incidentally I recently broke my installation of Jasc software so I've been trying Photoshop/ImageReady. I wasn't aware ImageReady did animated GIFs. I have investigated and it seems to do all the optimisations I used except for 'map identical pixels to transparent'. I would guess, then, that that is the optimisation making the difference between the two animations.

Cheers! Mike1024 (t/c) 23:32, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

DYK

Updated DYK query Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article quadrature phase booster, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Mark Williams

Info from www.markwilliams.org.uk

Autotransformer

The variable transformer picture in the transformer article is actually a Superior Electric Powerstat rather than a General Radio or Instrument Services and Equipment Variac. Variac is certainly used extremely widely as a generic term, but is it ok to use it in the caption of the picture? -C J Cowie 00:45, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

The General Radio trademark was cancelled in 2002. In 2004, Instrument Service Equipment Inc. submitted a new application to the US Patent and Trademark Office and is apparently about to be granted the trademark. In the practical sense, it must be fair to say that variac is a generic term. In the legal sense, that is apparently not the case. There might be an interesting story behind this, but I already feel foolish for looking this up. I would not be inclined to revise anything beyond the caption unless someone complains. -C J Cowie 02:07, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Featured Picture

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, Image:Transformer3d col3.svg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Misplaced Pages:Featured picture candidates. ~~~~

Congratulations, and thankyou for making it for us. It is a great diagram. Raven4x4x 06:15, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Re: Live fire exercise

Actually, I rather like the edits to the page. And about the {globalize} tag, I always try to see things from the other persons perspective. If we can not admit out short falls and blind spots here than all we do is create the proper atmosphere for an edit war, and an edit war serves no real purpose. As they say, "Pride goes before the fall". TomStar81 00:32, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Welcome!

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Happy editing! --Piedras grandes 18:52, 18 January 2006 (UTC)