User talk:Atlant/Archive 6

Some "talk" is archived

• Discussions from before August, 2005 can be found at User talk:Atlant/Archive_1
• Non-current stuff from before January, 2006 can be found at User talk:Atlant/Archive_2
• The various old ACLU-related "discussion" can be found at User talk:Atlant/Archive_3
• Non-current stuff from mid-January, 2006 through mid-May, 2006 can be found at User talk:Atlant/Archive_4

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French

Bonjour Atlant! I've just come across your message (from late 2005 I think) saying that you are learning French. If you need any help or have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I am very familiar with the problems of anglophones and their lexicon in the apprehension of French, that is to say, I can probably tell you how/why something is said in a particular fashion. Hope to hear from you! I am glad to see that you are not taking the Bill O'Reilly approach of hating the French. If you ask me, I think he has an inferiority complex (he has no culture). --Aquarelle 13:36, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

My principal problem is that I'm still somewhat afraid to actually speak French, although last fall I spent some time with a private tutor who helped me a great deal with both pronunciation and grammar. The key for me will be when I finally believe that I have enough of a critical mass of the language to not fall flat on my face as a fool. I'm getting close; among other small victories, I'm registered and have actually made one or two sensible edits in the .fr Wikipedia.

The view from the butte looking towards Centre Georges Pompidou

I am glad to see that you are not taking the Bill O'Reilly approach of hating the French. If you ask me, I think he has an inferiority complex (he has no culture).

An unfortunately large number of Americans seem to be "ignorant and proud of it", willfully maintaining that ignorance of the fact that there's a whole world out there and things to experience besides what they see on their TV sitcoms each night. Sadly, right now, they seem to hold sway in this country, much to our (and the world's?) long-term detriment. Speaking for myself though, I've enjoyed all of my travels around the world including my three trips to France, and my wife and I would be very happy to go there again; she's been showing me a lot of Internet travel sites in a sort of "nudge-nudge" fashion and I hope to accommodate her soon. This time, she wants to stay down nearer the Seine; last time we stayed up on Montmartre. (One of the photos in the Montmartre article is mine as are all of the photos in the .en version of Canal Saint-Martin.) We'll probably get back to Montreal before that though; it's a little close to New Hampshire than is Paris.

Thank you for writing! I've noticed your name around Wiki, so I'll keep you in mind if I ever get brave enough. ;-)

Atlant 14:49, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Locking LocalTalk

Nice edit on LocalTalk. But are you sure the Apple ones were locking? All the Apple connectors I saw used a miniDIN. While they didn't exactly jump out of sockets, they didn't "lock" either. Maybe it would be better to say the PhoneNET ones offered more resistence? --Steven Fisher 01:45, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

But are you sure the Apple ones were locking?

Pretty sure. The Mini-DIN-3 connector wasn't exactly standard. IIRC, it had a little latching tab that was automatically depressed when you pulled back on the body of the connector. I still have Apple LocalTalk boxes and cables, Farallon PhoneNet boxes, and some Belkin PhoneNet knock-offs; if I can remember, I'll shoot some pictures and add them to the article.

Atlant 12:00, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Pretty sure is good enough for me! --Steven Fisher 21:44, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

remorse

Your recent edit of a Tom Swiftie (to read "He's dead", if I got it right) is cool. What it had had was palindromic, however, which fit the pun on "remorsefully". Can you do a Morse palindrome which makes appropriate sense? That would be the best. Otherwise "He's resurrected" or "He's come back" might be better than "He's dead", do you think?

You might discuss it on the Swifties talk page, too. --Lavintzin 20:51, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, okay. I changed it when the original Morse didn't make any sense. Howzabout the ever popular "Madam I'm Adam" palindrome? (Well, palindrome 'cept for the apostrophe.)

Then again, "He's dead! He's dead!" might be even more obvious.

Atlant 21:36, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

"He's dead. He's dead." is what I ended up implementing.

Atlant 11:01, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Bptdude and Stirling Engine discussion

Hi. I wanted to let you know that I have unblocked Bptdude (talk · contribs) who I blocked earlier today for removing comments at the Talk:Stirling engine page. Apparently, those comments were placed by him in the article and moved to the discussion page by another editor (Lumos3). Bptdude felt that he didn't need to keep those comments around, and blanked them from the talk page. He's relatively new, and didn't realize that not using edit summaries and continuing to remove them would look like vandalism. So, you were all doing what seemed right...and he was doing what seemed right, but I just wanted to explain the situation to you all. Hopefully I've set him on the right track and you all can continue to create a great article. Thanks! Syrthiss 22:04, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! I'm not surprised it was something like that (and that's why I tried to write my first "warning" in a more-advisory tone. The thing that made me wonder, of course, was that Bptdude never replied to any of us, but perhaps he hadn't realized that he could?

In any case, thanks again for making things right!

Atlant 23:38, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

I think thats exactly the case, that he didn't know he could... or didn't know enough to check the edit summaries in the history... and that some of the warnings were placed on his userpage, not on his talk so when DV8 2XL copied them over to his talk it appeared he had been seeing warnings for several days instead of ~1. Cheers! Syrthiss 12:06, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism

Why does your userpage get vandalized so frequently? --NEMT 18:18, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Because I spend time doing Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol and the vandals don't like to be called on their actions.

Atlant 18:26, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

On that note, thank you so much for patrolling the Vermont towns recently - these have become a common target as of late so thanks for helping set them straight! H0n0r 03:09, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

You're welcome. What Wiki really seems to need is a filter that automagically catches kids editing for kicks during study hall. ;-) That's where most of the completely silly potty and penis stuff seems to come from. And it's not just Vermont kids, either. Kids worldwide are all apparently amused by the same things. (Wot a shock, ehh?)

Atlant 11:24, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

I take offense to that, I'm 21 and when I vandalize pages from the comfort of my own home with great amusement. --NEMT 17:31, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

How nice. And I see you just vandalized another page. Do we really need to go through the whole rigamarole of warning you, etc. before eventually writing you up on WP:AIV? Or could you just behave yourself?

Atlant 17:36, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll have you know I vandalized Bashar al-Assad days before I ever commented here; and I have no plans to stop informing the world of his many appearances in Stately Autocrat and similar publications any time in the future. --NEMT 23:09, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Re: Ground or Common?

The term 'reference' for the circuit common has a lot going for it. On the other hand, it does have three syllables. I teach an introductory EE course to non-EE majors and I just covered the node voltage analysis technique where step 1 is: "Select a circuit node to be the reference node - the node to which all other node voltages are referred to". Alfred Centauri 23:37, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Select a circuit node to be the reference node - the node to which all other node voltages are referred to.

There you go! (Also three syllables ;-) )

Thanks for writing back!

Atlant 23:50, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Packistani A-bomb

I have put this article up at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Packistani A-bomb. Your opinion on this matter would be appreciated.--DV8 2XL 02:37, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Done -- thanks for letting me know!

Atlant 11:50, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Sorry

For stuffing the battery page - mt internet went down during a save I have fixed it at an internet cafe : chad 212.158.202.207Chadnash

No worries. Another semi-common event is that certain browsers will only edit 32KB of text (which is why the Wiki software warns you whenever a page gets longer). If you try to edit the article with these browsers, they have a nasty habit of cutting off the article at the 32,769th character. (That's what I figured had happened to you.)

Atlant 15:53, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

ACLU Hypocricy

HOw about it A, since I see from you home page that you are a Boston area resident and an ACLU member, you surely must be more aware than you indicate of the controversy over the public giveaway of Boston public land to a Mosque; if you aren't aware of this, why not spend an hour or so today and find out WHY the ACLU refused to intervene in the lawsuit - and then why don't YOU edit the ACLU article to reflect on this matter?Incorrect 13:41, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

It's worse than that; a close reading of my user page would show you that I'm not just an card-carrying ACLU member, I'm also a member of the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union. This doesn't mean, of course, that I follow closely the actions of the Mass CLU, but sure, I'm aware of the mosque debate. I'm also aware of the second question I asked you (which you chose not to answer): 2) Must the ACLU take up every cause that strikes the fancy of its opponents? Surely you realize that the answer is "No". And I suspect that if you looked back in history, you'd find that plenty of Christian churches and probably even a few synagogues have also benefited from underpriced land, so it seems odd that you'd be concerned about a mosque now benefitting. Why would the ACLU take up the question of the mosque benefitting when we apparently have never taken up the question of churches benefitting or synagogues benefitting? Given the state of America today, surely the opponents of the mosque can find some anti-Islamist organization to help in their activities? Surely they don't need the ACLU for this one?

Atlant 14:01, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

A (and I don't intend to be uncivil, sometimes I find sarcasm too irresistable but that's probably a character flaw), you are correct that the ACLU can't take up every case; but the Boston matter isn't just about a creche during Christmas at a local city hall - it's about the granting of land worth a lot (depending on the source) either several hundred thousand or several million) at way below market value to help construct a Mosque. Surely the ACLU should marshall its forces for the big matters, yet it appears to have ignored the macro in favor of the trivial - that indicates the ACLU either lacks a sense of proportianality, or that is operates with bias [we present the facts, you decide.] And have churches and temples ever benefited from below land value deals? I'm sure they have, and I'm sure the ACLU would violently object if they were aware of the giveaways (as would I). So I'm the one who is consistent here, objecting to any giveaway of public land to any religious organization - it's the ACLU that seems to have different objectives depending on the religion involved. Isn't this the very definition of hyprocrisy?Incorrect 14:36, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

As I said, I have no direct insight into what causes the Boards of the Mass CLU or ACLU National to decide to take up or not take up a given case, but there are several factors you might weigh here:

1. I don't know from whom the request to take up this case comes, but that would have impact on the decision. If the request appears to be coming from someone or some group that simply doesn't want a mosque or Muslims in their neighborhood, I doubt the CLU would take it up.
2. The question of "they fight creches, shouldn't they fight mosques?" isn't quite so clear-cut as you present it. Every year, the nation, the states, and cities and towns across the country give literally billions of dollars in subsides to various mainstream religions. They do this in the form of relief from taxes. It's not really so clear that anyone is extending all that much of a handout to the folks building the mosque. And the construction of the mosque might address positively other social problems in the area. By comparison, a crech instaled in front of a city hall is pretty blatantly allowing the proselytization of a single faith which also happens to be the overwhelming majority faith in this country.
3. Who knows what else is "on the plate" of the Mass CLU attorneys? As you know, if you folow the news, they've also just taken up the massive question of what to do about the (clearly-illegal under Mass state law) turning over of phone records to the NSA. And that's just the latest in a whole series of insults attributable to the USA PATRIOT Act.
4. Attorneys who do CLU work are often un-affiliated with the CLU and often work pro bono; perhaps there's no attorney who wants to take up this case?

Really, you're trying to use this case to beat up on the (A)CLU but you're not standing on firm ground. I might also point out that I left your other edit (about the gag rule being imposed on National board members) standing; I think you're much safer accusing us of hypocrisy on those grounds than on the grounds that we appear to not be willing to sue the Muslims over their mosque.

Atlant 14:48, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I think you are relying on the one swallow does not a summer make argument: I will look for the occasional bird in the sky and when I find them I will revisit the issue. Thanks.Incorrect 15:02, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Pizza stone

Thanks for the additions. :-) I was amazed that there wasn't even a stub on it! — ceejayoz ^talk 23:30, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the thanks! And for the million articles Wiki has, it's still amazing how easy it is to find some really basic topic that has no coverage at all!

Atlant 23:36, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

A Barnstar

Are you opposed to these? It seems unbelievable that a hard worker like you should not have one.

		The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
		This overdue barnstar is awarded to Atlant after I was alerted to his continuous invaluable contributions when he reverted vandalism on my user page twice. He remains a polite, patient, and friendly person despite all the things that can and do happen here. MrFishGo Fish 12:57, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

No, I'm not shy or politically oppsed or any such thing. And, "Thanks!"; I try to do my part to keep Wiki nice and spotless and am glad to have that appreciated.

Atlant 13:00, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Sushi and Wikibooks

I'm not the one who removed the Wikibooks link, but I'm guessing the reason they removed it was that there's no such Wikibook. Follow the link you reinstated, it takes you to an empty page. If you want to start the book, feel free, but if not, I'd recommend removing the link again until such time as its referent exists. --Haruo 19:44, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation! If you haven't already deleted the link, I'll go back and remove it.

Atlant 19:44, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

New England "fundamentalists"

Did Yanksox get you to change the page? If so, he probaly did it after I had to show him proof that cannot be denied about CT.[1]

You New England fudamentalists need to leave CT out of you small world and low self-esteem. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.159.172.100 (talk • contribs) .

Have you ever actually been out South-Western Connecticut? Say, along Route 30 or I-84 east to Hartford, Vernon or even Union? Do those places really feel like New York City to you? Or do they feel like New England. (Not Boston. New England.) How about Mystic or New London? Does those feel like New York? Mystic Seaport seems to have a lot more in common with any number of old New England whaling towns (for example, New Bedford or Nantucket) than it does with Dutch traders in lower Manhattan.

Seriously, you're not going to win this one. While an argument could be made that Fairfield County is, in mindset, more a part of the New York metropolitan area than it is part of New England, there is no doubt in most folks mind that the state of Connecticut, as a whole is a part of the region we call New England. And all your personally abusive arguments aren't going to convince anyone, and may well get you blocked from editing from time-to-time. You've been invited to craft text on the New England talk page that we can eventually all agree to; why not take up that offer?

Atlant 11:43, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Signature

Your peculiar habit of placing your sig on a separate line may be intended to make it stand out, but it actually makes it more difficult to discern your entries from those of others. It is also much better to combine sentences into one paragraph if reasonable, for the same reason. (Just a suggestion of course, I realize some people are very particular about their personal styles). --Blainster 16:02, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Opinions obviously vary. ;-)

I actually do use the "in paragraph" signature when I'm participating in a series of parallel replies (such as Wiki votes). But I definitely feel that this style of reply buries the author's signature, and I think who wrote a post is an important piece of data. Because of this, I prefer to write in full block style, especially when my reply spans multiple paragraphs.

Atlant 23:14, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks again

Thanks for the revert on vandalism (again!) to my userpage the other day. Many thanks, --TeaDrinker 18:50, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

...Always welcome!

Atlant 19:03, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Newbie Thank You 's

Perhaps this would be a useful section on your own talk page. I could not find an email address to send a personal note.

The style correction on the PDP-1 Spacewar entry I made was appreciated. If you spot grammer or spelling mistakes, please take a free hand. --brucekg 00:07, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Re: My thanks to NHN for reverting my user page

You're welcome. :) --Nearly Headless Nick 07:13, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Rather than start a new section, I'll just add it here. You're welcome! :) -- Steven Fisher 21:31, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Talk:Dark City

No worries. When I noticed that User:ju66l3r's comments had been removed, I figured it was a simple mistake and put them back. No harm done. Odd that you weren't warned about the edit conflict, though. - EurekaLott 05:17, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

This is the third time that I know this has happened to me (an unflagged edit conflict on a "Talk" page). Because I get normal notification of conflicts on edits of pages in the main articles space, I can only conclude that this non-notification is either a deliberate choice or a bug in the Wikimedia software.

Atlant 18:39, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Talk:Democratic_Underground

The trolls are loose. What do you think we should do about the Dummie Funnies link. I am certain that it is not an acceptable link for this article, and that they ought to start it a page of its own, or mention it on the Free Republic topic as it is a creature of that message board.

Also, I am an old PDP-8, PDP-15, PDP-11 and VAX guy myself! You wouldn't have any old RSX-11M distribution disk images lying about would you? I want to build an emulator for Linux, but have no OS to run on it.

BenBurch 14:50, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm actually torn on the DUmmie Funnies link. On one hand, I think it's obvious linkspam, intended to drum-up business. On the other hand, I'd hate to push the issue and see the PFC and PI links taken out as well, as they're probably the left-wing dual of that reich-wing link. I guess the bottom line for me would be to let it stay and live to fight another day.

Meanwhile, no, I don't have any RSX docs/disks around (and never had much at home anyway, I was much more a RSTS/E guy before becoming a VMS guy and then Solaris guy), but the first place I'd look would be the Bob Supnik SIMH emulator project; some of his emulators come complete with the runnable software. Failing that, you might E-mail me via Wikimail and I'll ask a real pack-rat that I can probably still contact.

Atlant 14:57, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Let me call your attention to my attempt to achieve a defensible consensus at Talk:Democratic_Underground. BenBurch 00:04, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Re: Embedded systems

You're welcome - thank you for noticing! Nice to feel appreciated :) akaDruid 13:49, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Office Space

Uncommented deletions? You'll forgive me for pointing out that we have talk pages, where a very thorough debate about this is taking place. Also note that the revision in question was related to an earlier revision which was clearly summarized. And putting unsourced material into Wikipedia, which you did with your revert, contravenes WP:V, an official policy. I've been working with Leflyman and we've now got sources on some of the pieces that were questionable. If you have sources for others, by all means source them. Deizio talk 00:52, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

So add an edit summary (audit trail comment), perhaps as simple as "See talk". Deletions without any audit trail comment are an almost-certain hallmark of a vandal.

Atlant 10:41, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Fair enough. I still dont really get it tho, I'd made 3 edits to the article when you made yours, 2 with manual edit summaries (one was admittedly short, just saying "tags") and a popups assisted revert with the automatic summary. Also vandals dont tend to use popups, which the page history shows I had previously done.

I also know all about vandalism, and one of the first things I do when a bluelinked user with a bluelinked talk page makes a suspicious edit is check their user page. It's usually pretty clear from there if we actually have a vandal in out midst, I would hope that's the case with mine, even without looking at the 3rd userbox ;)

I've never heard the term "audit trail summary" before, is that a tech term from another industry? Deizio talk 11:20, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

It's quite likely that I didn't look at the history when making my decision to revert so wouldn't have seen earlier edit summaries; of that, I'm guilty as charged. But that's one reason why essentially every edit should have some summary associated with it, if only to avoid mistakes by people like me. ;-)

Meanwhile, audit trail is a very common term in information processing. Essentially all transaction processing systems (which is what Wiki fundamentally is) maintain one or more audit trails, although many are automatically (rather than manually) kept.

Atlant 11:26, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Template:AVconn

I see I did a wrong edit on Template:AVconn but why do you removed DisplayPort?

Armando82 13:34, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

My mistake -- thanks for calling it to my attention! I've now put it back; could you check and see that it's as you wanted it?

Atlant 20:26, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

It's OK. Thanks!

Armando82 13:37, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

3RR

Please refrain from undoing other people's edits repeatedly. If you continue, you may be blocked from editing Wikipedia under the three-revert rule, which states that nobody may revert an article to a previous version more than three times in 24 hours. (Note: this also means editing the page to reinsert an old edit. If the effect of your actions is to revert back, it qualifies as a revert.) Thank you.Hipocrite - «Talk» 16:09, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I understand WP:3RR perfectly well. And you had no business deleting those *THREE* links. One of them is under discussion onthe talk page and the discussion clearly hasn't reached a consensuss; the other two links have not been discussed for deletion at all and as I'm pretty sure you realize, were the topic of some heated AdF warring not too long ago.

Atlant 16:12, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

The three links violate WP:EL - all of the editors external to your political slapfight have strongly agreed on this. Hipocrite - «Talk» 16:13, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

If you think so, you should have removed the like to Conservative Underground as well. Otherwise, your actions can only be seen as being politically-motivated.

Atlant 16:14, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Please review my contribution history to the article in question, paying specific attion to this edit. Hipocrite - «Talk» 16:19, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Clearly, since you've been reverted several times by several different editors, you're operating without any consensus having been formed. I also note that you've felt the need to "warn" the editors who revert you. Perhaps you need to consider your own actions rather than handing out warnings.

Atlant 16:29, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Margaret Thatcher

May I ask how by any stretch of the imagination the following (re Margaret Thatcher) can be construed as anything other than POV:

"Undoubtedly one of the most significant British politicians in recent political history, she is also one of the most divisive, being loved and loathed in equal measure."

I respect anyone affiliated with the ACLU, but for you to just state that the above is "fact" is absurd. I really hope you are not motivated by any personal atavisms, because-referenced citation would not pass muster on any other "encyclopaedia", except perhaps one put out by Roberts-Rinehart/Sean McPhilemy.

I hope you will reconsider your rv as it is unfounded.

Yours,

64.105.74.207 21:20, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree, it is ridiculous.

LailaRookh 21:27, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, which part of that compound statement is untrue?

Maggie clearly wrought significant changes on Britain; privitisation, etc. She was also highly divisive, much like her contemprorary, Ronald Reagan, adopting an attitude that she could have her own way regardless of opposition. She's loved by many. She's loathed by many.

So which part of that isn't true?

Atlant 22:03, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

One can say that about anybody in politics who has an impact. I don't think your kind of comment would survive long on, say, George W. Bush's page or Daniel O'Connell's (talk about "own way regardless of opposition." What is more you are disrespectful to a great woman ("Maggie") who dealt with things that would have sent you into permanent reclusion, including chaos bordering on anarchy, disloyal opposition, terrorism and a narrow escape from assassination. It is evident that you are guided by your atavisms because otherwise you would know that any sentence that starts with the word "undoubtedly" is obviously POV and not encyclopaedic. I give up. LailaRookh 22:46, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Of course my statement wouldn't last on the GWB page; the political partisans covering his ass would have it out of there in 20 seconds, just as you did for Maggie. But that doesn't mean what I'm saying isn't the absolute truth.

Atlant 22:54, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Sup?

Sup Atlant? --NEMT 19:07, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Flying-spot scanner CRT

Atlant -

Thank you for your revision on the Telecine article with regard to the CRT emiting an electron or photon beam. I understand, logically, it should be called a photon beam - as it is visible light - but every resource I can find specifically states a CRT emits an electron beam. Can you point me to a resource or two that specifically states a flying-spot scanner telecine CRT emits a photon beam?

Just some of the resources:

"Lines on the inside of the screen traced by an electron beam to create an image called a horizontal scan line. These lines appear on a CRT monitor or a TV screen." - Definition of Raster Retrieved 7/2/07.

"Each time an electron from the cathode hits the screen, a spot of light appears, and this is the technology used on conventional television sets and computer monitors." - World of Physics: Cathode Ray Tube Retrieved 7/2/07

Bartleby Encyclopedia Retrieved 7/02/07 About.com CRT Retrieved 7/02/07 [2]

Perhaps it would be correct to say that "the CRT emits an electron beam, which is converted to a photon beam through the phosphors coating the envelope"? I understand the logic of that, however I cannot find a single resource to support that logic. All of the resources I look at refer only to an electron beam.

Thank you. LACameraman 19:23, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Careful, confusing beams can cause massive problems for any potential Ghostbusting efforts. --NEMT 19:49, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

The cathode in a cathode ray tube emits electrons (so called "cathode rays" before we knew what electrons are), but once the beam strikes the phosphor screen, the energy contained in the accelerated electrons is converted to light by the phosphor coating on the front of the tube.

A flying spot scanner is an alternative to pointing an ordinary video camera (or camera tube) at the film. Instead of taking in the entire picture at a single time, a flying spot scanner creates a moving spot of light that scans through the image in the transparent film. Think of it as moving the film past the face of a CRT 'cause the flying spot scanner tube is just an ordinary CRT except that it uses a phosphor that has a very short persistance. Because of this, any given spot on the phosphor screen only glows for an instant (essentially, only as long as the electrons are striking that spot). Then, a simple photomultiplier tube watches the light coming through the film from whatever spot is being illuminated at the moment. (If you're scanning color, there's a beam splitter splitter to separate the three colors and then three photomultiplier tubes.)

Atlant 20:47, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Atlant - thank you for the quick response. I understand wholly how a flying-spot scanner works (I have, in fact written about it and taught others). I am discussing the specific semantics of "electron" to "photon" beam. In order to refer in the Telecine article to a "photon" beam, I do need a verifiable, published resource to cite. As I said, I understand the logical physics implications, but cannot argue with every resource specifically referring only to "electron" beam. To change to "photon" I need a specific citable resource. Can you recommend one? LACameraman 21:06, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

I hear google has tons of information on both photon and electon beams, including instructions for differentiating between the two. --NEMT 00:45, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

I hear that stalking/harassing someone on Wikipedia can get you in trouble with the Wiki authorities.

Atlant 00:52, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Stalking/harassing? I'm providing useful resources for this fellow wikipedian. --NEMT 01:04, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Lynching Is What The KKK Does

The KKK is a terrorist organization, lynching is an important part of what they do. The picture belongs. Steven Argue (UTC)

Please do not question Atlant's judgement. He's an expert on what's vandalism and what isn't. --NEMT 01:41, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism was never part of the question, and Atlant never said it was. This has to do with a difference of opinion of what is best for the article. Steven Argue

Sorry, Atlant's word is law. --NEMT 11:07, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

But lynching isn't what the ACLU does, and the fact that we defend the free-speech rights of everyone, even odious people does not imply in any way that we would defend the KKK's lynching of someone. If the picture belongs in this encyclopedia, then it belongs onthe KKK page, not the ACLU's page. You understand that it's never "easy" fress speech rights that are at issue, right? It's never the person saying "Hurray for President Bush!" who is shut-down, it's the person wearing the anti-Bush tee-shirt trying to get into an allegedly-public "Town hall meeting" being held on public property. Similarly, it isn't people sitting around singing Kumbaya, it's people suggesting that maybe we can't all live in peace together. That's why the ACLU ends up defending the free speech rights of people like the KKK and the Nazis as well as the kid who wants to wear a "No-Nazis" arm-band to school in violation of his school's dress code.

Atlant 11:08, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Atlanta

Have you ever been to Atlanta, Georgia, Atlant? --NEMT 14:48, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Re: Polk Audio

Re: your message — Ah, good catch. I saw the "Ȳ" that was added to the end of the word "was," assumed it was nonsense vandalism, and didn't look closely at the other part of the edit. Checking that ISP's other edit, they're skirting the POV line in their enthusiasm for Polk Audio, but I should have been more careful in my revert and summary. I left the editor a message here. Thanks for pointing that out to me! -Tapir Terrific 19:42, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Thank You

Dear Atlant, Greetings from India, Thank you so much for editing William of Baskerville page. Much appreciated. Best wishes. --Cyril Thomas 19:34, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Always welcome! Thanks for the thanks! ;-)

Atlant 22:35, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Talk:Democratic Underground

Is there any particular reason you only gave an opinion on the first two links? Not that you have to comment on all of them. I'm just curious - Che Nuevara: ^{Join the Revolution} 20:48, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

I think I gave a third opinion as well, but in fact I only commented on the ones I felt most-strongly about. Of courseI I reserve the right to become opinionated on some or all of the others at a later time. ;-)

Atlant 21:08, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Are You Prejudiced Against Cubans?

Hi. A tortured Cuban, tortured by Castro's regime, who is also an author, writes a story about the ACLU and Banned Books that you keep removing from the ACLU page and the Censorship page, etc., using as the excuse "non-noteworthy," even though the subject is perfectly relevant to the wiki articles. Have you read the article? Do you know that the author is not noteworthy? Are you prejudiced against Cubans?

• The ACLU and Book Banning, by Humberto Fontova, author of "Fidel: Hollywood’s Favorite Tyrant," 13 July 2006

And you switch excuses for banning the information, ironically, from pages discussing how banning is bad. What's the deal? --SafeLibraries 13:28, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

No, I'm prejudiced against people who would censor libraries under the weak excuse that they're keeping children safe. People like that are promoting ignorance in America and diminishing our stature and future prospects in the world at large. Know anybody like that? 'Cause people like that would probably be happier in Cuba where they probably do censor libraries.

Atlant 15:16, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Honestly you haven't read the man's article. In a nutshell, he was tortured for many years by Castro's regime, escapes to the USA, has children, has grandchildren, then has his grandchildren reading in public schools books purchased with public funds about how idyllic and lovely is Papa Castro. Knowing the truth, actually bearing the scars, he thinks this is atrocious.

This has nothing to do with what you claim. Please read the article.

In fact the whole controvery is quite unique. Learn more about it before claiming Cubans are "not noteworthy." --SafeLibraries 04:14, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

I did better than that. I read your website. And as I said, I'm prejudiced against censors.

Atlant 11:50, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Diac picture

I belive the picture diactime.jpg is indeed correct for VOLTAGE REGULATED applied voltage. Note how the image is titled for an ideal diac. Althogh a diac with these exact charictaristics could never be manufactured in real life, it is used for this example to show basic properties of diac without requiring the user to worry about practical limitations of semiconductors, compnents, and of course practical elctonic theory. That being said, this diac has an unlimited voltage, current and power handling abilities. Because of this, the power supply, being voltage regulated, is also ideal. This makes it possible to regulate a voltage across the diac. With the voltage regulated beyond the breakover voltage, the ideal diac continues to conduct in a linear fasion once it is turned on and it stays that way untill it it turned off. Also notice i did not include a scale or units for the graph. this is because the cyan and brown line represent different units, voltage and current. because one scale could not accomadate both of these, they are draw to scale to themselves but not nessasrily to eachother. since everything is relative, one could say the brown trace represnts a sine wave at 1 volt RMS and the cyan trace represents 600000000000 ampres RMS. also the breakback voltage of this ideal diode is 0 volts. is there any other reason you find this graph to be incorrect??

Please let me know because i think a time domain graph of voltage and current in a diac is a very important and useful tool for teaching people the charictaristics of diacs and i would like to see an acurate picture of one on wikipedia.

pardon my atrocious spelling.

peace --Gdead 16:53, 17 July 2006 (UTC)