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User talk:Guy Macon

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Oil Painting of Civil War Battle of Spottsylvania
A Wikipedia Content Dispute.

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"Wikipedia's articles are no place for strong views. Or rather, we feel about strong views the way that a natural history museum feels about tigers. We admire them and want our visitors to see how fierce and clever they are, so we stuff them and mount them for close inspection. We put up all sorts of carefully worded signs to get people to appreciate them as much as we do. But however much we adore tigers, a live tiger loose in the museum is seen as an urgent problem." --WP:TIGER


New discussion[edit]

Only 994246683 articles left until our billionth article![edit]

We are only 994246683 articles away from our 1,000,000,000th article... --Guy Macon

Depiction of Wikimedia Foundation destroying Wikipedia with Visual Editor, Flow, and Mobile App[edit]

Depiction of Wikimedia Foundation destroying Wikipedia with Visual Editor, Flow, and Mobile App.

--Guy Macon

Calvin discovers Wikipedia[edit]

  • "A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction into a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day." -- Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes. --Guy Macon

Another chart[edit]

Page views for this talk page over the last year

Detailed traffic statistics

Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet[edit]

"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from -- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time." --Neil Stephenson, Cryptonomicon

(talk page stalker) A late friend of mine put it this way: "Arguing with idiots is wasted effort. They have no minds to change; and unlike you, nothing better to do with their time." Jeh (talk) 04:25, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

The Spell-Checker Song: Owed to a Spell Czech Her (Ode to a spellchecker)[edit]


Eye halve a spelling chequer.
It came with my pea sea.
It plane lee marks four my Rhea view,
Miss steaks aye Ken knot see.

Iran this Poe Em threw it.
Your shore lee glad two no.
It is core wrecked in every weigh,
My chequer tolled me sew.

A Czech her is a bless sing.
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right stiles ewe can reed,
And aides me when aye rime.

Eye strike a key and type a word.
And weight four it two say.
Weather eye am wrong oar write.
It shows me strait aweigh.

Each frays come posed up on my screen,
Is trussed two bee a Joule.
The check Ur pours o'er every word,
To Czech sum spelling rule.

As soon as a mist ache is maid.
It nose bee fore two long.
And eye can put the error rite.
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Bee fore a veiling cheque curs,
hour spelling mite decline.
If wee R. lacks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid two wine.

Butt now bee cause my spelling,
Is checked with such grate flare,
There are know faults with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.

Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den,
With words sew fare too here.

2 rite with care is quite a fete,
Of witch won should bee proud;
and wee mussed dew the best week Anne,
Sew flaws argh[1] knot aloud.

Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays.
Such soft wear four pea seize.
And why eye brake in 2 averse
With righting sure too please.

Attribution: I composed the above as a modification of various versions found on the web labeled "author unknown" or some such. Later I discovered this page, which appears to document the original sources, and my version is clearly a heavily modified derivative version of what is listed on that page. To whatever extent the above is my own work, I release it under the Creative Commons CC0 license. --Guy Macon
--Guy Macon (talk) 22:21, 28 June 2018 (UTC) [ Citation Needed ]

Just because you have some money, that doesn't mean that you have to spend it.[edit]

Updated essay: see new "2016-2017 update" information near the bottom.

User:Guy Macon/Just because you have some money, that doesn't mean that you have to spend it.

--Guy Macon (talk) 17:57, 5 August 2018 (UTC)

The most important[Citation Needed] page on Wikipedia[edit]

User:Guy Macon/On the Diameter of the Sewer cover in front of Greg L’s house‎ --Guy Macon (talk) 16:00, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

Jimmy Wales on bias and NPOV.[edit]

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, once said:

"Wikipedia’s policies around this kind of thing are exactly spot-on and correct. If you can get your work published in respectable scientific journals – that is to say, if you can produce evidence through replicable scientific experiments, then Wikipedia will cover it appropriately."
"What we won’t do is pretend that the work of lunatic charlatans is the equivalent of 'true scientific discourse'. It isn’t.[2][3]"

So yes, we are biased towards science and biased against pseudoscience. We are biased towards astronomy, and biased against astrology. We are biased towards chemistry, and biased against alchemy. We are biased towards mathematics, and biased against numerology. We are biased towards cargo planes, and biased against cargo cults. We are biased towards crops, and biased against crop circles. We are biased towards laundry soap, and biased against laundry balls. We are biased towards water treatment, and biased against magnetic water treatment. We are biased towards electromagnetic fields, and biased against microlepton fields. We are biased towards evolution, and biased against creationism. We are biased towards medical treatments that have been shown to be effective in double-blind clinical trials, and biased against medical treatments that are based upon preying on the gullible. We are biased towards NASA astronauts, and biased against ancient astronauts. We are biased towards psychology, and biased against phrenology. We are biased towards Mendelian inheritance, and biased against Lysenkoism. --Guy Macon (talk) 02:33, 25 October 2018 (UTC)

BINGO! BINGO! BINGO! BINGO! BINGO! BINGO! BINGO! BINGO! -- BullRangifer (talk) PingMe 02:39, 25 October 2018 (UTC)

ANI-"notice"[edit]

Information icon There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is Guy Macon's homophones just game me an aneurysm and I can't see my screen anymore. GMGtalk 14:02, 25 October 2018 (UTC)

Thanks! I will get write on it. You did sea User talk:Guy Macon#The Spell-Checker Song: Owed to a Spell Czech Her (Ode to a spellchecker), right? --Guy Macon (talk) 14:32, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
Oh god. That's ArbCom worthy. GMGtalk 14:37, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
No need to call me "god". "Guy" will do. --Guy Macon (talk) 14:47, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
I suggest we split the difference and call you "Gud". ᛗᛁᛟᛚᚾᛁᚱPants Tell me all about it. 16:21, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ --Guy Macon (talk) 17:05, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
"Gud" means "God" in the Scandinavian languages. Face-wink.svg -- BullRangifer (talk) PingMe 14:53, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
I'm just glad that nobody thought of compromising on "Goy"... :)   -Guy Macon (talk) 14:57, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
To be honest, that was my first thought, but I decided not to go with it because I'm not a ####### nazi. See my edit summary. ᛗᛁᛟᛚᚾᛁᚱPants Tell me all about it. 15:10, 26 October 2018 (UTC)

Civility[edit]

Moved to User:Guy Macon/Civility. Snow Rise, would you prefer this to be moved to your userspace?

General question for anyone reading this: should I convert this to an Essay and include it in the usual lists? If so, WP:PLEASESUGGESTAGOODSHORTCUT. --Guy Macon (talk) 10:11, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

No by all means, please feel free to retain it where it is if you choose. Honestly, I don't know that it really has the format of an WP:Essay, having been written in a different context, but if you want to use it for those purposes, I have no objection; I regard my community comments in essentially the same way I regard my content contributions--once I hit the send button, they belong to the project and the broader world that has unfettered access to it. As such, if you feel it has utility for the community as an essay, not withstanding its conversational tone, please feel at your discretion to move it to a namespace accordingly. As to a shortcut, it's unfortunately far to glib, but I wish we could call it WP:SOMEFUCKSGIVEN. But I think maybe WP:WORKPLACE might be more appropriate? (Reflecting the point I emphasize that this is a work place, volunteer or not), which point is at the core of where I'd personally draw the line between appropriate an inappropriate comments. I can always make a few adjustments to make that point more salient if you decide to promote it to essay and want the link between the shortcut and the substance of the comments a little more explicit. Snow let's rap 11:06, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Collaboration on Talmudic tractate articles[edit]

I have noticed that many of the articles on individual tractates in the Talmud are sorely in need of expansion and improvement. Examples of these poor articles include Gittin (tractate), Ketubot (tractate), and Makkot to name just a few. If you are willing to collaborate with me to help improve them, please let me know. Also, I kindly request that you bring this to the attention of other members of WikiProject Judaism, and WikiProject Books. Thank you - Alternate Side Parking (talk) 20:38, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Hi! Thanks for the invite. Alas, I know almost nothing about the topic. My main focus is on science and engineering, especially electronics. I touched upon Jewish law when I edited the fascinating topic of various electronic devices that are supposedly kosher to use during Shabbat. KosherSwitch, Shabbat elevator, Shabbat lamp, Shabbat microphone, Shabbat pedestrian crossing, Zman Switch, Shabbos App, and the other devices listed at Electricity on Shabbat. A lot of these articles are clearly written by people who know a lot about Jewish laws and nothing about electronics.
That being said, I am experienced at general Wikipedia editing, and would be happy to collaborate where I can. Sometimes it helps to have someone who knows nothing about the subject look at an article and identify the parts that are confusing, use unfamiliar jargon, etc. Let's see if we can help each other. --Guy Macon (talk) 21:18, 4 November 2018 (UTC)
Thanks for agreeing to join on. I have been studying the Talmud for a very long time, so it might not occur to me that something doesn’t make sense to someone unfamiliar with the topic. I would appreciate having someone unfamiliar with the topic look them over. Alternate Side Parking (talk) 22:32, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Slide rules[edit]

I've always felt sorry for slide rule manufacturers: a specialist but innovative business, experimenting with things like new materials, novel scales, and designs like the cylindrical slide rule. Then the pocket calculator came along, and destroyed their market within a couple of years. (Pocket calculators were banned in exams when I was at university, ca. 1970 - they cost about £50 for four-functions-no-memory, and anyone who could afford one had an unfair advantage.)

Did you know the cube root trick I added to the article? There can't be many who remember it.

As a C programmer, I trust that you know this and this? Yrs, Narky Blert (talk) 20:42, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Oh yes, but it is always wort re-reading. Thanks! Have you seen this one?
"It should be noted that no ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure. Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter." - Nathaniel Borenstein
--Guy Macon (talk) 05:41, 6 November 2018 (UTC)
No, I didn't know that one - excellent! & already shared.
I was surprised that Pascal was missing (perhaps because in vanilla Pascal you can't get in or out of the car). Yrs, Narky Blert (talk) 19:54, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

Qualcomm[edit]

Hi Guy Macon. I seem to remember you have an interest in technical subjects and was wondering if you had any interest in collaborating on the Qualcomm page, where I have a COI. Qualcomm is an IP company best known for creating the tech that makes cell phones work. It's a big company ($20+ billion) with its fair share of controversies, so a GA/FA article would be a pretty big page. I've gotten started with a digestible amount of proposed content I shared on Talk last week. CorporateM (Talk) 14:01, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

CorporateM I edited the page, good job overall, but a couple of things need to be addressed. I kept two of the paragraphs from the part I replaced because I thought that they should be in the article, `I would be open to different versions, but I think that eudora and the lawsuit should stay. I also had to replace some cite errors with Citation Needed. Please review. Tjhanks! --Guy Macon (talk) 23:16, 9 November 2018 (UTC).
Thanks for taking a look! The draft only covered up to 2005; recent history was labeled as a work-in-progress, so it was not intended to replace the recent lawsuits. Though I think eventually the lawsuits should go in a dedicated "Patent Disputes" section and Eudora in a "Software" section (or something). I did some cleanup including fixing the broken citations. Do you have an opinion on whether there should be an Omnitracs page[4] or just a section or something else? There is such a large body of source material, it is no easy task finding what to include and when to break out separate pages. CorporateM (Talk) 21:33, 10 November 2018 (UTC)
I think that there is enough for a separate Omnitracs page, and that we should merge Defense Transportation Reporting and Control System into the new article. I would especially like to see the following sorted out:
https://www.mcmurdogroup.com/mcmurdo-products/omnitracs/ describes a "two-way message and position location service using existing Ku-Band satellites", but it talks about ships, not trucks.
https://www.ccjdigital.com/new-omnitracs-ceo-wants-the-holy-grail-of-trucking/ says "Thirty years ago, Qualcomm pioneered satellite tracking and mobile communications in the trucking industry. In 2013, Omnitracs — a name given to the Qualcomm fleet management technology subsidiary — was purchased from Qualcomm by private equity firm Vista."
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19880016325.pdf says "The OmniTRACS Network (developed for Omninet Corporation, Los Angeles, CA) provides Mobile users with a cost-effective, two-way message and position location service using existing Ku-Band satellites." (interesting choice of words. Common source?)
All three mention Qualcomm. I think anyone researching omnitracs would like to see a timeline.
https://www.omnitracs.com/products/omnitracs-xrs appears to be a smartphone app, and https://www.omnitracs.com/products/omnitracs-routing-dispatching-compliance appears to involve Routing, Dispatching, and Compliance. Are these the same thing as the above, or do we need to disambiguate them? --Guy Macon (talk) 03:20, 11 November 2018 (UTC)

The More You Know™[edit]

The More You Know™

--Guy Macon (talk) 15:20, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

Yet Another Wikimedia Commons Discussion[edit]

There is a deletion discussion at Commons which, in my opinion, has ramifications for thousands of images. (I am purposely not expressing any opinion here on whether that would be a Good Thing or a Bad Thing). The discussion is here:[5] --Guy Macon (talk) 03:03, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you![edit]

Original Barnstar Hires.png The Original Barnstar
I enjoyed your One against many essay, it shed light on some interactions I've seen on Talk pages. Schaz (talk) 21:09, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
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