User talk:SteveBaker/archive5

Wow.

You're a total car geek. :) But that's OK, I'm one too. Wanna drag? I just bought me one of these not long ago. Friday (talk) 14:38, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Nah - you'd leave me in dust a straight-line drag race! My MINI is optimised for Autocross. Nothing out-corners a stock MINI...and mine ain't stock! A MINI with the right suspension tweaks and sticky under-sized tyres is very tough to beat in the twisties. It's supercharged (not turbo) and has a horribly modified air intake/filter system and a reduced diameter supercharger pulley - so there is no turbo lag whatever and my 0-20mph times would probably beat yours (which is what you need for Autocross) - but on a quarter mile, you'd be ahead of me by the time I hit 30mph and if your Mazda has a decent gearbox (I don't remember what it has) you'd probably cross the quarter mile a good two seconds ahead of me. But put us on a twisty back-road and you'd be in deep trouble - I've driven a Mazdaspeed 3 like yours on a couple of autocross laps - the torque steer makes powering out of corners *nasty* - and it's not easy to heel/toe because the pedal box is built for little old ladies. On the drag strip, these things are irrelevent - but around corners...I'll stick with my MINI thanks! I eat Miatas, Porsches, WRX's and such for lunch. My biggest fear in Autocross is an Audi TT Quattro - but I can generally take them if the driver isn't really practiced at the peculiar driving style the Quattro gizmo demands. Probably the only street-legal car that would do better around the curves would be something like my '63 Mini and when I get the new 1300cc motor for the little guy he might even stay ahead of your Mazda on the straight bits! It used to be said that in track races you could tell whether a Mini was going to win or not by measuring the distance between the last corner and the finish line - and that's exactly the case with the modern MINI too. The car I really want is a Mini Moke - with a big motor and a disk-brake retrofit. SteveBaker 16:14, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

I did autocross a couple times a few years back in my Miata. Of course in my experience Autocross is about 90% driving skill and 10% car, and I was never very good at it. <bench racing mode on> I dunno about the cornering- the guys at car and driver got faster lane change and slalom numbers out of the speed 3 than they did the mini. Of course, these were bone-stock, too. </bench racing mode off> Friday (talk) 16:25, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't know how they managed that - you only have to look at the cars to see that the MINI has a smaller moment of inertia - shorter wheelbase, less overhangs...and I sure as heck don't see any Mazdas doing any good at Autocross in actual competition. It's possible that the one I drove wasn't well set up - but it seemed pretty terrible for that kind of event (although like a bat out of hell in a straight line). Still - it's surprising how fairly small things (like the spacing of the pedals) can make a difference. Hmmm - I wonder...did Car & Driver compare to the '07 MINI? Mine's an '05 - but the new model has gone to a direct injection twin-scroll turbo on a Peugeot engine and they've tweaked the suspension to be optimised for runflat tyres - none of which bodes well for Autocross - we won't really know until we see some out on the track. But my modern MINI's going back to 'daily driver' status (convertibles are not ideal for autocross) - so I'm going to be out of it for a while until I get the new motor and brake kit into my '63 Mini. It's two feet shorter and 18" narrower and only weighs 1200lbs (versus 2600lbs for the modern MINI!) which gives it a bigger power-to-weight number than my current MINI and being smaller gives me more room between the cones to take a 'racing line' - I'm betting that'll be crucial. This one won't be street-legal because I'm stripping it for minimum weight to try to get under 1000lbs (no lights, no windshield, just one seat, tiny fuel-cell, no gas tank, etc) - I'll probably put some nice fat racing slicks on it too. Eventually, it'll have straight-cut gears and a side-vent exhaust too - so it's going to be really noisy! SteveBaker 16:51, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like a fun little go-kart. And yeah the review I was reading was a new Mini- they liked the turbo, but they made it sound like the handling was more amusing than competent. I bet the speed 3 shines way more on a larger course than it would on a typical autocross course. Friday (talk) 17:04, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Wikisearching

Hi there, I read your response to the indexing question on the misc. refdesk. Your list of ways to search WP is quite useful. Would you like to, or allow me to, refine and expand it a little and add it to the WP:SEARCH page? Seriously, it is concise and practical and would be a great addition to the page.--killing sparrows ^(chirp!) 19:52, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah - sure - feel free to do whatever you need with whatever I wrote. SteveBaker 20:19, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Letters to Richard Dawkins

Dear sir,

Thank you very much for your suggestion on corresponding with Professor Dawkins through his publisher- I think this might be the most plausible course for me. Unfortunately, I am not aware of what his Publishers is, or indeed the address of it. I would be most grateful if you can send a message to my talk page delineating to me the Publisher's address, or alternatively leave a message here: I'll come back and check.

With many thanks,

Luthinya 12:16, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm away from home right now and I don't have any of Dawkins' books with me - if you do - the address will be on one of the first few pages of the book. If you don't own any of his books - then you could check in a bookstore or a library...but if you're planning to ask him about his Meme theory - I'd hope that you'd read what he wrote before you bothered him with a letter! SteveBaker 15:12, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Sorry to bother you again, but I assume that, as a widely published author, professor Dawkins enjoys more than one publishers for his works. I am simply uncertain of which of them would be the one he most frequently uses, thus presumably with the easiest access to him.

I will, of course, comb through his books most carefully before bothering him with anything. Letters to Dawkins are not to be written at one sitting!

with many thanks,

Luthinya 17:27, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Brown's gas

I rewrote Brown's gas, focusing on the patents instead of the crackpot claims. What do you think? — Omegatron 18:39, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I like the rewrite a lot. My main criticism would be in use of 'weasel words': "Others claim that..." - it would be preferable to say precisely who these 'others' are...preferably with a reference to who these others are. In some cases, it would be better to say "Mainstream science indicates that..." or something. It's a vast improvement though. SteveBaker 16:11, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes, of course those statements need to be attributed. I'm really not in the mood to go wading through crackpottery sites, though.  :-) It will have to wait. — Omegatron 04:51, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

And now it's been nominated for deletion. — Omegatron 14:01, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

That's weird - Brown's gas is a well known thing - it's HHO and all that stuff that's crackpottery. SteveBaker 15:44, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Brown's gas has a lot of crackpottery revolving around it, too. But crackpottery is not criteria for deletion. We should have articles about hoaxes, crackpottery, and pseudoscience, to debunk them and get neutral information out to the public. — Omegatron 17:23, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Your help requested

Hey Mini dude, since I see you have worked to make both the Mini and Holden VE Commodore articles featured, I'd like to solicit your help. I've been working rather diligently on the Volkswagen Jetta article for a while now. My goal is to bring it to featured article status. If you could, I would appreciate it if you would take a look at it and respond with any suggestions, opinions, or criticisms that could help the article on its way to FA. The ranks of mainstream automobile articles is so thin (I believe the aforementioned two are the only ones) that it would help to have a well respected expert opinion on the subject. Thanks!--Analogue Kid 19:58, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

So, what do you think?--Analogue Kid 14:19, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Paddy Hopkirk

You wouldn't happen to have any existing references lying around which go into detail about Paddy Hopkirk, would you? Seems rather a shame to have a tiny little stub on the guy just because he's a generation or two out of date as far as the average WP editor is concerned. I was thinking about buying his autobiography to use as a source,[1] but if you have stuff already from covering the original Mini it'd save me the trouble. Regards, --DeLarge 14:22, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm - you're right that is rather sad. I'll see what I have - although it won't be for a week or two. I'm in the process of switching jobs and all of my Mini books are about 200 miles away in my old house. SteveBaker 15:02, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

PS I think you'd kick a Mazda 3's ass in Autocross as well. We call it autotesting (forwards and backwards) or autosolo (just forwards) over here, and the old Mini is still a recommended vehicle; there's a lot of good autotest vids on YouTube/Google video to demonstrate. Although if you really want to improve your chances, you might think about taking a few inches out the wheelbase... [2]

Yeah - that guy is rather well known in the Mini community - the car is drastically lightened in the rear end (notice the wheels in particular) so he can do his 'stoppie' trick. He also has a limited slip diff and two-wheel independent braking on the front - so he can apply the brakes on one wheel and not the other! He even has a window set into the bottom of one of the doors so he can see where the cones are! SteveBaker 15:02, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

STL

Steve, did you see the text that you reverted on the STL article? The mention of Valencia, CA as the home for 3D Systems is outdated since their move to Rock Hill, SC. You're correct that there are a lot of people expanding STL to "Standard Tessellation Language", but there's no such expansion that I can find in the 3D Lightyear help file or in the copy of the 1989 spec that I solicited a couple months ago on RP-ML list. (My bad about not OCRing it and sending it back out to the list, I'll see if I can have that done this weekend.) Please take a look at the edits, I think they were all good, but I don't want to revert it and have you revert me. That's no fun. --GargoyleMT 23:14, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Blacksite...

Just played the demo of Blacksite from Xbox Live. I like it, but the rain splash effects are inexcusably bad, and the team gameplay is straight outta Rainbow Six. On the other hand I like the extreme slo-mo sections, but somehow it doesn't seem as good as the original. I'll probably rent it, but not buy it. Oh well, doesn't matter... Just wondering, do you actually like the game? Smiley200 18:07, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Hell yes! I love it! Remember you're seeing a 'first look' demo. That is what we sent to Microsoft for approval as an Xbox live demo ages ago - what I'm seeing when I play it is the present state of the game which has a ton more polish and (obviously) a lot more depth. You should definitely give it a second look when it releases. I can't say for sure about the rain effect - but I know that (typically) effects are what get the most polish during the last months leading up to product release and I see a lot of people working a lot of hours to get it perfect by then. However I'm not working on Blacksite (I'm not allowed to talk about the game that I am involved with) - so I'm a really bad person to ask about this. Have you looked at the 'Stranglehold' movies that are floating around? The sheer volume of death and destruction in the game is more than I've seen anywhere else - for a raw adrenaline game it's going to take a lot of beating! SteveBaker 19:42, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, Stranglehold looks a bit samey, but it is directed by john woo, who is immensely skilled at this kind of thing. I'm definitely gonna buy Assassin's Creed though, i need to fill my Prince of Persia gap, and Burnout Paradise, well, it's the same as any other game in the series, but I still love it! Smiley200 15:33, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Ford BA Falcon

The Ford BA Falcon article is progressing great but there is still some issues one issue is the reference lay out. There is 29 references in the BA Falcon article OSX has shown me how to fix them he fixed one reference so that I can use it as a template for the other references. But there is a lot of references to fix 24 in fact, can you please when you get some time fix some of them it is a big task for one person to fix them all, so I asked you for some help. Senators^{Talk | Contribs} 02:57, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

clue about chery Fengyun

In this article: http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/04/04/028879.html they talk about the 'Chery Fengyun' - which uses the same 1.6l four cylinder Tritec engine as the MINI Cooper and the Lifan 520. It's not mentioned here - any clue as to what it's like? SteveBaker 06:22, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

"Fengyun" means "Windcloud"（风云）in Chinese. So Chery Fengyun refers to Chery A11.--Lastman cn 12:53, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Ford BA Falcon update

Come and see how my Ford BA Falcon article is going, it is very close to be listed as a Good article. It is just a matter of time.Senators^{Talk | Contribs} 22:25, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

TuxKart?

Interesting, I've played SuperTuxKart, but racing games never manage to hold my attention very long. If you ever want to work on another linux game, lemme know, I'll try to help, even though I can't help with... programming... or art... or graphics... or music... I can do... something. Wait, I can write a story! Yeah, and I can come up with ideas for games. Maybe. I'd try. I'd like to work on something, anyway --_ʇuǝɯɯoɔɐqǝɟ 17:53, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

The trouble is - the ideas are the easiest part! I have dozens of ideas - it's programming, graphics, music...that I need! SteveBaker 18:44, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah. I tried to learn programming, started with python, but anything more than simple scripting just boggles my mind for some reason. nevertheless, if you want to make something, see if I can help with it :3 I'd be happy to proof read/write a script, write jokes, just about anything that could help --_ʇuǝɯɯoɔɐqǝɟ

Clouds

So, do clouds get smaller when it rains? You posted the question but didn't get into the answer. I would assume, yes, since clouds are made of water droplets which haven't dropped but your comment after the question suggests that it's not quite so cut-and-dried. Dismas|^(talk) 16:34, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

I think that what I read (and it was a lot of years ago) was that initially, the droplets fall uniformly from the entire cloud - which makes it gradually less dense (but not "smaller") - then, gradually there is not enough water vapour around the edges to produce rain - so the cloud starts to shrink until it vanishes. But that's not very common because what most often happens is that the weather 'front' (where warm and cool air are colliding) that caused the rain moves away from the cloud (or vice versa) - so the cloud doesn't immediately vanish at all. Basically, the "kid friendly" answer is "not to start with - but it's complicated". It is an interesting question though - one I can't imagine any adult asking. SteveBaker 19:50, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Ah, thanks! Yeah, kids have a way of thinking of the hard questions to answer where as adult questions are more... Matter of fact, if you will. Dismas|^(talk) 20:28, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Image:Cutout mini.jpg

For Image:Cutout mini.jpg, I simply noted the missing fairuse rationale (Template:Di-no fair use rationale). Per its instructions, I added the template (Template:Deletable image-caption) under its caption. I see that the image caption language is the biggest problem, but I'll go back through other images that are missing the fairuse rationale and use something other than that template for the image captions. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 05:03, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

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Thanks

for answering my cricket question on the ref desk, and so promptly. I only checked this morning as I didn't think anyone would get to it very soon, but I was wrong! 86.138.41.223 07:21, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image (Image:UltraLowRezWatch.jpg)

Thanks for uploading Image:UltraLowRezWatch.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently orphaned, meaning that it is not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image 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 images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

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"putting up"

Very, very nicely done. —Steve Summit (talk) 11:50, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you! Now - will we ever see a reply? I kinda doubt it. SteveBaker 14:39, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

And I would have doubted it, too -- but look how wrong we both would have been. :-\ —Steve Summit (talk) 14:27, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Paper continued

Ok continuing here, as there are reference desk rules against continuing conversations/debates at the desk. You are dead on, that is exactly what their purpose is, from my experience at Wendy's (at least it looks good on paper, since Murphy's Law guarantees that people will find all sorts of ways to dirty it up anyway LOL). Besides that, it was a bad example since at least at my Wendy's, all of those papers were 100% recycled. I actually had a like 30 minute discussion with my friend Trevor the other day, and he brought up all of your points LOL. It still would be nice to get everything all electronisized (... probably not a word), since out of like 20 resumes I've handed out online, I've gotten a reply/interview out of around 5. Much more efficient lol. Crisco 1492 00:23, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Your Mini

Nice Mini! I just wanted to say I appreciate the points you laid out about how it can be difficult owning a right hand drive vehicle. It makes sense if you think about it but I never got farther than "It would be really neat to own ..." I hadn't really thought about toll booths, drive thrus, etc. Although, parallel parking is probably a cinch! Thanks again for expanding my brain. Dismas|^(talk) 08:04, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Parking the Mini never was a problem! It's two feet shorter and one foot narrower than any other car that's on sale in the USA (well, until the Smart starts being sold later this year). My Mini isn't really a daily driver - for that I have a modern MINI Cooper'S - so it's principally driven to car shows, club meetings, 'fun-drive' events and such. I bought Texas toll-tags for it - which solves the toll-booth problem - and I either avoid drive-thrus when I'm in that car - or bring a passenger along for the ride! To be honest - even if it were LHD, it would still be a pain for drive-thru's because it's very low to the ground and the '63 Mini's windows don't roll down - they slide a few inches backwards and forwards - so reaching out is essentially impossible even if you're sitting on the appropriate side! It's also still running the original 37hp 848cc engine - which gives the poor thing a top speed of just about 70mph. Which means that overtaking is more of a theoretical possibility than something that actually happens! But if you planned to drive a RHD car in the US as your daily driver, these things would certainly become more than a little annoying! If you are considering bringing a RHD over from the UK, you should be aware that there are a bunch of major hurdles to overcome in terms of emissions testing and other regulations that make importing a modern British car an almost complete impossibility.

If you really want a RHD car, it's VITALLY important that it's more than 25 years old. Once a car is over 25 years old, it's legally an 'antique car' and essentially none of the usual roadworthyness laws apply. When my Mini goes in for its annual inspection they test that is has brakes, wipers and lights and that the gas cap is a good fit. That's *it* - the car doesn't even have to have seatbelts if it was built without them (as my '63 Mini was). This is just as well because it wouldn't pass emissions or most of the other safety laws.

My car needs leaded gasoline - but I use lead additive, and sticking some in one in five tankfuls of gas is considered to be enough (at least for the Mini engine). The ethanol problem is getting worse - at 10%, the main problem is that it tends to soften rubber parts - so I replaced all of my fuel hoses with modern ones and as various seals give out I'm replacing them with modern plastic ones. Some electric fuel pumps have electrical problems with ethanol-based gas because ethanol conducts electricity and pure gasoline doesn't. I got lucky on that one - but my gas gauge recently crapped out - and I'm betting that's the problem with it. SteveBaker 14:21, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Regarding lift in wings

With regards to the thread at the Science Reference Desk Whilst I already know and understand all that you stated regarding lift (i.e. $\alpha$ has a greater effect than the Bernoulli effect), and tried to convey this in my response, it felt as though you were disputing what I said. Can you confirm for me whether or not you felt my response was misleading? Angus Lepper^{(T, C, D)} 18:45, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

No - there was nothing specifically wrong with what you or anyone else said - but everyone was missing the point - which is that the Bernoulli effect is largely (or in some cases, entirely) irrelevent to getting an airplane off the ground! I didn't get that message from what you posted so I felt that a clear statement of that fact was needed. So whilst I wasn't disputing what you said - I felt it left out the big message to the OP - which was that his question was basically asking "At what speed does the Bernoulli effect work?" - when in fact the Bernoulli effect may not be working at all. Nobody else said that - so I felt it necessary to blow away some misconceptions. Sorry if I came over as disputing what you said - that was not my intention. (Oh - and the reason the Harrier can't hover for very long is because it runs out of water(!) which it uses to cool the engines and ducting.) SteveBaker 19:32, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the confirmation, I just wanted to check (perhaps I'll use slightly stronger wording in future to make things clear, which is probably a good thing ;-) ) that I wasn't being misleading. Certainly no apology is needed! Also, thanks for the information on the Harrier — I couldn't remember the exact reason other than finding it interesting that it really was quite a short time. Angus Lepper^{(T, C, D)} 20:56, 8 August 2007 (UTC)