User talk:Mike.lifeguard

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[edit] "Book" and "Collection" pages

Mike, do you happen to have a list of all the Collections extension pages that use the word "Book" now? I know you had gone through the list previously to update some stuff. I have some friends down at fr.wikibooks who want to edit all the pages to use the word "Collection" in the interface instead of "Book" like is used now. fr:User:Sub is most interested in this, maybe you could give him a holler. Thanks! --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 15:21, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't have a list, no... all the system messages start with "Coll" I think, so that makes it a bit easier. Sorry I can't be more help.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 18:04, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] finding license information for an image

Hey Mike,

Hope all is well with you. I haven't seen you around much lately, but I do know that you are my image guru, so I wanted to pass along a quick question from a student in my class. She wants to use this image in her Wikibooks entry but is not sure about the licensing. My gut tells me this pic is already licensed by someone who won't want it shared freely, but I wondered if you had any secrets for figuring this out for sure.

As always, thanks for all your help, and have a great day!

PbakerODU (talk) 14:45, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Unless the copyright owner states otherwise (& I don't see that here... though you could of course ask them) then the image is "all rights reserved" - On the other hand, you could maybe make an argument that using it is fair use. The argument would have to be made though, in line with the Wikibooks policy and US fair use law. For example, if it's for criticism and analysis of that image (so a replacement won't do) then you might consider looking at that.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 18:02, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Meeting

You missed a pretty good meeting on friday, I've got logs somewhere and have to write up a summary of it sometime. It ended up being more international then we had originally intended, lots of people from fr.wikibooks and de.wikibooks. We talked mostly about issues that were common to all language projects, and didn't really discuss too many issues that were specific to en.wikibooks only. Maybe we can hold another similar meeting soon that's going to be en-centric to hash out some of our issues. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 13:29, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

That sounds great. I had some stuff to do with travel pop up, unfortunately, but I will definitely want to be there for any further meetings we can organize.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 20:22, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] HI!!

Hey there! I didn't know that you had an account here too!! This is cool!--God'sGirl94 (talk) 21:26, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Yep, I have an account on every public Wikimedia wiki. This is my first home wiki though.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 03:20, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Dinosaur Comics

Hi Mike,

I dunno if you're familiar with Dinosaur Comics or not, but today's episode was particularly good for anyone familiar with CPR. Thought you might enjoy this, or perhaps find it amusing. Dunno whether I'd incorporate this in a class or not, but it could certainly help someone get the correct rhythm. --Jomegat (talk) 21:36, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I read that fairly regularly. Today's is a gem - I'll definitely save that for the next class I teach. Thanks a bunch  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 21:48, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Difference in page layout with/without login

Hi, I'm not sure whether I should be asking this question here. Please let me know the right place otherwise. I have observed that the layout of the front page of More C++ Idioms is different when I login from when I don't. When I login, the preface is expanded in the front page (the image is shown). Otherwise, it simply shows a link to the preface. How can I fix this without replicating the preface in two places? Thanks for any help you might provide. Sutambe (talk) 05:14, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

That's just the difference between the current version (what all registered users see) and the last stable version (what unregistered users see, if possible). To "fix" that, the newer revisions need to be reviewed by someone.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 13:01, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
Done. Preface needed some grammar tweaks, and that was about it... at least for that page. Chazz (talk) 18:39, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Redirect and Delete tags

Must I place a delete request tag on a page after redirecting it? Moby-Dick4000 (talk) 01:04, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

If you want to, sure. I don't see any huge need to delete it though.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 02:18, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Reflist coding

I've noticed the reflist coding isn't working right on the print version of the cookbook. For instance the reflist on my recipe, cookbook:Red paella, made with chicken and seafood (recipe number 142) is displaying references from Cookbook:Ratatouille (recipe number 138) even though the reflist command is working correctly in the recipe's module. Why is this and how do I correct it? Moby-Dick4000 (talk) 20:45, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure what print version you're talking about - can you provide a link?  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 00:39, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
OK, found it. Looks like that's because there's no differentiation in the anchors. Since your browser goes to the first anchor it finds by that name, you end up linking to the wrong recipe. That could be worth reporting to Bugzilla.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 00:41, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Blocked me!

Why was I Blocked for trying to revert the string of vandalism I just found when looking at recent changes!? I was trying to help and I created an account specially just to do that! It pretty insulting! Check my edits I was just trying to get rid of that blokes edits in a hurry and also check my Wikipedia user page User: Climax Void and ask if its the same person, I've never vandalized a single page once while I I've been there --Climax Void .


All done... --Climax Void .


That's fine --Climax Void .

[edit] Still Blank

Are the pages:

Not needed? --Climax Void .

Thanks, fixed.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 00:32, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] undelete "544444445"

undelete 544444445

The user, 204.69.115.45 ( talk | email | contribs ), who posted the above demand does not seem to have had any input into any book of that name; in addition, it seems he has created a book named 12 which probably should be speedy deleted. Apart from that, he has been sprinkling {{stub}} templates around pretty widely... and he seems to have dropped a {{vfd}} on the VFD discussion page, of all things. Chazz (talk) 18:02, 2 April 2009 (UTC)
Yeah, I blocked the IP for a bit & cleaned up after them. I was almost certain this was an old miscreant, but it looks not under closer inspection.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 18:25, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Removal and move

Hi,

I've made a new (approved) design for a page in The GIMP book, but now I'm unable to move the page over the created redirect (though it is supposed to work, maybe I misunderstood). Could you please remove The_GIMP/Toolbox and move User:Soeb/Sandbox 1 over it? Thanks, Soeb talk|contribs 17:21, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Done — Mike.lifeguard | talk 20:25, 3 April 2009 (UTC)
Thank you very much. Soeb talk|contribs 20:42, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Java Swing 003

About the file File:JavaSwing0003.png . I made that file. It has no copy rights, any one can use it for any purpose. Whats that fair use rationale or what ever? Why are you making writing articles so complex? User:A.K.Karthikeyan

Sorry - the image is not eligible for copyright anyways. I've marked it as such. Please see WB:MEDIA for why this kind of thing is important.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 19:17, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Uploading images

Hi- I've been writing a book on [Using the 3D Connexion SDK], and I wanted to add some images. I don't have the right to do this. Can I, and if so, how can I, get the right to upload images? (It is time-based, do I need to re-confirm my email or is there some other condition?)

Thanks! TDN169 (talk) 15:52, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Ah- it's alright- I just found it - 4 days. Fair Enough.

Please read WB:MEDIA and ask if you have questions.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 02:20, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Methods Manual for Salt Lake Studies

Hi Mike, Someone has put a new temperature correction into a page in the Methods Manual for Salt Lake Studies at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Methods_Manual_for_Salt_Lake_Studies/Salinity/measuring_brine_density and I would like to check with them how they obtained the curve, so I can evaluate it against the pre-existing formula (eg what r-squared does it have, etc). It may be that we should present the two formulas with their r-squared s so that folk can decide which one is more useful. Also, it may be nice for the contributor to pop their name up the top of the page, in the space for authors... My problem is that the user has a number but not a talk page and I am not sure how to get in touch. Could you assist? Peri Coleman (talk) 01:38, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

You can write on the talk page for the IP - if they come back, they'll see the message like normal. Beyond that, there's nothing you or I can do. Hopefully they will come back, and maybe even register an account.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 02:18, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Ta, Mike. I have written on the IP talk page and will wait and see whether they come back. If I don't hear anything in a week or two, I may remove the new formula to the discussion page and revert to the old one, until I can track down the derivation of the new formula. Is this an acceptable approach , do you think, or too authoritarian? Regards Peri Coleman (talk) 04:37, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Content has to be verifiable - if it's not then moving it elsewhere until it can be verified seems sensible to me.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 17:01, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Decision paragraph

This resembles a confirmation request. But I could be wrong, since I do not read Українська. --M7 (talk) 18:08, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

You're right, the text said that (I also checked via google), but there was something strange: both the unsigned request, and a sort of "hurry"... We're lucky, when an admin changes his own mind, we keep him at his good work :)
It's far different if there is an urgent request, i.e. a compromised account or vandalism...
Thank you for your work, Mike, and a special one for your care!
Ciao, --M7 (talk) 21:43, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] renaming: The Guide to Digital Rhetoric

I'd like to request edits to put The Guide to Digital Rhetoric in Compliance with Wikibooks' naming policy.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Guide_to_Digital_Rhetoric

AFAICT, it is already in compliance.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 16:42, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Survey

The survey that appears at the top of every page when one is not logged in is no longer available, yet the text requesting that users take it still shows up. Could you or someone else remove it? Thanks. -- Adrignola talk contribs 17:23, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

It's long been removed - the sitenotice is cached for 30 days. There is nothing you or I could do about that, unfortunately.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 12:56, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] "Good site, admin" bot

The "Good site, admin" bot is back again. Here are a few more for your list. I applied a one-year block.

--Jomegat (talk) 12:47, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I've done global blocks.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 13:00, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Greetings from Bali

typical tourist girl
local view

Hi, Mike. See the note I just left Johnny re the portals. You may have noticed some of this in meta, already.

U can haz tourist-girl, too. Cheers, Jack Merridew 07:58, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll keep an eye peeled & lend a hand as need be. So far, looks good!  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 19:48, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Embedding screen captures or vids from secondlife

Hi Mike,

Hope all's well with you. I'm still working with students on our Foundations of Education text, and their questions are getting tougher by the semester.

This term, they're asking me whether or not they can post screen captures and videos generated from secondlife on their Wikibooks pages. My gut says that, as long as these files were created by the users and can be converted to the acceptable formats, it's ok.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Thanks so much for your help!

PbakerODU (talk) 18:31, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

That one's easy, actually: The guy(s) running second life have taken the position that whatever users create in the game is their own intellectual property - so students can license those screenshots however they want.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 20:26, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Template:Copyvio

I'm late getting back to you on this, but the reason I substituted that before was because of the content on Category:Copyright_violations. Is Category:Images_with_unknown_copyright_status incorrect for {{nld}} as well? -- Adrignola talk contribs 03:54, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Fixed the instructions for copyvio. For nld, yes you subst -- that template is a wrapper that fills in some parameters on {{no license}}. So {{subst:nld}}{{no license}}. Hope that's not too confusing!  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 14:48, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Request for Permissions

Hey Mike. It has been over a week since User:Adrignola accepted the admin nomination. The only show of disapproval was a comment and not a vote, so IMO, it's time to take action. --Jomegat (talk) 13:09, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I wanted to give a bit of extra time because only a few people left comments. I'll give it another day or so unless some other bureaucrat beats me to it. Thanks for the reminder though.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 18:03, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Category:Middle-earth source templates

I took a look at these and they are not included by any books at this time. You had imported them from Wikipedia, so I was curious as to whether they are still needed. If they are, I can put them in a category where they'll be found. Thanks. -- Adrignola talk contribs 01:40, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

IIRC, they used to be used... feel free to apply nuke :)  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 16:39, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Twinkle

I used Twinkle to delete a vandalism page created from a red link on a book's table of contents, but it then proceeded to remove that link on the table of contents. I suspect I should have checked the box to "orphan backlinks", but the Twinkle page says that option is buggy and not to use it. I had checked "no meaningful content" and the documentation linked above seems to indicate that backlinks would not have been removed had I checked "nonsense, spam, or vandalism page" instead. Would I be correct in assuming that if I want links to a page to remain regardless of the reason for deleting, that I should check the "orphan backlinks" box?

You suggested installing the "autodelete links" gadgets. However, I must say that I have not installed those, as neither the gadget page nor the Twinkle page provide much information on exactly what actions they will perform or what situations they would be used for. Since I'm responsible for actions whether or not I use Twinkle, I've hesitated on implementing those.

A request: could the option for adding {{split}} be changed to one for {{subpages}}? I find that the latter is far more commonly needed and the help text when hovering over the option states it's to indicate a split into subpages. -- Adrignola talk contribs 15:03, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

The real bug with orphan backlinks is just that I need to review the code where it's used... it does work, but the checkbox may not always do what you expect, which is my fault. In almost all cases, it should work just fine - so feel free to (un)check it as need be.
Autodelete links gives you an autodelete tab. When you click it, you provide a delete reason, and hit OK - then all the links on the page become autodelete links, meaning when you open them, it'll automatically delete the page (and the talk page if it exists) with that reason. Good for deleting stuff quickly with a single reason after a VFD or clearing out a whole category of unneeded stuff, or deleting all of a user's pages.
Yes, I can switch to using {{subpages}}.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 16:45, 19 June 2009 (UTC)
Thanks for the additional information. The idea of automatically deleting anything worried me, but you've cleared it up. -- Adrignola talk contribs 16:52, 19 June 2009 (UTC)
I'm still having weird issues with unlinking backlinks. If you're still using the script, could let me know under what circumstances it is unlinking backlinks? Specifically, which option you used, and whether the box for that was checked off.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 18:02, 19 June 2009 (UTC)
I've tested Twinkle with every option that will allow a delete at Testpage, with "orphan backlinks" both checked and unchecked. I am unable to have it delete links now in any situation. -- Adrignola talk contribs 03:55, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
Thats odd but useful information. I'll see if I can figure that bit out next week.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 04:03, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

this diff was a result of me checking the box to orphan backlinks. Up to that point since I last talked to you, it was leaving links with the box unchecked. I think the behavior is reversed from what it's supposed to be (check the box to orphan and have it checked by default). -- Adrignola talk contribs 02:57, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Okay, well, this diff was the same result from 'author blanked" on the page that was deleted, but with the box unchecked. That's inconsistent. -- Adrignola talk contribs 03:03, 23 June 2009 (UTC)
Yeah, from looking at the code, I think it changes option-by-option... which is uber-wonky. So, that needs fixing :D  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 15:22, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] 新笛

Discussion on 新笛 ChineseMusic.net

Dear Mike.lifeguard

Wiki is in error. The inventor of 新笛 was 丁西林(1893—1974), not Zhang. see following References

参考文献 Lee Yuan-Yuan and Shen, Sinyan. Chinese Musical Instruments (Chinese Music Monograph Series). 1999. Chinese Music Society of North America Press. ISBN 1-880464039 Shen, Sinyan. Chinese Music in the 20th Century (Chinese Music Monograph Series). 2001. Chinese Music Society of North America Press. ISBN 1-880464047

Thanks!

[edit] CheckUser

We're having problems with a determined individual. Meta says to have local CheckUsers exercise the privileges. I had to block Bfbggon and the later account that posted the same vulgar image, Bfbggonn. The block page says it's supposed to block the IP and any subsequent IPs they try to edit from. I don't know whether to escalate this or not. -- Adrignola talk contribs 03:52, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

I checked into it... he's using a very wide range of IPs, probably too big to block safely but I don't have time to go deeper into it today. Any thoughts, Mike? See cu-l for what I ran across. --SB_Johnny talk 12:24, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
Just to keep you in the know, Mike, SB Johnny had to block Bfbggonnn and Bfbggonnnn, and Bfbggonnnnn as well while I was asleep. There's obviously a pattern, but that doesn't solve the larger issue. Wonder if they're using Tor... -- Adrignola talk contribs 14:50, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
Seems there's another at Bfbggonnnnnn. I blocked it. Sigh. -- Adrignola talk contribs 14:53, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
I hardblocked for one month, Mike. Collateral damage looks unlikely, but feel free to have another look. --SB_Johnny talk 15:53, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
Sorry, I was away and/or busy yesterday. Hardblock certainly seems fine to me.  — Mike.lifeguard | talk 22:05, 10 July 2009 (UTC)
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