User talk:Cluth

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[edit] How to contact me

I usually access at least one or two Wikipedia articles every couple of days (such as when I look at the ingredients list of my morning cereal and start wondering what exactly high-fructose corn syrup is), and so I'll probably see the note saying I have new messages here within a short amount of time. However, if you have an urgent need or you require a response to something you've posted elsewhere (such as on an article's talk page), please don't hesitate to email me and ask me to respond.

[edit] Welcome!

Hi Cluth, and welcome to Wikipedia. Great contributions so far!

Thanks for finding the time to contribute to our little project. Here are some pages you might find helpful:

And some quick tips:

  • When discussing something on a talk page, you can sign your name by typing four tildes after your comments, like this: ~~~~
  • Remember to use the 'Show preview' function before saving a page
  • It's also a good idea to sign the new user log and add a little about yourself

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me at my talk page, or at the Help desk or the Village Pump.

Above all, make sure you be bold when contributing, and have fun!

– TPK 11:59, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Digital Telephony

Not sure where to put this, so I'll put it here. Tomorrow I'll take a peek at places like the Village Pump, the Help Desk, or perhaps the editorial council page thingy that I saw somewhere and see if I should post my query there.

I've noticed that a subject I've done some contributing to is lacking its own article. Cable television red-links to digital telephone service. General Communications, Inc. red-links to digital cable telephony (I created that one).

If I were king of the world, I would create an article called digital telephony and make both of the above-mentioned red-links redirects to it. Or perhaps I would create a disambiguation page that links to digital cable telephony, digital fiber-optic telephony, VoIP and other similar articles (some of which don't exist yet.

Alas, I might be king of the world — or at least have editing power in the Wikipedia — but I don't have the time or knowledge to create an entire article about it. What should be done? Should I (or someone else) create a stub and redirect both?

I'm just afraid that someone will create an article under one entry but it won't be tied together with another entry, and there will forever be a dichotomy...or at worst parallel universes in which information is not shared between related subjects.

Are my fears unfounded? Should I just leave it be and let it evolve on its own?

cluth 11:20, Feb 1, 2005 (UTC)

Hi Cluth, and welcome (I watch the "New User Log", but don't always write). The advice on Wikipedia is be bold. What you propose above sounds like a good suggestion to me, and as a non-expert both those redlinks sound like the same think to me. I would say, go ahead and write an article on what you know about digital telephony and put the redirects in. If any time later, someone comes along with enough knowledge to write two seperate articles in those places, they can rearrange Wikipedia themselves at that time - and, as you say, will be more aware of related articles that already exist. - PaulHammond 18:20, Feb 6, 2005 (UTC)
Incidentally, I don't think putting a disambig page to lots of articles that don't yet exist is a good idea. Let people make disambig pages when they've written the articles. - PaulHammond

[edit] Hi from Slovenia :)

Thanks for the regards. I am glad you enjoyed your visit to our country and I am also willing to see Alaska some day, because of your beautiful mountains. I like polar regions ;) --Matijap 08:17, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] W. Mark Felt

Salve!
I nominated W. Mark Felt as a WP:FAC. As you commented on the Deep Throat talk page, I'd appreciate your comments at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/W. Mark Felt. PedanticallySpeaking 15:51, Jun 17, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] US Interstate highway stub problems

At Wikipedia:WikiProject_Stub_sorting/Proposals there is an ongoing debate about U.S. Interstate Highway Stub and US Highway stub... --Rschen7754 00:37, August 7, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] History of Alaska

Hi, I've been working on History of Alaska, and I've nominated it to be a featured article at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/History of Alaska. It's only five days old, so someone objected, and said he would only change or withdraw his vote if an Alaskan says it's all right. I noticed that you lived in Anchorage, so could you please help me out? Toothpaste 23:11, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

Posted an answer on your talk page. Will look it over when I have time (tonight? tomorrow?) and post my thoughts on the FAC page. Awesome from what I've seen so far! cluth 21:32, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] DTAG (Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group)

Looking at creating an article on DTAG/DTG/Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, which owns the brands Dollar Rent-A-Car and Thrifty Car Rental. I'm wondering how to title it as DTAG currently redirects to Deutsche Telekom.

Should I:

1. Create a disambig page listing both and title the new article "Dollar_Thrifty_Automotive_Group" and/or DTG 2. Create the DTAG article and offer a note that "DTAG can refer to Deutsche Telekom AG" 3. Put a note on the Deutsche Telekom page that "DTAG can refer to "Dollar_Thrifty_Automotive Group"? (Probably not good as most people won't come to it via the DTAG redirect.)

I'm not a super-experienced Wikipedian, so I thought I'd solicit comment before Plunging Forward.

cluth 11:49, September 12, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] List of California State Routes

Someone wants to convert this to a template so it wound up at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of California State Routes --Rschen7754 05:28, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Road stubs

All of the following made their way to WP:SFD:

--Rschen7754 (talk - contribs) 03:51, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] International Economics

I have some questions/ideas that I may eventually integrate into some articles on international economics once I find out the answers. If you'd like to contribute some thoughts/ideas, see User:Cluth/International economics and User_talk:Cluth/International economics. cluth 02:32, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Spoken articles

Hello! I am seeking assistance in getting involved in the spoken articles project. I noticed your name on the project page and was hoping you might be able to help. Other than downloading Audacity, I have yet to get into the project; I need some guidance on equipment and how to use the software. Any help you could provide is greatly appreciated. Thanks! Paul 21:29, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Hi Paul, I haven't really gotten involved in the spoken articles project myself, yet. Working full time and attending school full time both lend themselves to me being rather busy. The professional setup I listed on the spoken articles project page is really overkill for what the WikiProject needs. And since the recordings are posted at fairly low quality, the difference between a built-in mic on a laptop and my high-quality setup really isn't that great.
If you want to create sound that's a bit better and less echoey than that from a built-in or cheap computer mic, consider getting a basic professional handheld dynamic mic like the Shure PG48 ($39 here). Because of the XLR connector and low-level, low-impedance balanced output of professional microphones (I can let you in on the techno-geekery of it if you want), you can't plug it directly into your computer. You'll need one of three things: 1) a professional audio interface with an XLR connector, either FireWire, USB or PCI-card based (like the Alesis iO-2, M-Audio Fast Track Pro, M-Audio MobilePre USB, or Tascam US-122 USB--search Google or Froogle for any of these; most are $100-200), 2) a microphone preamp with a 1/4" output, which you can then use a cheap RadioShack adapter to convert to 1/8" to fit in your computer's line input (I have an ART Tube MP, which you can find for $39), or 3) an adapter like the Shure A96F Transformer (try here, though I have no idea if it actually works, since I've never tried it.
Or you can check out this package for all you need in one great-priced package.
Then, plug it all in, fire up Audacity, and hit record! Edit out coughs, sputters, clicks and the like, apply some processing like light dynamic compression and normalizing, and then save as a -q0 (lowest-quality) Ogg Vorbis file and upload to Wikipedia!
Hope this works for you! Any questions, let me know. cluth 10:04, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
OK, it's a bit more difficult than that to set up the audio interfaces and do what you want in Audacity. Truthfully, I'm not as proficient in Audacity as I am in Logic, since I don't use it often. Setting up the recording interface will vary depending on which method you choose above. Let me try to give you some more detailed instructions for recording. (These are all from memory, as I don't have Audition in front of me.) First, there should be a "New Track" option in one of the menus. (Audacity is what's called a "multi-track" audio editor and mixer, since you can overlay many different tracks in the same file. In a stereo file, there are two discrete tracks--left and right. But in Audacity, you can have 5, 12, or 32 tracks all mixed together. Each track represents a single recording, whether it's a voice, an instrument, or a synthesized sound effect. The relative levels of each track are adjusted (so the car horn sound doesn't overwhelm the lead actor or the guitar doesn't blot out the backup singers, for example, and the resulting file is what the regular folks listen to. In our case, we'll probably only need one track (unless you want to compose some music to lay under your speaking...).
In any case, select "New Track" (or similar), click on that track to activate it, press the record button, and start talking. When you're done recording, select the portion of the track before you actually started talking (if any) and delete it--I think it's just a matter of selecting and hitting "delete" or "clear" from a menu. Do the same for any trailing silence. If there are any hiccups in the middle, delete those. Then, select the whole track and normalize the audio (look in a menu under "Effects" or something) to bring the track's volume up (you want as much level as possible without overloading (clipping) the audio, and normalizing does just that. At this point, your audio will sound much better if you add some compression, which reduces the levels of the loudest peaks, so your overall volume is more even. If you can find the compression settings box, look for the following settings and change them to something along the following lines: ratio: 4:1, threshold: -18, attack: 10ms, release: 100ms. If the resulting audio sounds too "breathy" or "pumpy," you can mess around with longer attack and release times, higher threshold settings, and lower compression ratios. Disable any type of "automatic gain" or "level compensation" features. Then, when you're done processing this, re-normalize it (compressing the audio will lower the level, and you'll want to raise it again). Export this as an Ogg Vorbis at -q0 (I'm not sure how to do this in Audition, so hunt around the save or export boxes), and then upload it to the article!
Hope this helped. If you get stuck on any part, let me know and I'll walk you through it better. This was just a brief overview.
Take care, cluth 10:22, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
After all that, I found these recording guidelines. Check them out. cluth 10:38, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Request for Collaboration.

Hi,

Who's running the show at WP:TRAINS? --Folajimi 13:22, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

  • Is there a list of participants anywhere? For example, is there anything in place analogous to the cleanup task force? --Folajimi 03:42, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Trains and Train Track Speeds

Thanks very much Cluth for your super contribution on the Talk:Rail transport page regarding train speeds. Great info. I definitely believe Wikipedia will benefit from a good article on the subject! N2e 19:40, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, I haven't gotten around to it yet, and I'm not sure that an entire article should be devoted to the subject, but here are a few source pages to look (courtesy of a quick Google search) at if anyone else wants to look into it.
Basically, speed restrictions are based on two things: the track itself (rail strength or "weight," design tolerances, maintenance) and the signaling method used (signals, manual blocks, automatic train stop systems, etc.). The FRA's limits based on track standards end in *9mph (i.e. 49mph), and the restrictions based on signaling end in *0. (i.e. 60mph). So, for example, on the Alaska Railroad, we have some stretches of track that are limited to 40mph, which would be due to the track, and some stretches of 49mph, which would be due to it being in non-signaled territory, even though the track itself could handle up to 60mph. (We do have some new 60mph track, too, which is in CTC and is continuous welded rail. I've been told it's very nice, though I haven't been over it yet.
cluth 02:19, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Final state highway naming conventions debate

Cluth, your participation is welcome in the Wikipedia:State route naming conventions poll. Please give your input as to the process by 23:59 UTC on August 8.

Regards, Rschen7754 (talk - contribs) 22:24, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Netflix

I don't recall having deleted it myself. I think that the reason I voted against it was because it was an unmanageable list, but I might be wrong. I'll have to see what it was I did. Thanks for letting me know. - Lucky 6.9 06:32, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] California SR infobox discussion

Cluth, you are invited to participate in the (definitely less structured than WP:SRNC) WT:CASH infobox discussion. Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas. --Rschen7754 (talk - contribs) 01:22, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] U.S. Roads Newsletter Issue #1

The U.S. Roads WikiProject Newsletter
Volume 1, Issue 1 10 February 2007 About the Newsletter
Departments: Features:
Project News Notability of state highways is challenged
Important deletion debates
Featured subproject
Featured member
From the editor
Archives  |  Newsroom   Shortcut : WP:USRD/N
Want to help on next month's newsletter? Don't want to receive these in future? Don't want it subst'd next time? – It's all here. Rschen7754 (talk - contribs) 20:28, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] USRD Newsletter - Issue 2

The U.S. Roads WikiProject Newsletter
Volume 1, Issue 2 24 February 2007 About the Newsletter
Departments: Features:
Project News Notability of state highways is upheld
Deletion debates Kansas Turnpike is now a Good Article
Featured subproject U.S. Roads IRC channel created
Featured member Infoboxes and Navigation subproject started
From the editors
Archives  |  Newsroom   Shortcut : WP:USRD/NEWS
Want to help on next month's newsletter? Don't want to receive these in future? Don't want it subst'd next time? – It's all here. TMF Let's Go Mets - Stats 20:02, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] USRD Newsletter - Issue 3

The U.S. Roads WikiProject Newsletter
Volume 1, Issue 3 10 March 2007 About the Newsletter
Departments: Features:
Project news Inactivity?
Deletion debates Article Improvement Drive
Featured subproject Good and Featured Articles
Featured member
From the editors
Archives  |  Newsroom   Shortcut : WP:USRD/NEWS
Want to help on next month's newsletter? Don't want to receive these in future? Don't want it subst'd next time? – It's all here.

[edit] Active user verification

Hello, Cluth. Due to the high number of inactive users at WP:USRD, we are asking that you verify that you are still an active contributor of the project. To do so, please add an asterisk (*) after your name on Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Newsletter/List. Users without one by the next issue in 2 weeks will be removed off the list and off the respective road projects as well. If you have any questions, please contact me on my talk page. Thanks. TMF Let's Go Mets - Stats 20:16, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] USRD Newsletter - Issue 4

The U.S. Roads WikiProject Newsletter
Volume 1, Issue 4 24 March 2007 About the Newsletter
Departments: Features:
Project news March 16 IRC Meeting
Deletion debates Kentucky and Utah projects demoted
Featured subproject A quick look at the structural integrity of state highway WikiProjects
Featured member
From the editors
Archives  |  Newsroom   Shortcut : WP:USRD/NEWS
Want to help on next month's newsletter? Don't want to receive these in future? Don't want it subst'd next time? – It's all here. —TMF Let's Go Mets - Stats 22:11, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
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