User talk:Cullinane

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[edit] Wikipedia welcome

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia! Hope you like it here, and stick around.

Here are some tips to help you get started:

Good luck!

Meelar (talk) 14:32, August 10, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] hi there

Hi Steven,

Just a little friendly unsolicited advice. I suggest you check out Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. I'm concerned that some of your recent edits might be getting a little too close to the boundary of what's considered acceptable, in terms of self-promotion. Not dangerously close, but just enough to make me notice. Please be careful, and don't get carried away. And thanks for starting work on reflection group; I'm surprised an article of that title didn't exist already. Dmharvey Image:User_dmharvey_sig.png Talk 05:23, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the friendly warning. I agree that I've been getting a little too close to the boundary, in terms of self-promotion, but I have tried to be carefully self-promoting-- with the exception of a contribution to "Mathematics and art" that was blatantly self-promotional, just to test the limits. It was rightly altered. I have added, where they were missing, discussion sections to all articles I have altered, with notes on the alterations I have made. Please let me know in those or any future new discussion sections if I'm too near or over the boundary, and of course feel free to remove any out-of-bounds additions I make. Glad you like the "reflection group" article-- If it weren't for self-promotion, the article would not exist. ;) Cullinane 10:14, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Style remarks

Hi Steven. I see you are rather new, so I came to bug you (with very tiny styllistical matters). First, one should make the variables italic, so n is better than simply n. Second, instead of nxn one should write n×n which looks so much better (doesn't it? :) Lastly, when you make links, it is good that they flow naturally with the text, and one should not use capitals and undersocres in links.

Thank you for your contributions to orthogonality. I fixed the items mentioned above, this is just a remark for future reference (better tell people once than fix after them a lot of times :) I hope you enjoy it here. Oleg Alexandrov 00:01, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the style tips; I'll try to remember the "times" notation. I used underscores because without them, sometimes letters in words that are separated do not get underlined in a link with a line break. Any way to get around this? Cullinane 02:00, 7 September 2005 (UTC)
Well, it is not a good idea to have a link break in a link to start with. :) By the way, if you try to edit this text, you will see many lines, but in fact there are no linea breaks except between paragraphs. So I think that unless somebody on the very purpuse hits the "Return" key to create line breaks, they will not show up and everything will be allright. (And underscores are so ugly. :) Oleg Alexandrov 02:19, 7 September 2005 (UTC)
Your statement that "it is not a good idea to have a line break in a link" presumably applies to breaks created by the author. I meant the breaks at the end of lines that are automatically supplied by the program, not by the author. Yes, underscores are ugly, but no, everything will not be all right. Example:
"For a mathematical example of such a mechanism using the cubes of psychologists' block design tests, see Block Designs in Art and Mathematics."
When I view the above, the letter "s" at the end of "Designs" comes at the end of a line and is not underlined in the link. This is half-assed programming on the part of whoever wrote the Wikipedia software. I need a solution to the problem, not a defense of Wikipedia. But thanks anyway... and skip the smileys... I am not naturally friendly, and smileys do not make me any friendlier.
I managed to reproduce what you say. Yes, looks bad. But I am not sure inserting underscores is the right way to fix it. OK, I leave this up to you. :) Oleg Alexandrov 15:14, 7 September 2005 (UTC)
Also, what is your Wikipedia source for the doctrine that one should not use capitals in links? They seem natural if the link contains a title. Or do you mean that all titles should have only the first letter capitalized? Cullinane 04:44, 7 September 2005 (UTC)
In the Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Headings they say that section names should not have capitals other than first word. I am not sure about links though. Therefore, I will not bug you anymore. :) Oleg Alexandrov 15:14, 7 September 2005 (UTC)
OK, thanks for the tips. By the way, the math links on your user page, and the discussions on your user talk page, are quite helpful. :) Cullinane 17:14, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikiproject mathematics

Hi,

Welcome to Wikipedia. Thought I should mention that most of the general math discussion occurs at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics, which is the talk page for Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics linas 04:26, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] blew what up?

Hi. On the page kaleidoscope, which I believe you created, reference is made to a kaleidoscope being blown up by a German. I did not understand what it was that he had blown up, and the statement hangs in the air somewhat (actually, it lacks a full stop as well, which adds to the hanging-in-the-air feeling). Could I ask you to clarify it when you have a chance? --Adam Brink 09:42, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi. Your belief that I created the kaleidoscope article is unfounded. I know nothing about the alleged blowing-up, but I agree that the statement about the German makes no sense. I suggest it be deleted. --Cullinane 23:20, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Blitz by Charles Matthews

The following revisions were made by Charles Matthews on Oct. 2, 2006:

   * Affine group‎; 18:46 . . Charles Matthews
              (rm Cullinane spam)
   * Reflection group‎; 18:45 . . Charles Matthews
              (rm Cullinane spam)
   * Symmetry in mathematics‎; 18:42 . . Charles Matthews
              (rm diamond theorem spam)
   * Incidence structure‎; 18:42 . . Charles Matthews
              (rm diamond theorem spam)
   * Invariant (mathematics)‎; 18:40 . . Charles Matthews
              (rm diamond theorem spam)
   * Symmetry‎; 18:39 . . Charles Matthews
              (rm diamond theorem spam)
   * Finite geometry‎; 18:39 . . Charles Matthews
              (rm diamond theorem spam)
   * Group action‎; 18:38 . . Charles Matthews
              (Examples - rm diamond theorem spam)
   * History of geometry‎; 17:03 . . Charles Matthews
              (The 20th century - rm 'diamond theorem' spam)

From Matthews's User Talk on Oct. 2:

Diamond theorem spam

I saw that you removed Cullinane's stuff about the diamond theorem and the eightfold cube from Group action. He has done this other places [1] as well, e.g., PSL(2,7). Are you thinking that a general clean-up might be in order? Michael Kinyon 19:01, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Treat on merits. For example his link for the Walsh function page I left. I don't think the 'diamond theorem' is anything serious, so I started with blitzing that. I left something on quaternion group. Charles Matthews 19:20, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
Fair enough. Too time consuming to do otherwise, anyway. Michael Kinyon 19:23, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Fair enough? -- Cullinane 21:35, 2 October 2006 (UTC)