User talk:Username132

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I will answer somewhere on wikipedia and you'll have to find out where! Wont this be fun..!


Contents


Welcome!

Hello, Username132, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!  MPF

[edit] Image tags

Hello. I noticed you uploaded Cocktail Glass 1.JPG to Wikipedia. Please add a image copyright tag to that images description page. Please see our image use policy for more details. Thanks. Zzyzx11 | Talk 01:34, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Nice start!

What you have is a good dictionary definition. I've put a "move to Wiktionary" template on it. BTW, welcome aboard! - Lucky 6.9 07:15, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

You know, that's a good question. It can link to Wiktionary, technically speaking. In a "transwiki," the original info might be lost. I've never attempted one myself. I think I'll just mosey on back to your article and hang a suitable stub notice for this site instead. Oh, and if you ever want to e-mail me or anyone else, just log in. Look in the toolbox in the lower left hand corner of your screen and you'll see a link called "E-mail this user." Click on it, fill in the body of the letter and hit the "send" button at the bottom. - Lucky 6.9 07:45, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

All set. I added a couple of wikis and fixed the intro just a bit. - Lucky 6.9 07:47, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Requesting permission for an image

I saw your question on the Village Pump. You might want to take a look at Wikipedia:Boilerplate requests for permission. You're not required to use the form letters given there, but you can look over them to make sure you've included all the necessary details. It's particularly important to be clear about the GFDL - images that are used on Wikipedia must be freely redistributable. Thanks! FreplySpang (talk) 15:37, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Hi '132' - I presume this is what you're letting me know about (I'd not been involved in it before!); I'm not too hot on licensing, but that does appear to be a bit restrictive to me; in effect they're not allowing third party use, so I fear it isn't a free license within the wiki rules . . . one of those annoying "This user finds copyright paranoia disruptive" cases grrrr...! But it would be worth getting one or two other opinions if you can. What's it a pic of? - MPF 18:17, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Yep, probably best to do your own diagram! For the userbox box, put {{Boxboxtop}} at the top of them, and {{Boxboxbottom}} at the end (just copy'n'paste them); not sure how that might conflict with that WikiDefcon thing, though - MPF 18:41, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This is a test...

It is only a test....

[edit] Vandalism makes me cry...

Agreed! I was away from the computer having dinner so missed it all, but it looks like it's gone now (red link) so it's been deleted. I think stuff like that usually does get zapped fairly quickly . . . you should've seen the deletions log yesterday (only admins can see it, I took a look for the first time) I scrolled down the first two pages (400 deleted pages), they were ALL dated 1st Feb! I guess there's a limit to how quickly it can get done! - Seeya! MPF 19:35, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Userpage

Hi 132 - I've put the userboxes into one column, see if you like it better like that - MPF 17:45, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] You marked Angie Spencer for deletion

Can you please sign the entry using ~~~~. That way people know who is the nominator. Welcome BTW and keep up the good work :) Dr Debug (Talk) 19:11, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Redirects

Hi 132 - sorry to say, redirects only work to a page title, the format Redirect: [[Genetic code#Table 1: RNA codon table]] to a section header doesn't work. Annoying, I know! - MPF 22:35, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Damn it. They should fix that. Username132 22:45, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Yeah! Trouble is, we are 'They', and I at least don't know how to do it :-( MPF 22:51, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] It's disappeared ...

Hi again - better let you know, the 'Electrophoretic mobility shift assay' page you wikified a bit, the whole thing was a gross copyright violation from the start (from [1], clearly marked 'copyright 2002'), so it's deleted now. Always worth checking if you find an article that looks suspiciuosly detailed and complete yet not wikified, there's a high probability it is copied and pasted in from another website. Then it just needs checking if the website is public domain (this one wasn't) or whether the original uploader had indicated that s/he held the copyright and gave permission for its use (it wasn't). If it fails these tests, it is a candidate for taking to Wikipedia:Copyright problems (or drop me a note; I speedied this one under the blatant infringements section) - MPF 23:13, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tip

For when you start the mSIN3 interaction domain page you're planning - paste this line in at the top of the page:

{{lowercase|title=mSIN3 interaction domain}}

This is because the wiki software auto-capitalises the first letter in every page title, so it will appear at "MSIN3 interaction domain"; the template above adds an explanation of the correct lower case first letter (for an example in use, see e.g. easyJet). - MPF 00:18, 9 February 2006 (UTC) PS you have e-mail, pls reply!

[edit] Added the naming restriction thingy

Good article. Somebody wants you to include references though - and actually you should ;) - so include [http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/content/abstract/6/2/304] when you say that they are necessary to increase the rate of transcription. That is if the link which google found for me is relevant, because I know nothing about this subject. Dr Debug (Talk) 02:11, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Somebody does? How rude... I'll reference the book I'm using which means more work for me >:O --Username132 02:14, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
She has a beautiful name as well. Francisco Valverde wanted you to include references. Book references are fine as well. Just make a section and reference the book. Dr Debug (Talk) 02:24, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
Done. Why is the subject of the article in bold? --Username132 02:37, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
It always is. Don't know why either. Somebody probably thought it looked better that way. Dr Debug (Talk) 03:11, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] User page

Hi 132 - answered your 'other eternal question' :-)
Also 'Drosophilia' is a typo for Drosophila, which already exists :-)) MPF 23:56, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks :) -Username132 00:00, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
I've made 'Drosophilia' into a redirect, as it seems to be a common typo (68,000 google hits!) - MPF 00:03, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
Good idea! L) -Username132 00:06, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
"Everytime a page is deleted, God kills a kitten" . . . naah, just a wikivandal ;-) MPF 00:07, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Your userpage was briefly delisted by a rogue admin

This user believes that only articles need reflect a NPOV, and that displaying political, religious, or other beliefs using userboxes and user categories should not be banned.

You have a userbox Template:User UN which links your userpage to United Nations Wikipedians. There is currently a movement to ban userboxes from Wikipedia which are shared and which create Lists of Wikipedians. Certain admins have taken it upon themselves to preemptively sabotage and/or delete such categories and template. Here is the incident report which reported damage to yours, in which hundreds of userpages were delinked from categories without the users' knowledge. They have been stopped, barely, and the damage reverted— for now.

There is a Wikipedia:Userbox policy poll, which if passed, will make required by policy the damage done to categories and templates such as User UN/United Nations Wikipedians. If you do not want this to happen, I urge you to vote Oppose. in the poll. Support is currently running at about 66%, and your vote could make the difference. It is said to require 75%-80% to be deemed reflective of consensus.

Thank you,

StrangerInParadise 23:44, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Okay, thanks, done. --Username132 00:29, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "My histlist"

Hi, I wandered by your user page, and that "hitlist" box calling a couple of other users "evil" is awfully prominent. I wonder if you'd be willing to remove it for the sake of harmony? Melchoir 02:58, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

You don't like it; it's gone. --Username132 20:50, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
Cool, thanks! Melchoir 21:36, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] About doxycycline

Hi Username132,

About tetracyclines, it's generally been accepted that the tooth stains are a problem with all tetracycline derivatives. The package insert for Vibramycin (brand name of Doxycycline) states this problem in the 'warnings' section [2]. It also mentions that fibula bone growth decreased in premature babies, but this effect was reversible upon discontinuation. Also, tetracyclines can cross the placenta, and fetuses may be at high risk for toxic effects-- therefore, pregnant women should not take tetracycline or its derivatives.

About adding the 'talk' part to your signature, do the following: check the tick box "Raw signature", then fill in the "Nickname:" blank with the following:

[[User:Username132|Username132]] ([[User talk:Username132|talk]])

Hope that helps! Feel free to send me any more questions. Also, I'd like to hear more about your dissertation! --Uthbrian (talk) 00:16, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rodents chewing electrical cables

Mum went to get her steamer from the cupboard and it wouldn't work. After much to-do, we discovered a rodent had chewed the cable! Why?! What is in this destructive behaviour for the animal? Is plastic high in protein? What vitamins does it get? None! So why damage my mum's steamer?? I mean, she's only used it three times. It makes me sick... --Username132 (talk) 01:04, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

As far as I know, rodents tend to chew for a few reasons. One reason is that their teeth never stop growing. To prevent them from literally growing into their bottom jaw they must whittle their teeth down by chewing on hard objects. Since an electrical cord is not a hard object that leads me to a second reason. Rodents explore their environment by chewing. Having no hands with which to examine objects, the rodent does the next best thing. It chews on an object to learn about it and its composition. The same way humans try new behavior, rodents try new behavior. If electrical cords had jelly filled centers, then the rodent would be rewarded for trying something new. The rodent may or may not have learned its lesson, but watch out for chewed cords in the futures. Holes chewed by mice might lead to electrical shorts which can cause fires. I am no mouse expert, but one way you might try to prevent chewing would be to bundle the cord and keep it off the ground. Did the rodent chew anything else nearby or have shredded materials suddenly appeared where your Mum’s steamer was kept? Maybe it wanted to make a nest and chewed the cord to get it out of the way. Sifaka 01:35, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

I went into my attic and found the black plastic neatly stripped off the coax cable from a tv antenna in the attic. I couldn't imagine who had done it or why, but I found a squrrel in the attic who had done it. I chased him out, but he gnawed through a closed window (wood part) to get back in. Finally trapped him. He would have made a good electrician's helper if well trained!Edison 18:13, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Compost

I answered your envelope composting question on the questions page.--Anchoress 01:01, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! --Username132 (talk) 04:07, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Request for edit summary

When editing an article on Wikipedia there is a small field labelled "Edit summary" under the main edit-box. It looks like this:

Edit summary text box

The text written here will appear on the Recent changes page, in the page revision history, on the diff page, and in the watchlists of users who are watching that article. See m:Help:Edit summary for full information on this feature.

When you leave the edit summary blank, some of your edits could be mistaken for vandalism and may be reverted, so please always briefly summarize your edits, especially when you are making subtle but important changes, like changing dates or numbers. Thank you.

– Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 04:15, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Blues Reply

"At the beginning of |this song there's a short instrumental that I really like - can you recommend any music on this basis? Thanks! --Username132 (talk) 23:13, 16 March 2006 (UTC)" sorry not to get back to you sooner Well, if you were talking the guitar solo in the song, it seemed to be of a blues/rock basis, fundamentally a blues solo on paper, but played in a rock style. So, just on the basis of that, i would recommend the band Cream, who's guitarist Eric Clapton with cream did a great deal of either striaght blues standards like Robert Johnson's crossroads and the also did much of there own song many similar in style to the instrumental portion of that song you linked me to. i personally would get cream live at albert hall 2005 over their greatest hits because clapton has gotten noticable better with time.

but, if youw looking for something a little more bluesy, but still with some rock, and slower like that song in general go for some Stevie Ray Vaughn

or if you looking for some harder blues/rock you have zz top, Jimi Hendrix and harder even yet AC/DC

i do not really know your exposure to the music world so if i'm saying bands you already know and listen to forgive me.

 - IshmaelBlues

[edit] Think you need an correction here

'explarary'?

Did you mean 'Exemplary? 1. Worthy of imitation; commendable: exemplary behavior. 2. Serving as a model. 3. Serving as an illustration; typical. 4. Serving as a warning; admonitory. I'd fix that, and delete this too! I tried to be discrete and email you, but it's not 'On'. See your preferences. The new policy needs a verified email, and the check box to be checked for email to work. Sympathies, my spelling sucks and I make typos too! Best wishes, // FrankB 21:00, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
I'm confused. Are you sure you have the right guy? --Username132 (talk) 00:46, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Innocent!!

This IP is campus-wide. I am a university student. Look at my contributions. Stop blocking me. --Username132 (talk) 22:58, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Need to know the IP address thats blocked to unblock -- Tawker 22:59, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Innocent!!

This IP is campus-wide. I am a university student. Look at my contributions. Stop blocking me. IP: 129.234.4.76 --Username132 (talk) 22:59, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Unblocked. -- Kim van der Linde at venus 03:46, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Murder weapon

ANY object can be used as a weapon, and any weapon can inflict mortal wounds, given sufficient time and patience. This article was little more than a dictionary definition of a phrase. It would be better off on Wiktionary but weapon is there already. (aeropagitica) (talk) 20:15, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Help?

Will you consider commenting on some AfD nominations and merge-delete propositions that I believe are an attempt to drive off a good editor? (OK, she's my wife. But she's exhausted by this fight; her articles are written in good faith and this editor is making a mockery of WP.)

Thank you! --JuanFiguroa 03:01, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] hi

Hi there-- I posted an answer to your question here--I'm sure many more people will attempt to answer later in the day, also AdamBiswanger1 14:59, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] phone question

I don't know exactly what all that means, especially the 22.50 puzzles me too. I supose you'd better call them (ah, but you don't have a phone yet :) ). But I'll translate what the table below it says (as I understand it and with an overly literal translation - it is often unclear whether something is a product because (starting with ms fuckin' Windows) companies nowadays use ordinary words for their products):

  • number of calling minutes or SMS (inside call & SMS outstanding (owing?)) - 150/150
  • amount per month - 5.95
  • price per calling minute (inside outstanding) - 0.04
  • price per sms (inside outstanding) - 0.04
  • one-off connection cost - 0.00
  • contract duration in years - 1

'inside outstanding' sounds a bit funny. :) By 'outstanding' I mean the amount left to you to use for calls. Strangely, they use a dot for a decimal separator, which is the English standard (in Dutch it would have to be a comma). This is an British company and it looks like they're struggling to get something translated into Dutch, which might be the reason of your and my confusion when I try to translate it back to English. :) DirkvdM 07:56, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] bike and letter

The bicycle you refer to is called 'bakfiets' in Dutch, so you might try googling with that term to find a place to rent one. It's a very good and popular option, albeit hard work (even empty they need quite a bit more muscle power than an ordinary bike). The letter looks fine to me, but hiring a place with internet included is an option I have never heard of before. If you want a good one you might check out www.xs4all.nl, but they're not the cheapest (good service costs money). DirkvdM 11:53, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] proteins

Category:Proteins already has several subcategories. I suggest that you post your suggestions about categories on this page --> Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology. --JWSchmidt 18:04, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Help desk#References and footnotes

Did my answer help you along? - Mgm|(talk) 22:04, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Broken links

Oh, great. Now I have to pay for them.

Which links did you mean? I have been doing so many different things lately, I could have broken anything. Thanks for letting me know. Cheers! – ClockworkSoul 20:01, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Making Diagrams and such

For all artwork I produce I use Adobe Illustrator. Occasionally I have used Adobe Photoshop to touch things up and make things extra pretty. I think all my diagrams are in a PNG format (being that it's free), but others have yelled at me for not using SVG, so I guess next time I try drawing something I'll try SVG. I take probably about 3 hours a picture, give or take; the simple ones take about half an hour, my diagram on embryonic stem cells took about 5 hours. I don't think that the programs are very hard to pick up. It's one of those things that take 10% of the time to learn 90% of it, and 90% of the time to learn the other 10%. I picked it up fast, but I has taken a long time to get 'good', but I am by no means a master. If you'd like to see some real skill look at User:LadyofHats, She is far and away my favorite artist on wikipedia. Hope it helps Adenosine | Talk 03:19, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia protein articles

"Are you saying we should put Wikipedia:WikiProject_Molecular_and_Cellular_Biology links on stub pages? I don't think we're meant to do that..." <-- I think there should be a Wikipedia article that discusses all specific proteins that are mentioned in any Wikipedia article. The template that I used to create the Molecular and Cellular Biology WikiProject included a template for marking pages as being stubs that are of interest to the project: {{Molecular and Cellular Biology-stub}}. I started using the stub template to mark short articles about specific proteins (example). The "GroEL" article is an example of what was an, "existing short articles about specific proteins". When I wrote about "mentioned proteins" I was talking about both proteins "that weren't linked" and proteins that "were red linked". I was trying to start a systematic approach to finding all Wikipedia articles about proteins and marking them with a link to the Molecular and Cellular Biology WikiProject. This would allow the articles to be categorized in a sensible way and developed by participants in the project. What makes you think that we are not supposed to do this? Since the main project page was shortened, there are now broken links to what was the section of the page for the stub templates. --JWSchmidt 11:51, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

"shouldn't we be using their updated scheme" <-- We should use whatever works. --JWSchmidt 15:42, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WP:MCB

Great work! – ClockworkSoul 14:30, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Standardizing protein representation pictures

I think it would be nice to standardize the rendered images of proteins in some way to give the same look and feel for this kind of articles. Of course this might not be possible in all cases as there are far too many protein articles. Also there are some that have good illustrations already which should not be removed just for the sake of standardization. However for all those pictureless protein articles where an image might be useful it would be nice to use the same representation. What do you think?

I suggest to use the open source program PyMol to render the images. It is widely used, gives nice results and had cartoon representations of both proteins and nucleic acids. For some articles I am interested in I did some images: actin, Arp2/3 complex, MreB, Profilin

If you think this would be useful, I'd volunteer to render some images on request. Just leave a message on my talk page.

Any thoughts? --Splette Image:Happyjoe.jpg Talk 18:05, 31 August 2006 (UTC)


Errr, why was this entry created on your userpage and not at Molecular and Cellular Biology/Proposals? Should I paste it there?? --Splette Image:Happyjoe.jpg Talk 18:09, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] FA nomination for Enzyme

Hi there. I nominated Enzyme for Featured Article a while ago. As you are a Wikipedian who contributes to scientific articles, I would appreciate any feedback you may have this nomination, especially any suggestions for improving the article. Thanks! TimVickers 18:07, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

I downloaded that review on Orotate decarboxylase if you were wanting any more info. If you put your e-mail on my talk page I will then e-mail you the Pdf. TimVickers 21:45, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cross-namespace redirects

Per WP:ASR please do not create articles that are redirects to non-encyclopedic content like you did with Good article et al. Thank you. --Cyde Weys 02:53, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This month's WP:MCB Article Improvement Drive article

Cell nucleus
This month's MCB Collaboration of the Month article is cell nucleus.
Please help to improve this article to featured article status.

– ClockworkSoul 22:55, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Molecular and Cellular Biology WikiProject Votes

The Molecular and Cellular Biology WikiProject has recently opened two surveys that will help to decide the direction of the project. First, nominations are currently being accepted for the position of coordinator of the project. Second, votes and additional suggestions for the official title of that position are also being taken. As a member of the project, we hope that you'll drop by and voice your opinion. – ClockworkSoul 03:57, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Additional Function

I would like a bot that changes all instances of:

et. al.

to

''et. al.'', thereby making them italic (as they ought to be).

Could you adjust your bot to do this? --Username132 (talk) 14:34, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

This sounds like a good idea. Before I go ahead with it, could you tell me are there any style guide recommendations (or similar) saying what the preferred appearance is on Wikipedia? Cheers, CmdrObot 23:40, 20 September 2006 (UTC)


but it should be

''et al.''
not
''et. al.'' The et is the latin word, not an abbrecviation and gets no period. according to the MOS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_%28abbreviations%29et alii (and others) et al.
and according to the Chicago manual of Style, dictionaries, etc. etc. (etc. and al. are abbreviations)
By all means write the bot, but get it right. DGG 03:42, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] FA nomination for Enzyme kinetics

Hi Username132. If you have any comments or suggestions, this article is up for FA candidacy and the discussion page is here. Thank you. TimVickers 20:36, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This month's WP:MCB Article Improvement Drive article

Adenosine triphosphate
This month's MCB Collaboration of the Month article is adenosine triphosphate.
Please help to improve this article to featured article status.

– ClockworkSoul 21:11, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] One more vote for the coordinator of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Wikiproject

Since two of the three editors nominated for Coordinator of the MCB Wikiproject declined their nominations, one more vote has been posted: should the remaining nominee, ClockworkSoul, be named as the coordinator, or should nominations be reopened? Every opinion counts, so please vote! – ClockworkSoul 17:56, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology/Votes/director final vote

If things continue as they are, perhaps in a couple of days we should consider closing this early, in the spirit of WP:SNOW? – ClockworkSoul 04:31, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Sure thing... you're the Coordinator! --Username132 (talk) 13:20, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Molecular and Cellular Biology Wikiproject Newsletter

The October edition of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Wikiproject Newsletter has been released. You can read it by visiting the newsletter page. – ClockworkSoul 19:30, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Additional Function

Hi there,

sorry about the long delay, but I've finally gotten around to beefing up my bot a little, and now it should be able to handle et al. properly. Just for the hell of it, I've added in vitro, in vivo, and in silico too. Typographical Nirvana awaits :) Cheers, CmdrObot 00:16, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This month's winner is proteasome!

Proteasome
This month's MCB Collaboration of the Month article is proteasome.
Please help to improve this article to featured article status.
Last month's collaboration was adenosine triphosphate

– ClockworkSoul 22:26, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This month's winner is RNA interference!

RNA interference
This month's MCB Collaboration of the Month article is RNA interference.
Please help to improve this article to featured article status.
Last month's collaboration was proteasome

– ClockworkSoul 14:44, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bot Performance

I was wondering, if I make a mistake on some page somewhere, how long could I expect to wait until your bot happened across it and eliminated it? Do other bots move at the same speed (e.g. redirect-fixing bots)? How many pages a day does your bot ensure are purged of mistakes (including ones checked that contained no mistakes to correct)? --Username132 (talk) 22:17, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi Username132,
It's a good question, and unfortunately the short answer is "I don't know." To give you a couple of statistics though, I tend to make edits to an average of about 300 pages per day. The last time I got the bot to process an offline dump, and to give me statistics on articles, it told me there were ~180,000 articles with misspellings, so I guess I should take something like 600 days to get through this.
There are, however, a few factors to be added to this.
  1. This count will grow as I find new spelling mistakes to add to my correction list.
  2. The count shrinks when I find special cases to remove from the spelling list (eg 'mariage' is not correct in English, but it is correct in French, so I've started checking for things like 'le mariage'; 'emerg' is usually a misspelling of 'emerge', but it's used in emedicine2 templates, so I have to allow it in those templates; etc)
  3. There are lots of other people doing spelling corrections too. Particularly people using AWB.
  4. Wikipedia itself is growing. It's not clear to me whether or not the proportion of articles with misspellings is growing or not. My statistics say the proportion is growing, but that could well be because of the many new rules and spelling corrections I've added to my lists recently.
I'm afraid I've no idea how many edits other bots are making, although, obviously fully automatic bots will be able to work much faster than ones that required human supervision.
I hope this is of some help to you. Cheers, CmdrObot 23:10, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


Thanks for the insight. I'm not clear on what kind of supervision do you need to give it? And would it be an idea to split the functions into two bots; one fully automatic and one needing supervision or is that just the sort of suggestion that comes from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about? I was going to suggest adding italicising of Latin Genus species names to the functions of your bot, but if you've already got a two-year backlog...! --Username132 (talk) 00:57, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
OK, so the way it works is I feed my bot a text file which consists of a list of article titles it show me. The bot itself shows me a web page in a window that it controls. It loads the article in edit-mode (in a web page) from wikipedia, copies all the text out of the edit box, feeds it into the bot's spell fixing code, takes the result and puts it back into the edit box, and then 'clicks' the show changes button. Then it sits there and waits for me to look at the changes it's made. If the changes are OK, I can click save, and the bot loads the next article.
I'm afraid that for the majority of the changes I'm making, it's very very difficult to be 100% certain that the changes would be completely safe to make in all contexts, so splitting them up into 'automatic' and 'supervised' isn't an option. For example, someone asked me to ad italicising of 'et al' to the bot, which I've done recently. Now this is perfectly fine to do 99% of the time; but supposing someone has an infobox for a music CD, and they just happen to have 'Image = britney spears et al.jpg' in it. My bot will incorrectly change the filename, and without human intelligence, there's just no way the bot can recognise all of these possibilities.
Tell me more about this italicising suggestion of yours though. If there aren't too many different "Genus species" out there, I'd be quite happy to give it a go. Cheers, CmdrObot 01:25, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
Wow, I didn't know you had to put in so much effort. I'm actually the same guy that requested italicising of et al.! Unfortunately what I meant by 'Genus species' was aalll the known species in the world preceeded by their taxonomical 'genus'. That's obviously too much work ask you to supervise but thanks for listening to me anyway! :) Username132 (talk) 01:46, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Doing something about the ridiculous date autoformatting/linking mess

Dear 132—you may be interested in putting your name to, or at least commenting on this new push to get the developers to create a parallel syntax that separates autoformatting and linking functions. IMV, it would go a long way towards fixing the untidy blueing of trivial chronological items, and would probably calm the nastiness between the anti- and pro-linking factions in the project. The proposal is to retain the existing function, to reduce the risk of objection from pro-linkers. Tony 05:03, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Elaborate Halloween Costumes

In the film 'To Kill A Mocking Bird', Scout dresses up as a ham for a school play and subsequently rolls around in her costume as she and her brother are attacked. How would you go about making such a costume? --Username132 (talk) 06:03, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Neat costume idea! Hmmm.... large garbage bag filled with crushed newspaper, then spray painted to look like a ham, then a piece of cardboard as the open sliced end (where it's been cut into) with some cloth 'slices' partially folded open, also painted? I was thinking of a ham like this. At some point, stick a person into it so it's as if they're wearing a large ham. Sounds like a fun project, however you do it. Regards, CHAIRBOY (☎) 06:34, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Meta-comments

Discussion of the goings on of the ref desk are really better placed on Wikipedia talk:Reference desk than on the actual reference desk. We should assume that people reading the ref desk want the ref desk, and that people wanting to talk about the ref desk will read the talk page. Ned Wilbury 20:08, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This month's MCB Collaboration of the Month article is Peripheral membrane protein!

Peripheral membrane protein
This month's MCB Collaboration of the Month article is Peripheral membrane protein.
Please help to improve this article to featured article status.
Last month's collaboration was RNA interference

– ClockworkSoul 19:00, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

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