User talk:Ryan Reich

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Meelar (talk) 23:18, Feb 19, 2005 (UTC)

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[edit] 24 hours in a day

Thanks, I never noticed the warning box in infinity symbol.Firedrop (talk) 19:20, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Iowa class battleship

Thanx for your edit. I felt like "finest battleship" should be there, but my grammar far from perfect. Now I think you found a perfect wording. TestPilot 19:50, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Griffiths

You realise you have to create the Phillip Griffiths page now, I hope. Charles Matthews 20:53, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Zariski topology

Thanks for the rewrite at Zariski topology. It's much improved. -- Fropuff 18:00, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Wow, you're fast. I just committed that ten minutes ago. I'm glad you like it; it's a shame the thing sat around for so many months without help. Ryan Reich 18:02, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

I have eyes everywhere :) Yeah, I've been meaning to rewrite that article for a long time; I've just never gotten around to it. Too many things to do. -- Fropuff 18:05, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] By inspection

Hi Ryan. I started a discussion on this article at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics#By inspection. I wonder if you could comment. Thanks. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 02:55, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mathematical jargon

Just wanted to commend you for your recent work on this article. It looks a lot better. dbtfztalk 01:19, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. It was my hope with the new sections that people would see more clearly what jargon had yet to be included, which should help the page grow. Plus it's easier to look things up now. Ryan Reich 04:02, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
thank you for the symbols on proof by induction. (Where do I go to learn how to do that?) Since I generalised it to begin at an integer 's', we need the range at the end of the line to read 'for all n greater than or equal to s' to be precise. Pliny 19:40, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
You can write in LaTeX (or a reasonable subset of it, at least) if you enclose it in <math> </math> tags. To learn LaTeX...Google it, there are zillions of tutorials. You'll need to practice to get any good, though. Try typesetting random math documents (don't put that on Wikipedia, of course). Also, it would have been more appropriate to start a new section on my talk page rather than burying your comment in a very old section. Ryan Reich 19:57, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] wikiproject mathematics

Dude surely you must add your name to Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics/Participants.

Dmharvey 22:59, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

David, I was just about to leave a message on your page. It's scary now that real people I know can read me on Wikipedia too. Ryan Reich 23:00, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] limitation of size

Hi Ryan,

a redirect to NBG is not what I was looking for. I want a discussion of the philosophical concept, not a formal theory that arguably incorporates it. --Trovatore 23:09, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

My apologies. I jumped on it too hastily when I found a requested article whose title actually rang a bell. These days, most of them don't, and I assumed that's what was meant. I couldn't tell who had placed the request, so I figured, given the similarity, that it might well be someone who came across the term in a book, couldn't trace it to the NBG page, and asked for an article. Ryan Reich 07:09, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Three forms of mathematical induction

Thank you for your contribution to the discussion page regarding AfD for this article. I found it very constructive and helpful. Slowmover 16:16, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Glad I could help. I hope that I can influence enough people (one way or the other) that the debate has a resolution rather than being inconclusive, which is disappointing. Ryan Reich 17:19, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
The AfD debate was inconclusive, but I am still trying to get Michael Hardy to accept something like my reformulation of his insights, placed as a section of Mathematical induction. Since my reformulation inadvertantly mimicked an insight about binary functions that you posted first, I would like to invite you to participate in the discussion at Talk:Mathematical induction. (I've been talking to Hardy at User talk:Michael Hardy, so please check there, too.) Joshuardavis 19:27, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] not sure you realize how that sounds

Hi Ryan,

Are you aware that "I can tell you where you should try to merge it" can be read as a vulgar insult? If not, you might want to rephrase that. (If so, you might still want to rephrase that.) --Allen 01:29, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Obviously I didn't realize that. If it comes off badly I'll change it. Ryan Reich 01:33, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
Thanks... I apologize for suggesting that you might have meant that. I may be the only one who read it that way, but in case I wasn't I felt I should say something. Sorry again. --Allen 01:37, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
No problem. I write so many words eventually they'll say something stupid. Ryan Reich 01:38, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

I can easily believe nothing was being insinuated, but given the accusations and harsh tones already in the discussion, I believe it's wise if you modify that statement and note in the edit summary that it was not meant to be an insult. Better safe than sorry. --C S (Talk) 01:41, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Too bad...it really would have been a good insult.  :-) dbtfztalk 01:44, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
Yep, it's changed now. I'm trying hard to keep my criticism of the article from reflecting on the author. Ryan Reich 01:48, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I was positive that you didn't mean anything nasty when I read it, and I'm sure Michael wouldn't have taken it the wrong way... but I still had a laugh. It could have been an instant Wikipedia classic! I guess it just goes to show the dangers of communicating through text. Anyway, let me add my thanks to you for spending so much thought on the AfD. Cheers, Melchoir 01:56, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

Many thanks for your stellar work on Common misconceptions in probability and statistics (or whatever its current title is). I had given up on that article, but you are probably right that User:Helgus meant to explain the difference between statistical independence and causal independence. This is an important point, and it wasn't yet mentioned on Wikipedia, so I'm very glad if it will be saved because of your efforts. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 02:31, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm glad it will turn out to be useful. At first I thought the article would end up proving to be OR anyway, but the example seems not to be, and the philosophical point is certainly worth a page. Though his original article talked about "information", which has me wondering if there is, in the mathematical sense, information between dependent events. Not that I know anything at all about information or probability. Anyway, even if the article gets deleted I'd be happy to find the causal/statistical independence dichotomy a more suitable home. Ryan Reich 02:45, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Did I offend you?

I see no relation between your "we disagree" statement and what I wrote, and don't understand why you write that you're "through". If I offended you in some way, I'm sorry. --LambiamTalk 16:28, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Maybe unintentionally. More to the point is that in general, what I enjoy about Wikipedia is much more creating articles than deleting them; arguing over what should or should not be said is not rewarding for me. The participants in these arguments (including myself) are always hugely dismissive of the topics they oppose, as is true of any asynchronous Internet communications, but they are only ever justified in this in the case of the most frivolous or deliberately fraudulent articles. I often find myself defending material which is being attacked as "unencyclopedic", but which I think is important to any writing on mathematics. I take this as a sign that I don't get along with the enyclopedia model, and I don't want to have anything to do with the legal wrangling. I'm through with AfD's. Ryan Reich 21:00, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

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[edit] Helgus’s request

Dear Ryan,

Many thanks for the help in editing wiki-papers. Obviously, my English is not perfect. Moreover, your help was rather pertinent and indispensable. I understand, that you are very busy. And nevertheless I'd like to address to you with the request of the same sort.

On July, 30th I leave for Paris on Conference IPMU-2006, where I have the session E22 on eventology.

Would you be so kind to find a spare minute and examine preambles of two wiki-papers from the point of view of your excellent English style?:

Thank you in advance:) - Helgus 04:25, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rational map

Hi Ryan, why do you hesitate to post your draft on rational maps? I think it is valuable. Some of the material, e.g. dominant map, might also be good to add to the Glossary of scheme theory. Jakob.scholbach 04:36, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Laziness? I guess I should get it out there, it's been ages. I just never feel like it's truly correct (from a mathematical-philosophical standpoint). Ryan Reich 04:56, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Just post it and others, maybe myself may see whether they want to add, rearrange etc. something. Jakob.scholbach 15:36, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, I put it up and structured it a bit. Ryan Reich 16:14, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mathematics CotW

Hey Ryan, I am writing you to let you know that the Mathematics Collaboration of the week(soon to "of the month") is getting an overhaul of sorts and I would encourage you to participate in whatever way you can, i.e. nominate an article, contribute to an article, or sign up to be part of the project. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks--Cronholm144 00:05, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Abel Rating

Hey Ryan, I notice your change to the article and I am fine with it, but I encourage you to address the comments in the comment box. thanks--Cronholm144 00:30, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm thinking about it. Depending on how familiar you are with my edits, you might have noticed that I tend to write as much as I can when I create an article. So, if I don't write something, I don't know it. I changed the rating just because I realized that it wasn't actually a stub. Ryan Reich 00:58, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

Well I knew that it was not a true stub but it needed work and I sometimes rate lower than the article's true value, which I think is start, in hopes of attracting angry editors who will improve their article to prove me wrong;), but if that is all there is to say then that is all there is to say on the topic. However I wonder if there is another editor who could help expand the article? anyway thanks so much for your prompt reply--Cronholm144 01:14, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

P.S. Help out with the Math collaboration of the week Mathematical physics if you have time!

I don't mean to imply that there's nothing more to say on the Abel-Jacobi map; just that I don't have anything more to say. I know nothing about abelian varieties and I only know this bit because of a reading course I did last year. Hopefully I'm not the only "algebraic geometer" around here. Ryan Reich 02:20, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image:tinfoillinux.jpg copy to Commons?

Just curous, what is the meaning of the {{to Commons}} template you've put on this image today? It seems to imply that you think the image is inappropriate for some reason, i.e. being indiscriminately included. Do you think that Tinfoil Hat Linux does not deserve an image of its logo on its page? Or is it simply that you think that the image itself belongs to be hosted on the Commons site rather than on Wikipedia itself? I am not experienced in these political matters, so I don't know what the rule is with where images of various licensing belong. Ryan Reich 16:50, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

As it is the image can only be used on the English Wikipepia, but since it's a free image it can be copied to commons. Then it will become available on all Wikimedia projects. It's certainly not tagged because it's inappropriate, but rather the opposite. // Liftarn
Okay, cool. I'm just being vigilant about my pet articles; from time to time, people do things which are perhaps well-meaning, but still quite wrong, on the "advice" of some guideline or other. Ryan Reich 17:39, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
It's OK to have your pet articles, just remember that you don't own them. // Liftarn

[edit] Mathematical jargon

Hi, I noticed your undo of my edit to Mathematical jargon. The reason I made my edit is that your definition of "stronger" doesn't cover the one I gave (although it gives related meanings), and the one I give is the only one I encounter on a regular basis. Undoing doesn't fix that. Please suggest a solution. Rp (talk) 07:32, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

It looks to me like what you said:

"A property or condition is said to be stronger than another if the second property holds in all cases where the first property holds, but not vice versa; e.g. for positive whole numbers, being divisible by 4 is a stronger property than being even, while being divisible by 3 is neither stronger or weaker than either.:

is exactly the same as what is said in the final sentences of the existing definition:

"Finally, the adjective strong or the adverb strongly may be added to a mathematical notion to indicate a related stronger notion; for example, a strong antichain is an antichain satisfying certain additional conditions, and likewise a strongly regular graph is a regular graph meeting stronger conditions. When used in this way, the stronger notion (such as "strong antichain") is a technical term with a precisely defined meaning; the nature of the extra conditions cannot be derived from the definition of the weaker notion (such as "antichain")."

Did you have something else in mind? Ryan Reich (talk) 21:44, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
Hmmm, looks like you're right. Then all I am unhappy with is the word "notion", where the term "property" seems common to me; and the lack of a formal definition (subset would do in most cases). Rp (talk) 20:15, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
Seeing them together like this I'm not sure I don't prefer your version, though. When I originally wrote all the definitions on that page, I wanted to keep them very short, since it's a big list and many of them have articles elsewhere. "Strong" is easily the worst offender in terms of length and I don't think it is necessarily better than an efficiently worded, shorter version. However, the point made in the last sentence of the current definition is a good one: sometimes, "stronger" is not a value judgement but just jargon for "subset of". Ryan Reich (talk) 03:13, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Inherent notability

Hi Ryan. Given your recent comments, I just thought you mind find this entertaining (if somewhat worrying). I'll never forget that particular AfD, in which people it was argued that a misprint (in all probability) was inherently notable. To my mind, that's why the concept is so absurd. Jakew (talk) 22:00, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

This really is absurd. At least the article was moved. Ryan Reich (talk) 22:13, 2 June 2008 (UTC)