en User talk:Enquire Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions with User:Enquire. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Welcome!

Howdy, Enquire/Archive 1, and welcome to Wikipedia!

Thank you for your contributions; you seem to be off to a good start. Hopefully you will soon join the vast army of Wikipediholics! If you need help on how to title new articles, see the naming conventions, and for help on formatting pages, visit the manual of style. For general questions, go to Wikipedia:Help or the FAQ; if you can't find your answer there, check the Village Pump (for Wikipedia related questions) or the Reference Desk (for general questions). There's still more help at the Tutorial and Policy Library. Plus, don't forget to visit the Community Portal. If you have any more questions after that, feel free to ask me directly on my user talk page.

Additional tips

Here are some extra tips to help you get around in the 'pedia!

For Wikipedia policies and guidelines, see The Five Pillars of Wikipedia and What Wikipedia is not.
Find everything in the Directory.
If you want to play around with your new Wiki skills, the Sandbox is for you.
If you're bored and want to find something to do, try the Random article button in the sidebar, or check out the Open Task message in the Community Portal.
If you have edits from before creating an account, see the page on changing attribution for edits.
You can also upload images. Make sure you use the correct copyright tags when you do.
Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date.

Be bold

Be bold in updating pages! You can find instantaneous help any time simply by typing {{help}} anywhere on your own user or user talk page.
You can find me at my user page or talk page for any questions. Happy editing, and we'll see ya 'round.

 Joe  I 06:32, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Smart

Smart (automobile) and Smart fortwo are not duplicates. The fortwo is the car smart is best known for, among others. Also, be sure to add new comments to the bottom of talk pages and sign your posts with ~~~~. Thanks, Reywas92^{TalkHow's my editing?} 15:30, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Talk:Google Apps

Welcome to Wikipedia! I am glad to see you are interested in discussing a topic. However, as a general rule, talk pages such as Talk:Google Apps are for discussion related to improving the article, not general discussion about the topic. Thank you. GreenJoe 23:28, 16 August 2007 (UTC) What is your point? I have made no comments on Talk:Google Apps.

Maca

Hi,

Two points:

Of the studies you added to the page, one was a link that didn't go to anywhere specific, and the second was already found in the text as an in-line citation
It's not a good idea to dump raw information or sources on a page like that. Information should be in a summary style rather than raw links. However, you could have added information like that to the talk page with a suggestion that it be integrated as sources. The point's a bit moot since the pubmed link was already in the page, but for the future, that's a better spot to put it.

Thanks, WLU 19:49, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

With due respect, the link that "didn't go anywhere specific" was to a database of studies related to Maca (Lepidium meyenii) indexed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. This is precisely the kind of EL that a researcher would want to find about. It would be futile to attempt to write a summary of this resource, both because it would be redundant and, anyway, it is likely to be dynamic as new studies are published Enquire (talk) 03:34, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

The Big Question

{{helpme}} In 2004 & 2005, Channel 5 in the UK broadcast a five part series titled "The Big Question" with each episode hosted by a renowned authority on the following provocative questions:

   * Part 1 - Stephen Hawking: How did the universe begin?
   * Part 2 - Harry Kroto: How did life begin?
   * Part 3 - Richard Dawkins: Why are we here?
   * Part 4 - Susan Greenfield: Why am I me?
   * Part 5 - Ian Stewart: How will it all end?

This is a profound and provocative series for anyone curious to know about life, the universe and everything. Not surprisingly, this has also attracted a lot of controversy amongst creationalists and others who hold to a literal interpretation of the bible. See, for example: Scientific Rationalists advance their agenda. See also The Big Question With Stephen Hawking, Five

I was about to create a new page for this, but discovered that one existed ... but rather this was about The Big Question (AKA: Enigma Fisk), a fictional character in Amalgam Comics.

I also noted that there is already a disambiguation line at the top:

    For the British television programme, see The Big Questions

This is somewhat misleading, because it refers to a BBC program The Big QuestionS which is (was) a faith and ethics panel discussion format TV broadcast. Not the same as the documentary style presentation by the UK's Channel 5 (now called simply five).

It is clear that there should be a means to disambiguate the three possible subjects:

  * The Big Question - a five part series broadcast for TV by the UK's Channel 5
  * The Big Questions - a panel discussion series on faith and ethics by the UK's BBC
  * The Big Question - AKA: Enigma Fisk, a fictional character in Amalgam Comics

My gut feeling is that the current The Big Question page should be replaced by a disambiguation page leading to these three possibilities and the current content moved to a new page (say) The Big Question (fictional character in Amalgam Comics) or The Big Question (AKA: Enigma Fisk) ... however, I don't know how to do that without destroying all the edit history etc.

I am tempted to think that if any article occupies the (default) page The Big Question it should be the Channel 5 program of that name. However, I recognize that it is quite likely that other (unrelated) articles titled The Big Question are likely to emerge in the future. So, I feel the besty way is to make the existing page into solely a disambiguation page.

In any event, I do not believe that a fictional character of a video game should occupy the default page name The Big Question.

How do I proceed to create a page for the Channel 5 series of that name?

I think I need help to relocate the existing page to a new page, with the existing page becoming a disambiguation page.

Help? Advice? Suggestions?

Lastly, I have an unrelated question. Does Wikipedia include an email or messaging system between users? Or are messages only passed in public Wikis? Enquire (talk) 06:13, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

I have moved The Big Question to The Big Question (character) and fixed the redirects from the pages listed at Special:WhatLinksHere/The_Big_Question. I went back to The Big Question and created a WP:DAB page using the info you provided above. You can now create The Big Question (TV series) for the one you want. Check out The Big Question to see the dab page. Matthewedwards (talk • contribs • email) 07:47, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Some users allow E-mails to be sent to them. They usually put the link in their WP:Userpage or talk page. Your own E-mail preferences can be set up in Special:Preferences. If you need any further help, feel free to contact me on my talk page (or E-mail, though I rarely check it!) Matthewedwards (talk • contribs • email) 07:47, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Template:Early computer characteristics

According to the website of Horst Zuse (Konrad's son) [1] "The Z4, the second general purpose computer, was almost completed in 1945. The Z4 was an customer order by the Henschel Aircraft company in 1942. However, it was not possible for Konrad Zuse to get the Z4 operative before his escape from Berlin to Hinterstein March 16, 1945." and "From July 11, 1950, this configuration was used for five years at the Institute of Applied Mathematics at ETH Zurich."

I have therefore removed this entry from the table of computers that were operational in the 1940s.--TedColes (talk) 10:05, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Whether or not it was fully working in 1944 is an interesting point, however, this was designed in the early 1940s and was reassembled in 1945 and later delivered in 1950. I think one can assume that it was working well before it was delivered. As such, I do not see this as grounds to eliminate the entry. Rather, a comment about the delay in delivering the unit, which was obviously delayed by WWII and nothing to do with the technical merits or limitations of the technology. I therefore feel strongly that it should be included, with the relevent notes, and not obliterated from the record as you propose. Enquire (talk) 22:07, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Also, this template name is {Template:Early_computer_characteristics} and, although it has a subtitle "Defining characteristics of some early digital computers of the 1940s" I have not found similar templates for the 1930's and 1950s ... and in context, this template is presented as a history of the early computers. Therefore to eliminate the Z4 and, for that matter, the Z1 and Z2, possibly even the Z5 is a misleading and incomplete chronology of the birth of computers (which is how most articles present this template). Something to think about. I am not going to get into an edit war over this, but I do feel that this needs to reviewed on the broader context of what was happening in the early part of the last century in terms of how the computer was conceived and evolved into what we have today. To pick and choose which bits of that chronology we include and which bits we toss out is rather arbitrary and defeats to objective of being a complete record. Researchers look to Wikipedia for a comprehensive understanding and may not appreciate that some things were removed for reasons that to them may seem arbitrary. Put the comments about the removal and rebuilding of the machine, but don't delete it entirely. It is a 1940's computer and it was almost certainly working as such during the 1940's ... even if it was not delivered to the client until 1950, that is a contract issue, not a technical one. Enquire (talk) 22:07, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

You raise some points worthy of wider discussion. I have therefore copied your comments into the discussion section of the template. I hope we can get a worthwhile and constructive debate going there. --TedColes (talk) 18:35, 12 December 2009 (UTC)