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May 28

Help required with Reference desk archives

Hi ! There was a C++ program on this link http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Computing/2009_June_30#Problem on computer reference desk section. It had the whole program but now it hasn't.It has the link to that program but it redirects to the current computer refernce desk section. I want to look that whole program. Where can I have access to that? Thanks in advance.--221.120.250.76 (talk) 04:16, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

At the top of that "2009 June 30" page is a link to the previous day's archive. I skipped back a few days and found a "problem" section here. Is that the code you are looking for? -- John of Reading (talk) 05:09, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How long does article review take?

I submitted a new article here: http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/User:Dagrahamster/John_L_Notter

... and I get this message: "A user will respond to your request to move this draft into article space as soon as possible."

How long is "as soon as possible"? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.185.32.59 (talk) 06:46, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Please remember that Wikipedia is mostly run by volunteers! I could move this article for you, but I believe it could do with some more work first. I suggest you post at Wikipedia:Requests for feedback -- John of Reading (talk) 07:43, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I commented at your talk page--SPhilbrick T 11:12, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Found an odd article that covers a lot of political and science ground, figured I'd mention it here

I don't know all that much about GM, Biotech, and a current FDA comission guy, so I figured I'd wave the link over here and maybe get some more eyeballs (and knowledge) on the article: http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Michael_R._Taylor Ronabop (talk) 06:55, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Being logged out

Why do I sometimes find myself logged out without actively logging out? I am talking about signing in, editing an article while thinking that I am still signed in, and later discovering that I am not signed in (edit credited to an internet address)? What is the deal? I am not talking about leaving the post for long periods of time, after which I would be automatically signed out due to inactivity. I am talking about normal time intervals of just a few minutes. Backspace (talk) 07:13, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There are some suggestions at Help:Logging in#Login issues and problems. If those don't help, post again here. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:19, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

please anyone who knows

please anyone who knows: Alkyl nitrites synthesized in the lab like? Thank you --I love chemistry (talk) 10:13, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You might find what you are looking for in the article Alkyl nitrites. If you cannot find the answer there, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps. TFOWR^propaganda 10:19, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

DYK entry, Dwight, Illinois. Prince Albert

Someone who knows how to post a DYK entry might want to look at the the history section for Dwight, Illinois, posted yesterday. I have always found the visit of the future king of England to this recently founded Illinois to be a curious event. I have looked at the instructions for making such an entry, but at present it is beyond my ability. Elkmilok (talk) 11:19, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Some excellent edits Elkmilok. Unfortunately, the article does not meet the selection critera for DYK, which requires either that the article be created within five days of submission to DYK, or that an existing article's text be expanded fivefold during the five days preceding submission. While a vast improvement, using this tool, I calculate your recent edits as a 3.4 x expansion. They are quite strict about the expansion requirements.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:51, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Commercially Interested Censorship

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Hello at Wikipedia,

I would like to inform you that the user Akerans performs censorship on other users' articles. That is the only way he contributes.

He also, which is IMHO the most serious issue here, PRETENDS TO BE OFFICIALLY REPRESENTING WIKIPEDIA!

>Please, see the history of my Contributions and my Talk page to assure yourself.<

Despite he, in his messages, appeals to the Wikipedia's Neutral point of view, he does not respond to allegetions of being a representative of a commercial subject on which an article on Wikipedia he censors (edits), which IMHO speaks for itself.

PLEASE, PROTECT WIKIPEDIA FROM POLITICAL AND BUSINESS INTERESTS!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Peter Pilz (talk • contribs) 12:40, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I will do nothing, not even look at the article you mention, unless you acknowledge that no one owns an article. See WP:OWN. Jc3s5h (talk) 12:45, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

See [1]. This user is adding unsourced contentious material to BLPs and objects to the reverts. Elen of the Roads (talk) 13:08, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ignore this. It is being dealt with at ANI. I suspect I will be blocked this account very shortly. SGGH ^ping! 13:18, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

How to parse (English) XML dump to extract individual wikipedia articles

Hello, I am a scientist in Artificial Intelligence, I specialize in Advanced Text-Analytics and Advance Machine Learning.

For the current research I am doing my requirement is to parse the XML Dump to extract individual wikipedia articles along with its meta-data, like title, category etc....so that my algorithms can start processing the wikipedia articles.

I have been able to download the XML Dump and was also able to extract the same. Now since the XML file is pretty huge and parsing such a file is not straight forward. My assumption is that since Wikipedia has built this huge XML Dump, they would also have a tool to extract this with ease, if so, kindly let me know. I did quite a bit of study to look if someone else has done this but to vain. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.167.78.156 (talk) 12:56, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Database download#Help parsing dumps for use in scripts -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 13:10, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You may also find useful links under WP:EIW#Dump and WP:EIW#Research. --Teratornis (talk) 20:05, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Uploading flickr live performance photograph?

Hi, I operate on Wiki from Opera Mini and I'm extremely useless at uploading pics properly, I always get warned etc about it. I am trying to get this song article "If This Is Love" to good article status and want to add a screenshot of the group performing the song live. Please can someone do it for me? It's on Flickr here: http://m.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=3616541451& Thank you! -- Jazminerocks • Talk 13:58, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I am afraid that will not be possible - the image copyright page says "All rights reserved" and does not indicate a license compatible with Wikipedia, nor would the image meet Wikipedia's non-free content criteria. – ukexpat (talk) 14:22, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Userpage with category tags

Resolved

When working through all pages in the cat. "Developmental psychology", I found a userpage with an article with this tag, and I am unsure what to do. I don't think it is a good idea to tag articles on userpages, because they are not revised, corrected and improved by other users - but on the other hand, I don't just want to remove the category tags without checking here if this is appropriate to edit somebody's userpage. I can add that the article is published, and that it is almost five months since the last edit to this draft was made. Lova Falk talk 16:05, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

User pages have no need to be categorize ..they can be placed in special cats for Users like --> Category:Wikipedians in Canada...So yes i would suggest you delete the cat. You dont need to inform them really - but to save yourself from upset people just link to Wikipedia:User pages#Categories, templates, and redirects in your edit summery ,,,Moxy (talk) 16:22, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c) User page drafts should not be categorized unless and until they are moved to mainspace, so I have commented them out (along with the interlanguage links) and "tl"d the navboxes. – ukexpat (talk) 16:26, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Lova Falk talk 16:27, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

New wikipedia page

Hello,

How do I create a page for Dan Guild? He is an amazing person who deserves a page for himself. Please let me know.

Thank you very much<

Mike —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mmorris82 (talk • contribs) 17:06, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Writing an article for Wikipedia is harder than many people realize. Even professional writers find that the format and style needed for a good encyclopedia article are different than what might be appropriate for other venues. You could:

Get someone else to do it—If your only goal is to make sure that an article is added to Wikipedia, you can request that someone write an article on the subject.
Start by editing other articles—If you are interested in becoming an editor at Wikipedia, our experience demonstrates that it is better to start by improving existing articles, which will help you get a sense of how this place works, and then writing your first article from scratch. A good place to visit is the Wikipedia backlog, where there are literally hundreds of thousands of articles needing help from editors. Find an article in a subject area you know, and add a source, or a reference, or simply help write it better.
Go ahead and try—If you do decide to write an article immediately, please read our policy on conflicts of interest, then read our guide to writing your first article, which will repeat some of the good advice above. Then please use the Article wizard, which will help you through the steps. I urge you to accept the option to save your first draft in your user subpage, which will reduce the chance your work will be deleted before it is ready.

--SPhilbrick T 17:11, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Please also read and understand the notability guideline for people and the policy on biographies of living people. Essentially, you must prove this person passes our notability guidelines -- that he is the subject of multiple published and independent sources -- by citing those reliable sources to verify every single fact in the article. Because of our neutral point of view policy, you are also prohibited from claiming the topic is an "amazing person"; your opinion that he is an an "amazing person" means essentially nothing at this point. Wikipedia takes biographies especially seriously because of the potential for lawsuits relating to libel or defamation. If the biography you write is unsourced or poorly sourced, or the topic of the article does not meet our notability guideline, the article will be deleted. Xenon54 (talk) 17:22, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How to Copyright Images Owned by a Local Government

I am employee within municipal government. We have numerous images that have been taken by staff members over the years that are used widely in various forums to visually illustrate our city. I would like to upload one of these images to a Wikipedia page, but do not know how to license it. These images need only to be attributed to the municipal government as a whole, not to the individual staff member who originally took the photo. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aurorapio (talk • contribs) 17:14, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The copyright experts hang out here: Media_copyright_questions--SPhilbrick T 17:22, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In response to the posts, the city is in the USA. I would say these are definitely works-for-hire. If that is the case, what copyright license would apply? How would the city then grant the license? I can move these questions over to the media copyright questions page if you feel that is more appropriate. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aurorapio (talk • contribs) 17:59, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You don't say what country the city is in. If it is the USA, photos taken by city employees would be covered by copyright. If it can be established they are works-for-hire or if the employees signed an agreement assigning copyright to the city, then the city could grant one of the licenses that Wikipedia recognizes, and an authorized city representative could send an email from an address associated with the city by to Wikimedia, as explained at ~~WP:OWN~~ WP:IOWN. Jc3s5h (talk) 17:25, 28 May 2010 (UTC) corrected 21:06 UTC.[reply]

Somehow I suspect Aurora, Colorado. :) Prodego ^talk 18:01, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Actually that's WP:IOWN. – ukexpat (talk) 20:19, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

False vandalism warnings from NerdyScienceDude

Today for the second time I've received a false vandalism warning from NerdyScienceDude. This one was a final warning. He has reverted both of the warnings, and he did not actually damage my edits. I went to his talk page, and it appears that he's been doing this to other people as well, as four others have complained this month. He describes himself on his user page as a teenager and a middle school student, and says he has one-touch rollback capability. Two questions: (1) Can he be shut down so he stops this? (2) Since today's warning from him is a final warning, am I at risk of being blocked from editing? Duoduoduo (talk) 18:22, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see how the edits, which consist of filling uncontroversial requested merges, can even remotely be considered vandalism. Fortunately, he only gave you a level 2 warning, which is far short of the level 4 warning and continued activity that is required to report a user to Administrator intervention against vandalism. You are safe to ignore the warnings, and you are not in danger of being blocked. (Admins don't block indiscriminately anyway, any good admin would review your contributions and find that you haven't done anything wrong.) It appears NerdyScienceDude is making a lot of "honest mistakes" with an overzealous Igloo; I am going to leave him a little sterner warning right now. Xenon54 (talk) 18:31, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I dont think he generally had problems like this before he started using 'Igloo', so hopefully if he stops using the program for now the problem will be solved. —Soap— 19:09, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

My bio

Hi, I'm Paul Jacobs. I'm listed in wiki as Paul Jacobs (musician). What I am is a composer and musician and I'd like to have my listing or "title page" show that. I don't know how to edit that portion of my bio.PRJacobs (talk) 20:32, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Paul PRJacobs (talk) 20:32, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The parenthetical "musician" is what we call a disambiguator, and its only purpose is to distinguish the article from other articles about people with the same name. It's not supposed to be a description of all your achievements. The first sentence of the article explains that you're a composer and a musician, so I don't think that people will be misled into thinking that you're "only" a musician. Deor (talk) 22:08, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) Paul Jacobs (musician) is the page name and can only be changed by moving the page which requires an autoconfirmed account. However, "(musician)" is only part of the name to disambiguate it from other people called Paul Jacobs. This would be the name of your page if you were the only one. Many people have done more than one thing but the disambiguator should be short and only mention what they are most notable for. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people)#Disambiguating. Taken over your career, do you think you are more notable as a composer than as a musician? Then it might be changed to "(composer)". Paul Jacobs also lists Paul Jacobs (organist) and Paul Jacobs (pianist), so "composer" would set you more clearly apart than "musician". PrimeHunter (talk) 22:13, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

As an aside, you should skim the Wikipedia policy on autobiography and read the section on editing your own article. The advice there is that you shouldn't - this may surprise you, so read the page to find out why.

Here's one really good thing you can do: If you compare Paul Jacobs (pianist) with your own article, you'll see that the "pianist" article is full of footnote markers and has a long list of references at the bottom. In contrast, your article merely has a notice at the top saying that it has none. You are uniquely qualified to find reliable, independent sources for the information in the article, because you will know whether a book, newspaper article or web page is talking about the right Paul Jacobs! Don't worry about the formatting, just add the information to the article talk page so that other editors can use it to improve the article. -- John of Reading (talk) 03:58, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Readability

I LOVE Wikipedia but in the last few weeks the on-screen page information has shrunk so small (even though it still fills the entire screen) that the pages are unreadable. The font size has shrunk so small that I have to (literally) hold a magnifying glass to each word to be able to read it. Nothing is readable anymore. My computer has not crashed and none of my software has changed. What has happened to the Wikipedia pages? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.255.131.244 (talk) 20:55, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia has changed its default appearance to the "Vector skin". This apparently causes font size issues for some users depending on their software setup. There are people looking into this. If you create an account and log in then you can click Special:Preferences and change back to the former MonoBook skin. Some possible options without an account: 1) Hold down Ctrl and press the '+' key or scroll up on the mouse wheel. 2) Change text size in your browser settings. 3) Change the default browser font. 4) Try another browser.

Here is an idea how this page may look in the skins available to logged in users: . PrimeHunter (talk) 21:54, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you liked the original view, it was monobook. ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 02:03, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

John Wayne Gacy

my edit from May 27th was deleted under the IN FILM heading on the site. No explanation was given as to the reason.

You will note if you go to the edit section on the article under the IN FILM heading, someone has made quite the statement as to what is and is not an acceptable addition to this area.

My edit is essentially the same as the other two film references in this area. I actually linked the edit to the book the film was based upon, The Last Victim. No comments were made. It simply stated the film, release date, star and reference to the book.

I expect whoever took it upon themselves to remove the edit will do so again, so would appreciate Wikipedia reviewing the matter.

Thank you

``` —Preceding unsigned comment added by Digby scallops (talk • contribs) 21:28, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Is the deletion of

"The 2010 made for TV film Dear Mr. Gacy starred William Forsythe in the title roll.^[1] The film's central theme is the relationship between Gacy and Jason Moss."

what you are talking about? If so, click edit and look at it - he commented on why, but I would think that your addition was okay (as long as the movie was important enough and truly based on him)- but it would need to be made longer. Do not repeatedly redo it, him undo it, you redo it though as this is Edit Warring and will get you blocked - I would ask him if you can put it back and explain your reasoning - then put it. If he does it again, without any comments, I'd report him or just leave it alone.
~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 22:28, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, but I do not see where he commented on why it was deleted. Can you point me to it?

Thanks

``` —Preceding unsigned comment added by Digby scallops (talk • contribs) 22:53, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In edit mode, this is the contents of that section.

:::[[Brian Dennehy]] starred as Gacy in the television film ''[[To Catch a Killer]]'', aired in 1992.<ref>{{imdb title |id=0105604 |title=To Catch a Killer}}</ref> :::The feature film ''[[Gacy (film)|Gacy]]'', starring [[Mark Holton]] as John Gacy, was released in 2003.<ref>{{imdb title|id=0330181|title=Gacy}}</ref>  :::The made for TV film [[Dear Mr. Gacy]] was released in 2010, with [[William Forsythe]] starring as [[John Wayne Gacy]]<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371117/ Dear Mr. Gacy @ IMDB]</ref>. The film is based upon the book [[The Last Victim]] by Jason Moss.<br><br>

This type of comment is only visible when editing, but I believe your edit was good - this movie is an example of him used in film, though please reason with him.
~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 23:01, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Also, please put ~~~~ after entries on pages like these and talk pages - this button is usually on the top left. It will sign your username. Thanks!
~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 23:03, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There's more on the article talk page. I suggest you continue the discussion there, as that section is signed by the person who reverted your edits. -- John of Reading (talk) 03:36, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

^ Dear Mr. Gacy @ IMDB

[1] Dear Mr. Gacy @ IMDB

[1]