User talk:John Quincy Adding Machine/Jan2007

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In English:
The sentence "Já jsem rodilý mluvčí Češtiny" has two grammar errors (not major, though). The first is, no Czech will say "Já jsem " + verb, instead he says "Jsem " + verb. If someone says "Já jsem...", he want to emphasize the fact, that it is HE and not somebody else (this is the same as "I and only I..."). The second thing is more obvious: The word "čeština" should be written with small "č". So, the correct sentence should be "Jsem rodilý mluvčí češtiny". Or maybe something like "Čeština je mým rodným jazykem", or "Můj rodný jazyk je čeština" should be more suitable here.
Česky:
Čech nikdy neřekne "Já jsem rodilý mluvčí Češtiny" - řekl by to pouze, pokud chce zdůraznit fakt, že je to on sám. Použití by tedy bylo třeba ve větě "On je Slovák, já jsem Čech". Další chyba spočívá va faktu, že čeština se píše s malým "č". Možná nejlepší by bylo použití něčeho jako "Můj rodný jazyk je čeština".

Atom cz 14:08, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Userbox {{User:Hexagon1/UN}}

Hi Hexagon1, I noticed by chance that someone edited the userbox

This user supports the United Nations.

today to say "This user DOES NOT support the United Nations." It appeared to be an inappropriate edit, so I reverted it (Page History). This is to just let you know of the change.

-A.Ou 18:45, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Map formats

From the edit summary of Wikipedia:Blank_maps by you:

"if i see any more maps in jpg i'm going to kill someone"

Need an accomplice?  :)

Seriously, yes I am in full agreement here. Personally, I'd go a bit farther and call for the violent overthrow replacement of the ubiquitous Image:BlankMap-World.png as well, used in almost all maps now. Not that I don't like PNG (I do prefer it on one note as I have little experience in SVG), but one of the first things I see on the map is the very sub-standard quality of the Canadian Arctic islands and Greenland, while Image:BlankMap-World6.svg being SVG shows a much more "true" world outline (which was the main thing that drew me to improve it in the first place, it was the best map I had seen and, since I wanted to use it, I had the idea to invoke the "grouping" feature on it to make it usuable for representing national datum.)

Speaking of maps, I find your legend on Image:Hexagon1travel.png confusing, what exactly is the difference between light and dark green (or orange for that matter)? --Canuckguy 23:10, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Regarding your legend, it's just really confusing (bordering on misleading, imo) to use separate colours for subdivisions and areas. A quick glance might say that you've been to Western Australia, but after some thinking (after reading your explanation on my talk page) it seems that you've only been to Queensland, NSW, ACT, Victoria, and Tasmania, the rest of the country coloured to show that you've "spent more than one day in Australia", where actually your colours on those five states/territories state that just as well. (The UK is even stranger, England is coloured as visited for less than a day, Scotland and Wales are coloured lighter to (confusingly) show that you've been to the UK for less than a day, but N. Ireland is left completely grey! Probably a colouring oversight (due to not having a map that colours all territory the same colour with one click ;) ) And the final confusing thing, Spain, Czech Rep. Thailand, etc, are coloured in the colour for subnational areas, if you've been to those countries, shouldn't the lighter hues be used?

My solution: ditch the dark/light and use just one colour for more than a day, and one colour for less than a day. You are also more than welcome to keep it on the subnational level by just colouring those subnational areas you've visited, but leave the rest of the country grey (after all, those areas *do* fall under "want to go", don't they?)

As to the matter of the map, when you mentioned you actually use MS Paint for your maps, my innocence and beliefs haven't been crushed this much since I found out that Santa Claus isn't real! I'm very surprised considering the high praise I've recieved from you, and seeing your work, I was sure you had much better graphics program for that! My hat is off to you! This may be useful, before I came across the Image:BlankMap-World3.svg map (or even Wikipedia), I had a map in Paint Shop format which involved a complex level of layers, etc to get the same effect that Image:BlankMap-World6.svg has, but it did the job exceptionally well, and I usually put out finished products to .gif form (though I could easily have done PNG). I *could* try to resurrect the file (if I didn't delete it because I love Image:BlankMap-World6.svg so much) and have it available, what are your thoughts? --Canuckguy 03:33, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Nice to see the fix of the map - minor nit, N. Ireland still has been neglected in colour. --Canuckguy 02:14, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

World's Smallest Political Quiz userbox

You may be interested in User:Audacity/Userboxes/WSPQ, which is a replacement for the old Political Chart userbox. The new userbox takes the two variables (economic and personal freedom), calculates which political alignment they place you into (Statist, Libertarian, Liberal, Centrist, or Conservative), and links your userpage to the appropriate category.

Please reply to User talk:Audacity, as I will not be watching your talk page. Λυδαcιτγ 07:41, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

re first world

You may not have realized it, but you actually did take a side in the edit war. The "Cali" user wanted exactly what you did. I have already spoken with both sides, demanding reliable sources for any inclusion of any country. As far as I'm concerned, US, UK, and NL are not in the first world until some citations start showing up. If you want to avoid taking sides, consider simply deleting all specific country examples for now. — coelacan talk — 07:28, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I disagree and I'll be posting at the talk page pretty soon with a reply to most of what has been said since I was last there. The effect of your edits has been to favor one pov in the dispute, and if it was your intention to avoid taking sides, you have not. I do not think that any examples are needed at this time, no matter how representative those examples might be. The limit of any particular number of examples is arbitrary, a synthesis of research, and thus a violation of wp:nor. More importantly, I do not think that any side should get their pov chosen by default, and since wp:there is no deadline, it is probably best to go without examples for the moment. They are not needed but they are bringing further unnecessary contention to the discussion, since from a npov standpoint, what we leave out is as important as what we leave in. I believe that the benefit of avoiding examples for the moment will be to encourage decreased hostility, and this will outweigh any temporary loss of information (a very small loss anyway if the examples are "obvious"). — coelacan talk — 07:47, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Not what I meant. =) I want your unsolicited input on the talk page. The more sources of input, the better. I'm merely suggesting that you remove the uncited specfic examples, even US, UK and NL, from the article. Please continue to say whatever you think needs said on Talk:First World. Also, sorry about my talk page. I'll get to archiving it soon. You can respond to me on your talk page and I'll check here. — coelacan talk — 07:57, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I think that will help in keeping the tone in check. If I'm wrong about that, I'll have to come up with some other hairbrained scheme. =P — coelacan talk — 08:06, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

And yeah, the geographically and racially-based accusations are inexcusable. I'm totally serious on my ultimatum; the next one is going straight to WP:ANI. Again, you can reply here if my page is killing your dialup. If you reply it will take the (top) off my contributions so I'll see it. — coelacan talk — 08:09, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to archive right now so don't touch my talk page for a few minutes. — coelacan talk — 08:32, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Okay, done. Ready for that sterile environment to be breached again. Hope you didn't actually read any of my old talk page. =P About a third (maybe more) is unfit for human consumption. — coelacan talk — 08:38, 29 January 2007 (UTC)