Coming eventually... The Around the World Competition. Three types of awards will be presented, including a World Champion Trophy! Hone your advanced tools skills, 'cuz you'll need them! If you'd like to be kept up to date on this and upcoming future projects, drop me a note. The Transhumanist22:43, 26 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
write a message (please provide a subject/headline and remember to sign your post with four tildes: ~~~~ )
I appreciate the time you are putting into the search.
By the way, as a guide on what to look for, the stand we had is the one in this picture.
But we can't use it because it is from a copyrighted image. Too bad we don't know anyone who bought the product - we could have that person take a new pic! (I'd buy one, if they didn't cost $250.00!)
That's the general style of globe stand we are looking for, unless you come across something even better.
Can probably do that, depending on what you mean exactly; I'll talk to you about it after getting these trophies and things done (assuming User:penubag's latest medal is satisfactory, I'll try for the globe one). --tiny plastic Grey Knight⊖12:59, 30 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. It turns out I'm no longer semi-retiring, and will still be active for now, so I should be able to help you with the Around the World project if you need it. I see a couple of awards have already been presented, but do you still need a globestand, or is that resolved? Sorry about the delay, but are there some things I can still help with? Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)22:10, 30 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
We haven't found what we are looking for yet, so yes, extra eyes searching would be most helpful!
I'm definitely going to have to go with the first medal - if only for the fact that it seems to have more nuance. Wisdom89(T / C)22:09, 30 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
To improve it, I'd like to not see the grid at all, so that its just gold without those groove for the latitude/longtitude lines. Also, define the text better so that its the same darkness/darker than medal 1.TALKINPIEEATERREVIEW ME22:22, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Err, this one's really hard to pick, but I like the second one a just a bit better. The reason is partily because the first one's extra relief doesn't really make the continents any more easy to see, as it somewhat distorts the shoreline. Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)23:07, 30 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I like the first one alot but there is something about it that makes it akward. If you can improve it...somehow, then go for it. But as the two stand now, I have to go for second.--Senorelroboto (talk) 01:48, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
For me, the second one. BTW, just a notice, my talk page is getting a bit laggier with those huge pictures (I don't have good internet) Just a heads-up. Cheers,Thisisborin9sign here!05:51, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I like the second medal better, because I also think (as another user did) that the grid on the first medal is so bold that it is confusing. I also think you should put just a bit more space between the text and the outside border of the medal; as it is, it's hard to read, I think. DiderotWasRight (talk) 15:39, 1 July 2008 (UTC)talk]])[reply]
I like the second one.it is better than the first one.5faizan (talk) 22:40 1 july 2008 (UTC)
Instead of just saying which medal I like better, I'll analyze both medals and cite the positives and negatives of both. I was immediately drawn to the first medal simply because of the bolder, more prominent text. Bold text is a must for any medal. The second medallion has an interesting wold-map patter that I hold to be about equal in quality with the first medal. That being said, the first medal has the benefit of prominence of both landmasses and lines, while the second medal does not. The "raised" effect of the landmasses found in the first medal is most ingenious and as such I consider the landmasses in the first medal to be far superior to the landmasses in the second medal. All this being said, I have a slight preference for the first medal, although both are nice enough to field. --SharkfaceT/C01:03, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
We'll probably use one for presentations, and have the other available as an alternative image for recipients to display in their award once they've received it. I didn't expect so many people to like both versions! The Transhumanist03:12, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Transhumanist, I think if you want to award the medal just like that, I think medal 2 is more suitable. But if you want to make a userbox, medal 1 would be appropriate. Anyway, it's my suggestion. Also, I'm extremely busy lately and I wouldn't be able to respond to queries swiftly. (I'm sorry for that) Could you please help me to put an appropriate template? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mark Chung (talk • contribs) 01:11, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Transhumanist :), anyways I think that both are great Hats off to Penubag for a great job (It makes me wish that I had Photoshop so that I could make images like that :) ) but in my opinion, I was thinking that Image:WP World traveler beta.png would be better for a small resolution Image (e.g. a userbox) because the Image is not engraved and that improves readability when it is displayed smaller. And, for large scale showings I would recommend Image:Medalian4.png because it looks more impressive which is the whole aim of the award. Also, I apologize for not being able to deliver an Image of that caliber when you had me working on designing the Award Image but seeing what you had in mind I realize that what you wanted is way outside the scope of my knowledge on Inkscape and GIMP :(, if you need any help with other aspects of the "Around the World" project, I would be more than happy to help (e.g. Creating Templates, Writing Descriptions, Pretty Much anything really). Thanks and All the Best (Remember if you need help with anything I would be MORE than Happy to help :)) --Mifter (talk) 04:12, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. Well, sorry if I'm pointing out the obvious again, but are the last two images in the article globe similar to what you're looking for? If that doesn't work, then would it be possible to combine a couple of globe stand images together, change them to gold using gold from maybe a gold bar or another free image? I tried googling public domain globe stand images, but one of the first results was my talkpage! PD-images website didn't seem to have enough, but is it possible to combine a few images to produce the result needed? Should I try that to see if it might work? If I upload the images, should I use GFDL as long as the images used were PD or GFDL? Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)14:11, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
What exactly is this "Around the World Competition"? You have succeeded in sufficiently piquing my interest, so, kindly explain. It sounds interesting. Gracias Señor. Scapler (talk) 19:28, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi there. Not sure how you keep sending me messages via AWB regarding Around the World, but is there a chance you can remove me from whatever list I'm on? Peanut4 (talk) 23:35, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Yay, you did the lead! Thanks a ton. I'm at Denmark now but the going is slow because I often find myself read the entire articles of certain countries (which you recommended the coordinators to do in your explanation of the Around the World contest, I might add). --SharkfaceT/C02:08, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Once you are done with the leads...
...if you really want to get immersed, try developing a whole page. Here are the ones I've built so far:
They're not complete, but they were fleshed out enough to be useful, so I moved them to article space. But I sure know a lot more about these countries now. ;) The Transhumanist02:24, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi again :P, anyways I have finished changing "x is: a ______" to the correct thing (e.g Leaving it as a country, changing it to it "Is a territory/commonwealth of x") and have moved on to aiding Julian with his task. Also, if you need any co-coordinators, I am skilled in using Vector Graphics (NOT PHOTOSHOP :P), Anything related to the Commons, I am able to use Py Wikpedia on my bot (That may take a while depending on how long a BRFA for the task you want would take), I know how to use AWB, I have the flags of Rollbacker and Account Creator, just to name a few of the things that I can do :). So if your still looking for Co-Coordinators, I would be more than happy to help (I am on to at least check my talk page every day). Thanks All the Best, --Mifter (talk) 04:01, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
When using AWB, previewing each page slows the whole operation way down. Yes, it means posting to a banned or retired user from time to time, but he did wish to be contacted. I had no idea he was a putz. Thank you for the heads up. The Transhumanist09:05, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Do you know of any tool that could be used as an alternative for the Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser tool for mac users? The page says it can only be used for Windows operating systems, however, I am running Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard".
I know of a make-shift alternative, which is (much) better for some things, but lacks some of AWB's functionality. You'll need 3 things: Firefox, Linky, and WP:WikEd.
While AWB is a page autoloader (loading the next page in the queue after you are done with the current one), the Linky extension for Firefox is a page preloader (loading all of the pages into Firefox before you start). Firefox's tab capabilities combined with the preloading power of Linky is a powerful combination. You use Linky by selecting an area on the page with some links in it, and right click. Choose Linky from the drop-down menu that appears, and click on "Open selected links in tabs". Linky will load all of the pages (that those links lead to) into tabs. A tab is a window managed from inside Firefox. Linky will load up to 99 pages into tabs in Firefox. In Firefox, to switch from tab to tab press Ctrl-tab. The real power is in Ctrl-W, which almost instantly closes the current tab and takes you to the next tab. (Well that's how these work under MS Windows - you may need to read the documentation for Firefox and Linky to see if their instructions differ for the Mac).
Anyhow, this pair allows you to inspect lots of pages fast. And it speeds up working on multiple pages too: if you edit and save a page and want to move on to the next one, there is no server delay because all of the pages are preloaded. Just press Ctrl-W, and blam! the page is gone and you are looking immediately at the page in the next tab.
In my opinion, the nicest feature of AWB is its search/replace feature. Well, there is a wiki-editor called WikEd which you can install as a script to your Wikipedia user account. It replaces Wikipedia's edit window, and has a search/replace feature built-in. One really cool capability of its search/replace feature is that it can work on selected (that is, highlighted) areas of the page. You aren't forced to search/replace the whole document, or to cycle through all the finds to skip them (but it has a skip feature too).
Together, the above 3 tools (Firefox, Linky, and WikEd) can make up for not having AWB. This combo isn't as good for some things, and is better for others. On tasks where you need to see what you are doing on the pages you are working on, the combo wins out hands down. There is no initial view in AWB, and previewing edits is slow and tedious, and cramped into a small viewing area. The combo is also superior if you need to manually edit a number of pages.
I rely heavily on the combo, and use it even more than I use AWB. The combo turns Firefox into a super powerful browser/wiki-editor.
I hope you find my comments and suggestions useful.
P.S.: you can turbo-boost the combo mentioned above and meet or exceed the power of AWB for search/replace if you have a good keyboard macro program. With macros, you could close tabs and do search replace in WikEd in the next tab automatically, with just the press of a key. Auto-repeating macros are possible, but those are considered bots and need approval at WP:BOT. Don't use auto-repeating (looped) macros on Wikipedia (but they come in very handy in applications like spreadsheets, wordprocessors, and databases, and the best macro programs can operate across windows and in multiple programs). Pressing the macro key once for each operation is fast enough, and this keeps you in the loop. As a bonus, you can use macros to automate just about any repetitive thing you do manually on your computer. And there's lots of tasks like that on Wikipedia. Definitely a tool for power-users. The only thing more powerful is programming. There's a section on macros at Wikipedia:Tools/Optimum tool set. -TT
I sincerely thank you for recommending me to some useful and interesting editing tools I can use on my Mac. I am in your debt, good sir. Scapler (talk) 14:37, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
TTH please be considerate my watchlist is recieving many hits on this list, how about tagging it a s minor so people can filter it out, or better yet get a bot to do it. Gnangarra10:16, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
It's not spamming. Others have insisted that this proposal be announced widely - my previous attempt got reversed because it wasn't. I'd rather not have to, but every relevant page needs to be notified. Per your request, I've checked the "minor edit" box. Sorry for the inconvenience. Almost done. The Transhumanist10:21, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Just wanted to congratulate you for your article List of online encyclopedias being removed from the list of nominated deletions. It really didn't deserve to be there in the first place, but I guess it all came to something good, since the page is now vastly improved. Scapler (talk) 04:31, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm also glad that the article came out of the AfD in an improved and useful state – that's the ideal AfD outcome in almost all cases, really – but per convention and per explicit instructions in the header template, please do not modify closed AfDs. There are many other pages where you can post decorations that you would like to award to fellow editors, such as their talk or user talk pages. Sandstein 06:38, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I humbly and sincerely thank you for the barnstar you bestowed upon me. And as for the things you listed to do next, I'll get right on them as well (I've grown sort of attached to the article in this whole process) Scapler (talk) 06:33, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hey. I see all these redirects you just created, but.. they're all redlinked. Looks like they all use the en (–) rather than the dash (-). Are the relations articles going to be moved to match up with these names, or do the redirects need to be adjusted? — HelloAnnyong(say whaaat?!)16:56, 6 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not sure yet. Do all the relations articles use the same hyphen in their titles? If not, then the ones that don't use the proper hyphen will need to be moved. The Transhumanist16:59, 6 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I think there are 3 different kinds of dashes we are talking about. I haven't seen any — em dashes — in the titles, links, or redirects for these pages. It appears to be an alternate form of en dash. What do you make of it? The Transhumanist17:18, 6 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I think we're getting this confused here. The normal articles themselves, such as United Arab Emirates-United States relations, use the regular dash in their names. The names of the redirects you created, such as United States-United Arab Emirates relations, also use the dash (as far as I can tell). The problem is in the redirect line itself, such as here - it uses the en dash. You can verify this by checking the A tag in the HTML itself; between the two names, it puts %E2%80%93, and E2 80 93 is the hex for the EN dash, which you can verify here by searching down the page for EN dash. Basically what needs to happen is that all the redirects need to be reworked to: (1) use the hyphen rather than the en dash, and (2) to remove the space between # and REDIRECT. I don't use AWB, so I don't know if it has the capacity to do that in a batch setting. — HelloAnnyong(say whaaat?!)17:26, 6 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sure I've run into both kinds of dashes amongst the titles. To get a handle on this I'll need to make 2 lists (on the same page), of the names with each of the 2 kinds of dashes. And we'll see what turns blue. The Transhumanist17:30, 6 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm fixing the typos now. Then I'll take a closer look at the titles. They should probably be renamed to the en dash that is actually on the keyboard. The Transhumanist17:38, 6 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Personally, I think the hyphen on the keyboard should be used for the titles. Because that's the same character people use in the contents of articles, including the text in the links they create in those articles. Having the non-keyboard character in titles, wreaks havoc with links using regular hyphens, turning them red. This either requires that the text be fixed or redirects be created. Redirects are probably better, because other editors are likely to create regular hyphen links somewhere else. On the relations articles the problem is even more pronounced, because every relations article has two base names: "country x-country-y relations" and "country y-country x relations". Redirects needed to be created to cover each combination, which is how I ran into the inconsistent use of hyphens in the titles (many of the redirects turned up red). I've created another set of redirects to handle the titles with alternate hyphenation. Everything blue links now (I think), and any double redirects created will hopefully be corrected by bots over the next few days. The Transhumanist19:23, 6 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi... please see WP:DASH, particularly the following: "When naming an article, a hyphen is not used as a substitute for an en dash that properly belongs in the title, for example in Eye–hand span." Those pages you moved should not have been moved per that policy. Can you please revert?—Chowbok☠23:49, 6 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
He quoted the guideline, so there's not much room for argument. Wow, that creates the need for a great many redirects all around Wikipedia. Ouch. But for this task, I already created them. :) I'm sure glad I decided to do that instead of move all the en dash-entitled articles. Well, I've got to get back to changing the 10 or so that I did move. The Transhumanist00:13, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I've left an unimportant message for you on my talk page. I've gotten up through "N" in my assignment, so I think I've caught up with Sharkface. :-) If you have anything else, I should be done by tomorrow and will be able to start a new assignment. After Thursday I will be able to spend obscene amounts of time on Wikipedia. --Gimme danger (talk) 18:41, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I use Firefox, but I'm terrible at layout sort of things. I can give it a shot after I finish with administrative divisions though. --Gimme danger (talk) 05:03, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The tasks are understandable; I apologize, but I haven't been able to work as much as I had anticipated. Family's been more demanding than expected.--Gimme danger (talk) 02:00, 15 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I have noticed that your userpage is very well designed, and I would like some help on mine. In the My travels section, is there a way to have the three sections lined up, like these pipes: ||| , or can it only be done like this: = ? -- Cheers mate! CYCLONICWHIRLWINDtalk23:16, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
To add boxes is a bit tricky and requires use of CSS table code. I don't have time right now, but I may pop in over the next few days to take a closer look.
I should have some free time at work tomorrow. I don't think I'll be able to do all the leads by myself but I should get pretty far. I suggest you have somebody else start at the bottom and work their way up. --SharkfaceT/C03:02, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I worked on atlas a little more right now. I haven't started the pedestal yet but I made him look pretty good. I think he is mighty good looking so far. :-D To tell you the truth, I had no previous knowledge in the area that I was working on but a lot of trial and error really helped me on making him. So my trial and error my excuse for being late :) -- penubag (talk) 05:39, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm interested in helping out with graphics editing, as you've mentioned on my talk page. I apologize for the slow response, I haven't been here for a month.--t b c♣§♠ (aka Tree Biting Conspiracy)01:44, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. I have assembled a globe stand using several differnt images, and now all I'll need to do is to turn it into gold, so I can upload it and you can make some adjustments if nessecary and add the globe. However, I haven't quite figured out how to actually stack two layers together into one image so that both show up, I tried making them semi-transparent and stuff, but the "stack" option remains gray, how do I put the images together? Or, do you already have your globe stand or something similar, but if not, should I make it gold then upload it? Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)17:01, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
First of all, thank you for helping out. I'm getting a little nervous as the 15th approaches, because we aren't ready yet. You're jumping in and helping like this is most appreciated and comes at a crucial time when we need you most. Thank you.
By the way, a "globe stand" is just the contraption that the globe sits in. The whole thing would be a "globe-in-stand". Not to get technical on you or anything. :)
I don't have access to GIMP at the moment (I'm on a library computer). So I'm explaining all this from memory, which may be a little fuzzy. :) But I'll do my best...
Concerning layers, the way to add an image to a new layer is to first create a new layer. Then in the dialog for layers, click on the new layer so GIMP knows that's the one you want to work on. Then cut and paste your image into that layer.
In the layer menu, you can arrange the order of the "stack" of layers.
There are 2 issues in stacking an image on top of another....
Overlapping and non-overlapping. An opaque image overlapping another image will completely block out the part it overlaps. This is useful if you want to replace one thing with another, like putting a new head on a body - you don't have to erase the old head first.
In order to overlap a piece of an image, where you want the rest of the image to show, you need to make the background of the overlapping image transparent - to do that you erase the background (sometimes you can select it by color or color range, and sometimes you have to erase it the hard way (with the eraser tool). There might be a setting for a default background color - if so, set it to "transparent". Then you could replace a nose on a face, for instance, without the rest of the face being overlapped by the new nose's background.
The second issue is partial transparency, also known as reduced opacity. With that you can overlap images on top of each other
Keep in mind that we don't want the whole award to be gold. Just the stand. The globe that sits in the stand is supposed to be Earth-actual (the "Blue Marble", without cloud cover), with the puzzle globe superimposed upon it (using reduced opacity).
Be sure to keep the image in xcf format, which stores all layer information. Then when you are ready to upload, save it, then save it again as a png file. Then upload the png file. When you go back to work on the image, be sure you are working on the xcf file.
Please upload what you've got so far, so I can take a look. I may be able to make more useful comments, etc.
Are they okay, and can you stack them together (then remove the gold that isn't on the stand itself with fill bucket, then do some retouching to the image if nessecary? Next, could this be combined with the globe and other layers? Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)00:03, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, you mean something like Image:GIMP Gold Globe Stand.png? You can do it by having a layer of solid gold on top of the original, and change the mode to colour instead of normal. There are also other possibilities like if you want to preserve more of the colour of the original and only add a tinge of gold you can change the mode to soft light. --antilivedT | C | G00:13, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hey guys, GIMP is much more flexible than that. You can use the select by color feature to select just the portions of the pic you want. For example, we should leave the wood the way it is. The legs can easily be selected, and then using the color menu, change the color of the legs to gold.
By the way, I'd like the stand from the legs up. Please get rid of the platter they are standing on. In other words, do you see the black legs with the knobby feet? Keep those, but get rid of the disk below them (not the one between the legs).
Also, the image should be worked on at higher resolution. For that you'll need to download the starting image from its own Wikipedia page. At that location there should be a link for displaying the full-sized image.
That is the most inflexible way of doing it: it's destructive. Using multiple layers and blend them accordingly preserves the "undoability" of the file, so that you can immediately revert to the original or change the colour or things like that, without any degradation in image quality whatsoever. If you want to limit the colouring, use a layer mask. Please, stay away from select by colour and the like unless you really have to. --antilivedT | C | G08:41, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. What platter below the feet? I don't see any. Are they crooked? If so, the image could probably be rotated a bit. I did the main extraction and attatchment manually on paint, is that why it is such low resolution? On GIMP, can you automaticly extract stands' parts, by erasing all the rest but without disturbing the parts you want, without having to erase it pixel by pixel? Did I blur the area around the legs too much? Should the original stand's legs be dodged? Or, should I also stack the image on RegiStax to perhaps improve the image quality? Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)18:05, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Not the bottom-most feet. The feet of the upper part of the stand - the ones on the black legs coming down from the wood ring. The whole thing was a stand on a stand. The topmost stand has its own legs and feet (black legs, silver feet). I'd like to get rid of everything below those, such as the circular disk its legs are standing on, and the feet below the circular disk. The Transhumanist20:49, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. I have improved the image a little. Feel free to edit it farther. Can it be attatched to the globe now or does it still need more work? Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)19:32, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. I have removed the legs, and further improved it using GIMP. I also adjusted the wavelets with RegiStax. I tried adjusting the hue, saturation, and lightness with RegiStax, but that part won't save properly, so how is the new image, can it be used or does it need further improvement? Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)00:49, 12 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
[indent reset] See Layers (digital image editing)#Layer Mask. Everything that you need to do is available in GIMP, so I don't see why you would need to use RegiStax or Paint to do it. One consequence from extracting in paint is that it introduces some severe aliasing (jaggies), which is quite visible in your final image. This is a nice tutorial on extracting parts of an image using the path tool, which will also nicely anti-alias the edges for you. --antilivedT | C | G01:30, 12 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. I have uploaded a second image. Please compare:
with
.
I understand that they are rather ugly, but if nessecary, it should be possible to maybe merge them and fix the errors, then add the image of the globe to make it a globe-in-stand, as I realise this is the last day to do so. Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)18:55, 15 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Yay! 4 days until launch. And Transhumanist, be advised that I'm going on vacation from July 18th to July 28th. During that time I (probably) will be completely incognito. --SharkfaceT/C01:24, 12 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
To tell you the truth, the pedestal I made wasn't anything I had expected to make. I was aiming for a clear glass pedestal with etched gold letters on it. I created one that I was proud of but I just could not get the perspective right. It was driving me crazy. Besides, the pedestal wasn't big enough to fix properly visible text on it. My latest version was totally created out of accident and frustration. It's an opaque glass that's blue. Sounds bad at first but it's actually not too bad. The blue balances the golds from the upper image and makes a nice composite. The only thing I don't like about my Atlas is that the "Wikipedia World Developer Champion" is etched onto the globe. This was the only place I could see putting such a long phrase and still be readable. -- penubag (talk) 03:53, 12 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I updated atlas, just FYI. I removed the "Wikipedia Word Developer Champion" from the globe onto the pedestal as well as a ton of other minor fixes. You can check the version history and compare, if you'd like. -- penubag (talk) 20:38, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry for the late response, I was away for a few weeks. I just read your explanation of Around the World, and it sounds quite good. I look forward to it's commencing. Also, I don't know if the decision has already been made, but I prefer this one. JuliancoltonTropicalCyclone00:34, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Ah. I see. They removed the "___TOC___". I still need the table of contents. Well, not at the moment, but it will become useful if someone brings up a topic. --haha169 (talk) 21:31, 15 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, I figured that. But when TOC is added to the above talk page, it generates bunches of non-existent sections. --haha169 (talk) 22:23, 15 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
You need to start over with the largest (highest resolution) image of the globe stand that you can. Once you've isolated that from the original image, I'll talk you through the rest. Good luck. I look forward to your reply. The Transhumanist01:50, 17 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. I tried doing just that, but could only come up with the #2 globe stand shown above. I think I blurred the image in too many places, and alignment of the three parts of the globe is difficult due to the need to scale and measure. I also edited the three parts and tried to merge them, but this caused more blurring as the original details were removed.
Perhaps it is because the main globe stand image, the one from 1889, has such low resolution. When I tried to layer the #2 image over the #1 image of the gold globe stands, it didn't fit perfectly because the different parts were different dimensions, so I had to remove all but the globe rings from the #2 image and merge it with the #1 image, thus removing further detail. I sometimes used wavelets from RegiStax to try and bring out more detail, but this caused a lot of white spots and black spots where there shouldn't be any. I used the paths tool, but this would sometimes still leave over individual unwanted pixels, which I tried to remove but it was difficult to remove perfectly without disturbing the rest of the image. There were also parts of the images that were within the paths shape, but that I had to remove, such as the letters and overlapping horizonal ring of the vertical ring that I wanted to keep.
I often removed unwanted parts with bucket fill and airbrush, but this was slow, tedious, and imperfect. Using the sharpen (unblur) tool should theoreticly bring out more detail, but the amount of pixels allowed is limited and doing so just produces unwanted white and black spots more so than the wavelets, and even produces red and blue spots on a gold stand, which are annoying and can only be rid of with bucket fill or airbrush, which further erase original detail, or with re-blurring, which erases detail even more and produces the low-resolution effect shown on the stand I've made. If I re-unblur, then the black/white spots show up.
I could perhaps just simply not do any retouching, but then I'd be left with jagged edges, and clear differences in the three parts of the stand even after overlaying the gold colour. Besides, the letters and other unwanted detail would show up, and scaling is slow because I have to measure and re-measure, and an hour later something isn't right and the parts don't fit, which can be solved by blurring, smudging, and filling, but again that removes detail. I also dodged parts that were too dark and burned parts that were too light, but sometimes the dodge circle's edges show up too clearly, and imperfectness will result if I dodge/burn again, even if I undo. Or, if I burn a too-light region, sometimes I get individual burned pixels but the rest is still too light. Is there a brush with blurry edges and centre I can use for dodging, and one with sharp edges for erasing unwanted edges?
I have learned a lot about how to do these steps and can do them faster than before, but even using as high resolution as I can, after fixing the anomalies the apparent resolution is decreased. Also, when I layer one layer onto another with transclucency, the unwanted transclucent parts infiltrate the background layer, and I can't just bucket fill with the colour "clear". Or, will it work if I make the new layer a transparency, but leaving the main image semi-opaque? I have a list of all the images I used to make the globe stand. After doing all the changes, the final image might be, say, 20+ MB, but the final resolution is only, say, 50 kb. I think this is probably caused by transferring to png, and the extra megs from the xcf file form its "undoability", but I can't increase the resolution, and perhaps even rescaling or rotating remove its original pixels, further pixelating the image.
I realise you won't be able to help attatch the parts because your computer crashed, but I cannot seem to figure out how to keep the image high-resolution and fit the parts together. What should I do to do this? The image I produced yesterday probably was so blurry because I was rushing a bit, as I'm spending 6 hours on the computer a day, and want to limit my time just a bit so I don't spend all my time on it. However, I still want to help with the globe stand, but I'm not that good at aligning the parts, especially with the scaling.
Should I re-start the gold stand itself, and wait until it is finished before attatching the marble wiki image? I think I remember that most globes have a gap between the ring of the globe stand and the globe itself, but how can I attatch the globe without making it appear as if it's levitating within the stand? If you look carefully at the image I produced yesterday, there are blurry edges between the globe and the stand. This is because I cannot bucket fill with transparency on the second layer, unless of course I can just overlay a transparency. Also, how do you change a certain colour to "transparent", but without disturbing the others, as you described earlier?
It's also somewhat difficult to use a rectangular scale to fit a round shape perfectly. I know, I could make the marble wiki a bit smaller than the stand's ring, but then how do I attatch it to the ring? Do I use a golden connecting part, maybe from another image, to attach the globe? Should I just upload the parts, then have them rescaled accordingly, and then attatch them later? I know you don't have access to GIMP at the moment, but please advise on how I should attatch the parts properly, if possible. Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)18:40, 17 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
If you zoom the image, you can get much more precise placement.
On scaling, you don't have to measure anything. GIMP allows you to lock the two parameters (height and width) together. Click on one of the chain links (which connects them), and then width and height are changed the same way at the same time (maintaining the original proportions). Size it by eye, and use Ctrl-Z to undo it when you get it wrong, try again, and keep splitting the difference until it is just the right size. I use percent, because it's easier to remember things when they are in context, and the context here is proportions.
Ctrl Z (undo) is your best friend. And Ctrl Y restores steps removed by Ctrl Z when you press that undo key (Ctrl-Z) too many times. :)
To make parts from scratch, like cylindrical pins for attaching globes to rings, you could use a free vector graphics program called Inkscape. It's the perfect companion for GIMP, and provides ways to create geometrical shapes, make them look real, etc.
I hope when you add a part to the image in GIMP, that you create a layer for it first and place it in its own layer. When you do that, selecting areas of a layer doesn't affect any of the other layers. Moving things around becomes easy, because it doesn't become part of the image you just placed it in (because each layer is in effect its own image), and can easily be moved again and again until its placement is just right.
In the layers dialog, you can select which layer you want to work on, and you can select the layers you want to see. Very useful.
To change a color to transparent, you select it and then delete it. Note that the color selector includes a range, and you need to adjust that range to make it as precise or as broad as you require. The base layer needs an alpha layer that's transparent, and the base layer can't have a background (otherwise you'll see that). To remove areas of the background, select it by any means (area, color, etc.), then delete it. Then you'll see the checkered pattern of transparency.
For example, you load a jpg file into GIMP that's a picture of a house with a lawn and clear blue sky around it. You want just the house surrounded by a transparent background. The current background is the green grass and the blue sky. Before you can delete them, you have to add an alpha transparency layer. Once you do that, you can select the sky by its color and push the delete key, then repeat on the grass. If the house is blue or green, you may have to use another way to delete the lawn and sky. The eraser tools works pretty good. :)
PNG may already have an alpha layer. You'll have to check the layer dialog to see.
The key to putting parts together while retaining resolution is to work with large pics that already have good resolution. A problem occurs when you try to increase the size of small pics to insert them into large pics. The solution is to insert larger pics for which you have to reduce their scale. The end image needs to be at about 600px by 600px. Then we can shrink that down in Wikipedia (by specifying size in the image link) to fit whatever we need to use it for.
I hope the above tips help.
Well, I've just learned we have a stand (I should have skimmed all my messages first). See Image:Puzzle-globe-cage.png. You can tinker with that and try replacing the globe, to see what it looks like. But save the new version under a different image name.
Hey Transhumanist, do you think you could do me a favor? If you still have access to AWB, could you please fullfill this concern. Thanks very much if you are able to do so. -- penubag (talk) 20:13, 17 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you very much to you and whom ever it is that helps. There's no rush on this one but please tell me when it is done. Thank you. By the way, I fixed up atlas, you can see him on my graphics page. When do you suppose your computer will be fixed? And what kind of 'broken' do you mean? Is it a hardware failure or is it physical damage? Just curious.-- penubag (talk) 03:15, 19 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
All right, I signed up for it at WP:AWB. I'm not sure if you read the above, but tell me if you approve of the new atlas; this weekend is almost over and the only time I have to work on graphics stuff is on the weekend. -- penubag (talk) 02:05, 21 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I forgot as well, but something has come up, and I am unable to complete you request, and I'm very sorry. I hope all goes well! Cheers, -- iMatthewT.C.10:46, 18 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I didn't forget again, but I just wanted to let you know that I might not get around to doing it until tomorrow or Monday. I will get to it when I have enough free time. JuliancoltonTropicalCyclone21:35, 19 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
"Then the question is, 'Are you willing to look into it and learn how?' " -> Nope, I'm not. Otherwise, I would have done so instead of posting the suggestion on the talk page! --Padraic16:13, 21 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Bah! Talk about bad timing. I wish I checked my account yesterday.... I would love to help but currently am reading this while waiting for a cab to take me to the airport. I will be on vacation until the 28th of July and where I am going will have severely limited internet access and no AWB (unless I download it there). I'll try to stick AWB on my flash drive, but your request will at the very least take a while. I hope there are others who you can count on... --SharkfaceT/C19:31, 18 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I've been very busy and I'm belatedly responding to a message you left on my talk page on June 30th. I prefer the second of the two. Cheers. Ben MacDuiTalk/Walk16:14, 19 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know. One of the images for the 3 awards are ready, and the other 2 are getting close. But there's still a lot of prepping needed on the set of pages themselves, so that we can move them all to the main namespace before the event starts. You could join in on the fun of prepping for the event. Let me know if you are interested, and I'll send some tasks your way. The Transhumanist23:37, 20 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi there. This is just a quick note to say that I think that displaying the American flag behind the Wikipedia logo here goes against MOS:FLAG. I recognize that it is part of a menu template, but it should probably be omitted in this case. I thought it was nationalist vandalism at first. – SJL14:57, 23 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Can you remove the flag altogether it looks terrible and i don't understand why it's even include , as SJL said it looks like vandalism Gnevin (talk) 07:15, 24 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Proposal for standard infobox for History of [country] templates
Hi. As for the globe stand, I thought Grey Knight was working on it. I'm not sure where to find the blue marble image, and what liscence such an image with the wiki logo should be. I don't see any further discussion on User:Penubag/graphics, so I'm not sure who has worked on it yet. Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)15:34, 29 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hello Transhumanist, seeing as you have a pretty spicy userpage and have made a ton of edits to the user page design center i thought it would be best for you to be the one to help me out. Can you please help me add a background colour to my userpage so theres no white space? Im having a tad of a problem, hopefully you can point me in the right direction and i will be able to choose the colour i want once you have done the basics. Sorry to disturb you, but its playing on my mind. I guess we all have something we're good at here on the wiki and this kind of exciting stuff is what your good at, keep it up is all i can say. Thanks Monster Under Your Bed(talk)11:04, 31 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I had fun messing with your pages. Hope you don't mind. :) By the way, the color of the header's background is controlled from your border subpage. The Transhumanist03:03, 1 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thank You for fixing up my pages and making it a little less dull, i very much appreciate it:) As i said im not really into that sort of stuff, my creative side is about zero so i'll tweak with what you have made for me because i think its good enough :P In regard to your offer, i think learning about this sort of stuff is great and its good to have it in your wiki repertoire but ill have to pass because i think it'll get too much for me and make my head dizzy but i might change my mind later, who knows? BTW can you tell me a site where i can get info on what codes it is for the HTML colour code? I know of this only, whats your opinion? Thanks again, Monster Under Your Bed(talk)05:34, 2 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Is barely scraping by these days with more fly past edits than any coherent organisational structure at the noticeboard or any form of collab (although we dont tell anyone that) and one of the biggest issues is the english challenged indonesian editors who put a name up on the english project (rather than on the indonesian one where they could just as easily do) usually in lists so that in parts we have these marvellous untouched lists of unalphabetical names to make red links and then no activity there ever again (unchallenged tags are between 1 to 2 years in some cases) - well i am very slowly systematically going through the more obvious lists - removing all the red links to the talk page - so that eds know that if they add red lnks theyre gonna get removed - otherwise the project looks like a paradise of red links that never get worked on. SO I have your list to deal with which has red links everywhere - any thoughts? at least you speakk da english :( SatuSuro09:27, 1 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Yes. Thank you for contacting me with your concerns.
The red links in that list are part of a standard format for lists of this type - there is currently a list of this type under construction for every country of the world and they all have a common set of links (in addition to custom links). The links in the standard format were chosen because they are very typical for countries, and very highly likely to turn blue in the future - articles tend to expand and use those article names for the expansions. They were also chosen to maintain standardization between these lists - too many synonymous title types would make them confusing. Some of the topics using standard names are spread across Wikipedia somewhere, either under synonymous titles, or under a subheading in another article -- and therefore many of the red entries in the list can be bluelinked by creating redirects. So please, do not remove the redlinks. ;)
Also, there is a team of editors preparing these pages for a big competition called "Around the World" which will bring many editors to the set of country pages to which this list belongs. One of the main things participants will be doing is fixing redlinks via the "bluelinking" process.
Note that redlinks are an important feature of Wikipedia. They show where development is needed, and make it easy to create needed articles (it takes just a click to get started). And in the case of these country lists, editors are being assigned tasks to perform on all of the lists rather than being assigned a particular list to work on. For example, I'm currently filling in the "Location:" item for all of the countries. Others are working on the "Regions" sections on the entire set. And still more will jump in to help once "Around the World" gets underway. One of the main task types that will be assigned to participants will be "bluelinking".
Oh well - looks good - and glad you have such a positive outlook from where you sit at your computer - its a very different story from where I sit at mine as there are very different meanings to red links in the Indonesia project and despite your positive and obviously optimistic outlook I wont waste a breath waiting for a single one of them to be touched. I do hope the bluelinkers are not as geographically and culturally challenged as some I have met to date - cheers and as they say in so many movies from the heart of the planets optimists good luckSatuSuro 00:51, 2 August 2008 (UTC)SatuSuro00:53, 2 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
We need someone to do some simple edits to the set of country profiles we are developing.
Really easy stuff, like adding the population figure for each country (which you would get off of each country article, so no hunting is required). We also need editors who would like to work with the finding and placing of images (like pics of cities, other cool places, animals, presidents, people in a cultural context, etc. etc. etc.).
Things like that.
There is a team of editors working on the set, and we'd love to work with ya.
Here is an example of the type of pages we are building. We're developing one for every country of the world, and everyone on the team is working on all of them, each team member completing a specific task or item for all of the countries of the world -- this approach keeps thing interesting, and is a lot like traveling around the world.
If you are interested, drop me a note.
And as you progress in the project, we'll introduce you to some wiki-tools to help you go...
Cool. Do you use Firefox? If not, please download and install it, because there are key tools and Wikipedia scripts available for that browser that are not available to other browsers. Let me know when you've got it up and running. The Transhumanist18:15, 1 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
It is good to be back after a long while of summer traveling. I look forward to jumping back into the fray here on Wikipedia, although I must confess that there is a deep reluctance to commit to any major undertakings here, as I have been a bit flaky regarding my on-wiki work this summer, as evidenced by my contribs. Between my full time job, community service, hobbies, vacations, family, and other commitments, I find that I have been spending almost no time here this summer. I am, of course, willing to help in any area that you may need assistance in. As it stands, however, any assistance I am asked to render may be deferred or at least delayed substantially. Hope your summer also is going along swimmingly --SharkfaceT/C19:38, 3 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
