User talk:SB Johnny

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[edit] Classroom questions

Thanks for the note, SB Johnny. I'm a high-school math teacher in the DC public school system and I've always found Wikepedia a valuable resource. The same is true for iTunesUniversity. My own ambition is to help my high school become a contributor to the learning community, be it at Wikiversity, iTunesU, TeacherTube.

So, this little foray into Wikiversity is just another step along that path.

MathTeacherTony

Frankly, I'm not sure how to best use WV with my students. Got any suggestions?

Tony Sanders

Replied here. --SB_Johnny talk 10:22, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the good suggestions, SB Johnny. The geometry of DC is definitely a good idea. In fact, I've been thinking about an extended piece on the geometry of various cities that have lots of circles/roundabouts. I call it "Circular Logic," a geometric tour through some of the World's most mathematically-interesting cities.

I think by stating this here, I can rightfully claim copyright to the idea. (I've already mailed myself the idea in a sealed envelope, as a poor man's copyright.

Anyway, legalese aside, let's talk about some of the other stuff you gave me links to; I wasn't sure what to make of them, although I did see some value in Jump 2.0 or eJump or whatever it's called. . . Sorry I can't remember the name off the top of my head.

New idea: What about videos? Good idea? Bad idea? When you mentioned posting class lectures, I immediately thought of videotaping some of my high-school classes. I plan to do that anyway, but I'm not sure if that's what you were thinking about.

In addition, I've been thinking of just taping me presenting material from my classes---I teach high-school Algebra II/Trig---in a series of short, snappy videos.

Is that something you think would be worthwhile?

Lemmeknow,

MathTeacherTony

Replied here. --SB_Johnny talk 13:29, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] I'm back again

Hi Johnny,

I got a bit frustrated for the lack of success in the past years, but it is better to keep trying. I will also like to join your project again on Obama. I already stated that i didn't like the topic very much, but perhaps i could test some facilitation management, which can be used in new projects. I also want to make some YouTube adds in the future for a project of mine i like to start in a while. But i am still preparing for it privately.--Daanschr 18:47, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi Daan. Well, lately I've been working on Wikipedia_and_the_2008_US_elections/Sarah Palin, researching the article history. If you're up to doing the same for Wikipedia_and_the_2008_US_elections/Barack_Obama, that would be great. --SB_Johnny talk 12:50, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I will look at it, but i am unemployed again and it is a stressful situation, so i am on a low active level for Wikiversity.--Daanschr 19:27, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Busy on my end too (finishing winter jobs and getting ready for the spring crush). I did the Palin stuff in several short sittings, will probably do the same for the rest, if I get to them at all. --SB_Johnny talk 00:43, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't know how you did this one.--Daanschr 19:28, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] WV:NOT

I would only support that proposed policy if that clause were removed AND these edits were reversed. I think these two issues need to be discussed separately, and on their own merits, not piled onto a generic "NOT" policy. The Jade Knight (d'viser) 17:22, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I just posted a response (I hope) to your question (left on my talk page) on the policy discussion page. I am not certain that dropping the advocacy ban altogether is viable in practice, without just getting open-ended discussions that go in circles forever, as often happens on Wikipedia talk pages. Not clear how to craft this policy to be a little more flexible than Wikipedia can afford to be in article space, without opening the door to complete chaos. Wwheaton 06:31, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Bloom Clock Key for Southern Ontario

A friend and I would like to contribute and build a Bloom Clock Key for Southern Ontario.

I've read both of these: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Bloom_Clock/Making_Keys http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Bloom_Clock/Using_Bcp3

I've read the main pages, some of the discussion stuff, and looked at the other Bloom Clock Keys.

The part where I'm stuck is on here: "The first step in creating these keys is to make sure that any plants that were logged as blooming in a particular region at a particluar time are categorized as blooming at that time and in that place. These categories are added to the pages in the BCP namespace (not on the signatures subpage, that won't work)." on the Making Keys page.

Are the regions where a plant has been logged as being in bloom automatically added to the plant's BCP page? If not, how does one go through all the logs to do this? This seems like a job for a bot... I have only very limited experience with bots (chat bots for Starcraft).

Thanks for any help you can offer :)

Khono 18:03, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

"Hi Khono. I'm happy to help set you up. First thing is to define the region you're going to be logging from (southern Ontario is a rather large area, and I imagine the western part will have different bloom times from the eastern part). I'll help set up the templates for you after that :-). --SB_Johnny talk 10:32, 18 February 2009 (UTC)"
Well, Ontario's normally split into 3 groups. Northern Ontario, which is the biggest by far, Central Ontario, and Southern Ontario. Within Southern Ontario, there's the Carolinian zone to the west of Toronto, moraines to the north (like the Oak Ridges Moraine I'm on), and various larger and super large water bodies around. Then of course there's the heat islands from Toronto and Ottawa and perhaps our smaller towns as well. All this and more will likely affect the blooming times but we don't have people recording data from these different areas (yet) and splitting up Southern Ontario, I think, would cause more confusion at the moment than it's worth. On the other hand, we could easily give Toronto its own area as it generally has its own individual weather patterns and culture and Rene's always going out and taking special not of the wildlife there. In addition, the population distribution would justify it, I think. Khono 17:36, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
Well, there's really no upper limit on the number of regions, and from personal experience I can tell you that the data from regions that are too large becomes rather questionable (I'm actually going to split the region I've been using for the past 2 years into 3 smaller regions, since the elevation difference actually throws things off quite a bit). With that in mind, I'd really suggest getting as specific as you can reasonably do it, and just use alternative accounts if you're logging from 2 regions. I don't think it will cause much confusion for people reading the data, since they can just find the closest region and go by that. It's completely up to you though, your experience as a contributor is (IMO) more important than the data :-). --SB_Johnny talk 18:18, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
Well.... I've been thinking about it and figure you're right. I made this quick and dirty image to show the different zones I think would be most appropriate. They are:
  • 1 Carolinian zone (upper border is 43degrees 30minutes)
  • 2 Toronto
  • 3 Southwestern Ontario (eastern border is 80degrees zero minutes)
  • 4 Southcentral Ontario (western border is 80degrees zero minutes)
  • 5 Southeastern Ontario
  • 6 Northern South Ontario
Naturally there'll be a somewhat different climate closer to the great lakes, but if I tried to make the zones following the lakes too, we'd have like twice as many. Seems too clumsy. I'm only 27 and don't drive so I have little first hand knowledge on which to base these zones... That was part of the reason I didn't wanna split things up and party why I took so long to get back to you here. But I hope these work out...
So yeah, I don't really know where to go from here. If it looks good to you I guess we can get it set up. I'm not sure how you'd want it set up, though, as it'd be quite different from the way things look right now. Khono 12:06, 9 March 2009 (UTC)
Hi, sorry for the delay but it's goat kidding season here and I've been a bit busy :-). I think for now the best plan is probably just "Plan A", and have a single zone for S. Ontario to start... if there are major differences it can easily be broken up. I'm going to experiment with "subregions" for Southeast PA to see how it works and such.
So for now, just use "new region 7" on the middle template to log, I'll set up the first few templates for it (use {{bcpm/sont/3}} to log flowers in March, {{bcp/sont/np}} to mark as native, {{bcp/sont/gp}} to mark as cultivated, and {{bcp/sont/ip}} to mark as invasive). I'll make those up today and alter the template to show your region. --SB_Johnny talk 13:50, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] what is biting - Are we getting short-tempered on Wikivesity?

Johnny, Come on, Are we getting short-tempered? I made a very simple comment here[1]; Swift replied with "please don't bite" then you said,[2] 'Addressing someone as "dear Wikibookian" and telling them how to do things certainly seems like biting to me.'

Swift is clearly an experienced wikibookian and a new wikiversian. If he is a wikibookian, what's wrong with saying that? You can call me a wikiversiter anywhere and I would be proud of it. And, given that, how exactly is suggesting what are good for wikiversity, from a slightly more experienced point of view, is biting? On the contrary, I would think that introducing the wikiversity culture to newcomers is a very important thing to do, as important as the candy on the template:welcome. Wikiversity is different from other projects; and had the newcomer stayed longer and gained more experience, he might have seen other solutions than deletion. Of course they are free to do whatever they want!

Hillgentleman | //\\ |Talk 08:47, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

I wrote a note to a Wikiversity participant who had been subject to 2 snarky comments from you to let him know that I found it bite-ish as well, because he was obviously annoyed, and I didn't want him to feel unwelcome.
As far as I'm concerned, when someone makes a contribution on Wikiversity, they become a Wikiversitan/er/ian/alist :-). He/she is not an outsider, and has just as much a part to play in shaping the growth of Wikiversity as anyone else. --SB_Johnny talk 16:20, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
I have no problem with that. However, I believe it is a universal truth that when you visit a place, you first learn about their customs, and be very careful not to trust your experience from elsewhere. This is the kernel of my very simple suggestion. If you go to another state, and is in a risk of treading on others' toes, and someone comes up to suggest that you go a little slower, would you say, "please don't bite me"? Hillgentleman | //\\ |Talk 04:49, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Request to usurp username

Hi, I was directed to speak directly to a bureaucrat on this project to have this done as I couldn't see a specific page for requesting it here. I have the username Camw on most projects [3] but the username here is taken. As far as I can see the username here has made no edits so I hope this is not controversial and can be completed. Please let me know if I've put this in the wrong place or if you need more information. Regards Cam 09:05, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Usurpation follow-up

Crats: I messaged a couple of you previously about this but just noticed there was a specific note to message all crats on Wikiversity:Changing_username#User_rename_requests and due to the delay thought I'd better do again: I'm following up on my request from December at Wikiversity:Changing_username#Usurpation_of_User:Doug, no action has been taken. mikeu mentioned back in January that there was a technical problem with some of the tools and I see that mentioned on the Changing Username page now too. Reviewing the problem myself though, I am not clear on why this administrative issue is really a problem. I can see why it might be in some cases but not allowing clearly valid requests to go through without a pro forma check seems silly. For the life of me, I cannot see what these two tools would tell you for information about a user that you can't get nearly as easily through other means, particularly when we're talking about accounts that haven't edited in years in most cases and even then very little. I know there are only four of you, but the request ahead of mine has been sitting since July. That user and I are both Sysops on other projects and are both trying usurp accounts that appear to be clearly dead. I've actually been waiting before taking a more active role here until my account was fully unified and it looks like you could use a bit of help. Cheers! --BewareofDoug 03:02, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

I didn't do yours because the account had edits. I also think you've been a bit pushy, tbh. --SB_Johnny talk 22:28, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
Sorry Johnny, I was just trying to raise someone. It had been about 6 months since I requested and I last heard from anyone in January. So, are you saying that you won't allow the usurp or is there something else you want me to do?--BewareofDoug 16:45, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Usurpation

Thank you for performing my request. Camw 05:34, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Appending Templates

Hello!If you remember, I had taken up a certain Highschool Help Forum project. The last week, I've put together a lot of it.

As a part of the forum navigation method, I have created two templates Template:HHF/Category_Listing and Template:HHF/Recent_Discussions. The bottom line is that, even though these templates would be included on the page when a question is asked, I want the two templates two remain on the bottom of the page as you'd normally expect a forum navigation linkbar to be. How can this be done? Is there any code for it? Or do we have to tweak the edit section feature for that?

Am glad that Highschool Help Forum is finally going somewhere! --Dharav talk 18:21, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

There is no wiki code for that. Would require adding a way to the mediawiki software, using or creating a mediawiki extension to allow it, using css, or using javascript. The last two would require a person to use a web browser that supports CSS and JavaScript, and hoping that it could be done in a way that is consistent across web browsers. A mediawiki extension would need to pass inspection by the wikimedia developers and gather support from the Wikiversity community. Modifications to the mediawiki software would also require being able to pass inspection, but wouldn't require support from the Wikiversity community. You could do something like:
<!-- Footer --->

{{HHF/Category Listing}}
{{HHF/Recent Discussions}}

[[Category:Blah Blah]]
[[Category:Blah]]
People don't seem to have much trouble keeping things at the bottom when its made clear that's where it should stay. -- darklama  20:31, 26 July 2009 (UTC)
That would be nice. But I would be using forum pages in a way which would append new sections at the end of the page. What I want is to sandwich the new edits between the first section and the templates, so that all new edits constantly get added in between the pages, with the order being maintained. --Dharav talk 17:40, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
You can use two pages to achieve the desired effect. For example Page A includes:
__NONEWSECTIONLINK__
{{/Header}}
{{/Page B}}
{{/Footer}}
The header, footer and even Page B could include links to add a new section to Page B. That would ensure that the footer would remain at the end. -- darklama  18:16, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
That's a very neat idea! I especially like the way in which we are making a full-length page out of just four lines. Yes, I will keep that trick for use someday.
The problem with the current scenario is that, the pages where I want to keep the templates appended at the ends are created using the Input Box (available on Help:Starting a new page). When you click on the create button, it calls a preload page (like the one in the present reply button), asks the user to enter his question and creates a new page with that content. As a result of that, we have no control over creating two pages at the same time, one with the content and one meant for final viewing.
I thought of exploiting the "&section=" field in edititing hyperlinks. however, if I use it to edit an already existing section, the existing section would be erased by the preload template. That would be of no use.
Another way round it was to make phony sections at the end of each reply with a timestamp. In the reply button that follows, I could use edit section=timestamp and such so that the button takes me to a whole new section, that could be appended to the place below it.
There are two downsides to this though: -
  • The timestamps as section names would mean we'd have a lot of numbers appearing as section headers. very untidy.
  • Also, every reply would be appended at the end of the timestamp and NOT at the end of the page, meaning that we'd have a very cluttered hierarchy.
Can you suggest a way round these small hurdles? Or can you suggest a way to create two pages in one click? This'd require some tweaks, but I guess using the magic words properly and maybe for things they're not meant to be might help us out in this whole stuff.
Above all, it's a fairly trivial issue. --Dharav talk 17:44, 29 July 2009 (UTC)
Would something like {{auto subpage}} satisfy your needs? What it does depends on whether a page exists or not. If the page exists it includes its contents inside the page. If the page does not exist yet, it creates a link to the page with preloaded text so the first person who clicks it can easily fill out the page. -- darklama  14:51, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

No offense guys, but could you maybe move this to somewhere in the main namespace? It's all a bit over my head, yet still giving me the new messages banner ;-). --SB_Johnny talk 17:30, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Moving the discussion...

I saw your reply to the "Appending Templates" section. Sorry for that. I was assuming you weren't around these days. I'll move it somewhere, though I have no idea where this discussion would help someone else. Can you suggest? Thanks. --Dharav talk 16:03, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Self-fertility

What does "Self-sterile" mean in the context of Self-fertility? I saw it mentioned at http://www.keepers-nursery.co.uk/flower_of_kent_variety.aspx -mikeu

It means that a particular clone can't be fertilized by the pollen of the same clone. For example, all 'Gala' apples are clones of a single plant, so as far as the pollen goes they're all just one plant, so they need another variety for pollen in order to bear fruit. In most cases orchards will have another variety that has been shown to have compatible flowering time and genetics that's interplanted. --SB_Johnny talk 00:51, 12 August 2009 (UTC)
Interesting. BTW, I'm trying to grow a "Newtonian" apple tree from seed. It is surprisingly common for university physics dept's to have trees whose pedigree can be traced to the tree that was growing on Newton's property. [4] [5] --mikeu talk 10:51, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Change username please

Messedrocker --> Harej Messedrocker 23:55, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

But before you do that, you have to make Harej --> Harej (usurped). Harej 23:58, 16 August 2009 (UTC)
lol, ok :-)--SB_Johnny talk 00:11, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] User rename request

Would you please check the username page for my request on changing userame? C.I. 17:03, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

I just saw your comment in username. This is indeed my account, Thank you. Cifuentes22 16:04, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

OK, that was a month ago. Diff? --SB_Johnny talk 23:09, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Project incubator

Please check Wikiversity:Project_incubator for an update on HHF. Thank you! --Dharav talk 11:52, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] First Frost

"In our area... the first frost usually happens around Sept. 15th" That's an average. So I've got maybe a little over 2 weeks from this weekend. Recommendations? The Jade Knight (d'viser) 23:57, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Wow, that's pretty early. Your best bet will be fast growing greens that you can pick in the "baby" phase and harvest cut-and-come-again until the heavy freeze sets in. Mesclun mix, lettuce, spinach, kale, chard, and beets (for the greens) should be ok. You could extend the season a bit with floating row covers that you'd put on whenever night temps go below 40 or so (see CO state extension for details... most garden centers carry them).
Of course the other option would be to till up a patch and put in a cover crop such as vetch or rye to get the soil ready for spring. Or you could do both, depending on how much you want to take on :-). --SB_Johnny talk 10:39, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] dude, you've made more than 10,000 mainspace edits!

Barnstar of Diligence.png The Golden Barnstar
Wow! Your contributions to developing learning resources are an inspiration. More than 10,000 mainspace edits! [6] You have contributed to the development of Wikiversity in a wide variety of ways, but acknowledgement of your work on learning resource pages is long overdue. This is great work that you are doing. mikeu talk 14:46, 5 September 2009 (UTC)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:SB_Johnny"