User talk:Mfc

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[e-mail to me, mailto:mfc@speleotrove.com, or using the mfc reference, will often get a faster response than posting here.]

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Battles project

Good luck with the Battle of El Mazuco

thnx. Just completing translation of original source, will distill for Wikipedia after that. mfc

still working on it ... the category maniacs are dribbling all over the place so it is very hard to do anything constructive anymore :-(

translation finally done .. wikipedia distillation now also done; see: Battle of El Mazuco mfc 19:13, 2005 Feb 1 (UTC)

I am half way through debating with Gsl over "theatre", "campaign", "battle" levels. My email from him are on a disk drive on the high seas. when they arrive I may add something to the pages. Have a look at Pacific War there are two theatres and I am working on the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II There are two campaigns Burma and the CBI and several armies. Laying it out this way allows for all the political stuff to be at the theatre/campaign level and the details of the war to be at the campaign army level.This allows battles to be written without lots of baggage Philip Baird Shearer

Sounds good. In smaller wars, 'zone' is a useful term; crops up all over the Spanish Civil war literature, and it grows on one... :-) mfc

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Wallace Breem

Actually I only met Wallace Breem once, though my then boss knew him quite well, and it was in his capacity as a librarian. I didn't find out until later what an important novelist he was. So I have nothing to add to your findings. I just wanted to boast about it! Deb 16:16, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

But .. but .. but you must have *some* impression of him you could share with us? mfc

Er...I remember thinking he reminded me of a skeleton. That probably means that anything he had to say went over my head, but it was 25 years ago and I was young and foolish. Sorry! Deb 17:32, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)

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Datatype

Thanks for your changes to datatype. The new intro actually seems to be accurate and make sense. I feel a lot better about that article now. Derrick Coetzee 18:06, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback! That whole article needs a bit of refinement ... why not have a go? mfc

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IEEE 754r

Thanks for starting off IEEE 754r ... have been meaning to add something about it for some time. Do browse/edit/correct my 'first pass'... mfc

Thanks for the substantial edits. I'll take a look. Jake 18:43, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Mfc, I just did a round of edits after the last meetings. I'm sure I missed some stuff. But I worked on annexes, decimal conversion, modes.

I also added a page for quad precision. Should we put together pages for the decimal basic types? I found it helpful to work on one for a while and then use that as a template for the others. In particular, will we have any naming conflict to disambiguate? I'm used to "single", "double", and "quad" to refer to the binary types. Jake 13:54, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Acorn Computers Ltd?

Good change, one letter to fix; it was Acorn Computer Ltd. (no ..s)

My mistake was assuming that a simple hardware engineer would know the correct name of the company he used to work for ;-) See Steve Furber's page at Manchester. Lmno 13:03, 26 Sep 2004 (UTC)

My (mfc) only dealings with it were in 1978/79 and my (quite possibly faulty) recollection is that they verbally referred to themselves as 'Acorn Computer' then, and that's what it has on

• the label of the box my System One arrived in (and still lives in)
• the User's Manual
• the Acorn Technical Manual
• the compliments slip
• the logo on the price list.

But even then there were some inconsistencies (the address on the price list says 'Acorn Computers'). However, it looks as though less care was taken on addresses; on the User's manual is is 'Acorn Computor' [sic] :-). mfc

Chris Curry

It does seem that the founders of Acorn were Hermann Hauser, Chris Curry and Andy Hopper. I have laid out the case in the entry on Curry. What do you think? Lmno 10:24, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Not sure what the case is .. but it is possible, of course, that they did it together. Why not give Hermann and/or Chris a call (or e-mail) and get a definitive answer? I have been meaning to do this .. but is way down my to-do list :-( At the moment the only definite statement I have is Sophie's which said that Chris joined Acorn 'later'. But he could still have been a founder, even if he wasn't involved in what the company did, I suppose! Also company registration records, perhaps? mfc

WP:COTW

Hi thought you might be interested in voting to help get Culture of Spain selected for the collaboration of the week. Then we can get a lot of help to bring it up to a featured article. Thanks - Taxman 16:54, Oct 15, 2004 (UTC)

• [Sorry, I didn't see this request at the time, not sure why. mfc 12:30, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)]
  • No problem. Response on my talk page for continuity. - Taxman 15:59, Dec 12, 2004 (UTC)
  • Well it is too late for Culture of Spain on WP:COTW, but you can add material to the Culture of Spain article or help with other articles as listed on the collaboration of the week page. - Taxman 21:06, Dec 12, 2004 (UTC)

Image tagging

I'm sorry that you don't like the image tags, but all images have to be tagged. Untagged images will be deleted by an automatic process, even if there is text information about licensing information. – Quadell ^{(talk) (help)} 12:23, Dec 29, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for changing the gfdl-small tag; that looks fine mfc

Image:AcornSystem1Large.jpg

Hi Mike. I noticed you asked for Image:AcornSystem1Large.jpg to be deleted at WP:IFD. I'm curious why you don't want to release it under the GFDL, but only the tiny thumbnail at Image:AcornSystem1.jpg. Also, where did User:TreveX get the larger version from, and is there any way you can indicate that you're actually the photographer? Thanks, dbenbenn | talk 22:22, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

(Sorry for the delay -- traveling...) Yes, this larger image must have been copied from my Acorn System 1 site at demon.co.uk. I have the hardware pictured, as I think is evident at that website; no one else has had access to take a photograph. mfc

Okay, I've deleted it. It's painful for me deleting a beautiful high-resolution image in favor of a low-resolution thumbnail. If you ever decide to change your mind about the picture, that would be wonderful! dbenbenn | talk 17:44, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Many thanks. I promise to think about my 'images policy' some time in the future; at the moment I have decided to make roughly 300x300 or below 'public domain' (I'd prefer not even GFDL). Bigger ones I need to think about. It's easiest to just have a cut-off size, and 300 or so is about as big as looks good on a web page with text. mfc 15:03, 2005 May 20 (UTC)

Acorn Computers

Hi Mike, just letting you know that Acorn Computers is up for featured article status. As you've made substantial contributions to the article, your comments and/or support would be really appreciated. The page is Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Acorn Computers. Cheers! TreveX^talk 11:39, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

It looks good! Have added Support :-) mfc

Algorism / Algorithm

You commented out the "devolvement" of algorism into algorithm, apparently because the etymology of algorithm does not belong in the Algorism article. But the reason I put this here is actually in this sentence: "Occasionally algorism is used in this generalized meaning, especially in older texts.". What do you think? (For your amusement: the previous edition of the OED stated under the lemma Algorithm this: "Etymological perversion of algorism".) Lambiam 07:00, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

OK, see what you meant by that now -- have removed the commenting. mfc 10:23, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

K&A canal

About 2 years ago you added some content to the article on the Kennet and Avon Canal. I've done some work on this and the Locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal and have put them both up for featured status see discussions at Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/Locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal & Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Kennet and Avon Canal/archive1. I'd be grateful if you had anything you could add to either article or the discussions. — Rod ^talk 12:04, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

IBM 650 front panel picture

Hi Mike,

Something seems to have gone wrong with IBM-650-panel.jpg - I can't see it either on the IBM 650 article, or on the pictures on User:mfc - the rear view is fine, though. BTW How are you? Keeping out of mischief?! Jpaulm 21:45, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

HI .. it seems fine today -- maybe was a Wikipedia glitch. Yes, keeping (more or less) out of mischief; working on decimal arithmetic ... mfc 10:33, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

EMCAScript influenced by perl

Could you comment at Talk:ECMAScript#Influenced_by_perl?, since you reverted my change removing perl from the list of influences. --asqueella 16:52, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Done. mfc 20:52, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Links

Hi. Just a note regarding your edit at decimal. Links which do not point to other Wikipedia articles should be in the "External links" section rather than in "See also". It's a small thing, but I thought I'd let you know. Cheers, Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 15:39, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, that's where I meant to put it -- thanks for pointing it out. Fixed. mfc 17:23, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Was your last edit at decimal in response to Oleg's remark? In that case, I think you misunderstood him. The standard sections at the end of an article are (cf. our Guide to Layout)

• See also — for links to related Wikipedia articles which somehow could not be mentioned in the text
• Notes — for footnotes
• References — for all sources (both paper and web-based) which are used when writing the article, including sources specifically cited in the text
• Additional reading and/or External links — for other sources which could be useful to the reader

I think that the paper by Azar is used in the article to support the sentence "Some psychologists suggest irregularities of numerals in a language may hinder children's counting ability", and this is made clear by citing it immediately next to the sentence. In fact, somebody questioned this sentence a few months ago because he did not know where it came from. That's why I reverted your edit. If I misunderstood your intention, please accept my apologies and explain what you want. Thanks. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 04:01, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Something very bizarre seems to have happened. All I did in my edit was to move one external link ('Decimal Bibliography') from "See Also" to "External links". I did not touch any other part of the article, and certainly not the reference to Azar. However, the History appears to show that I did! This must be a Wikipedia bug, unfortunately (and you were quite right to put that text back). It looks as though I was editing the version before you added that reference – but I made my change 3 days later! mfc 07:54, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Ah .. I just worked out what happened. To get to the Decimal article to make my change, I must have followed the link provided by Oleg, above – which must have taken me to a version before your change. I don't recall seeing any warning that I was editing a version that was not the current one, however. mfc 08:04, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

That makes sense. You won't get a warning in that case, as I learnt from JRSpriggs last month; see Help:Reverting#Reverts do not cause edit conflicts. Okay, I'm glad we worked this out. See you, Jitse Niesen (talk) 08:44, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks

Hi! I'm just dropping a random thank you to your user page. I was checking copyright history of an image at the Oxford English Dictionary article. Noticed the very helpful illustration was courtesy of a photo you took in the eighties. The article now notes that wiki was accepted by the OED as an English word (March 2007), describing an internet phenomenon (and derived from Hawain). May your contributions bring you as much satisfaction as they provide education for the rest of us, cheers. Alastair Haines 21:06, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

You are most welcome. Thanks for the feedback! mfc 13:07, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi

A former Rexx programmer on VM/CMS, got to meet you at the 1996 LA symposium in Austin. T'is an honour to see you in here. --Jerome Potts 07:50, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi! Thanks for the kind words ... how time flies ... like the bats. mfc

Ghubar Table?

Thank you for your contribution to the Sand table article.

Please see Talk:Sand table#Ghubar Table?.

Softtest123 14:07, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Carpet Bombing

Hi,

I wasn't 'hedging' on the Battle of El Mazuco article because I don't think the issue is clear cut.

There is an argument that the first use of carpet bombing against a military target was either by the Italians during the Second Italo–Abyssinian War or at Guernica which contained two Basque battalions, but they bring up problems over what is carpet bombing, and what is a military target.

Hmm, I wasn't aware of the first of this, will check it out -- thanks. Guernica is infamous becuase it was considered a civilian target, so I don't see how it could be described as a military target. mfc (talk) 07:57, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

That's my reasoning.

And it's good that you've stopped the Battle of El Mazuco from being ignored.

:-))

Rsloch 11:21, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Speleotrove?

Hello Mfc. I notice you've been replacing some URLs to an IBM Hursley site with URLs that point to speleotrove.com, which appears to be self-published. Can you explain why the Hursley link is itself now going to Speleotrove? Was there some kind of an official transfer? Thanks, EdJohnston (talk) 05:31, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Hi, yes, this is an 'official' transfer. I have moved my decimal arithmetic site from www2.hursley.ibm.com to http://speleotrove.com/decimal/ because the former will shortly be shut down (it used to have much more on it, but with only the decimal material on it it really was not worth keeping it running). It was decided to move it off ibm.com because most of the material is non-IBM and does not conform to the ibm.com design, etc. mfc (talk) 09:45, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Decimal

How do the computation papers support the claim in Decimal. I do not personally have access to any to verify or deny the claims. Decimal is clearly the most common base used by humans today, this needs at most one ref. In fact the only possible way that someone could claim otherwise would be in computation where binary is ubiquitous. So why do we have computation references for this claim. Also, is there a particular reason to have a non-English source? Cheers, — sligocki (talk) 05:54, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Hi -- I think more than one reference is a good thing (and how would one decide between the classic books by Karpinski and Ifrah (the latter reference in in English btw))? But I agree that the computation references should be somewhere else in the article -- there should probably be a 'decimal computation' heading. Just left them where they are so they don't get lost... feel free to move them! mfc (talk) 11:42, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Ah .. just took another look at the article -- decimal computation is there, hiding in 'history/alternate bases'. I've made those paragraphs into a new section, and moved the refs there. Better, I think. mfc (talk) 11:54, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Ah, great, I completely support your change! Thanks, — sligocki (talk) 06:13, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

IEEE machine

Hello, have you ever heard of this? Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/IEEE machine It looks like you are still doing some useful edits to Wikipedia, the computer articles alas do need much work. Thanks. W Nowicki (talk) 19:44, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

News to me too :-). Have added a comment. mfc (talk) 12:44, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

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