Archived talk at User talk:Arpingstone/ArchiveMar3-2003

Is that better, Adrian? You were nearly there, you just needed to select the text that you wanted to archive from inside an edit window so that you got the codes that (e.g.) make links work as well as the plain text. (I've just blanked the rest of this page while I'm at it - it's all archived - so revert me if this isn't what you wanted to do.) Best -- Tannin 09:21 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC)

Greetings, it's Adrian. It's so obvious now you tell me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for doing it for me -- Arpingstone 09:25 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC)

My pleasure. - T

More graphics confusion from Nevilley

Hi Adrian, I's so glad you are doing all this work on pictures, it saves me having to use my own brain! :)

Now then:

why has the ARP-Standard-Large image changed from 800 to 750 wide?? I'm worried I am missing a point here. Enquiring minds want to know.

1. Can you please explain why you do the thing with the table being wider than the image? I am confused!
2. Does this relate to your complaint (in Bristol I think) about getting the text away from the image? And if so, how? And if not, what is that other issue? (More confusion you see!)
3. Somewhere, I saw someone suggest that you get a better reduction by using integral divisions of the original size, thus 1:2 reduction is better than 1:2.3456 or whatever. Do you think this could be right? I'm unconvinced, but then what do I know.

Well done with Bristol and all the Filton stuff by the way. I used to fly in Chipmunks up there (not driving, sadly, just an air cadet oik - you have control Sir)! And yes, I do like the way you embedded the SMR picture in the text, it's much much nicer. Actually, I'm going to slowly go round and redo a lot of the pics I did earlier because (1) embedded is better then running wild anyway and (2) even better than that is the small-on-page+click-for-large approach that you and I have been working with. Which is why I need to keep stealing your ideas to get it right! :) See for example Shanghai.

Thanks so much for all the sorting out and comprehending you are doing, it's a treat! Nevilley 10:57 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC)

And please see Talk:Bristol for more clarification sought, on Filton etc, thanks Nevilley 11:28 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC)

It's a pleasure to help because I'm very interested in making the standard of graphics presentation as high as possible on Wikipedia so don't hesitate to ask anything you like.

I think I may have explained elsewhere (your page?), and I think Martin has explained, that an exact division (3 to 1 in this case) does give a slightly less fuzzy thumbnail. See Martins explanation for why this may be. But we need not worry why, let's just always keep an exact ratio. That's why my 800 size is abandoned (unless you use 200 pixel thumbnails, which would be 4 to 1, but I think that's a little too small).

I put "width=270" in the coding because I was unhappy about the left positioned pics having not enough white space on their right hand side to separate them a little from the text. I had no idea what to do so I just chanced to try that width idea (thanks to PREVIEW anything can be tried out first). What I think is happening is that "width=270" is reserving a block of space but the 250 pic doesn't use it all so a nice white bar results on the right.

Similarly, with a right positioned pic, it keeps the pic a little clear of the right hand margin, which looks nicer that having the pic positioned hard to the right.

I have no idea how to create similar spaces to the left of pics, anyone know?

Got to stop here for a few hours, I'll come back to your questions later to see if I can tell you anything more.Best Wishes, Adrian -- Arpingstone 14:32 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC)

To make the excess space appear on the left instead of the right, use <td align="right"> instead of just <td>. Similarly, you can use <td align="center"> to get space on both sides. --Zundark 14:50 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC)

Zundark, thanks for replying but I think you may have misunderstood my question. I wasn't asking about moving pics to the left or to the centre or to the right but about putting a few millimetres of white space between the text and the pic. For a pic on the left, I have no problem, just make the "width=whatever" deliberately a little too big and white space appears (have a look at Amber). But when the pic is on the right of the screen I have a problem, see Pyrites where the words "in" and "and" are too close to the pic left hand edge. How do I increase that clearance by just a few millimetres? -- Arpingstone 19:04 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC)

Just as I explained above! :-) I've done this to Pyrites now. If you want even more separation, you can increase the table width or change the align="center" to align="right". --Zundark 19:25 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC)

Humble apologies, Zundark! I misread your center and right commands to mean that they would make gross shifts of the pic on the page. I should have tried it for myself before writing back. Many thanks, I think all my pic placement problems are now solved. For others reading this, my final (if anything ever is) pic placement code can be seen at Pyrite. Many thanks to all who've helped me -- Arpingstone 21:18 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC)

Nice work with the aircraft illustrations! I can see that someone is going to have to get busy writing more entries so you can supply pictures for them! Tannin

Re: Concorde - Pic has been on my computer for a year or so. Probably came from a Gov of France or Air France ad promo. I'm a complete idiot with pictures etc. so do whatever you think enhances the page. I have a photo of a friend's privately owned Lockheed TriStar. If you do an article and want a picture, I will post it. User:Black Widow

Here: I thought youd want to put your Japan Airlines boeing 747 photo in the article I wrote about JPAir, there on that link.

Thanks and God Bless you!

Antonio You Gotta get What You Want Martin

Sorry, Antonio but the picture from the Boeing 747 article ought not to be used in your Japan Airlines article because the colour scheme changed a few months ago, and my pic has the old scheme! What a pity!!

I won't be going back to London Heathrow (for photography) until this Iraq business is finished (I live about 180 km from the airport). Meanwhile, I'll try to get a pic off one of the internet airliner-photo sites. -- Arpingstone 17:46 Mar 17, 2003 (UTC)

Dear Arpingstone: Hi! Thanks for your reply! I surely appreciate what you will do for the Japan Airlines link. You and I will collaborate to make it a great page, worthy of Japan Airlines' name on it.

Pity about tbhat war ah? But the Unuited States has to do waht it has to do I guess. I just hope this doesnt bring more future tragedy.

Id like to visit my local airport more times myself. We have British Airways, Lufthansa and Aeromexico here but other than that its just a big building that hosts several domestic and cargo airlines but still, its better than nothing at all!

I reaad Heathrow has like 95 airlines....shame my favorite one, Delta Airlines, has to fly to Gatwick cause of regulations, but anyways, I guess Ill have to put it in my tourrist attarction list when I visit London..LOL

bUT i TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU ITS BETTER TO STAY AWAY For a while man..

Well once again thanks and God bless you! wWe'll make a great JP air page!

Sincerely yours Antonio The Baptist Version of Naseem Hamed Martin

Re: Seine map: My only concern was that your picture caption be centered. If you could scale the picture down by 10% it might make a great difference on my screen at least, as the text is very narrow and justification means wide spacing and a poor looking page that is hard to read. By the way, Wikipedia is an open site, you do not need anyone's permission to make changes as you see fit. User:Black Widow

OK, I understand. My screen is 1024 by 768 so I tried out 800 by 600 (is that your res?) I agree that the Seine map is then too big. So I've learnt something i.e. big pics, with flowed text, won't work on a lower res screen. I'll cut the map size down and use my usual method of a link to a bigger one. -- Arpingstone 17:06 Mar 18, 2003 (UTC)

The smaller pic is in place (and the schoolchildren have a choice of a bigger one to go with their projects!). -- Arpingstone 17:23 Mar 18, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks. Would you mind going to Pere Lachaise, Seine etc. and "Center" your text under the photos. Also, on the Chopin photo you don't need "in Pere Lachaise". It is presumed when on the Pere Lachaise page. Had you placed it on Chopin's personal page then the cemetery name should be specified. Thanks. User:Black Widow

Dear Arpingstone; Hello again! I have a proposition. I have a photo of an Aeroflot plane on my database which I obtained with permission from another person as well as some of some airplanes such as Mexicana,Prinair , etc. Problem is I still dont understand how to take them from my DB to anywehre in the Net. How about kif I send them over to you, you upload them in their respective pages, then I make sure that you and the photographer who gave me permission get their due credit?

And dont worry, Id only email you one at a time./:)

Thanks and God bless!

Sincerely yours,

• Antonio Circus Life Martin

OK, Antonio. let's try it. Send me one pic to start with. For a landscape format, I prefer 750 pixels, or more, wide (the picture's height doesn't matter). If it's a vertical format (i.e. portrait format) then I prefer 500 pixels or more wide.

I will do the picture credits, including your name, my name and the picture takers name (if you know it), something like this ......

"Picture used by permission of the photographer A.N Onymous and supplied by Antonio Martin. Prepared for Wikipedia by Adrian Pingstone in April 2003 and released to the public domain"

My e-mail address is .....
removearpingstone@yahoo.co.uk
(take away the word remove before you use it).

One last thing, I only work with good pics so I have the right to refuse to use the pic if I'm not happy with its quality. So only send me sharp pics, please. By the way, send a pic of yourself (any size), if you want, and I'll put it on your Profile page. I know you wanted to do that! Best Wishes, -- Adrian Pingstone 08:00 Apr 1, 2003 (UTC)

Hiya; left a reply on my talk page for you. Thanks! Hephaestos

Hi Adrian, I left an reply on my talk page talk page. Best regards from Hannover -- mkrohn 20:07 Apr 4, 2003 (UTC)

Hi Adrain, How are you? Me, sick as hell, I got a cold and I hate it. At first I thought I should see the doctor with all the things going on worldwide, but Im getting better thru...lol Anyways I wanted to tell you I tried that email you sent me to send you the Aeroflot photo I was authorized to use on the Aeroflot link by photographer Phillipe Bleus, but the address didnt work, I got the mail returned. Do you have another adress I can try?

Thanks and God bless you!!

Sincerely yours, Antonio There goes my meeting Bon Jovi Tomorrow Martin

Hi Antonio!

I've just checked my e-mail address and it works OK. A simple way to check your attachment is OK is to send it to yourself! If that works then the pic is attached properly and so I don't see why I wouldn't receive it! I do have another address, here it is .....

REMOVETHISBITarpingstone@hotmail.com

Best Wishes -- Adrian Pingstone 07:57 Apr 7, 2003 (UTC)

Hi Adrian. I replied on my talk page. I can see that I'm soon going to have to write some new aircraft entries so that you have enough places to put your illustrations! Keep up your great work! Cheers -- Tannin

Wotcher Adrian! Nice one wrt the Shanghai picture captions. Regards Nevilley 20:06 Apr 14, 2003 (UTC)

Hi again, Adrian. Just a random thought. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I intend to write an entry on the aerodynamics of bird flight one day. (Not this week!) I never tire of watching even the most mundane, "ordinary" birds in action, and marvelling at their perfect adaptation to their tasks: the wonderful, ever-flexible, infinitly adjustable "flaps" and "leading-edge slats" and "low-drag winglets" that they have; the way they adjust their camber at will; the designed-for-the-specific-task aerodynamics of the eagle (747 shape), the albatross (more like a U-2 or a Friendship), the swallow (a spitfire or an F-16) and most of all that incredible low-speed acrobat, the Grey Fantail (a feathered Pitts Special if ever I saw one - with a variable geometry tailplane bigger than his wing). Anyway, if and when I do get around to starting it, I wonder if you would mind looking over it, as though I know my birds and aircraft reasonably well, I am bound to make a few howlers. Best. Tannin

Certainly, I'll be pleased to do that. I look forward to reading it one day. Sadly, I live in a nearly bird-free area. I'm in the middle of a town of 30,000 people and all I've seen in my garden in the last month (mid-spring) is blackbird, thrush, robin, sparrow, magpie, greenfinch, blue tit and coal tit, and just one pigeon. All are very common.

Have you seen my request on the Village Pump for a definitive statement (some hope!) on the picture coding? Is it to be my Table stuff or is it div and CSS and all that stuff? It's all a mystery to me! I just want someone to write a Standard Wikipedia Picture Code that we'll all then use. I only put the message on the Pump a few hours ago so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some helpful person to make a full reply.

The local evening paper here in Bristol is starting a petition to send to British Airways for them to let Filton have a Concorde. It would be magic to have one on display here. Best Wishes, Adrian
Adrian Pingstone 17:16 Apr 15, 2003 (UTC)

Dear Adrian; Hi! How are you? Pleasure to communicate with my London Contact once again, so hows things down your side? I was hit with a virus last week, I didnt feel like roses and wine, but Im better now. I got plane models of Lufthansa (a JU-52) and SAS an A340. That made me feel much better you better believe it.

Anyways I tried that other email you gave me and it still gets returned to me. Im gonna try from Hotmail soon then. We'll see then.

Meanwhile, read the article I wrote about the Deaths in Ciudad Juarez. It tears me apart everytime I read about these 360 women found murdered, many of them prostitutes, but also many sisters, daughters, mothers, and all of them human beings. I wrote it because I want to say that way that they should find the person who's making them die and to dedictae the page to them too.

well, thanks and God bless you!!

Sincerely yours, Antonio Be Wild, not a Criminal!! Martin

Hello Adrian, great work you're doing with your pictures. I am mainly active at the german wikipedia and would like to copy some of your mineral pics. Do you have a version of the picture at gemstone without the english mineral titles? You may see some of your pictures at de:Bernstein (Edelstein) and de:Pyrit, more is to come! Regards de:Benutzer:chd.

Hi! I'm glad you can make use of my pics, please use as many as you like. They are all listed in http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Arpingstone . I've uploaded the pic you particularly wanted, look for gem.pebbles.800pix.jpg in the English Wikipedia upload list which is http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Imagelist. Note that I left a word out of one of the titles; the Lace Agate should be Blue Lace Agate. I can't believe I didn't spot that before I uploaded it! I took the pic by laying the pebbles on my flat bed Epson scanner and running the scanner, takes a nice photo doesn't it!! So a camera is not always needed!

Best Wishes [[User:Arpingstone|Adrian Pingstone]~] 20:27 May 2, 2003 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for the quick response! This is really a beautiful scan! I already thought of placing it as it is, putting the translations in the caption. But now wait an hour or so .... (de:Edelstein). Greetings from munich! --chd 21:41 May 2, 2003 (UTC)

Greetings from Bristol, England. Where did you learn your excellent English writing style? I just wanted to tell you that I have recently changed my picture code to a Wikipedia-recommended style so I no longer use the code you see in my gem pictures. To see the new code have a look at Paul Gauguin.

I'm glad you like my gemstone picture. I too was astonished at the quality of the scan because the scanner cost only 80 UK pounds.

Adrian Pingstone 22:37 May 2, 2003 (UTC)

Hello Adrian, in that very moment I finished transferring your gemstone pics to the german Wikipedia! Personally I like best the pig carved out of obsidian (besides the tumbled gemstones of course :-)! Impatiently I am waiting for more. Unfortunately I'm not at all into aeroplanes, but I'll mention your page, if you don't mind.

Greetings from sunny munich Christian 6. May 00:50 local time (ups)

PS: don't mention my style, even in german I don't have a good one, but Wikipedia is an excellent place for improving it!

Re the 2002 in sports template. I don't think we should show our love and admiration for Tiger Woods by lumping things together. Perhaps it is best to show the major tournaments in the order they are played. Also, as I said on the Village Pump, I can't possibly handle the work to do 100 years without creating a simple template. Thanks. If you have an alternative suggestion, let me know Jacques Delson

Hi Adrian,

re the images on Irish Houses of Parliament, unfortunately italics is a disaster because one browser in one version (Internet Explorer of course, who else!) turns them particularly when small into barely legible spiderly writing. I put the captions in in the way they are because they were the only way I could get didn't produce this effect. As to alternation, I've moved some but that too is highly problematical because some images interfere with headlines. That problem occurs on some versions of netscape because it does not recognise the <small></small> command and so text laid out as small which work perfectly on most browsers grow to full size on some versions of netscape, throwing everything all over the place and indenting some headlines, as well as crashing into other images if they are anyway close. (In putting on a lot of images with captions lately I have run into those problems over and over and over again and had to avoid the practice. Unless we get everyone to collectively bin IE and netscape - and oh god I wish they would. Of all the browsers I have used they are by far the worst! - italics (which I love using in professional documents I lay out) is a problem and alternation of pictures needs to be used very sparingly, and not with the <small></small> commands unless there are a clear two paragraphs between a left indent and the next headline. Even then all sorts of additional problems occur. I found these problems when using IE, then Netscape as a replacement. (I now use safari which is 100 times better!) I thought it was just a problem with my version of them, but others reported that different versions also produced the same problems. For some reason, it seems on netscape the newer the version the more it tends to screw up wiki images, or so I was told when I mentioned my problems. Older versions seemed not to have a problem. As one person joked, it seems bizarre that in every version of that damned browser they produce, things get worse not better! ÉÍREman 19:28 May 11, 2003 (UTC)

Sounds like you're going to have lots of aircraft pictures to add after last weekend, eh? :) -- John Owens 09:00 16 May 2003 (UTC)

There won't be many aircraft articles to illustrate because lots of the aircraft I photographed last weekend at Kemble (in south west England) have no Wikipedia entry. I took 360 pics (!) at the Kemble Great Vintage Fly-in Weekend where four hundred British vintage light aircraft were on display. The first one I've added is a Piper Super Cub, look at The New Piper Aircraft, which was in a hangar at the time. I used up two 128 megabyte Smart Media cards on my digital camera, each card holds 180 pictures. Thanks for your interest, Best Wishes, Adrian Pingstone 15:03 16 May 2003 (UTC)

I think it's perfectly reasonable, Adrian. The distinction between a DC-9 and an MD-88, as you know, is more semantic than real, and as I recall the text of the entry takes the sensble line that they should all be regarded as one big family of aircraft. So go right ahead! Nice to hear that you have lots of nice new photographs. Maybe I can get my head out of the mammals long enough to write you a type entry or two to put them in. Cheers -- Tannin

Woops! I thought I had written a great long article to go there! Must be thinking of DC-8. No matter, the entry will take that line, once I get around to writing it. Tannin

Nice picture (as always). I have always thought that the DC-9 was one of the best looking commercial aircraft ever made. Nothing unusual or radical, they just got the proportions exactly right somehow. Tannin

The Peacock's Display

Just saw the large peacock photo by you. I've never seen peacocks so close in the zoos. This photo of yours is doubtlessly the most professional I've seen on WP so far. Because of this photo, I plan to translate the peacock article into Chinese. --Menchi 10:17 25 May 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for your kind comment, much appreciated. I am just an amateur photographer with only a mid range digital camera but I have a firm rule that I will only put my best photos on Wikipedia and only if I have a large version as well. Nowadays, I do the big one 750 pixels wide so that an 800 pixel wide screen is not overwhelmed. The little one I do at 300 pixels wide so that text can flow down the side. The peacock was roaming free on an island in Poole harbour in south western England and was displaying to a female (not to me!) Best Wishes Adrian Pingstone 10:44 25 May 2003 (UTC)

Replied to your query on my talk page as requested. jimfbleak 10:37 27 May 2003 (UTC)