User talk:Lonny: Difference between revisions

(see also User_talk:Lonny/Archive for many past discussions)

Interwiki map

I've requested Appropedia to be added to the interwiki map:

• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Interwiki_map#Appropedia
• http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Interwiki_map#Appropedia

--Singkong2005 ^talk 22:37, 3 August 2006 (PDT)

Great work. I made a change at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Interwiki_map#Appropedia . --Lonny 10:47, 5 August 2006 (PDT)

btw, how do we change the interwiki map on Appropedia? I've noticed that wikia links don't work properly, e.g. wikia:ecovillage. --Singkong2005 ^talk 11:36, 5 August 2006 (PDT)

Wikia should be fixed now. See Appropedia:To_do#Interwiki_Linking for more (techy unnecessary) information. --Lonny 12:52, 5 August 2006 (PDT)

Thanks!--Singkong2005 ^talk 23:35, 5 August 2006 (PDT)

Homepages & URLs

Another question for when you're back and indulging your wiki addiction in a more satisfying way... (though I can imagine being on a boat in Mexico would be a great break from it, to an extent).

I'm planning to make a kind of homepage, or portal for all my various pages, collaborations and interests. My preferred option is to do it here, at User:Singkong2005/Chris Watkins, as it's on one of the two sites where I'm most active; it's MediaWiki so formatting & linking is familiar and easy; you've made it clear, I think, that personal stuff of this kind is welcome here; and I'm notified if anyone edits pages on my watchlist (unlike some of the Wikimedia projects) so I'll know when people have left messages or changed the page.

I figure people will normally find it from a link, or by googling. However, it would be nice to have a url I could put on a business card or jot down from memory when someone asks (not a deciding factor, but it would be nice). This url, http://www.appropedia.org/index.php?title=User:Singkong2005/Chris_Watkins, isn't really good for that - hard to remember, easy to mistype. Any ideas?

I'm not sure why some wikis use /wiki/ in their urls, others use index.php?title= or something like that, while others use nothing - but simplifying that part is one thing that would make it easier to jot down any specific address on the website, just like I can type en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_technology from memory. Is it something that's easy to change - and worth changing, in your view? Keep in mind I'm not a technical person in that way - I just ask questions :). --Singkong2005 ^talk 01:05, 5 August 2006 (PDT)

I think Appropedia is a great site for this type of thing. One of the missions of Appropedia is to provide a place for networking between active members of the AT and SD community.

I like that... --Singkong2005 ^talk 11:27, 5 August 2006 (PDT)

It is definitely worth changing to shorter names, but we can not change it until we change servers. We need to change servers soon anyways due to the slow loading of pages. I have a server in mind, sustainable hosting. I will work on it more the beginning of next month. Once we have a new server we can make short titles, see Appropedia:To_do#For_Staff. Here are two less than desirable bandaids:

1. http://tinyurl.com/mr5ta
2. We could make an html redirect from the short name to your wikipage, and when the server changes, your new short name could go in its place.

Sounds great. Next month is fine, but thanks for the tinyurl.

Perhaps we could allow people to make redirects from a U: prefix - I don't imagine that's a problem. I could use U:CJW. It might be a good idea to lay out two or three guidelines to avoid problems later: 1. People get to keep the redirect once they've claimed it. 2. If there's a possibility of ambiguity, another person can request a dab on your page - e.g. I might need one day to have a note saying something like U:CJW redirects here. For Clyde Wilkins use U:CAW

btw I did a bit of editing on the page today... it looked okay in Opera (as a first draft), but now I see the "middle" bit gets pushed to the bottom in Firefox. I still have a few things to learn about formatting... --Singkong2005 ^talk 11:27, 5 August 2006 (PDT)

Nice template

I like the flurry of work you've done in the last 24 hrs. At first I thought the template {{tlc}} was duplicating another one from Wikipedia, but actually yours is better than anything I could find there, and I suggested it as an alternative if Wikipedians want it ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_talk:Cl#Cat_.E2.86.92_Category here). Good work. --Singkong2005 ^talk 23:35, 5 August 2006 (PDT)

rollback feature

Hi Lonny,

I've noticed that the rollback link isn't available when I view pages such as "recent changes" . Not that I need it - just curious.

btw, I've been doing some categorization, but there's still some categories which need attending to, but I'm not sure where to put them in the category structure - See Special:Wantedcategories; perhaps also check the links at Category:Appropedia maintenance#Help maintain the category structure and see what you think about them.

Hope Mexico has been good for you. --Singkong2005 ^talk 07:55, 10 September 2006 (PDT)

Hi Singkong,

This feature should be available to you as a Sysop now. I believe that rollback is only available on pages with multiple editors, as the feature rolls back all the changes made by an editor/vandaliser. Can you point me to a page on which it is not working for you? Thank you --Lonny 19:40, 1 October 2006 (PDT)

Please add WikiIndex to interwiki map

I had a look at Appropedia:To_do#Interwiki_Linking and wasn't sure what was meant by "Login to phpMyAdmin" - what and where is this? I gather you are the only user here who is an experienced user of phpMyAdmin?

In the meantime, could you please add:

WikiIndex http://wikiindex.com/$1

Thanks --Singkong2005 ^talk 20:45, 20 September 2006 (PDT)

I will add it to the WikiIndex soon. Currently I am 60+ hours into trying to switch servers, which is proving to be very difficult (read I am going crazy). Hopefully I will be done soon... then on more rewarding wikiwork. --Lonny 21:18, 20 September 2006 (PDT)

Thanks - stay sane! --Singkong2005 ^talk 22:20, 20 September 2006 (PDT)

I had a feeling that was the reason that Lonny had gone slightly quiet, and I stepped back to make some room. Partly this came from a side project where I'm supporting my wife's company's search for an Exchange hosting service. Man, I had no idea how hard that effort would be. Exchange hosting is, I believe, similar to wiki hosting; a little off the beaten path from basic web hosting. Lots of red herrings, etc. I truly appreciate your effort, Lonny! If there is any research or other useful effort I can apply in support of your work, let me know. --Curtbeckmann 20:16, 21 September 2006 (PDT)

Thank you for your offer of help Curt. I am working with a new server now, DreamHost. They give lots of control and do most of what we need. I quickly was able to get a new version of MediaWiki running on DreamHost, but unfortunately found myself in the Catch22 of needing to upgrade to the new version of MediaWiki before transfering the files... but the new version of MediaWiki requires PHP5, and my old host is still on PHP4... and there are many other complication slowing down the work-around to the Catch22, such as the database expanding incorrectly. I will figure it out soon, and I am very glad and hopeful about the new host. They have a money back gaurantee, in case it does not work out well. I will tell you more as it develops over the next few days. Sorry for the venting. Thank you for the support. --Lonny 20:35, 21 September 2006 (PDT)

Sounds very, very frustrating. I know nothing about this stuff, so I'm not sure there's any point in offering help, but let me know if there's something I can do. Hope it goes well. --Singkong2005 ^talk 21:40, 21 September 2006 (PDT)

It is DONE! Of course there is some more little things to do over the next few days... but the difficult part seems to be done. The speed is incredibly improved. The security is higher. My brain is soup and I need to get a tech person. Thank you all for your kind support and enjoy the upgrade. --Lonny 02:37, 22 September 2006 (PDT)

Amazing! You rock! You're right, this new server is quite snappy! Some questions: 1) How do you want me to pay? 2) Is it "safe" to make edits now, or would it be better (kinder) to wait a day or so? 3) I take it the URL is not yet fully stable (with respect to updating links at my blog)? Thanks for all you brain-liquifying diligence! I can't believe you pulled it off so smoothly! --Curtbeckmann 07:03, 22 September 2006 (PDT)

Thanks, I am glad that you find it snappy as well.

1. A check would work, or if you have a BankofAmerica account, a transfer would work. I am also open to online solutions. What works best for you? I appreciate the flexibility, I probably should have had you pay directly for the new host, but it was late and I was jaded thinking that I would probably cancel that host as well.
2. It is safe to make edits now (although you may get an annoying popup about google maps api for a few days, until all the DNS pointers propogate fully).
3. The URL is close to stable, but it is somewhat regional right now. Two more days, should do it.

Thank you all for your support. I couldn't (and wouldn't have tried) without it. Singkong2005 and Curtbeckmann thank you for your online support, knowing you were there definitely helped. And thank you to all the readers that complained about the speed... It was quite enheartening to know that people use Appropedia enough to complain about it :) Now on to short URLs, interwiki tables [1], google maps api, cite functions and TeX and other fun. --Lonny 10:54, 22 September 2006 (PDT)

Well done Lonny - I didn't expect it to happen so soon. And Curt - thanks for stepping up and giving financial support.

btw, when we move to short URLs, my experience suggests that the old form of URLs will still work, (so old links from other sites will still find the correct page). The link you gave - short URLs - suggests it's a lot more complex than I thought, with perhaps some potential downsides. So if it's decided to not go down this route, that's understandable. (Though if the Wikimedia projects do it, I'd think it can't be that problematic.) --Singkong2005 ^talk 20:02, 22 September 2006 (PDT)

The interwiki table is finally fully up-to-date, thanks to Goodsignal and a late night. For example WikiIndex:Appropedia should now work. Thank you for your patience. We should now be able to keep it up-to-date. --Lonny 04:16, 15 October 2006 (PDT)

Canonization?

As I prepare to aggressively promote Appropedia, I've been thinking about the various compelling advantages that this site has to offer. One of them is "the absolutely necessary presence of a committed, wise, experienced, patient and supportive SysOp (or better yet, collection of SysOps), knowledgeable in things wiki and field tested sustainable technology, without which no wiki has a chance". I nearly used the word "saintly", but not sure it will resonate with the audience as much as I would like.

There is some chance that I'll tone down the accolades, but I do regard you (and Chris, whether he is a SysOp or not) as gifts of the highest order to the community.

Thanks for all you do.

--Curtbeckmann 14:30, 1 October 2006 (PDT)

Singularizing categories

Hi Lonny,

It's great to see such a lot happening on Appropedia - more of a critical mass, a few issues resolved, and a lot of progress being made.

I posted a question about singularizing categories at the policy discussion page. Cheers --Singkong2005 · talk 16:06, 15 October 2006 (PDT)

FYI: osafa.org

Hi Lonny, I stumbled accross Appropedia only recently, it's great! I had a similar idea in regards to sustainable architecture and started to work on it: Open Source Architecture for Africa. It's somehow in between Appropedia and, say, a SourceForge for buildings, with a close focus on Africa. I will try to study Appropedia and learn from it, as soon as time permits. Cheers, --Helge.at 06:29, 31 October 2006 (PST)

fyi: FAB@home

fyi: http://128.253.249.235/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page (via) --Helge 02:43, 2 November 2006 (PST)

Very cool. --Lonny 03:06, 2 November 2006 (PST)

Logo progress

I think we're very close on logo. One more round? It would sure be cool to close on it! --CurtB 06:41, 3 November 2006 (PST)

Revisit licensing

I took the liberty of moving this conversation to Appropedia talk:Copyrights#Revisit licensing. --Singkong2005 · talk 20:07, 20 November 2006 (PST)

message from anna

I would appreciate tags that point other users to my pages for language editting... how can I add this? I will try to organise the schematic of the Night Reader... thanks for your motivation :-) --Demotech (anna) 13:22, 4 November 2006 (PST)

Hi Lonny and Anna. I took the liberty of creating a new category, Category:Articles asking spelling and grammar review, which can be added to articles to mark them as in need of assistance. (I also marked Night Reader as being in the category.) I created some instructions for that category and listed it under Appropedia:Community portal for helpful sorts.

I expect that some kind and anonymous soul will help out, otherwise Anna will have to wait for one of us surly administrators :-) --CurtB 19:34, 4 November 2006 (PST)

Hi Lonny, With the Robe/Rope pump that was a typo... I mixed it up... The location of Learning from Poverty is fine. Thanks for looking after my pages... :-) --Demotech (anna) 05:43, 17 November 2006 (PST)

Hello Lonny, aahrg. I uploaded a photo for the article in Category: Active citizenry which is way to huge... How can I delete it? Or better, how can I make it smaller? I cannot use the programm "Easy Thumbnails" since I dont have windows... --Demotech (anna) 08:13, 27 November 2006 (PST)

Hi Anna,

Thank you for noticing the offending file size and letting me know. I deleted the image.

As for image resizing: Which Operating System do you use? If it is linux, do you have ImageMagick or Gimp? If it is Machintosh, which version? --Lonny 09:45, 27 November 2006 (PST)

I'm using mac OS X 10... --Demotech (anna) 11:06, 27 November 2006 (PST)

Hi Anna,

Sorry for the slow response. Check out the following link about how to use the Automator in OS X - http://www.playingwithwire.com/2006/11/resizing-images-from-comfort-of-your.html , let me know if that does not work for you, and I will create my own tutorial. Did you see the proposed edit that someone made to Learning from poverty? Good luck, --Lonny 12:11, 28 November 2006 (PST)

It worked out! It's embarassing how little I know about my computer... muchas gracias! I wonder who edited Learning from poverty ... maybe someone from the studentworkforce joined? I gave an introduction to appropedia last week... --Demotech (anna) 13:58, 28 November 2006 (PST)

Nudge, nudge

Hi, Lonny. I know you're perpetually swamped, but I'll nag anyway. Please prioritize some attention on the vision / mission effort :-) Thanks, --CurtB 12:39, 9 November 2006 (PST)

Porting, historical link templates, “Beyond Dams” stuff

See the conversation that has developed at Curt's page, on porting and templates (following from recent emails). --Singkong2005 · talk 08:08, 13 November 2006 (PST)

Recent changes patrol... change your profile?

If we're going to do the recent changes patrol (I just signed up myself), I would suggest that we all set our profiles to "mark my edits as patrolled", an option available to sysops. (Chris and I have already done this.) Alternatively, perhaps we should all CLEAR this option? But since we do the most edits (seems like) we can make the patrolling job a lot more realistic if we mark our edits as patrolled and focus on others... What say you? --CurtB 15:36, 13 November 2006 (PST)

Biodigesters / Anaerobic digesters

Hey, Lonny, I've been following this biodigester thread that I encountered recently on looking at the http://www.AIDG.org (actually, http://www.AIDG.net). It looks like great technology, popular in many places (UK and Europe mostly, but also Cuba and East Asia), that is fairly feasible to implement in rural areas, but I haven't found a good how-to, and haven't found the right site to submit a "can we port your stuff" request. I mention it here because it seems like the kind of thing that might be part of CCAT or whatever. See also wikipedia:biodigester, and here is a link to something that might be relevant:

http://web.archive.org/web/20041205105156/www.ce.ufl.edu/activities/waste/wddndx.html

I still plan to keep poking around on this technology, as well as other technologies that are references at the AIDG.net site, but wanted to mention this for your "lesson planning" benefit :-) --CurtB 15:24, 14 November 2006 (PST)

Okay, so just found a great source of content, I think: http://www.habmigern2003.info/biogas/Baron-digester/Baron-digester.htm

It's a little old (2003?), but if I can get hold of Gerry Baron, I'll ask permission. --CurtB 15:38, 14 November 2006 (PST)

Just though I'd mention, I'm very interested in this topic but haven't had the time to really research it. Did some Googling once, and found some info on plastic bag digesters (in Vietnam I think) which sounds like an elegant solution. I also didn't see anything very authoritative. It would be worth asking permaculture people - PermaWiki is pretty inactive, but there might be lurkers around if we ask a question. Or doing a search in Google Books. --Singkong2005 · talk 05:25, 15 November 2006 (PST)