User talk:Milton Beychok

 Where Milt lives it is approximately: 12:20

I just archived the last batch of postings

That is why this page looks rather empty at this moment. Milton Beychok 07:32, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Ideal gas law

First, I hope you liked your birthday presents!

Second, you might be amused at how convenient Ideal Gas Law has been at the moment. It's something that I hadn't used recently enough to remember that I knew it. I have a friend who has asked me to rig a carbon dioxide generator for a closed hydroponic greenhouse, and, for weird logistical reasons, can't use either a carbon dioxide cylinder or a propane-driven generator. So, I'm looking at a possible Rube Goldberg contraption derived from a hot chocolate dispenser, which meters calcium carbonate powder into acid. I can do the stoichiometry to know how many moles I get, but now I have to figure out how to convert moles generated into ppm in a specific volume at constant temperature. People are looking at me strangely as I walk around muttering pV = nRT. Howard C. Berkowitz 18:05, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Milton, maybe you should move the approval date to later to give people a chance to read it. Feel free to change anything you want; after all I did that too. --Paul Wormer 17:07, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Paul, you are right. I will add a week to the date. Milton Beychok 17:47, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Milton do you know why Daniel is dragging his feet?--Paul Wormer 08:11, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually, if you look at the History pages for each of the subpages (Main Article, Related Links and Bibliography), he has added most, if not all, that he said was needed ... and I have added an External Links subpage which he also said was needed. I am waiting until tomorrow (Jan. 14) and then I will change my Approval Nomination version of the article to the latest version of the article ... and ask both you and Daniel to add your names to mine as nominators on the Metadata page. I think he will respond at that time. Milton Beychok 08:54, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

The topic is just too far off my current research focus to justify working on it while I'm in the lab. So I will need another weekend to finish this off. --Daniel Mietchen 09:33, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi, Daniel. Do you want me wait until after next weekend with updating the Approval nomination of Ideal gas law? I am quite willing to do so, if that is what you want. Milton Beychok 09:43, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I have already extended the deadline until Jan 26. --Daniel Mietchen 09:48, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Daniel. It is now 2:00 AM in California and I must get to bed. Good night. Milton Beychok 09:54, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Raising inline TeX

Milton, I saw that you raised/lowered LaTeX, but see my comment here: http://forum.citizendium.org/index.php/topic,2470.0.html --Paul Wormer 08:00, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Couple of things---user, disambiguation (what a combination)

Yes, I saw the new user and put a note on his page. I hope I don't scare off, both from too much information about CZ and also a question I asked him: it's torn down now, but there used to be an Army Intelligence facility that looked exactly, to me, like the warehouse where the bureaucrats stored the Found Ark at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Both of us worked there at one time or another. Whether that resemblance occurred to anyone else has always been a question in my mind.

Your points about conflicting definition in terms of art, with air dispersion versus other disciplines, is an excellent one. If there ever is a general CZ science and engineering FAQ, it quite likely should contain "disambiguate early and often". You thought about this issue early. Richard Pinch, a prolific new contributor, has been putting in quite a few articles in mathematics, and only after I'd see them go up might I realize that even if there was no entry, the term was used differently in computer science. Eventually, though, he defined "division" in mathematical terms, and I had already put in an entry, which I had disambiguated after a little thought, about "division (military)". Thinking further about it, I realize that while I defined "brigade" in military terms, it is also a term in French restaurant organization.

It would be at the level of MediaWiki code, I suppose, but it would be good if there were a software check if a new article title might conflict with another usage of the word, and would check for any use of "division", either with or without parenthesized disambiguation.

Anyway, it strikes me as wise to create disambiguation entries early for the terms you suggested had problems at The Other Place. Howard C. Berkowitz 13:47, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

NMR approval

Hi Milt, please see this. Thanks, D. Matt Innis 02:22, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

I just picked up your name for the list of Chemistry editors - your name was first on the list! I did not find specific instructions for sending an article for approval, so I just tried editing the metadata page. I thought putting someones name on the ToApproval list would send the page to the person for approval. I removed your name for the template as requested.Sekhar Talluri 04:55, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Ideal gas law

Got it! Thanks for the good work.. and the reminder D. Matt Innis 00:55, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Your single opinion.....

.... is a pretty good one. I'll code it into the subpages template so that the workgroups are visible at the top of the page. Is that a good compromise? Chris Day 05:04, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I made a start. Let me know what types of changes would make it more useful. We can link to practically anything you want in any format you wish. Chris Day 05:48, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Mucho thanks, Chris. The top of the page is fine and so is the smaller size font. I don't want to be picky, but I would prefer them to be linked to "All articles" rather than "Approved articles". And now, I've got to get to bed. All those balls at the Inauguration last night wore me out! Milton Beychok 06:20, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Sandbox?

Milton, while searching for info about how to create a sandbox I saw that you had set them up for lots of new users. Could you please tell me how I can set one up for myself? Or can only constables do that? Thanks. Bruce M.Tindall 22:50, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I just created a sandbox for you. Enjoy! Milton Beychok 23:35, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Bruce M.Tindall 00:38, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Stumbled on these...

(CC) Photo: Sebastiano Pitruzzello
Refinery at Priolo Gargallo, Sicily.

(CC) Photo: Sebastiano Pitruzzello
Refinery at Priolo Gargallo, Sicily.

..are they useful to you? Chris Day 04:44, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Chris, I'm fairly sure that I can find a use for them. Milton Beychok 05:09, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

AN-

I emailed Eric, and, perhaps this afternoon, will have time to read some of the TTC-56 material he cited and jog him with some ideas. In addition, I remembered I have another colleague who is an inactive Citizen, but is an Army electronics type; I'll drop him an email as well. Howard C. Berkowitz 17:31, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Approval of AN-

Howard, Eric posted that paragraph we've been waiting for on the AN-1 Talk page. Could you please work that into the article somehow? I have extended the Approval date by one day to Jan. 28 and I will change the version to be approved just as soon as you have worked his material into the article. Thanks, Milton Beychok 09:07, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

(to be repeated on both our user pages) Think of this, as well, as a mini-meeting of the active editors of the engineering workgroup.

Milt, as soon as I have ingested a bit more coffee, I shall do so. Not complaining; it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I assumed he was going to explain a bit about it as a terminology example in the specific article context. (i.e., in "TTC-56 (V)1", the first means that it's movable from fixed site to fixed site while the second T means..."). Incorrectly anticipating, I wrote a developing article pn the AN/TTC-56, and also some of the system engineering concepts that don't have AN- designations, such as the Warfighter Information Network–Tactical, into which it fits. I'm going to use his language as more of a case study in AN-, but as a different sort of case study that also explains AN- systems can be components in systems-of-systems.

As an aside here, I'm talking about the general Engineering subspecialty of Systems Engineering, of a military flavor. That raises a question to you: to what extent do modern chemical engineers work with people called systems engineers, who look especially at the control systems, but also, say, the logistical interfaces between the fixed manufacturing plant and transportation engineering? In some respects, I think of systems engineering as something common to all engineering disciplines, but, especially in military context, it is the field of ensuring compatibility among subsystems belonging to different engineering disciplines. While, for example, a mining engineer might look at an oil well, a transportation/civil/mechanical engineer at the means of getting the crude to the refiner, and a chemical engineer at refining it, a system engineer might be looking at the handoffs and interface standards. Many large military development projects are run by systems engineering centers, either government or context. I think there's an article here and may start a stub today, along with some military aspects including "transformation", the conscious movement between generations of interconnected systems.

As yet another aside, as I get more into some of the military systems engineering, I'm going to explore something that might yet be a means of getting support for nonspecialist engineering editors. I do a number of things as what might be called an engineering journalist, so while I might be talking to the "public affairs" arm of a manufacturer or integrator, those people are accustomed to inquiries from the trade press, not general news media, and can be willing to do fact-checking. In many cases, they will do an email response, or sometimes one by phone, but, if for no other reason than to avoid the appearance they are manipulating the article, they don't want that published. Now, for what I'm going to suggest, something of an honor system is involved, which is also one of the reasons I'm hesitant to have instant editors that start ruling without much experience with the CZ process. Hypothetically, if I asked for approval on some military systems engineering, and forwarded either an email from the technical public affairs people, or wrote an email documenting the telephone call and giving point of contact, would that give you more confidence? Wearing my engineering journalist hat, I would consider it completely normal for my publishing-type editor to make random quality calls just to such a point of contact as I mention; I'm literally now hoping to start on a project where I will do a series of specialized computer articles for a broader yet specialized electronics trade magazine, and I'd certainly expect the editor might verify some of my interviews. Howard C. Berkowitz 13:04, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Air pollution dispersion terminology due for approval today

Got it! Congratualtions and keep them coming! D. Matt Innis 18:53, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

The draft page links (at the top) should be functional now. Chris Day 03:13, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

The metadata....

....is at Template:U.S._Department_of_Commerce/Metadata. Is that the page you get as blank? Chris Day 22:10, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

It seems to be okay now. Before, when I clicked on Talk and then clicked on the Metadata link, I got a blank page with an instruction box telling me to recreate the template. Maybe that happened to me while you were still cleaning up the mess I made. Anyhow, Thanks once more, Milton Beychok 22:23, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Move/rename

Just yesterday I discovered this article that lays out the simple 3,278-step procedure for moving an article, its subpages, all their subordinate Talk pages, and the metadata template: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Using_the_Subpages_template#Moving_an_article_with_subpages .

Seems as if there's got to be a better way, but apparently there isn't.

What I did with Rodgers & Hamm. was somewhat simpler but I was surprised that it worked. There was an old (pre-subpages-days) article called "List of R&H musicals"; I simply moved it to "R&H/Catalogs/Musicals" and, amazingly, a main article was turned into a subpage of a different main article. Bruce M.Tindall 01:22, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I had also read that 3,278 step procedure. Problem is that it was last revised in April, 2008 and there has been a Mediawiki software update since then ... and I don't think the procedure in that article will work now. But maybe I'll give it a try. Thanks for your response. Milton Beychok 01:35, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Milt, see this discussion on my talk page archive. From what I understand - Click on the move tab of the article after putting in the new name and perhaps a reason, notice that below the save tab there is a checkbox to allow you to move all related subpages (check that), click save and then go to the metadata page and rename it (this is different than the old rules). I won't guarantee that it won't blow up, but I will help you fix it if it does! If it works, let's update those instructions. D. Matt Innis 01:52, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the pointer. This indeed sounds much easier. It also may explain why my most recent cluster-move attempt resulted in a train wreck that Constable Peirce kindly cleaned up. Bruce M.Tindall 01:58, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Matt: The procedure you proposed blows up big time! Once I moved the main article and subpages, then I could no longer find/access the Metadata template to revise it and move it.

Fortunately, in anticipation of that happening, I had written down the url of the Metadata template and the url of the Talk page ... so I was able to access them and to finish the move okay. But that is a tortuous way of doing it. We really need a new, simpler method. Chris is working on it and maybe he will succeed soon. Milton Beychok 06:03, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

I deleted the redirect. Sorry for the blow up, but Chris will get it... so you think that moving the metadata first wont work? D. Matt Innis 06:27, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

I'll try that next. Milton Beychok 06:31, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

See my notes on Matt's talk page. It's almost there. Chris Day 08:20, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Eigenvalue

Milt, I'll write the definition later today. With regard to nabla (aka del): IE7, Google chrome, and Firefox show it perfectly. Maybe it is time for you to upgrade? Hayford is quite enthusiastic about Google chrome, I use mainly Firefox, but have these other two installed as well. You could even go straight to: IE8

Incidentally, this nabla reminds me of an experience I had at WP. I once wrote "nabla" (an Assyrian harp, term was introduced by the very Anglo Saxon Peter Tait) and I got a very antisemitic reaction to the extent that Jews want to turn everything into something Jewish, even math symbols. One should write "del" according to this person.

The spherical harmonic pictures I made by Matlab (a numerical, commercial, program package; I used to teach Matlab to chemistry sophomores).--Paul Wormer 07:02, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

I just bought a new computer and specifically had them install IE6 in it, because I like it much better than IE7 or IE8. Why? I guess at my age, I just resist change. IE6 is like an old pair of shoes to me ... comfortable. I guess I will just have to get along without nabla. Is there any way to just use a LaTex nabla $\nabla$ instead of the HTML version?

Your above comment about an antisemetic reaction reminds me. In reading the article Hermann Goering, you mention his saying something about "call me Meyer (a common German name) if bombs fall on the Ruhr or Berlin". Personally, I am convinced that he chose "Meyer" not because it was a common German name, but rather because it was a common Jewish name and in effect, he was saying "call me a verdammten Juden if ...". Milton Beychok 08:10, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Candidate for deletion?

GF_Engineering_Material looks like it might be one that got lost. Chris Day 07:22, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Chris, that is the article that Gordon Feric was working on in a sandbox of his. I tried to explain to him how to make it look presentable and how to improve the drawings in it and I provided an example of what he ought to do Energy conversion. Then he got quite upset by my attempts to tell him what I thought he needed to do ... and he eventually left CZ. I have no intention of ever tackling the huge job of improving all of his material. So I would recommend (with my Editor hat on) that GF_Engineering_Material and Energy conversion both be deleted. Milton Beychok 07:42, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

concentration

Yes, it can be done. See the disambiguations at Dabdef. All of them should have an article at the disambiguated term with a header on the article pointing to the disambiguation page. Chris Day 09:04, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

I was looking at the Concentration_(disambiguation) page and i now realise that if you go ahead with the Concentration article it will not work with the R template. This is a bug and I need to write a workaround so that such examples will function normally on the related articles subpages. Chris Day 19:01, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Nabla again

Milton, I changed the heading of a subsection in Green's function, it looks perfect except for the table of contents. In ordinary LaTeX you would use \protect to make the title transferable, but the Wiki LaTeX doesn't accept \protect.--Paul Wormer 09:09, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Paul, you need not mess up the table of contents just to accomodate me. Another alternative is to have the header read "Proof of Green function of Nabla²". But again you need not make a change just to accomodate me. Milton Beychok 09:20, 2 February 2009 (UTC)