User talk:Charles01/Archive 9

Abbott Estate

Hi Charles

Have been reading the page relating to the Ford Zodiac on here and you appear to be the main contributor.

I was wondering if you took the pictures of the red Abbott Estate that have been posted. This car belongs to a friend of mine in Sheffield and I was wondering if you had took the shots....do you have the original images...before the blur was added.

The car "Bertha" has been resprayed since those shots were took and is now in a much more sombre burgandy and really looks the part.

If you do have the shots...or know who took them could you let me know... jh@jason-juliette.co.uk as I would love to pass them on the my mate.

Thanks very much.

Jason

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Charles01" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.107.195.243 (talk) 16:47, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Dear Jason

I'm not sure who - if anyone - did most of the work on the Ford Zephyr / Zodiac entry. It looks to me like a real committee job. My own contributions have as far as I remember, been limited to a few elements of grammatical pedantry. Though I see a couple of the pictures are 'mine'. Those Zephyrs / Zodiacs (Mk II) from the early 1960s are to my eye very photogenic and there are several good ones in the 'gallery' but the only seriously respectable (in my opinion) one of mine on currently on the Zephyr page of English language wiki is of a 1965 Zephyr 6 Mk III. I am quite pleased with that one, tho the light could have been better. Light could almost always be better.

See also (if I've remembered how to do these links) Category:Ford Zephyr

Be that as it may, I THINK the person who took the pictures that interest you goes by the name of Red Simon. He has contributed a lot of super wiki pictures of British cars from this period. He has a good eye and (I suspect) a better camera than I do. What we have in common (at least in the summer months) is the habit of wandering reound classic car shows photographing classic cars - serious nerdery or a great service to humanity depending where you're coming from - tho I have never met him and I think our photographic habits are concentrated in different corners of England. Your friend's Sheffield connection is just one of several clues on that. Be all that as it may, I've pasted your message on Simon's talk page and I expect he'll react to you when he notices.

Success Charles01 (talk) 09:08, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you

Hi Charles Have been to my friends toady. He was shocked to think that his car was on here. We seem to think the shots were took at a show in Ripon now. Thanks for passing the message on. Jason.

Fouday and Ban de la Roche

Hello Charles,

I am a French girl (bad in English) and I much contributed to several of the stories of the [category Ban de la Roche] on French Wikipedia, under the name Mary Reed (English WP refused to register me under this name, it was already taken).

I left a message on the talk page of Fouday (which is part of Le Ban de la Roche) on this english wp.

There are many Americans of Bandelarochian origin.

I intended to write something about Le Ban de la Roche on english WP. It will be brief, chiefly links to French WP, and the work will go slowly, because it is difficult to me to write in English.

Probably you will be able to do better than me if you are interested in the subject. So please fell free to complement if you want.

Have a good day

--Nicolas Baeteman (talk) 07:38, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

You have effectively anticipated the reaction I already entered on the talk page of Fouday. I'd not realised the significance of some of this stuff in the US.

I don't have much to add. But I do wish you every success with "I intended to write something about Le Ban de la Roche on english WP". I agree that it needs doing. And there will be plenty of people - myself included - happy to 'improve' your English. The challenge, of course - for everyone involved but especially for you and maybe for me - is not to destroy the substantive meaning while 'correcting' your English. That's the challenge of wikipedia. One of the challenges of wikiedia.... Saluts & good weekend. Charles01 (talk) 07:52, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

French commune population densities

I agree that these need to be updated, too, but it is not one of my priorities. Sorry! Ksnow (talk) 16:30, 30 March 2009 (UTC)Ksnow

I just made an automatic pop. density calculation in the infobox, see Template talk:Infobox French commune#Automatic calculation of population density. Let me know if it gives bad results. Markussep ^Talk 11:53, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. Sounds a good idea. I'll see if I can work what it is doing. I'm not up to speed with what wiki-templates do and/or with how they do it.

[Later: yes, it seems to work just fine. Brilliant. Clever chaps, these computers.]

There is an inherent problem that you appear to encounter here with numbers above 999 and with decimal numbers, because of the differing treatments of '.'s and ','s (and mere gaps which sometimes seems a useful cop out). The anglphone eye expects to see 1,175 and the francophone (& German & dutch & & &) eye expects to see 1.275 (as the engine capacity of some BMC Mini cars). I remember an endless discussion on the wiki-motor car project on this but I'm not sure it ever went anywhere. With motor cars (well, some motor cars) you have lots of people from both continents reading and editing the entries. With French communes there is a smaller audience which might (or might not) provide scope for a more consistently intelligent solution.

I don't know if this is relevant, but there seem to be two info box templates, both of which work in the French commune entries, and both of which do more or less the same thing. One is easier to copy and paste and adapt from fracophone to anglophone while the other you need simply to enter the data line by line to the info box by commune. I don't know (1) if one info box formet is to be prefered to the other nor (2) whether what you have done will apply to one or other or both.

Hmmmm Regards Charles01 (talk) 15:31, 6 April 2009 (UTC)