User talk:Montrealais/Talk archive 3

John Ralston Saul

Dear Montre: Nice cat! I wanted to thank you for answering my question on the John Saul matter. I will proceed to write about the mystery writer, probably using a parenthesis.

Thanks and God bless you.

Sincerely yours, Antonio Life of the Party Martin

You're welcome. Actually I don't think a parenthesis is necessary as long as you put a disamb notice at the top. – Montréalais 15:48, 4 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Moldova, Angles

Hi, I saw you deleted Moldova from List of etymologies of country subdivision names with the comment moldova is an independent state. Actually, Moldova/Moldovia region is now divided between Romania and the state of Moldova (also called Bessarabia), so there is currently a Romanian region called Moldova.

Also about the ethymology of England, I heard they were called after the Angles – a West Germanic people that came from Angul (hook), a district in Schleswig (now Angeln).

The explanation I always heard is that their name came from that root, but because they were fishers. I think the notion that they came from a "hook shaped land" requires us to believe that they named themselves after looking at an overhead map, rather as if the ancient pre-roman Italics had decided to call themselves Bootfolk.

you're right :-)

As for Moldova, the article linked to was about the state and made no mention of this Romanian Moldova

Yes, it should have linked to Moldovia.

(do they have the same sort of issues as Greece has with FYROM?)

No, it was basically the same teritory, until the Eastern side of Moldova was occupied by the Soviets in the 1948 and was declared independent in the 90s after the fall of the Soviet Union (as Moldova).

The article linked to in the subnational entities article should probably be either Moldavia or a new article about the subnational region of Romania. – Montréalais

Gentlemen! The British Isle was indeed invaded by a wave of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. All from the Jutland Penninsula. Angeln is indeed in "Schleswig" – but then there was no Germany... So these people were closely related to the other two groups and spoke a language related to Frisian and Plattdeutsch – hence the Anglo basis of the English language. Plus the name of the poor people and of their language which since became the numero uno in world communication. Through most of history, Angeln (and all of Slesvig for that matter) was Danish. Most of the toponymics in Angeln are very Danish indeed. But it seems to me that the Danes came from the East and actually conquered Jutland – imposing their language on the poor Jutes – including Angeln – after the great invasion of Britain. Enough of that. Moldova is not only the name of a country and a Romanian region (formerly forming one principality) but also of a river. And the name of the river seems to be of... Gothic origin – related to English "mold": fertile soil. Romanian (incl. Moldavian) toponymics is an odd science. Virtually all old names (rivers in particular) are non-Latin. One is, as mentioned, Gothic. VW —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.161.120.82 (talk) 22:40, 30 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Press release

I understand that your absence from the mailing list(s) may be in the interest of maintaining sanity. The following by Anthere, therefore, may not have come to your attention.

I am very excited by the first press release for
wikimedia. Incidently, I thank the one who suggested a multilingual release (I think it is Mav, but messages get a lost among 95 digests...well..). Whether the english wikipedia has a release for 200000 is good and
should be done, but a common release for the fundation is ... the good way imho.

Anticipating :

When is decided that the time is the good one for the press release, could we organise a sort of schedule ? Each time the english wiki has a press release, everything is slowed down, last time the german release also had a clear impact on availability. Should not we a bit try to schedule an order among wikis, or some rough dates, so we can smooth the peak ?

Eclecticology (and other canadian friends)...could you look for sending the release to a major canadian press web site for the french wikipedia ? We need more canadians on the fr [;-)]

As I am on the west coast and you are in Montreal you may be in a much better position to make appropriate contact with the French media. ☮ Eclecticology 19:05, 2003 Aug 8 (UTC)

Given the existence of email, I don't see why it wouldn't be simpler for one person just to email the Quebec newspapers at the same time as the French, Belgian, etc., ones, but if I'm needed for some reason I'll do it. – Montréalais 19:10, 8 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Hello Matt. The thing is, the pb is not sending the mail or courriel, but rather where to send it. I do not know your newspapers or your websites. I know the french major ones, the american and british major ones. Not the belgium, or the swiss, or the algerian or marrocans and not the canadians :-) We have a partial translation of the press release right now. We'll make it nice, with if possible a list of good french speaking articles. I would like that coverage is not limited to France though. I really would like so. Can you help us provide a couple of reference ? We can sent then afterward or you, as you wish, but please, help relocate the french speaking wikipedia somewhere else than France. Tu comprend ? User:Anthere

Detailed Canada maps

Colouring those seemingly tiny Arctic islands in Image:Provmap-nu.png must be quite a feat! It actually looks better coloured than just outlined. :-p --Menchi 19:53, Aug 10, 2003 (UTC)

Not really ^_^ all you have to do is select the rough borders, deselect the sea, and colour in the rest. – Montréalais

I really like the maps you done for the Canadian provinces. Awesome. dave 21:37, 10 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Photo comments

I think your photos are nicely composed (and of very useful subjects) but your colours on occasion seem washed out and the sky is glary. Are your photos a little overexposed? --Robert Merkel 00:41, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)

No. They're exposed for the darker parts of the photos, e.g. at Central Park they're exposed for the masonry and at Quebec City for the buildings in the foreground. The options would be to take the photos at a different time of day (e.g. closer to dusk) or to take them with a filter to reduce contrast. Dark subjects with a bright background make for tricky metering, and even professionals get it wrong sometimes: much of John Sayles' Sunshine State, starring black actors in mid-day Florida, was washed out at the top, and blinding in the background. Koyaanis Qatsi 03:24, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)

I'm doing better these days; what I do is instead of lightening the whole photo in Photoshop, I select out the sky and just lighten the darker subject. Some examples will be available in a month or two on my website, http://www.metrodemontreal.com/ . Which photos did you notice this problem on? If it seem appropriate I might try to find the original and try to fix it. – Montréalais 04:05, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)

P.S. Just took a look at the Central Park photo. I took it in January, and the Quebec City ones in November, so it's quite possible the sky really was that colour. – Montréalais

Mammals

Hi Montréalais,

On December 9, 2002, on Talk:Carolus Linnaeus you wrote:

" The group "mammalia" are named for their breasts because he wanted to encourage women to breast-feed their infants. "

Didn't I see this on Wikipedia:Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense? What's the scoop?

If you're still curious, the answer is on Carolus Linnaeus now.

Cheers! Cyan 23:13, 13 Aug 2003 (UTC)

heartfelt apology

I am sincerly sorry about what happened, but I may have inadvertently destroyed one of your edits on the 2003 US-Canada blackout. I prostrate myself. I will offer a public apology with full explication at the relevant talk page. Respectfully. -- Cimon Avaro on a pogostick

blink* *blink* No worries, happens all the while. – Montréalais 23:18, 14 Aug 2003 (UTC)

image comments

Is it ok if I put your image link here: Wikipedia:Brilliant_pictures#List_of_images_by_fellow_Wikipedians_-_please_comment ? Fantasy 11:05, 15 Aug 2003 (UTC)

By all means. Thank you! – Montréalais 14:21, 15 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Spanish autonomías

Hi, there!

Thanks for all your work on the autonomous communities of Spain. I don't understand why you care so much about that topic, but thanks anyway :-) — Miguel

Porque me ha gustado tanto visitar España; entonces es un tema que me apasiona :) ¡espera que haya más! – Montréalais 03:18, 19 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Comme je suis sûr tu sais, en Espagne on s'intéresse aussi au Canada, en ce qui concerne le Québec et l'organisation de l'état fédéral. Trouves-tu des points de comparaison entres les deux pays? -- Miguel

Je n'en sais pas assez de détails sur la balance de pouvoirs en Espagne mais l'idée du fédéralisme assymétrique est une que prône mon parti politique quant au Québec. L'Espagne offre un exemple interessant dans son traitement des autonomies 'historiques'. – Montréalais 19:34, 19 Aug 2003 (UTC)

The Welsh nation (in Principality)

Hi!

I get a bit curious by your notion of Wales as a subnational entity. I doesn't fit with my understanding. Neither the one I've acquired in school, nor what I've learned through mates at work.

About Asturia I've absolutely no clue, so I don't comment on that. :-)
--Ruhrjung 06:26, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Perhaps I've fudged some relevant political subtlety, but the article on the UK lists Wales as one of the countries that make up the UK. – Montréalais 15:58, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Not political but national. ;-) --Ruhrjung 03:46, 13 Sep 2003 (UTC)

St. or Saint?

Hi, I just responded to your (very very old :)) comment on Louis St. Laurent...I've never seen it as Saint Laurent either, and the National Archives biography has St. Laurent. Some other articles have St. expanded though, like Saint Lawrence River, so I'm not sure. Adam Bishop 23:50, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Responded to you at Talk:Louis Stephen Saint Laurent. – Montréalais 23:55, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Montreal metro map

About the map of montreal metro you just uploaded – I was going to say that even if the drawing is by you, the design itself will be (C) montreal metro, so there's a problem. then I read your user page & you say you worked there -- did you by any chance design the original? if so, from another metrophile ... wow, cool! :-) -- Tarquin 20:08, 28 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for the concern, but I don't think it will be. There are several important differences between my design and theirs, chief among them is that mine is done right. (The new maps with Longueuil-U de S are typeset hideously!)

I am (mercifully) not responsible for theirs; mine is designed for my personal website, http://www.metrodemontreal.com/ . I did work at the STM (doing other stuff) for a few months in summer 2002; it was a lot of fun.

- Montréalais

I've uploaded a version saved from Gimp explicitly without the gamma info; it looks a little cleaner than the version with correction for the correction. :) (Photoshop, apparently, saves the gamma wrong and you can't disable it as far as I can see.) It's also reduced to 8-bit color for better compression. --Brion 07:19, 29 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Looks faboo. Arigatou gozaiimasu! – Montréalais 15:57, 29 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Spanish province names

Wikipedia convention for city names is generally not to have the name of the country, province, state, etc. in the article name (Canada & the US are exeptions). If for some reason, there is reason to restore the province names in this perticular case, it's easy to revert to your last version. – Efghij 02:48, Aug 31, 2003 (UTC)

Very well, let's put it to the Wikipedians: Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (city names)/Spain. In the meantime, may I ask you to please not alter any more articles until there is a consensus?- Montréalais 02:56, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Fair enough. No point in going through the trouble of correcting all those articles if there's a possiblity of changing the standard. – Efghij 03:10, Aug 31, 2003 (UTC)

Dorval Airport

Sorry for moving the Montreal Dorval article incorrectly. I've never moved a page before. Thanks to you, now I know how. dave 02:31, 12 Sep 2003 (UTC)

No worries, I learned how the same way originally ^_^ – Montréalais 05:15, 12 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Ontario general election, 2003

Hi, are you planning on creating an article for the Ontario election like you did for the PEI one? I was thinking about making one, but I won't have time to do it tomorrow, at least. But if you were going to do it anyway, I won't worry about it :) Adam Bishop 01:59, 2 Oct 2003 (UTC)

On its way. – Montréalais 14:38, 2 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Please make sure that additions to the main page fit the 800x600 screen. (Add one, take one. I had to take one for you.) Cheers, Jiang 21:52, 2 Oct 2003 (UTC)

McGuinty isn't really premier yet, is he? Eves would still be premier until McGuinty is sworn in, whenever that happens. Adam Bishop 02:35, 3 Oct 2003 (UTC)

If McGuinty is struck by lightning before he's sworn in, I'll change it. – Montréalais 02:37, 3 Oct 2003 (UTC)

TTC

Hi, Montréalais. I was mucking about with your list of Toronto subway stations because like most Torontonians I don't consider the LRT part of the subway. I then found out that the TTC apparently considers it part, though -- god only knows why, since it's entirely above ground and inaccessible to subway trains, so you have to transfer from the LRT to the subway. Anyway, I tried to restore the article as best I could and add some clarification about the LRT, but perhaps you should check that I haven't unwittingly vandalized it. Trontonian 20:26, 20 Oct 2003 (UTC)

And now I have added brief notes about where the stations are. I think it makes the article more useful, but it clutters it up. If you don't like it or had other plans for the article, revert it and let me know -- I'll put the sites in a separate article. Trontonian

If it's OK with you, I'll reformat the list as a table, using your format from the list of Montreal metro stations. Trontonian

I converted it to a table. It's not as pretty as yours, but I may work on it tomorrow. Trontonian 03:42, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)