User talk:Fephisto

Yo, leave a message. Fephisto 02:54, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Calculus
A little category set aside for Calculus class questions. Fephisto 22:59, 9 July 2006 (UTC)


 * School of Mathematics:Calculus looks fine. In what sense is it "a practical approach"? I want to make a module for people who are interested in biology. The module will deal with exponential growth and decay and will be built around examples from biological systems. It will be an introduction to calculus for biology students but can also provide some specific examples for Calculus/More Differentation Rules. --JWSurf 00:20, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
 * "some other sort of synthesis action" <-- One of the powers of wiki technology is that wiki webpages can be highly inter-connected. Some of the topics I want to include in the Cell Biology part of Wikiversity involve complex biological processes where amplification and feedback are important and it is useful to apply mathematics. I want to be able to link from biology pages to useful parts of math books. I think it is helpful for people who are interested in biology to provide them with specific examples of how to use the math rather than just drop them into an abstract presentation of the math. --JWSurf 19:53, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Residue Theory
A little category set off if you came to talk about the Residue Theory book. --Fephisto 19:59, 17 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm glad we finally have a book about this subject. I do alot of work on the EE bookshelf, and when i need to try and explain residues for my books, I personally don't know all the mathematical rigour. Good luck. --Whiteknight (talk) (current) 18:29, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Linear Algebra with Differential Equations
A little category set off if you came to talk about the Linear Algebra with Differential Equations book. --Fephisto 19:59, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Wikiversity
"what's going on with Wikiversity" ..... A good Wikiversity starter page. You might also find this page of interest. --JWSurf 16:08, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

"tutor-style non-factory method. I know this doesn't match up with learning community, but I should be able to try it, see if it works out, encourage more support for Wikiversity" <-- Yes, you can try anything that you want to try. What subject area are you planning to be working in? --JWSurf 21:44, 20 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Do you think you will be able to make use of material at Calculus? --JWSurf 00:29, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Policy review
Policy is not the most exciting subject at Wikibooks but we do have some major unresolved issues.

The most important issue, in my opinion, is Dispute resolution which starts by declaring that:

"Currently there is no official organized process to resolve disputes between users"

The suggested remedy for this is: Ad hoc administration committee which puts into place the absolute minimum in terms of an enforcement apparatus.

The second most important is No personal attacks where a vote has recommended the policy be enforced but it still languishes as "proposed".

The third policy that is needed and which will prevent edit disputes from getting out of hand is Editing disputes policy.

Other policies that need consideration are at: Policies and guidelines.

Please spare a minute or two to peruse these issues and add a comment and/or a vote. RobinH 12:48, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Wikiversity
Hi Fephisto, and thanks for your questions about Wikiversity. I'm so sorry it's taken me this long to reply - I've just logged in to Wikibooks after a stint doing other things (including travelling)..

On what's going on with Wikiversity, I think the best pages are over on Meta. There's the Wikiversity subcommittee which is trying to put together a proposal to the board to get it set up as an official sister project - though this is not meant to stop anyone else get involved with this process (or even join the subcommittee). I don't see this as too far off in the future - we are just trying to figure out things like whether it will host courses at first and if so what types of courses, amongst other questions. On that page as well as the current proposal there are a list to the most relevant links - but yes, there is a lot of text and an awful amount of discussion.

If you want to set up a class, it might be good to see (for now) whether it fits in with what the board last specified, ie. "no online courses". We're still trying to figure this out, but this is the safest route. Still, there are plenty of people who want to set up live, active classes, so you're free to experiment with what you feel best. Overall, I would say for now, focus on creating the content of the course, rather than inviting students to participate. And no, there's nothing like accreditation involved, don't worry - and I don't think this would be productive for now anyway (though it may be an option for the future).

Thanks for your interest and all the best with your Wikiversity project(s). Let me know how it goes, and please don't hesitate to ask any further questions here or on Meta (where I'm more active). Cheers. Cormaggio 18:05, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

welcome to Wikireason
Hi Fephisto. Welcome to Wikireason! Thanks for your contributions--I provided a couple of responses to what you wrote about globalization. As stated at the forum entrance, we're still working out organizational issues and producing documentation to help newcomers. We would love to hear any feedback or questions that you have about the site. I look forward to your future contributions. It's best to reach me at my wikireason page--I was surprized to find that I even have an account here! AdamRetchless 23:57, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Calculus
Hi Fephisto - apologies for not replying sooner (I saw your message, just didn't have anything particular to say at the time). It occurs to me to ask (regarding your offer to teach Calculus), what/where were you thinking of teaching? Also, how? Wikiversity will need to have materials to teach with - particularly if it is to move from Wikibooks - as I think it should. So, where are the materials for this course? Is it simply directing people to the book Calculus? One one hand, I'm asking this because I'm curious; on the other, I'm eager to actually have some material to show people that this is a Wikiversity, not simply a library. I suppose another way of saying this is: teach me calculus! Cormaggio 15:58, 13 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the reply (btw, I've moved it to the bottom of my talk page, where it's easier to find). I suppose I was asking: "where are the materials by which you're thinking of teaching Calculus?". And you're saying that they are in the Wikibooks mentioned on that page, and that you're going to then teach people about Calculus using those books, and according to their needs - right? Sounds fine. It's just that, with the process to separate Wikiversity and Wikibooks, there will need to be some content on Wikiversity itself in order to teach or learn about this subject. The current proposal for Wikiversity is a place where specific learning materials (eg. a segment of information and a related learning activity) will be hosted so that someone could come along and start learning by themselves, or a teacher could come along and print off that exercise (and possibly a lesson plan to go with it) to use in their class that afternoon. However, the interesting part is where people come to learn themselves and find that there are people there (like yourself) that could help them to learn further. You yourself could then not just direct that person to further reading on Wikibooks or Wikipedia (which I would expect there would be within the Wikiversity material anyway), but also ask further provocative questions, set tasks as you see fit, ie do what you were thinking of doing anyway. But if these projects are to separate (and I, amongst others, am working towards this), then we will need to prompt or facilitate learning somehow through the material we have in Wikiversity.


 * This might all be a bit confusing to you - in fact, it occurs to me to ask you about what you say on your page ("I hope Wikiversity doesn't go away") - does this mean you hope the projects don't separate? Are you aware of the context of all this? See the links to the current proposal I gave you before, if not. In any case, I'd really like to hear your views on the matter. Thanks. Cormaggio 11:48, 14 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Ok, thanks for clearing those points up. Maybe you could point me to some Wikiversity-specific material if/when you develop it, and hopefully we'll have a new project soon that we can start afresh with. Cormaggio 16:12, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

 Hi Fephisto - I was wondering what you plan on doing for the Calculus Lessons and how I may join as a student. I already answered all the questions on the PRE-CALCULUS page. The only answer that I think you would be curious about would be to the comments question. I believe that if you are going to do lectures, it would be benificial for them to be in a downloadable. Preferably in an audio format such as mp3 or wav, or a PDF if typed.

Thank you --Superwiki 03:52, 23 July 2006 (UTC)


 * 1) I'm just going to go over very basic 1st, 2nd, and 3rd semester Calculus as in University undergraduate Mathematics. If by pre-calculus you take this as too simplistic, then this is probably not for you; however, if you said pre-calculus by meaning that you covered the pre-calculus section in the pre-test then go ahead and e-mail those answers to me and I can start making things from seeing where you stand.


 * 1) My original plan was just to have a planned lecture and go over it at a certain time so you could ask questions if you wanted to along the way.


 * 1) Other than that, if you have any other questions, go ahead and reply. Fephisto 01:43, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Regarding your query
Sorry to be so late responding. I have been waiting a couple of years for Wikiversity to get a goahead and so not checking messages much. Regarding your calculus class. The Board was very concerned the term class might give people the wrong idea about what a wiki environment is capable of and so directed us not to use the term in the Wikiversity proposal. Everything is very much up in the air regarding how to effectively use the wiki medium for learning. My advice to you is to experiment a bit. If you have applicable credentials or education feel free to advertise them on a synopsis along with a proposed approach. If anyone gets militant approach NO COURSES invite them to go elsewhere and leave your group or materials alone. Try to structure your material so that people feel welcome to simply work through them and leave comments or improvements behind. As I see it the really tricky part is how to integrate those questions/comments/improvements back into concise material while still giving credit where credit is due.

Perhaps a useful method will be to start a credits page with an obvious link on the main course page and use footnotes pointing to the credits page from elsewhere. That way you are giving credit while removing distracting questions or comments. Another approach might be to establish a link from a specific area where expansions can be made. A potential subloop in material where anyone felt a question or comment or request for clarification was useful. This is still very new to all of us so please feel free to innovate. I will try to drop. I need some review if I am going to be useful to engineering students anyway. Thanks for joining us here at Wikiversity!!! Lazyquasar 08:51, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Calculus course
Hi Fephisto - thanks for the update. Well, sorry that you didn't get all the participants you would have liked, but I'm not sure how many people would have seen it in the first place (this is regarding the participant base in Wikibooks:Wikiversity overall, not directed at anything of your own doing..)

In any case, I'm not sure if you heard, but Wikiversity is now a separate project - see v:Wikiversity:Main Page. We've been transwikiing some content from Wikibooks - I think your lectures (eg. Calculus/Building up to the Riemann-Darboux Definition would be useful to have there. I'm hoping to have material in place on Wikiversity so people can come and go as they please, rather than have to wait for a tutor to come along or initiate a timetable. You can request that this page be imported here (please don't simply copy and paste). Thanks. Cormaggio 10:38, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Statistical Mechanics (Thermal Physics)
I believe the A-level Physics book doesn't have enough depth into the true rigourisation this subject has and will be starting a book in Statistical Mechanics, for those who want to work with me, or have questions, leave me a line here.

Partial Differential Equations
As far as I'm concerned, this needs a heavy inclusion (for more general techniques, adding some info abotu eigenfunctions, some fourier series uses, etc.) and rewrite, I'm going to try adding to this one too. Partial Differential Equations.

Fephisto 03:31, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Statistics
I was kind of angered that when I last read Statistics there was no reasoning for the methods provided therein. However, it seems as if it has been collaberated since I last saw it, so I might not need to put what I've learned in the subject in it. Fephisto 03:34, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Ring Theory, Algebra
We can put these individual subjects wherever we would like. For instance, we could create 2 "versions" of the linear algebra book, one that relies on concepts developed in Abstract Algebra and Ring Theory (for advanced readers), and one that only explores the "highschool" version of linear algebra from the standpoint of solving linear systems of equations.

I don't really care how the books are organized per se, but what I do know is that the way they were organized previously was terrible. Anything will be an improvement over what it was. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 13:06, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Great job!
Statistical Mechanics/Density of States is a great module. Thanks for contributing this to Wikibooks. Tannersf 22:49, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Wikibooks Newsletter, Volume 1
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I hope you are still active
Hi there Fephisto, I am a vagrant from en.wikipedia and have found the calculus book to be a rather shabby affair. Any chance that we could get a team together to clean things up a little bit? Cheers --Cronholm144 09:14, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Calculus
Hmm... I think that general clean-up is needed. I left messages at the multi-variable page and on some of the others in the book. One thing I found was that whoever wrote the more differentiation formulas page used Euler's formula to derive the trig derivatives. I think that is completely unacceptable. Anyway, I will leave my comment on each talk page of the book and then I will start editing. Pitch in whenever and where ever you are able. Hopefully we can make some progress. Cheers--Cronholm144 19:07, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Fephisto. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Fephisto~enwikibooks that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:09, 17 March 2015 (UTC)