Hello from the desk at home- writing lessons

Hello Stranger - nice write up


Don't worry about copyright - just crack on and share the love


Best Regards


OMS

If it's basic electrical theory, it's going to be so widely available already that I can't believe anyone's going to be bothered as to whether you've used their exact words or not. But if you use someone else's diagram or photo then I take the attitude that at the very least it's only polite to credit it.


Of course if you just cut and paste several pages of information from someone else's website without crediting it they probably would get cross - I would - but if you copy parts of it and then say  "there's more information at www...." they can't really complain, and actually should be quite pleased that you've pointed people at their website.


In the end copyright depends on the person or organisation having the funds and willpower to chase you for it...be very careful with photos though, I know a UK organisation (a charity which made it very annoying) that almost had to close because of the compensation they had to pay a US organisation for using one of their photos without realising it was copyright. And that was despite apologising and taking it off their website as soon as they were told about it. These types of people have search engines that crawl the web looking for their IP.


Have fun!


Andy

Hi Zs it`s been a while. May we look forward to a few more posts?

One particular gem you did was a thread about wiring fluoro fittings in bell wire. I remember re-reading it a couple of times thinking "Zs would never do this, I musta missundertood" . Good wind up and it wasn`t even Apr 1st.


`Tother week we had a drive up thru Yorkshire to Cumbria and by the Lake (not sure why it`s called the "Lake District" seeing as there`s only one lake there though. Same again Scotland only has one lake too). Anyway we stayed in Cockermouth overnight then near Windscale , (Sellafield Bah Humbug!). We`ve since devoloped a glow that is ascertained in low light conditions, perhaps you nuclear bods have a remedy. ?

Hi Zs!  Good to see you back here.  I came across a PM from you a couple of days ago - re my late uncle who was a Catalina pilot and your friend who was one too.


Anyway, on one of my book case shelves is a white mug, with the words on it, "Quoting one is plagiarism; quoting many is research!"


When trying to locate the source of the mug, I found:


"When you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research.


Quoted in Alva Johnston's The Legendary Mizners (1953, Farrar Straus and Young, New York, chapter 4, p 66) and Bartlett's, 1992, p. 631.

Cheers!

Clive

Long time no read.


I'd suggest you redraw any key diagrams from text books or whatever rather than nick them, - and have a 'further reading for reference ' list at the back.

Most images on wikipedia are fair game though, and have a copyright page associated.


For ccts I tend to mis use the schematic editors from  LT spice or microcap (both free) for anything that cannot be done within the office suite.


Without the authors permission, strictly, you should not be quoting more than a very small amount, and then saying  - as per this diagram from datasheet (ref 1) or whatever.


Words are cheap and there are very few fully original ones, even the ones uttered to describe the realisation of impending failure, so it is much easier to defend ' when XYZ occurs then ABC can be a problem' - even if someone else has said it verbatim, it may just be chance.


It is also unwise to be too revealing of information that could only have come from your employment, unless they give you the OK in advance.  (So it may be OK to say unlike Amazon AWE have one product, but the delivery is much faster to anywhere on the planet, ' cos we all know that, but more details than that might put you on a naughty list.)


Now you are thinking about this you know why mapj1, and my other alter egos in other places pop up on the internet, but with minimal links to each other or to my full name.


But I'd suggest that the risk of anything more than a stern warning is not so great, so do not be put off (and some web authors are delighted to be quoted).

But you surely know some of this,  or someone with a very similar name has already written at least one  book on decorating walls I think.

Ah Zs! Welcome back!

Aah, I tell you what, it's like coming home. Thank you all so much for those and greetings from a non-working Friday.


Because this working from home is being done in such a hurry due to the virus, all these wheels, which normally turn so slowly, are somewhat challenged.  Andy M thank you for  your reply which resonates with me.  Nice to meet you. I'm not going to cut and paste whole pages for the simple reason that I was rather well qualified before I admitted to myself that I didn't really understand how an electrical circuit works. I'd like to avoid that for others if possible.   I now know that my issue was the thing called the neutral - so the live goes out to the fan heater but it can't work unless a different part of the circuit carries it back to the DB? and yet that one is connected to the same piece of brass as all the other circuits?, kind of thing. I must have been born wired in series and a light on an old Christmas tree but it really did take me a while to get that. Once at a certain level I was scared to admit that deficiency, if you get my drift? It held me back.


Uncle Ebee,  I'm fine and I promise you that as much as I'd like to I don't glow in the dark. Well unless I fill my pockets with that stuff they use on the faces of wristwatches which BOD told me about once.  I now completely understand why some people don't ever want to leave university because research is so much fun.  Why would you want to have a proper job? 


Ancient, I am plagiarising your entire post in case I ever need it for my defence.  Cool and I will crack on with multiples.


Chris 'Just how many ways are there of stating Ohm's law? ?'  

You have knocked me into touch beautifully and you are right.  I suppose my concern is getting something wrong and it being out there on the web.  We used to have a fella on here  called  D W Cockburn   tag line of 911 or similar? who wrote and self published a book advising on equipotential bonding, hang on.... yes, still on the web.  Well. quite a lot of what he said in that book wasn't right and I don't wish to become him.  Oh, I am now in memory lane and invite you to join me...wasn't there a post he made about the requirement for bonding the copper coins in your pocket?  to the radiator?  And and and...hadn't he carried out some monumentally dangerous experiment in his home?  I remember sitting here learning from the replies.


Anyway.  I think I can go into the office early each morning and post my lessons from there instead of from the home computer. I'm the one who is terrified of contact because I am of the generation who have at-risk parents.  In that way I can add our usual footer.  That might work but in the event of it going out to the mates of colleagues, well under the current Covid 19 circumstances your posts make me rather hope that it is small fry and I agree with you. 


I am about to order myself a scanner though and if I can get one I will use it to insert my own scribbles instead of dear Brian Scaddan's pictures of taps and hoses.  He will be cited though, I love Brian Scaddan books to this day and probably have them ingrained. 


Thank you and stay well eh?  I gather that I have had a close call and am counting the days but still well.


Zs

Hello Zs, I always enjoy reading your posts it feels like I'm on a mini journey.

IMO, whatever you produce use your own language, it demonstrates if nothing else, that you understand what you are writing.as well as putting your own character into the prose.

You will find bucket loads of drawings and pictures of examples on line but as has been mentioned you might come up against intellectual copyright. I aways found that the drawings and pictures took the most time to produce, particularly when preparing teaching materials so often I'd just used what was available.

You are welcome to use anything original of mine on the web.

You'll probably need a reader, of which there are many here would be happy to oblige to go through your text for technical and gramatical inacuracies which I'm sure you already know about.

I don't think for one moment that you will produce anything like our friend DC.

I look forward to seeing your work published.

Legh

Good to hear from you again Zs.

 

I am about to order myself a scanner

Unless need really high quality, you can get reasonably decent images just by taking a photo using a digital camera - even many 'phone ones these days will do. Just position things so the camera is square on, the lighting is decent (don't cast your own shadow into it etc.) and with a steady hand (or an improvised tripod) you should be good.


   - Andy.