Dypsis hybrids and their documentation

[Greg in Lake Forest CA]

Did everything get dumped into cyber-space, or will we eventually have access to the other Boards history?

[Tad]

i belive they are working on all of thaat!!! great new room, still smells like fresh paint!!!

[Zac in NC]

That is a good question Greg. This board format will take some more getting used to, but I am glad that we have this to use.

Zac

Oh yeah, the quick post thing will be useful, too. Thanks Bob.

[JD in the OC]

The new forum is all futuristic looking.  I like it.  Hopefully we can load the old posts...

Who's got a cool new topic to start us off?

[Palmateer]

I hope the former posts can be saved - a lot of valuable palm information in there.

For that matter, I wish we could have saved the posts before the LAST time the forum crashed!

[Mike in Houston]

Zak, much of the starting look of this new PalmTalk forum is the default setup of the newest version of Ikonboard. On top of the inner workings of the forum is the interface you see and interact with. This is the boards 'skin'

The 'skin' (look of the board) is easily customizable and Robert has plans to customize it to better express not only the purpose of the board but also the function of its layout elements.

If you or anyone else using the new board finds something difficult to use or find, please let Robert or me know. I am helping Robert get the board back up and running.

Greg and Palmateer, much of the message base from the old forum is still intact and at this moment and we are trying to salvage all we can. It is unlikely the old messages can be merged back into this new forum, but if all works out well the messages will be available for read-only access in a separate part of this new palmtalk.org website.

Notice www.palms.org will continue to be the main website for the International Palm Society, with www.palmtalk.org becoming the IPS forum area. More content is in the works for palmtalk.org. In addition to the forum new features and content will be added to the forum's website to enhance and support the message board.

Mike Burnett (Mike in Houston)

[Zac in NC]

Thanks for the info Mike. Thanks for helping Riffle out with the board move.

Zac

[NBTX11]

Where are all the old threads now.  They don't show up on the old site.

[Robert Lee Riffle]

Jim, they don't "show up" because I blocked access to them.  The last thing we need is ANYone adding to the already overly bloated capacity of that software.  This version is much easier to maintain and the new server is much quicker, bigger and better.

So, all we need is to salvage as much of the old (and archive it) as we can.   This is more involved than you might, at first, think because of the original "corruption" of the main category (forum) a little more than two months ago.  I am retrieveing as many of the old threads as I can from it; but I've had to create several NEW forums (categories) because the first "new" one is, itself TOO FULL already.  And then there's the decision making process (sometimes quite a chore) as to whether to save (and add to the bloat) or NOT.

Bottom line: thanks to all for your patience and understating ....

--bob

[Neofolis]

As previously mentioned there is a wealth of knowledge and useful information contained within the old threads, so just having read only access would be very useful, as well as saving some of the duplication that would inevitably occur without it.

Obviously making sure that the new forum is working as you want it to and insuring it is free of issues is the priority.

[John Dransfield]

Great new interface - looks very smart and seems easy to use. A plug, now, for hard copy. There were some wonderful things posted on the board over the last few months - things that deserve to be published in hard copy for posterity, not just in cyber space where they could be lost. Don't forget we have a quarterly journal with two editors anxious to receive good copy for inclusion. If nothing else, I hope you'll all consider submitting top quality photo graphs of special palms as photo features to be printed

John

[Daryl]

John, Are digital photos acceptable yet? Most of the lovely photos posted here tend to be digital.

regards,

Daryl.

[Guest]

In addition to what Mike said, you may choose a 'skin' in your account config providing there are more skins to choose from but I am sure the guys have more important things to get on with right now.

[palmazon]

Shall I resuscitate the Parajubaea torallyi thread here, or should I begin again anew?

[John Dransfield]

Daryl

Yes, digital images are now very definitely acceptable - in fact they are preferable - for submission to PALMS. The images need to be reasonably high resolution so they can be printed at 350 dpi at 6x9 inches. In practice we find that jpegs that are about 1-1.5 MB in size are perfectly adequate. It goes without saying that the image should be good and sharp! - But you guys take such fabulous pictures if I judge correctly from what has been posted on the board.

Of course, the number we caninclude in an issue is limited, but there has been so much of general, international interest on this site that could be printed. I think immediately of those amazing Dypsis hybrids that have never been documented properly

John

[bgl]

John,

I noticed you used the word (Dypsis) "hybrids". Was that intentional? And I'm sorry if that seems like a silly question, because I have a hard time seeing you use a word that's not intentional.... But I've never thought of these incredible Dypsis palms as hybrids!

Bo

[Astro]

We should take all the information,

catigorize it & sell it for cash as a coffee table book or

downloadable search index.

[Dypsisdean]

Bo (and John),

I thought the same thing. I assumed John actually meant hybrids (knowing his background), in that many pics of actual Dypsis hybrids had been posted. But then I couldn't imagine him having an interest in those hybrids.

So then I assumed it was a rare "slip of the tongue (fingers)," as I continued assuming that the recent postings of all the unknown Dypsis are certainly not hybrids as we generally use the term.

Knowing assumptions (at least mine) can get one into trouble, I hope we can get a clarification on his thought.

[MattyB]

Dypsis x Dean hybrid

[Dypsisdean]

Matt,

As you know, the Dypsis x Dean is a very rare, extremely attractive robust hybrid with incredible color. There is only one known to exist. It is thriving on the west coast of one of the Hawaiian islands. Although fully mature, it unfortunately appears to have stopped producing viable seed. The only seedling known to exist from this fine specimen is located in So. California. It is growing well and is obviously much more cold hardy than the parent.

[Dypsisdean]

And Matt---BTW---nice avatar.

I'm thinking about starting a collection. Donations would go to the "Palm Tatt for Matt" fund.

You could be the first. Maybe a Bismarkia leaf across the chest like the shirt I gave you. Or maybe Jen would like a nice Roystonea in a discreet location.

[Jeff Nugent]

(John Dransfield @ Jun. 21 2006,03:56)

QUOTE

... In practice we find that jpegs that are about 1-1.5 MB in size are perfectly adequate. It goes without saying that the image should be good and sharp! - But you guys take such fabulous pictures if I judge correctly from what has been posted on the board.

...

A word of warning about publishing from jpeg images.  As the image that came from the camera they are good but start editing them, even rotating and especially resizing them and they leave all kinds of artifacts.

Do the rest of us a favour, if you send digital pics to John then either send the unaltered copy from the camera or convert it to a stable format such as tiff and then edit it.

There was a great introduction to this problem in  This Months PC World (available online)

[Carlo Morici]

Let me take this opportunity to remind that the whole IPS website (and forum) is still a fragile concept that must be fixed.

During the IPS director meetings of the past four years, the debate about a new better website was delayed.

There is a good load of IPS money which can be directed toward a better web and a smoothly running forum. Now we came to a point where the internet is so important that we can't wait much more.

Maybe Robert LR and all the helpers would not be overloaded of work if soild decisions are taken during the next director meeting during the Dominican biennial. So please ask your local IPS director to take a step forward during the next meeting in october.

Carlo

[bgl]

Carlo,

You bring up some important points, even though a decision WAS made at the most recent Board Meeting (April 2005 in Miami) to go ahead and spend more money on an improved website. I know this because I made the motion. This is going to be one of the important issues at the Board Meeting in Santo Domingo in early October, but based on the decision of just over a year ago I'm sure everyone on the IPS Board will recognize the importance of a professional, well designed and functional IPS site.

Bo

[Jeff Nugent]

(Dave Butler @ Jun. 22 2006,08:05)

QUOTE

(Jeff Nugent @ Jun. 22 2006,07:28)

QUOTE

(John Dransfield @ Jun. 21 2006,03:56)

QUOTE

... In practice we find that jpegs that are about 1-1.5 MB in size are perfectly adequate. It goes without saying that the image should be good and sharp! - But you guys take such fabulous pictures if I judge correctly from what has been posted on the board.

...

A word of warning about publishing from jpeg images.  As the image that came from the camera they are good but start editing them, even rotating and especially resizing them and they leave all kinds of artifacts.

Do the rest of us a favour, if you send digital pics to John then either send the unaltered copy from the camera or convert it to a stable format such as tiff and then edit it.

There was a great introduction to this problem in  This Months PC World (available online)

Jeff, Your warning is well noted but posting such a topic might throw off alot of people who post jpegs because its so user friendly. I believe or guess for a better word is that everyone is not so familiar with the editing part of there pics other than resizing or just posting them on this forum. I  personally enjoy any photo thats posted regardless of the quality. The word Warning kind of throws up red flags in any post.

Sorry if that gave the wrong impression Dave.  By all means edit, resize and crop to your hearts content for the web.

My comment was for anyone who was going to take up John Dransfield's suggestion, earlier in this topic, and submit photos for publishing in printed form.

[John Dransfield]

Of course, you are right about TIFs being preferable to jpegs and indeed, what we submit to  the printer are TIF files, saved in cmyk mode. But my point is that many of the images you see printed in PALMS at present were derived from jpegs emailed to me, each consisting of about 1- 1.5 MB in size. They have reproduced extremely well. If I demand all images to be saved as TIFs and burned to a CD and posted, then I think we'll put off a lot of people. If we find that an image is not going to reproduce well, we can often ask for it to be submitted by snailmail on a CD.

And Yes, I really did mean Dypsis hybrids, of the D. decaryi x D. lutscens (or any other species) type. There have been many pictures posted of these putative hybrids and some of them are really super looking plants, yet we have no permanent documentation of the hybrids having been made and what they look like. As these plants become more an more widespread, we'll need to know their origin or else we shall start yet more new discussions on this website about what the palms are!

John

[JD in the OC]

John and others:

Speaking of hybrids I have good news:

Pistillate decaryi flowers that have reached anthesis:

 And here are developing seeds (D. decaryi x leptocheilos of course)

JD

[BS Man about Palms]

(JD in the OC @ Jun. 26 2006,20:32)

QUOTE

John and others:

Speaking of hybrids I have good news:

Pistillate decaryi flowers that have reached anthesis:

 And here are developing seeds (D. decaryi x leptocheilos of course)

JD

COOL!  

I haven't a clue how you were doing it, but I know WHAT you were trying to do.

Congrats JD!

Bill