Created Osomite's User Page 06:08, 8 July 2013
So here I am almost seven years later and I have not written anything on my "created user page".
My first edit as a registered Wikipedia editor was on September 28, 2007, in the article one-hoss shay. Who knew that I had subject matter expertise in the high-tech area of one-hoss shays?
Osomite (talk) 18:10, 28 May 2020 (UTC)
17Y
Does the Golden Bear Defecate in the Woods?
About Me
editI am not exactly a computer Luddite, although I am not exactly sure that electricity works--it's all magic to me (if you can't see it, it must be magic).
In 1963, in Engineering School at UC Berkeley (Go Bears!), I was in the first course that taught computer programming.
I have degrees in engineering, systems management, management and finance (BS, MS, MBA).
In my previous life, I have worked as an Industrial Engineer, operations research analyst, computer systems analyst, systems engineer, developer, system designer, and software development manager. I still have the punch card deck for the last Fortran program I wrote in 1979.
At one time I worked with a man who was a mainframe systems engineer who worked on the team that invented COBOL. Grace Hopper was a member of that team. She was the person who coined the term "bug" (you know, when a piece of program software has an error, that defect is called a bug), but that's another story.
Beginning in 1973, I started my career in "data processing" as it was called back in the day. My first computer was a "mini-computer" which had 32K of memory, a 20-megabyte hard disk (yes, megabytes), and a FORTRAN compiler. This computer, although was "state-of-the-art" technology at the time, compared to the 21st Century stuff, it was very fundamental. It had "blinking lights" on a thing laughingly called "the program console". To initially start the computer it had to be bootstrapped by entering an assembly language (aka machine code) program manually into the program console register--this bootstrap program consisted of 32 Hexidecimal commands that had to be perfectly entered into "the program console", otherwise nothing happened. This "bootstrap" machine code program, after being perfectly entered, then reads a punched tape program from the connected teletype console. At this point, finally, the operating system program which was called "RTOS" (Real-Time Operating System) was in memory and that was the starting place so the FORTRAN compiler could be used. RTOS was long before Microsoft entered the industry and created the Windows operating system and all that "end-user" software. Whatever I did had to be created from scratch, written in FORTRAN (it was Version IV, but still, the error diagnostics were pretty primitive). The disk drive was about the size of a washing machine and the removable 20-meg hard disk weighed about 20 pounds--ah, the good old days.
Bear Flag Republic
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A Thought About the Quality and Accuracy of Wikipedia
editAfter I wrote this section I came across an actual Wikipedia article that said that Wikipedia is not a reliable source:
Check out this Google search, it seems the unreliability of Wikipedia is a thing:
- Is Wikipedia reliable? Sometimes. Unfortunately many times I find myself being critical of the content.
- I often look to Wikipedia for information; I land on an article and think, "Who wrote this mess." The Lead doesn't give you a clear "big picture" and typically, it has been poorly written. I am a Wikipedia editor so I try to make it better. I spend time doing research and put some effort into rewriting the Lead so it can do what it is supposed to do.
- I am not a prolific Wikipedia editor. I read Wikipedia articles and see things to fix. I read about things in newspapers, magazines, and books; I watch movies; I then look to Wikipedia to see what is said. Sometimes I find things to fix, sometimes I find things to add. My goal is to make Wikipedia content accurate and not confusing. A lot of Wikipedia writing is good, but some writing is pretty bad. I fix the bad when I find it.
- I have put effort into making the overall content of an article creditable and written so it is not ambiguous. After time passes, I will return to the article, and due to "casual" editors changing this and that and changing it to that and this, the article content has been compromised. Many of these edits are just due to an editor's opinion about what "good editing" is. Changing words, tenses, and structure; little of which add any quality. And, sadly, typically it reduces the existing quality.
- Wikipedia is not reliable in many places due to the Wikipedian espoused theory of collaboration which results in a significant degree of disorder or randomness in the information's content and informational value. Wikipedia is an interesting work-in-progress.
- Perhaps Wikipedia should have a warning "Read at your own risk, the information contained in some articles, on the average, may be approximately correct."
- Is Wikipedia reliable? Sometimes. Often it would be good to obtain another source, just to make sure you are obtaining good, clear information that adds to your knowledge.
I Very Much Like This Song
editThe Big Country
Here is a link to the youtube version of the "The Big Count" theme
The theme from the movie "The Big Country"
And another version of "The Big Country"
And another "The Big Country" version
Ride Away - theme from the movie The Searchers
The Sons Of Pioneers - What Makes A Man To Wander
The Opening Credits and overture from the movie "Giant"
Also the theme from the movie "Giant"
And this version of the "Giant" theme is Ok too
And James Dean's best from "Giant"
Ballad of Jeremiah Johnson - The Way That You Wander
Opening scenes from the movie Jeremiah Johnson
The Ballad of Jeremiah Johnson by Brennen Leigh from her album "Too Thin to Plow"
North to Alaska by Brennen Leigh from her album "Too Thin to Plow"
Date Time Stamp
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| they | This user considers singular they standard English usage. |
| they | This user thinks the singular they is far less clumsy than the he-or-she writearound. |
| , | This user fixes comma-splices; they are annoying. |
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Date Time Stamp 2
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A Bear Type User Box Test
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For A Summary Of My Good Works
edit0% This user has created none of the 61,885,440 pages on the English Wikipedia.
User - What is in a name? A user is a user is a user. And doesn't that smell sweet? And, by any other name, would it still smell?
edit"User" - /ˈyo͞ozər/ - Wherever did this nomenclature come from? The movie Tron?
- User - A person who uses or operates something, especially a computer or other machine.
- To use something is to employ it or operate it, so a user is someone who uses or takes advantage of something. If you have a computer and use it for anything, you're a computer taker advantage ofer (AKA "user").
- And for some reason, if you have drugs, you "use" them and you are a "user". This might fall under the category of "taking advantage of drugs" I guess.
- a synonym for a user is "enjoyer". Now that is really forgetted up. "A computer enjoyer". Hmm, a Wikipedia enjoyer. I like that, let's change the use of the word "user" to "enjoyer". I like that. How can I get this started?
- user (n.) c. 1400, agent noun from use (v.). Of narcotics, from 1935; of computers, from 1967. User-friendly (1977) is said in some sources to have been coined by software designer Harlan Crowder as early as 1972. This is really sweet, a computer user is the logical descendent of a narcotics user. Sort of makes sense, if you don't use a computer with frequent regularity, it is the same as withdrawal from dope and you got to get back to being a computer enjoyer.
Like my dog, I am now going to mark my territory
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- I am a self-proclaimed expert in the subject of the Beckwourth Pass. The first edit I made on the Beckwourth pass was October 1, 2007. I have made several since, but at this point, I think I may have exhausted the subject. However, in my continuing search for the truth (I know it is out there), I will continue to undertake my research to see what might have been missed.
- So far, as of September 19, 2020, I have done 62 percent of the total edits on the Beckwourth Pass page.
- Take a look at the "Beckwourth Pass Statistics".
- That's enough for now.
I joined the "Typo" Team Today (The Typo Team) It is called The "TTT" for short. Or maybe it is called The "TT"
edit- Here is my TT pledge (as required by Wikipedia sharia law) ===
- Being dyslectic I can hardly identify a ytpo, but it seems sort of like a good idea to try to find them and to try to correct them to try to help make Wikipedia a ptyo free environment. Maybe it would be a good idea to start my work on this page. Unfortunately, as I do not have an OCD, I might not be too good a member of this illustrious Typo Team. I freely take this pledge, I have neither been coerced nor paid to make this pledge. So help me Wikipedia.
tyop
typoThis user is a member of the
Wikipedia Typo Team.
OMG! There is a Wikipedia Markup Language is called WIKITEXT
editOMG. I have been editing Wikipedia since 2007 and did not realize that there was documentation for the Wikipedia markup language.