Tuesday, February 26, 2008

simple.wikipedia

started starting on the simple. Simple English wikipedia sucks. Depressing the number of dead links, stubs, and terrible articles. I'ma do what I do though and benchmark the skyscraper stuff with the best of 'em. I'll be doing the spanish simultaneously as well. It's a very small corner of the universe I've staked out, but my rinconcito kicks ass in its legitimacy.

Was plugging away at the history of the tallest building in the world 'til I got caught in the whole habitable floors v. architectural detail debate. Was going back and forth between giving it to Ulmer Münster or the Park Row building for a while and then it stopped being fun so I quit. Coullda written the definitive answer as the internet consensus is split and no one could have contradicted a well-articulated stance on the issue, but I just didn't care enough. The whole episode kinda soured me for a while and left me indifferent to everything.

I have a tendency to get bored easily. When inspired I am capable of doing anything, but once derailed it can take me a while to get going again. Lack of urgency is one of the biggest things I have to overcome (in wikipedia and everything else in life). Without a deadline, I get distracted to the point of inactivity. I need to be in a routine. Routines are great for me since I am a robot. I need to eat breakfast in the morning (and coffee and a muffin is NOT breakfast. Without 500+ calories and 20+ grams of protein I'll be grumpy 'til lunch), but other than that I am extremely flexible. Sleep schedules, physical activity, illness, external stimulation or lack thereof all have negligible effect on me. I'm down for whatever and rarely even notice my circumstances. As such it is important for me to put myself it good situations, otherwise I'll be content to wallow in my own filth in perpetuity. Once in a while wallowing in filth is fun and even healthy, but perpetuity seems a bit much.

This month I moved to Puerto Rico and had to get adjusted, but in March I should have my work, food, gym, beach, and other such things down to a science. Then I'll be free to over or underachieve in peripheral areas as much or as little as I please. I'm calling March to be my big wikipedia coming of age month.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Anexo:Rascacielos más altos

previously I had only been creating stub articles for dead links. I fixed bad links and created redirects. I was meek and timid and did nothing that could in any way be considered offensive. I never objected or did anything when someone edited one of my articles, even if they deleted a relevant link or something. After doing this for a while, I decided to make a decisive move and use all my acquired knowledge and internet stalking for good.

I basically rewrote the entire list of tallest skyscrapers on the Spanish wikipedia. Took me a while and there is plenty of room for improvement, but all in all I am quite proud of myself. I'ma have to update the list periodically to keep it fresh and I need to add some other stuff, but I was very pleased that no one objected to any of my deletions or additions. With my first major edit under my belt, I now feel like an official wiki dude.

Unfortunately that was all the interneting I did in January. Had a lot of loose ends to tie up as I was leaving the school at the end of the semester and moving to Puerto Rico, so my cyberproductivity was curtailed severely. I even killed off LEGOMAN, which hurt even more than I thought it would. Oh well, suppose I can only simultaneously half-ass on but so many fronts.

Think I'ma forgo the Portuguese and just get to work on the Simple English. Starting with the skyscrapers and then there are lots of potential projects.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Wikipedia:Meetup

met the folks who make the wikipedia. An eclectic assortment of eccentrics to say the least. Most of 'em were cool kids, but there were a few who I am glad exist primarily in wikipedia form. One of the things I love most 'bout the wikipedia (and libraries and parks and other public places)is that everyone is welcome and no one, no matter how dirty/weird/scary, has any more right to be there than anyone else. I find non-discrimination against the unorthodox to range from pleasantly refreshing to hilarious. I thoroughly enjoyed being peers with them wiki folks.

Not the highest girl to guy ratio and I wouldn't like our odds in a gang fight, but some interesting opinions were shared and a few took the opportunity to vent long pent-up frustrations with what they assumed to be sympathetic ears. It was an enlightening evening and I am very glad I attended. Met a bunch of editors and administrators and someone from the Wikimedia Board of Trustees. That's right, within weeks of joining up with the wikipedia I was having drinks with one of the 7 board members.

Learned lots of insider information, heard rumors and gossip (wiki folks love wiki gossip), got some questions answered, and felt an overall sence of warmness and pride at being a member of such an unintentionally exclusive society.


Monday, November 26, 2007

es.wikipedia

now I don't like excuses, but I did go from working 12 to 52 hours a week and was out of town both of these last weekends for Thanksgivings in Michigan. Let's chalk November and December up to transition months. I know that's kinda lame, but it's still a whole lot better than what you're not doing.

I was starting to get into a groove with the Spanish building stubs . With the English ones I had to start from scratch, but with the Spanish I could mooch off of the other wikis. My info was still coming from legit sources, but sometimes I could get pictures from the other language pages. I say sometimes, 'cause not all the wikis are fully integrated. If you post something on the German one for example, it is only accessible to people from inside the de.wikipedia. In order to make things universally available, they must be posted in the wiki commons. I wasn't quite sure how the wiki commons works, and figured I'd wait until I did some more of the much needed gruntwork in the Spanish section, but then the English guys upped the stakes.

My whole wikipedia foray is a comically ridiculous undertaking, but inspiring in its scope of ambition. Figured I was charting new territory and anticipated blazing trails wherever I reckoned they should go. Obviously no one had standardized stuff, and after filling in the blanks that was gonna be my thing. I was gonna initiate a tsunami of organization that would sweep through the languages of the Americas (minus French due to irrelevance) leaving only a homogenized presentation of information in its wake. Then some English guys started a skyscraper team that has the potential to compete with my megalomaniac fantasy. I don't have enough street cred to join 'em, and their existence jeopardizes the implementation of my master plan.

It prolly won't matter, and if I own the Spanish and Portuguese I can still defeat them in a versus for the Simple English. This competition was nonetheless unsettling, and combined with my wiki time being culled resulted in an unproductive end to November.

I'll try to regroup and formulate a more aggressive gameplan in light of these recent developments. Depending on what's on there at the moment, Puerto Rico in its entirety might get wikicommoned. I don't fancy myself much of a photographer, but perhaps being the source of google image search results is my destiny. I know this November entry is kinda hurtin, but January's might be phenomenal. I may, in true wikipedia fashion, get sidetracked by so many other interesting things that the original objective lies buried beneath a train of thought wreck.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Wikipedia

So it begins.

I love the wikipedia in every non-sexual meaning of the verb. I own more reference books in more languages and they compose a higher percentage of my total material possessions than anyone ever. You don’t even want to know about me and my 2001 Almanac. Or the 2003 one. Prolly wouldn’t even believe me if I did tell you. And once you realized that I wasn’t exaggerating you wouldn’t be incorrect to have me hauled off in a straight jacket.

Whatever, I’m sure you got some quirks too.

One of my favorite things ‘bout wikipedia is that you can read the article in other languages. Listening to multiple opinions is always a good idea, especially when the validity of the information you are receiving is completely unknown. Usually English is the best/longest/most thorough of the user generated things, but sometimes you get an all-star who wrote a thesis in another language. The wikipedia can also be used as a translation tool. Just type in whatever you want in English and then look on the left side where they have the page in other languages. This is how I stumbled across simple English.¹

Simple English is English written on a Forrest Forrest Gump level. They break it down as: “Articles in the Simple English Wikipedia use fewer words and easier grammar than the original English Wikipedia. The Simple English Wikipedia is also for people with different needs, such as students, children, adults with learning difficulties and people who are trying to learn English. Other people use the Simple English Wikipedia because its simple language helps them to understand unfamiliar topics or complex ideas.”

Awesome. I support the cause. Got me plenty of experience ‘splaining stuff to kids and folks with limited English abilities too. I am very qualified to be a contributor to the Simple English. Their lack of articles and dearth of weirdoes provides plenty of room for me to conquer. Mwah ha ha ha. I had always figured my initial foray into the wikipedia was going to be translating Spanish articles into ‘Merican. I was also gonna learn Portuguese by translating it into English. A pretty ambitious language acquisition technique to be sure, but one based on practical implementation with immediate gratification. And I would be contributing to the dissemination of wisdom that has been for too long sequestered into isolated ghettos of mutually unintelligible vernaculars. ‘Cept I am way to lazy to get into that habit. Was ‘possed to have been studying Portuguese for the past several months now, but aside from an occasional visit to globoesporte that hasn’t happened. If I wind up going to Brasil in December I may regret my summertime sloth, but at the moment I lack the motivation of necessity.

Simple English provided the impetus for me to register with the wikipedia and dip my proverbial toes into the waters of the World Wide Web upon which I had been so adeptly surfing. Made a correction and then clicked on a tutorial editing page and clicked ‘til I emerged in the metapedia. Metapedia is hardcore. It’s where the dudes who write the propaedia hang out. If you don’t what the propaedia is, you’ve prolly never awoken from an alcohol induced state of unconsciousness and found yourself to be in the midst of cross-referencing sources across centuries. Metapedia is hardcore. I was elected ambassador from the Simple English realm, but quickly realized I need to first become at least a medium sized fish before properly repping my relatively miniscule pond.

Figured I’d pay my dues on the biggest baddest one and then translate ‘cross the ‘Mericas to build up all kinds of cred. If I got English, Spanish, and Portuguese on my resume, my gravitas in the Simple should be unquestioned. A few snags were encountered on account of what I humbly assume to be my unprecedented badassness, but this issue was quickly resolved. Like I said, earning my keep through bootstrap pullage. The glamour lies in the willingness to perform thankless perfunctory tasks. Starting out by writing articles that were red linked. Of the top 200, 27 were red linked when I embarked upon my cleanup. Created an ideal stub template and have been filling in the gaps. Not editing other people’s sorry-ass stubs yet, that will be cleanup 2.0. First I’ll de-red link the lists in Spanish and Portuguese. Not sure if I’ll do the Simple ones then or hold off until cleanup 2.0 sweeps away the filth of Augean stables. I’m talking conquest. Perhaps I’ll ease into it, just kinda depends.

As updating the pretentious yuppie blogspot has long been a bane, might as well up the stakes and turn this into my wikipedia memoir. ‘Least ‘til my wikipedia entry becomes the ultimate masturbatory retinue.

________________________
¹ While I was discovering the most macho twin names ever: Zakil and Zakar. Call ‘em the Zozo boys. You can’t get any more testosterone-laden than that. And just wait ‘til you find out what those words mean.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

“I invited you here to tell you that you are a big jerk and I hate you. You are a bad man and everyone should hate you and not listen to what you have to say.”
“There are no homosexuals in Iran”

And thus began the week of ridiculousness. Once a year the United Nations stops being a worthless bunch of bureaucrats in a crumbling building and becomes a circus. I love the circus. Hugo Chavez tells jokes and gets applause like Michael Moore at Cannes. For some reason Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is very important and Fox news guys want to lynch him. What great fun!!!

Meanwhile, real developing stories include monks in Myanmar and Kosovo independence. My money says no to both. If the junta starts slaughtering people, no one would care. Kofi Anan and George Bush and Tony Blair all called Darfur the “G” word, but George Clooney is the only one who still remembers. Myanmar’s increased fuel prices pale in comparison to everything in Zimbabwe, but that is drawing less media attention than OJ Simpson. Kosovo could cause all kinds of problems for nations not interested in having an oppressed minority gain sovereignty. Russia, Turkey, Iran, and little guys like Macedonia and Cyprus can easily recruit a few more against US-Euro backed Kosovo and make it in everyone’s best interest that nothing happens. So much for democracy and freedom and all that.

The circus is what we all want to see though. The UN is pretty much useless when it comes to actually doing anything, but when they open the floor up to the empty rhetoric of charismatic leaders aflush with petrodollars it is the Greatest Show on Earth.



Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Superconducting Super Collider

what an awesome name. Super is used twice in the span of three words. Not since the Mario Bros. Mario Mario and Luigi Mario has there been so much repetition. Particle accelerators are pretty cool. I don't really know what they do, something 'bout Steven Hawking and his GUT, but they sure have cool names like Bevatron and Tevatron and Superconducting Super Collider. The Superconducting Super Collider was gonna be the superest of 'em all, but it cost too much and got shut down. Not quite as embarrassing as the Ryungyon hotel, but check out this quote "Abandoning the SSC at this point would signal that the United States is compromising its position of leadership in basic science." Awesome, now we know precisely the moment when we lost to Singapore.
I say we build more really expensive physics stuff. Space exploration and tourism is cool and I'm all for that, but we should also build enormous circles where we mash stuff together and make black holes. Tell me you don't want your tax dollars going to build this: