Wikipedia Signpost:Raul654 asks: "Recently, there were revelations about organized attempts by US Congressmen to whitewash their articles. What is your take on this, as well as earlier reports of Corporate astroturfing?"
Jimbo Wales: The question is invalid. There were no revelations of organized attempts by US Congressmen to whitewash their articles. Not any evidence of "corporate astroturfing" of which I am aware. There was evidence that some congressional staffers edited Wikipedia in inappropriate ways. But the internal evidence of the type and style of these edits do not suggest "organized attempts".
WS:Nichalp asks: "Budget permitting, are there any plans to increase the number of Wikipedia servers, specifically into the less developed countries?"
JW: We are always buying new servers. There are no specific plans to add servers in less developed countries, but we have looked into it as a possibility. We are particularly interested in doing so if it helps increase access and reduce costs for those users.
WS:An anonymous reader asks: "How much of a role do you feel the Wikipedia community (and the communities of its sister projects) should have in the running of the Wikimedia Foundation? Do you see an increasing separation of the organization from the projects? If so, do you regard that as beneficial or a potential problem?"
JW: The community has always been and will always be absolutely crucial to the running of the Wikimedia Foundation. We are increasing the community input and activity in the foundation through a new series of committees to delegate things to community members which have traditionally been handled by me or the Board. I do not see any increasing separation of the organization from the projects, quite the opposite. I consider the increasing integration of the community and the foundation as overwhelmingly beneficial.
WS:ALoan asks: "English Wikipedia is approaching 1 million articles, but less than 1 in a thousand are Featured articles. The list of featured articles English Wikipedia should have has few featured articles, and recent surveys of articles chosen at random show that many articles are poorly written. How can we get from here to an encyclopedia of well-written articles? Or should we not worry too much about coverage and content?"
JW: We should be tightly focused on the quality of our coverage and content. The goal of Wikipedia is to create and distribute a freely licensed high quality encyclopedia. The path to that goal will require us to be flexible and thoughtful. The first steps will come soon with the article review system, which will initially be used simply to gather data. After we have data, we can begin to work on how we will focus our attention to improve quality.
WS:GeorgeStepanek asks: "You've said that 'Wikimedia's mission is to give the world's knowledge to every single person on the planet in their own language.' But very few of the wikipedias in the languages of third-world countries are seeing as much activity as the first-world language wikipedias. Do you have any ideas on how this could be turned around?"
JW: I am a believer in outreach. I would like for the Foundation to raise money specifically to pay one or more minority language co-ordinators. The goal would be to reach out in a more organized way to professors and graduate students and expat communities who have good Internet access, to seed projects for languages where the majority of speakers have poor internet access.
WS:Jacoplane asks: "How do you feel we will be able to reach Wikipedia 1.0? The tools currently available for vetting our articles are crude a
Perhaps you're right, but their recent rootkit shenanigans have caused me to Swear A Solemn Oath... I'll be in the market for a new TV very soon, and I know who I won't be buying from, and why; "different corporate divisions" be damned.
As for being "Insightful", yep, mods on crack. I was going for +1 "Smartass".
I built a Micro Ace, which was the solder-it-yourself version of the ZX-80. You got a bare PC (Printed Circuit) board, a bag of chips and resistors and such, and a stuffing diagram. Good Luck!
The first is a circa 1979 Intel MDS-235, the second generation of the MDS-800, the machine CP/M was written on. It was a Multibus machine, with a 2MHz 8085 processor (almost certainly the first production 8085 machine), 64K of static RAM (filled a full card), an integral 8" Single Density 128K floppy drive, and an external dual 8" Double Density 256K drive enclosure. My drive enclosure differs from the pictured one - the drives in mine are horizontal, so the unit is "only" about 6" high. I have the EPROM burner too, with 2716 (4K EPROM) and 2732 (8K EPROM) modules. The full package, new, cost $27,000.00 IIRC. I've got a ton of software for it (on 8" Dysan floppies), and all the books, too. My wife has been after me for 20+ years to get rid of it; at this point I'd like to find a good museum to donate it to. It was running OK the last time I used it, but I'm afraid the capacitors could be dried out by now, so I'm kind of afraid to turn it on.
The second is an Intel 310, which I can't seem to find any pictures of on the Internet. It's a Multibus box with a 12 MHz 80286 and a 10 MHz 80287 on one card and 512K static RAM filling another card. The disc drive was a full-height 5-1/4 20 MB (MFM) drive. It was a popular (??) box to run iRMX-86 (Intel's Realtime Multitasking OS) on, for controlling stuff. I used it to develop a controller for elevators in office buildings. I also had the Intel (licensed from Microsoft (licensed from the original SCO)) version of Xenix for it. I bought it about the time the PC-AT came out, for about $5000.00, and I've still got all the books and media for it.
Intel has made mass-market IBM-PC compatabiles in the past, but they haven't done that on a long time.
Go to www.gm.com, and select "Electro-Motive" in the "companies" category of the "GM Brand Web Sites" drop-down. EMD is still there, along with the other traditional GM companies, like Allison and ACDelco. I actually checked on EMD while writing my ealier post, intending to link to them, but decided not to be so long-winded.
I guess this means Wikipedia could be incorrect. <blink blink>
What? Are you saying General Motors can't make cars and trucks because they make engines? Did you know they make diesel locomotives, also?
I have several (old) Intel computers in my basement. Oddly enough, they use Intel CPUs.
Many manufacturers produce "brand labeled" products in the same plants, using the same parts that they use in their own products; for example Westinghouse producing their own washing machines, and also producing an identical unit with the Kenmore label.
Slashdot Mirror
For the man who needs to buy just one more stupid thing to get his wife to divorce him.
"I should have been bought by that other guy"
"You never listen to me"
"My mother told me not to let you buy me"
On and on and on. It's enough to make ya crazy.
I meant Eastasia. We've always been at war with Eastasia. Eueasia has always been our ally.
You are absolutely correct. We've always been at war with Eurasia.
Wikipedia Signpost: Raul654 asks: "Recently, there were revelations about organized attempts by US Congressmen to whitewash their articles. What is your take on this, as well as earlier reports of Corporate astroturfing?"
Jimbo Wales: The question is invalid. There were no revelations of organized attempts by US Congressmen to whitewash their articles. Not any evidence of "corporate astroturfing" of which I am aware. There was evidence that some congressional staffers edited Wikipedia in inappropriate ways. But the internal evidence of the type and style of these edits do not suggest "organized attempts".
WS: Nichalp asks: "Budget permitting, are there any plans to increase the number of Wikipedia servers, specifically into the less developed countries?"
JW: We are always buying new servers. There are no specific plans to add servers in less developed countries, but we have looked into it as a possibility. We are particularly interested in doing so if it helps increase access and reduce costs for those users.
WS: An anonymous reader asks: "How much of a role do you feel the Wikipedia community (and the communities of its sister projects) should have in the running of the Wikimedia Foundation? Do you see an increasing separation of the organization from the projects? If so, do you regard that as beneficial or a potential problem?"
JW: The community has always been and will always be absolutely crucial to the running of the Wikimedia Foundation. We are increasing the community input and activity in the foundation through a new series of committees to delegate things to community members which have traditionally been handled by me or the Board. I do not see any increasing separation of the organization from the projects, quite the opposite. I consider the increasing integration of the community and the foundation as overwhelmingly beneficial.
WS: ALoan asks: "English Wikipedia is approaching 1 million articles, but less than 1 in a thousand are Featured articles. The list of featured articles English Wikipedia should have has few featured articles, and recent surveys of articles chosen at random show that many articles are poorly written. How can we get from here to an encyclopedia of well-written articles? Or should we not worry too much about coverage and content?"
JW: We should be tightly focused on the quality of our coverage and content. The goal of Wikipedia is to create and distribute a freely licensed high quality encyclopedia. The path to that goal will require us to be flexible and thoughtful. The first steps will come soon with the article review system, which will initially be used simply to gather data. After we have data, we can begin to work on how we will focus our attention to improve quality.
WS: GeorgeStepanek asks: "You've said that 'Wikimedia's mission is to give the world's knowledge to every single person on the planet in their own language.' But very few of the wikipedias in the languages of third-world countries are seeing as much activity as the first-world language wikipedias. Do you have any ideas on how this could be turned around?"
JW: I am a believer in outreach. I would like for the Foundation to raise money specifically to pay one or more minority language co-ordinators. The goal would be to reach out in a more organized way to professors and graduate students and expat communities who have good Internet access, to seed projects for languages where the majority of speakers have poor internet access.
WS: Jacoplane asks: "How do you feel we will be able to reach Wikipedia 1.0? The tools currently available for vetting our articles are crude a
I think that extreme programming calls for "extreme user interviews" first. Maybe rubber hoses.
Actually, I put in some features to decieve you - to test your faith in the software.
As for being "Insightful", yep, mods on crack. I was going for +1 "Smartass".
Sony???
Is anybody still buying from them?
This is exactly what the JD Edwards on MS SQL Server customers are bitching about. Oracle has them over a barrel.
And how does it switch? The time for a magnetic field to collapse is much slower than a transistor.
How about "shooting rampage trainer" or "killing spree planner"?
They're all Turing machines. Except the PC Jr. ;)
You're thinking of the Micro-Ace. The ZX-80 came assembled. I had both.
I built a Micro Ace, which was the solder-it-yourself version of the ZX-80. You got a bare PC (Printed Circuit) board, a bag of chips and resistors and such, and a stuffing diagram. Good Luck!
The pizza shop had giant cold sores?
Ewwwwwwwwwww!!
The instant the topics start to repeat themselves, I (loudly) move to adjourn.
*ducks*
The first is a circa 1979 Intel MDS-235, the second generation of the MDS-800, the machine CP/M was written on. It was a Multibus machine, with a 2MHz 8085 processor (almost certainly the first production 8085 machine), 64K of static RAM (filled a full card), an integral 8" Single Density 128K floppy drive, and an external dual 8" Double Density 256K drive enclosure. My drive enclosure differs from the pictured one - the drives in mine are horizontal, so the unit is "only" about 6" high. I have the EPROM burner too, with 2716 (4K EPROM) and 2732 (8K EPROM) modules. The full package, new, cost $27,000.00 IIRC. I've got a ton of software for it (on 8" Dysan floppies), and all the books, too. My wife has been after me for 20+ years to get rid of it; at this point I'd like to find a good museum to donate it to. It was running OK the last time I used it, but I'm afraid the capacitors could be dried out by now, so I'm kind of afraid to turn it on.
The second is an Intel 310, which I can't seem to find any pictures of on the Internet. It's a Multibus box with a 12 MHz 80286 and a 10 MHz 80287 on one card and 512K static RAM filling another card. The disc drive was a full-height 5-1/4 20 MB (MFM) drive. It was a popular (??) box to run iRMX-86 (Intel's Realtime Multitasking OS) on, for controlling stuff. I used it to develop a controller for elevators in office buildings. I also had the Intel (licensed from Microsoft (licensed from the original SCO)) version of Xenix for it. I bought it about the time the PC-AT came out, for about $5000.00, and I've still got all the books and media for it.
Intel has made mass-market IBM-PC compatabiles in the past, but they haven't done that on a long time.
Christ I'm old; it's time for my nap.
I guess this means Wikipedia could be incorrect. <blink blink>
Yeah, but does it make my MP3s sound better?
What? Are you saying General Motors can't make cars and trucks because they make engines? Did you know they make diesel locomotives, also?
I have several (old) Intel computers in my basement. Oddly enough, they use Intel CPUs.
Many manufacturers produce "brand labeled" products in the same plants, using the same parts that they use in their own products; for example Westinghouse producing their own washing machines, and also producing an identical unit with the Kenmore label.
I have a really good idea for some wallpaper to replace that boring BSOD, that matches the theme, too.
When I lived in Nevada, I used to ask who had slipped that second "m" into "moron".
I think Novell should file a Second Ammendment claim asking to bear (and use) arms in their case against SCO.