User:Loadmaster



→ My current edit count → 13,000th edit (2018-08-10): The Few → 12,000th edit (2015-12-30): System time → 11,501st edit (2014-07-22): American Dream

→ 11,000th edit (2013-12-18): Binary-coded decimal

→ 10,500th edit (2013-06-06): Intel 4040

→ 10,000th edit (2013-01-15): USS Wyandot (AKA-92)

→ 9,500th edit (2012-06-04): S. E. Cupp

→ 9,000th edit (2011-08-29): Brian Clark (September 11 attacks survivor)

→ 8,500th edit (2011-01-12): COT → 8,000th edit (2010-05-24): Talk:COBOL → 7,500th edit (2009-08-28): User:Loadmaster → 7,000th edit (2009-08-28): Eiffel (programming language) → 6,000th edit (2009-05-12): Mystery Science Theater 3000

→ 5,000th edit (2008-10-25): Pink noise → 4,000th edit (2008-01-17): Template:Chset-tableformat → First edit (as user Loadmaster): Controversy over Cantor's theory (2006-04-11)

Using my work
If you wish to use any of the photographs or images created or uploaded by me, see the "Licensing" section for each image. Also refer to Commons:User:Loadmaster/permissions for more details.

Articles Started by Me

 * 4294967295
 * 9223372036854775807
 * Abby Hornacek
 * Balls and vase problem
 * Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts
 * Chris Muir (pic)
 * Composite odontoma
 * Concatenation (mathematics)
 * Control-Z
 * Curiosity Shop
 * EBCDIC 1047
 * EBCDIC 500
 * Edward P. Felt — deleted, Jun 2008
 * Eight Ones
 * Exit (operating system)
 * fg (Unix)
 * Half-carry flag


 * Harrison Ellenshaw
 * Jin-Song Chung
 * List of Lutheran schools in the United States
 * List of private schools in Texas
 * Nappily Ever After (film) — deleted, Oct 2007
 * Nappily Ever After (novel)
 * National Cartoonist Day
 * Necrorealism
 * North Korea Uncovered
 * Parent function
 * Path (variable)
 * Places of worship near Dallas, Texas — deleted, Oct 2010
 * Principle of Permanence
 * Public key fingerprint
 * Range-R
 * Roy Kurban


 * Sleep (operating system)
 * Smith (programming language) — deleted, Jan 2010
 * strtol
 * System time
 * Tequila Party
 * time_t — moved to C date and time functions, Nov 2011
 * Tribbles (game)
 * Usenet celebrity — see Category:Usenet people
 * User exit
 * Voluntary Content Rating — moved to User:ArneBab/Voluntary Content Rating, Dec 2010
 * Wait (operating system)
 * Won Chik Park

Other Pages Added by me

 * Asta (disambig)
 * Bank holiday (disambig)
 * Biff (disambig)
 * Blast! (disambig)
 * COBOL (disambig)
 * Concatenated SMS
 * Concatenation (disambig)
 * Eleusis (disambig)
 * Exec (disambig)
 * Felts (disambig)


 * Hendecatope (redirect)
 * Ketcham (disambig)
 * Killjoy (disambig)
 * Latitude (disambig)
 * Pennies from Heaven (film)
 * Shatner (disambig)
 * Sheetal (disambig)
 * Shive (disambig)
 * sin(x) (redirect), et al
 * Stubroutine (redirect)


 * Time share (disambig)
 * Topal (disambig)
 * Topal (surname)
 * Transcendental (disambig)
 * Tribble (disambig) See also: Tribble (surname)
 * Triblade (disambig)
 * Wait (disambig)
 * WfMC (redirect)
 * Wild Flower Festival (disambig)

Images Uploaded

 * See also the images I uploaded to Wikicommons
 * See also my Google Picasa portfolios
 * See also Requesting copyright permission
 * See also Moving images to the Commons


 * AshleighBrilliant3c.jpg (here)
 * Asta1.jpg (here) (deleted) replaced by: Asta in After the Thin Man trailer.jpg
 * Borax-20MuleTeam-7860c.jpg (here)
 * ChrisMuir2d.jpg (here)
 * DavidClennon1.jpg (here) (deleted)
 * DavidClennon2.png (here) (deleted)
 * DeathSeventhSeal.png (here) (cf: Palpatine ROTJ.jpg)
 * EdFelt_1.jpg (here) (deleted/orphaned)
 * Happy-Hill-Farm-1432c.jpg (here) (deleted)
 * HarpoMarx41e.jpg (here) (deleted 2012-02-10)
 * Hellmans-Mayo-6836e.jpg (here)
 * ISO-IEC-9899-1999-cover.png (here)
 * JohnDerbyshire1.jpg (here)
 * JohnDerbyshire2.jpg (here)
 * Koffee-Kup-Kafe-Hico-TX.jpg (here)
 * LaughingSutra-Salzman.jpg (here)
 * MarkSalzman.jpg (here) (deleted)
 * McEwansScotchAle-3182e.jpg (here)
 * MichaelShermer1.jpg (here)
 * MichaelShermer4.jpg (here)
 * Miss-Jane-Pittman-DVDcover.jpg (here)
 * More_short_11c.png (More)


 * NadineVelazquez1.jpg (here) (deleted 2011-02-16) ''replaced by: Nadine Velazquez.jpg
 * NickAndNoraCharles2c.jpg (here) (deleted 2007-08-07) replaced by: William Powell and Myrna Loy in ... .jpg
 * PatriciaKalember45c.png (here) (deleted)
 * Pepsodent-0179c.jpg (Pepsodent|Church and Dwight)
 * PerezPrado1.jpg (here)
 * PGPgui1.png (here) (replaced)
 * PGPkey1.png (here) (deleted)
 * PGPkey2.png (here) (deleted)
 * Quaker-Oats-4321.jpg (here)
 * Sarsaparilla-Hey-Song-4294.jpg (here)
 * SolyentGreen28d.png (here) (deleted)
 * Spamalot-0958.jpg (here) (deleted)
 * Steven-Seagal-Drink-4313.jpg (here)
 * Synergy-Audion1.jpg (here)
 * Synergy-Cords1.jpg (here)
 * Synergy-Games.jpg (here)
 * Synergy-Metropolitan1.jpg (here)
 * Synergy-Realizations1.jpg (here)
 * Synergy-Sequencer1.jpg (here)
 * TribblesGame.jpg (here)
 * USA-Taekwondo-logo.png (here)

Categories added by me

 * Category:Articles with character tables needing cleanup
 * Category:Black rock musicians (deleted 2009-06-18) (CfD)
 * Category:African-American rock musicians
 * Category:Black British rock musicians
 * Category:Character set table templates
 * Category:Popular mathematics books

Templates added by me

 * Template:Chset-cell3
 * Template:Chset-cell4
 * Template:Chset-ctrl3
 * Template:Chset-ctrl4
 * Template:Cleanup-chartable


 * Template:Chset-color-alpha
 * Template:Chset-color-ctrl
 * Template:Chset-color-digit
 * Template:Chset-color-graph
 * Template:Chset-color-intl
 * Template:Chset-color-punct
 * Template:Chset-color-undef


 * Template:Brown
 * Template:Cyan
 * Template:Inverse
 * Template:Magenta

Ideas for Wikipedia proposed by me

 * Village pump (idea lab) – English variants (dialects)

Character codes and code set articles

 * Code page 437
 * Code page 850
 * Code page 855
 * Code page 866


 * EBCDIC
 * EBCDIC 037
 * EBCDIC 285
 * KOI7


 * ISO/IEC 646
 * ISO/IEC 6937
 * ISO/IEC 8859-1
 * ISO/IEC 8859-2
 * ISO/IEC 8859-15


 * Windows-1250
 * Windows-1251
 * Windows-1252


 * Control-C
 * Control-V
 * Control-X

Articles Needing Improvement

 * Ashleigh Brilliant
 * C++ examples
 * Chris Muir
 * Cindy Morgan
 * Control-P
 * EBCDIC 037
 * Eight ones (via EO)
 * Exec (operating system)
 * Filename


 * Floyd M. Gunn Jr. High School
 * Harrison Ellenshaw
 * Instruction cycle
 * Landscape format
 * LR parser
 * Michael Shermer
 * Mirage (film)
 * PETSCII
 * Portrait format


 * Repeat loop
 * Spawn (operating system)
 * System (C Standard Library)
 * TI-58
 * Universe (mathematics)
 * User exit
 * Wait (operating system)
 * Richard T. Williams (Williams Field)

Other Sections

 * 9/11 memorial page for Ed Felt

Articles in progress

 * See: User:Loadmaster/Proposed articles

Articles that reference my other works

 * Canonical LR parser — Practical LR(k) Parser Construction (Dec 2004)
 * Compatibility of C and C++ — Incompatibilities Between ISO C and ISO C++ (Aug 2001)
 * Considered harmful — Go To Statement Considered Harmful: A Retrospective (Feb 2005)
 * Infinite monkey theorem — Chance and Probability (Jan 1998)
 * LR Parser — The Honalee LR(k) Algorithm (Apr 2006)
 * LR Parser — Practical LR(k) Parser Construction (Dec 2004)

Helpful links

 * Secure Wikipedia — HTTPS (SSL) connection to Wikipedia
 * Sandbox — Wikipedia sandbox for test edits
 * Special:Newpages — List of Wikipedia's newest articles
 * Special:RecentChanges — List of Wikipedia's most recent change edits
 * Special:PendingChanges — List of edits pending review
 * Help:Archiving a talk page — How to archive a talk page
 * Requested moves — How to request a page to be moved
 * Verifiability, not truth — Wikipedia operates on verifiable facts, not truth
 * Requesting copyright permission
 * Moving images to the Commons
 * Criteria for speedy deletion (WP:CSD)
 * Requests for page protection
 * Administrator intervention against vandalism
 * Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents — Bringing the attention of admins to to sensitive issues
 * Reference desk — User questions answered
 * Village pump — Discuss the technical issues, policies, and operations of Wikipedia
 * Help:ParserFunctions – Includes expressions, if-tests, formatting, etc.
 * Graphic Lab — Image editing requests and tools
 * Table of mathematical symbols — Symbols for cut-and-paste editing

Better screenshot images
To get the best screenshot images from DVDs, I use a technique of sampling two or more consecutive frames from the source film and then combining them together into a single image. Most graphics editing programs (I use Paintshop Pro) allow two (or sometimes more) images to be averaged together into a single image. The averaging smooths out the pixel noise of each individual image, making the result much cleaner than any of the source frames. The only trick to using this technique is getting two or more consecutive images that are alike enough so that the resulting combined image does not appear blurred. Non-moving subjects are usually the best to work from.

Example images created using this technique:
 * File:DeathSeventhSeal.png

Fighting Wikipedia Vandalism
The approach I take to fighting vandalism on Wikipedia is pretty simple. I check "my watchlist" page periodically, looking for edits made by unregistered users (i.e., users with IP addresses instead of user names). For each one of those edits, I click on the "diff" link for it. This displays the changes made by that user. If it's obviously vandalism, I then click on the user's name or the "contribs" link on the "diff" page, which shows a page listing all the contributions made by that user.

I can then check many edits made from the same IP address. Typically, several edits are made by the same vandal within the span of an hour or so. Reverting the edits is then a straightforward thing to do.

If a user looks like he is vandalizing pages, add a  tag to his Talk page. If the vandalism continues, add,  , and finally   tags. As a last resort, ask for administrator intervention against vandalism.

Another item to check is the inclusion of image Example.jpg within articles, which is a favorite target of vandals.

As an example of vandalism idiocy, see that 98 edits were made to the article on Pythagoras, none of which contributed anything of value.

Example of a blocked abusive vandal: User:Lookaroundyou (Oct 2007).

I am of the opinion that vandalism could be greatly reduced by simply limiting editing access to Wikipedia articles to only registered users, but apparently this goes against the current policy.


 * Marking bad new articles for deletion

A small percentage of new articles are simply nonsense or vandalism. These articles should be tagged with   tags so that they can be deleted:
 * — Generic deletion tag
 * — Person or organization of questionable importance
 * — Advertising for an organization or website
 * — Little or no content
 * — Patent nonsense


 * See also
 * Requests for page protection
 * Administrator intervention against vandalism
 * Counter-Vandalism Unit
 * Criteria for speedy deletion (WP:CSD)
 * Wikipedia is not for things made up one day (WP:NFT)

Cool signatures
Interesting, but typically HTML-intensive, signature graphics by some Wikipedia users that I've collected:


 * Red Pooka (Nov 2006)


 * Meteroid  Mete oroid » (Mar 2007)


 *  &gt; R a d i a n t &lt;  (Mar 2007)


 * ~ St ep tr ip  (Apr 2007)


 *  G o a r a n y    talk   (Apr 2007)


 *  P h a e d r i e l  (Apr 2007)


 * Starbli</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FFC000">nd</FONT> (May 2007)


 * <font color="002EB8" size="3">« <FONT COLOR="#ffa500">h</FONT><FONT COLOR="#ffa000">i</FONT><FONT COLOR="#ff9900">p</FONT><FONT COLOR="#ff9300">p</FONT><FONT COLOR="#ff8c00">i</FONT> <FONT COLOR="#ff7000">i</FONT><FONT COLOR="#ff6200">p</FONT><FONT COLOR="#ff5300">p</FONT><FONT COLOR="#ff4500">i</FONT> <font color="002EB8" size="3">»  (May 2007)


 *  &#8756; Therefore  talk  (Apr 2007)


 * <FONT COLOR="#151B8D">su</FONT><FONT COLOR="#3BB9FF">mn</FONT><FONT COLOR="#4AA02C">ji</FONT><FONT COLOR="#254117">m</FONT> (Jun 2007)


 * daniel folsom (Jun 2007)


 * <span style="font-family:Futura,Helvetica,_sans;color:#ddd7a3;font-size:95%;">THE PROMENADER  (Jul 2007)


 * †B lo o d p ac k† (Aug 2007)


 * ALLSTAR   ECHO  (Oct 2007)


 * SQL <sup style="color:#999">Query me! (Dec 2007)


 * JoshHuzzuh <font style="color:#FFFFFF;background:#FF3333;"> Talk (Dec 2007)


 * Anonymous Dissident (Jan 2008)


 * <span style="background:#880088 none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip:-moz-initial; -moz-background-origin:-moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy:-moz-initial"> X <span style="background:#FF8800 none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip:-moz-initial; -moz-background-origin:-moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy:-moz-initial"> S  <span style="background:#440044 none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip:-moz-initial; -moz-background-origin:-moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy:-moz-initial"> G   (Sep 2008)


 * &larr; Σc o  Phreek &rarr; (Nov 2008)


 * <font style="color:#ffffff;background:#008000;"> WORM <font style="color:#008000;">MЯOW (Dec 2008)


 * – ⊥¡ɐɔıʇǝo N  oetica! T– (Dec 2008)


 * <font style="color:darkblue; font-variant: small-caps;">Double <font style="color:blue; font-variant: small-caps;">Blue (talk) (Dec 2008)


 * لenna vecia  (Dec 2008)

Possible signatures that I could use:


 * <font color="#000000">Load <font color="#606060">master &thinsp;‡
 * Load<font color="#6060FF">master
 * <font color="#8000A0">Load <font color="#008040">master
 * User:Puppy talk


 * User:Puppy talk
 * Load master
 * User:Puppy talk
 * User:Puppy talk


 * Load m aster|undefined
 * Loadmaster
 * Loadmaster

Selected articles/categories nominated for deletion (AfD)

 * Articles
 * (1st, Sep 2006) → 
 * (2nd, Mar 2007) → 
 * (3rd, Jun 2007) → , merged into Notable Usenet personalities
 * (4th, Oct 2007) → 


 * (1st, Sep 2007) → No consensus (Keep)
 * renamed, was → Notable Usenet personalities
 * (2nd, Apr 2009) → 
 * AP has edited pages such as Talk:Archimedes Plutonium‎ from IP addresses in the range 216.16.55.* (PrairieWave.com)
 * renamed to → Usenet celebrity


 * (Apr 2007) → Convert
 * (May 2007) → 
 * (Jun 2007) → 
 * Entries in Category:United Airlines Flight 93 victims:
 * (Jun 2007) → 
 * (Jun 2008) → , redirected to United Airlines Flight 93
 * (Jun 2007) → , redirected to United Airlines Flight 93
 * (Jun 2007) → 
 * (Jun 2007) → No consensus (Keep)
 * (Jun 2007) → Redirect to United Airlines Flight 93


 * (Jul 2007) → 
 * (2nd) (Aug 2007) → No consensus (Keep)


 * (Oct 2007) → 
 * (Feb 2008) → 
 * (May 2008) → 
 * Sagan's Identity (Sep 2008) → 
 * (Sep 2010)
 * Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Likebox/Archimedes Plutonium (Jan 2011) → 
 * Articles for deletion/Imaginary unit (1 Apr 2012), an attempt at April Fools' Day (AfD?) humor → 


 * Categories
 * (Jun 2009) → 

Notable People I Have Met or Interacted with
(Who have articles on Wikipedia)

Made contact

 * Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull)
 * Alfred Chuang (BEA)
 * Jin-Song Chung (TKD)
 * Bill Coleman (BEA)
 * Frank Conniff


 * Kent Grusendorf (Darryl)
 * Greg Gutfeld
 * James Hong
 * Richard Hamming
 * Roy Kurban (TKD)
 * Wendell Nedderman


 * Roger Penrose
 * Ed Scott (BEA)
 * Bjo Trimble
 * Steven Weinberg

Exchanged emails

 * Bill Amend
 * Pete Becker
 * Ashleigh Brilliant
 * John Derbyshire
 * Poul-Henning Kamp
 * Stan Kelly-Bootle
 * Scott Meyers


 * Chris Muir
 * P. J. Plauger
 * Archimedes Plutonium
 * Dennis Ritchie
 * Michael Shermer
 * Bjarne Stroustrup (C++)

Other Stuff

 * The Bicholim conflict article, a well-done hoax. Probably perpetrated by user A-b-a-a-a-a-a-a-b-a.


 * Steven Colbert's infamous Wiki edit of the George Washington article: diff.


 * User:AndrewDavis and User:24.107.41.241, who is (was) Bill Amend.


 * My attempt to solve the infinite monkey theorem at this web page, but which was removed from the article (Mar 2007) with no explanation.


 * The defacing of the Scooter Libby wiki article as reported by Wonkette (wonkette.com article and image) is a fake. No such revision exists between 2007-02-21T03:42:49 (when the caption on his picture was changed) and 2007-03-06 23:57:56 (past the date of the defacing "discovery" on 2007-03-06), purportedly done by User:12.182.129.106. — 18:43, 7 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I predicted (on 2007-04-02) that Wikipedia would reach 5,000,000 articles on 2011-09-14 at Five-million pool (Image); it reached 5m around Aug 2015. Selected historical article counts are here.
 * → Current number of articles:  (stats) (old stats)


 * The Seigenthaler controversy, which details the problems of editable biographical information on Wikipedia.


 * I proposed the possible inclusion of a new "certificate (serial) number" field to Template:Infobox Film. For example, the film Lost Horizon (1937) has MPAA certificate no. 2006, and 300 (2007) has certificate no. 42864.


 * Archimedes Plutonium resorted to legal threats after a long series of incendiary posts against WP editors over his displeasure at being categorized in List of Usenet personalities as an "eccentric" newsgroup poster, and after being blocked for a vandalizing edit. (May 2009)


 * Embedded wiki tags:
 * → July
 * → 29
 * → 2024


 * Buglarian football player Vasil Panayotov, and Portuguese player José Fonte, in case anyone thinks that Wikipedia contains too much useless information.


 * John Derbyshire's own edits of his bio page → here (2009-07-08).


 * Kevin D. Williamson appears to approve of his WP bio page → here.

Tags, etc.
WikiProject Rational Skepticism
 * Other Projects