User:MediaMangler

Professional Interests
I probably won't be contributing much in these areas, since it would feel too much like work, but they will inform my attitudes in several respects.
 * Computer Programming
 * Intrusion Detection
 * Computer forensics
 * Application-specific integrated circuit
 * Massively parallel computers
 * Programming for VLIW

Other Interests

 * Net kooks
 * Castles
 * Tourism
 * History
 * Military history
 * Junk science
 * Pseudoscience

Employment and Location
I retired from the US Department of Defense after 31 years of civilian service. I spent two years in Stuttgart and another two years living in Eltville.

I lived in Maryland for most of my adult life but have now moved back to Oklahoma.

Articles I would like to write
Others have done a better job than I could have done on all the topics I previously had listed here.

Why I'm a Wikipedian
Basically because of the manner in which an article was written about Jeffrey Vernon Merkey. The way in which the Wikipedia community handled such a controversial subject, in spite of Mr. Merkey's provocations and the actions of his more irresponsible critics, was very impressive.

As a result of watching how the community originally dealt with Merkey, I became interested in the actions of other vandals and largely restricted my activities to RC patrol and other vandal fighting actions.

As a result of later actions concerning Merkey, I have also become very interested in the Wikipedia power structure.

These days, I tend to be more an observer than a participant

Accounts on other sites
In the past, I have very rarely posted on the SCOX message board as "mediamangler" and, even more rarely, on Groklaw as "MediaMangler".

Signature quote
I've used the following as an Email signature for many years: "Life is just one long software upgrade."