User:Spinningspark

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My real-life name is Colin Hall. I am a retired electronics engineer and project manager. For many years I did not reveal my real-life identity on Wikipedia so that I could edit here without any concern over what my employers might think. Not that I have ever written anything about any company I worked for, or the products they make, except extremely tangentially. It was just that knowing an employer might be reading might subconciously colour my writing, which I did not want to happen. What I write is entirely for the purpose of improving Wikipedia, and I did not want any other consideration to creep in.

Wikipedia articles
I have written mostly on technical subjects, with a strong bias to the history of technology. Some of my earliest work was on 1920s filter designs which were widely used at one time, but were almost entirely missing from Wikipedia. As this was an area I knew about, it led to my first big tranch of article creation. They weren't my very first articles—I think that was on games and puzzles which also interest me, especially if they are mathematically or logic orientated. But I haven't written anything in that field recently. The majority of electronic/electrical engineering articles that have achieved Featured Article status to date have been written by me.

I have occassionaly dabbled in writing medical articles, especially when there is an electrical aspect to the subject. I am especially attracted to doctors who have carried out bizarre procedures that never caught on. In one year, much to my surprise, I got an award (barnstar type thing) for being one of the top medical editors. I am also still an active ice skater, but have contributed only a few sentences to Wikipedia in that field.

Quotes
"I will not tread your dusty path and flat, denoting this and that by this and that, your world immutable wherein no part, the little maker has with maker's art. I bow not yet before the Iron Crown, nor cast my own small golden sceptre down."

- JRR Tolkein, Mythopoeia

"People who put in all the commas betray themselves as moral weaklings with empty lives and out-of-date reference books."

- Lynne Truss

Referring to Wikipedia being like the proverbial million monkeys with a million typewriters eventually churning out the complete works of William Shakespeare;

"We aren't trying to produce something as difficult as poetry, but on the other hand we aren't as polite as monkeys, so it evens out."

- User:Jim.henderson

"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother."

- Albert Einstein ( more Einstein quotes )

"I agree with virtually everything he says, but find myself wanting to smack him for his intolerance."

- Simon Hattenstone on Richard Dawkins

"I prefer gas lighting"

- Oliver Heaviside, a major figure in the development of electrical theory, The Electrician, p. 452, 31 July 1896.

"The history of the Universe has been summed up thusly: "Hydrogen is a light, odorless gas, which, given enough time, turns into people.""

- John P. Wiley Jr, quoting Edward R. Harrison

My shortcuts

 * Editor's index to Wikipedia

Resources

 * Cornell University Library e-print arXiv
 * Physics factbook
 * WP:Library
 * European Patent Office
 * http://www.freepatentsonline.com
 * Langenscheidt Routledge German Dictionary of Physics ISBN 0415173388
 * German Technical Dictionary ISBN 0415335876, Google books preview, Amazon search inside
 * Meriam-Webster's dictionary of English usage
 * British Museum search by object ID number
 * http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/
 * MLA citation style from Long Island University
 * How to cite a patent
 * BSTJ index
 * Bell System technical journal at the Internet Archive. Extensive journal index at The Online Books Page
 * MeasuringWorth, for when undefined is not appropriate.
 * Library of Congress copyright renewals at the University of Pennsylvania.
 * Nostalgia Wikipedia.

Useful essays and discussions

 * How to disagree
 * List of fallacious arguments. See also List of fallacies.
 * Ten Commandments for Speedy Deletion
 * /Why I don't upload to Commons
 * /Plural of antenna
 * How many spaces should I leave after a period or other concluding mark of punctuation? from MLA official site.
 * /Two spaces at the end of sentences
 * Village pump (policy)/Archive 79
 * Village pump (policy)/Archive 85
 * automatic change of reference styles and here
 * User:JzG/Predatory and WP:CRAPWATCH
 * 50-year rule
 * Citation templates are evil

Miscellaneous

 * Apparently, according to this, I asked the most interesting question ever.
 * I created a 99,009 byte article in one edit (admittedly, I did sandbox it first). I would have made it 100k if I had realised how close to the milestone that was.
 * /Trivia
 * User:Smallbones has a wonderful collection of signs
 * /HMSO Licence