User:Terry Bollinger

2017-06-19.13:14 ET Mon -- Tag issue: I have no idea who added to the Wikipedia page on me

For the first time in many years I looked at the top (only) of the Wikipedia entry for me.

I was surprised to see it had been tagged for being "autobiographical," meaning apparently that it now contains a lot more detail about me. I did not read any further, so I do not know what materials have been added.

It has been my policy for many years not to read that page. Many years ago in response to a direct update request from someone in Wikipedia I supplied some specific web references that would have been hard for anyone else to find, and that was the last time I read it. It was short and not autobiographical at that time.

I would never ask anyone to to edit that page for me. I find even the thought of doing that to be ethically abhorrent.

If someone impartial who knows Wikipedia but not me personally could look at the page for my name and assess whether that particular tag is accurate or could be retired, I would appreciate it. I suspect that most readers would interpret the current tag to mean that I likely asked a close friend to update the page for me. I assert here and give my word that this implication is not correct. I do not know what has been added, nor by whom, nor when such materials were added.

2016-10-05.11:09 EST Wed - Status and content updates by Terry Bollinger

The best email at which to reach me is terry bollinger at gmail dot com, with spaces removed. Please avoid using my older terry at terry bollinger dot com email, as I almost never check it.

Wikipedia has an entry for me here, but I scrupulously avoid looking at it or asking friends what it says. A badly out-of-date (as of Oct 2016) personal web page is located at terrybollinger.com. I'm also active on Stack Exchange (especially Physics and Chemistry), and participate in LinkedIn, G+, and Facebook.

On July 22, 2016 I retired from my day job at the non-profit MITRE Corporation. MITRE investigates a wide range of technical issues for government customers and looks for better (and often private sector) solutions. I was deeply involved for years and especially at the time I retired in artificial intelligence and robotics, particularly helping to obtain university and small company funding for new and promising lines investigation, which MITRE folks can do since they are forbidden to complete for federal contracts.

Topics which others tell me I'm plausibly knowledgeable include human information processing aspects of programming, software design, software development process, software reuse, and certain aspects of open source software. My view on software development processes is that good programming are the fundamental basis for all mature and well-structured approaches to team and corporate processes. This differs sharply from definitions of process maturity that treat programmers as if they were the source of all problems. On another topic, I'm appalled at the depth of the malware problem, which was terrible as far back as 2004, and has gotten worse, not better.

I also deeply enjoy and am conversant in the hard sciences, especially physics and chemistry. I consider Richard Feynman one of the best, if not the best, physics writers of the 1900s. You have not read a truly good book on how odd quantum mechanics can get if you have not read his book QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter. If you are one of those who thinks the peculiarities of quantum mechanics are overstated or over-dramatized, please, read Feynman's QED book carefully.

I've been an editor for IEEE Software, and I stay involved there. I have other hats I try not to use much, including writing the founding charter for IEEE Security & Privacy.

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