I would like to share my experiences of becoming a Wikipedia editor and contributor, which is also referred to as “Wikipedian”. Let it entertain you and also teach you some lessons at the same time. I hope it will encourage you to start contributing to Wikipedia as well and also be a warning about possible pitfalls you should try to avoid. 1st EditMy first Article at Wikipedia, which I edited via my Wikipedia account (and not anonymously. Which I never did, at least not on purpose :)) was the article for “Superior Art Creations” on 12/31/2005. Realizing What Wikipedia IsThe article was already there, which amazed me (the sheer fact that it existed in Wikipedia). It also made me realize what Wikipedia is and what makes it so great compared to oldschool Encyclopedias like the Encyclopedia Britannica or the German Brockhaus. Wikipedia was not limited in size, like the printed encyclopedias and also not by the finite limit of knowledge and resources the creators and editors of classic encyclopedias have. SAC did not impact the course of world history, but it played a role for thousands of people around the globe at a specific time of the history of Bulletin Board Systems, the Warez Scene and Text Art (ASCII art in particular). I found the article by accident. I decided to write down and make public my activities and experiences, primarily between 1992-1998, in the world of BBS, warez, demoscene, scene art, ASCII art, ANSI art, cracking and cracktros etc.[…]
I traveled a couple days a go back in time to the year 1994 to an internet marketing and advertising conference. Wait a moment. Did I say 1994? Yes I did and I am not trying to trick you. See here the video recording of one of the first, if not the first internet marketing and advertising conference, which was held on November 4th,1994 in San Francisco, California. What happened?Ken McCarthy is the first speaker and talks about opportunities. He was very forward thinking and you might think that what he says is obvious and logical. They were not in 1994. The second speaker is Marc Andreessen, co-Founder of Netscape, which was founded just a bit earlier in 1994 as well after the overwhelming success and popularity of their software called “web browser”, the original “Mosaic” and the creation of the World Wide Web as we know it today.The Web is just existed for a year or so when the conference was held.link to videoIt was a nice trip back in time. It also brought some memories back and a chuckle when I heard Ken talk about the role of BBS systems in the growth of the internet.I have to say that he was a bit off when it comes to the role of Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) would play in getting people online by becoming something like a mini-ISP. True, a lot of BBS software development companies were jumping on the bandwagon and worked on internet integration into their[…]
A fellow ASCII artist with the pseudonym “Skylined” over at deviantART sent me something cool and unique and makes me rethink about “the death” of text art in the internet age. It’s pretty much kicking butt for something that was announced dead by Microsoft over a decade ago. He does not have a real website (the URL I got works sometimes and sometimes it does not) and what he did can not be displayed at deviantART, so I asked him for permission to put it on my website and he was okay with it. What he did is a combination of Text art and cool JavaScript coding to get the desired effects. The first one is a horizontal scrolling “Star Field Effect” emulation, which used to be very popular during the end of the eighties and nineties with demosceners and crack intro coders alike. It also “fades in” and out an ASCII logo, which can be easily replaced by different logos, because it is pulled dynamically from an external text file on the fly. No coding necessary. You can see the real-time “Star Field” animation here or click on the image. The second piece is even cooler in my opinion, but the graphic is not as easy to replace. It is possible though, but you need to know a bit about JavaScript that you done screw it up. The Animation contains two main parts. The first one is a “Morph” effect between four different ASCII logos, which are also cool[…]
I took the time (had to) to visit the U.S. consulate in Berlin, Germany to get a new visa document into my passport while I was in Berlin last week on Thursday. My old one expired last October, but I already got the approval papers for my visa extension for 3 years (l am living in the U.S. for over 7 years already, but do not have any Green card yet). Okay, this is nothing worth to bug you with, but this is also not the reason why I am writing this.I had an appointment at the U.S. consulate at 8 am that morning and was waiting in line when I noticed some familiar faces in the crowd of people that were waiting as well.It was my favorite Band, the two members Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson. They are the British EBM band VNV Nation.I engaged them and asked what (WTF was actually the precise thought that crossed my mind at that moment) they are doing close to 8 am at the U.S. consulate in Berlin, Germany.It turns out that they got them paper work done for the upcoming U.S. tour and they were giving a concert in Berlin that night, so they decided to get their visa’s for the U.S. here. That does make sense.No picture to proof it, because no camera was available anywhere (including no camera cell phone), which is no coincidence, because you are not allowed to bring any electronic device (including cell phones, iPods, Blackberries[…]