User:Rusty Cashman
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Professional history
[edit]I am a software engineer who has worked on embedded system software and on data communication protocols, on devices such as cable modems, VoIP systems, and wireless comunication devices. I played a role in the early development of both the CDPD and DOCSIS systems, and I am currently working in the areas of Ultra-wideband and IEEE 802.15. For more information see my linkedIn profile.
Areas of interests
[edit]Although my professional expertise is in SW engineering I rarely edit those articles. Instead I do most of my editing on articles related to the history of science and evolutionary biology which are long standing interests of mine.
Personal beliefs relevant to Wikipedia
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- I believe it was no accident that the greatest literary project of the enlightenment was an encyclopedia.
- I believe that Wikipedia represents a major step towards Isaac Asimov's Encyclopedia Galactica, a nearly comprehensive summary and distillation of human knowledge.
- I also believe that Wikipedia is one of the best practical realizations of Ted Nelson's hypertext concept even though he probably hates it. Whenever I use Wikipedia as a reference I never stop with the article I started with, so I believe that cross linking between articles is incredibly important and I try to spend time adding cross links wherever I find them missing.
- I believe that Wikipedia should be as easy to use as possible so I also spend time adding redirects.
- I believe that many otherwise reasonably good articles on scientific topics don't have enough historical context.
- I believe that biographical articles should always tell you why the subject was important enough to merit an article. In particular I think that means that a biographical article on a scientist should always include some discussion of the subject's work and how it fit into the historical development of whatever scientific field that person contributed to, not just a laundry list of career achievements.
History as a Wikipedian
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I had used Wikipedia as a reference for years, but I only became a Wikipedian, when I stumbled across an incorrect fact in the polar bear article back in August 2006. Naturally, after I corrected it, my edit was reverted out (probably by someone who thought I was a vandal) the next day. I managed to find some online references to support my position and managed to make my edit stick. Once I made one edit to the article I just had to make a few more improvements...
Articles I started:
- Nylon-eating bacteria - My first
- Nylon-eating bacteria and creationism
- History of paleontology - Made GA!
- Duria Antiquior - Outgrowth of history of paleontology
- Elizabeth Philpot - Outgrowth of Mary Anning
- John Jenner Weir
- The Malay Archipelago
- Charles H. Smith (historian of science)
- The eclipse of Darwinism - which someone renamed to The eclipse of Darwin for political reasons, but it finally got switched back.
- Evolutionary ideas of the renaissance and enlightenment
The 6th-8th grew out of my work on Alfred Russel Wallace, and the last 2 were spin-offs from History of evolutionary thought.
I am particularly proud of my contributions to:
- Alfred Russel Wallace - My biggest project, finally promoted to FA! Featured on Main page Jan. 8 2009.
- Georges Cuvier
- Catastrophism
- History of biology
- History of evolutionary thought - Finally made FA! Featured on main page Feb. 12 2009 (200th anniversary of Darwin's birth)
- Modern evolutionary synthesis - Much improved but still needs work.
- Bernhard Rensch -- ditto
- Stratigraphy
- Wallace effect
- Transmutation of species
- On the Origin of Species - Made it to FA in time to be featured on main page for the 150th anniversary of its publication in Nov. 2009.
- Mary Anning - Made it to FA.
- William Buckland
- Kirkdale Cave
I am a member of the Wikipedia:WikiProject History of Science project and its sub project the Wikipedia:WikiProject History of Biology. My current personal wiki-project is to improve articles related to early 19th century paleontology. I have been working on Mary Anning, which is now FA, and William Buckland, which is much improved. Now I plan to work on William Conybeare, Thomas Hawkins (geologist), John Phillips, Georges Cuvier, The Great Devonian Controversy and some others. I also plan to improve some of the articles connected to History of evolutionary thought.
Here is my edit count. I am not a big edit count guy, but I find the statistics about what I have been working on interesting.
Some things I am proud of
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Alfred Russel Wallace - Promoted to featured article status May 27, 2007.
History of evolutionary thought - Promoted to featured article status July 28, 2008.
On the Origin of Species - Promoted to featured article status June 20, 2009.
Mary Anning - Promoted to featured article status June 15, 2011.
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The Origins Award | |
| Thanks for all the fish, Rusty, and for doing so much to improve On the Origin of Species. . . dave souza, talk 11:02, 22 June 2009 (UTC) |
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The shiny new Darwin-Wallace medal
For your dedicated work on Alfred Russel Wallace - Shyamal 02:30, 27 May 2007 (UTC) |
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The Bio-star | |
| En avance de bringing Alfred Russel Wallace to FA status, and for some earlier contributions. Samsara (talk • contribs) 09:37, 30 April 2007 (UTC) |
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The Barnstar of National Merit
For excellent, dedicated and ongoing efforts to Alfred Russel Wallace -- --Merbabu 17:37, 7 April 2007 (UTC) |
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The Bio-star | |
| For helping to taking 2 important and complex works to FA, Origin of Species and Fertilisation of Orchids --Philcha (talk) 12:14, 13 August 2009 (UTC) |
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User:Rusty Cashman has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian, Peace, A record of your Day will always be kept here. |
Useful links
[edit]Rusty Cashman 06:26, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
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| 18 November 2024 |