User:Vicki Reitta

About me:

My real name isn't Vicki Reitta (surprise, surprise). Try to speak the name - get it?

I'm not even a female :-(

I'm just an older guy (50+) who is also an avid Wikipedia user. I'm using Wikipedia more often than my toothbrush, even more often even than Google.

Back in 1982, when I bought my first computer, a Sinclair Spectrum, I thought: "Wow, great! That's what computing is all about - but how about a computer that one could use to do some work with, like writing?" I than bought my second computer a Commodore 64 (which I used to write my doctoral thesis on, one chapter on one disk - 21 in all, two chapters were too large to fit on one disk).

And then I started to dream:

What about a computer about as large as the Sinclair Spectrum with a better keyboard, working on batteries and with a screen attached to it?

I got that. And when I bought my last laptop this year it still cost the same as the C 64 with diskdrive. But it's much more useful.

Later, in 1986, when mobile phones came up - suitcase-sized:

How about a mobile telephone the size of a walkie-talkie?

I got that. They got cheaper, but then I only use them to make phone calls (for anything else I got my computer, even with wireless broadband).

Even later, when someone introduced me to hypertext:

How about using hypertext not limited to my own computer?

I got that. And nothing much has changed, I'm still following the same line updatewise (after Netscape its now Firefox). When Google needs 36 pages of a comic strips to explain the advantages of Chrome, you know it can't be that shiny. But then a software like MS Word hasn't much changed in the 21 years I'm using it now (1987-2008), as automobiles haven't changed much, or why do they mass produce replicas from the 1950s now?

How about searching (and finding) information?

I got that. I got more search options in the mean time, thanks.

But then, when I tried to get some useful information out of the Internet, I got stuck.

In the 1990s one could use the Encyclopædia Britannica and pay per article - if you'd downloaded all articles you'd paid the price of a comfortably sized family home! And even today they got less than 123000 articles! In one language only!

Please!

But then Wikipedia started to develop. And for me it has proven its value as a "secret weapon" with my translation work. Even the most extensive (and expensive) dictionaries cannot beat it.

So the only wish I've got left (besides things that only can be dreams in my lifetime) is a cheap, working public transport system.

I have to admit: One has to be sceptical about so called Open Source Projects. People working for free? So other people can use their work? Even commercially?

Well, in this case I feel I need to make an exception: Now I want to give back some of the value I already have drawn from your work. I want to start with making some random corrections and updates. And if time allows I'll start making additions or even write one or two entries myself.

Fields I've got expertise in include: Law, modern philosophy, social sciences, Germany, Austria, Denmark, and most of the combinations hereof as: German law, Austrian philosophy (Wittgenstein, Freud, Popper &c.), Danish society. If you've got any requests concerning this, you're more than welcome to contact (! even seemingly simple entries can often do with some improvements) me.

PS: And my dreams did't include: An electrical toothbrush (useless). A razor with even more blades (what's the point?). A digital watch (did use one in 1982, and still do - not the same though).

PPS: But could anyone please make a laptop battery that runs for nine hours (that is "max. running time of 36 hours" for all you marketing guys)? Thanks.