User:74s181

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There is only so much time in the day, and there are priorities in my life that need more time and attention right now. So, while I don't expect to be completely absent from Wikipedia, don't be surprised if days go by without any contributions from me. 74s181 14:17, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

• This user thinks user boxes are just too cute but didn't want to miss out on all the fun.
• This user uses Internet Explorer on a PC running Windows, the computing platform of the people. This user has worked with but does not use a Mac, the computing platform of elitist snobs.<g>
• This user has used toggle switches to set boot device addresses.
• This user was familiar with chad long before it became famous in the 2000 election.
• This user has worked as a digital design engineer and developed several computer peripherals using 7400 series TTL integrated circuits.
• This user still owns a wire wrap gun and several soldering irons and knows how to use them. Be afraid.
• This user still owns a couple of EPROM programmers and has erased and reprogrammed EPROMs in order to force devices to do things the original manufacturer never intended. Be very afraid.
• This user was once an assembly language programmer, fluent on three CPU families, familiar with a couple of others.
• A Forth programmer this user once was 2 * .
• This user is embarrased to admit that he has written applications in nine different dialects of BASIC on six different CPU families.
• This user still occasionally dabbles with VBScript, ASP, and SQL.
• This user has worked in IT long enough to remember just how ugly things were before Bill Gates came along.
• This user is more or less self-educated and works for a living rather than living in an ivory tower paid for by people who work for a living. Even so, this user understands the difference between "its" and "it's", but may occasionally commit grammatical felonies. Deal with it.
• This user understands that today, most text is displayed rather than printed, and even when it is printed it isn't printed using movable type. Therefore, it isn't necessary to protect punctuation marks by putting them inside the quote.
• This user believes that Jesus Christ was born at the meridian of time and thinks that those who insist on replacing "Christ" (BC) with "Common" (BCE) are whistling in the dark.

I know that Wikipedia has pretty strong guidelines on personal attacks and criticism, but I really do need to be slapped sometimes, so if you think that my comments anywhere on Wikipedia have crossed the line, please feel free to visit my talk page and 'slap' me.

My user page contains some strong POV. I think that is ok for a user page, but if not, please let me know on my talk page and I'll edit it again.

My name is Les, I am a heterosexual male. I live in the Midwest (the real Midwest, not the one over by Chicago). I have a family, four children, three living, two are grown up and married, the youngest is away at college, and a new grandchild. I work in the computer business, my business card says "Senior Network Consultant" but I do very little true consulting these days, mostly I actually work on computers and networks rather than talking and writing about them like real consultants do <g>. These days I prefer to focus on networking, Cisco firewalls, routers, switches, etc. I also install and support VMware and I work on Microsoft Windows servers in my spare time. Currently I know nothing about Vista and I hope to keep it that way as long as possible.

I enjoy writing, especially sharing ideas. I discovered Wikipedia and made my first contributions in December of 2004, anonymously under my home net static IP. Like many things I do I dived in without fully understanding the process and rubbed a few people the wrong way. Now that I have a bit more experience I still occasionally rub people the wrong way. This is not intentional, I try to follow the rules, but there are so many of them, especially for what claims to be an 'open' or 'free' environment. It's hard not to get irritated sometimes, especially when there are those who ignore the rules and never experience any consequence.

As an aside, I sometimes feel like the banker, who, when he first heard of socialism chuckled and said, "They want to eliminate money? Poor fools, they'll re-invent it soon enough."

I enjoy a good debate, it's built into my genes. I grew up disrupting class and arguing with my school teachers until they transfered me to the 'bad boy' group, they would have a different solution today. I was a SYSOP on the CompuServ NetWire forums sponsored by Novell back when CompuServ was the primary online community for PC users, and was heavily involved in the NetWare / NT4 flame wars, taking the NetWare side. I drank from the skull (see Temple of Doom) around 1996 and have been an MS zombie ever since. I now occasionally get involved in the Windows / Linux debates, taking the side of Windows. I really think that Bill Gates is a benefactor of humanity for homogenizing the IT landscape. Don't get me started on this as I strongly believe that if you're going to call something 'free' it should in fact be free, without any restrictions attached to it. And no, I do not now, and have never worked for Microsoft or any of its subsidiaries, although I have been accused of such in various discussions.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the one headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have been a member all of my life, my parents joined the church when I was about one or two years old. I went thru a rebellious period in my late teens and did not serve a mission but have been active since then and held many callings, most of them involving teaching, both youth and adults. I am currently serving as first counselor in a bishopric, prior to that I taught the adult Gospel Doctrine class in my ward for about five years, and taught it previously for three years. This doesn't mean I think I have any particular authority to speak on the doctrines of The Church, but I do feel that it gives me a clearer picture of what is official doctrine vs "Mormon Myth". I try to live a Christian life, but I have difficulty with meekness and humility sometimes. Ok, most of the time.

Like most people who regularly edit Wikipedia, I have an agenda. Unlike some, I freely admit it and state my agenda right up front.

The goal of my writing is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Before you panic and reach for the 'block user' key, I promise I won't try to 'convert' anyone by argument or logic, partly because any such attempt would be against the 'rules' of Wikipedia, primarily because I believe that true conversion only comes by the Holy Ghost.

But I believe that one must be "good ground" not "by the way side" (Mark 4: 2-20) before the Holy Ghost can testify of the truthfulness of a particular church or doctrine. Or, in other words, if you already think you know a certain thing is false, there is no way that the Holy Ghost can tell you it is true.

I hope to protect the seed of truth from the "fowls of the air" that "devoured it up" before it had a chance to sprout, and help others overcome some of the "thorns that grew up" and "choked it", preventing it from bringing forth good fruit.

What does that mean in English? It means that I will work to ensure sure that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its doctrines and beliefs are fairly and accurately portrayed. I will do this by editing according to Wikipedia policies such as WP:NPOV, WP:V, and WP:NOR. These three policies are the law of the land regarding content. If you think you have seen an example of where I have violated either the letter or the spirit of the laws of Wikipedia please bring it up on my talk page.

I am a believer in citations. Whenever possible I prefer to let expertss speak for themselves, adding block quotes inline rather than taking the risk of injecting my own opinion by summarizing. There have been times when I have made contributions in the past that I thought were true, and on being accused of original research removed my contributions after failing to find a citation. So, now I cite everything and quote whenever there is room for it.

You may be wondering if I am a true believer in Wikipedia. I guess it depends on how you define the term, 'true believer'. I think that Wikipedia is a noble experiment and provides much useful information about many topics, but I am still trying to understand how it is supposed to work with controversial topics. To borrow a Christian metaphor, it seems to be a house built upon sand. Usually, the storm doesn't come, and the winds don't blow, but when they do... I'm still here, I'm trying to assume good faith, I'm trying to contribute in a NPOV way. But I'm also digging in the sand looking for some kind of bedrock to build on.

Anyway, that's who I am. If you're wondering why I use the handle '74s181', it is because the first computer I spent a lot of time on was the Data General Nova 3 which was based on the 74181 bit slice ALU. Years ago when I first started registering at various places on the Internet I used 'bitslice', so did a lot of other people. So I switched to '74s181'. Most people haven't even heard of that one, but those who have, know what I'm talking about.

Feel free to leave comments on my talk page. 74s181 04:39, 25 September 2007 (UTC)