user:Rusty Cashman

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 [http://www.linkedin.com/in/rustycashman linkedIn profile].

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.

File:Encyclopedie de D'Alembert et Diderot - Premiere Page - ENC 1-NA5.jpg]]

• 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.

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{{User Good Article|History of paleontology}}

{{User BQZip01/TFA|Alfred Russel Wallace|8 January|2009}}

{{User BQZip01/TFA|History of evolutionary thought|12 February|2009}}

{{User BQZip01/TFA|History of Biology|3 June|2009}}

{{User BQZip01/TFA|On the Origin of Species|24 November|2009}}

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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 [http://toolserver.org/~soxred93/count/index.php?name=Rusty+Cashman&lang=en&wiki=wikipedia edit count]. I am not a big edit count guy, but I find the statistics about what I have been working on interesting.

File:Featured article star.png Alfred Russel Wallace - Promoted to featured article status May 27, 2007.

File:Featured article star.png History of evolutionary thought - Promoted to featured article status July 28, 2008.

File:Featured article star.png On the Origin of Species - Promoted to featured article status June 20, 2009.

File:Featured article star.png Mary Anning - Promoted to featured article status June 15, 2011.

{{award2|image=Darwin-Wallace_medal.jpg|size=50px|topic=The shiny new Darwin-Wallace medal|text=For your dedicated work on Alfred Russel Wallace - Shyamal 02:30, 27 May 2007 (UTC)}}

{{Barnstar|image=Original_Barnstar.png|text=Tim Vickers awarded this Barnstar to User:Rusty Cashman for his excellent work on the History of paleontology.}}

{{award2|image=Barnstar_of_National_Merit.png|size=50px|topic=The Barnstar of National Merit|text=For excellent, dedicated and ongoing efforts to Alfred Russel Wallace -- --Merbabu 17:37, 7 April 2007 (UTC)}}

==Useful links==

Rusty Cashman 06:26, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

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Category:Wikipedians willing to provide third opinions