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Attention: As of 2007-05-22, I have ceased editing Wikipedia indefinitely. I can no longer deal with the broken and counterproductive prevailing interpretations and applications of well-intended policies, the total lack of initiative to make tough decisions needed to keep things on track, the sheer impossibility of finding consensus in highly polarized debates, and especially the politics. This page is preserved only for nostalgic purposes and the information contained here is now outdated. If you would like to contact me, you may do so via email. You also may (or may not) be interested in my seldom-updated blog.
"Wikipedia is a poor implementation of a great idea." — Omegatron
Matt Britt (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights • nomination)—a.k.a mattb and in a former life uberpenguin— is a simple Internet denizen and an administrator on the English Wikipedia (this one). He is an electrical engineering undergraduate (specializing in analog electronics, microelectronics, and electromagnetics) at Georgia Tech, though he has often informed others that he would have probably been better off as a history or English literature major. Nevertheless, he is involved in semiconductor device research with wide bandgap materials like gallium nitride in S.-C. Shen's group developing high speed and high power HBTs, HEMTs, and even some MEMS. He considers himself an "operating system enthusiast", whatever that means. His favorite OSes running are OS/400, QNX, Free/OpenBSD, ITRON, and Plan 9. Matt laments that MTRON was never properly implemented, as TRON was a design so far ahead of its time that nobody seems to remember it now. Matt further laments that nearly nobody else laments with him. He thoroughly believes that Wikipedia is one of the most interesting ideas since the proverbial sliced bread, though he maintains a constant love/hate relationship with it. His edits on Wikipedia are mostly concerned with computer architecture, semiconductor devices, and other random miscellany. The keen observer might spot him poking his head into articles regarding his interests from another life, the aforementioned history and literature.
Matt likes music rather a lot. He doesn't have any favorite band, song, or even genre (if you press him, he'll probably say something about the gritty real sound of the Chicago blues and blues-rock). Following are a few artists that he recommends (bolded artists are very special to his heart). Perhaps you have heard of some of them?
- Air, Alias & Tarsier, Apocalyptica, Beck (really hit-and-miss, though), The Black Keys, Cake, Carlos Santana, Charles Mingus, Coldplay, Collective Soul, Cornelius, Cut Chemist, Cymande, Daft Punk, The Doors, Dizzy Gillespie, Django Reinhardt, The Flaming Lips' later albums (The Soft Bulletin and beyond), Flower Travellin' Band, Frank Sinatra, Galactic, Gnarls Barkley, Herbie Hancock, Ima Robot, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, John Lee Hooker, Kenna, KiloWatts & Vanek, Kraftwerk, Lead Belly, Lemon Jelly, Medeski Martin & Wood (also with Scofield), Ludwig van Beethoven, Miles Davis, Mr. Scruff, Muddy Waters, the pillows, Pixies, The Postal Service (not really Death Cab, though), Rodrigo y Gabriela, Sergei Rachmaninov, Radiohead, Sonny Rollins, Sigur Rós, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, Under Byen, VAST (also hit-and-miss), WIZO, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Yo-Yo Ma, Yoko Kanno
He is usually haunted by a Krokodil.
Matt wholeheartedly objects to over-fancified user pages containing approximately 1.2 bajillion templates. Wikipedia is not MySpace. Userboxes are stupid, but blood feuds over deleting them are stupider.
Matt believes that you should not simply "do whatever". He also feels that Wikipedia should not be a reference to fictional worlds, but knows that changing the status quo is practically impossible. Matt's views on reliable sources are nicely stated by Axel Boldt in his essay on the subject.
Matt likes to refer to himself in the third person.
Matt may be contacted via email if you'd like to ask a question unrelated to Wikipedia. Inquiries related to his contributions or comments should be directed to his talk page. He can also be found via OSCAR/TOC as IrenicPenguin. Additionally, he often hangs around on Freenode and can be found in #wikipedia as uberpenguin.
Significant contributions
- Oakland Cemetery - wrote article. Photographs taken by AUtiger. Finalist in the March 2005 International writing contest, promoted to a featured article on 2005-05-02, featured status removed on 2007-02-19.
- Central processing unit was a blithering mess before Matt rewrote it. It's a bit lengthy, but there is little that can be removed without significantly damaging the article. Promoted to featured article on 2006-01-13, featured on the main page 2006-03-04, featured status removed on 2007-01-24.
- Computer is now a lot better than what it formerly was... Still not perfect, though.
- Largely rewrote Internet2. The original version was wholly innaccurate after several AP affiliates picked up a story that was very poorly researched.
- AMULET microprocessor - wrote stub
- Wikipedia:Reference desk - Recently started attempting to answer questions in the science section... So far it's a nice distraction to keep me away from Wikipolitik and the travesty that is the Featured Article process.
Images
Some images that Matt was involved with:
 Aerial map of Oakland Cemetery |
 Core of a PDP-8/I with its numerous flip chips. Not mine, but cool nonetheless |
 Shows how the MIPS32 ADDI instruction is decoded |
|
 Same 80486, different magnification. Now being used on a book cover |
 PN junction energy band diagram at equilibrium |
 NPN BJT energy band diagram at equilibrium |
 NPN BJT band diagram in active mode |
 Karl Süss contact aligner |
|
 Meerkat clan playing at the San Diego Zoo. These little guys are fun to watch |
 Meerkat pups; same place as previous. |
 Loxosceles reclusa, an adult male brown recluse spider. |
 Same spider, dorsal view. |
 Same spider, anterior dorsal view. |
To do
- Work on several of the semiconductor related articles. Right now, semiconductor, p-n junction, and bipolar junction transistor.
- Personal computer should be more than a PC enthusiast's guide.
- Computer storage and its twelve or so derivative-stub-articles need to be merged and formed up into something respectable.
- Clock signal and clock rate probably need merging, and the former needs some quality content.
- Problems with addressing mode need to be addressed (ooff... that was bad)
- DRAM needs some work.
- Multi-core (computing) really needs some work.
- Graphics processing unit really really needs some work.
- What I learned from heat sink: heat spreading device application is applicable only to microelectronics!
Recognition
 |
The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar | |
| I give you this barnstar for your good reverts. |
