Articles that you don't expect NOT to be in Wikipedia Options

[A Horse With No Name]

Peter Symonds - You would think some student at Peter Symonds College would have created at least a stub about the person the school is named after.

I'm sure User:PeterSymonds can handle that.

Provided that he doesn't allow someone to get a hold of his password and play around with the mop again.

[Casliber]

Lots of special-purpose vacuum tubes were made, mostly between WWII and 1960.
Most of them aren't on Wikipedia, except (at most) as passing mentions in related articles.
All of these were historically significant, many were used in early digital computers or radar.

Phasitron (in the 1950s, most of the FM broadcast transmitters in America used one.)

Zahl Tube (very important in early development of radar)

Trochotron (only mentioned in the Nixie tube article because I put it there long ago....)

Pixie tube (ditto)

Orbital-beam tube (mentioned in the Secondary Emission article, only because I put it there. Three of them were in the SCR-270 radar that gave early warning of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. I would call that "historically significant".)

Radechon (used as memory in the Rice R1 computer of 1959)

Graphecon

Scan converters (a variety of designs)

Alphechon (one of the world's rarest collectible tubes--used as memory in RCA's Spectra 70 computer system display terminals, all of which were junked in 1970-72.)

Sheet-beam tube

Square-law tube (extremely rare item, used only in tube analog computers)

There's an article about Robert von Lieben, but it barely mentions the amplifying tube he invented, at about the same time as deForest.

I'll probably think of others later.

Plus there were two monostable-multivibrator circuits often seen in early computers, that were tube-only: the sanatron and the phantastron. This guy is using a phantastron circuit for musical sound effects.

This is a pathetic list. Lots of errors and thousands of omissions.

Gives the lie to the apologists who claim that the declining number of active wikipedia editors is because there are no more articles to be written.

Absolutely, you don't have to go far before finding a swathe of redlinks to blue up.
Cas

[thekohser]

I'd like to add "Dilettante Chocolates" to the mix.

127,000 Google hits

63 news stories

And a fascinating corporate history dating back to 1898, including a royal appointment to the Imperial Court of Emperor Franz Josef I, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary.

Also, as a Seattle-based company now, you'd think there would have been plenty of tech-savvy Seattle WikiNerds who'd have been eager to big up a local enterprise.

[Casliber]

I'd like to add "Dilettante Chocolates" to the mix.

127,000 Google hits

63 news stories

And a fascinating corporate history dating back to 1898, including a royal appointment to the Imperial Court of Emperor Franz Josef I, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary.

Also, as a Seattle-based company now, you'd think there would have been plenty of tech-savvy Seattle WikiNerds who'd have been eager to big up a local enterprise.

Gosh, never heard of them, but I am in Oz...well, more to the DYK queue one day...

[Peter Damian]

I was really surprised to find hardly anything about the Gros Horloge in Rouen. It's a well known tourist attraction, and I have an old illustration of it inherited from my father, still hanging in the hall.

There is an article in the French Wikipedia

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Horloge

but nothing in the English version. And reminds me of something important about encylopedias. They should aim to be about the stuff that is far away from us, in location, in time, in culture. Why? Because the stuff nearby is easy to find. We get a reference work for the stuff that is hard to find. But Wikipedia represents mostly North American teenage culture.

[CharlotteWebb]

Peter Symonds - You would think some student at Peter Symonds College would have created at least a stub about the person the school is named after.

I'm sure User:PeterSymonds can handle that.

Provided that he doesn't allow someone to get a hold of his password and play around with the mop again.

Should I care whether the article is in fact ghost-written by Steve Crossin? Just get it done someway.

[Casliber]

I was really surprised to find hardly anything about the Gros Horloge in Rouen. It's a well known tourist attraction, and I have an old illustration of it inherited from my father, still hanging in the hall.

There is an article in the French Wikipedia

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Horloge

but nothing in the English version. And reminds me of something important about encylopedias. They should aim to be about the stuff that is far away from us, in location, in time, in culture. Why? Because the stuff nearby is easy to find. We get a reference work for the stuff that is hard to find. But Wikipedia represents mostly North American teenage culture.

I loved Rouen - another article to-do. Thanks for the tip Peter

[dogbiscuit]

There is an article in the French Wikipedia

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Horloge

but nothing in the English version.

It is at times like this that Google Translate really impresses me.

[sbrown]

Gustave Goublier, composer. Classical music tends to do badly because its too highbrow except for really famous composers. See the famous row about female opera composers.

http://www.appl-lachaise.net/appl/article....?id_article=671

[EricBarbour]

Absolutely, you don't have to go far before finding a swathe of redlinks to blue up.
Cas

And with that, I am now certain that you are a fool. A Wiki-fool.

"Blueing up" those items will require a lot of very specialized arcane knowledge.
Which you, as a nerd hunched over a PC in Australia, will have some difficulty obtaining.

Would you like to try? I can offer suggestions.......

Are you a member of the Tube Collector's Association?
Because if you're looking for references for such articles, you will NEED to
be a TCA member, or have other access to their magazine--the only publication
in the world to run features about certain of those tubes, since the 1950s.
(No, it's not available online.)

Not to mention other resources dealing with radio and computer history,
such as the AWA Journal and old textbooks and trade magazines.

Ever been to the Computer History Museum?
Their collection would be essential for reference material about computing tubes.

Can't do it all with Google. Don't even dream about looking online.

Yeah, there are two old tech articles about the Alphechon available online from republishers.
They don't say anything about how the Alphechon was actually used. One of the
TCA members actually owns an Alphechon--probably the only one in existence today.

(Poking Cas is just too easy. I feel as if I'm committing unsportsmanlike behaviour.)

[Malleus]

And reminds me of something important about encylopedias. They should aim to be about the stuff that is far away from us, in location, in time, in culture. Why? Because the stuff nearby is easy to find. We get a reference work for the stuff that is hard to find. But Wikipedia represents mostly North American teenage culture.

Some of us are doing our best.

[Casliber]

Absolutely, you don't have to go far before finding a swathe of redlinks to blue up.
Cas

And with that, I am now certain that you are a fool. A Wiki-fool.

"Blueing up" those items will require a lot of very specialized arcane knowledge.
Which you, as a nerd hunched over a PC in Australia, will have some difficulty obtaining.

Would you like to try? I can offer suggestions.......

Are you a member of the Tube Collector's Association?
Because if you're looking for references for such articles, you will NEED to
be a TCA member, or have other access to their magazine--the only publication
in the world to run features about certain of those tubes, since the 1950s.
(No, it's not available online.)

Not to mention other resources dealing with radio and computer history,
such as the AWA Journal and old textbooks and trade magazines.

Ever been to the Computer History Museum?
Their collection would be essential for reference material about computing tubes.

Can't do it all with Google. Don't even dream about looking online.

Yeah, there are two old tech articles about the Alphechon available online from republishers.
They don't say anything about how the Alphechon was actually used. One of the
TCA members actually owns an Alphechon--probably the only one in existence today.

(Poking Cas is just too easy. I feel as if I'm committing unsportsmanlike behaviour.)

I absolutely agree - one doesn't have to go far before one finds a subject for which information freely accessible online can be described as meagre at best. Just about every Featured Article and Good Article I have written has required some thumbing through...real-live paper books!!!

PS: Being a Tube COllector reminds me of 'get your valves' in the movie Brazil for some reason...

This post has been edited by Casliber: Mon 29th June 2009, 1:15am

[sbrown]

Are you a member of the Tube Collector's Association?
Because if you're looking for references for such articles, you will NEED to
be a TCA member, or have other access to their magazine--the only publication
in the world to run features about certain of those tubes, since the 1950s.
(No, it's not available online.)

Not to mention other resources dealing with radio and computer history,
such as the AWA Journal and old textbooks and trade magazines.

Ever been to the Computer History Museum?
Their collection would be essential for reference material about computing tubes.

Can't do it all with Google. Don't even dream about looking online.

Yes but if its not online then by wikilogic it fails WP:V. No doubt there are others here who have given references to published books and told thats no good other editors cant find the book.

[thekohser]

I'm surprised nobody has written yet about Brandywine Springs. The place has a fascinating, multi-century story, tracing from Native American gatherings and legends; to General George Washington preparing promptly-abandoned defense works against the oncoming Howe/Cornwallis assault; to a fashionable spa and hotel (designed by U.S. Capitol Building architect T.U. Walker) located on the site from 1827-1853 and visited by such notables as Henry Clay; followed by a thriving early-20th century amusement park.

I'd like to write the article for a wiki, but I think this one's going to Wikipedia Review, not Wikipedia.

[JohnA]

My nomination: There's still no article on Linda Mack.

[sbrown]

Further to my post elsewhere there is nothing on the 19th/20th century theologian John Skinner

http://www.bluethread.com/reviews/authors.html

although there are three other John Skinners with articles.

[Casliber]

Some broad subjects where material is meagre - dog breeds (but I guess dog owners are out doing other things...like walking their dogs...rather than editing wikipedia).

Similarly, alot of gardening and horticulture material is boards and blogs.
Cas

[Malleus]

Some broad subjects where material is meagre - dog breeds (but I guess dog owners are out doing other things...like walking their dogs...rather than editing wikipedia).

Similarly, alot of gardening and horticulture material is boards and blogs.
Cas

The truth is that the overwhelming majority of wikipedia's articles are complete crap, but what is reprehensible is that the few thousand decent ones have to be continually guarded, else they'll descend to the level of the rest.

This post has been edited by Malleus: Sat 4th July 2009, 5:07am

[thekohser]

Some broad subjects where material is meagre - dog breeds (but I guess dog owners are out doing other things...like walking their dogs...rather than editing wikipedia).

Similarly, alot of gardening and horticulture material is boards and blogs.
Cas

The truth is that the overwhelming majority of wikipedia's articles are complete crap, but what is reprehensible is that the few thousand decent ones have to be continually guarded, else they'll descend to the level of the rest.

That's by design, you know. It keeps "the community" feeling important, needed, and addicted.

[thekohser]

Just a thread to add those subjects where you fully expect there would have been a Wikipedia article about it, but there isn't.

Bob Welch songs:

* Sentimental Lady

* Hypnotized (the one made famous by Fleetwood Mac) (not this garbage)

Let's see how this goes over.