User:Nikevich
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Username: A mildly-corrupted Slavic form; my father was Nicholas Bessaraboff. Also use "Nicabod" (no "h") in other places.
Concise bio: Retired electronic technician and electromechanical technician; occasional photographer, lapsed amateur musician. Associate Editor, Electronic Design magazine, 1977-1979. Internet author (at this writing, almost all is for the Howthingswork list at YahooGroups -- that could well change!).
Strong interests:
Mechanical analog computers, especially for fire control and related applications
Mechanical calculators (I subscribe to CALCLIST-L, hosted at Technion)
Linguistics
Writing systems and i18n (subscriber to Qalam at YahooGroups) (Unicode hobbyist, so to speak, as well)
Typography
Literacy, and reasons for the epidemic of sub-literacy
Technology, both historic ("histech") and contemporary
Linux
Residence: New England; quite-nice, motel-like rent-sub apartment complex
Computer: eMachines T6532 refurb. -- Athlon 64, 2.2 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 200 GB HD, NVidia graphics and sound on mainboard. Ultra ULT31310 external HD. Dvorak layout (Key swap + keymap change); UC Logic Tech WP 8060 graphics tablet.
Monitor: Curb-find DEC VRC-21WA (Divine blessing? Thanks heaps to friends B and C!)
'Net connection: DSL, Speakeasy (costly, but excellent); also dialup shell avail., but never used (via TheWorld.com (world's first ISP, but slowly dying) - Still useful as alt. e-ddress).
OS: Win XP M.C.E. 2005 Pro, dual-booted with OpenSUSE 10.3.
Hopes: Clear some space for a Wintergreen AMD Sempron machine from TigerDirect; multi-boot Linux (Primary), 98 SE on Compaq Deskpro 4000 for old hardware, XP for Win apps.
No Web site, nor blog, yet.
Almost never watch TV other than the Boston Marathon; no cable, naturally (even though there's some worthy content; our society has no lack of such for those who seek it.)
Clutter addict, unfortunately. Could be worse, but not much. Have had, and might again have, professional help with straightening out my place. Freecycle is great, but worries (by others) about security made me unsubscribe. For giving stuff away, [Vietnam Vets. Of America] is great! See what they will pick up (most things) before arranging. <www.vva.org> Fan of Steve Colbert and Keith Olbermann, but don't see them often enough. Subscriber to The Nation., but aware that it's not necessarily Received Truth. Also, more recently, The New Yorker (Lived on W. 108th st, 10025, for 23 years).
Have been quite reclusive, but since 200705, have been more outgoing. Mildly depressed. (200803: Recluse, again.)
Politics: According to some dictionary definitions of "liberal", I fit. "Progressive/disappointed Democrat" is a more-popular description.
Current administration is Fascist Lite, although the 2006 elections and its consequences have trimmed its sails some. Democracy is endangered in the USA. (To read: Chalmers Johnson) This country is a demonstration of the principle, used in WW II, that if you keep the population scared, you can do as you darned please, even setting up concentration camps. However, the USA is waking up. (Added 200711: I'm afraid the USA has gone past its peak, and is starting a long downhill slide. I still have faith in our ability to recover, but we have (sort of) elected a disastrous Executive, and Congress isn't doing at all well.) Asked a long-time friend, somewhat rhetorically, "Is the USA a sinking ship, and if so, are the rats leaving, yet?" -- she quickly replied, "They'd have nowhere to go."
Barack Obama represents a rare and special hope. May he live long.
ยงยงยง A perceived problem with Wikipedia's structure: There are some people like me who have a passionate desire to contribute and/or enhance Wikipedia text, but who don't have the psychological energy, nor the degree of required personal organization (I have neither!) to offer citations as substantiation. I do hope that there might be some other means to validate well-intentioned and well-informed contributions. Citations are in the province of the academic world. Worthy contributors are not necessarily only by academics!
