Well they do sometimes explode, as one did yesterday, which seems to be what the article was about. Still it's good to see that Wikipedia's standards are so highly respected @ El Reg that momentary lapses from their lofty heights make front-page Reg news.

And I thought the USA had moved out of the age of steam into the electric age ... shows how much I know!

Could I create an entry about myself giving a full biography of my mostly boring existence, just in case I become incredibly famous at a later date through either business dealings or, more likely, some sort of crazed killing spree after years of monotonous working?

Has anyone ever noticed that the word monotonous is monotonous to type?

The page was only like that for 3 minutes...

This edit doesn't show in the history or the log for the page which is unusual. Even the most offensive vandalism gets recorded in the page history (see for example http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bill_Gates&oldid=133386656). Are you sure Steve John isn't maybe just pulling your leg a little?

Try looking up the order of lenin and then look at the discussion page for the stand of the sources they accepted as proof that Goerge Formby had been given the Order of Lenin (essentially a reference to h2g2 the beebs much older attempt at using a herd of autistic geeks to create an encyclopedia)

It is in the history

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steam_Pipe&diff=145679215&oldid=145673763

Howard

The page was moved to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_district_heating_system earlier today, so you'll need to look in the history of that.

If you look at the history of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Pipe you'll see that the same IP vandalised the page again about half an hour ago.

Hmm, only changed for 3 minutes and someone sent a screen grab.

Call me suspicious, but did the email from this Steve John character perchance originate on the very same IP listed in the wiki history page?

Well sort of. The page still references explosive steam pipes. Twice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_New_York_City_steam_explosion

Pretty typical of Wikipedia to slot events and concepts into their own pages, rather than lump them into mega-articles. I've lived in Manhattan for 15 years, and there have been at least five steam pipe explosions in that time; plus numerous smaller ones that did not rip the street open, or fling a manhole cover into the air.

http://www.newyorksteam.com/db4/00334/newyorksteam.com/_uimages/16_14as.jpg

http://www.newyorksteam.com/db4/00334/newyorksteam.com/_uimages/22_20ar.jpg

Maybe Steve did hijack the entry, maybe it was someone else. But whatever else you can say about it - it did have two important factors.

1/It was factually correct. Steam pipes are in New York and they do sometimes blow up - ask any action movie director.

2/It was brilliantly funny in it's simplicity.

I vote for more of these, in fact it would be not a bad thing if Wikipedia was entirely made up of entries like this one. Keep up the good work.

I didnt know that they actually blew up the streets and manhole covers, ect... I so thought that was only a movie myth. lol

As for "vandalizing" the wiki... Yes and no. It made it funny to some degree, but at the same time I honestly believe that with something like a wiki you need to have something intelligent and useful to apply. As where a forum you can throw any random retarded, your thoughts, and what have you... A wiki is a source of information that SHOULD be factual and not have someones opinion or worthless information in it. They are in New York, intelligent information. They sometimes explode, could be useful if there was more detail. But that shouldnt be the only information on that subject.

I take the wiki's with a grain of salt because anyone can change them to what they think or want to say... Most of the time you find decent information and fairly useful/reliable information. But sometimes it can be WAY off. But hey, its all about free speech :)

~Long live free speech, unless its about religion, politics, or personal opinions~ ROFL

Distinctly similar to the tone of Encyclopedia [sic] Dramatica, if you happen to be immature and, ahem, like that sort of thing.

A mouse is something used with a computer. They sometimes explode.

This is the reason...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/nyregion/19explode.html

No no no, your article needs to be factual! I have never heard of an exploding mouse.

Now, power supplies and monitors on the other hand...

Steam is in America, New York sometimes explodes.

You know how Wikipedia feels about revert wars. ;)

...or Toshiba laptops.

I was really disappointed not to see them stick a HUGE cat-in-the-hat chimney over it like they do with small leaks.

Hopefully most people don't take wikis too seriously - I use Wikipedia all the time, but only as a first step into a topic, and I don't consider it to be an authority. If theres a funny comment here and there, then I'm all in favour. No harm done.

Chortle

"As where a forum you can throw any random retarded, your thoughts, and what have you..."

So where is the difference to Wikipedia?

Hey Michael

A freind of mine was doing a technical course where they had to write an app (way back when they did these things) which could read the mouse movements. The only problem was that instead of receiving info from the mouse he tried to "send" info to the mouse. The result? Blue smoke - and before he could unplug it, an exploding mouse.

This shows us 2 thing:

1. Mice can explode

2. Blue smoke is bad

...the War On Pressure