Hello World. This is my attempt at a new blog. I'm pretty old and a good friend tried to hook me on an ancient blog platform called LiveJournal long before many people online today had even been born. Didn't take. The next one did, however, and I've been blogging ever since. It was a blogging site called Xanga and at one time it was very popular and successful and I think I recall it was one of the 20 most visited sites a month, way back when. I started in late 2003, had no clue what I was doing but eventually got the hang of it.
So why this one? Xanga basically bit the dust about a decade ago. Most former Xangans are still traumatized by that because there was a REAL sense of community -- not this fake crap you hear about on social media sites like FB, Inst, whatever is big right now, because they really no longer exist to facilitate that if they ever did. I despise them and what they've done to the people of this planet. There are a number of books out there discussing how FB and sites like it have actually permanently caused brain damage to whatever degree in people! While that sounds a bit extreme and isn't universally accepted, I try to initially at least be open to new topics, so it's an interesting theory to consider.
Anyway, here's the deal. I was on Xanga until it imploded over a decade ago. I then moved to WordPress in 2012, where I've been ever since. I also started a blog here, but it was solely book reviews and was largely redundant from what I wrote on Goodreads so after a few years, I ditched it. Now, however, I think most all of the blog platforms suck (not that there are any -- they're all about shops, making money and I read review after review criticizing people who just wanted to blog! Damn smartasses.) and I want something different, even if it's not as glitzy or fancy as some others. I've spent months researching different blog platforms and there are basically none, like I said. Which blows my mind. Ah, a short backup. What really got me amped up about leaving WordPress was they created an entirely new proprietary editor that one must use to create their blogs, and instead of typing in WYSIWYG or straight code, this new editor uses something called "blocks" which make no fucking sense to me at all. I'm actually in a hurry, so I don't have time to tell you my qualifications and experience, but let's say I'm as old as hell so I've hit that stage where this crap is both made for the kiddies and confuses the hell out of me and now it takes three times as long for me to write a post there as it used to and I've got to get out! But where? There is nowhere! So I've spent some months thinking about the Luddites we uber geeks made fun of back in the '80s and '90s -- people who not only were going to miss the Information Superhighway we were building for everyone, but didn't give a shit. Like Amish techies. Unthinkable. (I used to tell people I was Old School. Now I'm just Old. The photo of this shirt will be proof enough. LOL!)
Just think! Microsoft's Windows OS most of us use, which Bill & his buddy nearly certainly ripped off from -- many think Steve Jobs, but it was more likely Xerox PARC near Stanford -- which is advertised as so advanced & which DOES look, feel & operate light years better than not only Windows 3.1, but good ole DOS. Made by Bill. For IBM, if memory serves me. For those who don't know, here's the kicker: Apple's OS was getting iffy & their increasing ties with Motorola for their microprocessors seemed to ... not go so well. And their market share was shrinking, their stock price was plummeting & vultures waited to pick their metaphorical bones. But fortunately, Apple had fired Steve Jobs just a few years before, & in his revenge he started another computer company called NeXt and had a new OS built that was UNIX-based, an infinitely superior in virtually every way, OS to any consumer OS on the market, including Apple's and Microsoft's DOS. The Apple board recognized a good thing when they saw it, made Jobs an offer he couldn't refuse -- contingent on his bringing his killer OS with him -- and they started producing Macs with that NeXt operating system, again merely another UNIX flavor so if you want to break out the command line and play around with vi in a bash shell, why not? And Microsoft? They panicked when they saw a GUI OS in an alpha version of Windows. That became their number one project at the time. But how? Well, typically of how Microsoft tended to operated back then. Rather than invest in R&D (No Time!) to come up with their own killer OS, they essentially built their new GUI Windows OS on the back of DOS -- which is why computer gamers could still play their DOS games on their new Windows machines. Over time, that knowledge became a near-secret & now it's rarely mentioned. But I find it incredibly ironic that for decades, PC users have used PCs almost exclusively (save for Linux distros more & more often) with a version of the MS Windows operating system, all shiny & new. And sitting on top of an unknown (by the consumers) ancient archaic OS about the same age as the BASIC programming language, which is sort of like buying a Ferrari only to later find it had a Buick engine in it. Well, there's so much more geeking out I could do, but I'm late now, so back to where I was & on to finish...
Well, I talk to some of the old set sometimes and many of us not only feel a bit disillusioned with what has happened to our pathetically idealistic game changer that would allow everyone equal access to education, etc., but indeed, some of us have regrets on occasion. I've even turned so much that I not only occasionally think of the Luddites wistfully, but have been taking very slow steps in that direction, shutting down accounts, sites, getting rid of some computers, mobile phones, routers, etc. We moved nearly two years ago and in our old place we had two dedicated IP gigabit lines running into our house and I was running 10 computers in three offices in our house(!), and at least four of those computers were custom designed and custom built for godawful prices. Yet we had to downsize, my health has gone to hell, and I no longer have the time, space, energy or impetus to repeat what I've done my whole life, so I've been running two iMacs -- one custom designed two and a half years ago -- and a killer
Falcon Northwest MACH V
that has repeatedly tested out as basically the fastest, most powerful computer beneath a supercomputer (or uber-loaded workstation) there is, on several standard benchmarking tests. And I have an awesome 48" ASUS monitor with the best picture I've ever seen, two high quality printers for this setup alone, and guess what I'm going to (try to) do? I'm nearly finished hacking a fairly new Microsoft Surface Go 2 so that it can accommodate over 20 times the max storage capacity it's supposed to and while there's little I can do now about the chip inside or the RAM -- maybe a bit down the road -- once I get this thing working smoothly, I'm going to replace the massive system worth more than many cars with this little MS Surface Go 2, a pretty nice 27" monitor, change out the audiophile system I had here with something more basic and give her a go! Obviously I know I won't be able to multitask like I always have, but I think I've come close to giving myself heart attacks over the past year and a half by overdoing it on the computers. Hopefully this will help.
Well, I didn't plan on writing what I just wrote, so I don't know what to think. No one knows about, hence reads, new blogs, so I doubt this will even get a hit, but ya gotta start and now I have. It's been a long time since I've been on this platform and while there is something to be admired in Google's minimalism, the near-total lack of directions, documentation, options, etc., will be totally opposite of what I'm used to with WordPress, so I'd welcome advice or suggestions as to how to improve the look and feel of this barren site. Thanks and have a good one! -- DeadAgain
