thunkgeek.com

I just followed a chain of links through a list of decommissioned and defunct websites, eventually finding that the original content I was looking for is evidently not available anywhere on the Internet anymore. This brings to light a problem that I’ve been thinking about for some time. Though the Internet is a wonderful tool and for the most part is easy to navigate, there is very little sense of permanence to anything we do online. While that may be good in many, if not most, situations, it can be devastating when you try to track down a friend you haven’t emailed in a couple of years, or a piece of information that used to be at http://xyz.geocities.com/abc/123/9961341/exactlywhatyouarelookingfor/ but isn’t there now that you need it. Those of us privileged to have a small amount of knowledge of the way the ‘net works and the capability to use it are able to register our own domains and thereby have a more or less permanent homestead on the web, but the vast majority of netizens are stuck floating from today’s cheapest/free-est webhost to tomorrow’s, with all the “This page has moved to http://blah.blah.blah/, please update your bookmarks” that such an online existence requires. I have literally followed 5 or 6 of those in a row before to find that what I am looking for has vanished completely. Email is just as bad if not even worse. I had the same email address for 6 1/2 years and when it finally came time to switch to something else, it was excruciating for me and confusing for everyone I collaborate with, and I don’t really even use my email for much. There were only about a dozen people who had to be informed of my new address, though there were about 600 automated processes on various servers at the office that needed an update.

It’s my personal belief at this point that before the Internet can become truly and completely useful as a personal communication/organization/publication tool there will need to be either a major shift in the pricing structure inherent in establishing your own permanent presence (i.e. domain name) on the web or some revolution in the way email and/or messaging as a whole functions. Right now I can buy a domain name for $10/year, and I can host it for the cost of hardware, as long as my bandwidth consumption doesn’t get out of hand. I’m an exception to the rule on both counts, though. For the typical individual or corporation trying to establish a presence online, the costs are more like $20/year for domain registration and at least $15-$20/month for barebones, basic hosting. Though that is not exorbitantly expensive it is costly enough to preclude a permanent site for most casual users. Maybe the solution will be a better way to host your own site/email on a user-level PC at home. With the growth of broadband access that may become a reality for many more people. All you’d have to do is have a PC on a DSL connection and an idea for your own domain name. Leave your PC on all the time, like many of us already do, and your site and email server is always available. Pipe dream. The current security situaton with the dominant operating system is so pathetic that the idea of my neighbor who has no more knowledge of the Internet than how to send email or surf a website hosting his own site at home conjures visions of pain and suffering I’ll experience on day 2 when he either gets hacked and defaced or gets infected by the latest *.MSworm. So for the present, I have to sift through mountains of websites to find the current home of a 50 word description of an obscure piece of software that I unfortunately happen to need at the moment, or strain in vain to follow the chain of email addresses that my high school buddy has used over the past three years since I last sent him anything. I don’t know what is going to happen exactly, but it better be something and soon.

This site hasn’t been updated for a while, but it’s fun:

BEATERz - Chronicling Questionable Automotive Style

CUT TO: The basement of Bonasera’s funeral parlor. From the elevator, two men carry a stretcher forward. Tom and the Don follow as Bonasera, frightened, watches. -night

VITO CORLEONE

Well, my friend — are you ready to do me this service?

BONASERA (nervously)

Yes — What do you want me to do?

VITO CORLEONE

I want you to use all your powers and all your skills. I don’t want his mother to see him this way…

(then, after the Don uncovers the blanket, revealing Sonny’s mangled face, shaken)

Look how they massacred my boy…

I bought a 1988 Honda CRX HF in January of 1995. It was my first car. I had that car for 6 years and about 120,000 miles. I loved that car. In a fit of idiocy I bought my 1974 Chevy and soon after sold my CRX. I felt like I couldn’t afford to keep both vehicles, when in reality, things would have been fine if I had kept both of them, and in retrospect, I should have kept old Rex. I sold him to a teenager who lived a few blocks away and saw Rex from time to time in the intervening time. I hadn’t seen him for a while when after I dropped Erica off for work one afternoon what should I spy but good old Rex, but there was something wrong:

Why do people do this sort of thing to a perfectly attractive and mechanically sound vehicle? This kid even screwed on the body effects with plain old sheet metal screws (look in the upper left corner of the rocker panel molding):

He wants $2000 for it now. Sniff. My poor little Rex. The quote from the Godfather came to mind immediately upon seeing this mess: “Look how they massacred my boy!”

My daughter has just started to point to things that she wants. It is so cute to see that fat little finger stick out straight. She’s also started recently to pull herself up to a standing position using whatever happens to be nearby, then let go and hold her hands up in the air grinning from ear to ear as she wobbles for a moment before grabbing back onto whatever is close. It is so fun to see kids in this stage. Everything is fun for a one year old. She gets to eat new things, play with new toys, learn new skills. She greets every day with a smile because every day holds something fun for her. Imagine what it would like to live life that way as an adult… to find pleasure in the simplest acts, knowing that you have performed well your chosen task for the day. For Marissa, just standing up for a few seconds is a tremendous feat of strength and balance, and she is right to be proud of herself for doing it. It doesn’t matter a bit that she falls down or has to grab something to balance herself… she stood all by herself for those few seconds and it is the most wonderful thing in her little world. Then she goes and finds another most wonderful thing, like a baby mirror or a brightly colored plastic ball. There are miracles all around her and she appreciates each one of them each day. Aren’t there miracles all around the rest of us too? The apricot trees in Utah are blooming right now… so are the violets in my front flower bed. I’ve got tiny basil sprouts growing in a flower pot and weeds pushing up through the grass in the lawn. I wouldn’t mind not having to appreciate the miracle of the weeds.

You’ve likely seen this on the news or elsewhere (thanks Jared). It’s good stuff. Go get it.

== Free Culture ==

I just finished reading Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. I read the original edition after it was given to me as a gift when I was a teenager, probably not long after it was originally published in 1988. I’ve had the illustrated edition sitting on my shelf since it was published in 1996. It’s unnerving to me to realize that I probably understood the thing better the first time I read it than I did this time through. Naturally, I’ve been away from any sort of scientific thought since I had my Astronomy class about 7 years ago, and I was smack in the middle of high school science when I first read the book, but I should be better able to grasp this sort of thing. I think I just don’t have a mind for visualizing the sort of obscure concepts covered in the book. Or, maybe I just need to read the thing through again and get a bit more familiar. Anyway, all that aside, it fascinates me. I think what hits me the most is that Hawking obviously has done some pretty deep thinking about where the idea of God fits into his science. He is widely credited as the most brilliant theoretical mind since Einstein, and he still struggles with how to fit God into the picture. I just read another book that dealt with a similar idea, Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown. Having been raised the way I was and being a faithful Latter-day Saint, it seems almost easy to me to see how God fits into it, but it doesn’t detract from my interest in seeing the various arguments, and it especially doesn’t detract from my desire to learn the science, even though I don’t necessarily completely understand it. “Yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom….” I don’t know that there is necessarily wisdom in Hawking, or Sagan, which I think will be the next one I dive into, nor that they are “the best books,” but I believe that a well rounded education is the best course to real wisdom so I am trying to keep up to date.

We finished Sports Night last night at about 9:45. I think I’ve said enough about it.

I haven’t done anything on my truck in almost a year. Maybe slightly more than a year now that I think about it. It is sitting with the valve covers off, waiting for a valve stem se1al replacement. I guess now that the weather is warming up a bit I will be more likely to get the thing back under way. I really need to be able to use it once in a while on top of the fact that it is fun to work on. Gotta get the yard work out of the way first, or at least well under way. So, I guess another update on the truck ought to be coming up soon.

Well we are 2/3 through the second season and while I think it lacks a little of the sparkle the first season had, I am really enjoying it. There’s a huge advantage in not having to wait for the next episode to be on TV a week after you’ve watched. That said, sometimes we have a hard time stopping. Last night we watched 4 eps in a row if I remember right, which is probably a bit too many. Anyway, good stuff and I will be truly sad to come to that last episode later on this week. Obviously a good thing can’t last forever most of the time, and all the time when you’re talking about a medium like television, but it sure would be great if some of these good products were allowed to last just a bit longer.

I start too many of the things I write and say with the word “well.” Gotta cut down.