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diff --git a/.md/about/whereami.md b/.md/about/whereami.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f69eaef --- /dev/null +++ b/.md/about/whereami.md @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +Since you are on this page, you're presumably lost. That's ok. I don't really +get all this stuff either. Let's start with some easy stuff. + +*You're on the Internet*. Known to some as a +[series of tubes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_of_tubes), +but in reality much more complicated than it has to be. In basic sense, your +computer called mine, and mine answered with directory full of pages. + +The way you get here is through a device you have at home called a router, +which literally does what the name implies--it routes signals to where they +need to go to make things go beep. In the 60s and +70s, routers tended to be people-based and would spend their time plugging +cables into and out of ports so calls could connect. +<img src="/static/human_router.jpg" /> +<center> +*Image of a switchboard courtesy of +[Wikipedia contributors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jersey_Telecom_switchboard_and_operator.jpg) +*</center> + +Fortunately, we figured out that was dumb and made robots do the job for us. +Internet companies, governments, and anyone else with enough money and +influence bought huge routers and hooked them all up to talk to each other. +Then they convinced us all to go out and buy a router from our ISP of "choice" +so we could all send cat pictures to each other seemlessly. We got rid of +phones, replaced our phone with our IP address and email, just to ironically +end up back at phones again. All of our devices serve, or at least can serve, +as a router in some way, and all these little robots talking to each other +makes it so you can get lost on some person's home page. + +In a way, you could say you've made it to a place my router took you to. +Not my home router of course--that one sucks. + +I'm mooching of someone else's, also known as a Virtual Private Server. +These companies run whole bunch of servers, hook them up on a bulk connection +and rent them out for people to run blogs about cats and porn sites. + +I'm getting lost on your question though, so where are we exactly? + +Precisely speaking, you are in a chrooted web server running on rented virtual +machine in a server farm located roughly in New Jersey browsing the "about" +directory on the "whereami.html" page. + +Less precisely, all that means is you're looking at some files I left in a directory +at this address, and paid some people to host for me since local ISPs tend to +be ridiculously expensive if you want to do anything besides host some private +servers for you and your friends and family. + +But maybe most importantly, you've reached a webpage owned by another human +being, not a corporation, or a bot, or a government, or work, or a *network*. +All these files were loving crafted by yours truly in vim, in markdown and +converted with pandoc to HTML because of laziness. The Internet I grew up with, +though I didn't really appreciate because I was too young at the +time, used to be filled with places like this. "Homepages" were a *thing*, or +were just starting to be at least. And people made +[all](http://textfiles.com/) [sorts](http://toastytech.com/) +[of](http://sam.zoy.org/) [weird](https://newgrounds.com) +[pages](https://something.com/) to get lost for a while. + +But as soon as it started it all got sucked up social media, everyone got coerced +into profiles, templates, and standards to make us easier for ad companies to +study. It's not even unreasonable to believe you're not even talking to real +people on there, because there's a good chance of it now. +[Astroturfing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing) is not +a secret government conspiracy, it's just business as usual at this point. +You used to be able to tell a human from a chatbot from the way they write. +I don't know if the bots at this point are smarter, or if we've just been made +so cynical and dumb by business as usual that we've given up. + +Who would really write all that garbage on Facebook anyway? + +Don't mistake this for some pity nostalgia piece though. If you look hard +enough--I promise you--that *Internet* of humans is still there. + +A helpful tip, CRTL+W will close any webpage you don't like. Not that you +wouldn't like this page... you did read all the way here through all that +pedantry didn't you? |