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Diffstat (limited to '.md/about')
| -rw-r--r-- | .md/about/.description | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | .md/about/faq.html | 5 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | .md/about/faq.md | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | .md/about/whereami.md | 76 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | .md/about/whoami.md | 79 |
5 files changed, 165 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.md/about/.description b/.md/about/.description new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eee24f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/.md/about/.description @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Who runs this place anyway? diff --git a/.md/about/faq.html b/.md/about/faq.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..38ab701 --- /dev/null +++ b/.md/about/faq.html @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +<h1 id="frequently-anticipated-questions">Frequently Anticipated Questions</h1> +<ul> +<li><em>A question?</em></li> +</ul> +<p>Yes, that is a question. Nice one</p> diff --git a/.md/about/faq.md b/.md/about/faq.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecbdc2b --- /dev/null +++ b/.md/about/faq.md @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +# Frequently Anticipated Questions +- *A question?* + +Yes, that is a question. Nice one 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? diff --git a/.md/about/whoami.md b/.md/about/whoami.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0394a8b --- /dev/null +++ b/.md/about/whoami.md @@ -0,0 +1,79 @@ +<p>Last I checked:</p> +<code> +$ whoami +mjf +</code> +<p>There's a lot of ways to go about this question, honestly.</p> +<p>I could start with my name, but that doesn't really tell you much and it's +on the site anyway. A lot of people answer "who they are" with what they do. +I'm working in an IT department right now trying my best to wrap my head around +securing their network. I suppose that tells you something, even if I haven't +been at this long. I got here after I fell down the rabbit hole of +understanding how the hell this whole Internet thing works, and I've been +trapped ever since. Cybersecurity people seem to touch a lot of things in this +area so I naturally sort of stumbled in this direction. +</p> +<p>At this point, though, I still don't think I've really answered the +question. I'm not my job title to probably most people I know. And I think it's +a little unwise to base my identity on something that could taken away by a +financial crisis or an EMP blast. +</p> +<p>I could get more vague and go for a meme-y tribal identifier like "nerd," +"metalhead," "hacker," "warlock," or whatever classes people are running these +days. +</p> +<p> +None these are really true though either. I was never really smart enough to +hang out with nerds and I never much liked keeping up with them anyway. I +certainly have enough of a music snob streak to fit in with metalheads, but +I've gotten over that illness for the most part, where most of my peers have +not. If we're going with Richard Stallman's notion of +<a href="https://archive.is/epjm4">hacking</a>, then maybe I share some of the +same spirit. But I didn't grow up in that culture. I knew of a computer mostly +as Windows--and even that I didn't understand well. My parents were luddites so +these were all magic boxes to me growing up and I was far to afraid to try to +look inside and risk breaking it. I had a vague notion that I wanted to design +games, but I spent my time playing Runescape and Elder Scrolls instead of +botting and modding them. Maybe I'm gatekeeping myself, but fitting into any +sort of tribe has never really been on my mind. +</p> +<p> +A lucky few will have biographers write their final word, but most of us +will have to settle for the obituary. Either way though, I think it's important +to remember in the long term, all we really have is our history. Hopefully, +that won't include web history... +</p> +<p> +So I think it's probably better to start with who I am, with where I've been. +I was born in the US in 1993 about two weeks after the World Wide Web was +released to the public domain. Our family didn't get online until I was around +five or six when people started handing out free Windows and America Online CDs +around public places. Pokemon was also released around that time so that +computer was primarily used for Pokemon-themed version of Print Artist and +reading fake articles on how to get Mew in Blue version. As I grew up, my +school assignments went from stacks of notebooks to folders full of .doc files. +It became expected by around middle school/high school that you had a Windows +PC or at least had access to one to write essays. Runescape was a thing, so +that same computer still saw it's fair share of play, but study crept in when +it could. +</p> +<p> +I never bothered studying the computer itself though. Any tutorial I could find +on messing with Windows (like getting a stupid cursor or soemthing) started in +big bold letters with "DON'T TRY THIS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING." +Well I didn't know, so I didn't try. I did fall in love with Wikipedia though +and just hopping through history and philosophy articles. I couldn't always use +the PC downstairs so I learned to use the PSP and eventually the PS3 browser +instead so I could read up until late. God knows how much crap was on there +back then... +</p> +<p> +I got into guitar around eighth grade since Guitar Hero was popular and I +wanted girls to like me. I was also into band and chorus at school and somehow +got the idea that I was pretty good at all that. The idea of playing music or +composing started to really look like a serious thing after two years at it, +but when I first started to write music, I had so much trouble drawing the +freaking clefs and fancy stuff that I would waste too much time to write half +of a score. I need like Microsoft Word for music, but I didn't know if such a +thing was even real +</p> |