From 1cb73ddff82c1e86cad180df62a329e67fa10051 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: mjfernez Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2021 02:04:28 -0400 Subject: Finished whereami, finally ok with resume Well maybe, probably missed some  .... --- .md/about/.description | 1 + .md/about/faq.html | 5 ++ .md/about/faq.md | 4 ++ .md/about/whereami.md | 76 +++++++++++++++++++++++++ .md/about/whoami.md | 79 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ .md/tutorials/.description | 3 + .md/tutorials/how-to-make-this-site.md | 101 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 7 files changed, 269 insertions(+) create mode 100644 .md/about/.description create mode 100644 .md/about/faq.html create mode 100644 .md/about/faq.md create mode 100644 .md/about/whereami.md create mode 100644 .md/about/whoami.md create mode 100644 .md/tutorials/.description create mode 100644 .md/tutorials/how-to-make-this-site.md (limited to '.md') 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 @@ +

Frequently Anticipated Questions

+ +

Yes, that is a question. Nice one

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. + +
+*Image of a switchboard courtesy of +[Wikipedia contributors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jersey_Telecom_switchboard_and_operator.jpg) +*
+ +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 @@ +

Last I checked:

+ +$ whoami +mjf + +

There's a lot of ways to go about this question, honestly.

+

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. +

+

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. +

+

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. +

+

+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 +hacking, 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. +

+

+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... +

+

+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. +

+

+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... +

+

+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 +

diff --git a/.md/tutorials/.description b/.md/tutorials/.description new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f37a49 --- /dev/null +++ b/.md/tutorials/.description @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +There's a lot of tutorials out there that can show you something if you know +what to look for. Here's some tutorials that might help when you don't know +what to search. And tutorials for me for when I forget how to do something. diff --git a/.md/tutorials/how-to-make-this-site.md b/.md/tutorials/how-to-make-this-site.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ff80e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/.md/tutorials/how-to-make-this-site.md @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@ +

+I think it was roughly the end of high school when I first had the idea I +wanted to make some kind of website. This would be around 2010 and I did +what I thought would be a good idea and bought a book on the subject: "Web +Sites for Dummies." I was dummy after all... +

+

+I got up to hyper linking with the "a" tag until I hit a wall. I don't want to +link the exact page since I don't want to get sued, but it basically read: +

+    Web design programs:
+    - Adobe Dreamweaver
+    - Adobe Contribute
+    - Microsoft Expression Web
+
+

+

+Well, damn. I didn't have any of those. And as a stingy high school kid, I +didn't want to buy anything. So I shelved that book and forgot about for a +while since making a website seemed too expensive and needed too much flashy +software to make it. I knew nothing about free software at that age, other than +music software like Audacity which is what I was into at the time. +

+

+A few years later I caught a bit of a poetry bug--and maybe a bit of a snooty +college kid bug--and tried to run a blog. At that point, I had learned about +WordPress, which lets you easily make a space for sharing writing, media, +content, whatever really. And it's free as in freedom as I understand +since it's licensed under the GPL (if you want to take the time to deploy it +yourself). But they also give out free .wordpress domains and some storage +space for people who know nothing about hosting. +

+

+I had fun with that one, I don't update it anymore, but it's still up at +postquantumpoetry.wordpress.com +. WordPress got closer to what I wanted, but it still wasn't really +my site; it was WordPress's site unless I wanted to pay the hosting and domain +fee. It's pretty modest, but I wasn't sold on sticking with a .com or .space +domain, or even sticking with WordPress. I was getting tired of blogging and +wanted to really make something. +

+

+It's now 2021, five years later, when I write this (and this website isn't even +finished yet). So what led me down the rabbit hole again? It probably started +where the last one left off, when I decided I wanted to switch to more +practical IT things over the academic science-y things I had previously wanted +to pursue. I signed up for a Cybersecurity program, somehow got in, and +eventually managed to land a entry-level SOC role after graduating. At this +point, it was getting a little embarrassing that I had no web +presence--especially after I decided to take down most of my social media +accounts. So I was back at "how do I make a website," again, but this time, I +at least had some understanding of what a server was and how networks work. And +more importantly, I had a better idea of what it meant for a computer to be +mine. Even though--let's be real--it still isn't. I can't get +high-speed Internet easily which I need to host a server long-term so I'm stuck +using some else's computer, otherwise called a Virtual Private Server (VPS). +Even if I could host at home, I'm still of course at the mercy of my ISP so +even then, I'm not totally free. +

+

+Because of that, I think it's important to understand that +"running your own website" is not just a technical ordeal, but also an +economic one since you have to carefully think about what it means to +you to own your server, your software, and your hardware +

+ +

What is a web server and how do I run one?

+ +

How can make this server available on the Internet cheaply and independently

+

+I think it's important to cut to the chase on an important point that I feel +is not written about a lot. +

+

Can I run a web server at home

+

+TL;DR Technically yes, but practically probably not. At least not at a lot of +extra cost to you. +

+

+I spent a lot of time searching on this (you can find a full list of references +at the bottom), and I've even tested a little bit by hosting game servers and +web projects for code jams, but the problem is twofold. First, if you are in +the United States and not a business, you probably have a standard plan with +one of the major ISPs (Verizon, Optimum, etc.). This limits +you in a few ways. +

  • +Your bandwidth is limited, which limits the amount of people you can serve +at one time and the rate you can transfer data to them. Think laggy +games and videos that take 10 years to download. +
    • +
  • +Your ISP probably explicitly does not allow this. I have never had my +ISP complain about hosting small personal servers at home, but I imagine if I +hosted higher traffic things, I would have some problems. +
    • +
  • +
    • +

    +

    +

    + -- cgit v1.2.3