From 9db7b184ed05d8cac7cb9170405b42bb322b2922 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: git Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2021 00:21:46 +0000 Subject: barely started --- about/.description | 1 + about/faq.html | 3 ++ about/whereami.html | 55 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ about/whoami.html | 79 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 4 files changed, 138 insertions(+) create mode 100644 about/.description create mode 100644 about/faq.html create mode 100644 about/whereami.html create mode 100644 about/whoami.html (limited to 'about') diff --git a/about/.description b/about/.description new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eee24f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/about/.description @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Who runs this place anyway? diff --git a/about/faq.html b/about/faq.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ad0c1a --- /dev/null +++ b/about/faq.html @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +

Frequently Anticipated Questions

+
  • A question?
    • +

    Yes, that is a question. Nice one

    diff --git a/about/whereami.html b/about/whereami.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca1dc06 --- /dev/null +++ b/about/whereami.html @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +

    +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, +but in reality much more complicated than it has to be. +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 + +
    +

    +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 my router. 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. +

    +

    +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. +

    +

    +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/about/whoami.html b/about/whoami.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0394a8b --- /dev/null +++ b/about/whoami.html @@ -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 +

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