Fukk you, new Internet

My first contact with the Internet, or rather the version of the Internet that was available to the public, occurred in 1995. That is, eighteen years ago as if this writing. I am not going to do stupid things and go on about how it has changed or how I prefer the Internet as it was, or that kind of shit. Things change for a reason, regardless of whether they change for good or ill. And trying to stop change is like trying to stop death.

So what happened?

I have a large caché of articles to go through this month, mostly because my flow from brain to “web” was interrupted. Unfortunately, moving interstate without a properly-researched plan can do this. I will go over the specifics of what happened upon arrival in Sydney at another point. Suffice to say for now that this is a sort of introduction to the future of this journal.

When people want a free lunch…

My first experience of electronic mail and what it promised to be was in 1988, when I went with family to what was called the World Expo. This “expo” was a collection of displays and exhibitions from around the world that represented the culture of each nation, big and small. Aside from the fact that Australia’s representation therein should be considered embarrassing, the exhibition demonstrating what electronic mail was and how it was supposed to work proved interesting to say the least.

Internet designers nowadays: eat me. Sincerely…

When I think back to the mid-to-late 1990s, when I first started taking my tentative steps onto this whole new, “exciting” medium called the Internet, I think of all the promises that were made and the promise the medium was reputed to hold. And in those days, it did promise a lot that was exciting to a technology-dreaming boy like myself. But promises are like wishes. Put one in one hand, then shit in the other hand. See which one fills up first. And never has there been a better example of this truism than the Internet after the commercialists realised that it was not just some “geek” trend, that it was not going to just go away whilst they ignored it, and that it posed a real, credible threat to them. And since then, they have been working overtime to try and negate what made, and to a degree still makes, the Internet a far better medium for all concerned.

Now, you have probably noticed that I inserted a capture of what I see when I load this journal in one of the web browsers on my computer. It is not for vanity reasons. For one thing, I am not that vain. For another, I do not like to use graphics in these things unless it is for an actual purpose. And if you have even the slightest interest in design, one glance at the image I have placed near this paragraph should be able to tell you what that purpose is.