I cannot believe that my previous column — Apple TV+ Foundation: First Impressions — was posted more than a week ago as I pen these words. The problem is that I’m up to my armpits in alligators workwise, frantically fighting fires without a paddle (I never metaphor I didn’t like).
As we speak, I’m running around my office like a headless chicken shouting “Don’t Panic! Don’t Panic!” (it’s fortunate that the butler had already laid out the appropriate costume).
What do you think about the title to today’s column? Personally, I thought it had a better ring to it than my alternative, which was “Here’s Some Interesting Stuff.”
Are you familiar with the Wayback Machine? Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, the Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web that allows users to go “back in time” to see how websites looked in the past. Since its creation, over 613 billion pages have been added to the archive.
Well, there’s an interesting article on Ars Technica about how a new search engine called the Wayforward Machine provides a glimpse into the future of the web by allowing users to go “forward in time” to access the internet in the year 2046.
How many times do you search the internet for a nugget of knowhow or tidbit of trivia each day? Think about this for a moment, and then — as the Ars Technica column instructs us — “Imagine a future without access to knowledge…”
When you go to the Wayforward Machine’s landing page, you are invited to enter a website’s address and then search forward in time. I entered my own website “CliveMaxfield.com” — now I’m depressed to see what our future may hold.
Of course, things may not end up this way… or will they? What say you?
I also entered your website into WayForward Machine. The Ministry of Truth is the foundation (sorry Isaac) for the end of freedom and maybe humanity as a whole. I think we are moving in that direction much faster than we can imagine and it already exists in those countries where the government monitors and regulates all speech.
Who decides what the Truth is?
As Pontius Pilate famously said in Jesus Christ Superstar: “And what is ‘truth’? Is truth unchanging law? We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours?”
So long as we maintain a strong democracy along with a strong press and we don’t deride any news that doesn’t fix in with our agenda as “Fake News” and we don’t attempt to subvert the election process to our own ends… oh, wait a minute, we are already sliding down that slippery slope thanks to the efforts of some pond slime whose name shall not pass my lips (not that I’m bitter, you understand).
“Maintain a strong democracy along with a strong press”? Hello? That has been gone for quite a while now – all anyone in power cares about these days is money. Hopefully in this “strong democracy” I won’t get cancelled for saying that.
As bad as it’s gotten, we are still a lot better off than some countries, but we could throw it all away. When you say “all anyone in power cares about these days is money” — I think that some like Mitch McConnell are more motivated by power — the problem is that whatever their motivation — money or power — they lose all sense of decency and honor and what is right and what is wrong.
I think you should say “what is right and what is left”. Personally, I see a government that is corrupt and inept on both the right and left. Yes, it is still better than most countries, but the political fighting on both sides is not driven by a pure desire for the Truth, rather a desire for power over the people, and spending other people’s money so they can continue that power so they can get more money, so they can stay in power… I am going to stop now.
Perhaps a nice hot cup of English tea would help (I know I could doi with one LOL)
Or a nice cup of Costco coffee (actually it is Starbucks Columbian beans).
Thank goodness for coffee, is all I can say 🙂
I wonder if I drink coffee to wake up or wake up to drink coffee.
As I just wrote in an article for Practical Electronics in the UK: “Sir Charles Wheatstone (inventor of the British telegraph in 1837) also took the time to invent the concertina in 1829. I sometimes wonder if Sir Charles invented the concertina because he didn’t have many friends, or if he ended up with few friends because he invented the concertina.”
I decided to indulge in some nostalgia and looked at the websites that were Important to me when I started blogging. MicrocomputerCentral was there, but on AllProgrammablePlanet of the 5 different dates that I tried, 4 took me to the redirection where you welcomed APPers to your new your EETimes Programmable Logic corner.
It’s sad that they didn’t manage to archive everything (although they may have the data somewhere) — I’m just impressed with what they did manage to save.