Reboot the World

I'm not sure why I was surprised by what I read in Reboot the World, I feel like I've heard similar things already. Yet, I always forget that the internet is effectively made up entirely by large corporations with very little breathing room for indie developers. I thought it was interesting that Ford came at this topic through the lens ('lens', this feels very writing sem shudder) of a database because normally when I think of databases they seem very innocuous. Yes they can be hacked, but I just think of them as a vessel to hold information, I rarely think about who is holding said database, who accesses the database, and what it means to rely on a database.

I also like how balanced this article was – it advocated for more indie sites while also acknowledging that a fully decentralized internet is unrealistic at this point in time.

This article also kind of sent me down a rabbit hole of looking at what Ashley Maddison was now up to and if it even still existed. Honestly how can you host a cheating website when your company's name is now synonymous with extramarital affairs in the public conscious. I don't know, but they're managing.

A History of the Internet

It's really funny, my thesis currently is focusing on Google Street View so, of course, I have read a lot of articles about the program's creation. Earthrise has come up in a lot of articles I've read as either the header image for no reason or as part of the discussion. I'm used to thinking about that image in relationship to the sublime and the Hudson River School, but that's not really relevant to the internet. Idk, this was just a thought I had while watching this video.

I still can't get over that one professor who, on his website, said he gave up email. I wish I could give up email especially right now. That damned communication system causes me so much anxiety especially when there's a new email every minute :'(

I really relate to the guy who ranted about cut/paste, getting worked up about something that's kind of small and getting super into the rant before realizing that you're kind of going off the deep end, taking a deep breath, and then laughing at how ridiculously angry you are.

I like the fact that the Internet Archive is in a vaguely roman/greek building even thought, you know, the internet is probably one of the most modern things you can talk about. It just says a lot about how people denote importance with architecture even if the subject matter that they are focusing on doesn't necessarily mesh with the building style.