Well it’s been a while since my first post 33.75 years ago to rec.music.beatles back when all we had were dial-up modems and text views.
The first browser (Mosaic) was still a couple of years away (end of 1993 for Macs). So we did our best to communicate across the planet with Usenet in all it’s green text on black glory.
Usenet was an interactive network originally used by academics, scientists, programmers, and defense industry folks for information exchange on a variety of topics.
If you want to go on a pure nostalgia trip you can try out the r.m.b 1987 archive, which is styled to recreate ‘the fun’ of accessing beatles insights using a unix terminal.
The r.m.b 1987 archive as seen via a Unix terminal
Back in 1991 I was encouraged on to Usenet by friends Peter M and George B.
Fast forward many years and the ever patient Peter M has finally persuaded me to stop sending him voluminous email and to start a ‘blog’ once again.
It’s timely as the anti-social media tyrants Zuck and Musk are making their ‘walled gardens’ toxic.
So here we are - back to basics.
No algorithms. No tricks.
Just simple online notes always published in reverse chronological order.
Let’s see where this adventure takes us in our Rambling Rows.
Names are hard.
My aim here is to strike the balance between ‘rows’ of orderly data (as I tend to be analytical) with some ‘rambling’ as we explore the tangled threads of tech, economics and society.
I will resist the day-to-day political cut and thrust; so much is trolling.
Don’t feed the trolls or the algorithms.
I will try to focus on the big picture without getting too bogged down.
Let’s see where the journey takes us.
