So I decided to make this page actually look like one from 1993: Minimal styling, quick-loading, content heavy. The interwebs used to be a place to share ideas and information, and sure, maybe images or, later, mp3s and videos. There was definitely a peak around the mid to late '90s where we had a good balance of content and flash (pun not intended).
I cannot begin to count all of the things I learned from personal webpages where somebody was sharing their passion. Much of the arcane knowledge I possess came from such pages, or from early forums - remember forums and bulletin boards? That was social media without the bullshit. Maybe I'll start an old-school forum one day, but for now, it's cathartic that I'm back to putting ideas out there for wayfarers of the World Wide Web to find, and that my domain is no longer just parked and useless.
I haven't maintained this webpage in a long time because of the rising (and absurd) cost of hosting. It seems that every single webhosting service now fully expects that you are only starting a website for commerical purposes. For monetary gain. My website has been a monetary loss only, for many years. Traffic has always been too low to monetize, which is totally expected; I started my website as a niche thing, to appeal to other screwballs looking for information on high voltage electrical experiements and crafting jewelry out of junk -- two of my old passtimes. So I'm done paying on the order of $20/month for hosting. But I've recently learned that github allows you to point your domain name to a repo, and so, here we are. Cool, huh?
I am writing this in html, in a text editor. Do you remember when websites were simply a way to share information? Often they were just text. Then pictures happened. OK, so I used to make animated GIFs - say that with a soft 'G', like the peanut butter - of the sprites from DOOM and put them on a free Geocities site with disco music. It was fun. Then the internet stopped being fun. It really sucks now. Sometimes I want to share some information, or maybe just a thought, and I'll post it on social media and you know what happens when you do that: the algorythm buries it. Nobody sees it becasue it's not algorythmically popular, and you wind up with millions of people shouting into the void, hoping to be heard, but the only people whose comments and posts you see are those who are paying for it, or getting paid for it. Social media is a joke.
Anyway. New year, new 1993-style webpage.
Oh yeah, and, I ain't using any kind of AI tool to edit, compose, proof-read, spellcheck or suggest "proper" grammar. Screw you, Oxford-comma! I'll use you as I please, or not.
Sean