I am overwhelmed by everything now. It’s so complex and convoluted, and even people trying to help leave things out that they assume you know.
To me computing is now plugging small black rectangles that look all exactly alike into another larger black rectangle that all look the same to get indistinguishable results for things I don’t even need or want.
And when I don’t want it it gets shoved down my throat anyway.
To me computing is now plugging small black rectangles that look all exactly alike into another larger black rectangle that all look the same to get indistinguishable results for things I don’t even need or want.
I don’t know if I’m mad that this description is really wrong, or more mad that it is really on point.
Modern computing to me is slicing up a big computer to have it pretend to be lots of smaller computers.
I’m just old. I remember going from cassette to 5.25" to 3.5" to hard drives, while watching graphics go from 8 color blocks on a blurry TV to full motion video in HD, while programs went from text editors to desktop publishing.
I feel like I could identify the changes, how they work, what they did for me.
Recently I had to install a SSD at work. I was confronted with M2, SATA, PCIe. What does any of this mean? I was handed two black rectangles and I was supposed to know that a tiny notch on the connector was the difference?
What difference does any of this make? Computers are just magic boxes now that spew out video and audio on command, and I can not tell the difference from one to the other. I don’t play video games. I don’t care about hoarding petabytes of pirated content, or generating fart videos with AI (although if someone else does it I laugh my ass off), arguing over pointless differences in hardware (that I feel these nerds don’t really understand anyway), spending more money on equipment to correct the problems that the first computer caused, endlessly updating things I never use, being forced to subscribe, share personal data, get notifications on my phone, I just do not fucking care about any of this endless treadmill of landfill we are supposed to have in our lives.
It’s all meaningless. It’s lost its hold on me, there’s nothing new or interesting there. I fondly remember typing away on a VIC-20 and being fascinated by the cursor on the TV changing color, and trying to program a game, learning BASIC commands from the little spiral-bound book that came with it.
Barfing up a prompt so an AI can hork up some fluid-filled abscess of code it weaved together from all the world’s code according to trillions of parameters is just futile, tiresome, overwhelming, unrewarding, and ultimately a joyless roller-coaster ride into an open grave.
I am overwhelmed by everything now. It’s so complex and convoluted, and even people trying to help leave things out that they assume you know.
To me computing is now plugging small black rectangles that look all exactly alike into another larger black rectangle that all look the same to get indistinguishable results for things I don’t even need or want.
And when I don’t want it it gets shoved down my throat anyway.
I don’t know if I’m mad that this description is really wrong, or more mad that it is really on point.
Modern computing to me is slicing up a big computer to have it pretend to be lots of smaller computers.
I’m just old. I remember going from cassette to 5.25" to 3.5" to hard drives, while watching graphics go from 8 color blocks on a blurry TV to full motion video in HD, while programs went from text editors to desktop publishing.
I feel like I could identify the changes, how they work, what they did for me.
Recently I had to install a SSD at work. I was confronted with M2, SATA, PCIe. What does any of this mean? I was handed two black rectangles and I was supposed to know that a tiny notch on the connector was the difference?
What difference does any of this make? Computers are just magic boxes now that spew out video and audio on command, and I can not tell the difference from one to the other. I don’t play video games. I don’t care about hoarding petabytes of pirated content, or generating fart videos with AI (although if someone else does it I laugh my ass off), arguing over pointless differences in hardware (that I feel these nerds don’t really understand anyway), spending more money on equipment to correct the problems that the first computer caused, endlessly updating things I never use, being forced to subscribe, share personal data, get notifications on my phone, I just do not fucking care about any of this endless treadmill of landfill we are supposed to have in our lives.
It’s all meaningless. It’s lost its hold on me, there’s nothing new or interesting there. I fondly remember typing away on a VIC-20 and being fascinated by the cursor on the TV changing color, and trying to program a game, learning BASIC commands from the little spiral-bound book that came with it.
Barfing up a prompt so an AI can hork up some fluid-filled abscess of code it weaved together from all the world’s code according to trillions of parameters is just futile, tiresome, overwhelming, unrewarding, and ultimately a joyless roller-coaster ride into an open grave.
But have a nice Labor Day weekend anyway.