Funny how the wheel turns. I started "blogging" on Advogato
long before "blog" had entered the public vernacular, but
drifted away as the pressures of work and my personal life
started to take a toll. But now I find myself wanting to
get back into the (hobby? practice? avocation?) of writing
about computers and software. I don't want to start up a
regular blog for a number of reasons, the primary one being
that I don't have much to say about politics these days --
I'm frankly sick to death of the whole topic.
Also, I have found that my interest in computer science has
been re-fired lately -- I will be forty years old soon, and
this presents me with a good excuse to perform a tour
d'horizon of the field where I have spent the bulk of
my life so far. I don't delude myself that my thoughts are
in any way profound or even original; it's just that I find
it cathartic to sit down and get some ideas down "on paper"
rather than just float around and eventually dissipate. I'm
often glad that I write about things that years later I
think are silly or badly-considered: it helps me to
understand how I've changed.
What I won't do here (or at least will try not to do) is go
on long political rants, or chronicle my personal life. I
intend this to be a technically-oriented space, a scratch-
pad for my thoughts and ideas on computers, software, and
other technology. I'm sure that philosophy, religion, and
esthetics will intrude -- writing software is a human
activity, after all -- but I will try to keep things
centered.