10 years online!

Today is a bit of a milestone for this website. It is officially 10 years old. The very first version wouldn’t impress many today, but at that point, it was pretty decent for someone who had no formal training in web programming. If you would like to find out for yourself, go on and have a look at the site as it looked then.

The software behind the site has changed several times, as have the ambition level and the design. But I think my aim behind the site is the same as always. I created the site out of fun and I still keep it for fun. Back then, I didn’t have much content. In fact, the site was predominantly a set of links to other sites. With time, I added more and more jokes, but back then – with nothing but static pages – I eventually had to give up. It was too difficult to update.

I don’t have any jokes on the site anymore. The primary content is in this blog and in my photo album. And here, the world has changed dramatically. The blog may be on my site, but the actual page creation is courtesy of Blogger and the photo album is created by JAlbum. I put in the raw photos and raw text. The software makes it presentable.

In the last few years, the internet has taken a dramatic turn. It is no longer the domain for programmers and other variations of geeks. Instead, the geeks have made software that allows other (more normal) people to use the web. They use the social aspect without worrying about the technology. My friend Matthew is a guru in this field, and he can take a fair bit of credit for me having a blog… and for finally adding the comment field. To many today, that is a just a fact of life. For me, it was a bit of a challenge. I had to accept that people other than myself could write comments that would appear on my site.

Like I said at the beginning, this page was created and is kept alive because I find it amusing, not because I really use it as a tool. But maybe that will change.

I have had fun with my baby website this past decade. Perhaps I will soon have to take the biggest step yet. Not one of technology, not one of design, but one of intent. Perhaps it is time for this site to be a real tool for communication and sharing of ideas rather than my personal playground. What do you think?

Geek – Moi?

Is «Geek» a term you can claim with pride for yourself or does it have to be given to you by the schoolyard bully as a Mark of Cain? Most people would probably say the latter, but in my own memories going back to school, I knew that I was geeky. It was my identity and I was willing to fight for it.

In my teens and early twenties, the Geek in me was very noticeable. But in recent years, it has become less obvious. I still role play but not as often as I used to. It simply couldn’t compete with other more normal pastimes such as playing computer games (which in the days of play stations and x-box is considered «normal»). The Danish Star Trek fan club has been around for a decade. I haven’t watched Star Trek in over a year, but back then, I was one of the three founders. The only thing geeky that I never did was wear a pocket protector. Well, that and I never actually learned how to programme in visual basic, C++ or anything like that.

I am married, go to work, and pay my mortgage and all those other things that indicate that I can function in the so-called real world. Admittedly, my hat might lead you to question my normality, but that is your right. For me, it is simply a minor quirk.

All this normality was brought back into question a few weeks ago, when I sat down in front of SAS for the first time in over six months. A sentence or two ago, I proclaimed that I never learned to programme in C++. That is true. But I found my personal geek alternative. At university, I learned how to write SAS code, interpret output and rejoice in the glory of statistics. But in institutions of higher learning, we can claim that it has relevance. Hence, geekdom is easier to conceal. The give-away was that my personal quality of life was improved because I got to write snippets of code, heavily laced with semicolons and always ending with one word: «Run».

Normal people would take the hint and run – far, far away. But real geeks (with a fondness for SAS) know that running SAS can be done from the comfort of an office chair. If you are nodding in agreement, you might be like me (perish the thought): a geek disguised as a normal human being. And only the occasional smile when faced with a statistical table, a strange hat or perhaps a fondness for books by Terry Pratchett would give it away. The wonderful thing is that «normal» people usually don’t notice these small signs as they hurry along in their «normal» lives.

"Us" versus "Them"

On occasion, the age old question comes along: "Who am I?" In Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this question becomes a short philosophical monologue, spoken by a thermonuclear missile that has been transformed into a sperm whale falling through the air. It hits the ground after a few minutes and dies. To the rest of us, the process is usually a lot longer, though the end result is the same: eventually we die. In most cases, we have as little real knowledge about who we are before dying as the missile-turned-mammal did.

So what do we instinctively do when faced with this question? Generally, we like to make up a definition, but lacking the proper tools, we tend to go about it all wrong. In early childhood, it starts with a desire to be just like mom/dad. As we become older, we are anything but our parents. They are the very thing we don't want to be. But we are still in the formative process and realise that we have desires but no fixed knowledge about who we are.

One would expect that we can define ourselves as we grow older, drawing on the knowledge of our own opinions and actions. And yet, we seem to choose another path: the teenage approach. It worked so well when all we had to worry about was popularity, prom dates and pimples.

Why not apply it to life as we get older? By now, you may think you know what I am talking about. It is the classic conflict that has been reopened.

And no, I am not talking about Israel versus the Arab world. And it’s not the difference between Europeans versus Muslim immigrants. Or Old Europe versus New Europe. I don’t even talk about Coke versus Pepsi (no contest – Coke is clearly superior) or McDonald’s versus Burger King.

No, I am talking about the most essential clash of civilisations: PC versus Mac.

In a recent set of commercials, Apple has decided to point fingers at the PC and literally say: “I am cool, you’re not”. If made as a subtle point, that sometimes work, but in this version, it is a bit too obvious and fails to convert many new arrivals to the battleground. Have a look for yourself at the current campaign and one very good spoof:

The original

The Spoof

In this conflict, I personally identify myself with the PC-friendly spoof.

Why?

Because PCs are not like the Macs. And I don't like Macs.

At this point, you may realise that I have chosen to focus not on the small conflicts that could at best earn me a religious death sentence, but at the type that can make me a target in cyberspace. Simply because I identify with something because of its opposite. Had Apple chosen a different set of commercials, my identity as a PC user would not have manifested itself so clearly - for the moment.

The only issue left is that PC can have a meaning other than a piece of digital hardware. And in that respect, I consider myself very non-PC.

My question to myself is: Am I pro-PC and anti-PC because I want to differ from the alternatives? Or is it pointless to base an identity on something that does not have an opposite? Without Apple, would it be a big deal that I prefer PC's?