I cut my teeth on mainframe computers, the behemoths of the early days of automation. In 1972, central processing units required huge air conditioners that circulated under raised flooring. Disk drives that stored 200 megabytes were larger than commercial refrigerators and cost $37,000 or $185 per megabyte. Today’s computers and disk drives are infinitely smaller and cheaper. Today’s cost of disk storage per megabyte is $0.000014, or 13 million times cheaper.
I have lived through most of the automation revolutions (e.g., networking, minicomputers, personal computers, the Internet, etc.) over the past 50 years. The turbulence of rapid technological change resulted in changes in human behavior and social practices. For technologists, these disruptions have a hidden complexity. The creation of new technological tools is not a simple linear process. The future cannot be created by jumping in a time machine, going forward two years to see the best solution, and returning to the present to implement the “best” solution.
Life is filled with instances in which we trust a company or person to be as “good” as they claim to be. This routinely occurs to all of us. My recent experience creating the blog you are reading is another example of pursuing the best solution. I decided to create my blog on a platform hosted by an old internet-based company. I have used this company for several services over the last 50 years, and their reputation was stellar. However, I had never used them to host a blog.
My initial experience was generally positive. In the days before my blog went live, I was the only person using the website, so there were no serious red flags. However, things went downhill once I advertised the blog to my friends and relatives. I tried tweaking my blog on the “old, reliable” company’s platform, but to no avail.
Instead of “living with it” or giving up, I spent four days moving the blog to a different company. I hope your experience with this new website service will improve. I have also removed the requirement to log into the website, but it will now be visible to anyone on the Internet. I am discouraging Internet search engines from indexing the blog, but some may crawl through it anyway. I have already noticed traffic from Russia and other countries.
Most of you will never need to register and log into this blog. However, those who wish to comment must create a new account and log in.
So, let me know if you have any problems. If you are a friend or relative, you know my email address.