Saturday, November 17, 2007


So anyway, this morning I was struggling with a new email client I recently downloaded. Trying to get it to send an email out, as well as download them from out there. And it occured to me what a struggle it is anymore to do somehting as simple as send and recieve email. At some point in the past, I used some text program like PINE, and started it, got my email saved to my local machine as text files, readable by human eyes. Nowadays, there are so many settings, layers of authentication and protection and filering. Then it saves it in some encrypted garbled crap. Oh sure, I realize they are all there to protect me, the poor defensless user from the big bad wolves of spam and virii circling about in cyberspace, waiting to pounce upon the unwary. But it is sometimes such a struggle just to get to where one wants to be anymore. Want to edit a webpage? Log in, go thru authentication protocols, navigate through two or three pages to your file manager. Want to write a blog? Get ready to jump through some hoops if you haven't been there in awhile (oh, and now they make you use another login for that too). Want to write some poetry or somesuch? better have it done long beforehand, as you'll be spending an hour at the computer, going through password exercises, clicking "okay" or "not now" on automatic update boxes, and such, trying just to get to where you need to be to actually DO something effective. Before all this came about, I Used to read science fiction books. And enjoy reading about other people doing the struggling with recalcitrant technologies. Now I do it every day, trying to read email that is, ultimately, meaningless and useless in the long run. What a waste of time! Guess I'm a "Mad Kitty" today (see above graphic). Oh well, hey at least it is Saturday :-)

Avoid Nuclear War

  Ever since I’ve been alive, all I’ve known is the nuclear sword poised, hanging over us all, ready at any moment to fall and send u...