Dive Right In!

The computing ocean is deep and wide,

many locations for an explorer to scout.

From the shoreline, shallow material abounds.

Windows OS commands, Webpage clicks, Social Media hangouts.

Further out, the water gets deeper.

System settings, device managers, device drivers.

As the continental shelf drops off, we go deeper still.

Coding languages, system programming, Unix and

Linux shell programming, penetration testing, debugging.

Eventually you make it down to the deepest trench,

if you are still conscious at this point...

Assembler and machine language coding.

EEPROM burning, hardware modifications.

Various oceanic currents can take you around the world:

Seeking out bugs in hosted Webpage code,

writing Perl and Java scripts to embed in HTML;

Penetration testing against web servers.

E-commerce integration and aggregation.

Reverse IP lookups to trace messages,

encoding Trojans and viruses to unleash.

Just as there are several named oceans,

so there are many named areas of expertise in IT.

You can dive deep and get lost in any one, or all.

Just bring an extra tank of technical support,

better yet a buddy who knows more than you do.

Good luck plumbing the depths, and remember:

those deep waters are all just ones and zeroes.

Machine language, C, Unix, Linux, Ubuntu, Mint, Kali.

Punch Cards, Paper Tape, Magnetic tape, Cartridges, Diskettes, Thumb drives.

Machine Language, Assembler, C++, Cobol, Perl, Java, Python.

Relays, Vacuum Tubes, Transistors, Printed Circuits, VLSI, Submicron memory.

Control panels, Punchcards, Keyboards, VDTs, Mouse clicks, spoken input.

Chips embedded in human brains. Direct brain augmentation. Human-machine hybrids.

Biological processors – enhancing children, or retro-fitting supplementation/enhancement.

Can you teach an old boomer new tricks if you implant them in his brain?

You never know.

Data Enumeration in the 21st Century

The BIOS beeps through its routines,

faster than you can say “boo!”

Then the initial splash screen flashes.

Another session of the latest flavor of

Windows ™ is under way  - Ten!

All of the processes, services, schedulers,

threads and multithreads are flowing fast.

Soon, you see your login screen with a

lavish nature scene as a backdrop.

It will not be long now,

only a few more moments and then

you will be on the worldwide Internet.

Wondrous at one time, perhaps now a bit archaic.

A smartphone will get you there even faster.

But the possible foibles have just begun.

A protocol stack in memory is funneling

your packets to far-flung servers all over.

The responses flung back your way may

contain good data, or they might be viruses,

trojans, malware, any one of a thousand baddies.

Thus, everything coming back into your machine

gets channeled through a firewall, and antivirus software.

The mass data dance is underway, full speed ahead.

Those thousands of interacting code and data pieces all

must do their part just so. Most of the time, they do.

To someone working in a time of punch cards,

paper tape, magnetic tape reels, it would be

magical to do it all from the palm of your hand.

Even that single-line monochrome message box

that an IBM ™ technician held back in 1986 seems

pitifully quaint nowadays.

An antique, an anachronism.

Now that we are all interconnected,

bad actors from around the world can

savage our advanced civilization –

for they have little to lose compared to us.

Enjoy the magic, but beware.

and...

I hope we all get lucky tonight.

At the Nelson-Atkins Museum

The Assyrian Apiashal eyes something to the side,

while Ramses II, Egyptian counterpart, poses in a dress.

A venerable temple frieze several feet wide

displays some forgotten battle, won or lost.

Fragmented statuary from Greece and Rome,

household tools and jewelry decoration,

Crude to us but once decorating some fine home,

Last remnants of highly-accomplished civilizations.

The hieroglyphics and cuneiform have long

since been replaced, yet hint at past majesties;

the proud power projection of old kingdoms

has given way to crumbled, looted tragedies.

Our cracked smartphones, shattered TVs, remnants of laptops

might have future museum patrons scratching their brainboxes.

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