January 2023 archive

Jan 29

Capturing My Own Memories Of The Internet’s History (and Pre-History)

449160366_memories_of_Internet_history

Last month I boosted a post on Mastodon where an early pioneer of networking relayed an amusing story about shutting down part of the ARPANET during a storm. After I did that, I was asked “@danyork Do you have a similar story from your archive?"

As I said in a reply,I have stories, but none quite so dramatic. Born in the late 1960s, I got involved with the Internet in the mid- to late 1980s at the University of New Hampshire (UNH).  I was not part of the late 1960s / early 1970s group that was involved with the ARPANET.

But I was at UNH before it became part of the Internet. We used BITNET and there was UUCP and USENET around. It was during my years there (1985-1989) that UNH became part of the Internet. I remember it being a Very Big Deal for those of us in the Computer Science program. Suddenly we would be getting “@unh.edu” email addresses and could connect to everyone else on this growing Internet.

And I was involved with BBSs and early “information services” that pre-dated all of that.

Ari’s point struck me, though. There are many of us who were around in those early days of networking who are walking around with many stories in our heads. Stories of the early days. Stories of how things were before we have the ubiquitous connectivity we have today in many parts of the world (but not all!).

There is value in capturing those stories. In part so that others can perhaps understand how things came to be the way they are. Or to learn how things once were. Or to perhaps spark memories in others. Or for the history fans to just read about what people remember.

There is value in writing or recording these stories NOW… before we forget more of them. Before people get too old to communicate - or before people die. Or, as someone I knew once wrote in the prologue of a memoire of his… “before our memories get so good that we start remembering things that never happened!”  😀

So I think I’ll start this for myself. Here. On this site in a new “History” category. I don’t know that any of my memories are particularly dramatic, and may only be of interest to myself and a few others. But I’ll start capturing them, probably in no particular order.

What about you? If you have stories of the early days of networking, can you share them somewhere?

Image: generated by DALL-E 2 with the prompt "memories of Internet history"

Jan 28

Fascinating Article About the Early History of Python

Back in the early 1990s, I was active in some different developer user groups where perl was the scripting language of choice. I remember with great fondness some of the “obfuscated perl” challenges where the goal was to write something as obscure and small as possible… that actually performed some action. The perl slogan was “there is more than one way to do it”, and that was how it rolled.

Then one day I stumbled upon python, which seemed to be almost the polar opposite of perl. I mean… indentation mattered? I hadn’t dealt with that since back when I was programming in FORTRAN in the late 1980s!

And the idea that code should be readable and easy-to-understand? That kind of flew in the face of the obfuscation challenges.. but definitely led to better and more understandable code!

In contrast to perl, the Zen of Python captured one ethic: “There should be one– and preferably only one –obvious way to do it.”

I loved it!

And for a good number of years python was my language of choice. I used it to solve so many problems and do so many things. Most all of that was internal to various jobs and projects. The only public thing really left is my ancient makefaq program, which generated a Frequently-Asked Question (FAQ) list into HTML, text, or DocBook XML from a single source file. (And I have no idea if makefaq works with modern python.)

This background is why I found “The Origins of Python” from Professor Lambert Meertens such a fascinating read.

Anyone involved with python for any time becomes aware of Guido van Rossum and his role in creating python and all of his amazing contributions. But this article goes back a bit further to provide the context for how python came about.

Given that I started using BASIC on an Apple II in 1977, I never did much with ALGOL and had never heard of either TELCOMP or the ABC language mentioned in the article. Nor had I heard of SETL. When I got involved with computer science at the University of New Hampshire in the mid-1980s, Pascal was the main introductory language, and C was a language heavily used for other work. I also used assembly language, FORTRAN, SmallTalk, and a number of others. In a bit of craziness, I did some large scale text manipulation using the version of LISP built into emacs. 😀 (Although I was later to come down hard on the “vim” side of that particular divide.)

So the history provided by Professor Meertens was interesting to see how various strands came together in a way that helped set the stage for what Guido van Rossum would do to make python the amazing language that it is.

Well worth a read for those wanting to understand the historic origins of languages.

Jan 24

With so many "Dan Yorks", ChatGPT’s interview questions are very generic

three question marks on a blue grey background

After Simon Willison wrote about how accurate questions from ChatGPT were when he asked “I am interviewing Simon Willison. What are some good questions I can ask them?”, I had to give it a try. Simon’s had some questions specific to the areas he works in, web development and open source, so I was curious to see what might be in one with my name.

I was particularly curious because there are so many “Dan York”s out there on the Internet.

Alas, my response from ChatGPT was boringly generic:

I am interviewing Dan York. What are some good questions I can ask them?

  1. Can you tell us about your background and how you became involved in your current industry/field?
  2. Can you walk us through a recent project or accomplishment that you are particularly proud of?
  3. How do you stay current and informed about developments in your industry?
  4. Can you discuss a challenge or obstacle you have faced in your career and how you overcame it?
  5. How do you prioritize and manage your workload and responsibilities?
  6. How do you approach problem-solving and decision-making in your role?
  7. Can you discuss a time when you had to adapt to a change or new technology in your field?
  8. Can you talk about a team or collaboration experience and the role you played in its success?
  9. Can you describe a specific way in which you have contributed to improving processes or efficiencies in your organization?
  10. What are your long-term career goals and how do you plan to achieve them?

This could be for any of the many Dan Yorks who are out there. 😀

(But not a bad set of questions…)

So then I decided to try to be a bit more specific. I next associated my name with my employer, the Internet Society. The results were actually decent questions to ask anyone associated with the Internet Society (but not necessarily directly with me):

I am interviewing Dan York of the Internet Society. What are some good questions I can ask them?

  1. Can you tell us about the mission and goals of the Internet Society?
  2. How does the Internet Society work to promote and protect internet freedom and human rights?
  3. Can you speak to the role of the Internet Society in addressing the digital divide and ensuring access to the internet for all?
  4. How does the Internet Society work to promote and support a free and open internet?
  5. Can you discuss any current initiatives or projects that the Internet Society is working on?
  6. How does the Internet Society collaborate with other organizations and governments to advance internet policy and governance?
  7. Can you speak to the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach in addressing internet-related issues?
  8. How does the Internet Society work to promote and support internet innovation and the development of new technologies?
  9. Can you discuss any challenges or obstacles the Internet Society faces in achieving its mission and goals?
  10. How can individuals and organizations get involved and support the work of the Internet Society?

Next I decided to try specifying the state where I live, Vermont. Maybe there’s another Dan York in Vermont who owns a business, because I don’t, and so these questions were completely off for me. They could be anyone living in Vermont who owns a business:

I am interviewing Dan York of Vermont. What are some good questions I can ask them?

  1. What inspired you to start your business in Vermont?
  2. What challenges have you faced as a business owner in Vermont?
  3. How do you see Vermont's economy and business landscape evolving in the next few years?
  4. Can you tell me about a project or accomplishment that you're particularly proud of in your business?
  5. How do you work with other local businesses and organizations in Vermont to support the community?
  6. How do you stay informed and educated on changes in Vermont's business regulations and policies?
  7. What advice would you give to someone who is considering starting a business in Vermont?
  8. How do you see Vermont's unique culture and environment impacting your business?
  9. Can you tell me about a specific way your business is environmentally or socially conscious?
  10. How do you see Vermont's location impacting your business in terms of logistics and transportation?

Just for grins I decided to go directly into associating my name with one of my blogs. The questions are again a good set of generic questions that could be for anyone’s blog:

I am interviewing Dan York who writes the blog "Disruptive Conversations". What are some good questions I can ask them?

  1. Can you tell us about your background and how you got started writing the "Disruptive Conversations" blog?
  2. What is the main focus of your blog and what topics do you typically cover?
  3. Can you share some of your most popular or impactful blog posts and what you think made them successful?
  4. How do you stay current with the latest trends and developments in the industry you write about?
  5. What are some of the most common challenges you face as a blogger, and how do you overcome them?
  6. How do you engage with your readers and build a community around your blog?
  7. Can you discuss any notable collaborations or partnerships you've had as a result of your blog?
  8. How do you measure the success of your blog, and what are your goals for its future?
  9. How do you stay motivated to continuously write and publish quality content on your blog?
  10. Can you share some tips for those who are interested in starting their own blog or writing content?

And that was as far as I decided to go.

All of these, though, are useful sets of questions. If someone were looking to do an interview in these areas, the questions are not a bad place to start.

Interesting to see various uses of ChatGPT.

Jan 23

FIR #312: The Social Media Press Release Redux

Everything old is new again, the saying goes. Despite touting the idea of a press release as a destination being a new idea, it actually dates back about 15 years — and retains all of its value. Neville and Shel explore the idea of defeating paywalls with destination press releases in this monthly long-form episode of “For Immediate Release.” Also in this episode:

  • Follow-ups to stories about Artificial Intelligence (AI) interns and facial recognition used for nefarious purposes.
  • The 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer — and whether Edelman can claim to be trust experts
  • A roundup of news and commentary about ChatGPT
  • A decline in Mastodon users
  • Dan York’s Tech Report, which looks at some Twitter changes, good news for Mastodon users, a Mastodon instance for Medium users, Getty’s lawsuit targeting the generative AI image tool Stable Diffusion, Wikipedia’s new look-and-feel, and WordPress’s upcoming 20th birthday.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, January 23.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Links from this report:

Links from Dan York’s Report

The post FIR #312: The Social Media Press Release Redux appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Jan 22

Cory Doctorow on the enshittification of social platforms

The word enshittification on a blue and white gradient

If you read nothing else this week, I encourage you to read Cory Doctorow’s latest … rant? … essay? … article?

Written in a style uniquely his own, he calls the article “TikTok enshittification”, giving us an ever so appropriate new word. Here’s his intro:

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.

I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two sided market," where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.

By the title, you would think it would focus only on TikTok, but in fact he walks through how this behavior happened on:

  • Amazon
  • Facebook
  • TikTok
  • Cryptocurrencies/Web3
  • Twitter
  • Amazon Smile
  • Google Search

And in the midst he brings it all the way back to the Netheads vs Bellheads debates of the 1990s.

I enjoyed the post because we’ve seen this cycle happen… SO… MANY… TIMES….

New startup launches and everybody gets excited and starts using it for free. At some point the company has to make enough money to keep paying people - and to pay their investors, because they want to grow. And so the start making choices that ultimately follow this path.

The post was also a sad reminder of how much we’ve lost since some of the earliest days when companies like Google set out with a mission "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful”. That’s still their mission, in fact, but with so many people trying to game their algorithm, and with so much advertising involved, the results are no longer what they once were. (And we’ll see if they are challenged by ChatGPT and other generative AI systems.)

Toward the end, he hits a key point:

Enshittification truly is how platforms die. That's fine, actually. We don't need eternal rulers of the internet. It's okay for new ideas and new ways of working to emerge. The emphasis of lawmakers and policymakers shouldn't be preserving the crepuscular senescence of dying platforms. Rather, our policy focus should be on minimizing the cost to users when these firms reach their expiry date: enshrining rights like end-to-end would mean that no matter how autocannibalistic a zombie platform became, willing speakers and willing listeners would still connect with each other

Many years ago, friends of mine wrote “There are no permanent favourites” as part of what they termed the Internet Invariants.

The point is that platforms and services come and go. Some have their dominance for a few years, some for many years. But in the end the siren song of “enshittification” is often too much to resist. The cycle continues.

Jan 19

Midway Through 100 Days of Blogging – How Did I Do?

100 Days of Blogging FAIL

Back on December 1, 2022, I boldly said that I was going to attempt 100 consecutive days of blogging. Today marks day 50, the halfway point. So.. how did I do?

Wellll… how many different ways can you say...

FAIL!

I started out strong. From December 1 to 15 I published every single day. Then I missed December 16th, published on the 17th, and missed again on the 18th. Then I had a four-day run from the 19th to 22nd, missed the 23rd, and then a five-day run from the 24th through 28th.

Then I missed the 29th, published on the 30th, and missed the 31st. And then, the only post I have published so far in January 2023 was on January 1.

So including this post you are reading now, I will have published 28 posts in 50 days, which comes in at 56%.

Many reasons… each one small in its own way… but the end result is that I stopped.

And yet the point was to try to push myself into getting BACK into the routine of writing every single day.

I have a LOOOOOONNNGGGGGG list of topics… I… just… need… to…. WRITE!

<CTRL>+<ALT>+<DEL>

Let’s do a reset and see what happens. 100 days from today is April 29. Fifty days from now will be March 10.

Let’s check in there and see whether this is going to happen or not! 😀

Jan 12

Measuring Stuff That Didn’t Happen

In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel tackle a question from listener Kris Hansen about developing a metrics dashboard for her organization’s leadership.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, January 23.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Links from this report:

The post FIR #309: Measuring Stuff That Didn’t Happen appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Jan 01

My Themes for 2023

A mindmap showing "2023" in a white box on the left and then three branches: Health, Community, Music

As has been my practice for the past 14 years (see list), my first post of 2023 across all my sites is of three words that are my aspirations or “themes” for the year ahead. They are not “resolutions” so much as guiding thoughts or principles.

Health

Health (or a health-related word) has been one of my three words in 11 of these 14 years. 🙁 BUT… the truth is that I’ve reached an UNhealthy point where I MUST prioritize caring for my body. I’ve had a couple of minor health scares. I’ve been too sedentary. And I’ve continually made some poor choices in food consumption (but… all… those… cookies!!). I need to lose a significant amount of weight and I need to get exercising again. I don’t want to be one of those mid-fifties guys who drops dead while mowing the lawn! And.. we have two amazing daughters and I’d like to be around to see where their lives go… and I’d like to grow old together with my wonderful wife. So my health MUST be a priority… really at the expense of all the other things.

Community

The current chaos and drama at Twitter has highlighted how important an online community can be (or in truth a combination of many individual online communities). Many of us are now trying to figure out where the next communities will be. This theme will also be an important part of my work at the Internet Society this year, as I’ll be taking on a new role co-leading a project seeking to help grow “sustainable technical communities” around the world. We’ve seen over the years that where there is the strongest and most resilient Internet access, there are strong communities of technical people. They might be network operator groups (NOGs), or security-focused groups, or other user groups. Helping identify where technical communities are - and where they are not - and helping share best practices among groups will be a substantial part of my work in 2023.

Outside of work, this word and theme plays into other aspects of my local life. I’ve been getting more involved in some activities in my local town. I’m also in the leadership track for our local Rotary Club and in July I’ll become the President of the club. I’m also involved in other global communities such as the IT Disaster Resources Center (ITDRC) and of course the Wikipedia editors community.

"Community” - and building thriving communities - is SO important in all that we do.

Music

This is a theme I haven’t included before, but over the past year of returning to some activities, including singing in a church, I have realized how much I have missed music being more of a role in my life. In 2022 I started to take some guitar classes again, which I’m hoping to continue in January. I’ve also started to do a bit more noodling around on the piano… and may actually think about some lessons somewhere in here. And, at some point in time I’d like to do some singing with a group, something I haven’t done in a couple of decades. We’ll see.

Missing from the list this year is the nearly ubiquitous “Content”. I didn’t create a great amount this year, and I’m hopeful that I will do more in 2023… but I’ve come to terms more with the reality of everything else going on. Creating content will not necessary be a “focus” area, but hopefully may be an outgrowth of some of the other work. But whatever happens, I’m not going to stress about it too much.

That’s what I’m looking forward to this year. How about you?