[geeks] A little self-indulgence

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

Back when the web was first starting to get big (1995), I was learning
HTML to put up a small web page for my church.  I remember when HTML 2.0
was ratified.  I have fond memories of debugging a set of QA CGIs written
in C on an Indy back at JJT in 1996.  About the only big-name company that
didn't have a clue[1] about web design back then was Sun (remember the one
big GIF homepages?).  I still do all my web-coding in a -text- editor, and
still code against HTML 3.2 because 4.0 sucks planets through soda straws.

I -=hate=- what the web has become.  You can't browse a decent percentage
of "mainstream" sites without Microsloth Internet Exploder v9382.2 and
Crapromedia FooBar v89 and Java$hit 4.2 and who knows what the hell else.
Oh, and you need to resize your screen--no, wait, we can do that -for- you
with ActiveX and DirectCrash and ... and ... and ...

And what the hell does <H1> mean again?  No, we'll -tell- you the point
size of your fonts for headings, and don't you -dare- try to right-click
on the page to adjust it, because we've Java$hat that out the window.  Oh,
to hell with text, we'll just render the -whole- -damned- -page- in Flash!
And, no, you -really- want -this- window to be the topmost, no -this- one!
Whoopsie!  I meant bottommost.

And I'll be damned if you can even get in the front door without a
thousand cookies shoved up your browser's arse, or download a measly file
without a META-redirect page.  But, of course, that's becase everything on
the web is an -application-, rather than a set of docs.

etc, etc, etc.

I could rant all day, and I just scored the perfect domain name in which
to do it:

     webbastard.net

I'll happily provide forwarding email addresses and tertiary zones to
whomever wants them, as soon as I get a decent pipe to the house. :)

Yes, I already have two secondary domains (patschke.org for the family
geneology stuff -- down at the moment, and celestrion.net for projects and
random crap), and I detest the rapid consumption of the namespace, but I
plan on putting this (like all my other zones) to good use.

And I will never own a .com, merely on principle.

--Jonathan
[1] Back when clue meant: "it's simple, everyone can navigate it, and it
    -works-" rather than "<design expert> sez it looks swell."  I was
    fired from JJT over an argument with <sales manager> regarding this
    very point--never mind that our target audience consisted of engineers
    using Mosaic under X.