Monday, December 7, 2009

What a great database...it was?

Please understand, I'm just a casual user and I only have the vaguest knowledge of recent evolution of the Wayback Machine.

But I have this to say. I'm disappointed.
Perhaps it is due to the sheer burden of archiving such voluminous material that the method for collecting data has been forced to change, I don't know. It would appear that, like empirical scientists you now break down everything into distinctive topic matters, just like Yahoo. (Is that why I use Google now?)
Please follow my string - I'll get back on topic shortly - I loved it when these carpetbaggers came into my local community in Highland Park (one of the poorest neighborhoods in Michigan) in an attempt to literally steal the city's water utility (designed by Henry Ford in 1915)
These business thieves had hidden their tracks well, removing their previous 'business venture' websites in an attempt at a clean slate. Fortunately, with a quick check on the Wayback machine I was able to find their past dealings and bring it to the attention of the Highland Park Council before it was too late.
It would not be an exaggeration when I say that were it not for the Wayback Machine, Highland Park would have found itself in a heap of trouble.

I also liked the fact that it was general: On the Wayback Machine you could just submit your site and that was it. It was perfect for someone such as myself to whom the term 'generalist' could be applied. Some folks have even jokingly called me a renaissance man because of my wide scope of interest upon which in which I like to create or comment.

So where do I fit in this new defined scheme of things?

I've made my living as a full time fine artist, but my medium is unique and does not fit your categories. My interest in the sciences - thirty years worth - is for the most part completely heretical, yet my ideas are followed by some of the World's most knowledgeable plasma physicists. My website contains my animations, lyrics, music, movies, community sites. My webserver is a veritable feast of disparate delights, a confusion of disciplines that is subtly connected. My website IS my art.

Is there room for me in this New Order?

Couldn't but help notice that the Wayback Machine discontinued tracking me after 2008. Perhaps one of you 'experts' saw me for what I was - a messy unclassifiable conglomeration that does not fit the new matrix - DELETE!

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