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raddevus wrote: Remember the old days when there were multiple search engines (altavista, askjeeves, yahoo, lycos, etc.)?
It's the natural "progression" of anything though. When something is new, it's a bit raw and more like the wild west. That's where crypto is right now, the wild west. We humans tend to want to structure things (good or bad) so we have some predictability. People can deal with bad as long as it's predictable bad. But, we'll always attempt to organize, quantify, regulate, control, etc. anything raw to make it into something tangible for the masses.
And with society's current agreed upon structure that lends itself to a few rising to the "top" mixed with the fact that the vast majority of people are mentally lazy and would rather die than think, there will always be a few rising to the "top" as we put the reigns on something new. Some of it's good; some of it's bad. But humans don't care as long as it's predictable.
raddevus wrote: Remember those days when you visited actual web sites instead of just scrolling down a feed on social media?
Yeah.  And I'm not so sure the caliber of conversation on FB is any better than the IRC/BBS days.
raddevus wrote: the old days were more fun, I think.
That's the circle of life though. The only way to break it is to re-introduce more novelty, as in find something new and raw.
Three examples:
1) If you grow up in a smaller town. You get to know everyone. You get way more freedom and there's less laws and rigid structure. It's more like the wild west though. But you get that freedom (within reason). I remember growing up and a buddy of mine and me would go ramping cars over ditches in a field... because yeehaw. Good luck getting away with that in a big city without a permit or special race track, etc.
2) A lot of CEOs miss the startup days. Yes there was more uncertainty, but there was also more freedom, less rules, easier to pivot, etc. Once you get large, you get lawsuits galore, you can't talk as freely because someone is ready to sue hoping for that payday. Not to mention, if you're the CEO you get the people afraid of you, the fake arse kissers, etc. that you don't know if you're people are real or just milking you. You've created a job not much different than the 9-5 an entrepreneur was trying to escape in the first place.
3) The linux kernel. You know what Linus does these days? He don't code. He's a glorified PR reviewer of PR reviewers, by his own admittance. If you asked him, I bet he misses the old days too when it was new, raw, and exciting and less of a job.
The point, humans crave novelty and excitement but we always build towards the norm despite how sucky it may be in reality due to fear, not having to think, comfort, etc. Then you die and the next generation comes in and repeats the process all over again with the idea being we incrementally improve with every generational "reset".
Liken it to a video game that you already beat 10 times. At some point, you want to play a new game. And it's only going to get worse without a sense of novelty, especially if you're creative. I know for me, I've been so jaded with humans for a long time it put me into a serious state of depression. There are no new thoughts 99.99% of people will think.
But, the point is, there's no future in the past. Rather than perpetually reminisce on ye old days of glory of the wild west, replace it with something new and raw. Or ya know, accept the middle-aged crisis and go buy a corvette before going bald. 
Jeremy Falcon
modified 21hrs ago.
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Great post, always enjoy reading your thoughts.
Jeremy Falcon wrote: I remember growing up and a buddy of mine and me would go ramping cars over ditches in a field... because yeehaw
My mom remarried and I moved to a rural area with no cable TV when I was 13.
We had to make fun. Luckily we had a stocked pond and I learned to fish, learned to shoot fish at night with a BB gun. Learned to clean fish in all manner of ways -- became biology lab when I would dissect their stomachs and find things from long ago.
Also, we had motorcycles (dirt bikes) and would play tag on them. Lots of fun and only a few minor cuts & abrasions.
Jeremy Falcon wrote: He don't code. He's a glorified PR reviewer of PR reviewers, by his own admittance. If you asked him, I bet he misses the old days too when it was new, raw, and exciting and less of a job.
PR reviewer...Ewww...! Sounds painfully boring. Of course he has a lot more $$$ than me and that's because I don't like boring jobs. Probably should'a went the boring route and did something (besides coding) that made me more $$$. 
Jeremy Falcon wrote: Or ya know, accept the middle-aged crisis and go by a corvette
You can also climb Everest. That's a good one. Or, even run a marathon. (Most marathoners run their first one only after their 40 or something.)
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raddevus wrote: Great post, always enjoy reading your thoughts.
Likewise.
raddevus wrote: Also, we had motorcycles (dirt bikes) and would play tag on them. Lots of fun and only a few minor cuts & abrasions.
Ha ha ha. Nice. We only had one dirt bike. Sister ran it into the house through some latticework. We got rid of the dirt bike.  (Don't worry she was ok).
raddevus wrote: You can also climb Everest. That's a good one.
Nothing but respect for the peeps that do. Mountains be scary... to even drive on.
Jeremy Falcon
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CodeProject
Ynet (Israeli news site)
BBC
Microsoft dev docs
Amazon
YouTube
GitHub
Academia.edu
Google/Bing (depending on my mood and the phase of the moon  )
Sporadic meme sites
Probably a total of 15 or so that I visit semi-regularly.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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LOL at social media. You may have noticed it being often mentioned, a lot of folks here, like myself do zero social media, zilch. No zombie scrolling.
I do check 3 or 4 different news & stock sites. The Lounge, less frequently than daily now.
For programming questions I rarely search the web. With the advance of Copilot (Microsoft's integrated GPT) There is rarely need. It is either Copilot or the language standard sites for C++, Python, Go, but much less than daily.
Does github count? reviewing colleagues code? It is technically a website, but in practice more like an intranet.
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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megaadam wrote: LOL at social media.
I don't use social media (no FB, Xitter, Tik-Tok, etc. ad nauseum), but I do occasionaly browse lists of memes. My not-so-secret vice. 
megaadam wrote: For programming questions I rarely search the web. With the advance of Copilot (Microsoft's integrated GPT) There is rarely need.
We aren't allowed to use such things at work - (a) They don't trust it not to send code to the mothership, and (b) they don't trust its suggestions not to include copyrighted code, opening us to lawsuits.
megaadam wrote: Does github count?
GitHub definitely counts. Why would "social media" count as a web site, but "social code" not?
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I visit very few websites these days, mostly just Wikipedia, a few news sites and social apps. I've tried to minimize how much time I waste online.
As far as the traffic consolidation on the internet, the same thing has happened everywhere. Almost every industry is dominated by a duoploy, or a monopoly that owns multiple "competitors" so it isn't quite so obvious.
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KVR Audio
Broncos forum
Cakewalk forum
GearSpace forum
Drag Racing (drag cars in motion thread)
Code Project
Weather.com
Yahoo mail
Justice file (local sheriff goings on)
Dreamtonics (synth V) news page
Those are just my bookmarks bar.
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raddevus wrote: Remember the old days when there were multiple search engines (altavista, askjeeves, yahoo, lycos, etc.)?
No. I remember the names. Don't think I used any of those.
raddevus wrote: you visited actual web sites instead of just scrolling down a feed on social media?
You mean like scrolling through something like tik tok? I don't do that.
raddevus wrote: Starting in the mid-2000s, a small group of big companies wrenched control away
So 'mid' in 2005 there were 64 million sites. Now there are almost 2 billion.
I would be curious what exactly they "wrenched" away.
Certainly now there is vastly more factual content (news, books, tutorials, examples) than there used to be.
How Many Website Are There? - Web Stats 2023[^]
raddevus wrote: you say you visit each day?
More than that. I use google to find answers. Many, many different places. Although I don't usually see he site itself. Mostly I note them because of the different formats that I see.
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CodeProject
YouTube
NDTV (Indian News Site)
GitHub
Gmail and Google
Sanskrit Dictionary site
Sanskrit Shlokas (verses) site
ChatGPT
Copilot
modified 18hrs ago.
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BBC, CNN, Yahoo Finance, eBay, FB, Amazon, YouTube, CP, ChatGPT, SO.
/ravi
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Many news sites. Many science sites. Many YouTube videos of many subjects id est fast food eaters, health, high end audio, science, many others. Many episodes of "Earth: Final Conflict". It's amazing I get anything done.
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BernardIE5317 wrote: It's amazing I get anything done
Me too.
Oh, wait, maybe I don't. 
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Been dabbling in Rust lately and now thinking about seriously learning.
I wonder what resources would people here recommend.
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We were counting on you to do it, Gary.
Will Rogers never met me.
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I haven't taken the plunge yet, but if you're about to start something brand new then go buy a Udemy course or two on it. They're cheap and usually guide you through the learning process when starting at zero.
The point is, always, always, always pay a few bucks when brand new to something for a tutor/mentor. Whether that's in the form of an actual human teacher, book, Udemy, pluralsight, etc. Most people don't and at best they delay their education or at worst suck what they know.
Jeremy Falcon
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"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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