Wait for the report later, but I am very keen on HTML and that is [the result] of the enthusiasm of not one, but many [of my] web pages functioning well right off the bat. Now that http has been hammered back into its place, I can focus on networking again – and that networking should properly be either the Internet or something close to it. Now I see that learning Internet protocols is a waste of time when you are getting started. It is enough to know they exist, so, if in the process of installation or repair, you have a reason to suspect they are not working, you can look closer. But this antiquated rote memorization represents the worst in a system that calls itself progressive. Now there will be faster learning. For example, when I want to transfer files, then (and only then) might I have a reason to bother with ftp [file transfer protocol] and only if it doesn’t work, itself a precedent. Veteran techs may laugh here, unless they pause to think how much time is being saved compared to their apprenticeship. How many techs out there could write what I just did after less than 8 hours exposure to a new topic?
I went to the library intending to study networking. In the end, I was still enthused about HTML, and read several books on that. I know that HTML is a dated language, and most of what it does has been taken over by automated editors. Web pages are advertising, and advertising is a hard sell. My point is that learning the language, or any language, follows my old maxim: those who only speak one language can only think in one language, and until you learn another language you will never know what a limitation that is. I’ve worded it much more eloquently in the past. The message remains.
Actually, I once read a phrase that summed up HTML, written by a twelve-year-old kid from Calgary, Alberta. When asked why learn HTML when one could use an editor, he replied why learn math when one could use a calculator? It is so that when things go wrong, you know how to figure things out for yourself. Don’t base too much on the kid being just twelve, obviously he had support the rest of us could only dream of. Hey, given six months my parents would reduce him to a back-stabbing, lazy, gossiping TV addict whose one intention in life was to get 'hisself' a share of your property.
One can see that many of the newer web pages must be using a different system, and to me that explains all the variations on HTML advertised, such as DHTML and XTML. I’ve been around long enough to know that computer languages often change for the sake of change, and there is not necessarily any net improvement. Further, the more graphically oriented the language becomes, the more the results take on a boring consistency. For instance, I have long since been an opponent of giving personal information to strangers. (I also say that if you have to give personal information, then whatever you are trying to get is not free.) Well, if you look closely, most of the pages that want information not only ask for the same information, they ask for all of it, in the same order, using the same layout. That and since these input pages are considerably harder to program than regular web pages, it tells me the programmer used an editor. Too many people tend to think all programmers are uncannily intelligent, but I tell you it is like any other field – mostly full of idiots with half-baked college certificates. It is less common now, but I remember when these programmers insisted on their “right” to collect this information, and I knew people dumb enough to think they had to fill it out or they would face consequences!
Over the past year, I have finally seen magazines and other articles that are outright warning people not to give out any information. That is, reputable magazines and newspapers. These editors are not just suggesting that it is bad idea, but outright advising people not to do it, and to severely question if there appears to be no choice. These articles all have one thing in common – they are ten years too late. The information already gathered will be enough to screw a lot of people for life, and they gave that information out themselves. Think of what you are really doing when you post your resume on the web. You cannot go on thinking everyone out there is as honest as you are.
[Author's note (2014): and people who post personal information on line are at the top of the list for identity theft. I was calling them idiots a long, long time ago.]
