A Birthday Wish
MY birthday is a few hours away (several cakes left the fridge this morning, they're still moist and fresh), which means more "away from keyboard" time tomorrow. There's some anticipation but not real "excitement". I'm not 3 anymore. I don't typically make a big deal out of birthdays. Everyone has these and some rely on them to feel loved and at least cared for, even if only for a day and if much of that boils down to implicitly obligatory posturing (societal expectations and peer pressure).
This site is 18, which means I'll be 25 years older than it tomorrow (I started when I was 24). Looking back, we've accomplished so much in quite a few areas. Even today it seems like we've managed to overthrow one more corrupt official at the EPO.
My mother and I discussed my health last night. It's not bad like it sounds. She actually commended me on my good health, attributing it to happiness, self-care, and genetics. Despite sitting in front of the computer almost all the time (sans breaks) I never had glasses, my cholesterol levels are good, my blood pressure is at optimal levels, and I never needed a dentist for anything except routine check-ups (very rare). Assuming I can maintain that, hopefully I can carry on writing interrupted for another 30 years or more. That's my birthday wish. That's what I want to do with my life. I already have a stress-free life and I intend to keep it that way.
Being realistic, it's very unlikely that the Web will still be around in 30 years (except some "legacy" thing), but people always wrote things, one way or another. We can evolve and change formats, protocols etc. As coders, we're self-reliant. This lessens operational costs (this morning we paid for hosting upfront until the start of 2026).
Will the planet still be around in 30 years? For sure. Even 30,000 and 30,000,000 years. What about human civilisation? Well, it's not looking good, but preserving information is very important. GAFAM won't do this for you. It never did. Grassroots efforts with positive effect are essential and are constantly under attack. The richest people (which GAFAM fronts for) benefit from knowing everything about everyone, whereas everyone other than them knows nothing (or gets fed rat poison in some skinnerbox like "X"). It has always been like this, even before modern technology.
Organising information is important and it yields something that's difficult to measure with monetary yardsticks because it tends to transcend the economic system and occasionally condemns this system without repercussions, hence without fear/hesitation. Publishers that depend on Big Capital will stray away from knowledge and wind up parroting PR. I'll write about this topic some other day. █