new 11/01/01 |
Computers yeah right. I like computers. I really do like computers. I like what they might be like in about five years. In five years when I can get an artistic fulfillment from what I can create in their programs. When I can shoot, edit, and output DVD quality video. When I can communicate with a cross-setion of humanity at the same time where we can all see and interact with each other even though we are miles, or many miles or even billions and billions of miles away. When I can realize my dreams with holodeck-like rooms in my house. When there are robots. This is just my test page. This is the page I am going to send to Homestead.com via their Homestead Publisher, to see if I can get it posted to my Homestead at http://www.homestead.com/allthingsmike/ATMfrontpage.html Because I have been having problems. I like my Homestead website. For a month now, I have edited quite the site,and truth be told, had always wanted a site and never saw anything that was as easy as this, if I must say so myself, and I almost fully realize that this "super-word processor/printing/imaging" program they call the Homestead Editor is the best and easiest way for anybody to create an informative and exciting web page. I do wish it had more fonts. Hell, I must have about two billion fonts on my computer. Why can't I import them into these pages? Anyway. When I try to access my page from the site,I get a strange message. The message I get is that the editor doesn't support my browser, that I have to "upgrade" to a new version of Netscape or Explorer. Well, originally, after I first heard of Homestead and wanted to create my first site, I couldn't even get a one on Homestead because I had a beta version of Explorer 5.0 and their editor only supported the published version, you know, the one I overwrote with the beta version so I could instantly have access to my address book and e-mail history from the earlier browser. To get a Homestead page, which by the way has made me quite the webmaster when I can access the damn thing hence this missive, I installed a two year old version of Netscape 4.0 which was hanging around eating up valuable three year old massive 2 gigabyte hard drive space. For a month the site has been well. So much so that I even downloaded Homestead Publisher beta, version 1.0. That way I could create pages on my computer and upload them to the site. I also started using the Netscape Composer program more for text exercises (more fonts but less image manipulation.) and to write my first electronic book, which is spurring my creativity, which is causing me to think that maybe I might even like computers even before robots get here. But a funny thing happened. The folks over at Netscape informed me by an electronic request window the other day that I should "upgrade" to Netscape Communicator 4.6. Of course I overwrote to the same location, sort of like I used to do with Bill Gates product, and the next time I tried to access Homestead from the site, I got that really strange message. It's a pretty blue on white. I wrote them an e-mail. I let them know about my little feeble small inconsequential I am only a very small byte in the overall electronic scheme of things thank you very much problems. The web-bot who lives in their e-mail program immediately sent me a reply, responding to the active words "Homestead Publisher Version 1.0" and "beta" . The e-mail message? "Thank you for your interest in Homestead Publisher." Thanks? Not answers. Not suggestions about how they might go ahead solving my little problems. Not even pity did they bestow upon me. Thanks. So then I thought, well , let's try the Homestead Publisher again. So far there have been problems. When uploading a page, the internet connection severs, or I can upload some pages and they show up in an unedited version. I think I might have overwrote to something I had changed on the site but because the site doesn't recognize my browser but recognizes their own Homestead Publisher thank you that only saves what was on the old Composer pages which were uploaded as files? The mind boggles. Now I will attempt to upload this page, create a link to it on another page, see which pages are corrupt from the site without using the editor interface, and only my Netscape 4.6. I like computers.I like what they will be like in 5 years when I can use one program to do all these things..... This page will salute/condemn the computer. What it is now. What I want it to become. The virtual self and the Universal mind. The right connections for a digital tomorrow. |
ComputerBS |
This page was last updated
on: November 24, 2001
The following essay was written in June of 1999, merely a month after starting to design websites using the Homestead Editor. MFN |
Essays concerning the impact of the puter on society as a whole, by Michael Nyiri |
updated July 14th, 2001 |
new 11/01/01 |
Unforseen Frustrations. Unforgiven Crashes and loss of information. Unknown upgrades which cause former programs to freeze and lock. All in a day's work as ComputerBS engulfs our lives. |
