Floating beyond the cloud.
Nov 20
Its been an interesting and very fatiguing couple of weeks for me, but it looks like calmer water is on the horizon. Having to cross the country and work at different offices while de-cluttering some major project related hassle has thrown a spanner in the works of my daily blogging routine. So time for blogging and working on the website has been scarce. However , I have been busy tech-wise with some creative solutions to living and computing on the road.
Continuing on the subjects I talked about in KC0018 (Command and Conquer) I have looked into more ways of working with the two linux servers I have on my remote location , and interacting with them via the command line. Recently, besides having the possibility to use my Instant messaging and IRC via a command line terminal, I have also found command line replacements for interacting with Gmail (Alpine) Posting to Twitter (mitter) and reading my RSS feeds (newsbeuter) Although I went as far as using w3m for a text-based browser , I must draw the line there cause its just not practical to navigate DIGG or SLASHDOT with just text.
Even right now i’m writing this very blogpost in putty, over an SSH connection on one of my linux server. Somehow the simplicity of it all has grown on me and I find myself typing away raving fast on the keyboard, leaving my mouse untouched. Its very strange ! A lot of my "computing actions" are centred around working cross platform and working with web-based tools. But somehow the simple black and white interface of the terminal is even more convenient (and faster) to work with then the spiffy blingy OS or Web-based counterparts ! The absence of mouseclicks is made up for by the rattling of the keyboard. And, by using the SSH connection, the processor power of the machines I physically work on , no longer matters. The two linux VM’s i’m hooked up to have 256 megs of ram each ! Even my 24 inch imac has to do nothing more then facilitate the connection when i’m doing my daily (non graphical) chores.
Funny. Vista gets more bloated graphically, websites get more flashy and ajaxy, computers get faster and faster .. and me ? I’m happy with a linux server running (virtually) on tha 2.4 gig Xeon with megs of ram. Even the old laptop lying around at home (a 366 celeron with 128 megs of ram) could do the trick for me. Is my digital evolution taking me away from the path where i need more and more power ? Is it taking me to a place where I have learned to use computers as efficiently as possible , using a minimum of bandwidth and system resources ?
Seems that my evolution is taking me away from the concepts of "my operating system" (obsolete .. i use 3 of them) its taking me away from ideas like "my computer" (I can use every computer I get my hand) Its taking me beyond ‘my home network’ (I live on the web) My harddisk (everything is on the network) and "my applications" (I can use a myriad of ways to interact with my data) All in all its very strange. Sometimes it seems I’m floating above my own digital cloud , beyond the digital restrictions of location , operating system, processor power etc..
Strange .. but interesting.
