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Mondo Confuso
Jul. 10th, 2007 07:15 pmI'm almost entirely self-taught on every aspect of technology in my life and work, from keyboarding (Hunt Peck University, class of '74) to virtually everything hard and soft about computers, to programming the damn VCR not to blink . Yet I wind up with odd pockets of ignorance, where the old adage comes to mind about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.
Take your basic productivity software. (Or take your basic BASIC if you want; that might have been the last language I actually took a course in, literally a century back; there are still a couple of weird files in my prior laptop's document list which work in that.) I'm completely self-taught and proficient on Word and Excel; I can fumble around in PowerPoint if an actual overhead projector isn't required; but Access completely befuddles me, as did dBase and the other dinosaurs in the database section of the software graveyard left for dead there by Microsaurus Rex.
Likewise, the Web we weave gives me opportunities for both shining and Shinola (or whatever I don't know the latter from). Little tricks like that 12:00 up there in the first paragraph, which may or may not be blinking right now depending on whether you, or I, have Firefox or IE going. I can muddle my way through most of the things I want to accomplish on this site without having to resort to outside assistance, but as with other tech-NO LOGIC-al things, I hit the occasional black hole and wind up just going, huh?!?
The "img" tag is one of those. I can upload or (confess! don't make us get the soft cushions!) hotlink to just about any image I care to share, yet I wind up virtually oblivious to why some of them display forever, others drop off my page after a day, still others after many moons, and yet a fourth category will display if I've opened them locally in recent (literal or virtual) memory but not if I haven't.
Another total mishmash for me is the world of RSS/XML. I barely know there is one, and that only because I see those mysterious letters on other peoples' blogs and articles. I've gotten as far as understanding that, as an LJ member, I can "friend" existing "feeds" of offsite blogs that are "syndicated," whatever the hell THAT "means." I also know that, as a paid LJ member, I can request the setup of a new feed, which I've done several times, for baseball blogs and a few others. So yes, thanks to moi, you can read such offsite gems as
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/ahoy2006/ (my old co-worker Hart's Jan-nual wrapup of the 100 or so nominees for AssHole Of (the) Year based on their achievements during the preceding 12 months);
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/faithnfear/ (the original-for-me Met blog which got mine going);
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/mets_grrl/ (the distaff side of the Shea Stadium infield, written almost as often and always as well by a my-ageish lady of Brooklyn); or
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/the_daily_fix/ (a more general sports feed from one of the FaithnFear authors via his dayjob at News of the World Street Journal, summing up the best of submitted online columnists from the previous day; this one's just acquired a rather annoying Dell-sponsored "welcome screen" blocking the door to the content, but I hope that's temporary).
Of those four, to date I am the only on_LJ reader of three of them. The other has exactly two. Click any of those links and you, too, can join the club that's made for you and me. Or not.
Even if you don't, though, maybe you can splainame. For today, as happens about once a week, my Friends page will burp, hiccup and even fart a massive amount of re-run syndicated content. I got today's Metgrrl feed, but I also got about half a dozen of her prior entries I'd already read. The Daily Fix feed does that almost as often as it doesn't; I'll get the new, but at least one of the old, and sometimes many of them, will tag along for the ride.
V'ger does not understand. And since I'm equally befuddled by the reality of LJ comments (not just why they're sometimes undelivered, but more importantly why I sometimes can't seem to get any of them), V'ger is fully expecting to remain that way.
Take your basic productivity software. (Or take your basic BASIC if you want; that might have been the last language I actually took a course in, literally a century back; there are still a couple of weird files in my prior laptop's document list which work in that.) I'm completely self-taught and proficient on Word and Excel; I can fumble around in PowerPoint if an actual overhead projector isn't required; but Access completely befuddles me, as did dBase and the other dinosaurs in the database section of the software graveyard left for dead there by Microsaurus Rex.
Likewise, the Web we weave gives me opportunities for both shining and Shinola (or whatever I don't know the latter from). Little tricks like that 12:00 up there in the first paragraph, which may or may not be blinking right now depending on whether you, or I, have Firefox or IE going. I can muddle my way through most of the things I want to accomplish on this site without having to resort to outside assistance, but as with other tech-NO LOGIC-al things, I hit the occasional black hole and wind up just going, huh?!?
The "img" tag is one of those. I can upload or (confess! don't make us get the soft cushions!) hotlink to just about any image I care to share, yet I wind up virtually oblivious to why some of them display forever, others drop off my page after a day, still others after many moons, and yet a fourth category will display if I've opened them locally in recent (literal or virtual) memory but not if I haven't.
Another total mishmash for me is the world of RSS/XML. I barely know there is one, and that only because I see those mysterious letters on other peoples' blogs and articles. I've gotten as far as understanding that, as an LJ member, I can "friend" existing "feeds" of offsite blogs that are "syndicated," whatever the hell THAT "means." I also know that, as a paid LJ member, I can request the setup of a new feed, which I've done several times, for baseball blogs and a few others. So yes, thanks to moi, you can read such offsite gems as
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/ahoy2006/ (my old co-worker Hart's Jan-nual wrapup of the 100 or so nominees for AssHole Of (the) Year based on their achievements during the preceding 12 months);
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/faithnfear/ (the original-for-me Met blog which got mine going);
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/mets_grrl/ (the distaff side of the Shea Stadium infield, written almost as often and always as well by a my-ageish lady of Brooklyn); or
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/the_daily_fix/ (a more general sports feed from one of the FaithnFear authors via his dayjob at News of the World Street Journal, summing up the best of submitted online columnists from the previous day; this one's just acquired a rather annoying Dell-sponsored "welcome screen" blocking the door to the content, but I hope that's temporary).
Of those four, to date I am the only on_LJ reader of three of them. The other has exactly two. Click any of those links and you, too, can join the club that's made for you and me. Or not.
Even if you don't, though, maybe you can splainame. For today, as happens about once a week, my Friends page will burp, hiccup and even fart a massive amount of re-run syndicated content. I got today's Metgrrl feed, but I also got about half a dozen of her prior entries I'd already read. The Daily Fix feed does that almost as often as it doesn't; I'll get the new, but at least one of the old, and sometimes many of them, will tag along for the ride.
V'ger does not understand. And since I'm equally befuddled by the reality of LJ comments (not just why they're sometimes undelivered, but more importantly why I sometimes can't seem to get any of them), V'ger is fully expecting to remain that way.