Last night I was sitting in my cabin thinking about this post. I was remembering how I came up with this idea. It's not original. I guess that it's been around for ages.
Posts such as these probably got more popular in the late 1990's and later. At least, I remember several places on the web where you could get daily journals from various computer geeks. One of them was called the "Daynotes Gang", as I remember. My first connection with computer journals was in print, though, not on the Net.
Do you remember Byte Magazine? It was a good magazine before they folded (although they later came back as an e-magazine, but it still wasn't the same as the hard copy). They were really popular in the 70's and 80's as the place for computer hobbyists and professionals to get information about new computer stuff. There was a lot of stuff in there that I didn't understand, at least at first. Some of it got really technical. I was in my teens when I started reading it in the mid-70's.
But I guess that I mostly enjoyed reading about Jerry Pournelle. He was (is? Don't know if he survived the Problem. I'll have to look around for him on the Net.) a science fiction author, really into the space program, and wrote a regular monthly column (in Byte magazine - their printed magazine first, then the 'web-zine' when the paper version stopped) about his experiences with computers.
I liked his writing style, since he was sort of mucking around with computers trying to make them work like the rest of us in those early days. Then he'd tell you about all the mucking around he did to get something to work. He used to say something like "I do this so you don't have to".
Of course, he had a bit of an advantage over most of us, since he was able to get demo stuff and gifts of equipment from manufacturers that were hoping for a positive review of their products to help their sales. Some of the stuff he got worked, and some didn't. And Jerry would tell you about his experiences in working with the stuff. He wasn't shy about telling you stuff to avoid, and stuff to get. You might remember his "Orchid and Onion Awards": Orchids for products that he used and recommended, and "Onions" for the kind of press that most vendors didn't want.
Anyhow, I'd been thinking of his "Chaos Manor" articles in Byte, and how much I enjoyed them. There were others that did similar things, some of them were on the Net towards the end. I used to enjoy reading the postings from Tom up in Canada, Robert on the East Coast, and Brian out in Silicon Valley (and after he moved to the Washington DC area).
So these postings will be a bit like that - a "story" about how the Problem evolved into what you and I are experiencing today. I'll tell you how I found out about the Problem, how I was able to track the source of the Problem. And how it got out of control, and the damage that it caused, which is why you and I are in the mess we are in.
And maybe this story will help prevent it from happening again. Although it will be a long recovery, I think that we can make it happen.