A "Rumblings" Manifesto

While I may be of a technical bent (yes, I'm bent—but not twisted, I swear!) this is not primarily a tech blog (that would be this one). Yes, I'm an electronic technician, computer teacher, and technical writer—but I'm usually much more interested in how technology impacts people. It's also fun to speculate about the future—for example, what will the long-term effects of buckyballs and nanotubes be on human culture?

I dropped out of engineering school in the late '60s because I felt the prevailing attitude was too much people for the machines and not machines for the people; if there was a poor fit, you bent the people to fit the machine, not the other way around. Part of my initial interest in computers was that I viewed them as a near-infinitely-malleable machine—potentially programmable to the Nth degree.

The present problem is that we have what has mostly become a computer monoculture of IBM PC-compatible machines running Microsoft Windows, to the point that most people wind up viewing the failings and flaws of Windows as problems with computers and the Internet in general—when this is (usually) not the case. Viruses, spyware, adware, and (to a lesser extent) worms are almost entirely a consequence of using the Windows operating system and not an inevitable part of the computer experience. People are being bent (and twisted) to the Windows Way of doing things and do not have as much control over their PCs as they should. Digital rights management (DRM) is a looming problem, as well. Once again, control is slipping out of the hands of the average user. How can we take it back?

Admittedly, a learning curve with computers is not entirely avoidable. Using a computer will never be like driving a car—it's more akin to learning a language. Think about the massive complexities of the English language, yet we still communicate effectively every day, for the most part. :-) Still, you don't normally have to refer to a dictionary or encyclopedia every thirty seconds to speak!

It shouldn't have to be this hard. To get around some of these problems, I mostly use Linux. I don't necessarily think that everyone should use Linux, too—yet—though for many folks it can be a useful (and free) alternative to Microsoft Windows 10, with its baked-in privacy issues. To my mind, the Apple Macintosh is not the ultimate solution either—though based on an open source BSD version, it's much too proprietary.Frankly, I don't know what the ultimate solution to these problems will be—but I promise that I will share any useful gleanings that I find along the way. Not all problems are solvable, but there may be ways of avoiding them or making them easier to live with.