Murdoc's Journal: Obligatory First Post

Wow, I wonder how many thousands of people have started their /. journals like that? No, it's not clever at all, just the power of social momentum, which I suppose would make an interesting topic in itself, but that's not what I'm here to talk about right now. Instead, this message is about justifying this journal's use and existence, and maybe why in the world anyone would want to read it, but don't hold your breath.

I already have two "weblogs" on the net, already seldom used. So why another one? I mean, just like e-mail 10 years ago, now everyone and their dog is offering a "'blog" (a term I hate BTW); heck, even my own website does it! Why? Simple, because I could. It's a Postnuke site, and it was a module, easy to install, so I thought WTH. But I digress. Expect that from time to time.

Too often I find myself wanting to comment on Slashdot articles, but what I've found is that the sheer volume of users means that if you do not comment within the first hour or so, your post will not likely be read by anyone, except perhaps the person you were responding too. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but come on; if you've commented here before, you know basically what I am talking about. I have no idea how some people do it so consistently, except perhaps simply being on the site a lot, or picking articles indiscriminately. So basically, for the few times I do want to comment on something, by the time I've found it and read enough of it and the other comments, it's too late. I simply don't have that kind of time to spend here.

So thus comes the seemingly elegant solution to these two problems: I simply post my comments here in this journal. Yes, it means that few people will actually see it (I doubt with my few comments already I have many "Fans"), but at least they will be here easy to access long after the fact. I'm a little annoyed by /.'s new policy of hiding older user entries unless you pay them money. Some of my best comments (some even moderated "+5") are back there, and I can't even read them myself! Bah, I hate money, which I suppose brings me to my next point, which would be why my comments might actually be interesting to anybody.

As I said before, I don't have a lot of time for /., even though I read it every day usually. So usually my comments tend to be of the less frivolous variety, something I think is important for people to hear or know. I'm an expert on very few things, I have no PhDs or whatnot. But I what I do know a lot about is something called Technocracy, and I think it is important. And that is not simply my opinion, like many people have in related fields of politics and economics, but AFAICT, good, solid, scientific fact. Thus, I encourage people to check it out for themselves. It's a big topic, so I'd recommend starting with this Beginner's Page (it may not be pretty but it's the best organized page for first-timers I've seen concerning this topic).

So my point is that the purpose of this weblog will most often be to give a Technocratic perspective on some of the articles and other comments that appear here, something unique I can add to the community. How useful or interesting it is will of course be up to you to decide, but I think it should be. I'll of course welcome comments and questions since I know a lot of what I say will be based on stuff most people don't know about, so feel free. Hopefully I'll be posting my first one soon; I've already seen a couple that I'd really like to comment on that have already passed into the twilight "Older Stuff" column - I need to work fast. ;) But if this ends up anything like my other weblogs, then you can expect large gaps of time in between entries. I suppose if I had hoards of adoring fans clamoring for my words, it'd be a bit more often but yeah, I'm not holding my breath either.