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...editorial...
information-overload at all ends…
Seems to be information-overload on the web—as everywhere else. The result is as can be expected; the information we are looking for is hard to find because it is drowning in all the information someone else think we should get to see first. We call it noise (meaning: we don't like it), and there's plenty of it.
This author is designing some, writing some and launching some, but most of the time he is looking for some — information that is. Maybe it's about web design or maybe about something else, but it sure takes a lot of surfin' no matter what it's about.
Google, Yahoo, and all the other search-engines available, provides lists of links to information. Nice, but it is more by accident than by rule that the useful information is to be found amongst the first 50 or so links.
Much stuff at the high end in search-engines are brought there by ratings that has little or nothing to do with the quality of the stuff. It is literally pushed up there by money, and kept there by the simple fact that it is already up there, and that's all there is to it.
No big deal really, as one gets used to skimming off the top in order to get down to something of value. It's like blowing the bubble-layer off a glass of cold beer — the good stuff is underneath.
to blog or not to blog…
Yeah, I've been thinking about blogging, but so far I haven't found any good reason for launching a blog. Plenty of blogs around without much of a reason behind them, which may be seen as a reason for not having any around here. Too much of a good thing is one thing, but too much of all the other stuff doesn't really make sense.
I visit a dozen blogs in a day. Most are part of the daily routine. Maybe I'll respond on one or two subjects/blogs during a week. Maybe not.
Some blogs presents interesting reads quite often, so they are high on my list. A few feeds tells me when there's something new, but I rarely ever look at what's in the feeds. I like to read normal blogs and web pages, so I visit them next time I'm around. Reading a few lines just to see if it's something for me or if it's time to look at the next one. Only takes a few seconds.
Typical I guess, since time is not an endless resource, and everything that takes more than 3 seconds is wasted time. Efficiency is important, and I'd rather waste my own time than having others waste it for me. Great satisfaction comes from being in control of ones own time — for whatever reason.
So, I don't think I'll start my own blog. I'd hate to waste other people's precious time. Maybe they can come up with something useful to spend their time on, and I'd hate to put a blog in their way.
mail-lists…
That's a bit more my style, although just as much time may get wasted. A few hundred mails a day do take time to go through, and some may even catch my interest. Oh well... it can't be helped so I may just as well offer my help to someone once in a while. Maybe they'll save some time that way, and mine is wasted anyway.
I guess by now you've understood that I'm not too obsessed by this waste of time—mine or others. I'm just reflecting the general trend, you see, and then go waste some more of my own time. Guess that's what I'm doing by writing this piece — and it feels good.
Time to check the mail-box again. What a wonderful waste of time...
A few minutes, 15 mails in and one response later, and I can keep on doing whatever I am doing. Everything is in real time, and my action did probably save some time somewhere. That's nice to know, and it is all pretty relaxing.
Yes, I like mail-lists, and I also like chatting [off-list] with people I know from mail-lists. Common interests and a polite and often humorous tone, can create tiny moments with a positive and lasting effect — hopefully at both ends.
no overload here…
I don't feel particularly overloaded by all the information that's floating around. It's all the non-informative, dis-informative, and mostly useless stuff that's also floating around that sometimes irritates me, but I guess that's just me. Maybe someone likes that stuff?
The web is for people who like to keep their privacy in public. The web is a pretty large space to be alone in, so one can stay here for a long time without being over-exposed. Guess that's what they mean by "keeping a low profile", and it suits me just fine.
sincerely 
Hageland 12.apr.2004
last rev: 12.apr.2005
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