why am I doing this ?
It seems odd, really ... I haven't done a full year of blogging as me and I'm already contemplating a change. The thing is, blogging under my real first name was an experiment and I think I've gathered sufficient data points to draw the conclusions I needed. Ok, let me try sounding less grandiose and less in control now.
I like the anonymity of the internet. For whatever reason, for whatever weirdo may be out there, using a pseudonym means that you have a fallback. It's one of the reasons I oppose biometric authentication. If some cracker figures out how to fake your retina scan or thumb print, how would you change those things ? In the same way, if some nutjob takes a dislike to you, personally .. or just decides to make a nuisance of him/her self, using your real name in a blog means you don't have a way out. You are, literally, at the mercy of a person who knows how to use Google. Of course, it can be argued that if some information about you is in Google, your chances at privacy are pretty much screwed anyway. But even responding to a nutjob puts one at a distinct disadvantage. It depends on how much value is placed on information that is considered personal. I, for one, like to operate on a need to know basis. As in, if someone don't need to know something about me, why bother handing it out on a platter ?
I started doing this under my real name (of sorts) because I usually jump headfirst into stuff that I am uncomfortable doing ... sort of like facing my fears, if you like ... and I was very uncomfortable with putting my real name out there. The few times I was forced to use my name on the odd mailing list are now archived for posterity. And I dislike that. I don't need the publicity.
It doesn't help that in the small goldfish bowl that is Colombo, it's highly likely that you know someone who knows a blogger. Other Sri Lankan bloggers are nice, certainly, but why make yourself easy to find in real life if you don't want it so? I certainly don't need my name out there as a "blogger". Or a liberal. Or as a nerd. Or a geek. Or whatever tag someone chooses to attach to me. The amount of abuse inherent in the discovery of personal information by strangers or foul mouthed fuckwits is not funny. The recent influx of a few unsavoury characters made blogging under my real name a less attractive option, but the problems existed before the rotten apples infiltrated the barrel. So, it's time to branch out.
Essentially, what this means that there will be infrequent (possibly no) updates at this site from now on... I may be back for the odd post or two, but I'm moving on, at least for the forseeable future. I've always wanted to tinker and experiment with blogging software on a real live website. More importantly, I've spent so much of my professional life building software and the random hacked together website or two for clients that I think it would be fun to do my own. Blogger is a great service, but I like experimenting with things too much to accept the restrictions of a managed blogging site for long. I think there is already a lot of useful technical writing on the web. Of course, that didn't stop me from adding to it. Some people even found my odd experiments useful. That's what I want to make available elsewhere in the vain hope that other people find it useful.
I've met some very interesting people since I started blogging here. And actually met them in real life too. But as always, expecting everyone on das intarweb to be nice is naive. That's uptopian. It's not going to happen. The inflow of people with political agendas or religious motivations ... well, that's not for me. I don't blog as a grand socio-political experiment. I don't blog to preach my message to the masses. I certainly don't blog to further my career. In fact, if I did, then I think the contents of this very blog would probably disqualify me from a number of jobs *grin*. But escaping those with an agenda is difficult nowadays. Made more complicated by the fact that most people here know me by this identity and no other.
If you already know me in real life, I suppose you can ask me where I've moved on to, if you're interested. If you don't know me IRL and if you're mildly curious drop me a mail. I'm harmless. Or so people tell me, anyway. The URL may change, but the things I blog about won't...
I like the anonymity of the internet. For whatever reason, for whatever weirdo may be out there, using a pseudonym means that you have a fallback. It's one of the reasons I oppose biometric authentication. If some cracker figures out how to fake your retina scan or thumb print, how would you change those things ? In the same way, if some nutjob takes a dislike to you, personally .. or just decides to make a nuisance of him/her self, using your real name in a blog means you don't have a way out. You are, literally, at the mercy of a person who knows how to use Google. Of course, it can be argued that if some information about you is in Google, your chances at privacy are pretty much screwed anyway. But even responding to a nutjob puts one at a distinct disadvantage. It depends on how much value is placed on information that is considered personal. I, for one, like to operate on a need to know basis. As in, if someone don't need to know something about me, why bother handing it out on a platter ?
I started doing this under my real name (of sorts) because I usually jump headfirst into stuff that I am uncomfortable doing ... sort of like facing my fears, if you like ... and I was very uncomfortable with putting my real name out there. The few times I was forced to use my name on the odd mailing list are now archived for posterity. And I dislike that. I don't need the publicity.
It doesn't help that in the small goldfish bowl that is Colombo, it's highly likely that you know someone who knows a blogger. Other Sri Lankan bloggers are nice, certainly, but why make yourself easy to find in real life if you don't want it so? I certainly don't need my name out there as a "blogger". Or a liberal. Or as a nerd. Or a geek. Or whatever tag someone chooses to attach to me. The amount of abuse inherent in the discovery of personal information by strangers or foul mouthed fuckwits is not funny. The recent influx of a few unsavoury characters made blogging under my real name a less attractive option, but the problems existed before the rotten apples infiltrated the barrel. So, it's time to branch out.
Essentially, what this means that there will be infrequent (possibly no) updates at this site from now on... I may be back for the odd post or two, but I'm moving on, at least for the forseeable future. I've always wanted to tinker and experiment with blogging software on a real live website. More importantly, I've spent so much of my professional life building software and the random hacked together website or two for clients that I think it would be fun to do my own. Blogger is a great service, but I like experimenting with things too much to accept the restrictions of a managed blogging site for long. I think there is already a lot of useful technical writing on the web. Of course, that didn't stop me from adding to it. Some people even found my odd experiments useful. That's what I want to make available elsewhere in the vain hope that other people find it useful.
I've met some very interesting people since I started blogging here. And actually met them in real life too. But as always, expecting everyone on das intarweb to be nice is naive. That's uptopian. It's not going to happen. The inflow of people with political agendas or religious motivations ... well, that's not for me. I don't blog as a grand socio-political experiment. I don't blog to preach my message to the masses. I certainly don't blog to further my career. In fact, if I did, then I think the contents of this very blog would probably disqualify me from a number of jobs *grin*. But escaping those with an agenda is difficult nowadays. Made more complicated by the fact that most people here know me by this identity and no other.
If you already know me in real life, I suppose you can ask me where I've moved on to, if you're interested. If you don't know me IRL and if you're mildly curious drop me a mail. I'm harmless. Or so people tell me, anyway. The URL may change, but the things I blog about won't...
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