I was going to write about something much more interesting but then my screen went blank. It went blank right after I opened the Preferences dialog of the Markdown editor I use to write these posts. I open the Preferences dialog every time I start the editor because I have to toggle the "Large Type" switch of and on again because when I open the editor the type is microscopic even though the Preferences toggle for Large Type is enabled. When I disable it, the type gets somewhat larger and then when I re-enable it the type regains its full size.
The reason I use the editor is because my mail client stopped having spellcheck. It used to underline misspelled words, but then one day it didn't. I tried to find the history of the various upgrades that were applied to see where it went away but I was unable. I tried to file a bug with the team who writes the mail client, but I couldn't because I wasn't logged-into Github.
I tried to log into Github, but I couldn't because something had changed since the last time I used it. I stopped using Github for my personal work completely when they started using my work to destroy people like me and well, the entire world really and inbetween now and then something changed and I can't log-in.
I tried using a different mail client, but I couldn't because the only one I could find that was compatible with the various layers of software that make-up my laptop's operating system are not quite compatible with any except one. That one won't work with my email server for reasons I can't divine.
Because of that, I'm writing this post instead of one about new ideas I have about human-computer interfaces, but I suppose that is what this is about as well. Every day I work with this computer, and the computer I use for work, and the computer that I call a phone, and pretty much every other computer I work with on a daily basis is a story like this, and often many stories like this. Tiny bits of drag slowing down or stopping the work I'm trying to do. I can't compute the cost of this over the course of a lifetime, but what I can say is that as I get older the cost gets higher. The amount of time I have between when an idea solidifies in my imagination and when it returns to the mist grows shorter every day. Even ounces of additional drag now reduce my thoughts to dust.
If the Jobsian ideal of a personal computer is a "bicycle for the mind", what would you call what has become of them today? I can't think of a perfect metaphor but at the moment a wood chipper comes to mind.
But there is hope (remember, no total bummer posts this year).
The SwyftCard-equipped Apple //e I've been using the last month exhibits none of these drag-inducing behaviors. It is the fastest, most reliable and lowest-drag computing tool I use by far and possibly as far as I can remember. It is ancient by technology standards and is far from "restored", yet it works more reliably than the $1200 new-last year laptop I'm writing this on. It's also faster, ready to work within five seconds of power-on (my laptop can't even wake-up from sleep and unlock that fast). It is ready to work as soon as I am and has no problem keeping-up with me.
If I can help others perceve this sort of drag that their computers put on their work, and how the computer I'm building can eliminate it, I don't think I'll have any trouble making a living at making them.
So why am I not using it right now? That's a fair question and the answer is fairly simple: I haven't connected it to the outside world yet. I'd like to say I have some lofty reason for this but it's really simply a matter of getting my hands on the right cables. You see, I thought about making a cable but then thought I'd try to be more "practical" and order one...
Jason J. Gullickson, 2026
(as if to have the last laugh, when I went to copy-and-paste this text from the Markdown editor into my email client, CTRL-A stopped working to select-all...)