I brick’ed my workstation about 3 weeks ago when BFU’ing to the December Crossbow Beta. Thanks to ZFS no data was harmed, just reinstall a fresh Solaris SX:CR and reimport the pool. I was busy and didn’t have time to reinstall Enlightenment, so I just put up with JDS. JDS sucks…. GNOME in general is just lame.
Tonight I built Enlightenment 16.8.5 (kwo is the man). I’ve been running DR17 for several months so I thought it was time to give DR16 a run again. It got me wanting to re-pimp my desktop. I started digging around for my old themes, PCF fonts, terminal settings, etc. It was fun going back down memory lane and pulling out some great themes for masters like my friend Pixelhead (seen in many places as “pixelmoose”).
The 21st Centry is, I’m starting to think, a fairly boring place. The 80′s and 90′s were filled with a growing desire to meet the future head on. We were reaching toward it, looking for it with open arms. I think Y2K was the big letdown because we were reminded that time is a human invention… cars didn’t start flying, we didn’t replace wood grains with steel plates, we didn’t see the final end of flannel. As a result retro came back with a rage. The 70′s came back into style in a big way… perhaps because we needed to go back to where we left off prior to this search for the future.
A lot of things that I really enjoyed have left the building. Style has gone retro. Electronic music has returned underground and in many genre’s (namely dark-roller and techstep) virtually vanished. Inflatable furnature has become obscure once again. Stylish and funky desktops are being replaced with boring Windows and OS X look alikes.
Orbital: gone. Future Sound of London: gave it up. Aphex Twin: Who knows. Reflex Records: idle. Squarepusher: Idling. Dieselboy just can’t pick up the slack and is idling.
I remember when sharing screenshots was all the rage. We all would spend hours making out desktops a thing of art and then boast for weeks about our kick ass screenshots. No more. I can’t remember the last time I went to a home page with screenshots prominantely displayed. I’m guilty I suppose, I removed them from my home page as well in favor of a more stylish design.
Not everything is a bust in this 21st centry. Metal has come back in a big way, which is good to see. A lot of it is still obscure but metal had all but died in the 90′s. Films still suck. SciFi films are scarse although at least Fantasy films have done alright. Anime trudges along as always…. just can’t keep the Japanesse down. And maybe there is a glimer of hope in the fact that the Japanesse never seem to cease reaching toward the future.
Wired Magazine sucks ass. ‘zines in general suck ass. The ‘zine revolution of the mid-90′s was a great time, and maybe the last great surge of the medium of paper prior to the internet revolution.
This blog entry has no point at all… maybe the next decade will glve up on retro bordom and return to a more optimistic view of the future where once again women all wear latex, we all sit on inflatable chairs, look forward to getting our next implant, elect Bruce Sterling president, proudly wear mirror shades and high-tops, listen to 300bpm music with breakbeats that cause small insects to implode and have desktops with interfaces kooler than the crap in movies. Here’s to the future that slipped through our fingers.
Ah, I remember all this too. I was probably much younger but seeing all of what you describe with Enlightenment and the Linux Desktop really got me interested in using something other than Windows. I ended up purchasing RedHat 5.0 on CD… didn’t have a fast enough internet connection to download it. Eventually settling on Debian. Enlightenment is still the greatest window manager ever. I’m anxious to see E17 done. I think based on what I’ve seen it could once again change the way I’d use Linux.
Thanks for reminding me of those humble beginnings into switching to Linux. Those were some fun times.
I hear you.
Let us hope that the new year brings us closer to the future as it should have been!
As for electronic music, I’ve been getting back into the 8-bit swing of things.
Today, it’s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_voltage_sid_collection
techstep? As in the drum and bass subgenre? I have about 10 12″ singles from the DSCI4 label, which I put together in a pretty fierce set on Saturday night.
Planet Mu! It’s still a shame that not much is exciting in D&B these days, but it *was* a Remarc single that started their turn into something new and interesting in the ’00s… I had nearly written off mu-Ziq after the last major-label album. Try the Boxcutter LP or Exile’s 12″s. Stands up to anything on Rephlex, I think.
(I stumbled into this blog doing research for work, but I remember all these silly things too. Life is funny. Figured you were older!)
e87cf9aa fb5dc43a 1d6 ancor1|ancor2|ancor3|ancor4|ancor5 She would dance and I would sing, for our [URL= http://google1.com.com ]cool ancor1ancor2ancor3ancor4ancor5[/URL] . They are simply looking for a better http://google1.com.net rel=”nofollow”>ancor1ancor2ancor3ancor4ancor5 .
A being with wings, putting rocks over your http://google1.com.org best ancor1ancor2ancor3ancor4ancor5 .
Hello people! Nice site!
e87cf9aa fb5dc43a 1d6 ancor1|ancor2|ancor3|ancor4|ancor5 If you were to ask [URL= http://google2.com.com ]ancor1ancor2ancor3ancor4ancor5[/URL] : what are you doing out here?
It seems to me he made the cave larger in the http://google2.com.net rel=”nofollow”>ancor1ancor2ancor3ancor4ancor5 .
The prize was distributed as fixed http://google2.com.org ancor1ancor2ancor3ancor4ancor5 or goods.
Thanks for your project. I like this site. KEEP IT UP..
teeny
ultram
xanax
blodulv
earshot
shinedown
industrial
http://index1.arolew.com rel=”nofollow”>healthy finger nail pictures http://index2.arolew.com rel=”nofollow”>schoolbags with sharks http://index3.arolew.com rel=”nofollow”>john berry your love amazes me http://index4.arolew.com rel=”nofollow”>boat retail whole sales http://index5.arolew.com rel=”nofollow”>female escorts in alabama
http://index4.dupolk.com rel=”nofollow”>how to do sleight-of-hand magic http://index5.dupolk.com rel=”nofollow”>meret oppenheim imdb http://index3.dupolk.com rel=”nofollow”>black and white pictures of johnny depp piano http://index1.dupolk.com rel=”nofollow”>what is classical management http://index2.dupolk.com rel=”nofollow”>flamenco beach hotel puerto rico
http://index1.pereez.com rel=”nofollow”>mcclosky motors http://index2.pereez.com rel=”nofollow”>st john the divine gift shop http://index3.pereez.com rel=”nofollow”>lobby pr agencies boston massachusetts http://index4.pereez.com rel=”nofollow”>albany ny newpapers http://index5.pereez.com rel=”nofollow”>sleeping quotes
http://index3.akyort.com rel=”nofollow”>roses unlimited http://index1.akyort.com rel=”nofollow”>cheap flights to myrtle beach http://index2.akyort.com rel=”nofollow”>youngblast look me in my eyes lyrics http://index5.akyort.com rel=”nofollow”>kirtland tourist sites http://index4.akyort.com rel=”nofollow”>how to become a cellulad phone dealer
Very interesting article: “Waiting to go back to the future…”