Where's Ishy?

About a year ago, I came to a realization that killed my ability to do web development: The web is a publication tool. It is intended to proliferate data quickly to as many people as may need it – like broadcast radio and spamming out fliers on college campuses. This is rather antithetical to securing information.

Web developers are fighting against themselves in trying to use something designed to disseminate information broadly while also controlling and obfuscating information. We are putting mutually exclusive demands on the web: Hoping to use it to get data (such as advertisements) on as many eyes as possible while also hoping to use it to store and transfer more sensitive information such as credit card numbers and bank account information.

For as long as we are trying to do both of these things at once, we will find ourselves frustrated with web development. We will have to come to grips with the reality that we cannot have it both ways. Data can either be secure or widely available but not both.

As I did web development, I used the Ishpeckian Network as a springboard for all my ideas. It was my sandbox that afforded me much learning and I was able to vomit out some entertaining text while I was at it. When I had reached this conclusion, my zeal for everything web-related died with it.

My healing process has brought me to this point: I believe I am able to reenter the web with full understanding of what it truly is: A publication tool. Using it as such, I will be able to avoid the frustrations and indignities that accompanied web development.

Old material from the Ishpeckian Network is being converted now and you will be able to revel once again in the glory of random bytes scouring all decency from your face. Rejoice.

In the mean time, I would like to thank DJB (http://cr.yp.to) for a good web server (http://cr.yp.to/publicfile.html), and all these yokels (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mressl/webshell/index.html http://anyterm.org/index.html http://code.google.com/p/shellinabox/ ) for giving us ways to obviate the web through the web.