As alluded to in the previous post, located here, I have big changes. But it’s turned into a rabbit hole of discovering caveats. Even after prepping for months.
So, rather than leave it all in the dark, and being subtle-posting about it, let me go ahead and reveal parts of it.
First Thing: I’m trying to replace the engine of this website.
I am no longer comfortable with the bloat of this engine, and the attack vectors against it. I’ve defended against the malfeasance, but the bloat isn’t something that can just be switched off, or pared down. The editor has been “simplified” (not really) multiple times over the years and the content creation SEEMS simpler, but it’s like a strange hybrid of Microsoft Word and Textpad. It seems like it was designed by someone who didn’t actually write things, or like writing things, with a hierarchical and technical mindset. I’d love to be able to customize it with tools that would just do what I want, but that’s a whole other set of rabbit holes to dive into and I’ve given up after a few months of searching.
I really just want something that’s simpler, both in the editor and in the entire engine, and not trying to sell me something with every add-on.
But the methods I used once upon a time to find this engine, and it’s two predecessor engines, have vanished from the Intarwebs.
So I’m blind-hunting for engines and server softwares out there, and it’s taking a hell of a lot longer than I thought it would.
Second Thing: I’m tryna start a podcast thing.
Without getting into the details, I have an idea for a podcast. Again, I’ve spent a long time prepping for things, getting softwares and hardwares and office setups ready for this over the past two years, but recently (due to other factors) this has become a more present Thing in my life, so I’ve had to dive into it harder and deeper.
And I’ve discovered that the “basics” guides out there are very uneven about covering all the concepts and requirements you need to keep in mind, and the “complete” guides out there are either out of date, incomplete, slanted, or all three.
So I’ve had to read at least a hundred pages culled from the Podcasting Pillars, and almost a hundred more from the Other Names out there, to cobble together the missing pieces.
And that’s taken me four months to do.
And by missing information, I’m talking requirements for file types and encodings, as well as cover art and chapter art and everything in-between.
As well as discovering that it’s REALLY WEIRD listening to my own voice, recorded. And all the little things that can introduce noise and bad quality to a recording.
I went to college for Computer Animation, and this has really driven home the point that we JUST did the modelling and animation parts of it, not the rest of it. We THOUGHT we did audio and video prep and comp and all that, but really we were just fooling ourselves.
So I’ve started recording some things, and am currently working through reviewing and cleaning and editing them. After several false starts and start-overs, due to the before-mentioned requirements not being clearly laid out.
Perhaps once I get this ball rolling, I’ll put together something about my mishaps so that the next fool I mean person who wants to take this road can read it and learn from my mistakes.
Third Thing: A.I. madness has really spooked me.
The revelations about AI scraping almost everything on the net and STILL needing more, and the insights that almost none of the scraping was licensed by the creators of that content, has really spooked me.
I’ve had art stolen before. It’s kind of what scared me away from it for decades. Trying to get back into it while tech bros are busy saying, “Can I borrow this? Nevermind, already did.” is just kinda scary and frustrating and annoying.
There appears to be NO ways to protect yourself from this tomfoolery, and the way they’ve created their Plagiarizing Machines is also enough that it prevents any ability to pursue legal recourse.
And now they’re trying to sell back to me the ability to “use” A.I. to “improve” my creative process.
Like stealing the stuff from my house and giving it a bad paint job, then reselling it to me.
So I’m being slower about this than I need to be, probably than I should be, because it just really deflates my balloons how many people are just USING this “A.I.” generated content instead of hiring artists. I do NOT want to be used to train your A.I. without the option to limit my involvement, or at least compensation, and I especially do NOT want to use A.I. to “enhance” my product without being able to limit or control it.
And the fact that so many of them have lied and lied and lied over and over and over about it, until someone found the proof that they lied, so they just said “Sorry about that, we’ll do better next time.”
Next time, what? The next time you try to steal all the things from my house and resell it to me? You’ll try to be sneakier? You’ll try to give it a better paint job before reselling it to me? You’ll try better to not be caught?
The political and sociological implications of the complicity in this is really beyond the scope of this post, but it really affects my mood and ability to create. And my confidence in putting things out there, and them remaining (at least legally) my property.
So, yeah, those are the broad strokes of what’s going on. I’m still working on it all. I really want to be done now, but things just keep popping up, and it’s just me working on it all.
You can have it Fast, you can have it Cheap, or you can have it Good – pick any two.
I’d better get back to it, or it’ll never get done. I’m focusing on Good and Cheap, so I can’t promise any when, because… yeah, see above.
For those still hanging around, thanks.
Skåll!!!