Perpetual novelty

One of the problems that has faced the aimless web surfer since the web came into being is this one: where do you start? You have a little time, and you have a vague desire to see something new and cool. What then? Back at the beginning, there was the NCSA What’s New list maintained on the UIUC web site (wherein you can even see the original Star Chamber link there from 1996). But the web kept getting bigger and more tangled, “cool sites of the day” generally weren’t, and it was hard to know which way to turn.

Blogs and RSS feeds have changed all that. Using Bloglines and del.icio.us, I feel confident that I can get on the computer at any time night or day and find limitless amounts of stuff that fascinates, amuses, and disturbs. Limitless amounts of high quality, interesting content. It’s almost disturbing, like driving way too fast. For instance, here’s a gem I found on del.icio.us a few days ago. For the love of God, don’t follow the link: WEBoggle. It’s a simple word game, but it’ll suck the time of day right out of you if you don’t tie yourself to the mast and keep on sailing.

It was in this spirit of bewildering richness that I created the page Signal2Noise several years ago.

The problem isn’t noise
The problem is signal
Take away the idiots
You’ll be plagued by the clever.

A problem worth having, but bewildering all the same.

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