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"Classic Web for a Contemporary World"


My Two Cents

What I think about stuff... whether you like it or not!

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BlueGriffon

An older and no longer supported WYSIWYG web page editor. It is great to use for quickly checking your code because you can switch between source and page with one key. It can mess up your code though. Not break it, but just rearrange it and add things it thinks you need. Most of the time it is spot on but it also does things that are annoying and impossible to change. As someone who now understands HTML, CSS and web design to a basic extent, I don't recommend creating in it as the code it makes can be a bit wonky and not the most efficient at times.

Despite its downsides, it is great to use while learning. I used it to teach myself the basics of HTML and CSS while experimenting with things as I was learning. Over time as I got better though, I came to realize why people opt to use their favorite text editor.

Empire Earth 2

A very fun RTS game from the 2000s. It is scalable though and as hardware gets better, the battles get bigger! I can run huge maps with thousands of population now thanks to faster hardware and the Unofficial Patch 1.6 provided by Dr.MonaLisa at EE2.eu.

Empire Earth 3

A travesty. Absolutely ruined the Empire Earth name and was my first real disappointment in the gaming world. Thankfully it happened early on in my life which taught me not to get attached to a brand or IP because it's only as good as its last release.

Firefox

My favorite browser. You can get it running on just about anything and you can make it as streamlined or as bloated as you want.

GoDaddy

You get what you pay for but they are more expensive than some other comparable registrars.

The Internet

Undeniably, the internet gets better every year. Speeds have risen, coverage has expanded, the amount of available information has skyrocketed and more people have gained access to internet capable devices consistently since I have been using the internet. Functionally, the internet is nothing short of amazing. Every computer connected to the internet on this planet and within wireless signal are just that - connected! I mean, that's all the internet really is; just a bunch of computers connected to other computers. I have no problem and in fact like the internet very much. You can do a lot with it and, my favorite part, even make money from home!

The people and content on the internet though, well, let's just say I don't have nearly as much fun surfing as I did back in the Web 1.0 and 2.0 days. The clearnet is now dominated by walled gardens and less than technically inclined users. There's still little old school hideouts like this here and there but it's not like it use to be, that's for sure. Darknets are better than ever though, ironically. With a bit of patience and some detective skills these days, you can find literally anything on the internet.

iPhone SE 3

It's a great phone and was my first iPhone. I made the switch from Android and Samsung because I got a great deal on one and honestly I am glad I got it. I just works. Sure, you can't load up an SD card with whatever you want and plop it in your phone but I mean it has more than enough storage for music and apps and I'm not watching videos on my phone so it really worked out for me. I highly recommend it, with a case of course. The thing looks like one drop would destroy it without a case.

Irfan View

A great image viewer with many, many capabilities. It supports plugins and is much better than the default Windows picture viewer, regardless of the distribution.

Linux Mint

My favorite Linux distribution as a Windows alternative. Runs great even on older (2010s) 64-bit hardware.

Minecraft

This is one of those games that never ends and I tend to stay away from those. Minecraft though, I make an exception for. I've played it since its early days, before experience, hunger and whatnot. It's really fun because you can get lost in it and spend a great deal of time playing without realizing. It has network capabilities too, which means you and your friends can be gods in your own virtual, limitless world.

Notepad++

Great free text editor. It is my go-to editor because of all it's features.

Old School RuneScape

When this came out, it was like going back in time. Before the Grand Exchange and the Evolution of Combat, RuneScape was a different place. Banks were alive, people were everywhere and being an old school merchant was at its peak. Old School RuneScape brought this back for a while and it was without a doubt my favorite time playing RuneScape. Unfortunately, the community chose to add many things from RuneScape 3 that turned me off of it and I slowly lost interest in OSRS as well. I still buy a month here and there to do all the new quests but I don't have any love for it or the RuneScape IP anymore.

Paint.NET

Very, very good free image editor. It rivals Photoshop and even has plugin support!

RuneScape

What we know as RuneScape today, RuneScape 3, the Evolution of Combat, or whatever they're calling it these days was my first and only MMORPG IP I spent a notable amount time on. As a young one, I put a great deal of time into my character. I haven't played my original main character since the 2000s though. Jagex changed the game a great deal over the years and experimented with a bunch of different policies that eventually put me off the game for good.

Shock Hosting

So far so good! They have reliable shared web hosting with good perks at great prices.

Thunderbird

My favorite email client. You can change just about everything about it and even add extensions.

Transmission

It's always been a good BitTorrent client for me. Transmission runs on Windows, Mac and Linux and has treated me well on every platform I have used it on.

Windows 3.11

Windows 3.11 was the first Windows I ever used. In fact, the first time I ever used a computer, it was running Windows 3.1 on a 386. Windows 3.11 even had networking capabilities all the way back when, which was pretty cool to have at the time.

Windows 98

Windows 98 was the next logical extension for Microsoft at the time with Windows 95. Windows 98 added a bunch of things for media and the web. Original Windows 98 was pretty buggy and was plagued with crashes though. The Second Edition was much better though and brought even more abilities to Windows, some of which we still use today.

Windows XP

The G.O.A.T. Windows XP really changed the game and took me from single core, kilobyte-sized cache Pentiums with MBs of SDRAM to multi-core, hyper-threaded iSeries monsters with GBs of DDR3 RAM. Over 3 service packs, Windows XP just got better and better. Games were better, getting online was better, media was better and drivers were easier to find, install and they more often than not worked well (unless you had AMD/ATI.) Now it may look and feel archaic but, in my opinion, Windows XP really took Windows in the right direction for a while with it's UI updates.

Windows Vista

What a bloated mess. Similar to Windows 10 when it first came out except we didn't have SSDs to compensate for the bloat. Definitely the slowest OS I've ever used on era appropriate hardware. At least it looks pretty though!

Windows 7

The best Windows so far. As far as the UI goes, they should have stopped here. It's probably the Windows I've spent the most time on too. Windows 7 was my daily driver for ten whole years; from 2009 to 2019. R.I.P. Windows classic theme. If I could get security and driver support, I'd still be using it today.

Windows 10

I was not a fan of Windows 10 when it first came out but it looked leagues better than Windows 8. Because of this waited until I absolutely had to upgrade to leave Windows 7 for Windows 10. Today, I still don't have the love for it that I do for say, Windows 7 but I am used to it and think it was a good change after Windows 8. I especially came to appreciate Windows 10 after upgrading to Windows 11 for a few months and switching back.

Windows 11

Windows 11 seems like Windows 10 with a reskin to me. I am not a fan of the changes they are making, especially with the Taskbar, Start Menu and other menus.

WinRAR

Excellent archive manager with a myriad of capabilities and options. WinRAR is free to use but it's so good that I actually paid for it! Definitely worth it to support the project.

WinSCP

My main choice for file transfer these days. I used to use FileZilla for years but one of my hosts recommended WinSCP because it had compatibility with a newer, more secure protocol. I am glad I tried it out and switched! It is highly customizable, very capable and supports many protocols. It's also free!