Saw a video last week that dove into why "there are no cyberdeck, actually" because the term was originally used to refer to a technology that was both corporately mass produced and worked with a neural interface, not screens and not homebrewed.

It didn't seem like the point was to poo-poo all over everyone's good time, so much as it was just to make a point that we needn't have gatekeepers in the community saying what is and isn't a cyberdeck when technically nothing is.

This got me to thinking:...

This Friday (9/4) on The Third Place I want to share one of my favorite web comics: Fisheye Placebo. It follows Vance, a student and hacker living in China under mass surveillance as he lives his fairly sheltered life. Once he gets tangled up in an underground movement when one of his hacks doesn't quite go to plan, his life takes a turn he never expected.

There are so many references to pop culture and major events from the last two decades packed in there and the artwork is incredible. If you're a...

I think, other than ads, the advent of stopping my music to ask if I'm still listening is the most obnoxious thing streaming services have done. (I use streaming at work so my warehouse isn't just silent)

10,000 little conpromises have brought us to this horrid reality of tech. It does, at least, remind me how grateful I am for having my own offline music collection that never asks me if I'm listening or not, and for places like Cyberspace where we can exist without the need for ads or algorithms.

Tonight on The Third Place, things will be a bit more laid back. I have a handful of topics I'm working on fleshing out for future episodes, but I want to use this week to talk about some smaller things that maybe don't need a full, dedicated evening to talk about.

My plan is to talk a bit about some of the fundamental hacker documents that shaped the culture, things that I thought had enough significance that I penned them down by hand in The Book of Proxy (my tech grimoire I've been keeping since...

A while back, while browsing sites on the NekoWeb, I came across a blog someone wrote about going on a hike. Over all it was pretty mundane. An entry written by someone to share an experience they had. No links to sponsored content, no affiliate marketing, no ads on the site at all... just a person sharing their experience with a community of strangers.

That really resonated with me. It reminded me of a time when life wasn't so much lived online, but lived in meat space and then retold to friends...

This Friday evening from 2100 to 2300 EST on The Third Place we'll be talking cyberdecks. Literary references, what folks consider a cyberdeck, checking out some options for kits for those that just want to assemble but don't want to hand pick the parts, etc. It should be a good time.

Do you have a favorite style of cyberdeck? Built your own? Let me know, I would love to see what everyone is working on (and maybe share it on stream if that's cool with the sharer).

twitch.tv/techdaddyproxy_ydg

So, I've been back on my music kick, debating on if I should get a dedicated mp3 player or just use my phone. My intent is to shift away from mainlining streaming services and only using them when I want the algorithm to show me new music it thinks I'll like (then hunt the artists I like down on bandcamp and support the music I like).

Well, I've been hesitant to actually buy a dedicated mp3 player until I can really justify it. Many either have an interface that's not well suited to showcasing album...

For the past 18 years I have kept a large notebook to which I add notes and transcripts of things important to me. From notes on how to get WoW to run in WINE on Ubuntu 8.04 to hand-transcribing The Hacker's Manifesto. This is my techno grimoire, "The Book of Proxy".

Today I added a full, hand-transcribed copy of A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace by John Parry Barlow, written in 1996 and still SO relevant over 30 years later. One of my...

As the title suggests, I'm looking to compile some of the best Analog Horror series across YouTube (or anywhere else on the net, but YT seems to be where most of them live). Come October, we will be diving into the best analog horror series we can find on The Third Place. Let me save you a bit of time by listing the series that I'm already aware of or familiar with:

• Marble Hornets
• The Backrooms
• Local 58
• The Mandela Catalogue
• Petscop
• Cornerfolk
• Blue Channel
• The Walton Files
• This house...

Most people live their lives between two places: Home and Work (or school, depending on your age)

I remember, in my youth, the places I would spend time with friends between home and school, places where we could be social, meet new friends, and not have to be at one of the two usual spaces.

Sometimes this was a local playground, field, skate park, or a setting like card game leagues at the nearby Toys R Us for Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon battles.

More and more of these third places have shut down and...

I got my clicks power keyboard this past week and it has reminded me just how much I miss having a physical keyboard on my phone. It's a bit clunky to use with my Pixel 8 Pro because of the weight of the phone, but it's cool to have the phone in landscape mode with the keyboard under the screen like it's an LG Wing.

Honestly, I'm considering getting the Clicks Communicator as my next phone. I dont need the screen real estate of the whole device since I only use my phone for communications and not gaming...

Updated my 3DS Homebrew for the first time in 3 years yesterday. Gonna see about getting PSX and PSP games to run on it. It's already a powerhouse of a device, if I can get it to let me relive the good days of early PlayStation I'll be unreasonably happy.

PSA: Only you can help Dr. Steel take over the world.

A.I. is the "would you like fries with that?" of the tech space right now.