Bespoke software

TL;DR --We have slowly been working on our portal in a bespoke manner. Ten years ago, there was lots of attention on the web in understanding HTML/CSS/JavaScript with examples provided by those who had the time and interest. At the same time, development in machine learning lead to thoughts of autocode (as in the machine doing the coding). Now, we witness countless offers for robotic development of software. Something is wrong.We will look at this, over time, since it's not of prime concern. Yet. Besides we will see shakeouts of methods which is normal for progress. Too, we have lots of pending work to do. One that is high on the list is getting regular attention to the date of the death (29 Dec 1674) of Thomas Gardner (Salem planter). 

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Want an example? Our Gardner's Gate or portal. We have used the phrase a few times but intend to use it more. Our first reference was this post in January of 2020: Gardner's Gate. In that post, we mentioned a few of the types of research that we were doing. At that time, we may have had some notion of the coming technology interest but did not mention the subject. 

Guess what? A month later, we were informed that a city that we had visited had cases of confirmed COVID. Life changed, then, for a while, as everyone adapted to the new regime brought by the pandemic. For us, we got into research that was more involved (the US interior). One particular problem took us almost two years to resolve; but, we stuck to it and accomplished the necessary feats. 

A little before, we had started the portal (https://TGSoc.org). That was in 2017. In doing so, we took advantage of some earlier work. But, we took a "bespoke" path and will continue. 

Why mention this? Well, algorithms, computing, and such has been John's work in advanced computational systems. The TGS main blog started in the Microsoft world due to the influence of ASP.NET. There were jumblings in that world in 2012 to which we adapted by leaving the Microsoft realm and going over to a Linux server. By the time of the portal, we had a strategy (somewhat). We needed resources and continual involvement, but there were other factors controlling time. 

For one thing, research came first. We have been doing issues of Gardner's Beacon and printed several releases of The Gardner Annals. There were meetings and research for other groups. But, as John worked the bespoke issues, he kept notes and published some of them (we intend to organize links to this material -- see Devlog). 

Too, some organzational work became more involved taking time and energy. But, we kept the TGS, Inc. fires going. Until COVID came along and changed things. Eventually, those constraints went away; people started to get their lives back. 

But, the underpinnings of technology were changing. We'll detail our views and experiences. But, GenAI/LLM appeared three years ago. Our first experience was with ChatGPT after which we settled with Bard/Gemini. It wasn't much later that we had looked at the problems with finding algebraic solutions (Technology and its influence).

Sometime later, interest in what's known as "vibing" to some came to be; too, using LLM  as a tag, people began to develop methods that allowed the facilities to assist in development (co-pilot in some cases; in others, there is more autonomy). We will discuss this from the framework of maturity and dependable/stable computing. 

So, bespoke will be spoken in our world. 

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Again, research? Thomas Gardner died 29 Dec 1674 (post written 3 Jan 2019). One of our research topics was, where is he and his remains? That topic will be mentioned yearly henceforth. We will put a page on this at our portal in the coming months. 

Notice in the ChatGPT session (link above), we brought in information about Thomas that had been thought right for a couple centuries now. Not long afterwards, we learned that during our absence from WikiTree, they had been analyzing newly-digitized documents from Sherborne, Dorset, UK. Adjusting to that new information is on our plate - Gardner Research. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/13/2025

12/10/2025 -- Some edits of typos and adding new information such as a graphic. 

12/13/2025 -- We started with Microsoft's Office on-line and its developer's tools. The intent was to carry on with the ASP.NET approach (I liked C#), even though my early web work was in Unix, for the most part. Office 365 came along; that was our first instance of seeing companies falter as they learned that their processes no long worked. What did we do? Surveyed the alternatives. Picked a Linux server. And, fell back to HTML where buttons were captured by image and the behaviour was coded using CSS. That worked. The next step was to covert to Javascript. That continues. The issue was content versus configuration and continues (AIn't notwithstanding - map/territory issues will be discussed) Our focus was content and still is except the AIn't emergence changes things. So, bespoke? We're putting out a new issue of Gardner's Beacon (Vol. XV, No. 1) and will be starting to redo our analysis. We'll report regularly as we go along. As we will stop and discuss choices in the vein of engineering tradeoff analysis. 

Memory - present, past

TL;DR -- The cloud and such? What's the use? Science was an early motivation for the research and engineering. We're at a crossroad, somewhat. So, posts on technology themes will be a regular occurrence. 

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Technology is the theme as it has given us a universal memory machine, somewhat. That is, computing and its cloud and the related trackers provide a seemingly endless memory. That digital ocean was one of the things used to train GenAI (ChatGPT, &c). Back in 2015, we had a post (Web/cloud presence) that brought up the choice for us all, ought what we do be forgotten? 

At that time, the cloud was 10 years old (we date it from GSA's decision that the US Government could use the emerging resource). We found out the other day, that Microsoft's cloud is used in the work of 85% of the US Departments. What comes to mind? Single point of failure, for one thing. 

Technology brings changes to which we have to adapt. That neverending affair can be a little offsetting. We do have choices in the matter which will be discussed on a regular basis. 

Today, let's look at keeping something that has value. 

The context is Physics and its rewards. The technology is a blog that quit adding new material a few years ago: Lady Science. There were two contributors from 2014 (see Archive - of their Monthly Issue). The first of these was titled "Delivery Room Drama" (17 Oct 2014). The last issue of a post was 8 Oct 2021. On browsing the site, we thought that it's good that this material is still around dealing with the topics of women, history and science. Some of the earlier posts were oriented toward art. One of the writers went back to school to learn the history of science. 

And, the blog got attention. Fortunately, it's archived at the Library of Congress. After a pause to look at our interest, we will discuss how we found this blog. 

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So, our technology focus will make use of this material. Too, we like to do some comparisons related to time. In 2014 (see posts from that year), we were working in this blog plus our website which was hosted by a site using Linux as the OS. We started with blogger in 2010 which was picked up by Google. Having started our site with Microsoft, we moved when they went to Office365. After researching content vs configuration, we went with custom development. We have blogged about the technical aspects on the necessary choices and will organize a better summary review at some point. As, right now,we're looking at the future of software from several angles. We can all see the edges fraying. How did this happen? Can we recover without too much pain? Lots off questions. 

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Also, we have paid attention to women and science in posts. See post on the daughter (Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz) of Hendrik Lorentz. We discovered her through the experiment of Einstein that she gave to a museum which represented the facility of small experiments. 

Today, in LinkedIn, we saw a post of The Nobel Prize group about the 1912 marriage of (Margrethe Nørland Bohr) of Neils Bohr. She was actively involved in his research and writing, but that work is not mentioned by the group. A comment provided this post: Crafting Quantum Theory: Margrethe Bohr and the Labor of Theoretical Physics. Their son got a Nobel Prize for his work on the nucleus. 

This blog represents several things. It's content will be apropos to the continuing discussions of STEM and its uses. Too, though, the structure of the content and the approach to the subjects are remarkable. As well, we like how it was designed for several reasons. Which of the various subjects to be addressed will be first is unknown. We're bringing the blog to awareness, in general. 

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Our new project deals with a redux on AI along several fronts which deals with the timely problems that will emerge soon enough. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/05/2024

08/05/2024 --    

Gardner Beacon, Issues

TL;DR -- Before we publish GB XIV, 1 and 2, we take a look at the fourteen years of Gardner Beacon issues. Some of the PDF files have been republished with links. That effort will continue until they are all updated. 

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Yes, we are in our fourteenth year with our first issue being in May of 2011. One thing to notice is that the blog has "Gazette" in the name. We were leaning toward that but changed to "Beacon" for several reasons, one of these does point back to Winthrop's sermon in which he used the "City on the hill" phrase. 

We have an Index from the beginning. For every issue (using GB I, 1), we had the blog post (above link) and a PDF (with a link to a print version) at our Heritage site. For the first four issues, we had a Sources file which gave some sense of the provenance of the material. Two years ago, we started to redo the PDF to include links to the material being discussed.   

At the same time, we created a mobile-friendly version of the issue using WordPress which was an improvement on the HTML/CSS experiment that we did earlier. This happened when Google announced that they would not link in their search results to sites that were noncompliant. This was the 2015 timeframe. 

Since then, we went with a more adaptable method using HTML/CSS/Javascript as we see with the portal (TGSoc.org) which was quite interesting in terms of doing custom sites. The trend has started toward the look-alike type that has become so prevalent. There is a lot to discuss about using these, but let's put that off, for a while. As the topic will be important in the near future as the world shakes out the influence of technological changes that came about with no seeming forethought. 

Now, before going on to  GB XIV, 1, this table shows the list of issues where we are tracking the conversion of the issue to the PDF with links. The exercise allows us to review the past fourteen years in terms of content through time. 

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Curation will be more important in the future than it ever was. The following effort allows us to go to all of the issues and link to material that can be considered source. 

         Track updates to GB issues, Published  

• 2011 Vol. I No. 1; Vol. I, No. 2; Vol. I, No. 3; Vol. I, No. 4; Vol. I, No. 5
• 2012 Vol. II, No. 1; Vol. II, No. 2; Vol. II, No. 3; Vol. II, No. 4; Vol. II, No. 5; Vol. II, No. 6
• 2013 Vol. III, No. 1; Vol. III, No. 2; Vol. III, No. 3; Vol. III, No. 4
• 2014 Vol. IV, No. 1; Vol. IV, No. 2; Vol. IV, No. 3; Vol. IV, No. 4
  
• 2015 Vol. V, No. 1; Vol. V, No. 2
  
• 2016 Vol. VI, No. 1; Vol. VI, No. 2
  
• 2017 Vol. VII, No. 1; Vol. VII, No. 2
  
• 2018 Vol. VIII, No. 1; Vol. VIII, No. 2
• 2019 Vol. IX, No. 1; Vol. IX, No. 2; Vol. IX, No. 3 
• 2020 Vol. X, No. 1; Vol. X, No. 2 
• 2021 Vol. XI, No. 1; Vol. XI, No. 2
• 2022 Vol. XII, No. 1; Vol. XII, No. 2; Vol. XII, No. 3
  
• 2023 Vol. XIII, No. 1; Vol. XIII, No. 2;
  

Since 2022, we have published with WordPress

Vol. XII, No. 1; Vol. XII, No. 2; Vol. XII, No. 3
Vol. XIII. No. 1; Vol. XIII, No. 2; 

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After we complete this exercise, we will go back and determine where we need to publish a correct due to the change in status of the information. That is, what impact does finding the records of births of the children in Sherborne, Dorset, UK have on the issues? We expect that we'll include a link to an error-correcting blog post that will be availabe with lists of contents and indeces. 

Remarks: Modified: 07/13/2024

07/13/2024 -- One issue relates to starting the new blog in WP. In the focus on content, a couple of configuration steps were not completed. One of these dealt with comments. That was no problem for two years. GenAI's general emergence in 2024, as 2023 was a period of getting familiar with the phenomenon, allowed easier programming, such as hacking out comments. The comments accumulated by the 1000s, slowly down response. That stream has stopped; all existing comments were deleted. Hence, response is now as expected. Comments can be sent to: jmswtlk@tgsoc. org. 

On data and types

TL;DR -- Recent events in computing have many worried or concerned. Some are running after the opportunity for new ways of being mean-spirited and domineering. A little word of magic might be "transform" which has been touted many ways. Of course, this goes into the mathematics. We can shed a new light on the issues but have to go back further than the 20 years of the mess making. We go back to 1837. That is how old many of these ideas are. Over time, we'll come forward with a proper history of computing and its enabler based upon mathematics. 

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In the 21st century, we have had over 200 years of experience of data on individuals in the U.S. Why we use the U.S. is due to the historical aspect of this discussion. Now, people have been tracked all over the place. Russia (Czar on down) has been good at this. Their novelists told the tale. Tolstoy may have acted like a peasant (serf), but he was none. And, we have information on his life and activity, some of it given to us by the man himself. No doubt, there are lots of the peasant class who never got any attention. 

So it went across the whole world.  The U.S. started their systems from the getgo, 400 years ago. In some towns, at least the birth, marriage, and death were recorded for a person. Many have less information or none. Some have more, including books about their lives. Other places did similar recording. But, the U.S. is unique for several reasons to discuss. 

For now, let's remind ourselves that data handling involves technology. The colonial U.S. used pen and paper. Some of those records have been digitized which is not of interest until there is an effort at transcription and labelling. Sometime in  the 19th century, there was a change. We found a way to print records; too, the typewriter came to be. Both of these increased the quality of the record, somewhat. Though, such an evaluation would require us to discuss content versus configuration. There have been some posts on that, but a more full exploration of the topic is on our to-do list. 

Sometime in the 20th century, the computer came to be. GIGO (garbage in; garbage out) was coined to account for how willy-nilly use of the technology did not contribute to quality. The data industry got better at handling errors (of many types to discuss); however, abilities of the artificial elements outran our capacity for pursing quality and pushed us toward a lackadaisical approach. We are now paying the price. 

What the 21st century just brought must be linked back to the mobile device that came into existence in 2008 which represents what can be called "edge" computing that we'll hear more about as time goes on. Not only was data accumulation increased, there was no way to do the proper deed of curating nor was there any inkling of desire to recognize the coming problem. In 2022, things changed when a focus on machine learning (ML) reared its head. ML is mathematics in action. Below, we will briefly touch upon one huge issue. 

First, though, that little system (let's use ChatGPT - and call it CG) hit the airways and the cloud (which we'll go into in depth), millions signed up. Myself, I was not aware of the event and the reactions for two months for many reasons. One of these is that this stuff is old hat (below), and I made my peace with the technology decades ago. But, when I did become aware, I looked back and forward and sideways. The first was refreshing my memory of the long trek of technology; the second was considering all of the possible ramifications, most of which would turn out to be unintended consequences of an other than positive nature. 

However, insightful people saw immediately that this was toy stuff. Too, it was more for entertainment and gaming. Folks in the real world of metrics and accomplishments of notable scope saw the surface nature. Myself, in terms stated above, we saw more configuration than content even though the purveyours of the mess touted that they had assorted hundreds of millions of parameters in their effort at having the machine learn. 

That statement goes along with what people think of in terms of power (omnipotent) and knowledge (omniscient) and a few more. Why was that a choice? It turns out that studies show that removing the "crap" (so now, we have CICO) is not possible given the current state of computing. And, in terms of complexity, most likely never. 

So, we get to the gist, immediately. People have been solving problems from the getgo. Where was the user respected and given proper control beyond the playing around aspect of "prompt engineering' which would not converge to any "truth" of value. 

We will address all of this again. But, let's go back a few years. A huge player touted that they went with "transforms" and accomplished remarkable results. Sure, like the "fakery" of several types. That is not a new concept. I have written that several times. This is old math. 

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So, let's step back a couple hundred years. Oh yes, think of what was going on in the U.S. at the time. We have lots of posts about events on these shores and the people involved. In the west, Jedediah Strong Smith had been out west for a while having crossed the continent by foot and horse (and water, at times). He was about to meet his demise in KS on his way back. 

There's a lot more. We will look at a book (below) which is a summary of the collection by the Bourbaki writers who used a common pseudonym. These were books that covered mathematics from an axiomatic basis while developing what might be called a standard view. We are skipping around more detail while we focus on the mathematics largely behind the CG and its peers. 

The author, quoted by Bourbaki, in 1837 writes about the growing interest in transforms as they showed promise. There are many names to mention, however the techniques of Fourier which we will look at later are an example. Now, he says that anyone using the techniques can generalize and obtain new truths. Too, he uses the metaphor of adding "a stone to the structure" which very much applies to what we are seeing. 

We will go into the AIn't part, regularly. But, as a reminder, there is no creativity involved except on the part of the human. There ain't no creature in the box. There is something, oh yes. Superb mathematics which was not possible before the computing. 

Overview of Bourbaki's work

In this sense, we need to review the claims. All of the methods are of old age. They were very difficult to grasp and never easy to handle by manual computation even with a sophisticated slide rule. Early computing spent a lot of time to learn how to approach the use using methods that are called numeric processing. Algorithms are the name of the game. And, these were never simple. 

Note, too, that the author (Chasles) addresses the issue of being confounded by the results. Remember last year's discussions about black box and lack of understanding. Well, that state of confusion was a contrivance, mostly unexpected. In some cases, we could look for actual intentions to have this effect. 

This year, 2024, has been encouraging in terms of people recognizing the problems and trying to figure out how to go forward. We'll be putting our hat in the ring there.  

Now, who is the author? Michel Floréal Chasles was a French mathematician. He might seem to have been obscure, but in the U.S., he was recognized for his work. He lived from 1793 to 1880. His name is enscribed on the Eiffel Tower. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/13/2024

04/14/2024 --  So, in the post, I mentioned some good news. But now, bad news? The IEEE Spectrum gloated about perplexity.ai. So, I had to go look. And, my first two tests failed. That is, the thing pulled from the appropriate sources. It was too creative or something else in the output. ... My suggestion to you guys doing this stuff: some of us would prefer that your give us some summary without the embellishments (as your approach is not creative) with footnotes. In fact, the footnote ought to be the phrases that fed into the summary. Oh, cannot be done? Then, let's go back to the drawing board. This old guy has time and knows how to do this. It's related to my work on truth engineering.  

I'm referring to a context sensitive encyclopedic approach. That is, without the "omni" aspect that seems to excite the younger crowd. Want to know the real "Omni"? We can talk that. ... Some of my grief is that the thing is following what might be misguided text, anyway. The hope would be that enough sources would be good enough to pull toward something useful. Or, do curating before hand, as many are saying (the older xNN experts). ... 

11/13/2024 -- Moved image. 

Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz

TL;DR -- Running through links on a topic can lead to interesting finds. By a circuitous route, we ran into a colleague of Einstein who lived in the Netherlands and several other finds. Their work showed that inexpensive experiments can do the job. A related post continues our discussion on content versus configuration. 

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Technology is our interest, and it's without limit. Today, we were researching relativity as it applies to some of the modern turmoils. Mainly, this is to set a basis for future discussion and work. In his book on the Evolution of Physics which he wrote with Infeld, Einstein discussed the rise of the modern views, from the perspective of the 1930s. 

One thing stressed was the importance of knowledge and the means for obtaining and managiing such. That applies across the board and usually was a human endeavor. Now, we have other wrinkles coming into sight. These are not new which we will go into. 

But, on reading material, I ran into the old topic of content versus configuration. Or, vice versa, as it's a two-way street. In fact, the TGS work has been important in following the ins and outs of technology as the web and its use became more sophisticated. Mentioning acquisition of knowledge? Mostly, that seems to be associated with the artificial. But, no, people need to  learn to. 

So, there was a hit on a search for a algorithm that pointed to a website (HyperPhysics) managed at Georgia State. The site uses Java and Javascript to provide demonstrations of algorithms related to research in Physics. It has a goal of providing information of a technial nature to teachs of High School Physics. The Georgia site also links to HyperMath which of the same approach. Both of them are great. 

Another link goes to Physics World which is all modern and mostly reporting. However, the articles are a great collection. One of them motivated this post. 

Given that this is Women's History Month, we wanted to feature Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz who provided an experiment to a French museum. It had been done by her husband and Einstein in 1915 and showed a connection between magnetism and "angular-momentum of electrons" using a simple device. Geertruida herself did experiments that tested Einstein's proposals about Brownian motion. 

Her father was the Nobel Prize winner for his theoretical work that supported Einstein's relativity research. 

This was Einstein's only experiment as his work was theoretical (and cultural). 

Back to content and configuration: old (This week's finds ...); new (Azimuth). 

Remarks: Modified: 03/24/2024

03/24/2024 --  

Questions and such

TL;DR -- Bridging across 400+ years will continue to be of importance. So, our quest will be an ongoing process. Technology? The next two years will provide more of a view to the issues. Right now, we can only intimate. In reality, hype abounds. AIn't adopters will be in for a reckoning. 

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It was a year ago, when we found out about the new information about Thomas and Margaret that was available via digitization of records in Sherbourne, Dorset, UK from 400 years ago. WikiTree used the opportunity to split out their Profile of Thomas into two people: one was at Cape Ann who is unknown, essentially; the other is the one who married Margaret Frier. 

The work and discussion had been done while I was distracted by what became to be known at GenAI. There are several blogs on this. But, we're at the stage to move on and do it right. Not that what had been done before was done wrongly. So, tsk, guy, at WikiTree who passes judgment. We'll take it from here with respect to these two gentlemen or one (our choice - until we really know).

On the first (AIn't), look at the series here under my name: True State of AI Tools, 2024. We started this last year after assessing what OpenAI's toy/tool brought. The jury is still out: those who don't know, let's discuss rationally; those who are on the bandwagon, just be aware of the faults that shake the foundation (oh yes, let's to go Einstein's introduction of the mathematics of Relativity to do this, General, that is - and then come forward to the current nonsense).

On the second (Cape Ann, &c - btw, that's what was used in the time of Levi-Civita), how will the research and change proceed? Well, we got started in 2009 but formalized the effort in 2010. By 2012, it was obvious that there were all sorts of opinions, worthy of note (okay?, we'll discuss - we do not like the top-down dominance that seems to appear - more later). So, this happened. 

• What we know - notice, November of 2012. What took so long? Well, search in this blog on Content and Configuration. I was dealing with new content related to history and people. This was after transitioning my brain from technology, especially advanced computing. And, configuration? I used CMS; later, I pointed to GitHub (with Co-Pilot, is even better of a foild for discussion) as an example. Two hats? Okay. One person's content might be another's configuration. And, so forth. Science and engineering are full of examples. 

So, switching to the 1st, a monolith of knowledge? Nope. The whole framework is idiotic. We'll show this, eventually, if we live long enough. Too, GenAI? Purty pictures. Read about the difficulty of doing something real, as I show with the knowledge-based engineering work that actually bumpled up against the world successfully by meeting constraints intelligently. And, the word salad? Oh yes, perfect grammar, perhaps. But. meaningless. Anyone finding meaning is demonstrating what the Gesalt view was about. 

Going on. Later, we figured that we had enough and started the following using a different format at Google's Blogger. Posts are meant to be conversational through time. Pages (see our Page map) are static. We did this page. Both the post and the page have been annotated with respect to the current topic of needed changes. 

• Frequently asked questions - notice, later. We did not know a lot, even then. But, we thought that we ought to organize this into questions. These might be reworked to have a good set of questions. However, they'll each be updated. 

So, we have started the work. One thing was to add an opinion category, OpEd. One thing that we noticed over the past decade plus. When we started, the internet was still somewhat open which allowed satisfying queries to be made and tweaked to obtain some semblance of an answer. Now It's been trashed. So, that will slow things down. 

Before now, we also saw lots of site with reseach done earlier. Lots of that disappeared. We had collected lots of links over the years and need to prune these out. But, for some, trying to see what happened will be of use As, that was not work to be wasted. If the stuff is available elsewhere, we want to be cognizant of the work. 

Remarks: Modified: 03/15/2024

03/15/2024 --  

Ten years ago

TL;DR -- We will start with marking by category, put in a header about the coming changes, figure some reasonable modification to apply, and get them into place. At the same time, we will reconfigure with technology updates in mind. 

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Ten years ago, we were four years into this medium exercising our reading intake. Sometimes this was via expressing opinion (see this post in December of 2023 - Opinions count?) which is everywhere. Papers have the OpEd (we added this category) for a purpose. Other times, we were reporting results that we had no reason to doubt. Thanks to the good work of Bob Dunlop we know more about Thomas and Margaret and the family than was known before. 

To recap, we have been using this post (In Summary) as a reminder that our websites will be updated and that we'll keep using the blogs for information with respect to what we know (our first post on What we know was in November of 2012). In the next few weeks, we will have more information on what needs to be changed. In terms of some of the OpEd type, we'll put in a header with respect to the status as we will keep the information for future reference. 

One thing that we noticed when we started is that there was a lot about Thomas Gardner on the web which was 19 years old at the time. One could see the different generations (web evolving) of these. So, from the start, we captured URLs and, as one would expect, is a huge collection. One a recent review, many of these have disappeared or merely moved. This is the same problem as we get generally and which there have been solution attempts. One example if archive.org who also provides access to on-line books. In terms ot we pages, one can see the page. But, links are not pointing to active sites. 

As an aside, many have gone from static pages to a wholely database approach. That goes back to an old argument of compute or store. Remember, we have a technology focus. It is becomeing clear that we have to know the history. Some things under the covers are old. Perhaps, we would use many if talking the infrastructure that is reliable. Be that as it may, there is a use of the static page. Our sites use this method with some database facilities, like WordPress. This discussion comes under Content versus Configuration which we will continue with the focus having a priority on Content though we dabble with Configuration. 

Back to the subject, notice in March of 2014, we had some OpEd posts dealing with Cape Ann. Some of those may have been conjectures based upon the work done so far. At the time, the basis was minimal which was offputting. By this time, the internet was changing too. Search parameters had been altered by those who provide such (user input to these changes was minimal - let's talk requirement - the current uproar will get that back on the table). 

An interesting twist is with the LLM (xNN), we can work with a coPilot to reconfigure the site. Or not. Basically, my attempt would be to sandbox changes or try enhancements. Then, the sites would be redone manually. Why? I'm more custom than not. There is too much on the web where mutal admiration societies build monolithic sites that go against the dreams of people in general. And, one huge aspect of that is the American dream whatever that might mean. With respect to our view, the 400 years of effort by some families still here has to have some meaning. And, quite frankly, that has been visible to me since I started this. 

The redo of Dr. Frank's work is an example. We'll not throw stones as some on WikiTree might. Actually, I don't see that genealogy by itself is of much use. We need history plus a whole lot of science to come to bear and that means more than genetics. Look at our technology writeups for some notion of the issues at hand. 

So, we'll be using the OpEd category. First, when we identify pages that need to be updated, we'll put it in the category with a header. Then, as we dive further into the research, we will start a new series of pages. BTW, going back to set a proper basis will include an errata listing for Gardner's Beacon and The Gardner Annals. 

So, we will be doing this all year. Right now, let's see what is involved and get some notion of the changes needed. 

BTW, it was in September of 2014 that we did this post: Marriage of Thomas and Margaret. It's our most-read post and note OpEd. However, the images involved had been indexed. Only the first few of the sons were mentioned. We were waiting for further transcription and indexing, and time ran away. There is always more to do than can be done. So, the 2023 surprise was quite nice, actually. 

Our position (OpEd): Thomas was here. Rev. Hubbard didn't mention that he was referring to other than the one of Salem. We'll reconfigure here and expect further work to fill in the pieces. Or not. 

Aside: Over this 10 year period, we did not ignore AI or AIn't. In a sense, there is much ado about not much. Weeding out the hype will leave how much edible stuff? Do we know that a priori? 

Remarks: Modified: 01/13/2024

01/13/2024 -- 

AI not solely ML

TL;DR -- AI is more than ML. For one thing, people need to be included. A bucket-of-bits oracle never was the goal for reasonable folks. 

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AI was pirated by the machine learning people. Forget AGI. AI is good enough if we remember that "intelligence" is more than we have seen represented on the planet. 

    Artificial intelligence, not solely machine learning

Too forward thinking? Nope. We will get to discussing "truth engineering" at some point. ML optimizes without caring. 

Engineeing and economics go hand in hand. 

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Aside: After posting the above article, there was a comment from Tomek which touts being an "AI" company. Will look into this further, but Tomek Venture came up with "whois" as well as several others who have Tomek as a name. With respect to the extension ".ai", Wikipedia is a good source. Have not been paying attention, though I did run into this earlier), ".ai" has been a popular extension, since 2009, for its possible association with "AI" the subject of the above article. Tomek is leveraging on that with an automated interface. Perhaps, will look at it further. Otherwise, doing a survey of this type of activity would be more beneficial as it's going to get more prevalent. GitHub's pilot is an example of enablers. To think, in 2012, I was looking at coding manually. Still will. See Content vs configuration. For now, AI, of all sorts digital, arises from buckets-of-bits whose latest magical behavior with respect to text processing has no intent behind it. We're talking a "stochastic parrot" (in the words of some) and similar. That does not mean that meaning may not formulate from the mix, whether good or bad. But, reasoning as enlightenment liked to tout? Not. On the other hand, knowledge-based approaches do a better approximation, with a good example being knowlege-based engineering (KBE).  

Remarks: Modified: 12/30/2023

12/30/2023 -- Added image. 

Technical review

TL;DR -- Since we are taking a focus on technology as a thing deserving of attention, we will have to be regular in posting information. Expect that more regularly in 2024 as we commemorate the arrival of Thomas and Margaret (or not, depending upon our research)

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We ought to have these on a regular basis and will starting next year. For this post, we'll look at a New Yorker article, briefly. Then, we'll add in a comment about a recent post. After that, we'll show a graphic with regard to one of our web servers. Then, we'll start a list of the web presence plus gather all of the technical posts together under various categories. 

Ambitious task? Yes, we'll start today and finish this up with a week. At the same time, we will consider how to do these and with what frequency. 

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AIn't and AI. We'll be more specific next year. 

• The Godfather of AI - See the New Yorker, 11/17/2023. This is the main article and dealt with an interview of Hinton. There was a genealogical notion brought up. He is Brit and a descendant of Rev. Boole of the logic and algebra that we all love. After casting about for some direction, he picked neural nets. One early act was popularizing the Boltzmann Machine. As we all know, none of the machines/methods found so far is all-powerful. Subsequent work ended up with the back-prop algorithm. In a sense, this is similar to numeric processing oriented toward resolving a multiple-body issue. Definitely, constraint satisfaction applications need a good look. One interesting tidbit is that the author of this article used Kafka's worlview as the basis for an example. This was written up in an issue of the 1986 Nature periodical. To note, please. On seeing an interaction with ChatGPT, he was astonished so as to talk "level of understanding" and even uttered "alive" in the context. He has seen lower-level reality in that his later work deals with neuromorphic approaches. 
• The Economist as example - See the last post: Science and AI. This was motivated by seeing an article in the 11/25/2023 issue of the paper (not a magazine, they say) in which a reporter hypes some good work dealing with rogue waves. Now, everyone ought to be interested as waves are everywhere and densely sought by thinkers. Yet, in terms of the seas, this is old research with lots of data. Too, people have done an exemplary job in trying to understand the data. So, the researcher used the neural net to look at some pre-processed data where the mathematical elements were emphasized. Okay. Good results. But, a genetic (to be discussed) approach was about as capable. The researcher had a disclosurer at the top of his report. Did not TheEconomist writer not see this? Too, there is discussion about next steps. Our gripe? The use of AI as it encompasses much more than machine learning. Now, the post? Links to the data and the paper and the code itself which is at GitHub. That is how things will be, more or less, as research goes further. 

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In some cases, we can use the facilities provided by the servers: Google; WordPress; Quora; FB. But, for our server, we use a Linux-based shared server. We think of it as balancing reliance on the cloud. Lots to discuss there. 

Related to: TGSoc.org/papers

What we see are six metrics. The world has gone mad numerically, many ways. So, that, too, will be discussed. But, with respect to the flow of activity, the topic was motivated by OpenAI's little trick last November. They didn't do the world a whole lot of favors; rather, we will see, in less than two years, just how negative the impact might have been. Now, will subsequent activity on their part relieve some of this. 

An adage is apropos: one cannot train out the crap that was trained into a system via machine learning. 

At the "Papers" site, we put out an article in May and then followed in the latter months. 

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Aside: John retired as a Technical Fellow having worked in advanced computing systems most of his career. As such, he dwelt in the space between applications and the underlying technology, principally with regard to data management (early data science) and computational mathematics (in the space of engineering support). When he says, buckets of bits, it's with experience. Knowledge and intelligence? Those were themes in the advanced crowd all during the evolution of computing as we know it now. Or, actually, as we do not know it. Think black boxes and their mysteries? They were created by us. To quote an author who is aware of our work: demon of our own designs. 

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Punting down the road, we have this blog. Plus there are two on WordPress. Then, our website is hosted on Web Hosting Hub. We started with Microsoft's Open Office (need to find the specific name) and moved when MS pulled the plug. That choice dropped the support for many small businesses who had tried to leverage that capability for their on-line needs. See this search: Configuration. You see, this is paired with "Content" or absence of it (which is very much the case in lots of web stuff). The timeframe was 2012 which was two years after we started. At our portal (to truth), we detail our research with respect to rolling our own. At the time, we were astonished by the amount of work done by those who have the time with permutations without end being made available. Interesting. 

Permutations? Sure, group theory comes to mind. It'll be in the background as we proceed. One problem with AIn't? There is no AI. We're talking sophisticated mathematics in action. So, let's raise that level to where we can get the general populace on board with the future. After all, leaving these things to wizard's is problematic. Did we not all learn that over the past two decades? 

Remarks: Modified: 11/30/2023

11/30/2023 --

GitHub as an example

TL;DR -- We have come a long way since 2009. So, too, has the world. And, change? Many things have happened over the past two decades. But, just the past decade and its new ways need a lot of attention. We'll be pursuing discussion of all of this under the guise of technology, especially computing. In this post, we look at some dealings of Microsoft. 

 

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We have mentioned our technology focus from time to time and what motivated our thinking. On the first topic, we have had several posts this year. Here is a sampling: Year to date, 2023; Knowability; Technology thoughts. For the second focus, we have had seveal posts about the Gairdner Group of Canada. 

Our topics of a technical level would relate to computing and its growing basis operationally plus the impacts that we see and will see. But, there is a lot involved, hence we will do a series of posts relating to different aspects of technology via computing. 

Code is (has been) how we govern what computers do. Much code is outside of our influence. In cases where we can actually influence things, the scope is limited. And, the approach is not trivial nor to be taken lightly. Of late, we see emphasis on generating code via what is known as AI. 

As one would expect, code needs management. Per common themes, libraries have been defined for such a purpose. Libraries functions included storing code, keeping track of changes, and much more. One of the utility functions would be version control. There are other functions and utility programs developed over time to provide access to functions while providing some track record of events relate to code change. 

A popular project was Git which came to fore in 2005. Before then, there were many others which are still around. But, we picked Git due to its lack of earlier involvement. Too, it came to be around the time of Linux and was done by the same programmer. 

Then, that 2005 timeframe was when the US GSO noted that government agencies could use the cloud. Of late, there are several of these services offered. Companies, and people, ponder the benefit and negative effects of taking that turn. The TGS, Inc. server is a shared host, though we use other means that are cloud-based. We have been researching architecture options from the beginning. For us, the concern was expressed as the balancing of content versus configuration. 

We might be said to have gone full circle. Our intitial thrust was on Microsoft's Office Live (need to check the name - we started in the 2009 timeframe). But, we used blogger, too, which was picked up by Google. Then, we have ties to other facilities. Since our focus at the time that Microsoft went to Office 365 was historical and genealogical research which was new to us. Too, we were working on minimal budget by choice. 

We self-funded, and John has worked pro-bono on this and other projects since the beginning. That gave us freedom to study when and where we thought there was something of interest. Of course, we followed the machine learning work, as our interest is truth engineering. John will explain the particulars. That work was done independently. Except, all along, the 400 years of generational change in the U.S. very much has analogs in what we see (or have seen) with computation. That is a topic needing some discussion. 

Computing, as we saw it evolve over the past 20 years, has gone astray. Ignoring that, for now, we are now back to Microsoft several ways which we will explain, in time. Today, we point to a Microsoft project the results of which are being documented at GitHub. That is "Git" in the cloud. In the past, coordinating the code work of projects was fairly hairy. It still is. However, the cloud allows common access to people in disparate regions working at different times of the day. Too, the control mode can be better documented and managed. 

So first, this bullet points to Microsoft's project's repository collection. They have been doing this for several years now. 

• Open source projects and samples from Microsoft 

As an aside, GitHub works with OpenAI (publisher of ChatGPT) to support a "Copilot" project in which people use the xNN/LLM approach to help them with coding tasks. We are skirting that discussion, for now; be assured, we will get back to that. Then, Microsoft has supported OpenAI and has tied its Bing to some level of the ChatGPT system.

Now, back to Microsoft, a team related to the company has been using the new ways in pursuit of market analysis which goes with the new modes of algorithmis trading. Besides value that might relate to successful trading, however that might be defined, we have to look at concerns of many of natures, many of which would have been purely academic had these new ways not created a means to observe. And, so whole new approaches to busyness and its modes are now reachable, albeit not as easily as the reports may get one to consider. 

• Qlib is an AI-oriented quantitative investment platform that aims to realize the potential, empower research, and create value using AI technologies in quantitative investment, from exploring ideas to implementing productions. 

Code generation is found everywhere now. In terms of the interfaces, we like Bard though it suffers from the same problems as do the others. A huge discussion going forward will be how to balance the dynamics of the new way which we have seen generates many reactions from maniac dreaming to angst of machine dominanc. 

Our intent is not to lessen the seriousness of the different view nor to argue that we do not know enough to make good decisions. One factor being overlooked is that the underpinnings of the operational truths deal, for the part, with applied mathematics having found a home on the computer, partly has this happened because of design changes. The motives for progress largely was gaming and trying to enhance the illusory experience. 

Well, we got that now many fold. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/30/2023

10/30/2023 -- 

1623 to 2023

TL;DR -- It has been twelve years since we began our effort. The 400th is now showing on the horizon. It's time to stop, reassess, and prepare for the future. Definitely, we can compare what we know and how versus the comparable periods in the past. At the same time, the 500th and its requirements can be considered. As, a 100-years focus for a project has come forth as necessary for us to do technology correctly. That is one focus that we adopted. 

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In Massachusetts, Gloucester is starting their 400th in a mere 22 days. Can you believe it? Here is a link to the stories that they have been collecting at their site (www.gloucesterma400.org). 

When we started this work a decade ago, we had a lot to learn which entailed reading, on-line, in libraries, general books and articles, plus visiting places to get acquainted. Along the line, we have posted here plus put out the Gardner's Beacon and The Gardner Annals. And, we have corresponded with lots of people. We have two websites and several blogs. We wrote on existing topics (Charles Olson, Worcester born and of Gloucester by choice) and ventured into other areas, such as technology. 

Back then, our timeline started with 1624 as that is what Dr. Frank used in his books following work being done in England. Since then, there has been other work done that added more flavor. A crew stayed over for the winter of 1623/24 with an arrival the next spring of another group of ships (one of which was the Zouch Phenix). Thomas Gardner is mentioned as being on a passenger list, however there are arguments that claim no such list existed. Margaret Gardner was noted for not being the mother of the children mentioned by Dr. Frank. That was clarified further. 

We have more tools now, such as WikiTree's support for genealogy. But, we saw lots of other work and must gather these to create a view of the knowns as of this time, the 400th. We can remind ourselves that the 200th was coincident with the start of the new country, U.S. In that regard, we have been setting up means to know how New England's influence has evolved over the whole period since the colony started and from the beginning of the country that we know. That involves knowing more about the interior and its history. 

But, as we came through the years, things stood out so as to allow us to categorize. We will get into that further. But, let's mention some that will have continuing attention with a little commentary. 

• What we know -- We wrote on this, first, in 2012. It precipitated the creation of a FAQ.  We will continue that effort and keep this collection up to date. 
• What's new - This was an early effort and has been through several changes. One aspect that will be continued is the Recent finds overview. 
• Gardner's Beacon - We started with a PDF and a web page and have started to convert over to a database driven by one of the known platforms while keeping control via our own rented virtual server. The Gardner Annals has incorporated issues of Gardner's Beacon in a printed format. But, other approaches are being explored as we look for a good way to go toward the future. In any case, we will balance various media yet keep the printed variety present for several reason, such as support for research and its necessity for handling provenance. 
• Long reach of New England - This entails keeping aware of the many ways that life and changed over the periods since Cape Ann and the later Revolution. Not only must we consider the vast interior and its lure, but the scope is international as well. 
• But, Cape Ann and specifics - From details of Rev. John White to the families and their descendants (John Goff), there will be research to be done. Our interest runs from providing funding to coordinating presentation and analysis of results. 
• The Massachusetts Magazine -- Dr. Frank and friends published this periodical for over a decade which was to be the official voice of the Old Planters Society. Here are a few links to posts related to the Old Planters: Old Planters, Beverly (2011); Old Planters, Massachusetts (2012); "Old" in New England (2021). 

Needless to say, for the 300th, there was a lot of effort put into genealogical research and publication. As said, the 200th was overshadowed by concerns for getting the U.S. going properly. The 400th will be about history and bringing information into a better mode for continued work down the pike, which implies 100 years plus (we will cover this under technology, in contexts such as discussing content versus configuration). 

We are using 1624 as our date while being cognizant of the overwintering party. But, we have other commemorations that will ensue, such as the arrival of Roger Conant (1625) and the movement to Naumkeag/Salem (1626) with parallel efforts applied to the other locations where collateral families were involved early on (say, Ipswich).  

Remarks: Modified: 12/20/2022

12/20/2022 -- Gloucester is preparing for the kickoff of 2023. 

Theirs is the first commemoration in Essex County, MA. Which is our original focus, like this: Cape Ann (Glouceser), Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, New England. 

Content, again

TL;DR -- We left MS in 2012 having gotten started with them in 2010. We are now back to using them, only slightly for a while. We are reconfiguring with some final sense in mind now, after a decade long trek through the hoopla and confusing goings on that one sees with respect to computing. Silly valley is what comes to mind every time we look deeply. That needs to change.  

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When we started the TGS work on information conveyance, we were using Microsoft's Officelive which was quite capable and familiar to anyone who had worked through the era of Windows evolution. Of course, there were other OS options; too, Unix was very much part of the technical camp. Then, there was the decision to go to Office 365. 

Since we had been working pro bono for a decade, we opted out. Too, though there was the 'freebie' mode everywhere, we all know the consequences of that. We might have had blogger going, we did not use the Ad facility. Of course, we looked at it. 

John's forte has been advanced computing for decades and has watched the changes, many of which seem to be more immature than not. Again, look around. Messes everywhere. Now, need that have been? It's arguable, of course, but John will throw 'truth engineering' on the table and say let's discuss this. Well, rather than descend into an academically-oriented bit of discussion, we need to work these computer issues in ways other than what we see, at least in part. 

There has been a lot of discussion along these lines that we can pull together. For now, let's say that the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. has a goal to be a positive contributor in this area without defining things specifically enough to cause limits. After all, about anywhere one looks deeply, there are issues. These have gotten worse over the years. 

Think that this will abate? 

Of the whole ball of wax, "content vs configuration" is one thing to talk about. There are related themes that will come up. One might even say memes since this idea has spread across the internet. Okay, after MS's decision, we went looking and settled on Linux as a proper way to go. That is, for the server affairs to support what we wanted to do. You know, the cloud? Lots of problems. We'll discuss. After all, all of the decisions made were documented as we went along. There are lots of threads which can be used for various purposes, including analysis on several fronts. 

 

One set of choices was to find something that did as well as MS's tools. Well, we didn't find any that stood out. This is still true. But, we have watched what people have done, across the board. Opinions? Yes, they are there. We'll get to talking about the state of the computing world (have lots of these types of thing already) within the context of what we are doing here. That type of discussion goes along with the choice patterns and why they are as they are. 

Now, it was a decade ago that we went off of MS's planet and started our own thing. The first iteration was hard-coded HTML with a little CSS and loads of icons taken from the MS screens that we had. That worked for a bit. Why? It allowed the configuration aspects to be made steady in order to do content work. Mind you, this is always a dynamic. 

One can talk of floors in the sense that one person's configuration is another's content. Say, you're a user of some mobile device (say phone). Do you ever think of what happens as you push buttons in some context with a goal or goals to accomplish? We can look at that at any level. But, one good metaphor is that we walk on a stage under which is a very large collection of abilities taken for granted. To get into details, we have to open some door and enter. 

Or, stoop to conquer. One doesn't get anything done if the hands can't get dirty. 

John says, that the immaturity that we see can be discussed so as to talk ways and means to correct the issues. Is there a suggestion that this stuff is easy? Nope. Actually, it is. There are various viewpoints, many of which cannot even converse. You see, even technical modes and data driven thingees have their troubles. Many times these are settled by power or any other of an endless set of human talents. 

 We'll cover all of this in time. For now, we are going to use WordPress, for several reasons, to provide a platform (software and technique) with which to organize what we need to do. The underlying power will still come from our virtual machines running Linux. At the same time, we will pursue Android modes, using approaches that are general and which ought to work in any of the venues that covers the basic set that everyone agrees upon. 

But, higher-order content must have specifics that differ, unfortunately, amidst all of these things that look monolithic even if that's a mirage (as hackers will tell us). 

You know, that is part of the discussion. WP has Apple'ness on its plate. It is that universal situation that we are looking for. Of course, others do too. I know of one case where the national group uses one and some regionals use another, including WordPress. 

It's funny to consider what AIn't is bringing, or not, to the work. We'll look at that, deeply (in the true sense that the DL folks pirated) and broadly. After all, if one talks machine learning, it's quite legit and rational. 

So, our portal will be reconfigured. See TGSoc.org/site/. 

Expect this to be fun. 

Aside: Paying attention? Old guy off the wall? Well, no, here is a current discussion of Concrete CMS versus Wordpress. Of course, it is from Concrete CMS's viewpoint. You see, 'new infrastructure' points to changes that will be permanent. Users want more control. Developers want tools. Content creators and managers want ease of applying power. Finally, John can say, about time. Maturity? 

Remarks: Modified: 10/07/2022

10/07/2022 -- Need to organize the material on content management and updated the story of this versus configuration management (see Sept 2019 post on the new infrastructure and what it entails and a lot more - which was pre-COVID). If you look at the post from 2019, you will see a graphic that notes the advent of Elementor which uses the fleixability of WordPress in a mode that is 'drag and drop' development. Lots to discuss about the approaches and what is beneath the abilities and more through time (hence our reminders of what has been done so far and why).  

After looking at discussions about WordPress, ConcreteCMS and Drupal, we can add to the debate, from our WordPress-supported position. Of course, which of these will be better is an open issue. We have compared the 'stories' and the types of users. They all have a mix. Our view is technical, though we are doing the work for TGS, Inc. 

We will be redoing this page (at our portal to truth) so that it can be a trace for future analysis. Our words. 

• Note (10/07/2022): Final technical note, after looking at Concrete CMS and Drupal. These were considered earlier and have progressed as has WordPress. And, each of the three have solid use by well-known customers who have access to talent. As we work our configuration, we will be looking more than slightly as the issues which is best done with multiple parties to inspect. Say, like the infamous flyoff when new technology is being assessed. This type of thing is going to be even harder for computing. That is, bridging the cognitive gaps (or hats). Our put is called truth engineering. The ability to think of bare metal went away with the newer methods. Is there some equivalence? Too, the internet's evolution can now been seen more readily given the experiences of the last half decade. For instance, we can point to one paper discussing Concrete CMS versus WordPress, from the viewpoint of the former. Then, we have what we call AIn't coming forth. What we have here is mathematics and parameters mixing in an unlimited number of ways. WordPress, Concrete CMS, and Drupal represent parametric modes that are phenomenally complicated. This (the potential error) is covered over. We'll explain. And so, we have the situation where there is not human talent with the evolutionary wherewithal to handle the issues, except as a guider of the AIn't ways, if they are done correctly. ... It's almost like we've stood still the past decade and one-half with lots and lots of noise being added. Where is the value if only marketing is thought to be the major player? Tsk.

CMS, a favorite subject

TL;DR -- We started with MicroSoft and were happy, but they pushed people off of OfficeLive in order to get Office 360 in place. So, we did the right thing and limped along with a hacked out static mode in order for not let publishing get in the way of acquiring knowledge (the old fashion way, not machine learning - heavens forbid). The next motive for change came with the decision that Google would require some semblance of mobile friendliness to play in their part of the universe. Okay. After that, we did a website for a group that got us looking at alternatives. Then, things were fairly low-level looking to require lots of plug-ins (with regular costs accumulations). So, we just hacked more functions using javascript. When we started our portal, we had another chance at change. So, we had intermittent opportunities to consider CMS over our time. Now, we're at it again. The difference? The mobile environment has matured enough to be really interesting. Technology choices and issues abound; truth engineering is even more imperative; and notions, such as what was old is new again, apply. We'll stay at this until we get a resolution which will found the future work. Too, stay tuned; there is no limit to the ways that someone can contribute technically. We might just be the perfect lab for spawning lots of ways and means for considering how to attain some type of sustainable future. 

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This post is technical in content, with enough of the 'meta' (proper usage) issues covered to cover the extent of the current dilemmas. For now, we will have a list which is unordered and which will be extended throughout this iteration. We have touched upon the subject a few times, even recently mentioning that it's time to open the Pandora's box, again. As well as having the technical focus which will include the posts from our Technology Blog (hosted via WordPress on our site (TGSoc.org) that is presented via webhostinghub), we will look at motivation and talk the huge issue of managing across the levels related to development and deployment. The top level? We call it content, so CMS, to us, means Content Management System. One might stress the top down aspect of this. That is, the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. has a focus of the Cape Ann start of the American experience where we look across 400 years in terms of history, family dynamics, genealogy, and cultural issues, such as science. The overarching view is called 'truth engineering' which will show that AIn't is the reality unless some serious changes to the assumptions occur, thereby telling us that we need to lift to public awareness just how the marvels come to be that are associated with computing. 

Some might use 'configuration' which emphasizes the technical aspect due to the decisions required at that set of levels which are many. At the basic level will be the hardware, but it is supported by science and engineering. Software? In the list below, look at the Periodic Table of WordPress plugins. That refers to one set of frameworks (which can be generalized) pertaining to one offering on the market, albeit a popular one. 

Aside, one national group of interest uses WordPress at level of one of the States involved, whereas the overarching scope is handled by Drupal. Of note? We looked at Drupal back in 2012 (see notes with regard to this) as well as WordPress and a few others. Our choice was to fall back to a custom approach which turns out to be useful with respect to steps to the future. As one lecturer noted, what's old is new again.  

For now, consider the uses of 'C' interchangeable since we are using TGSoc.org to demonstrate issues, as well, from the bottom up (Wikipedia - Content Management (notice web content management and knowledge management); Configuration Management (notice the use for software). 

Motivation (see Summary discussion): Provide modes for managing a nonprofit in a cost effective manner while supporting the operational needs that go along with such a focus. At the same time, provide a full suite of media approaches to presenting information that has been curated, manually. Albeit, types of machine learning may be applied but with any use being noted explicitly. Meaning, of course, no implicit uses that can confuse. ...

• CMS posts in our content blog 
• CMS posts in our technical blog 
•  
•  
• Content management posts in our content blog
• Content management posts in our technical blog 
•  
•  
• Static web page - our approach which basically hacked HTML and which was chosen to allow progress with presenting information while we came up to speed on the related domains (events, names, dates, ...), covered over 400 years of history, published on a regular basis, and extended our focus/scope as we proceeded. Efficacy was attained by using several editors (HTML, simple text, and publishing). 
• Dynamic web page - initial thrust of mobile support plus curated indexing accomplished, mainly via CSS and Javascript using only simple text editing with Chrome testing support. 
•  
•  
• Model-view-controller - traditional approach for supporting the user via the web browser 
• Decoupled Architecture and WordPress - some history, pros and cons. There may be a better video put into place, however the basics are covered sufficiently. Suggestion, scan through this quickly without the sound on. 
• TodoMVC - examples, demonstrating some of the confusing notions that will be tamed
• Periodic Table of WordPress plugins - again, demonstrating the variety (most coming with an initial and a scheduled cost
•  
• Decisions - Pros and Cons of Decoupled Headless Websites;  The Pros and Cons of a Headless CMS; ...
• Deep Dive into Headless CMS Back-End Options - comparative look at what's available (Feb 2021)\=
•   
•  
•  Initial WordPress - picked from Top 15+ tutorials 
•  Business manager - for WordPress 
•  
•  

To us, content and configuration denote two heads or two hats for one head. The reality is that there are content issues that do not need to consider configuration issues. The inverse is true, too. Now, the overlap? It's more than semantics, though we will use CMS for both views because those playing the different roles may be on the same team (or the same person, such as yours truly). 

A better metaphor might be the floor where we have an above and a below where there is an almost impenetrable barrier. Sometimes, one uses silos which are monoliths that isolate. Many times, isolation is good (philosophical notion); actually, partitioning by classes is an example of many. 

You know, we haven't paid attention until this year, but RootsTech 2022 is coming up. This graphic shows the many approaches that have been developed. There has been some effort at establishing a commonality. To us, this means more content management than the other, except where standards might be under discussion. Don't know, yet, but will be paying attention. 

Remarks: Modified 02/25/2022

02/25/2022 -- 

Structure and GB

TL;DR -- The internet/web has become increasingly fluid over the years as choices push in that direction. Part of this was the large set of potential representation devices grew in size and complexity. Adapting to that situation motivated several choices which might need reconsideration. As, information has structure as does the language used to express information. For our purposes, we see the PDF as a framework for providing temporal views of our information. However, given an early choice, we provided a print flavor. In retrospect, the PDF ought to point to information in its contemporary form. We will do that, albeit the task will become harder going back in time. So, right now, we have two volumes to show as an example. 

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We recently released the issue of  Gardner's Beacon, Vol. XI, No. 1 in which we included links in the PDF file so as to have a more full presentation of information. After than, we re-issued the PDFs for Volume X which was 2020 and Volumes IX and VIII. These are the PDFs done so far. 

• Table move to our tech blog. Added in a format for more general reading. 

Try them and let us know. Why do this? It's a starting point. 

As we have mentioned, we are now designing changes to incorporate the mobile devices of small footprint. Over the past few years, site have been adjusting to make the interchange the same no matter the level of device. As in, we have the small (smartphone and other), tablet (varying sizes) and the more normal (where, again, we have a size range). Our portal (https://TGSoc.org) is where we have worked on the issues of mobility. 

From time to time, we have checked pages on the portal. However, the older (traditional) site has had minimal upgrade, though it works. 

In regard to the flexible approach that has been adopted, it has been a mixed blessing. One type of interface cannot handle all requirements. On the one hand, there has been lots of energy and money put into better interfaces for handling photos or games or steaming video. Other requirements might be for text with graphics such as we find with a scholarly paper. There are many more. 

An approach to allowing flexibility has been to remove structural constraints, almost entirely. Hence, the objects being displayed adapt. One scrolls to look for what one is seeking. A metaphor would be trying to find a bottle cap on a football field using only a small window of view (pan mostly, perhaps with some zoom). Using a browser on a larger screen can allow some search using text if the images have these identified.  

small example of the
array of modern devices 

This is a brief overview which was discussed in the 'Favorite site' post. An important concept is structure which can be several things, even some implicit order for scrolling. At the portal, we have offered a sliding icon array which maps to post by time. The PDF is another approach where text will have links to additional information. One can offer popup information and similar. 

So, with these PDFs, there is, at least, one link per paragraph to a post that relates to the theme. Then, each of these posts links to related material. Now, links? They can go bad for several reasons. Part of the maintenance would be link management which would identify those that are stale. Or, perhaps, where a server disappeared and might return at any moment. 

Now, this might seem to be out of scope with regard to our content. In an ideal world, that would be true. But, the internet has been undergoing tremendous change. We have looked to use the none extreme, in the sense of KISS. Too, we think of our material as being an in-progress outline with some fleshing available that is like a summary or overview. Besides, the balance of content and configuration is a never-ending affair where the line of demarcation moves by context. 

We will be putting out a temporary page to handle these PDFs as they get updated. Too, there will be ongoing reconfiguration seen through the next few (no end seen, yet) months.  

Remarks: Modified: 10/03/2022

12/20-21/2021 -- Added GB Vol. IX, No. 1,2, 3 and GB Vol. VIII, 1, 2 to see what's involved with the editing in of links. And, how many years back we might like to go. 

12/29/2021 -- Working GB Vol. XII, No. 2. Also, added GB Vol. IV, No. 2 which included information about the incorporation. 

 

02/22/2022 -- Added GB Vol. I, No. 1 and GB Vol. II, No. 1, ..., essentially, starting over. 

03/30/2022 -- Added GB Vol. XII, No. 1 

 

10/03/2022 -- Moved the status table over to our mobile-friendly site.