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 
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• Content management posts in our content blog
• Content management posts in our technical blog 
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• 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. 
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• 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)\=
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•  Initial WordPress - picked from Top 15+ tutorials 
•  Business manager - for WordPress 
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•  

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 -- 

thomasgardnersociety.org

The site must move from OfficeLive by the end of next month, April. OfficeLive is being replaced by Office365 by Microsoft. MS did not provide an easy migration method, so we're evaluating our options for hosting servers. As soon as that analysis is done, we begin re-construction on the new site.

In the meantime, Gardner's Beacon is available at:  thomasgardnersociety.club.officelive.com/ (this site will disappear on 05/01/2012).

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We'll use this post to keep track of progress using the Remarks.

Remarks:

03/11/2019 -- Will be reviewing all of this due to our new thrust: Content management. What's new? Bringing in ecommerce, in the large and in a non-profit mode. So, we'll tweak things. If I were younger, we would roll our own. We might, if there is interest. As in, young folks, here is a chance to start afresh and to show the world a thing or two.

01/18/2019 --  CMS and more, continues. See TGSoc.org which is our new site and the discussion page.

02/11/2015 -- CMS, again and again.

04/30/2012 -- References to the news letter ought to be Gardner's Beacon.

04/18/2012 -- The new site is operative (thomasgardnersociety.org). References that point to 'aspx' will bring up the 404 page which then has a pointer to the new site. Content can then be read as before.

04/17/2012 -- The switch to the new server will occur within the next couple of days. The old site will be there through 04/30/12.

03/22/2012 -- Mostly there, in HTML, will be doing some tweaking.

03/20/2012 -- Figured out how to do pages, using HTML, that look pretty close to what was there on OfficeLive. So, will get that into place soon, as the starter position. Accomplished using SeaMonkey which has a nice WYSIWYG editor (using nested tables).

03/19/2012 -- A good overview of Content Management Systems and a review of the top few: Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, Mambo. Before, the site used a builder provided by Microsoft OfficeLive. That tool will still be there with Office365, but the costs are going to be much greater which makes the pangs of a transition more palatable. Besides, it's a chance to look at technical issues.

03/19/2012 -- Domain now managed under WebHostingHub, after looking at this matrix and more. Considering, right now, either Drupal or Wordpress (ajswtlk[.]com/node/2 - gone) to handle the formatting. Taking time to review technical issues.

03/15/2012 -- An overview of the issues ('jewels' and squeezing of such).

Modified: 08/13/2019

Content and its management

TL;DR -- It seems that it is time to do the periodic review of technology in terms of our use and of choices pending. Nothing urgent is at hand except to increase the ability to have more options as we go forward. In the background is the reserved use of technology that might raise the issues of security, effectiveness, privacy, and other topics. We expect a 'deeper' dive this time (where 'deep' is taken from the AI mania's seeming hold on the imagination of a whole lot of people. What would Thomas think?

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The explosion of techniques over the past decade and one-half is astounding. And, that techniques range from low-level coding and handling of data through all sorts of presentations on various types of platforms (real or virtual) and then the interpretation worlds coming in, especially with analysis as a driver and that the variety of methods are without end is quite a bit to chew on. For the individual as well as for the group. To now, it has been a daunting task to cope; going forward, it will be even more problematic. 

So, doing a relook is quite apropos now. Let's just start with a list, some of which is older than it may appear and have a new face; what is new will be pointed out, eventually. 

Context: Aug 2014, on Decisions; 2021/22 stop to relook; list of Content Management tools and approaches. 

We can think in terms of hats which are difficult to have on at the same time and, definitely, switching modes is no easy task.  

• Project Seven - responsive web design, as they tout, with a huge collection of capabilities which can be plug and play or even more. 
• Dreamweaver - early to the game and still going. 
• CSS-tricks - one of the demonstrators of the ability of this lowly tool that got my attention early on. 
• Joomla - it's open source and capable, but too much on the configuration side of things. 
• concrete5 - again, open source; found it useful but cumbersome. 
• WordPress - very popular; liked it, but, personally, didn't like the ad-hoc collection of fee-based entities seemingly waiting to pounce. 
• Drupal - thematic scheme that was interesting. 
• ...
• Top 10 best website builders - there are lots of these list where some analysis has already been done. 

Must comment about data bases and their issues (several of the above mention their database options).  As an aside, have done this for years. The concern is more general and relates to staying away from conditions that lead to abusive modes being successful. 

One thing that grated was that most of these approaches make heavy use of pieces that are pulled together out of a database. That is, this approach is highly fluid but lacks structure. Is that important? Yes and no. Many of the modern website whose adherence to the chaos (seeming) might dazzle, the performance can stink. Too, it is hard to multi-task in such an environment. If I see something, I don't want it to change while I am cogitating about related issues. Lots to discuss, perhaps. Going with HTML files forced a structure. At first, of course, there were tables, but this usage diminished over time. 

Slow grind

So, we might think of a split where there is structure in the look and its code. Then, data would be handled by a data base, albeit that sort of thing might really require cloud support for reasons of stability. Until now, we have avoided those decisions. So, it's time to go back and reassess. 

We always talked content versus configuration is a recursive manner. One's person content might very well be another's configuration. Better wording might come to fore, but we'll keep with this split for a while. 

Remarks: Modified: 07/23/2021

07/19/2021 -- Finally, we're on the summer tech trek: Techie world, again. No known destination or timeframe for when that unknown is defined sufficiently to consider having arrived there. 

07/23/2021 -- Add TL;DR and image for the portal (https://TGSoc.org). 

New infrastructure

TL;DR -- A look at what we need to do and the various contexts involved including our content which covers several domains and our need for configuration management. The web's evolution will be on the table in terms of choices, both good and bad, by the developers of the mess. Updated graphic and comment about WordPress are later edits. This was a pre-COVID post. 

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We have all heard this over the past couple of decades. Well, we can finally say that things are at a crux, especially with the emergence of DL's facilities. They were always there; of late, people learned how to exploit.

Create or discover? Well, like the chicken and egg, which is first? I'm of both minds where 'discover' is given respect. So, Poisson's name is on stuff. He created this. Or, was he describing what he saw and we labelled it with his name as if the underlying ability came about with observation?

With the internet, we get to reason on these things, again, albeit with some practical focus as the intent is to use the thing properly, smartly, and to the best of our ability. I've put out a few posts about this. In July, it was Techie stuff. There were things before, say the technology blog. This started at WordPress[dot]com but, recently, moved to be under our 'portal to truth' (lots to discuss there). At that site, we have continued our blogging about decisions.

I have been working alone, for the most part, just following my intuition. 'Minimal' was one goal. Last fall, I mentioned some Google discussions that were right on (in this old guy's mind) and comforting, actually. Though, as an aside, they own this blog space. We're looking to pull it, too, under our portal.

In the meantime, AI is going bonkers. It's obvious, to me, that the black box can be tamed. It'll take us getting back to logic. What the hey? Minsky of MIT went to his grave arguing that the aNN (no matter the variations, thereof) as not the way. Not that I agree with him entirely, but he was not off the mark. Everywhere, we see AI this and AI that. Makes one wonder if some parts of the populace have lost their marbles.

As an aside, our portal thoughts make use of the fact that Thomas Gardner is almost a tabula rasa given that we know only a little but have the huge set of progeny to ponder. That means, in other words, the 'every man' is the theme or meme. We'll get back to that.

This blog has been going for 10 years. We started the WordPress one due to the details being handled with regard to choices. Of course, as we studied, we had to see where the crowd was going (below). And (yes, this is real), every time, we looked at what led to the current state (our's and the world of computing's) and tsk'd (want to know why? paying attention to the messes?). Sheesh. Do we ever get anything right? For anything of benefit, there are a slew of side-effects, costs (what have you) that are negatively imposing. This is without fail.

AI came on the scene, again, the past few years. Gaga time. This time, though, the older minds were saying, wait, let's talk: ACM, IEEE, etc. So, that's something else to discuss.

But, with regard to what the TGS needs, we have to develop. I have run across roll-your-own schemes. Guess what? The monied crowd does this to remove dependencies upon others. I'm stressing it due to issues of truth engineering. In any case, code will be to the fore. What? Yes, too many are being led down paths to perdition, it seems. We have been right so far in that assessment. I don't see glowing examples, yet.

As an aside, with regard to the below, we were doing Microsoft in the (mis-guided?) notion of going with ASPX and its way of the world. We'll mention this again.

But, the tools are there for us to do things better. Metrics, in other words, used wisely can be quite helpful. The benefits that have accrued properly to technology are examples. Lots of them. So, getting back to the theme of the post, here is an example.

This image comes from the source for a post that is worth reading: How WordPress Changed the Internet - 17 Facts about WordPress. I like it if only it shows that the old guy isn't off the wall. 

Aside: The source? W³Tech and their Web usage surveys where they are looking at content management. Look at the count! Babel building.  

In the 2012 time frame, as we were being kicked off of Microsoft's site, I looked at all three of these. In fact, I prototype'd a TGS site. At the time, I was up to my ears in new information having started to really get into the history and genealogy of the Cape Ann crew. So, there wasn't time to play with configuration when 'content' was the key thing. Notice the comparative growth of these three.

Aside, content and configuration? These differ (the media is not the message).

I looked at WordPress, again, in 2014. Those prototypes had been done under our own server. In the new mode, I went and built under WordPress' site (in the beginning, there were no ads; they came later; hence, we're moving). But, in 2012, I fell back to HTML, tables, icons, and mouse handling. It worked. On the 2014 go around, I brought in CSS and some javascript. The latter was, finally, made more central as it builds the page.

Now, what was one problem in 2012? The database. Too much of it (let's discuss). We can go into this, but the TGS site uses Linux and files. Guess what? Recently, after reading some UBerkeley stuff on AI, I went to GitHub, finally. Ah, the choices, related to text or graphics, etc., were all there for daily discussion while people were, at the same time, doing useful stuff within their chosen framework.

Talk diversity. This is one type that we need and can handle. Though, there are always forces pushing for homogeneity. Mathematicians love this.

BTW, on the latest look at WordPress, as I was bringing it into our portal, I looked at the 'biz' aspects of its use. Nickel and dime'ing was my reaction; like the menu that is ala carte. Nice, but, I want to see what's under the cover (or hood or ... - we used to say). Too, I want more than mere parametric influences. BTW, that is one issue with DL and AI, right now.

Yes, again, anyone interested in machine learning in the context of TGS, pipe up, please.

Closing this out, we have lots of things pending. See this blog that will move (https://jmswtlk.github.io/GitHub-ing/) which will cover the deeper technical issues as we go along. So, indeed, we're talking infrastructure in a new sense, actually senses.

Oh yes, ASPX. Recently, I have been helping in a situation where this is the framework. Not as a developer, but rather as a late tester of a new process. Interesting. Some things I liked, others not. How to get the proper balance will always be a key thing? And, whose balance?

Aside, again. The earlier post pointed to a project management scheme that has gotten a lot of attention. It reminds me of the old Apple package that was card-based. That is, one had cards that linked in a manner that was fairly powerful (we're talking 80s, folks). I see it referenced from time to time. Lift the covers, and you'll find old routines still supporting the computing world. Trouble is, though, that it's in the GUI world. Most stuff is. Developers? Many stay away from that. Actually, WikiTree is balanced and a joy to use. GitHub is more textual with add-ons for the GUI'ness.

How ought we to go? Decisions will be made. None will be in concrete.

When looking at Drupal and Joomla, I also looked at Concrete 5. It's still around. The Army picked it. Okay. How does one decide in all of this? Want to know. Computational sustainability. That'll be a future topic.

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 -- Updated graphic on WordPress which had come from a survey. Put in pointers to survey. This week, decided to use WordPress to prototype our configuration. 

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.

Content can be configuration

 TL;DR -- Another look at options, alternatives, and, perhaps, better ways to do things. 

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Given that we are going into the winter months, with the added pressures of COVID19, we will have more time to spend working on issues, such as futures, technology, presence, and such. To get a good start, let's consider the 'content versus configuration' theme which has appeared from time to time. Why do we have these posts? For one thing, they do provide for a nice periodic look that is based upon a timeline that we control. These posts are in a 'content' order with a date to allow a notion of when the what was being discussed. 

• thomasgardnersociety.org (15 Mar 2012) - Our first activity was to create a Thomas Gardner (Planter) page on WikiPedia in January of 2010. Later, after some research and editing, we started a website in April of 2010. This URL points to that site which was based Microsoft's OfficeLive (at the time, ASP world). Here is an old image of the first look (read about the conversion in 2012 here). This blog started on Blogger.com (bought by Google) and has been continuous since September of 2010. Our original (Welcome) post pointed to our site which, at the time, had a bio and the beginning of a list of the kids (2nd post) and their progeny that had been developed on WikiPedia (all edits can be traced). Microsoft decided to push Office 365 which is now their cloud offering for business. Lots of businesses had assumed that OfficeLive would be their and had integrated it into their processes. Needless to say, unexpected costs arose from this decision by Microsoft. Some of this, we paid attention to. Why was Microsoft picked? Well, one motivation was to get into the ASP world, again. It was fairly slick compared to the alternatives that we researched. Unfortunately, the attention was elsewhere so that the decisions at this point were considered mute issues. After all, it was merely an informational site.  
• New era (15 Mar 2012) - After getting the notice, the thing to do was to look at alternatives. In the initial work in 2010, Microsoft's approach didn't have a peer. Mobility as we see now was just starting to come around. There had been a decade of progress mostly related to commercial exploitation of the internet which continues. The basics of Content Management Systems? Lots of questions and little answer. This post (another blog) discusses the research and decisions. After a little effort, the choice was to drop back to HTML (with images snapped of the buttons that were on the OfficeLive pages). Then, once information flowed, improvement work would become incremental. In terms of requirements, there was providing curated information. However, there was the larger picture which resulted in two discussion. On the content side, of course, the focus would be related to the purposes of the Thomas Gardner Society. On the other, things were changing. If one looks at the state of the art, one sees lots of categories of web capability being proposed with many different ways for handling these, with issues like technology being important.  
• Web site - reconfigure (12 Jul 2014) -- That approached worked for a couple of years. While we went along, we still surveyed the status of web work so as to keep an alternative list up to date. Motivation for change came from Google who made the decision that all blogs had to consider mobile friendliness. Since we pointed to our site, we had to upgrade. This time, we paid more attention to the technical work by creating a blog with a technology focus (Friendly to the mobile crowd). We started this blog on the WordPress site and have started a move to our own server. Again, we looked at alternatives and decided to switch to a dynamic mode using HTML/CSS/JS. As for discussions about this, many are looking for minimal, curated sites. This will be looked at more fully later. Default modes, like FB, Instagram, Twitter, and the like? To be discussed. All along, we published Gardner's Beacon at the site. Our first issues was Vol I, No 1 (Spring of 2011). For a few issues, we collected material into an annals format. Too, with more experience under our research belt, we decided to write a correction to an article in the TEG which led to several articles being published. After 2010, digitization seemed to happen quicker. One finding was a record of a Thomas Gardner and a Margaret Friar being married in Sherborne, Dorset, UK in the right timeframe. That led to the TGS helping edit the Profiles for these two on WikiTree.  
• Thomas Gardner (abt. 1592 - 1674) - Besides the marriage there are other records that are of use, such as baptism records for the first three boys, a baptism for Margaret, and records related to her parents. This is ongoing work. With research notes and articles, we configured an area for the Annals for which we are working on TGA Vol. V, No. 1. But, there are many decisions to make with respect to our infrastructure going forward. For one thing, we need various timelines (example from mapped to associated content. That content must be curated and managed over timed. Now, given social media, there are many options for controlling the message, albeit one needs to keep disparate modes in sync. Wouldn't want differences of opinion arising due to mismanaged posts across several sites. We summarized what we had, to then, in January of this year (2020). But, we also need to integrate in support business affairs, in the longer run, including access and membership. There are various cloud options; we have liked our server approach, so far. Earlier, we mentioned mobile devices of which there are many types. Technology seems to have settled somewhat in terms of services but, mostly, that is temporary. For instance, everywhere, people have modified their sites to be flexible. This works somewhat but can be quite frustrating as one changes modes. People don't want to see a smartphone interface while using a laptop connected to sophisticated computing systems, just like the mobile crowd did not like the scrunched down laptop presentation. UX (user orientation) has as many open issues as anyone. BTW, this is future oriented? Yes, think DARPA (U.S. DOD) which have realized, finally, that they need to lead the way toward thinking about 100-year systems. 
• TGSoc (August of 2017) - After a little experience, we saw 'thomasgardnersociety.org' as too lengthy in the newer days of scaling down. When used in email, it was huge. So, on doing a survey, we decided that 'TGSoc.org' would be better. This was registered in 2017 and has been active since in terms of our portal (to truth). Or, one might use gateway. It's use will complement that of the main site which will be an information repository and server. Of course, there will be other components, through time. We have tried several packages and have some notes related to our analysis and decision. The fallback position is doing our own development as needed. Of late, Julia (a programming language) looks promising however there would be a tie into existing services. The architecture needs a little discussion. The image is an example of an icon related to information bits which are now mostly blog-based but will be of any appropriate media. 

TGSoc.org

We have an open list of tasks related to our infrastructure and process. Too, some things ought to be handled in an experimental mode given time and resources. So, there is no shortage of things to do. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/24/2020

11/24/2020 --

Content and configuration

TL;DR -- Continuing theme that might become more major than not.  

---

It has been encouraging of late to see several things happening, almost concurrently. Let us just list these with some comment. As a reminder, our portal (TGSoc.org) is where we support 'content' for things dealing with all aspects of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. as well as our interest in All Things Gardner. 

With this listing, we have to take little side trips (with curating being done a little later). There have been several studies being done that were disparate for the most part but had overlap, too. That, folks, is how life is. And? The computer has messed things up. Why? It'll provide a nice, beautiful numeric overlay that almost looks real. We can talk two senses, for now: where simulation reigns and appears as if to mimic nature (not, folks, as even with a tightly bound, smart sensor/reactor scheme, there is residue from the operational mathematics underlying the computational - basically, a rephrase of what the academics (CompSci) talk about, but not); or, in robotics, where we have seen the evolution come to machine learning, there is still that reliance upon the numeric/compute dynamic which looks very smart with its quick, huge abacus collective - marvelous -  which by no means approaches intuition of the talented human. 

Now, that's a mouthful, but it's offered liked Halloween candy, yet not. Our problem is how to bring more than hermeneutics into the technical experiences of now. And, we can learn from the past. Need to. The issue, though, is that the past five decades have us now in a bind of unknown proportions and types. This is not a political observation. No, of course, human affairs are complex. And, people have to make decisions. That's the point; offloading our responsibilities to a computer (with origins in Silly Valley or China or elsewhere) does not wisdom make (think Emerson, for one - yes, we have 400 years to look at in terms of the U.S. experience). 

Now, those two studies? One was look at John Gardner's relationship with Giles Corey. That covered a decade where the changes through that time were in parallel with those in the technology world. But, too, we were learning. What lesson cropped up? Curating. We need to start to spend time with that; however, it will be done in the context of content and configuration. Right now, we'll say this: one person's content is another's configuration. There are plenty of computer examples to use. Later. 

Now, the other deals with an adage and breaking it. Namely, we blokes here (norte of the americanas) ought to handle our own stuff. Let us tell you, the frontier experience of the U.S. is even worse than that of the Great Migration for various reasons. Yes. England had no parallel with this. You might see it elsewhere; however our experiences (US) after the Revolution can be a huge wealth of data. So, we look at our stuff here and let the Brits do their thing on their side. But, the focus on Margaret is forcing us to look at the Fryer/Friar family which is not here. The context: Editing Margaret's past. When one looks at Sherborne, there are many Gardner families (Dorset region). Friar seems to be lesser in size of the data set. So that is one motivator. 

However, we are using technology to do this, in a manner that was not available a decade ago. The first notion of this area, beyond reading John's comments (about his talks with his father), was in 2014. There has been some indexing of a slew of images. But, people have warned of these. A lot of the work might just be stepping through images (not unlike scrolling the pages on the micrograph device), except that it's easier. 

How might we say this? Looking at some of the frontier records this past summer was just that. It's astounding that we can do this work and be so blasé about what's under the covers. That is one of the reasons for this type of discussion. We need awareness that is attuned. 

It's funny. we see people realizing that html/css/js is sufficient for a whole lot of stuff. In fact, there are some additions that drive a whole lot of work. Myself, we've gotten to where Julia looks good. It's Python'ish but with extensions that do serious stuff (Lisp'ish). And, it handles the front and back ends. Given the above, of course, we want to discuss the middle out. So much more to look at. 

So, we'll be back to this theme on a regular basis. Curating? It applies to both content management and configuration control. Mind you, both of those have lots of other characterizations. The one truth? Roles are; the needed hat differs by role; balancing hats is what capable people do; the computer comes in and screws up the thinking with its 'magical' chimera'ish nature; many get hurt, led astray, even almost maimed, or driven into slavery (debt, for one); solutions will come from stepping back; we have lots of lessons pending that have been ignored, way too long; independent people will the the key to the future where one needs to know for oneself - 'trust but verify' is part of the solution; knowing how to do this with technology versus people are not the same skill set.  

Remarks: Modified: 11/03/2020

11/03/2020 -- Added image for our portal (https://TGSoc.org). Also, More than fiddling is more on the subject. 

Posts and more

Remember the year end? 'twas not so long ago. All of the bloggers were announcing their counts for the year. Some of these did have reflective comments; not many, but, then, the web rushes forth like water out of a well (why this metaphor? someone has to pump; too, the rest of the country needs to be cognizant of the water issues being faced by California, Texas, and other places) with no one worrying about spillage or (quality).

Perhaps, at some point, that will come about. We can point to twit-ville's spawning of enormous amounts every micro-second - then, later, that same flow becomes foliage for the big-data herbivores (actually, are they not meat eaters?) to munch in order to give us cow patties (crowd behavior).

Now, recall that twits may or may not have had some discernment behind the text bulge. Yet, in the aggregate, things can be seen, though we can argue about speciousness (and other things - some things occur (are) just because they can (can be)).

---

Along that reporting line, we have pulled together, from time to time, posts by read count, say the December Summary (2014, 2013, ...). For all the time, the "Gardners and Gardners" post has had the most reads.

In this post, the intent is start to look at content and the underlying motivators. Earlier, we mentioned Gardner Research (in terms of questions) which is fairly broad (why? using Winthrop's little quote, one can see a large domain -- too, Gardner's Beacon?). We stand at a time when people are looking backward (again, and more so) due to upcoming milestones (all sorts - this year, 800th of the Magna Carta).

As with any line of inquiry, especially if there is a large extent over which to gaze, one has choices about what resources to expend, where to focus effort, and that whole litany which commands the time of countless managers everyday (albeit, CEOs eat broadly without doing any real work - yes, explainable).

---

So, in that vein, this graphic was interesting when first seen. It gives the count of posts to the TGS blog by month over the past few years (well, from the beginning).

Posts at TGS blog

A pat on the back might be in line given that the maximum month was almost a year in. That does indicate considered thought about research findings. As one would expect, the beginning time was more the case of handling the influx rather than doing specific searches. Once one has balanced all of the incoming balls, then one can take the time to look further. Too, one finally gets to where new knowledge can be sorted and placed where it belongs.

By the way, those early times can be scrutinized in more depth by looking at the timeline of the Thomas Gardner of Salem page on Wikipedia (50 per page, from the start - 10 Jan 2010). As well, though, the elapse of the first year's time and the effort during that period allowed sufficient understanding to start the backbone series and other things related to opinion.

The other time of greater, than normal activity, was last summer (Jul, Aug, Sep) which saw efforts at studying content management issues, plus discussion of research leading to the TEG papers. That little bit of time indicates that winter months do not correlate, necessarily, to larger output on the web. But, then, last year had the most posts.

Remarks: Modified: 04/27/2023

04/27/2015 -- What is not seen in this count are the Remarks put into posts. In some cases, they are pointers from an earlier post to a later post. In other cases, they contain additional information. This post has examples of both (Historical genealogy) types of Remarks. In one blog, the Remark content is several multiples of the original post.

10/13/2018 -- Updated the metrics with some review of the post content.

03/14/2019 -- Put image into our index at our portal to truth.

Web site

Status: 11/23/2014 - 0600 PST, site is up and running

---

Web site availability reports ought to be regularly supported. Today, I noticed that the thomasgardernsociety.org site was down about 10:00 PST.  As of now, 15:25 PST, it was still not accessible. The service provider has a general comment about no ETA.

webhostinghub notice
of outage

However, they did say that there would be periodic updates. Well, five hours is way too long for such a period, IMHO. But, we'll have to see how this goes. 

The last noticeable outage was in June of this year. Prior to that, there had been no down times that were significant. Meaning, one expects to have tie ups due to several factors that users need to know.

On the other hand, the whole notion of who owns what is an on-going debate (part of the "neutral net" arguments, to boot). We have dealt with this the sense of content versus configuration, for one.

Web presence, that persists and evolves, will be an integral part of any communication strategy in the future. How this looks may differ wildly from our current level of technology, but some of the issues will remain hotbeds of discussion.

---

A note went out yesterday about the TEG publication. The note points to our repository of papers. The email server is co-joint with the web traffic handler. Is that good? Well, all sorts of questions will be addressed.

Status: (see FB)

Under the auspices of Gardner Research, sponsored by the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. 


Switlik, John M. "John Sayward/Soward of Gloucester/Ipswich" The Essex Genealogist (TEG) Vol. 34, No. 4, November, 2014, page 210; In 1791, John Graves of Ipswich, MA married Elizabeth Sayward. Who was she? To answer that question, we need to look at Elizabeth’s parents. The article shows that her parents were John Sayward and Elizabeth Leatherland, of Ipswich, and, then, answers the question: who was John Sayward?


Includes ahnentafel of an aunt of Dr. Frank A. Gardner, author. An earlier article covered his grandmother, Lucy Foster Wilson. Next up, his grandfather, Benjamin Brown Gardner.

Remarks: Modified: 11/23/2014 

11/22/2014 -- Started a post on the technical blog, using Word Press. The general topic is content management, however content, as an abstraction, has many levels. The discussion started two years ago when we had to move off of Microsoft's site and has continued. ... There are many troubles that we see with computing; now, some of these are old and gnarly, while others are due to the recent technological advances. You see, value from change is not always a positive thing. We will go more into that.

11/22/2014 -- 18:37 PST, still down.

11/23/2014 -- 06:00 PST up and running; need to check email status

Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. site down

This has been a bad week for genealogical "web-sters," it seems. ancestry.com went down; the auxiliary sites are still unavailable, to wit myfamily, rootsweb. The other day, Facebook was down.

Today, the site at thomasgardnersociety.org is unavailable since the server that supports it is having a file system problem which started earlier this am (no expected uptime given).

There will be more  information later (see status.webhostinghub.com for now).

Remarks: Modified: 11/22/2014

06/22/2014 - 219 pm. Site is back up. No explanation. ... 235 pm. Chatted with support. They cloak the information under proprietary shields. Perhaps, I ought to look at what discussions there are in the community about failures/outages, of this type (which was said to be a disk failure, rather than some outage due to hacking).

06/22/2014 -- See the post related to the move from MicroSoft's OfficeLive to Hub (March 15, 2012). I still have my research notes. ... Too, a recent post about content management (earlier post in this blog, CMS again). ... Some have gone to the cloud which is a nebulous affair for the user. That is, the cloud provider hides the technical issues (or, a lot of them). Yet, the user is the one who has the responsibility for the content and its availability. --- ancestry.com? Yes, they stacked a whole lot of stuff on that node. The paying stuff is back (like ancestry.com). Those things that were freely available (and, in many cases, not started by the ancestry folks) are still out - will they come back? As in, there had already been a notice that myfamily.com was disappearing. Will they make an effort to get it back so that we can download our material (supposedly to be done before mid-July - or, that was the deadline before their outage).

06/24/2014 -- At last, rootsweb is back. ... Wait, it's an empty shell.

06/25,26/2014 -- rootsweb is back. Listing of 303 trees for Thomas (those with sources, showing descendants and providing the death year). ... Of the 303, 181 trees have parents for Thomas. ... Then, there are 43 trees with George being the grandfather of Thomas. ... See Whence came ...

11/22/2014 -- 12:29 cst -- Site down, plus email not available.

README and more

TL;DR -- README! Such a minor thing. It's age old. We don't seem to know where it started. But, it relates to the world of code. It's nice that GitHub, old ways being new with the internet and worldwideweb. In any case, now AI has put its wannabe head into code from various positions. We have payed sporadic attention and thought that it deserves a more regular focus. 

--

We have mentioned GitHub (Wikipedia overview) several times since around the 2020 timeframe. Our latest post was motivated by an email feed from the GitHub team that related to an article on those who maintain code. That role was always seen as less important than the "cowboy" roles of the developer. 

Stopping a minute. GittHub is an on-line example of what can be termed code management. This type of facility/utility evolved over the years until it's a fairly robust addition to good business practices. Some have used CMS for this type of work. However, we have had lots of posts about Content Mangement and will continue. AI modes will require extra efforts at curating. So, stay tuned.  

Now, back to the "cowboy" (apologies to the real type). Guess what? Lots of developers put stuff out and strutted off the stage like the stud. Oh, btw, this is an old guy writing who has seen this stuff for decades. And, after strutting off, the stud left the errant traces of his work for other to clean up after. Much like the mother after her kids. 

Mixed metaphors, I know. But continuing. I'm working with a project that will try to incorporate AI modes (we'll be more specific later) into a new system which is supposed to revolutionize the economy, as a whole. Large piece of pie to bite from. Anyway, I will still blog though I'll be going to other blogs and linking from those back to here. 

Another bit of interest? GitHub and OpenAI have been working for awhile on a Copilot which is supposed to aid in developmenr or general code management. This joint work started in 2021 which was a year before the general release of ChatGPT. BTW, if you are wondering what this is about, see a brief history of GPT. The author writes about research on AI (mainly machine learning). 

Again, back to the subject. Today's mail pointed to this discussion: How are AI coding tools changing the way developers work? This is from the maintainers group referenced above. In reading the text of the discussion, there were some things that stood out. One was this: AI might not write a book, but it can write a good paragraph. 

Before proceeding, though, a couple of words. Yes, one can drive a small nail with a sledge hammer. But, it's a mismatch of need and what's being used to fulfill the need. Too, AI (GenAI, in particular) is hugely chewing up resources. For what? They need large data centers that requires an unwarranted amount of energy. Too, they need water for cooling. And, more. They're noisy. They make the landscape other than desirable. Go look at those that surround the lovely Virginia countryside of Dulles (IAD). 

So, reading the article was interesting. I went to look at their site and saw that this group started to publish in April of 2023. That would have been when the reality of ChatGPT and its kin was sinking in which was a mere five months after the release. As a reminder, OpenAI went viral and got millions of people to sign up for the free ttrial. Too, lots of folks bought in, including companies. 

All of that will eventually be analyzed. I started last year in another context: Knowledge Systems Center, Sperry Univac. As mentioned in the last post, I have been off helping to support a project as it gets off the ground. So, there are pending tasks that will be picked up again. 

Now, the effort at GitHub is called The ReadME Project. Coders have used a README forever, it seems. Software usually had this text file that included some documentation, or information about using the software, and more. So, does Wikipeda say anything about the README? Yes. 

Now back to the GitHub project. Here is a little bit of the notices sent since they started. AI itself has only come into focus the past few of these. 

• 06/26/2024 - AI is here. How is it changing the way developers work?
• 05/23/2024 - Maintainer Month: The joy of open source
• 04/17/2024 - Getting started in a career in platform engineering
• 03/12/2024 - Intelligent uses for AI in coding
• 02/13/2024 - Best practices for open source maintainers
• 01/09/2024 - Creating technical content
• ...
• 08/01/2023 - Getting started with edge computing | The ReadME Project Q&A
• 07/13/2023 - How to make your first open source contribution
• 07/10/2023 - How to handle programming paradigm shifts | The ReadME Project Q&A
• ...
• 06/13/2023 - Non-code contributors: The unsung heroes of open source
• 05/25/2023 - Elevating contributors into maintainership | The ReadME Project Q&A
• 05/09/2023 - Is it still "open source" if you don't accept contributions?

For an old timer, seeing all of this progress is a pleasure. There are several caveats which come from doing this for years including stints in the plush offices dealing with management and its science (if there is such). Evidence of this is becoming apparent to me. People, the key resource, are being driven to distraction and worse being slaves of automation. Oh, I would write more and will. Not just now. 

This year, I saw USDOD mention that people and their intuition ought to be the focus, not the computational twin that is a wannabe, many times over. All of this may seem new. It's not and has been going on for a long while. What's new? We can't hide the realities so much under proprietary cloaks when the evidence are huge monoliths traipsing along our skyline and blocking our rightful views ;>). 

Remarks: Modified: 12/28/2024

12/28/2024 -- See updates in GB, XIV, 1 for 2024 updates. 

A(rtificial) I(ntelligence) researched properly

TL;DR -- As we have mentioned in lots of post, New England has a long arm through space and time. Very long. We have looked at the interior example of this. We have a nautical one, to boot, that sits there awaiting attention. And, we need technology for various matters. Keeping it simple over the decade was one goal. Accomplished as we do not even have a smart phone. From the outside, apps look to be idiotic. I'll get one soon and be more specific. With regard to the purveyors of the clouds that are strangling the folks, we are immune and neutral. We'll tsk, tsk at any who is not behaving in a mature manner (did Zuck ever get over his bull-in-a-china-closet self?). Once we do a little look back which implies future happenings similarly (truth engineering is the focus), we look at DL and its huge impact of an unreasonable nature (hint for the brainy, think Wigner's comments). What is wrong here? Well, we 'deep' dive, proper sense, into DL and come up with the pearls of wisdom that seem to have been lost in the mud. 

--

An ongoing concern is that we need to have a technical focus for a while as we re-look at the computing landscape. This type of thing seems to have occurred on a periodic basis which we have covered somewhat as we proceeded. But, since technology will be a focus going forward, we will be more regular on looking from that angle. 

And, we will pull together several threads as we work this. Then, we need to assess where the world is on related topics. Warning, we're going to the core and back in an attempt to clarify what are the real issues and why so much hype and confusion. 

So, let's recap, somewhat. It does parallel other activities in the world of technology. 

• We started this in 2010 using facilities of Microsoft (MS) as we were looking to be in the world of  ASP.NET for web apps with access to OfficeLive for the business focus. The first cut of the web site went quickly due to their tools. And, all was well, or so it seemed. 
• So, in 2012, MS pulled the plug (leaving a bunch of little moms and pops scrambling as they lost the core of their business model). Rather than step up to Office365, we went looking. That was nice. As we got to see how the web was about seventeen years after its 'wild west' start. We tried several of the state-of-the-art approaches. Mind you, we are now facing the onslaught of change coming from Jobs' gift (in other words, the app world was dawning). However, since our purpose was content management in a totally new environment, we fell back to our roots which was riding the wave of the internet from the beginning via Unix and Linux. Remember, at one time, SUN noted that the network was the computer (early 1990 timeframe). So, we converted from 'asp' to html using little graphics with attached functions as the GUI. It was fun. The choice was to use an ISP who ran Linux and offered lots of software choices including a web design tool. Didn't like it, for many reasons. So we did our own thing. 
• After two years (2014) of managing content with antiquated methods, it got to be wearing. So, at that time, we took the time, again, to reassess the state of the art with respect to web stuff. And, we looked, again, at CSS. Yes. So, that became the GUI provider (parameters and systems, just like we see with DL - more on that, lots more). I saw a 3D graphic engine implemented in CSS/JS but still had lots of content to cope with. I was relieved to have some progress improvement.  
• Then, by 2016, Google was saying to those who went out pioneering earlier, respect the little guy or you don't get any attention (meaning, in their ways of pushing stuff). So, we became mobile friendly. The keyword was being responsive. This was done with even more CSS. At the same time, we picked up WordPress in addition to Blogger which became under the auspices of Google. In the meantime, we kept looking at new kids on the block. After all, some spend their lives playing with the stuff. So, alternatives abound. Guess what? I have lots and lots of examples of people being screwed (hence, this is one thing on our plate) because they didn't take the time to understand technology. At least, know more than how to push buttons on that thing that Jobs' gift gave the world (incidentally, I am about to get one - the smart phone - I call it a dumbing device and can show examples of that, to boot). Anyway, Google provided a little test facility to check out your site. We passed. That was enough, then. But, again, soap box: everyone seems to have descended to this one-eyed little thing where one cannot multi-task. Can I explain further? You bet. It'll be on our table for discussion for a long while. Also, later I used someone's Jobs' gift to look at the site. Not bad given that it's not using custom apps but a good browser (that will not go away, folks, for many reasons). 
  
• Then, 2017/18 came along. We decided that ThomasGardnerSociety.org was a bit to type and decided to go a little smaller. We asked for opinions and settled on TGSoc.org which has been a blast. We still have the old site for older material that will be reorganized. On the new one, we are stressing the need for truth and its engineering. Frankly, the site is to be a test bed for ideas and discussion, eventually. More on that below. At the time, we relooked at the options. And, settled, again, on HTML/CSS but brought in JS. Now, there are several varieties of JavaScripting available. However, I just saw top-of-the-line bit of research in truth maintenance (older concept) which balances multiple worlds (essential) which was created with html/css/js. Yes, I have seen lots of topnotch sites using this. Topnotch? Not commercial flimflam, please. Not academic, either. 
• Now, we're 2020/21 and have started to redo, again. Of course, it's time to reassess the world. And, knowing about New England and American History a little more now than in 2010, that whole framework has to come to become more visible in a coherent manner that will persist. Guess what? We will argue that there is research to support that will be as important as biomedical research. After all, we're talking the soul of the nation and of the world's people being entrapped via technology that is driven by motives are that not what we might want given what we know of the 400 years of effort on the part of thousands of families. But, that's for later (see below). Now, we will look at apps. Also, we will be looking at multi-media and the different ways to express some notion with both provenance known and veracity shown. Ever heard of AI? 

Okay, switching gears. One thing that I have noted is that people who are presenting tough stuff (say, as one expects with science) always use a mode that is as complex as the subject. Others present complex stuff using simple means; some people call this 'static' but do so erroneously. I will have examples, but many of these sites represent the latest thinking in fields such as mathematical physics which really is the driver of all of science. Too, the web has gone wild with approaches to presentation. Some of these will live on. Those are the ones that we want to pay attention to. We will have the more entertaining aspect, but hard-core issues area going to be a huge focus. 

Let's look at one, for now. Of late, there is this thing called Deep Learning which has gotten a lot of press and generated both hype and fear. The former? Oh yes, AI, as in artificial intelligence, has finally shown its head. Well, not. We will explain.  The latter? Again, AI. Old Musk (pusher of the electric car and its illusions) says, it's summoning the beasts. Other brains are bewailing the future and it perils. 

Well, in short, AI ain't. We have spent the past year looking at the guts in terms of the underlying mathematical and computational approaches. And, we are ready to discuss where there is more hype than not. We use that phrasing as, of course, it's not all for naught. There is some good stuff there. On the other hand, business managers are buying into this stuff to the detriment of their customers and their employers and the rest of us. Won't name names, yet, but some billionaires are exhibiting classic idiocy. 

To close this, let me point to two papers that were in the recent ACM Communications. They are both open to public view (thanks, ACM) so that we can access content of the papers without going into a closed environment. The ACM is the Association for Computing Machinery and has been around since the advent of computing. Earlier, it had an academic flavor but is now balanced with people from the industry. The Communications is their flagship publication that is printed monthly. This recent issue is just full of good stuff as we find with these two. 

• Deep learning for AI -- The ACM provides a Turing Award to folks who contribute to the discipline in an extraordinary manner. This paper is based upon a Lecture by three researchers who shared a Turing Award: Bengio, Lecun, and Hinton. Recognize those names? These guys were of neural nets all along and so can be seen to have sloughed through the years. They are not recent wonders exploiting graphic cards nor are they pushing notational magic such as tensors. Of late, news reports have mentioned these three talking (Hinton is whom I have seen referenced the most) and saying, wait, neural approaches have issues. We have to back up and relook at the situation. Well, this article expresses those issues and discusses some work that needs to be done. Great stuff. The article is open for reading (thanks to ACM). They mention symbolic approaches, the old stuff to some, and the later modes that are heavily numeric - exploiting age-old ideas about transforms, optimization and more. But, it’s in their ‘Recent advances’ and ‘The Future of Deep Learning’ where we see discussion of other things that are being pursued plus some suggestions and notions that need attention, like attention (now, a soft type). I liked the higher-level cognition little section. Yes, the old ‘planning and reasoning’ methods ought to be more than dead meat to those numeric overlays that are so insidious. I can talk that, too. BTW, Minsky’s ideas on the society of mind are still apropos, to boot. But, there is a lot more to put on the table. Next bullet.
• Deriving equations from sensor data using dimensional function synthesis — ACM, thanks, this is open, too. Gosh, in the last bullet, B&L&H were musing about higher-order (which even tensor notations aren’t going to give to the neural approach) and its use. After all, B&L&H are academics and know the mathematical stuff. So, Cambridge (Tsoutsouras, Willis, and Stanley-Marbell) to the rescue. This paper reminds me of a lot of things that I saw and dabbled in. To me, what was the conclusion was having a trained person in the loop. Trained? Yes, thoroughly comfortable with the type of thinking that a good physicist would follow while modeling - used since model-based approaches are still germane to the subject, perhaps even more so now with the flood of data and improper analysis that is killing us - in order to solve some problem. Good engineers fit this bill. 

So, we will need to have a technical focus, in part. One motivation is that DL, as automated mode, is gnawing at things textual and visual and creating what is considered knowledge views. Well, it is not. There are 'deep' issues at play here that are being ignored. These deal with what can be ungrounded domains, such as mathematics and philosophy. One might ask about 'grounded' which has been discussed forever. Well, humans will play a part in whatever dynamics are needed. 

Example of human deep learning
guiding DL

Yet, that complexity does not mean that things (are allowed to) just run a natural course with negative impacts upon humans and their culture and society because we shirk our responsibility to be mature. Run fast and break things? Heard that before? It's right out of Silicon Valley (to me, silly) during the past decade and one-half when things accelerated to more instability than many thought possible. Sure, the web/cloud is there. Well, the majority of that is something that we need to study which some have termed crapularity (really crapology - in response to the interest in the Singularity). 

We use the concept of research as being important. Science is one focus that needs to be there. Definitely, mathematics will be of concern. Now, people? What do they bring? That is something to learn more about in a way not done before. One suggestion is that the web/cloud offers lots of modes to look at in a new way. For starters, a survey of the past four or five decades with respect to how computing evolved and a consistent presentation of the results is imperative. I see now lots of older practitioners, who are retired, talking of their work. One theme, perhaps to be expected, is how the new modes merely rephrase what was done before with new gimmicks. Some sciences seem to redefine themselves from time to time. BTW, what will be re-evaluated, to boot, will be DNA from several perspectives that seem to have been swept off the table and under the rug as commercial interests took over the science. Wait, the old and the young? Generational dynamics? Actually, the topics have no limit. However, one important element? We are dealing with the American Dream. Who owns that? What is it, exactly? And, how might American Indian thoughts apply in modern contexts such as science? 

Remarks: Modified: 08/05/2023

07/11/2021 -- Review and edit; add image. 

07/12/2021 -- We are back in the saddle. Concerns abound. Such as, some have been taken to the cleaners due to unscrupulous developers and outright charlatans with modes that lurk and pilfer. Some have paid way too much for some capability since they were too old to know or to make the effort. Oh yes, youngsters not knowing? Yes, that is the case, too. Can we have a sustainable web for all? 

08/05/2023 -- I haven't been watching, but this post rose on the list of the most watched, recently. The theme is one reason. We will lift this up to further usage, as we are working on GB XIII, 1. One topic is year-to-date. The other deals with new directions. Wasn't there a boy band with this name? I know that there is a literary publishing company with this as a name. ... In Nov of 2022, OpenAI pushed out ChatGPT which is an example of the capabilities of LLM. We will have more on that, and related themes, soon.  

Pace of change

TL;DR -- Before getting into some technical issues, a pause to look at the quick coverage of the interior of the U.S. is in order. In the graphic, the blue are Post Offices (1855 and 1921) as they spread across the country. The red show the railroads (1860s and 1890s). We have looked at the time before technology came about. But, even when it did, there was a natural evolution of ability. In any case, the conflicts of today are nothing new, basically old stuff with nuances related to the current time. So 400 years ago may have been different in a lot of ways, but how close are the people then to what we had 100 years ago? 

--

This post briefly summarizes work that we done over the past few months, much of it looking at the interior of the U.S. We need to get technical, for a while, which will get us back to the issues of content management and more. This has been a periodic occurrence that has left traces (see discussion at our portal - https://TGSoc.org and our technical blog) which follow how things have changed during the past decade and one-half. Lots like to ride the wave (to nowhere). Civilization needs its moments of review in order to stay within sustainable practices. The computer has messed things up. But, also, we have new ways to research and report (that was one motivation for the Web which was based upon DARPA's attempting to have robust communications). We have to keep history in mind, local and global. Too, New England and the Cape Ann crew will continue to be of use to much analysis now and into the future. 

Messy now? Yes, but, we were messy before, too. We have been covering the frontier century, for various reasons. One of these is that we have run across lots of families who were early on the frontier and seemed to have lost their lineage. Of course, there were many newcomers during that century. However, there are others who were here whose families moved into states long before they were organized and so left little in the way of tracks.

We call it the lost generation (or two) which is the ones right after the Revolution. 

So, one might argue the Boones. Daniel's prominence made sure that people paid attention. For every Daniel, there are 100s and 1000s who get little in the way of notice. Yet, these people farmed, built, surveyed, and more. On that latter, the Bent family whose member was at the Treat signing in Kansas got us on that. The father was the organizer; the son was out in the wilds. The treaty didn't hold like many others. So, we'll be looking at that (1865, Little Arkansas Treaty - that's a river out of CO that runs through several states to the Mississippi).  

Along that line, we have pulled some images that bear discussion, especially when we consider the short period of time related to the phenomenon. In this case, it is still the filling in of the interior. We are now thinking of the land being carved up. And, Missouri is a good example being the first one. It's start is in parallel with Maine's. Look at that juxtaposition. As well, the crew coming into Essex County, MA had to get things organized including surveying. Thomas and sons helped with that. John was with the Merrimack crew. In that time, late 1830s, he did learn more than those ones at Harvard. Lots to discuss there. 

Ponder this image which comes from two sources: Paper Trails (on the left); St. Louis, MO to San Francisco, CA (on the right). The left column shows the number of Post Offices at two times (1855 and 1921). The right shows the railroads, similarly (1860s and 1890s).

The times are meant to cover a 1/2 century what was from just before the Civil War of the U.S. to around the WWI timeframe. Got that? Internal conflict was the theme of that earlier turmoil. Actually, is. How are we any different? And the latter? The U.S. on the world stage in the context of trying to resolve conflict over there which was of long running, to boot. 

Getting back to the timing of those looks, on the left, notice the heavy coverage in the east coast with the sparse dots out west. On the right, notice that the railroad may have been somewhat out to the Mississippi in the 1860s but definitely not the west. A mere three decades later, the railroad did go across the county. For the Post Offices, by 1921, they were everywhere that people were. Those huge white areas are uninhabitable. Or, folks there know that they have to go pick up their mail. 

After all, in that top-left situation, mail went west by coach (several ways), the pony express, or by water (a couple of ways). That in itself is an interesting subject that we need to keep the youngsters aware of. 

On the other hand, with respect to the railroads, that 1890s coverage was quite impressive. And, it allowed faster population of the areas. 

About internal conflict, the Civil War was no cessation. Conflict with the American Indian continued for a long time leaving a situation where the reservation mode under the guidance of Washington DC was the reality for tribes. Lots to look at there. 

In short, in one-half of a century, again, the U.S. covered an area that is huge. Folks back east with their notions of wilderness have no idea about the frontier. Genealogists, are you listening? Let's step into modern modes (beyond genetics and microbiology) a little more. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/29/2021

06/29/2021 --