Matthew Thomas

Last Sunday, I upgraded the software running this site to WordPress 1.0.

I use WordPress for three reasons.

1. I can’t, and shouldn’t, control the sites that link to mine. So when they do link, I should make sure their links don’t break. The URIs (addresses) WordPress provides for each article I write are almost exactly how I want them. Even if I change everything else about the site — including the software it runs on — the addresses can stay the same.

2. WordPress is licensed under the GNU General Public License. I generally prefer GPLed software, because over a period of decades, it maximizes the rights of those who use it. (In the short run things may be different, but I’m a long-run sort of person.)

3. WordPress is currently not very popular. Therefore sites that use it are, in general, a less tempting target for attackers. As a side benefit, the developers are very responsive to feedback from users of the software.

Yesterday I finished reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

Today I wrote a synopsis for Wikipedia’s article on the novel.

What did you do for the Net today?

1. I spend a lot of time thinking. Therefore, I generalize when perhaps I shouldn’t.

2. I am getting older. Therefore, the increasing extremism and shallowness I see in society may be just observer error.

3. I am a pessimist. Or, I am an optimist, but only in the long run, and I regard many short-run things as unsustainable.

4. I am a male. Therefore, I tend to prefer construction and destruction rather than alteration and care.

5. I am a human. Therefore, I may be tempted to defend an opinion falsely instead of changing my mind honestly.

6. I like making lists.