Testing editing this with a wysiwyg editor, works great!
Became a system administrator over on makestation, brought simmania back from the dead.
So far so good, need to figure out how to drum up more forum activity.

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   Greetings, Just a minor update.  The wearable computer project is on hold for the moment, working on a new revision utilizing a less intrusive display, tricky stuff huds are.  Taking time to improve other skills like design, handicrafts, sewing etc.  working on my own "battle jacket" with all sorts of fun stuff.

  

   Also looking into a potential reimagine of the website.  Look forward to changes coming soon.
   Zalost - out.
   

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    Just a minor update for everybody, given the interest and how my focus is changing, I'm going to consolodate the home page and blog page into the main page.  Furthermore I'm going to blog about more than just thoughts, I'm going to focus on projects I'm working on, where they're at, how I'm approaching things.  so expect more posts and more exciting stuff here soon!
    
    Also, I can't believe it, the gridzone has been online for over a year now!
    I created this place in august of 2018 and have tried to update it and tinker with it ever since, with the website reaching it's current design by january.
    
    I expect the upcoming changes and focus will do more for the gridzone than I could have ever hoped, so to everybody following along, thanks for following, and to all the people visiting the site, you're awesome, you are all awesome!  so thanks for supporting this techie in honing his zen thing and focusing on the craft of cyberspace.  expect more in the future.
    
     - Zalost Out!
    

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    When I think of the first half of the twenty first century, here's what I think of.  I think of cyberspace going from wild west to corporate shill hole.  I think of corporations rising and falling then being absorbed into the gestalt that is megacorps.  I think of technology and information becoming easier and cheaper to come by, giving rise to a resistence to the way things have been, to the darkening world run by the corporate gestalt.
    
    I look at the first half of the twenty first century and I see a world of rapid change, the rich became more powerful, the poor became more numerous, and within all that two cultures emerged.  The first is the corporate culture, the consumer, the wage slave, people who worked for companies, bought their goods, and within a year everything would be obsolte so people would buy them again, tossing out functional stuff as "junk".  The second is the mirror, the inverse, a culture formed around converting said "junk" into something new, something creative, making things for the sake of making them.  I like to think the corporations will someday fall and the power gap will shrink but we all know that's not going to happen.  But if there is one thing I can look at and think, "awesome, I want to be a part of that", it's the whole cafter/maker/DIY culture.
    
    I can see where this is going, the future is going to be an interesting place, right now we're on an unsteady economy, one that rises and falls like rolling waves on the ocean, or the pulses of an osciloscope.  As corporations conglomerate more into the gestalt more and more people will either obey in fear of the unknown or gain access to knowledge and see the truth. That people are blind, intentionally kept that way to make them obedient to the greedy machine that takes your savings, and your homes, and your future, and turns you into a drone to serve them.
    
    This future can be fought, educate yourselves, read up on maker projects, study basic programming and engineering, heck take a class!  You fight the dark future by becoming part of the solution, by standing up and saying hey, I don't want to buy a laptop only to toss it in a couple years, I don't want something made in some sweatshop in asia or the middle east, I want something that works, that adapts to my needs, and that won't cost me an arm and a leg.  You fight it by learning how it works, seeing past the shadows on the cave and stepping out into the daylight.  Hell find yourself a hackerspace and hang out for a while, you'll probably learn something cool and slowly chip away that fear.
    
    "Not Technical" is not something people should say, it's an excuse, like "I'm busy" when you're not or "I've something else to do" when you're trying to get out of something.  "Not technical" is what the gestalt wants you to say and think, so that you will give them more money and obey like a happy little drone.  So do something about it, learn something, read an article, read a book, play with technology, the tools are here now, and everyone can join in on the fun.
    
    Zalost - Signing off.
    

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    Collecting hobbies like some people collect toys, upping skills and grinding for IRL XP, this is the state I've found myself in lately.  Learning woodworking because of cheaper materials while soldering chips and making do with salvaged parts to craft the next big project.  Wearable feeling too smal and needing more power, trying to make the ultimate device.  This is the world I live in right now, by choice, because society seems to focus more on a quick buck and keeping the masses ignorant to keep the wheel turning rather than educating and englightening everybody.
    
    Never forget that the most powerful tool is the pen not the sword.  Anyone can point a gun but only a true master can understand how it works, from the chemestry that makes things go boom to the physics behind straight trajectories and the engineering to make things smaller.  Need to gain that Expedience, learn new fascets of the world, and never give up studying to keep the mind sharper than the crafting tools in the shed.  That is the life I choose and the life I try to lead others to by example.  Knowledge is power, and easy to obtain for those who look, never forget, never give up, only you can scale the mountain for yourself, and always remain curious, ask questions and seek new paradigms.
    
     - Zalost out.
    

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  Zalost here, I got a strange email recently.
  
  now normally I would have pinned it on someone stealing wifi or something which is why my wifi password is so long and complex (note 25 words, a quote from a book, with numbers thrown in instead of leatters... take that hackers!).
  
  However this time there's no such reasoning or whatever.
  
  Comcast sent me two DMCA notices for supposed infringement, something I've never done as a mostly good citizen of these united states, after all why pirate when my job provides enough and I'm not worried about it.
  
  the interesting part is when they will not say what I supposedly pirated, just what I used to "pirate" it.
  
  note, I had downloaded a linux ISO for a machine I've been working on using torrent instead of good ol 2 hours long download over URL link.
  
  near as I can tell, my infringement was using perfectly legal P2P software to download a perfectly legal copy of linux using a perfectly legal torrent file from the website of the Distro I'd wanted.
  
  yeah weird I know.
  
  Looking closer at the email I noticed that the claim was by a company called Mark Monitor, a subsidiary of Claraent which is a global megacorp conglomerate which specializing in Information gathering, info sec, and analytics.
  
  they literally have their hands in everything we say and do online, and mark monitor specializes in gathering info on people, putting them on naughty lists and then relaying those lists to ISP's to send terrormail in an effort to get people to comply with their norm.
  
 now I figured, eh they're just another stupid corp trying to grab a slice of pie but as I dug deeper into who my supposed accusor was I learned a few things.
 
 first, that they are THE Brand security company, making more than double their biggest compettitor.
 
 second, that they have been around since the mid to late 90's, and have been greasing the wheels between corps, ISP's, weathy people, and the government since at least the early 2000's.
 
 and third, they are the one's who make the vast majority of the tracking software that everybody uses and thus have access to literally anything on anyone they want... Hello big brother.
 
 now I know I sound like a conspiracy nut, but it was just kind of unsettling to realize they have their fingers in google, microsoft, yahoo, Level 3, comcast, Century link, and several other major organizations and are also a major part of and work with the US Department of Commerce, which is basically THE government lobbying organization as far as communicating what big business wants to the government and making it happen.
 
  You want to know where all the scare tactics and vastly inflated piracy and hacker numbers are coming from?
now you know, who gave it to microsoft, and various tech information agencies, the same people who own them, sometimes through 2 or 3 other companies.
 
 it's honestly a bit unsettling but the more I look into this the more I feel like Case digging into Armitage and the freeside, or Neo finding out about the matrix, Except instead of batteries the machines and corporations are Farming our very lives and actions so they can feed us what they want and make us ask for it.
 
 Zalost - out.
  

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Over the years I've read, watched, listend to, and consumed tons of media however I wanted to shed some light on 5 comics that are both informative and fun to read.

Wizzywig
This comic is about Kevin Boingthump Phenicle, he starts out as a kind phreaking phones in the early days of computers, back when the TRS 80 and Apple II were a thing, deals with getting caught breaking into his local Bell telco, serves time as modems become obsolete, and has to suffer at the hands of a fearful and corrupt american government.
This comic has been collected on amazon in both paperback and kindle formats and is worth a read given it's subject matter though it's fairly dark, the punk side of cyberpunk without the future.

Transmetropolitian
If you haven't already read this one, I reccomend it heavily!
It's about Spider Jerusalem, a gonzo reporter in the far future where technology, corruption, and society have created a crippled and messed up world filled with corporations run amuk, Cyberdrug taking matter replicators, nanobot clouds which used to be people, and a world that couldn't care less about the past so long as it doesn't interfere with their current activity.
I highly reccomend it, I stumbled across it during my time deep diving in to cyberpunk culture and lore and I make it a point to read it through again occasionally.
additionally the main character uses a "Bowel Disrupter" as his weapon of choice on some fairly deserving people.

General Protection Fault
This here's a web comic, still ongoing too, one of the longest running in fact, it features a cast of people who work for a programming company called GPF, their misadventures, and really touches on both geekdom and techies as a whole.
The Plot lines start out fairly mundane, like a lot of other comics of it's time however they grow into the fantastic from the mid 2000's onward, from UFO abductions to time travel to matrix references, etc...
give it a look if you're interested, took me a couple weeks to get through.

Questionable Content
Like the Above this one is also a fairly long running web comic.
This one is more slice of life, if you like normal situations in an alternate world where AI is a thing and humans share the world with AI companions.
Outside of that though it's a fairly close to modern technology, no fancy teleporters ect, just mundane relationships and the insanity that goes with it.

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I fear for humanity...
This is the thought I've had for a while when it comes to the way things are today.
When I look at the world I see those with wealth and power exploiting the masses through ignorance.
I see the masses being kept stupid and lazy on purpose, I doubt they even realize it.
Government employees who refuse to listen to an incredibly basic instruction to fix something, when it's been soo dumbed down it's color coded, labeled, and keyed to only go in one way.
My greatest annoyence is when I hear the following "I'm not technical, I shouldn't have to do this, it's not my job."

Really, you're that unwilling to do something that will take all of 5 minutes to get whatever device back up and running again, instead waiting a full day for someone to come out and do it for you?
I weap for humanity, this is what the masses have stooped to, unwilling to learn the basics, so many unable to even COOK FOR THEMSELVES!!!
If it's not made for a microwave people just do not eat it, or they try to microwave it anyway and end up with crappy results.
People Care more about social media and how many "friends" or "likes" they have than they do about learning something simple like basic sewing or cooking, or hell, learn to change your own damn oil.
If the world is really to this point and it's not just me well... I'm sorry but humanity will likely not last the next century intact, let alone the next fifty years.

LEARN SOMETHING, PICK UP A BOOK, AND QUIT BEING SO LAZY!!!

Zalost - Out.