My dad and I have a phrase that we use to each other to convey a sense of just having realized how much things have changed:
“It’s been a long time since we laced up the blades.”
Operation Gadget began life in mid-November 2003, as a way for me to express my views on technology and my belief in electronics and handheld devices as a form of therapy for people like me. Folks who spend too much time doing technology systems integration.
After a long hiatus we’re bringing it back– at least a little– to give me a platform to say some opinionated things I really can’t say to customers, competitors, or business partners in my day job.
Rather than talk about politics or religion, or something that else that would lose me friends, I’ll talk about technology. That was safe until three or four years ago, when Apple started kicking most of its competitors about as hard as RPI beat Clarkson tonight. Now if you talk favorably about Apple, you are considered a fanboi.
I like most Apple products a lot. I have for years. I don’t think the world needs another John Gruber, but I think my views differ sufficiently from his to not be considered a mimic.
The biggest problem with bringing Operation Gadget back is that this site looks like The Land That Time Forgot. Everything my friend Robert Minton says about the visual design of most old sites published with Movable Type is true about Operation Gadget at the moment:
- Too much margin on each page.
- Really terrible display fonts.
- Meaningless, partially broken sidebars.
All of this means that we can make huge improvements if we want to invest the time. My colleagues and I have come a long way with in bringing modern web design to some old, neglected websites. But I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to indulge our design whims.