new 16 jul 2024
(Photo taken probably by Jon, in my lab before 2014 renovation; there's a drawing of the MAKE:WAY Race car for 24 Hours of LeMons on the wall, that was 2009.)
Plutopia News Network (tag line "Commentary on News, Current Events, Culture, Politics, and Weird Anomalies") has been run by Jon Lebkowsky and Scoop Sweeney for... a very long time. It's populated with smart weirdos and interesting takes on tech and culture.
In 1993 Jon interviewed me, for the then Fringeware Review magazine; this was just-about-post-FidoNet era for me. OK, this may seem a bit egotistical in an obvious way, but even after 30 years, I think this is the best exposition of my thinking at that time (and not too far off from now), credit for which I lay entirely on Jon. He's a great interviewer.
1993 Interview with Tom Jennings.
So there's that and you can read it.
Then in July 2024 Jon notified me that NEXUS, at Weixin/WeChat accounts platform (online host of blogs and small sites as well as the giant WeChat social media; this is from my own research correct me if I'm wrong) with permission translated and posted the interview. Here is the NEXUS interview.
Being an unedumacated heathen I cannot read that (best line from the 2012 movie LOOPERS, to Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character who is learning French; "I'm from the future... learn Mandarin"), so I rely on ever-trustworthy Google's Translate to map it back into english; I was curious how my probably-idiosyncratic language fared...
Here is a capture of Translate's output; and here is a dynamic link to Google's translation of the NEXUS interview, which may be ephemeral, hence the capture.
Jon and are have become true CCP party members! OK, some idiomatic translation is expected and probably necessary, but come on, I sound like a parody of a propaganda film from the 1960's. Assuming I can rely on Google Translate to have not mangled too badly. They certainly don't get my take on anarchism (hell, Americans don't).
And so it goes.