duncan-blues

Today the "Internet of things" threatened to become "Internet OFF due to things". Millions of insecure IoT devices throughout the world participated in a large scale attack against important services of the internet and most people are most likely not aware that devices in their own home might be part of the problem.

twitter.com/DuncanBlues42/stat…

Think twice before you go out and buy an internet connected device.

Do you really need it?
Do you know how to properly configure it?
Is the manufacturer trustworthy?
Will you regularly check for firmware updates?
Do you even know what is going on inside it?

Rule of thumb: If you don't know wtf is going on inside a device then don't let it run unattended. Let alone hooked up to the internet.

Yesterday the mailman brought my my own copy of I was a teenage gargoyle with an autograph by Kanthara!

It was brought to my attention by this Deviation and Kanthara sparked my interest by telling me that I was in that book myself!

Of course I read the comic book right away ("HI PATRICK!!!") and OMFGBBQ! I got my very own cameo!

Boy, this brought back many memories!

I started watching Gargoyles in a somewhat crappy German dub on TV back in 1996 and of course I had to check the internet if there was any Gargoyle stuff there. Guess what? The very first Gargoyles site I found was Kanthara's Loft!
Shortly afterwards, I came across Station8 Chat and it all went downhill from there

When the first Gathering of the Gargoyles in New York 1997 was announced, I knew I had to be there! Being a student back then, I had to save up a lot of money to afford flying in from Germany but somehow I managed. The trip was a crazy experience. It was my first holiday trip without family and also my very first airplane trip, let alone to a foreign country where nobody spoke any German. I was an english major back in highschool but my practical experience with the english language was quite limited. I knew noone in NYC personally yet, I knew only the name of the convention hotel, not even it's address and I had -no- room reservation. My plane came in late and there was nobody to pick me up at the airport. Damn, I felt so utterly lost... until the elevator door in the hotel lobby opened and a bunch of Gargoyles fans poured out to welcome me. The Gathering was a blast!
In the end, I made it to six out of thirteen Gatherings, which is rather insane considering the airline bills but it was so totally worth every single dime I spent.

Today I got a good job at a large German ISP, got a cool car and my own nice apartment but I can honestly say that the time of early Gargoyles fandom were the best time of my life. It really saddens me that those times are utterly gone.
Someone said "Growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.". Well, I tried not to but I'm afraid it just happens. Slowly. Imperceptibly.
I miss these times. Sorely.

I have a similar background to Patrick (which is funny because my cameo shows me shaking hands with him) and I can honestly say that I am too a true Internet Dinosaur. Just the other day, I managed to repair my old Amstrad CPC 6128 home computer which is only marginally younger than Patrick's Atari 800 (my cousin had one of those). I got it for christmas in 1986 (but paid most of it myself because it was too expensive a gift for my parents alone). It's amazing that after close to 26 years, it still works, I just had to replace a rubber drive belt of the floppy. Later when I got my first PC and modem, I discovered Fidonet, my first step into a digital network. When I entered university, there came e-mail, ftp, Gopher and MUDs. Probably one of the main reasons (aside math) that I never graduaded. The WWW came much later, let alone Google.
Little did I know back then, that a few strange websites about a TV show that had little impact in Germany would influence my life this much.

The time of Gargoyles Fandom came... and slowly faded away. Station8 chat is still around for those few who still use it and the former central meltingpot of fandom, The Gargoyles Fans Website also is. Because I stepped up and moved it to my own webserver before it was deleted. Sadly I have little time to tend to it and so it is mostly a shrine of remembrance of the former greatness of Gargoyles Fandom.