# A Computer As A Library

When I read [A non-fossil alternative history for civilization and
computing][0], I found microfiche viewers as an alternative to the
modern computer paradigm.


To simply explain, a microfiche is a micro picture. You can take
microfiches of a document to preserve the document at a small size.
So basically a microfiche viewer is a document reader.

Then the text generalizes the term:

> "Fiche" is now the common term for all kinds of machine-readable
> removable physical media such as disks, tapes and chip cards, as
> well as for "virtual fiches" (which are essentially the same as
> file system directories).

While I was reading this part, I realized that I have seen a paradigm
like this before. It was Gopher protocol. Gopher is structured like
a file hierarchy to make the internet a database. I also reminded
the bookmarks of Terry Davis. When using a web browser, he bookmarked
literally everything valuable for him and used the bookmarks as a
database.

Since I found the paradigm great, I gave a try. The goal was turning
my computer into a personal library. I bookmarked everything like
Terry Davis. I also got out of "Updates" including RSS feeds to
make things much more static. Instead of checking RSS feeds, I
visit the webpages whenever I want to. Because of that, I unfollowed
all my Neocities followings and wrote a message about it. Don't
worry. I have bookmarked you all.

A webpage should be like a book. Or an index of books. Updates of
a webpage should be like revisions of a book.


As a result, my computing experience is now like this:

1. I have bookmarked almost everything valuable for me. I even
bookmarked each interesting post or each wiki page in addition to
the main page. So my web experience is mostly just searching a
bookmark then visiting the page. And of course adding a bookmark.

2. But I don't download websites. I download videos, audios and
images though. I play those with mpv, ffplay and imv. For offline
use of texts, I just print websites and PDFs instead.
However I cannot print everything because there are tons of bookmarks.
I print interesting or important webpages only.

3. As an exception, I still use communication tools like email.
The obvious reason is that I have to use those to survive. It is a
mandatory by the society.
I use my cellphone for this purpose only. I've deleted all other
apps. Even the camera app. And I made the screen grayscale. It is
basically a telecommunication machine for me.
But if I can use a communication tool on TTY, I use on TTY and
treat it as snail mail. Neocities comment section is an example.
I'll treat it like a physical mailbox from now on.


[0]: http://viznut.fi/texts-en/alternate_history.html