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August 8th, 2026: Shutdown AnnouncementThis message has been a long time coming, having been drafted up months prior and pondered on well before then. I wasn't sure where I was going to end up with my plans, but there have been some occurrences in both my own life and abroad which have driven me to a verdict regarding the future of Sardine Engine, and the promised website that was to be its flagship. For as much as I can see it, I am delcaring the project to be suspended indefinitely. Furthermore, after growing more awakened of the vicious expansion of datacenters and their reckless environmental pollution, as well as an aggressive (but ultimately futile) push to make you rent computers for everything, I have decided that I will not continue to fund this leased web server. To put it simply, this website and the Blue OS Museum will be going offline on September 16th, 2026. I have finished discussions with the other site operators regarding this decision, and they are in agreement with it, so this is as affirmative as it can be. The homepage of Akage Megane has already moved to a new host, with DreamProject sure to follow. In addition, Akage Megane has decided to sunset the domain thebaratusii.com, set to expire this November. For those following that site, you'll need to update your bookmarks accordingly. I know, I could've had a complete, functioning website deployed here by now, if only in beta. Development of Sardine Engine was going smoothly enough, at least on an on/off basis, but a number of cascading cataclysms beginning last September completely destroyed the momentum I had. I wound up turning to low resistance work, being the only thing I've been fluidly skilled at for the last 20 years - making videos. It's taken me well over half of a year to recover from all of that. I have gotten back into programming some time ago, so you'd think this would have been an opportunity to return to developing Sardine Engine... but I naturally ignored it. Instead, I had turned my attention to creating small, yet unreleased DOS utilities to streamline my PXE boot procedure, as well as a Win32 program to control some obscure device at the request of someone I know. Now I know why that is. It boils down to the specific circumstances of which my website, Razorback, was created under. It existed in a period of global self-isolation, and in a time when I still had strong leverage to justify paying for a leased server and provide an existing audience with something which could go beyond the realm of looking at some Windows 95 computer through a glass window. Those who've regularly visited Razorback, and the people I've worked with who hosted their own sites here have showed me what is truly possible on the web, and it has been an incredible experience. In an environment where most websites now insist you turn on JavaScript to even read text (and risk infecting your computer), Razorback was proving it's still possible to create something exciting for obsolete browsers. I was far too late to see the full rise of the internet, as I only managed to attend the last pieces being put together, with YouTube being one of them. For that, Razorback was an eye opener. Yet the growing scope of Razorback as a replacement for the major platforms I had cut myself off from ended up being its own undoing. Those who stuck around probably had the time of their lives, but each severance coupled with a notice to visit that site yielded diminishing returns in the broader scale. For all the growing consciousness there is of the malice of social media and the like, that's still where most of everyone is concentrated in. Even with massive shifts occurring due to outrageous moments like Discord's attempt to impose ID-based age verification on everyone (as seemingly numerous other platforms are), or Twitter brazenly commanding its entire userbase to align with far right politicians, I've seen so many people continue to stay put. Whether out of fear of losing so many contacts or followers, or assuming these massive platforms are the definition of the internet, the order of shaking everyone out of these places is an insanely difficult one. I've tried multiple alternative routes for video sharing in the years preceding Razorback, none of which worked. I've come to realize that competition cannot solve the crushing environments and vague enforcement policies of platforms. They've been allowed to grow too big with very few checks in place (often being turned against us), and now nobody can imagine a world without YouTube or or anything on its level. So, it's only expected that some aspiring rival would quickly die under their weight.
As far as the future of Sardine Engine goes, the other issue that comes to mind is the yet unresolved grift of artificial intelligence, and how it has accelerated bot traffic which can potentially drown even the most efficient sites. Against the will of many, it's being shoved into major parts of the internet (leeching out local communities in the process), and it's stealing the identities and hard work of millions of people for these gigantic models. It chases a delusion of recreating the entire world in a computer, yet barely feigns life. Such famous movies warning of the hidden dangers of technological progression were taken as if they were virtues. I wouldn't even call it progression at this point. If anything, it is going backwards. Well, actually, it's worse, but the idea that we should be getting on board with thin clients which lease some small slice of time and power from greater computers in nightmare datacenters is akin to how things were in the 1960's. To most people, a computer was a grid of lightbulbs, nonsensical buttons, and punch cards - akin to a Batman set from the era. To be able to even use a computer, whether directly or indirectly, was a royal privilege, as was what it could be used for. Yet all of us now have this background on what a computer is, and how it can serve us on our own time. It's been established for decades. This made me realize why I've been spending years showing the world what computers used to be, and understand why, maybe now more than ever, it's valuable knowledge which needs to be firmly preserved. Part of preventing ourselves from losing this agency is remembering how it all was. Make no mistake. Artificial intelligence will never win. I say this as someone who has been a computer nerd since 1999. As organic beings, it is practically instinctual that we'd have respect for what a real artist can create, and not for what a computer can possibly spit out. The contradictions of AI and its supposed needs and uses will inevitably pile up and cause this farce of a "technological revolution" to crumble under its own weight, just like NFTs and the metaverse did. In order to ensure this desired outcome sooner, we all need to stand firm on our principles, and remain unyielding to temptation. Treat generative AI the way lawmakers and credit card companies treat adult content, and immediately turn away from as many sources using even a speck of AI as possible. Continue to use computers which permit you to run any operating system. Block all tabs, buttons, and boxes trying to push AI to you (they're sometimes signaled by "death star" icons). Block all ads and algorithmic recommendations. Unsubscribe from every premium "plus" service, and use your new savings to support yourself and others in need. If you have the agency to do so, remove and destroy any and all locked down, embedded devices in your household designed to surveil you. If you cannot due to living with someone else holding them over you, set up a secondary router (powered by pfSense, OpenWRT, or a spare Linux computer) and a VLAN to shield your devices from them. Having some kind of firewall is good, too. But what about YouTube? Obviously, that connects to multiple datacenters much larger than anything you'd be leasing out. We all know they're not going to become more ethical. You can't count on making videos calling for policy changes even if they garner millions of views, and you can't count on a new CEO coming in on the presumption that they'll fix everything. They know they're unbreakable, as they survived countless community outrages over the last two decades. What you can do is a little something to try to correct the culture through example. Consider this: for however long now, YouTube has been suffocating with tons of videos which are only out there to get you. They brainwash everyone into normalizing bigotry, sell a bunch of scam products, or trick viewers into sitting through computer generated vomit, to name a few tactics. But it doesn't have to be that way. I remember what YouTube used to be, and live every day by that. It was something magical, and you'd never know what to expect there. You could be thrilled or disappointed to extreme ends, and everyone's styles varied wildly. For all the time I've been making videos, save for my first years as a failed Smosh imitator, I've tried to adhere to that 2007 philosophy, striving for quality and always hoping to give something new. This is the best of what I believe can be done for the time being, to try to lead a better example on what videos - and the usage of computers - should be. Razorback and its proposed successor stood as the last vanguard of the old generation of viewers I oversaw, and that time has all but expired by now. Still, I trust that new breakthroughs could be on the horizon. Yet, it's become abundantly clear that these will have to be realized using the "old" methods, where they could have a real shot at mass impact.
It's been 10 years since I designed the now somewhat well known maroon whale, Kugee. I conceived of this massive cetacean out of a renewed desire to signify something unusual, and potentially lead something meaningful. It drew inspiration from a number of mediums, and came about following an earlier decade of barely leaving a ripple anywhere. For as powerful of a symbol as this has become, it's still very much constrained. As a result, the idea of a whale at the helm of a channel surrounding old computers has been mostly confined to paper. Thanks to recent developments, I am able to do much better than that now. For as hard as it has been to let go of one ambitious dream, more of them await. It is time to release the fish. Rather than attaching to what I convinced myself was a contractual obligation, I need to return to the core of what made old computers so exciting to begin with. With all the experience I've accumulated, I think I'm much further from my skill ceiling than I previously realized. Thanks for stopping by over the last six years. Don't forget to pick up a copy of The First Cell and Windows 95D on your way out. And remember... no one ever needed to lease intelligence from a machine ten years ago. Dolphins still don't do it... so, should you, really? |
