Right Now, Nothing
Social Media spruik that little video URL (YouTube), with all spelling checked in the fastest manner possible, via (Google) search. Check mail (Gmail) too, attached: Grocery_Shopping_List_20160908.xls. A (Google) Spreadsheet "shared" from Lover. Open, check, edit (read: add Oreos). Check stats (Google Analytics) to see how that video is now tracking/trending/integrating. All in Real Time.
And dead. No error codes. Just a missing resource somewhere (see above). Lost somewhere out in the Googleplex. The Searchsphere. "I don't know where it's gone, mate". Past the testing carparks for self-driving autos, the storage facilities for 5gb Google Doc dependants and the fortress-protected safe storage of that precious search algorithm. Far beyond my control.
The old view is still functioning. The delayed how-does-it-look-today view. The Un-Real Time.
But the by-the-second updates can't be tracked/tweeked/re-tweeted/sponsored because there's no data to back-up such arguments. And by the time that data flows in, the moment has gone and, regardless, we need to dig too far deep, down into 'Content' sub-menu. Deeper even, into individual page segments, traced back to moments. Moments, once live, now gone.
Real time analytics data not being available is quite possibly the first line item in the First World Problems (2016 Edition) manifesto. But it highlights not only my daily heavy reliance on Google Corp, but all those that provide essential resources in my general existence — Facebook, Dropbox et al. All those that have become interwoven, integrated and installed directly into our Everyday Lives. That spreadsheet dies (even for a few hours on Friday morning) and the grocery shopping won't get done. Docs is dead? Then this, being typed up straight into a Doc right now, ends up just isolated in the Textmate hole within the file system of just one computer — never picked up by computers kilometres away to be fleshed out beyond its single-thought first run. Gmail isn't loading and important emails regarding memes, reminders etc, all missed for days. In a Real Time world, minutes of such downtime — understandable given the complexities and, thus, potential vulnerabilities — and we fall to a non-existence back-up plan. They're down and we're down and everyday simple, repeated actions, become damn near impossible.
This thought train — which is hardly revolutionary, I know — is likely fuelled not only by my recent issues with Analytics (which despite several turn-it-off-and-back-on solutions offered, via (Google) search, doesn't seem to be immediately fixable) but also Joshua Cohen's brilliant new novel Book of Numbers. The story of which focuses around Joshua Cohen (the character, not the author) writing a biographer for another Joshua Cohen — the founder of Tetration, "the world's most powerful tech company".
I'm only about 200 pages deep so far — just chipping away about 10 per night, most nights — but it's a great read, albeit draining, given the fairly head-fucking format and David Foster Wallace-esque disjointed style. Beyond this often-ludic literary prose, however, there's several stark suggestions presented. Warnings of our own willingness to surrender all ownership for ease, handing over tasks because those at Convenience Corp can do it faster, better, easier. Certainly a one-way relinquishment.
Where to cut this off? Easy enough to extend beyond these borderline conspiracy off-grid fantasies. Easy enough to blow it out to my own experience, my own retirement from Code Hole practices, due (partly) to the industry's buzzword favouring of out-of-the-box Framework Of The Moment (tm) one-click-installs over core, ground-up knowledge and ideas. "Let someone else push this forward", they say. Patiently then wait to run the npm [package] install * when it's finally ready. Grab all components. All bloat not needed for specific light-weight problems. Oh, mate. Easy enough from there to fly off into web fatness, the overweight all-load of our current WWW. The bogdown from advertising and their accompanying trackers, rogue 400kb JS packs etc. Yeah, best to save that for another day. I've got a (Google) Chrome window to refresh. Nope, still nothing.