by Brian Hayes

Published

Some months ago I received an email from David Eisner, who introduced himself as a reader of bit-player.org. After various pleasantries he went on to say:

I wanted to broach a delicate subject: have you given any thought to ensuring that the website remains after you have shuffled off this mortal coil?

It’s a fair question. After all, I’m ancient—a relic from the first half of the previous century. However, I still keep a firm grip on my mortal coil. Or maybe it has a grip on me. In either case, I have no plans for shuffling it off anytime soon.

Of more immediate concern is the health and wellbeing of the bit-player website. Lately it suffers from neglect and loneliness; it’s the Tamagotchi I failed to nurture. I’ve posted nothing new here since September of 2023—way back when the world was young and dewy. Since then links have been rotting away, unattended. Certain dark corners of the site have accumulated cobwebs of comment spam, which I’ve been too distracted to sweep out. And the software running on the the web server has grown crotchety and brittle. Some of the code was tuned for compatibility with Internet Explorer 6.0, obsolete for 20 years now. Also, the site is inhospitable to those who read it on the tiny screen of a phone. (No wonder: The pages were designed when phones had dials, not screens.)

I am writing this post—my first in almost two years—to announce that bit-player is coming back from the not-quite-dead...

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