Not exactly a normal disclaimer, but some people have reacted in odd ways to some of my Internet writings, especially in the newsgroups, and even gotten bent out of shape by what I thought was normal email. I just want to make it clear that this stuff isn't supposed to be some sort of holy writ or messages passed down from on high. However, it is true that when writing about what I believe and my own opinions, there isn't any 'higher' point of reference, and therefore this stuff can be worded pretty 'firmly', without the softening modifiers (i.e. "usual" or "frequently") and modals (i.e. "could be") and point of view references (i.e. "I think" or "it seems to me") that often soften my writing.

IMHO, I think this is almost a defining characteristic of these media, and one of the contributing factors to flame wars, along with the loss of personal contact and the absence of moderating verbal inflections. We're all working on improving the bandwidth, and I usually don't mean to give any personal offense, though sometimes it's hard to avoid. Imagine I've somehow been lured into responding to something that I think is kind of stupid, and remember that I'm not much good at hiding such reactions... Well, you can see where that leads, right?

Furthermore, my home pages are NOT under construction. I have a completely DIFFERENT excuse for their motley condition! These home page are for instructional purposes only! Actually, that's mostly the truth, since almost all the interesting features here were a result of someone asking me how to do something on their home page. I had to do it first so I could explain it to them, right? (But it is true that this is an unbounded project, and these pages can always get something tacked on at any random time, even when I ought to be doing something (anything?) more productive.)

And as already mentioned, some of the people who read my home pages had pretty weird reactions to it, so after thinking some more, I decided I needed a counterbalancing stupid things I've done page to give a more balanced perspective. Probably the most fitting way to end, eh?