X 'Why' Z Digital
First recorded homepage from 2003 using the Wayback Machine
The domain xyzdigital.com was acquired on August 25, 1999. I still don’t know the full story behind it, here is what I do know.
What does XYZ Digital stand for?
0 and 1. Nothing and Everything.
You may have noticed the “xyz” in the first title in iconic RGB. Just like a little kid, a computer combines these three primary colors to magically generate the entire spectrum of colors. Bonus: Meaning of X, Y, and Z
If you’ve done any physics or 3D modeling you are probably familiar with this helpful little guy below.
If you are reading this, odds are you are of Generation X, Y, or Z.
The vagueness of the name is intentional. Topics I plan on covering are across a broad range of topics:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Books
- History
- Music
- Self-help
- Software Management
- Tutorials
- Video Games
- Web Development
What does it mean to me?
In the days before gmail (and after), whenever I was asked for an email address I would give out adam@xyzdigital.com. Most people found this strange. “Is that a real email”, “What is is xyzdigital.com”, etc. To be completely honest, I didn’t fully understand what a domain was until a networking course in university. Even without understanding, I was proud of having something I could call my own. Here I could be “adam”, not “adam431268@gmail.com” (According to HowManyOfMe this is how many Adams there are in the U.S. alone).
With a world (or maybe just a thumb) that is constantly shoving content down our eyes, it is difficult to find a space to create. Even when you do, who knows how long that space will last. I lost everything on my myspace page, I abandoned Facebook for Instagram, but ultimately found that I hated all of it. In those realms I am bound by their rules. My post competes with everyone else’s, and I become just another number in Instagram’s DAU (Daily Active User) count. Instagram stories were invented to keep you coming back every single day. I find myself worrying that I’m not keeping up with what my friends are doing because they post a picture that self-destructs in 24 hours. Whenever I do make a post, I’m shocked when people respond. They made it through all of the noise of sponsored posts, 50 stories, and still had the energy to send me a note.
This will be a space for me to share thoughts. Society taught us to fear sharing your thoughts because it “may hurt your chances for employment in the future”. If anything I write here does that, I probably don’t want to be working for you anyway. If you don’t find them interesting, that is perfectly fine. I won’t be shoving it down your throat and I won’t be adding obnoxious ads to the page. I have thoughts and ideas that I don’t often see represented in the cyber space. Even if just one post I have impacts just one person in some way, then this will have been a success.
I am moderately convinced the future is in small personal websites just like this one. I can reasonably expect that the Internet will find a way to survive. I do not have the same faith in Social Media websites. Maybe along the way I can inspire you to do the same.