DisCONNECT has been my pet project since 2004, and is largely unrecognised and unknown. In total there are over 500 DisCONNECT articles written, mostly as plain text documents, about a large collection of subjects. This is the first time though that I’ve really put DisCONNECT onto the public arena with any kind of serious intentions. The ancient DisCONNECT articles, including those that were once hosted on this site, are now locked away on a hard drive, never to see the light of day again… mostly because few of them are any good and even fewer are worth reading. Since July 2012, DisCONNECT has had its own domain name and a small readership. I also successfully managed to upset a sizeable section of AVSIM over comments I made about Microsoft Flight and the elitist flight sim sector of their community. I’m not sure if that’s something to be proud of or not.
The blog is primarily about technology, mostly games, along with occasional rants about society, politics, or anything really. It’s mostly reviews and previews and commentaries about changes in consumer technology. I don’t talk corporate tech. I also try to be relatively balanced in my criticisms, but I’d like to stress that anything here is my personal opinion only. By its very nature, reviews are subjective, not objective; either I like it or I don’t like it, and I’ll tell you why I arrived at that conclusion. Sometimes however I may deliberately exaggerate flaws for comedic effect, but I’ll usually note this. In any event if you don’t agree with me, that’s perfectly fine. You can even tell me about it if you like. Occasionally I post instructional or informative articles designed to teach you something or explain some concept. More often than not they’re guides on tricky problems or unusually difficult procedures which I’ve either found by trial and error, or have followed from some other site and have improved them by altering the language or adding new information so that it’s easier to understand.
I also post about issues in the Australian paramedic profession, especially relating to education of student paramedics and the materials we give to them. It’s something I care about immensely. You might not – that’s okay, you can skip it.
DisCONNECT has gone by various names, including The Indigo Republic,The ISDF (which, despite popular opinion, is a meaningless acronym in this case) and Imperium. I originally planned to write DisCONNECT for UtopiaTech, but that site died, and Sync Error was a waste of time so I never got things published en mass there either.
A little about me – I’m a typical Australian male living in Brisbane. I work in the healthcare industry, and I’ve done a number of interesting, if apparently random things, from Criminology to Nursing and emergency services, to Law, then back to medical. I’m currently a paramedic. I also hate everyone, but no hard feelings, right?
Infrequently Asked Questions:
Q: How often does DisCONNECT update?
A: There is no schedule. DisCONNECT usually updates at least once or twice a month. Occasionally there are periods where absolutely nothing gets posted. This may be because I’m incredibly busy. It’s more likely that I’m just apathetic towards updating at that time, or I don’t have anything I think is fit for public viewing.
Q: If there are so many DisCONNECT articles written, why aren’t most of them posted?
A: Most of them aren’t very good or are little more than rants that go off in no particular direction. Some of these make it to the blog in a more refined way, others never see the light of day. Most of the reviews go through a few iterations before they get posted, and pretty much every review I write these days ends up getting posted. Most of the rants don’t get posted because I like articles to be somewhat informative, even if they’re still mostly opinion pieces. DisCONNECT’s primary purpose is to act as a vehicle for my opinions, frequently delivered by game reviews.
Q: You say you talk politics, but you haven’t. Why not?
A: I keep forgetting. I used to, back before I wiped DisCONNECT’s slate clean and fixed it up a bit. These days I don’t because I can’t find anything particularly interesting to discuss. What am I supposed to say? “Yes, we need an R18+ Rating in Australia, and no, video games do not cause violence.” There’s enough of that around already. Plus everyone accuses me of being a right-wing fascist without any apparent cause, so I’ll just wear the title and leave it at that.
Q: How do comments work on DisCONNECT?
A: Comments are enabled for most articles, though there are a few where they may be disabled. At one point I did deliberately disable comments because the majority of them were spam comments. Since the Great Crusade against DisCONNECT from Avsim though, I re-enabled comments on most articles. Generally DisCONNECT doesn’t see much in the way of comments activity (it used to be zero) unless people are really interested in attacking me, but I’m leaving the option there. Please read the Feedback page for important information about comment moderation (or more specifically, the lack of moderation).
Q: I found a minor grammatical/spelling error and believe you should stop posting because my superior intellect demands it.
A: That’s not a question, but I thank you for your meticulous scrutiny of my articles and would like to extend to you the opportunity to become my unpaid editor. Position descriptions available on request. But in all seriousness, I never claimed to be a professional writer or reviewer. I just aim for a standard above the general Internet populous’ literacy levels. Which I know is like saying I’m trying to be less evil than Hitler, but it’s the thought that counts, right? Articles generally go through a very brief proof-reading process to catch spelling errors, but most of the proof-reading is about content and flow, so sometimes I accidentally miss or skip over errors. Also, remember that words like “colour” and “realise” are valid here in the Commonwealth, and that American English is not the only form of the English language.
Q: I’d like to write for your site. Would you accept me?
A: No. Sorry. DisCONNECT isn’t Rock, Paper, Shotgun. I don’t get much traffic as it is.
Q: I disagree with you/I would like to marry you. Can I email you?
A: Sure. I probably won’t see/read it though. See the Feedback page. Marriage applications from eligible females require a 102 page questionnaire to be completely filled out along with your proposal. Forms available on request. No gold diggers.
Q: Are you Soldant from GameArena/the RPS Forums/Internode’s TF2 #13 Server/Officer Soldant’s Incredible Improvement Machine?
A: Yes to the first few, and I just made the last one up, so I suppose yes to the final one as well.
Q: Can I add you on Steam/Facebook/Myspace/Trollian?
A: No, no, don’t have one, and Homestuck was awful so no. Not to sound like an antisocial prick, but… okay, I’m an antisocial prick. But in all seriousness, I don’t add random people on any sort of social network. Don’t take it personally, because there are plenty of people I know in real life who I’d refuse to add to Facebook or Steam. If you do make the cut, consider yourself special I guess.
Q: Can I follow you on Twitter?
A: I can’t stop you. I don’t post on Twitter much though. (Read: I don’t post on Twitter, period.)
Q: I was one of your patients, and…
A: My sincere apologies. (Not really)
Q: I find your guides and stories informative and entertaining. When you will be writing more?
A: I write them on a ‘when I feel like it’ basis.
Q: There was this guy on the comments section, and he was mean to me! Help me!
A: See the Feedback page.
Q: I brought my Sword of Justice to bring righteous fanboy fury down upon your head, but you attacked me back! It’s not fair/it’s unprofessional/I hate you!
A: See the Feedback page.
Q: Will you do more paramedic articles?
A: Yes. I won’t do too many clinical articles, but I will do more about the profession and education in general.
DisCONNECT! 