Hola a todos. I’ve noticed it for awhile now, but the elitist techies are now using the word “platform” when talking about their site. Platform? Can they get anymore pretentious and elitist? A platform is what you stand on waiting for the metro to arrive. A platform is a floor or stage used by public speakers or performers so they can be seen by their audience. A platform is the declared policies of a political party or group. What happened to the words “site” or “website” that have served us well up until now? They’re not good enough for the bougi techies? These sites — Tw*tter, FB and U-toob — are all just websites, but the techies are no longer referring to them as such. They’re referring to them as “platforms” (Dahling). From my research, a platform in the tech/computer sense is the “standard for the hardware of a computer system, determining what kinds of software it can run.” So Wind*ws is the platform. A*ple is the platform. L*nux is the platform. A website on any of these platforms is a website or a webpage. It is not the “platform.” The “platform” is the operating system. It’s not a site on the operating system. So the techies are misusing their own tech language. Or they don’t know the basics, or the difference. What I’ve just described from my research seems pretty basic to me. But of course their misuse of the “platform” language will not change. Mi amigo/My friend said: “Just like that ‘LGBTQ—LMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ’ alphabet-soup nonsense.” I said: Yes, exactly. It’s permanently cemented in the sheeple’s mind. And the sheeple seem to have gotten mindlessly in lockstep with this “platform” language, including the orange thug, who recently got one of his comments deleted from FB — finally; it’s about time! — because he used a nazi symbol in one of his FB comments. He’s getting bold. Anyone surprised? One shouldn’t be. He referred to white supremacists in Charlottesville as “good people.” He said “there are good people on both sides.” And one of those sides was the white supremacists/nazis. Remember that? Yes, FB deleted that nazi symbol he posted from their “platform” (site). Nothing has changed about any of these sites — one can still write comments/tw**ts on them and upload videos, and one can upload pics of one’s lunch that nobody will ever look at or care about! — to make them a “platform” as opposed to a website or site. I just saw the head of Security Policy from FB interviewed about their removing the nazi image that the orange thug posted and Mr Security Policy said, “We removed that from our platform.” He couldn’t bring himself to say, “We removed that from our site.” I guess he, too, doesn’t know that the “platform” is the operating system, not the site known as FB. Again, to me, “platform” seems pretentious, which is often how the techies come off to me anyway, as if they think they’re better than the rest of us. With few exceptions to that. I speak from experience of living in the Tech Capital of San Francisco. Do the techies still consider themselves to be geniuses because the conservatives in San Francisco welcomed them with open arms and kept repeating that lie about the techies being “geniuses” when those sexist and ageist Millennial techies took over The City and ruined it? I don’t hear that “geniuses” nonsense anymore around here. If the techies still live with delusions and under the illusion that they are “geniuses,” they shouldn’t. Because that thinking is rubbish. The real geniuses among us are the finest musicians in the world, for example. What’s more difficult? Tech training or music training? Some of my former piano students studied both and I asked them about it, because I was curious. It was unanimous. They all told me that music training/piano studies were much more difficult than tech training and learning coding. A dentist also told me that studying the piano was much more difficult than learning dentistry. I found that interesting. The dentist told me: “Dentistry is pretty black and white. It’s not nearly as intense and complicated as music training. For example, there’s a standard way to do root canals and other dental procedures. The only “artistry” involved really is in colour-shading and matching colours of teeth and that sort of thing…. Music involves a lot of artistry, skill-level and talent.” True. Oh and by the way, I keep reading, “tech giant Amaz*n.” Amaz*n is not tech. Amaz*n is a retail site where you buy things from sellers or directly “fulfilled by Amaz*n.” Amaz*n is no more tech than Macy’s or any other retail website. Macy’s is never described as “tech giant Macy’s.” All sites — including the pink barrio PLATFORM (Dahling) — use some tech, but they’re not described as tech. Related: When I was teaching piano instruction. Chau.—el barrio rosa