1 billion web sites in 2013

Netcraft has been tracking the number of web sites on the internet for many years. Every month, they publish their latest numbers. As of May 2012, their chart shows close to 700 million sites (the blue line is the number of unique domains, the red one is sites with unique HTML which excludes placeholder templates like landing pages for newly purchased domains):

As you can see, the growth is impressive and unimpeded. Also:

  • The total number of web sites seems to follow Moore’s Law and double every 18-24 months.
  • At the current rate, we will hit 1 billion sites in 2013 and 2 billion sites in 2015.
  • Over the years, the number of web sites seems to be roughly equal to the number of people on the internet.
  • If WordPress continues on its current trajectory, there will be 300-500 million WordPress sites by 2015.

Why it’s so fun to modify a MacBook Air

My new MacBook Air has a nice, big, glowing WordPress logo on its lid. I like it a lot. Not just because it looks great, but as I realized the other day, because ripping open a MacBook and arranging some of its parts is so clearly not what Apple wants us to do.

I’m old fashioned in that I like to modify my stuff. It could be switching out the handle bars on my bike or souping up the engine on my moped as a kid, or changing around the software that runs my websites or swapping my car to biodiesel today. It’s fun and satisfying and creative. I like computers that can be modified too. Not so long ago, we could make PCs last many years by swapping faster CPUs or new CD-ROMs into them. Then the “new Apple” came along and decided that all our devices had to be hermetically sealed. I assume it’s to sell more of them – just buy the next model instead of tuning up the old one. It’s one of the reasons I decided to hold off on buying an Apple laptop for many years (even though they seemed awfully nice). Then Matt found a place that takes Macs apart and swaps in new logos and that got me over the hump. Now every time I open up my computer I get to show off a glowing advertisement for modifying your Apple. It’s a small step, but in the right direction :)

Have you seen this truck?

A few weeks ago, my diesel Landcruiser got stolen in Berkeley. This happened to me once before, and the police found the truck a few days later. This time it hasn’t shown up, so I thought I’d ask the internet for help. Have you seen this truck parked or driving around San Francisco or the East Bay?

Wouldn’t it be awesome if someone found it after reading this?