BS: Ten Years of W3

Subject: Ten Years of W3
From: Amos
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 11:51 AM

It might interest some that it was just ten years ago that Tim Berners Lee, of CERN (a physics research institute in Switzerland) and a fellow physicist in the States set up the first cross-net WWW transmission using HTTP protocols, connecting a database in Pasadena to a client in Switzerland. Shortly thereafter they demonstrated this remote DB access capability to a convention of physicists in a small city in France and the electric surge of interest that has characterized the World Wide Web for the last ten years was underway. Although the web only ran at that time on NEXT machines, it didn't take long for cross-platform Mozilla and Netscape to come onto the scene, and the snowball was rolling. Other Internet protocols such as mail and Gopher were already in play, but nothing fueled the expansion of internet interest as much as the W3 did.

One hundred years since radio. Ten since W3. We sure live in interesting times. How have the technological growth-curves of the last decade changed your life? Browsers, cell-phones, on-line searches and purchases, computerized music and video production ... ya know, this has been one hell of a decade!!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: Áine
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 12:19 PM

'How have the technological growth-curves of the last decade changed your life?'

Well, those growth-curves gave me two fabulous days of music and friendship with a fantastic fellow named Amos, and his beautiful lady. ;-) Pretty good stuff, I'd say.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 12:25 PM

Amos...I am confused. I thought Al Gore invented the Internet. Strange and wonderful times, indeed. The internet has fulfilled our dreams of "instant gratification" almost completely. Family news is broadcasted instantly and simultaneously, e-cards make it almost impossible to miss a birthday, shop on line - next day delivery, instant stock transactions, instant payments via online banking, worldwide friendships, instant news, even instant dinners delivered weekly. Instant medical results, instant music, perfect reports and homework assignments, the library at our fingertips. I am searching for a home in Maine while sitting in my office in NYC. Same for my job search.

I remember the wonder of my first Texas Instrument calculator - the one that cost over $50 - and shake my head in disbelief.

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: Amos
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 01:08 PM

Sinsull:

Clearly, some things don't improve with technology!! You want to move to Maine in December???

Out here I'm complaining because I have to wear a light jacket!! LOL!

Aine:

That was plain old meat-body style love, darlin'!!! But just think -- without W3, the Gaelic Goddess and all her virtual virtuosity would have been nothin' but an imaginary blink!! No taverns, no instant expertise from the DTDB, no Max... gawd it'd been really AWFUL and we'd'a never even known it!! :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: Amergin
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 02:29 PM

without the W3 I would not be doing what I do today....+

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 02:38 PM

Without the technological growth curves of just the past few years, we probably wouldn't have Spaw among us, nor even know about him...thank the gawddess and gawd for the DaVinci!

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: Mark Clark
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 04:03 PM

Amos, I remember those days. I was using a NeXT Workstation at the time and had Tim Berners-Lee's first text-based browser. I loved that computer. I don't think it's equal has yet appeared; except perhaps for a new Mac with OS X but I haven't tried one of those yet.

SINSULL, Al Gore did invent the Internet—I'm sure Al wouldn't lie to us about that—but that was long before the World Wide Web. Many of us had been using the Internet for several years before the W3 and graphical browsers came along.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: Amos
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 08:16 PM

Besides, he did not say he invented it. That was one of the Bushkies' pravdas, distorting facts for political advantage. He did in fact move it forward during its infancy by "getting" and promoting the concept and bills in support thereof.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: GUEST,Paul
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 08:38 PM

I have to say it was much more exciting when you got mostly text (and the odd .gif image) on a grey background. The days when you thought Gopher searching was wonderful

I still remember the day when I upgraded from lynx to mosaic and could see pictures!

Somehow flash, shockwave, streaming audio, Paltalk etc etc never excited me so much. Maybe I'm getting old...

Paul

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 09:09 PM

Main thing is the Mudcat and the DT. The rest is fun, but I wouldn't really miss it.

And the mobile phone is helpful when I've forgotten where I am supposed to be.

But the whole accelerating technology things gets a bit scary when you try and imagine where it'll be in a few years. "It'll all end in tears" as they say. Or at least the used to say it.

The most important technology predates all that, and it comes with strings and soundboxes and that kind of thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 09:15 PM

McGrath,

You are old and very fixed in your ways and opinions. Please leave this thread to people who can say something interesting.

Thank you

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: Bert
Date: 16 Dec 01 - 12:14 AM

And what do the next ten years hold in store?

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: Amergin
Date: 16 Dec 01 - 12:17 AM

nekkid pictures of me...

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: hesperis
Date: 16 Dec 01 - 12:58 AM

Why stop at pictures? *g*

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: simon-pierre
Date: 16 Dec 01 - 01:10 AM

aye... I don't remeber what I was doing ten years ago, but I was sure far away from technologies and all (well, I was... young). In the last five years, I've been working in a little bookstore. I've met several older people there, and one of the regular, who is 71 now, once told me how he didn't believe how things had changed in his lifetime - in his rural youth, there was no automobile, even no electricity (before the 40's), and now the ATM, Internet, and all. I've always listen to him with great interest. That time, I tought, well, I'm 25, things will get really bad....

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: Amos
Date: 16 Dec 01 - 01:13 AM

Guest:

You speak like a jerk; I am sure you're not, but a few manners wouldn't hurt, and some courtesy for those who have been further down the road than you have.

Amerg, hesp:

Yeah -- here's a thought: the bandwidth and compression and display technology will be coming downthe road when you will actually be able to email a holographic recording; and with haptic technology moving as fast as it is who knows but that feeelies won't be far behind? In any case it'll be more than GIFs of your curves your myriad admirers will be wanting from you!! Get ready!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: Amos
Date: 16 Dec 01 - 10:26 PM

Simon --

Salut le copain!! Ca fait trop long qu'on n'as pas vu ton visage ici!! Bienvenue!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Dec 01 - 10:46 PM

How dare Amos say that I'm not a jerk.

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Dec 01 - 10:56 PM

Only 10 years? That does seem difficult to believe.....wow. It is a little scary to think about what the next 10 will bring. I have only been "on line" for for about 2 years, only had a computer for about 3. Spooky. Shows that Old Bitches can learn new tricks, sometimes. Some of them. I have learned a LOT, but Kate still laffs at me about the things I don't know--such as how to play a CD in the computer........'puders and Net is wunnerful things, sometimes, huh?

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Dec 01 - 11:07 PM

I've just learnt how to turn a tape into a CD, with gaps between the tracks and all. Thanks to the Mudcat, of course. Fun stuff, indeed.

Yup, I'm older than I used to be. That's compulsory for all living creatures. And incorrigibly, I aspire to getting still older.

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 16 Dec 01 - 11:48 PM

Well, Digitrad, thanx to a gentleman named Steve Putz, has been a feature of the WWW for nine of those ten years. Seems like yesterday.

Subject: RE: BS: Ten Years of W3
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 12:06 AM

Older than dirt. Older than MudPies...........sheesh. What will they think of next? Instant digital photos of me on-line at 7AM w/o coffee? Real scary.......(I know, that is possible now, but I don't allow it!!!)