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steve2470

(37,457 posts)
Tue Mar 11, 2014, 08:55 AM Mar 2014

The Web at 25: I was a teenage dial-up addict

(not me, the author lol )

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57619807-1/the-web-at-25-i-was-a-teenage-dial-up-addict/



This World Wide Web you're looking at right now wasn't always something most people considered worth a second glance -- let alone hours days weeks years of nonstop staring.

In fact, even some of the big info-nerds of the day ignored or dismissed it early on.
One of the earliest public demonstrations of the Web came back in 1991, when a man named Tim Berners-Lee sat at a table with a computer in a Texas hotel conference room, willing to give anyone with a few minutes to spare a personal introduction to his invention -- a concept and a structure that would soon spark a worldwide information revolution.

Every person in the room that day likely came to depend on this invention by the close of the 1990s, if not sooner. But when first confronted with the Web in that hotel, most simply said whatever the equivalent of "meh" was at the time, and went in search of a drink.

"It was quite a warm December evening in San Antonio," recalled Professor Wendy Hall of the UK's University of Southampton, who was in that room for the 1991 Hypertext Conference where Berners-Lee had been denied a speaking spot to show off the most important human creation of a generation or three. "In the courtyard outside the demo room was a tequila fountain and everybody was outside drinking free margaritas, so nobody was inside. This was the first demo of the World Wide Web in America.

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The Web at 25: I was a teenage dial-up addict (Original Post) steve2470 Mar 2014 OP
A timely article considering Bartcop's passing MindPilot Mar 2014 #1
my first taste ot the internet was compuserve mikeysnot Mar 2014 #2
That was a very interesting article. I sometimes forget sufrommich Mar 2014 #3
Unfortunately, the web has morphed into too much eye candy. randome Mar 2014 #4
Says the person with an avatar. joeglow3 Mar 2014 #5
Wow. Good point, there! randome Mar 2014 #6
 

MindPilot

(12,693 posts)
1. A timely article considering Bartcop's passing
Tue Mar 11, 2014, 09:03 AM
Mar 2014

Bart was one of the first to use the web for political activism.

mikeysnot

(4,755 posts)
2. my first taste ot the internet was compuserve
Tue Mar 11, 2014, 09:12 AM
Mar 2014

while I was in Grad school in 1991... reallllll sloooooooowwwwwwwwww.

sufrommich

(22,871 posts)
3. That was a very interesting article. I sometimes forget
Tue Mar 11, 2014, 09:17 AM
Mar 2014

the early days of surfing the much smaller internet back then,my family entered the internet through Prodigy and had to be mindful of how much time we spent on it because one couldn't use the phone (our old landlines) while someone was on. Hard to believe how far we've come in so little time.

 

randome

(34,845 posts)
4. Unfortunately, the web has morphed into too much eye candy.
Tue Mar 11, 2014, 09:20 AM
Mar 2014

We have unbelievably powerful servers ready to serve up information in nano-seconds. Yet we still wait for pages to load because they are always crammed with unneeded graphic elements that serve no purpose but to clutter our view of the data.

We're not where we need to be in terms of information technology.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

 

randome

(34,845 posts)
6. Wow. Good point, there!
Tue Mar 11, 2014, 09:40 AM
Mar 2014

[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]
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