We're going to be remembered as the last generation before the internet.
The web is 30 years old today
11–20 of 171 posts
Re: The web is 30 years old today
#12The web became popular to mainstream culture a few years later. Although I'd been using arpnet for over a decade due to university access, I first encountered a "web browser" while working at Electronic Arts on the yet to be released 3D0 in '93 -'94.
However, nobody cared diddly squat about "the web", it was empty or nonsense like usenet forums. We only cared about was DOWNLOADING DOOM! Id software released Doom, it it was available as an "web download link". That was the initial reason everyone at E.A. got exposure to the web, to download Doom.
Re: The web is 30 years old today
#13I remember transitioning from Prestel, where in the mid-80s I played the MMO Shades [1], to the web and then getting more and more despondent as year after year the experience seemed to degrade as everyone and their dog went online.
[1] https://www.prestel.org.uk/download.php?cat=15_Prestel&file=...
Edit to add: Prestel was an interactive service run by the UK Post Office. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestel
Re: The web is 30 years old today
#14I find it fascinating that the web changed just about every industry out there, apart from the one it set out to change - academic publishing.. It's still an oligopoly, with the same, small number of players acting as gatekeepers
Except I can now pirate.
RIP Aaron Swartz
Re: The web is 30 years old today
#15I find it fascinating that the web changed just about every industry out there, apart from the one it set out to change - academic publishing.. It's still an oligopoly, with the same, small number of players acting as gatekeepers
At least we can enjoy Libgen and Sci-Hub's effort to make those knowledge available for free to us, the motivated. We owe them a big thanks.
Re: The web is 30 years old today
#16The web is just getting started, I don't see it hitting a stable point before it its 50 years old or so. More and more transactions are made online as opposed to before.
More and more jobs are available online, but it's still a small percentage. Imagine when most of everyone's shopping is done online, when half the people work remotely, and when all countries in the world not just the most developed ones have full access to fast internet.
Re: The web is 30 years old today
#17I still find the web to be so beautiful. I can talk and meet people all around the world. I can stream hundreds of videos around every conceivable topic, in 4K60 resolution, on-demand. I can make a livelihood without ever stepping feet out of my home; and conversely, work from almost anywhere that'll give me a visa. The digitized information of our civilization is just one search away.
I agree with you overall, but the internet never been more geofenced than what we see today. Tons of content is no longer available to me as I live in the EU and apparently american companies care so much about my privacy that I can no longer access their websites. Growing up in the 90s, I remember a internet that was without geographical limitations and people doing things for love of that thing, not the perversion we see today...
Re: The web is 30 years old today
#18I still find the web to be so beautiful. I can talk and meet people all around the world. I can stream hundreds of videos around every conceivable topic, in 4K60 resolution, on-demand. I can make a livelihood without ever stepping feet out of my home; and conversely, work from almost anywhere that'll give me a visa. The digitized information of our civilization is just one search away.
It's truly one of the greatest achievements of this century... possibly ever.
I really hope TPTB don't mess it up, it seems they're always trying to.
Not enough people appreciate it, just like they don't appreciate the computing power and amount of knowledge in their pockets. I see people on buses, on the streets, in cafes, just endlessly scrolling down in Facebook or something, seeing random people's videos and images... Seems like such a waste imo.
Re: The web is 30 years old today
#19I still find the web to be so beautiful. I can talk and meet people all around the world. I can stream hundreds of videos around every conceivable topic, in 4K60 resolution, on-demand. I can make a livelihood without ever stepping feet out of my home; and conversely, work from almost anywhere that'll give me a visa. The digitized information of our civilization is just one search away.
I agree with you overall, but the internet never been more geofenced than what we see today. Tons of content is no longer available to me as I live in the EU and apparently american companies care so much about my privacy that I can no longer access their websites. Growing up in the 90s, I remember a internet that was without geographical limitations and people doing things for love of that thing, not the perversion…
It looks to me like it will get worse... I hope not.
Re: The web is 30 years old today
#20And now the web is not world-wide anymore thanks to big-tech making censored, cookie-cutter walled gardens to the general public.
I forgot the last time I typed 'www.' in an URL.
Every friend of mine have their own blog or personal website when I started out on the web around a decade ago. This spirit has largely vanished with the domination of Facebook and other social networks. What we got is remnants of the old web in "old-looking" websites now. Like here.