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Blue Peter discovers the Internet (1995) [video]

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Re: Blue Peter discovers the Internet (1995) [video]

#11

Post by onion2k »

pjc50 wrote: post #4

Little period details: - strobing CRT monitors that don't line up with the frequency of the TV camera - PCs in the internet cafe, Macs in media, Acorn Archimedes (with ARM processor!) in schools - first thing to do with the global communications network is send a dumb message to the US President - indexed-color images; you can see in one case when she changes windows and the colours go wrong in the background as the…

strobing CRT monitors that don't line up with the frequency of the TV camera

I studied Broadcast Engineering for my degree back in 1997, and you could definitely shift the input signal to match the refresh rate of a CRT screen or a flourescent tube light on the Sony BetaCam TV studio cameras I worked with. I reckon the BBC would have been working with similar or better tech in 1995. I wonder if this might have been a directorial choice to show what viewers expect rather than any technical issue.

Re: Blue Peter discovers the Internet (1995) [video]

#12

Post by worldofmatthew »

onion2k wrote: post #11
pjc50 wrote: post #4

Little period details: - strobing CRT monitors that don't line up with the frequency of the TV camera - PCs in the internet cafe, Macs in media, Acorn Archimedes (with ARM processor!) in schools - first thing to do with the global communications network is send a dumb message to the US President - indexed-color images; you can see in one case when she changes windows and the colours go wrong in the background as the…

strobing CRT monitors that don't line up with the frequency of the TV camera I studied Broadcast Engineering for my degree back in 1997, and you could definitely shift the input signal to match the refresh rate of a CRT screen or a flourescent tube light on the Sony BetaCam TV studio cameras I worked with. I reckon the BBC would have been working with similar or better tech in 1995. I wonder if this might have been a…

In most scenes, the refresh rate is matched (Slightly off from the presenters computer in the internet cafe with the computer all most all other computers in the cafe set to a different refresh rate).

Re: Blue Peter discovers the Internet (1995) [video]

#13

Post by teux »

nickdothutton wrote: post #8

This must be some kind of fake history, where are all the ads on the web sites? Where are the pages jumping around as the browser reflows the content? Why are there no auto playing videos? Next you will be telling me nobody used their real names on the Internet in those days. Definitely fake.

I know it’s sarcasm but the thought of a small 64x64 video auto-playing at 0.25fps is hilarious to me.

Re: Blue Peter discovers the Internet (1995) [video]

#16

Post by pjc50 »

teux wrote: post #13
nickdothutton wrote: post #8

This must be some kind of fake history, where are all the ads on the web sites? Where are the pages jumping around as the browser reflows the content? Why are there no auto playing videos? Next you will be telling me nobody used their real names on the Internet in those days. Definitely fake.

I know it’s sarcasm but the thought of a small 64x64 video auto-playing at 0.25fps is hilarious to me.

Animated GIFs! Usually for the "under construction" logo.

Re: Blue Peter discovers the Internet (1995) [video]

#17

Post by pjc50 »

nickdothutton wrote: post #8

This must be some kind of fake history, where are all the ads on the web sites? Where are the pages jumping around as the browser reflows the content? Why are there no auto playing videos? Next you will be telling me nobody used their real names on the Internet in those days. Definitely fake.

I know it's a joke, but you made me look up when the first banner ad was, and it appears to be 1994: https://digiday.com/media/history-of-the-banner-ad/

The BBC brand guidelines would never have allowed an ad to appear, though.

Re: Blue Peter discovers the Internet (1995) [video]

#18

Post by aliqot »

onion2k wrote: post #14

The browser in the video is a very early Netscape Navigator (v1.0N maybe..) written by Marc Andreessen and others, who founded Netscape and went on to found Andreessen Horowitz which has invested in lots of YC startups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q7FTjhvZ7Y

Project Code Rush

Code Rush is a documentary following the lives of a group of Netscape engineers in Silicon Valley. It covers Netscape's last year as an independent company, from their announcement of the Mozilla open source project until their acquisition by AOL. It particularly focuses on the last minute rush to make the Mozilla source code ready for release by the deadline of March 31 1998, and the impact on the engineers' lives and families as they attempt to save the company from ruin.

Re: Blue Peter discovers the Internet (1995) [video]

#19

Post by mcast »

This captures a very interesting time back when the internet was seen culturally in a positive light with much academic potential. Later documentaries about the internet became more pessimistic and focused on cyber stalking, privacy abuse, hackers/viruses, et al. It truly was simpler times.

Re: Blue Peter discovers the Internet (1995) [video]

#20

Post by halfdeadcat »

The things that made me feel older than anything was: When they recorded the audio clip for their webpage, they used Massive Attack's "Unfinished Sympathy" as the background audio. I still love that tune. Of course, they couldn't get away with using that now without proper licensing.
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