Cliff Stoll had his moment when he wrote Cuckoo's Egg. A pretty good tale of his stalking a hacker and getting the FBI interested. He then squandered that brief internet fame by becoming an internet naysayer and got another 15 minutes.
Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana (1995)
11–20 of 69 posts
Re: Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana (1995)
#12Look at the photo.
Hard to have vision when your workspace is so cluttered.
Re: Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana (1995)
#13Less than a decade later my father, a history professor, thought I was a fool for thinking Wikipedia could hold a candle to Britannica for many reasons similar to those in the article.
Obviously I didn't know what editing meant, how quality came about in publishing, or what an encyclopedia was for. The value of the GPL was utterly lost on him.
Re: Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana (1995)
#14Almost no single prediction, critisism or estimate that held up to the test of time. Moral of the story, don't play the prophet and try to predict the future. The future is always stranger than anybody imagined.
Re: Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana (1995)
#15I love reading things like this... This guy saw obstacles that were insurmountable while others saw obstacles that we begging to be conquered. And now we know how it turned out.
Re: Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana (1995)
#16So I used to work on the Newsweek web ops team. This article gets linked about once a year. Every year the comments are the same. Every year he has to admit he was wrong.
LEAVE CLIFFORD STROLL ALONE!
Re: Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana (1995)
#17> The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats.
Fascinating.
Re: Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana (1995)
#18Wow, he is nearly totally wrong on every point! :-) "The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works." And to think that we have really only just gotten started.... when I look back a few blinks to 2005 and realize that there wasn't even anything in popular culture known as Youtube... un…
> no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher
No, I would say this is still correct. There is a feedback beyond yes/no right/wrong that has not been able to be replicated in automated teaching and training that a competent teacher can provide.
Re: Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana (1995)
#19That background taskbar looks green and blue like windows xp. Is that right? How could this be 1995 if that's windows xp.
Re: Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana (1995)
#20Most of these naysaying predictions didn't come true, but a few did. Computers haven't replaced teachers and likely won't. E-commerce sites haven't replaced brick and mortar stores (though they have swallowed a huge chunk of their business) And I have never heard of anyone attending a virtual town meeting.
The author knew what was wrong with the internet in 1995, but couldn't imagine the solutions we'd invent in 2013.