The Long Strange Trip to Java (1996)

As for the rest of his story, Naughton went on to build some of the most successful web properties of the late 90s before having his life derailed by an FBI online sex sting.

Re: The Long Strange Trip to Java (1996)

#5

Post by achille » Thu, Dec 27, 2012, 12:25 AM UTC

Here's a video of James Gosling showing the the Star7 PDA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg8OBYixL0

It's absolutely mindblowing what they built in one year in 1992(!). It had had a touch screen and inertial scrolling.

Re: The Long Strange Trip to Java (1996)

#6

Post by mediocregopher » Thu, Dec 27, 2012, 1:01 AM UTC

I'm no javascript expert so this is probably not the prettiest way of doing this, but:

javascript:void(document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].bgColor="#eeeeee");void(document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].text="#333333");

Makes the article readable

Re: The Long Strange Trip to Java (1996)

#7

Post by gst » Thu, Dec 27, 2012, 1:10 AM UTC

achille wrote: post #5

Here's a video of James Gosling showing the the Star7 PDA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg8OBYixL0 It's absolutely mindblowing what they built in one year in 1992(!). It had had a touch screen and inertial scrolling.

Wouldn't that be prior art to Apple's scrolling patent?

Re: The Long Strange Trip to Java (1996)

#8

Post by jrajav » Thu, Dec 27, 2012, 1:56 AM UTC

mediocregopher wrote: post #6

I'm no javascript expert so this is probably not the prettiest way of doing this, but: javascript:void(document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].bgColor="#eeeeee");void(document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].text="#333333"); Makes the article readable

If you want to set up a quick way to make any article readable, you can make a bookmarklet (Javascript bookmark that runs on the current page) for it here: http://readable-app.appspot.com/setup.html

Not affiliated.

Re: The Long Strange Trip to Java (1996)

#9

Post by ww520 » Thu, Dec 27, 2012, 2:11 AM UTC

achille wrote: post #5

Here's a video of James Gosling showing the the Star7 PDA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg8OBYixL0 It's absolutely mindblowing what they built in one year in 1992(!). It had had a touch screen and inertial scrolling.

These are true hackers! It is absolutely mind boggling how far ahead they were 20 years ago.

Re: The Long Strange Trip to Java (1996)

#10

Post by erik757 » Thu, Dec 27, 2012, 3:04 AM UTC

Hugely exciting to read things like this. It feels like a lot of the early craziness that made things fun is missing from the Valley today. Sun, and the group of people they managed to attract, doesn't get enough credit for the remarkable company they were. RIP.