Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google's 20-Year Usenet Timeline

Posted by timothy on from the immemorial dept.

theRG writes "Google just released its 20-Year Usenet Timeline. Among the highlights: First Mac rumor, first 'me too' post, Tim Berners-Lee's announcement of the Web, and Linus' announcement of Linux."

34 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. Alas they didn't get the first by antifoidulus · · Score: 4, Funny

    first post! I probably failed it

    --
    Monstar L
    1. Re:Alas they didn't get the first by jdunn14 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Me too!!!

  2. Linus by debilo · · Score: 5, Funny

    From Linus' announcement:

    I can (well, almost) hear you asking yourselves "why?". Hurd will be out in a year (or two, or next month, who knows), and I've already got minix.

    The Hurd. Beautiful.

    1. Re:Linus by SenorMooCow · · Score: 4, Funny

      I like this quote from Linus:
      If you write programs for linux today, you shouldn't have too many surprises when you just recompile them for Hurd in the 21st century.

      As if anyone would want to compile something for Hurd in the 21st century :)

      --
      I run a Debian/Kernel/Knoppix Mirror: (http|ftp|rsync)://debian.ams.sunysb.edu/
      apt-get @ > 5MBps == teh win!
    2. Re:Linus by voisine · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Be thankful you are not my student. You would not
      get a high grade for such a design :-)" - Andy Tanenbaum to Linus, Jan 30 '92

  3. Oddly familiar. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "You feel like you've been here before." --More--

  4. To Ron at Rutgers: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Expect a call from Apple Legal. Steve doesn't like having his surprises ruined.

  5. Hurd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Hurd will be out in a year or two" - Linus

    It cracks me up every time.

    1. Re:Hurd by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, you just misread that statement. It actually says that Hurd will not be "in", but "out" in a year or two. And indeed, quite soon Linux was in, and the Hurd was out.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  6. Justice Must Be Done... by stevens · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone hunt down and kill that "Me too" guy with AOL CDs.

    1. Re:Justice Must Be Done... by xanderwilson · · Score: 2, Funny

      Notice that there's a "reply" option at the end of each message. What do you suppose the chances are of someone making the world's longest post-bump? I don't have the audacity myself to metoo a metoo post.

      Alex.

  7. Heh by slashdime · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Heh" -Linus Torvalds 05 Oct 1991

    I love him for that..

    1. Re:Heh by tindur · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Heh" is perfect swedish (at least in Finland).

  8. Map of usenet by Pedrito · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm particularly fond of their
    current map of usenet done with ascii art.

    I'll give $5.00 to the first person to provide an updated ascii art usenet map.

    1. Re:Map of usenet by agildehaus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Porn
      |
      |----Usenet----Internet----Me
      |
      Warez

  9. You know.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You know there's some guy named Phil Nelson in a bar somewhere with a printout of Torvalds' usenet post, and he's like "yeah baby, he's talking about ME!"

  10. VT100 by johkir · · Score: 2, Funny

    Don't forget to change your font to VT100 for that ol' tyme feel. And maybe set the display to green text on black.

    --
    These are some of the things molecules do...... given 4 billion years -Carl Sagan
  11. Redundant out-of-date copies? by JudgeFurious · · Score: 2, Funny

    On the WWW announcement:

    "This summary does not describe the many exciting possibilities opened up by the WWW project, such as efficient document caching, the reduction of redundant out-of-date copies,..."

    Glad to see that those "out-of-date copies' have been reduced. I don't think I could imagine how many out of date documents there would be in the world if we didn't have the web.

    I'm suprised though that they didn't see the exciting possiblities opened up for online porn. Guess nobody saw that one coming.

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
  12. And the best comment.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    comes from randals@azure:

    "I wish Lucas & Co. would get the thing going a little faster. I can't really imagine waiting until 1997 to see all nine parts of the Star Wars series."

    Ha!

  13. GNU link? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    It appears the link to the GNU announcement is broken.

    Also, I have concrete evidence that Microsoft innovates. Once upon a time, the idea of an email virus was a joke:

    Folks, THIS IS A HOAX! IT IS IMPOSSIBLE (I REPEAT) IMPOSSIBLE to transfer a virus via ascii txt/email that will erase your hard drive.

    Thanks to Microsoft, we can now enjoy viruses via the miracle of email!

  14. Sex Stories? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny
    What about the first alt.sex.stories post?!

  15. A giggle-inducer by shigelojoe · · Score: 5, Funny

    From the first mention of "Return of the Jedi":
    I can't really imagine waiting until 1997 to see all nine parts of the Star Wars series.

    How about waiting until 2005 to see the first six?

  16. usenet map by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Anyone want to jump on the usenet map where ucbvax!mark left off?

  17. Coming Soon! by Garabito · · Score: 5, Funny
    Slashdot 7 year timeline!

    • First "First post!"
    • First "In Soviet Russia" post
    • First Goatse.cx troll
    • First GNAA troll

    • and,

    • CmdrTaco announcement of the iPod.
    1. Re:Coming Soon! by mirko · · Score: 2, Funny

      Xmas 2000...

      --
      Trolling using another account since 2005.
    2. Re:Coming Soon! by zackeller · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, the Nomad crushed the iPod, and the lack of wireless proved to be fatal. With headlines like these, who needs psychics? -2, Redundant, Troll, Flamebait

  18. Re:This has been around for a while... by darc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shh, this is our chance to karma up and reuse the jokes from the old thread! Dammit, now you've gone and spoiled it.

    --
    Tired of legitimate data sources? Try UNCYCLOPEDIA
  19. Re:This is Bill Gates first post by bergeron76 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why not simplify things and just:

    10 POKE eye_socket
    20 POKE eye_socket+1
    30 goto 10

    --
    Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
  20. Anyone catch the www response by drix · · Score: 5, Funny
    Even better is what some smartass posted 12 years later in response to the original www thread:
    Tim,

    I have to say that this "world wide web" thing sounds like a ridiculous concept. I can't imagine it will take off. Next thing you'll tell us is that people can do commerce through the "web" or even browse pornography! I would never invest in it. I am going to put my money in something with real potential, namely a floppy disk that can hold 1.8 megabytes. This should be able to hold all the data you could possibly want to carry around with you, for decades to come.
    --

    I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
  21. Er... by szobatudos · · Score: 1, Funny
    Hi All, google could be a bit more PC, the sponsored links at the first 9/11 postings are:

    langaAir Flight Training Career / Accelerated Pilot Training Deferred payment option.

    Fly at Eagle Aircraft Finance Your Flight Training. Chicago area career & recreational

    Airline Training Programs $37,995 / 90 Days / Actual Jet Exp. 200 Hrs / 7 Ratings / Nationwide XC

    Terrorists welcome?

    1. Re:Er... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      This is probably going to come as a shock to you so sit down and brace yourself:

      Google does not control Usenet.

  22. First Y2k solution by Cainjustcain · · Score: 5, Funny
    "In 1978, when I was working in banking, I ran across a curious date storage format. It seems that transaction dates were coded with the last digit of the year in one nibble, the month in hex in the next, and the date (in packed decimal) in the next two

    "Good grief!" said I. "What happens in January of 1980?" She turned pale and admitted she had considered that before but managed to put it out of her mind. "So why not go ahead and fix it now?" I asked.

    She pointed out that fixing it would require expanding the demand deposit master record format, a mammoth undertaking. About a billion COBOL programs would have to be recompiled. At this shop we were still on cards and a rush compile took about a week. "You want to do that?" she inquired. This time I turned pale. We onsidered our options, knowing that one or the other of us would be called upon to fix the problem. And you know what we did?

    First, I modified the daily demand deposit program with code that checked for the date and about mid-1979 started printed warnings on the console of what would happen come new year. Then the systems analyst and I got new jobs. This is known as stepwise interactive development."

  23. Dear Linus by Phil_Nelson · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can't you take a hint??
    Stop trying to get in touch with me!!
    It's OVER. Just get over it.
    I'm sure in time you'll agree this was the best thing to do.

    Moving on,
    Phil

  24. As if... by Kjella · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...flogging a dead horse's decomposed and almost dissolved mummified carcass (i.e. OLD) by reusing old jokes doesn't happen in every other story. Here's a suggestion. Read the second newest story on slashdot. Post the same jokes in the newest stories. Seems to work for the humorbots (and no, the 5.0 in futurama was way better) here.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings