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Al Gore Invents Internet TV
catdevnull writes "The SF Gate is reporting that former VP Al Gore is launching "Current" a new CableTV-Internet hybrid. From the article: "Current, the name of Gore's enterprise, hopes to do that by airing a shuffle of short news features, some produced by the network but many submitted online by viewers. Current will also air segments every half hour showing TV viewers what Google searchers are tapping into at that moment -- everything from current events to tourist destinations. It's all directed at a generation that thinks nothing of plugging into more than one media outlet at once." "
...he'll invent SlashDot!
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
You mean like MSNBC? The channel both Microsoft and NBC want to dump?
"Al Gore's endorsement should be enough for anybody"
The original inventor of the algorithm?
Current will also air segments every half hour showing TV viewers what Google searchers are tapping into at that moment
That's going to be kindof X-rated, don't you think? Experience has shown that at any given point, a good portion of people using the internet are searching for porn, or at least naked pictures of celebrities.
Still funny. All these years later. No it is, it's never gotten old. Not even when the NSF credited him with a major role in makeing the internet into something broadly useful.
...articles about robots recently?
I don't get it.
Credit for Internet funding by Vinton Cerf & Robert Kahn:
http://tinyurl.com/65ssc
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Emperor of the Moon? It's taking too damn long.
A TV show or short segment showing what people are looking for on Google? Oh god, I can just imagine it now:
193.53.2.10 is looking for "l33t w@r3z" with 57 hits
Oh but check this out! 216.23.129.44 is looking for "vast right wing conspiracy" with 683,000 hits!
101.23.64.99 is looking for "CENSORED" with 2,947,345 hits. What a perv!
Etc.
Uh, is Al sure he wants to broadcast how often people are searching for pr0n, and the different "kind" of pr0n they're looking for?
What would Tipper say??
He's making "liberal TV" But he says he's not.
Nah, I'd guess it to be more like Robot Wars 24/7.
(\_/)
(O.o) This is Bunny. (> <)
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.htm
Nope. The internet makes you stupid.
Look at the context of the quote though. It's obvious he's talking about a legislative accomplishment
People seem to be assuming that Gore wants to make a liberal counterpart to Fox News, but it appears that he's trying to do something quite different, making something that is far more interactive than traditional television. I have no idea if it will work (and I suspect that it won't), but critics might want to actually pay attention to what he's trying to do before criticizing something that has nothing to do with what he is trying.
Yep he said it. I don't know why people get all worked up about it though. Like "Internets" it was a verbal screw-up that has since become a never-ending running joke.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
Yeah keep mocking him. You'll be sorry when he decides to take it back.
No he didn't. That wasn't his choice of words at all. He said he "took the initiative in creating the internet."
Still a poor choice of words, but you are spouting the same falsehoods as you see on TV/Slashdot.
Snopes Article
And "took the initiative in creating" and "inventing" are most certainly differnt. Nikola Tesla discovered/invented AC power distribution, but George Westinghouse took the initiative in creating the power grid, by providing the money for it. Al Gore's role was more like Westinghouse's, in that he worked to secure funding for the internet and similar projects in the 80s when no one else really cared about them.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
And he did. Even the NSF acknowledged as much. Without the shift in government policy, we wouldn't have had the explosion of Entrepreneurship. The republicans post-Regan aren't pro Entrepreneurship, they're pro consolidation, pro-monopoly, and quite frankly, anti-american.
"...a generation that thinks nothing of plugging into more than one media outlet at once."
Maybe in my college days, but never again!
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. -Oscar Wilde
He actually said he "took the initiative in creating the internet"
Poor choice of words? Maybe, but Wired misquoted (libel!) him and put the word "Invented" in his mouth.
Either way, Al Gore did coin the phrase "Information Superhighway" and Eisenhower should get credit for the Internet because it's his vision of the Interstate system that was the fundamental idea that went into creating the Internet (and that was in like the 1950's!)
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April Fools is over for more than 5 days now!
What, you mean the stuff we get has had most of the crap screened out.
http://www.nbc.com/nbc/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_L eno/headlines/H_2871/H_2871_13.jpg
Announcing Car Bot: Thank you all for coming. It is my pleasure to
introduce the host of the Kyoto global warming convention. The
inventor of the environment, and first emperor of the moon, Al Gore.
Al Gore: I have ridden the mighty moon worm!
[Applause]
Fry: Good for him.
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That's what most Google searches are for. And all the ad breaks will be infomercials for Viagra etc.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Obviously you need to go back and read from the constitution what the electoral college is and quit relying on what your liberal teachers tell you. The electoral college was a great idea our founding fathers came up with. This gives an equal share of the outcome of an election to small states or large states based on population. Without the electoral system, there would be NO NEED for any politician to ever visit "flyover" country. They would spend all their time in: California, Florida, New York, Illinois, Texas and a couple of other states, where the bulk of the population resides. The other states in the union would not receive any representation, since they have "too few" people. The electoral college prevents that from happening.
I don't know why people get all worked up about it though.
People get worked up about it because it was used during the 2000 election by right-wing pundits (yes, I mean *you*, Peggy Noonan) to "prove" that Al Gore was a serial liar who couldn't be trusted with the presidency.
So people on the right who get worked up about it do so because they see it as evidence that Gore is a dangerous buffoon who came *this close* to leading the country. People on the left who get worked up about it do so because it confirms for them that Republicans are evil, election-stealing savages.
Still others get worked up because the initial accusations and the long debate that followed seem to suggest that either something is badly wrong with the political system, or possibly that people aren't wearing enough hats.
Take your pick.
Kill, Tux, kill!
Why not post the link to the Current TV homepage?
It's pretty, and it the layout works with Firefox (unlike some sites)
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If you actually read the quote you'll see he never said he invented the Internet. That accusation is the work of spin doctors. Invention and creation are completely separate things. Invention is the conception of an idea. He never said he hit his head on a toilet and came up with the idea for the Internet out of the blue. What he said in fewer words is that the idea existed, he knew about it, he liked it enough that he actually wanted to see it implemented. He took the initiative to bring a concept to fruition by legislative action. He even opens the quote by saying he was in congress, not in some laboratory. Twisting his words and saying that he claimed to invent the Internet was an attempt to brand him as a liar, exaggerator and lunatic as part of the smear campaign. I'm not an Al Gore fanboy but I cannot believe that people are still buying that crap. I guess tomorrow CNN will run a story about how 90% of americans still believed that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that they are still there in the hands of insurgents. I am just dumbfounded by how cynical the Republican leadership is and how shamelessly and blantantly they exploit the media, then turn around to say that the liberal media is out to get them.
Please provide proof that the National Science Foundation acknowledged this.
As a /. reader/commenter, you are supposed to post without RTFA. So what's the point in posting links.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Ok. Find some of the people you think he should have shared credit with, and see whether they felt that Al Gore's statement was dishonest. (And obviously it's self-serving. It'd be self-serving for him to claim such credit even if he personally invented TCP/IP.)
His mistake was in making his statement too easy to misinterpret. I believe he's admitted as much.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
The quote actually does not, except by wild misinterpretation, actually mean what the widespread, if only in jest, humorous interpretation implies it does. The actual quote: "I took the initiative in creating the Internet." this means, from the political perspective, that he encouraged the allocation of funds for the greater development of the protocols and systems that now comprise the systems that are thought of when "Internet" is heard by the majority, into the commercial entity that it now is.
1. Used "groupthink" in a sentence.
2. Thinks Gore bragging about having voted to fund the growth of the internet is somehow "damning" or "Gore having claimed to invented the internet".
We have ourselves a Fox News Zombie!
Dumbass: AA came back and now has 53 stations across the country.
Having viewers make shows for you? I guess that's kind of like how /. works. I was hoping, however, that it would be like blogging meets TV--you know, bloggers at events and getting air time in front of a cable audience and not just the blogosphere.
Then again, it's already like that but with only text. And the blogging goes straight through to the viewer. So the more I think about this, the more it sounds like he's creating a middle-man company, which is to say, a completely useless and potentially brain-damaging company. Fuck that.
By the way, the first sentence of the article is "Al Gore never said he invented the Internet." So at least there's some good text in there.
AA failed miserably because instead of being original they were shallow and vicious copy cats. Most of their junk was a mean spirited parody of some other sucessful show.
Air America now has 51 stations, and reaches millions of viewers. It is also, according to Time magazine, "financially stable."
If your going to compete with the likes of Rush, Hannity, and the right you need to deliver facts and keep the slant off.
I almost spit up my drink over that line. Do you really believe that Rush and Hannity don't have a "slant"? Sounds like you drank the coolade to me.
-G
www.pixelstatic.com
I for one wouldn't count out the possibility of this channel actually becoming popular. I mean, it seems to be feeding off the viral video phenomenon that the Internet has created. If it can really manage to get material that is as addictive as all these viral videos then it has a chance.
The only real concern I have is that it is selling itself as a news channel. There really isn't much viral news out there on the internet. But it will be nice to see them give it a try anyways. Could be the first _new_ approach to television in years.
Java has no friends.
And Microsoft invented the Binary Numbers.
http://www.michel.eti.br
From the description in this news article, "Current" sounds like MTV without the music tapes. String together all the semi-hip news and pretentious lecture-in-disguise clips MTV now offers, and you get "Current"!
A friend who has participated in numerous "brainstorm" sessions in TV industry once described those meetings as "plenty of saliva storm but no brain". Now I know why.
The report says Gore bought the network for $70 million; my graphic blog, http://sunandfun.blogspot.com/, does not cost a dime to produce and offers plenty of entertainment.
Sun and Fun
Skeptic: "Sir, do you really think that George W. Busch singlehandedly got a bunch of CIA agents together and told them to create a national crisis that would make the American people 'call for help', allowing for the creation of a national secret police founded and staffed by Busch henchmen while simultaneously sending the price of gasoline through the roof and making his fatcat oil friends even wealthier?"
Response: "I don't know, YOU TELL ME!"
Democratic followup: "Dubya isn't smart enough to do that. Just look at him for God's sake!"
Republican followup: "Yes, he is."
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
'Initiative' means "A beginning or introductory step; an opening move".
Now, 'create' and 'innvent' are synonyms:
create = "To cause to exist; bring into being."
invent = "To produce or contrive (something previously unknown)..."
so, substituting into the original statement:
No, I'm not. The Democratic party is quite off my politics. As are most American political groups.
I trust AC's very little and those who label me as something I'm not, not at all.
Yes, it'd be funny if it was true... but it isn't, so it isn't.
- Advanced the Internet
- Guest-starred multiple times on Futurama
- Was Vice-President
- On the Apple Board of Directors
- Now going into...um...network television.
I gotta tell you, I respect the guy. And this is only what I know about!i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
I suppose Americans would rather be entertained by a clown than having a good albeit dull president. TV. Gotta love it.
...that's why they're called Al-Gore-ithms.
"Orthodoxy is unconsciousness" - Orwell
For those of you keeping score at home:
Al Gore: 1 semantic slipup
His Opponent: 12,476 slipups (plus $2e11 mistake penalty), and counting.
Thank God we dodged that bullet, eh? With the wrong man in charge we might have ended up, oh, I don't know, invading the wrong country by mistake or something...
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
"Don't get it"??
Dude, I've been listening to talk radio since I was 8 years old. I have two solid decades of talk radio under my belt. I know good talk radio from bad. I have listened to "Air America" plenty and it is the most droll, uninteresting, unprofessional, ill-prepared drek ever. It's a decent idea, but poorly excecuted. You can't just take the cast of SNL and make a syndicated political talk station out of it.
And 53 stations is nothing if they're 53 stations with poor ratings.
I don't know a soul who regularly listens to their programming. It's downright painful at times. Even my hardcore liberal friends can't stand it. They'd rather listen to a professional right-winger who knows what being a radio personality is than some chunky comedienne whining about how unfair the world is like your typical hollywood looney.
I'd give my left nut for a station that aired an opposing side to the right-wing drek that's on the air (I don't agree with either side, but it would be nice to switch to for a bit of flavor now and then), with a reputable person instead of some smarmy LA git. Dump Al Franken and Janine and give me, say, James Carville. Come on.
I'm really tired of everyone thinking that just because they're famous, they can swing radio. They CAN'T. Radio is DIFFICULT. You have to be INTERESTING and CLEVER and ARTICULATE. People like O'Reilly and the above mentioned names don't belong within a mile of a radio broadcasting booth.
Anyway, the same network that is responsible for all of the whacko rightwingers is responsible for the leftwing "Air America". Yep. You got it. Clear Channel. Oooh. That's really showing them!
And just because it has okay numbers (nothing to crowe about in most of the country, including the very progressive west coast state I live in), doesn't mean it's good radio. If you're a hardcore lefty, what are you going to listen to? It's not that there's much else out there. You have your choice between many very talented conservatives who you may disagree with most or all of the time, or very unpolished highschool/junior college quality liberal broadcasters that you can enjoin for a round of daily navel-gazing.
That it can manage to eek a three-share at times just means people are desperate for a different voice. And since this is the only voice out there doing that, it's their only option. Stick a competing network up out there that shares the same views, but with more professional and qualified personalities and you will quickly see Air America circle the drain.
So, Saddam gave some money to widows and orphans of Palestinians some of whom might qualify as "terrorists" (a badly misused and meaningless, not to mentioned loaded, word). That's Israel's problem not ours. Oh, wait, I forgot: we're the United States of Israel now. I keep forgetting "everything changed" after 911.
If you were referring to the alleged Iraq/Al Qaeda link, that's complete bullshit. Only the shills still push that line.
So, how do you feel about the last Republican to lose a presidential race? If I recall, he was on TV peddling Viagra in a matter of weeks.
Better question: What, in your mind, would be an appropriate activity for an ex-presidential candidate? And who the hell are you to judge?
Al Gore and Bob Dole have made, and will make, millions in their post-political careers. Meanwhile, every business G.W. Bush touched before becoming President turned to shit. The shocker here is not how the mighty have fallen, it's how the weak have risen.
Dude, I was USING the internet before Al Gore was ever got involved! Maybe it didn't have that name, but a TCP/IP network connecting universities and government agencies was already in place. That may not be the internet that we know today, but it was the seed from which it directly grew.
Al Gore didn't create a damned thing, all he did was spend money to expand it. No matter how many times his fans mod it down as flamebait, the truth will not change.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Still a poor choice of words, but you are spouting the same falsehoods as you see on TV/Slashdot.
It's funny how such a liberal crowd as Slashdotters and TV writers keep repeating the Republican-created meme that Gore "invented" the Internet. Does this make you fools, tools, or both? You could at least give the Republican party credit for knowing how to play you.
Al Gore was first elected to the US House in 1976 where he "took the initiative to create the Internet".
t ical_career
o f_the_Internet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore%23Early_poli
The Internet was "created" in 1969.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet%23Creation_
Next question?
Final 2006 "Proof of Global Warming" US Hurricane Count -> 0
Uhu, congratulations, you have just mixed together a lot of history in a few sentences. The Israel and Palestine conflict is much more complex and nobody can reduce it to "Terrorists killing Jews", a lot of innocent people on both sides are dying and all of them have the right to live on that soil.
The "Arab Nations"-Israel conflict is also very complicated and when it began, it had nothing to do with terrorism.
Every Al Quada expert they asked told the commision that there couldn't be a link between Al Quada and the Saddam because they had only one thing in common: the USA were their enemy. But Saddam had nothing to do with religion. He has used religion to manipulate his people (even leaders in democratic countries still do that) and he prosecuted religious groups in iraq, because he didn't want them to get influence.
After 9/11 the US government needed a real target and therefore they designed the 9/11 connection of Iraq.
BTW, what exactley has that to do with Internet TV?
...no matter how many times an urban legend has been put to rest.
The urban legend is about him saying he *invented* the internet. That's clearly untrue, and I never repeated this anywhere. However, he DID say he took the *initiative* *in* *creating* the internet. Even the famous Algore apologist, Barbara Mikkelson, affirms that he made this statement.
The problem seems to be over the definition of "internet." Those who want Algore to be the father will define it in such a way that he becomes the father. There are those of us, however, who distinctly remember using something remarkably similar to the internet before Gore "took initiative."
p.s. I call you guys "religous" because of the religious style indignation you exhibit over this possibility that he isn't infallible.
p.p.s. What what the fck are you doing bringing in Ruby Ridge? Let's just hijack the whole thread why don't we? Let's just make it a left versus right issue and damn the facts to hell! "Oo oo he doesn't like algore therefore he must be a rightwing nutbag because only rightwing nutbags don't like algore so let me drop in a reference to ruby ridge and that will show him who has the biggest yarbles yeah!"
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!