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Predicting the Internet in 1995
Rexdude writes "Here is a list of predictions from 'The Internet' magazine at the end of 1994. It highlights the major changes and events on the net as it was back then (20 million users only, for starters).
Seems a throwback to a relatively more innocent time, when the unwashed masses had not taken over the net as much as today. And look at the reverence accorded to long dead protocols like Gopher!"
Firefox even supports it natively. Here's a gopher site you can visit today.
Andrew, let me have your time traveling machine.
Andrew Kantor
(ak@mecklermedia.com)
Best:
* Media coverage. Sure, some of that coverage seems clueless, and some of it focuses; foolishly, but not surprisingly; on the seedier side of the Net (such as pornography and electronic stalkers). But 1994 saw the Internet finally hit the mainstr eam. Time and Newsweek now routinely print letters received through e-mail, and more importantly, it's no longer a novelty. The coverage in magazines on the supermarket check-out line has helped make the other "best" things possible.
* On-line shopping. The other best sign that the Net has hit the mainstream. Flowers, pizza, condoms, lobsters, books, music, and more are available, with other products sure to follow. Small companies can now have the same presence as larger ones. Who cares what neighborhood that bookstore is in?
* No more secrets. With more and more people on-line around the world, it's hard for anyone to get away with anything. Sure, a lot of things make their appearance in alt.conspiracies, but the Net has finally come into its own as a news source for the masses. It's no longer strange to hear, "I heard on the Net that Paul's going to have an affair on 'Mad About You.'"
* New providers, more products, and more books. The Internet is proof that capitalism works, and never has that been shown more than in 1994. Big companies like Netcom and AlterNet compete with local providers like Panix, Pipeline, and the Well. Consumers have more choices than ever in access providers, software, and reading material. As usual, the best succeeded and the rest are ending up on the bargain shelf.
Worst:
* Government intervention. They ruined the railroads and the phone companies, and now they're after the Internet. It works like this: Something is good, and private companies are selling it and making it work. The government decides it's a "right," and subsidizes one of those private companies to give it to people who can't afford it. The subsidized company soon runs the competition out of business and becomes a sponsored, sanctioned monopoly. The process has started with the Internet under the guise of "making the Information Superhighway available to everyone." It may sound good at first, but it's a bad idea. We may look back at 1994 as the beginning of the end of the high-quality Net.
* America Online. It let its users onto the Net with only the barest bit of training or preparation. It provided software that made it difficult for even the most savvy user to behave with proper netiquette. But the worst offense is that AOL, like other major on-line services, is taking from the Internet without giving back. Major providers like Alternet, Netcom, and PSI not only put users on the Net, they make available Gopher servers, FTP-able files, and other resources. AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy are only just beginning to do that, and to be proper net.citizens they must make more substance available to the rest of the Net.
* Canter and Siegel. A cheap shot, true, but still one of the worst events of 1994. It's more than simply the fact that they annoyed a few million users in more than 100 countries without showing remorse. The almost-disbarred-from-Tennessee lawyers gave the idea to others, and made people see marketing and sales opportunities that simply don't exist.
* Zealots. They're the people who have decided that they have the right to regulate; with threats or force if necessary; what is available on the Net.
Predictions:
* Cancelbot wars. As spamming and the spam-killing cancelbots become more widespread, people will find their Usenet News messages canceled by someone who simply doesn't like them. Cancelbot software will spread, as people begin editing out opposing view
Hostes alienigieni me abduxerunt. Qui annus est?
``Apu: Could it be used for dating?
;-)
Frink: Well, technically, yes, but the computer matches would be so perfect as to eliminate the thrill of romantic conquest.''
OkCupid does a fairly good job at that. Bonus points for the first slashdotter to find my profile.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
``Like SLIP versus PPP -- now, most people couldn't even tell you what either of them are.''
:-)
That may be true, but PPP is still widely used (I don't know about SLIP). I use it when connecting to the Net through my mobile phone. Surfing the web over a GPRS link feels just like the old times.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Practically everyone who uses xDSL also uses PPP... encapsulated in ethernet frames. So PPP is still around.
I was wondering if someone was going to point that out. You'd think, what with we just had an election and all, that people would realize that the elections in november 1994 didn't seat the new Republican controlled congress until 1995. 1994 saw the democrats controlling both houses of congress and the white house.
Web, Net, I-Way, etc... There were tons of dead tree magazines published between 94' to 97' that featured links of what's hot, etc... The proliferation of real search engines that worked pretty much killed that space.
Umm, no, I think he is trying to say that the democans can be just as evil as the republicrats. A lot of people seem to be missing the fact that these two groups really are not that dissimilar in most of their goals (taking/keeping power and money).
But wait a minute, who was in control of congress in 1994??? Oh yeah, those democans had control that year and the 40 years prior to that! It wasn't until November 8th, 1994 that 54 democan seats in the House were lost to republicrats. Those seats didn't change until the 104th Congress was sworn in January 4th, 1995. So who forced whom to sign those horrible, horrible laws? Oh yeah, it sure wasn't "Newt Gingrich, and his Contract with America Republicans," (that crap didn't start until 1995) it was absolutely the democans and their 258 to 176 seat majority in the House and 56-44 seat majority in the Senate, everyone loves to forget about the Senate.
Jeopardy. I'm glad the IRC gaming channels are popular, but the #jeopardy channel is usually so crowded the game becomes a typing race rather than a trivia game. Maybe the newer game channels (#outburst and #boggle) will alleviate some of the crowding.
Oh, the memories.
I literally flunked out of college (twice!) because of this game.
I spent many, many, many hours (days? weeks? months?) in this channel playing. School work and studying be damned. Thanks Kenrick Mock for ruining my brief career at UC Davis!
The "strategy" was, one, you learned all the answers (in those days there might have been 1,000 game answers), two, you could type really fast, and, three, you had a decent non-lagged connection to the IRC Efnet. This was in the days when Efnet was very, very, very crowded (not NEARLY so many IRC nets as today) and it netsplit every 3 minutes or so.
Nowadays I guess it's #riskybus (due to lawsuit threats by the owners of Jeopardy!).
All links after that seem to be normal search engine hits.
And the parser is pretty intelligent too, I just tried it with "What is a slide rule for?" and got a meaningful answer!