Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Adobe Building Zoetrope, a Web "Time Machine"

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the data-lovers-unite dept.

Khuffie writes "Adobe, along with the University of Washington, are developing Zoetrope, an application that will offer a dynamic new view of the web. It is hard to explain on paper, but you can see a brilliant video of the application in action. Essentially, Zoetrope will allow users to travel back in time through a website, and see how the website gets changed. A user can create lenses on the website, for example, focusing on the price of a DVD at Amazon, and see how the price went up and down over the coming months. More interestingly, you can link lenses together across different websites, and for example, see how the price of gas was affected by say, the aggregated google news result of 'war.'"

15 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. I feel like... by Facegarden · · Score: 4, Funny

    I feel like there is a porn joke in here somewhere...
    -Taylor

    --
    Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    1. Re:I feel like... by DeadDecoy · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's awesome. You could see the internet before: goatse, tub girl, and 2-girls on cup. Think of all the things you could un-watch!
      Hell, I could un-rick-roll myself, thereby destroying that meme forever!

    2. Re:I feel like... by bennomatic · · Score: 4, Funny

      O god... watching Pam Anderson change from the pretty girl-next-door to monster of modern science she is.

      --
      The CB App. What's your 20?
    3. Re:I feel like... by hal2814 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't think that's such a good idea. Un-goatse yourself now and next thing you know you'll be clicking through a lively discussion, see a good point with a reference so some "goatse" site (probably some sort of wiki), click the link, and then NOOOOOOO!!!! There's the goatse all over again.

    4. Re:I feel like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You've just postulated the endless goatse loop!

    5. Re:I feel like... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 2, Funny

      O god... watching Pam Anderson change from the pretty girl-next-door to monster of modern science she is.

      Screw that. FTS, emphasis mine:

      A user can create lenses on the website, for example, focusing on the price of a DVD at Amazon, and see how the price went up and down over the coming months.

      Not only can we use Zoetrope to view the past versions, we can apparently use it to see the future versions. Wait until I create a lens on some stock-tracking site... I'll be rich enough to pay for Pam to have all her work undone... or for her to complete her metamorphosis into Boobarella.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  2. it can see into the future! by Digitus1337 · · Score: 4, Funny

    . . . and see how the price went up and down over the coming months.

    This is all I need to make the change from more traditional investments to a DVD-based retirement plan!

  3. Re:Just so we're on the same page by sexconker · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh please. Clearly Adobe, Google, Microsoft, etc. don't have to pay attention to that. Information wants to be free!

  4. cliches in the digital age by mblase · · Score: 3, Funny

    It is hard to explain on paper,

    ...which is okay, since neither one of us is using any.

    Always makes me wonder: when was the last time anybody actually "dialed" a phone? And someday kids will wonder why it's called "YouTube" when they've only ever watched it on a thin, flat LCD screen....

  5. See prices go up and down in the COMING months?!? by noidentity · · Score: 4, Funny

    A user can create lenses on the website, for example, focusing on the price of a DVD at Amazon, and see how the price went up and down over the coming months

    1. See how the price of a stock "went" up and down over the coming months.
    2. ???
    3. Profit!!!

    Any ideas on step 2? It's escaping me at the moment...

  6. Re:Sloganeering by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Or the completely accurate but much less trite version:

    Correlation implies either causation or mutual causation by a third factor.

  7. Nerd Mashup! by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 2, Funny

    Someone photomorph tubgirl with a Klein bottle.

    --
    My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
  8. +1 Sinatra! by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 1, Funny

    You did it your way.

    --
    My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
  9. Re: another ... by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 2, Funny

    Followed by Microsoft announcing "Tropz"!

    --
    My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
  10. Re:Archive.org by Toonol · · Score: 5, Funny

    Use the wayback machine to visit it before it started retroactively honoring robots.txt.