The Web: A Decade Later
Some of you may recall “CNET Central”, an all-things-web/computer program that aired way back in 1996. Segments included trend spotting (Netscape Navigator! The latest cable modems!), as well as some more questionable content (one show reassured viewers that you can in fact wash your keyboard in the bathtub).
A trip back to CNET.com circa 96 via the Wayback Machine reveals something equally interesting: as far as the web is concerned, much hasn’t changed in eleven years. Take a look at the headlines on CNET.com for October 22, 1996.
Sure, Blackberries are groundbreaking and I can download my entire record collection to something smaller than a deck of cards, but how far have we really come? Here are today’s headlines for December 13, 2007.
Buggy browsers
Continual efforts from Microsoft fail, kind of like the overeducated grad student who moves back in and can’t finish that thesis about Jane Austen and 19th century British property law.
Microsoft Office (insert version here) beta
Remember when Office didn’t suck? Neither do we. An inside look at how Microsoft has no idea how to make their productivity suite productive on the web. Plus: how Google is better at everything Microsoft is okay at.
Cable modems
Accessing the Net through your TV cable: Everything you need to know about fending off Time Warner’s “we’ll send a technician between 8am and 2pm” rite of passage.
Low-priced laptop power
You don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for a fast notebook, assuming you’re into clunky, loud, anthropomorphic breathing beings that run on Vista and are harder on the eyes than the Amazon Kindle.
Windows (insert version here) nightmares
What’s the difference between Windows and Harold Ramis’ “Groundhog Day”? “Groundhog Day” was funny.