[Kosh]

Look back to 1994 when the web was first getting started

A couple choice quotes from this newsweek gem:

How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it's an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can't tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.

Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping--just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet--which there isn't--the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

[iamzack]

I'm so glad I was teething during the mid-90s so I didn't have to deal with these people.

[Ghostavo]

It seems he joined a club for people who should have known to shut up.

[Kosh]

On the otherhand Time & Newsweek, who both dissed it, are now getting pummeled by it because they were blindsided and totally underestimated it.


If anyone else has anymore old tech articles from the mid 90's or earlier, you're welcome to post them here.

[TrashMan]

I dislike reading things on the computer screen. Book and novels and stuff is way better in paper format IMHO.

[Snail]

some ppl are dumb

[Janos]

On the otherhand Time & Newsweek, who both dissed it, are now getting pummeled by it because they were blindsided and totally underestimated it.

Well, the current netnews thing only works as long as someone really makes news for living. When there's no one to go to Afghanistan or Congo or to reveal corrupt politicians, it will be very, very silent in the google news.

[S-99]

I'm so glad I was teething during the mid-90s so I didn't have to deal with these people.

It's not good, you missed the 80's. During the late 80's i kept hearing about gorilla warfare. I was so curious why gorillas at war with each other was on the news because they're animals. That was much more exciting than the internet.

[Flaser]

I dislike reading things on the computer screen. Book and novels and stuff is way better in paper format IMHO.

Nowadays I do nothing but read on my computer...

...and occasionally watch a movie or anime.

[blackhole]

I read anything other then books on a screen. Reading on a computer usually isn't a task because when your on a computer, you get the information you want and then go back to work. I can learn more about programming in 15 minutes of searching then 5 hours of perusing through a useless book.

On the other hand, if your reading a story of some sort, then I vastly prefer paper books to computer screens. Reading that much text is a goddamned pain in the ass when you could be curled up with a good book.

I also happen to like paper newspapers over online news, for some reason.

Computers beat the crap out of books in terms of conveying information, but I think stories, amusing nonfiction books, and anything thats actually FUN to read, you probably want to read out of a book.

[iamzack]

I read online because I can change the text size at will.

I ****ing hate wearing my glasses, so I avoid them as much as possible.

[Rick James]

I read online because I can change the text size at will.

I ****ing hate wearing my glasses, so I avoid them as much as possible.

Really? Because given the pics I've seen of you, I don't think glasses would look bad on you.

Unless they're ugly-ass thick rectangular frames.

[NGTM-1R]

Really? Because given the pics I've seen of you, I don't think glasses would look bad on you.

Unless they're ugly-ass thick rectangular frames.

...fanboys make passes at girls who wear glasses.
— Neil Sinclair, alt.fan.bgcrisis, 15 September 2004

And now I vanish into the night again, having snagged your time.

[Janos]

I dislike reading things on the computer screen. Book and novels and stuff is way better in paper format IMHO.

Nowadays I do nothing but read on my computer...

...and occasionally watch a movie or anime.

what a wonderful life

[Narvi]

The Internet is the new home for short stories and novellas. The old magazines have faded away, so e-publishing looks to be the future.

Hell if I'm going to read ebooks if I have the option for paper though.

Really? Because given the pics I've seen of you, I don't think glasses would look bad on you.

Unless they're ugly-ass thick rectangular frames.

...fanboys make passes at girls who wear glasses.
— Neil Sinclair, alt.fan.bgcrisis, 15 September 2004

And now I vanish into the night again, having snagged your time.

the trick is to have your entire family where glasses except for yourself

and then to brag about your perfect vision all the time

this will make glasses-wearing people seem perpetually angry all the time instead of erotic

i don't know what their problem was

i had perfect vision

[Polpolion]

The Internet is the new home for short stories and novellas. The old magazines have faded away, so e-publishing looks to be the future.

Hell if I'm going to read ebooks if I have the option for paper though.

Really? Because given the pics I've seen of you, I don't think glasses would look bad on you.

Unless they're ugly-ass thick rectangular frames.

...fanboys make passes at girls who wear glasses.
— Neil Sinclair, alt.fan.bgcrisis, 15 September 2004

And now I vanish into the night again, having snagged your time.

the trick is to have your entire family where glasses except for yourself

and then to brag about your perfect vision all the time

this will make glasses-wearing people seem perpetually angry all the time instead of erotic

i don't know what their problem was

i had perfect vision

 

[Narvi]

i spent that entire paragraph without capitalization or punctuation

and you complain about the wrong word in the wrong place

well played, sir

[iamzack]

Wearing glasses just seems unsafe to me. Like, what if someone punches me in the face while I'm wearing them and the glass breaks and goes into my eye or something? That would suck so bad.

[Polpolion]

i spent that entire paragraph without capitalization or punctuation

and you complain about the wrong word in the wrong place

well played, sir

No capitalization doesn't change the meaning of what you're saying, and with the kind of sentences you used no punctuation didn't have an impact either. But "where" instead of "wear" made me double back and rage.

Anyway, I dislike reading literature on the computer, as with many other people. For one, my monitor is incapable of having a better refresh rate, and that hurts my eyes. Two, you can't exactly carry my computer around with the same convenience as a book. Say I get a laptop or a netbook for portability with a screen that's easy on the eyes. There's a third problem: Battery life. Books don't run out of battery power, but laptops and netbooks do, and all too quickly I'm afraid.

Granted, if all three of these problems were solved, I'd love it. Kindle you say? If I was going to buy something that expensive, I'd just screw the reading issue and buy a netbook.

For me, books win, for now. My Cowon S9 has the ability to display textfiles, but I only use that to read short stories. Even then, the screen chews up a lot of the battery life.

[Mongoose]

Wearing glasses just seems unsafe to me. Like, what if someone punches me in the face while I'm wearing them and the glass breaks and goes into my eye or something? That would suck so bad.

If someone's punching you in the face hard enough to shatter something like a glasses lens, I feel like you probably have bigger problems to worry about.

And you could always, y'know, not get punched in the face.