TECHNOLOGY

The Internet? Bah!

Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn't, and will never be, nirvana

NEWSWEEK

Feb 27, 1995 Issue

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Posted By: gayathriherath @ 04/04/2008 11:16:27 AM

Comment: A team of successful entrepreneurs credited for www.SelectWealthSystem.com
A new home-based-business marketing system that provides the strategic high ground for internet marketing.
Pro Team Marketing uses an automated marketing system that is currently promoting a cutting-edge young company, entering the early growth stage, that targets the largest consumer base in the United States with their financial educational products.
http://www.SelectWealthSystem.com
Posted By: gayathriherath @ 04/04/2008 11:16:00 AM

Comment: A team of successful entrepreneurs credited for www.SelectWealthSystem.com
A new home-based-business marketing system that provides the strategic high ground for internet marketing.
Pro Team Marketing uses an automated marketing system that is currently promoting a cutting-edge young company, entering the early growth stage, that targets the largest consumer base in the United States with their financial educational products.
http://www.SelectWealthSystem.com
Posted By: Cheryl Chapman @ 03/31/2008 5:41:06 AM

Comment: The other worry is the lack of a human element in digital communication, is, I honestly believe, dehumanising our children. Sound paranoid? I have a digi-child who spends a lot of his time online and I see a lot of the stuff he is 'submersed' in. I also see how he and his generation act off line. They are cruel, regularly violent and angry with eachother. And they are friends! This generation ,bought up online, are losing the plot of real life. They have been sold life through a screen and that's my point - the repercussions of their actions are screened out. And this is being carried across to real life. The kids are stabbing eachother in the street and the politicians are scratching their heads. But then I can't stand inthe way of money making 'progress' can they.? The internet may be one of the biggest inventions since fire- and like my mother always said about fire, it's a good servant but a baqd master. We need to take control.
- Posted By: laurenh24 @ 04/14/2008 17:42:57
  
  Comment: Cheryl: If you see what he is submersed in and don't approve, why not do something about it? You're the parent. And I'm sure kids didn't stab each other and everyone was super friendly all the time back in the 1950s. Yes, his generation has been brought up online, but he's been brought up by you. Take your own advice and take control of your own family before you blame your child's personality on the Internet.
Posted By: wabler @ 03/28/2008 1:22:22 PM

Comment: I just think it is funny that an article from 1995, which claims there are no editors on the internet proves that with all the spelling errors...It's been 13 years and no one has edited this yet?
Posted By: fapestniegd @ 03/28/2008 11:14:45 AM

Comment: "What the Internet hucksters won't tell you is tht the Internet is one big ocean of unedited data, without any pretense of completeness."

And how is this any different than what passes for "Journalism" these days?
Posted By: Old News @ 03/24/2008 5:37:00 PM

Comment: If it's 13 years old, remember that's 65 COMPUTER years, and IT'S STILL TRUE, so the guy is Nostradamus.
He's right about human contact. Those young geniuses who "get it" with computers click away all day, but start a conversation with them and they say Yup or Nope.
Ready to get "outsourced" haircuts or bartenders?
I like computers to get work done, but the Internet at home?
I'm afraid of the time I would waste!
Why do I need to comment here? A waste!
But I enjoyed the article.
Posted By: pmpguy @ 03/24/2008 3:58:43 PM

Comment: Anoo: http://www.newsweek.com/id/106554
Pmp Nerdz: The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval battle west of Cape Trafalgar in the province of Cádiz in south-west Spain. A British fleet of 27 ships of the line destroyed an allied French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships of the line on 21 October 1805 in the most decisive naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars.
Pmp Nerdz: Google Search. First Link. First sentence in article.
Pmp Nerdz: 15 seconds.
Pmp Nerdz: I think he's using Archie or Veronica on USEnet to search.
Pmp Nerdz: He's been online for 20 years, but I don't think he's surpased the usage of Internet circa 1989.
Anoo: Archie rocks
Pmp Nerdz: Lolipop Dragon.
Pmp Nerdz: There's an educational filmstrip I remember from Grade school.
Pmp Nerdz: or how about "And Then It Happened" the filmstrip that used scare tactics to tell the kids to sit down and shut the fcuk up on the school bus.
Pmp Nerdz: Or the one in highschool about drugs that showed the guy turn into a lizard. That one effing rocked. I wish I actually remembered the name of that one.
Anoo: oooh, yeah - i remember those
Anoo: bet you can find 'em on google video somewhere
Pmp Nerdz: wayback machine or archive project probably has them.
Anoo: ooh. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1285725859935620263&q=and+then+it+happened&total=20296&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2
Pmp Nerdz: This guy doesn't dislike the internet. He just want's the soccer moms, church ladies and Blue Collar dads who have surpased his usage to get the fcuk off of his internet so he can feel L33T again.
Pmp Nerdz: Bet he was a hacker groupie in college.
Pmp Nerdz: One of those guys that we tricked into thinking we had hacked the grade system and done them the favor of changing their grades.
Pmp Nerdz: Loved in when those guys went home for the semester and learned that htey had flunked out.
Pmp Nerdz: I'm gonna post this as a discussion after the article. Bet someone will pick apart my spleling.
Posted By: Old News @ 03/24/2008 3:29:06 PM

Comment: No, the article is right, it's so overblown, overrated, GREAT for wasting time.
Another example of degradation pushed down the throats of consumers by marketers.
- Posted By: Draconic Seraph @ 03/24/2008 22:47:37
  
  Comment: As one of the young people who ???gets??? computers quite well (I would not label myself a genius, but I do have an affinity for technology) I can assure you that this is not the case. The internet, like any other tool, can be used for either wasting time or learning. It is the user???s choice whether they have a meaningful experience or not, and is not inherently the computer???s fault. Same could be said for television. It is your choice whether you decide to sit in front of Cartoon Network or Comedy Central and engage in meaningless amusements, or end up learning something from Discovery Channel or the History Channel.
  
  In addition, my communication with others is rarely monosyllabic, as I am sure you have gathered by now??? Provided they are attempting to speak with me about a topic that I find to be at least somewhat engaging. I agree that human contact is highly important and needed. I prefer meeting my friends in person to spend time with them, but due to the fact that most of us live at least 5 hours away from one another these days, that is hardly practical. Keeping in touch via email, instant messengers, webcams, etc. is the best substitute there is. One can even actually talk for hours with someone across the world without creating a sizable phone bill in the process.
  
  I have gone to school online, I have ordered books, gifts, school supplies, clothes, and almost anything else imaginable online. I do not feel as though I am missing out on any social experiences by doing so, and in many ways, it has been quite beneficial. It is true, I hope, that computers and the internet will not replace all traditional things??? But they will surely create additions to them. For example, paintings and drawings will continue to be made with canvas, paint, paper, charcoal, etc. All of the traditional mediums. However, computer programs and tablets that allow artists to emulate traditional mediums are also being used quite prominently. Commercially, the digital aspect has replaced the traditional, for a multitude of reasons, but that does not mean that traditional art is going to disappear altogether!
  
  Same will likely go for books, shopping, learning, etc. People like choices, which is what the internet gives. Why not let everyone decide for themselves what they want? Not everyone is a social butterfly. As an introvert myself, I like using the internet to take care of menial tasks, so that when I am spending time with others, I can enjoy the experience to the fullest extent. I find it best think of technology as a supplement to what we are already used to in life, not a replacement.
  - Posted By: Draconic Seraph @ 03/24/2008 22:51:49
    
    Comment: Whoops, replied to the wrong comment by this individual, though they say mostly the same thing. All hail the joys of multitasking. =)
Posted By: blnadri @ 03/24/2008 12:52:36 PM

Comment: Sounds to me like the same kind of talk that preceded the US Mail, the telephone, the automobile, and a good many other things we take pretty much for granted today. In fact, the single best sign that progress is truly underway is the advent of the naysayers. There will come a day when internet access will be as common as electricity. You simply won't have a home or apartment where it isn't standard. Refinement of technology will progress as any science/technology does and all the doubt in the world will be no better at halting it than it's ever been.
Posted By: blnadri @ 03/24/2008 12:52:13 PM

Comment: Sounds to me like the same kind of talk that preceded the US Mail, the telephone, the automobile, and a good many other things we take pretty much for granted today. In fact, the single best sign that progress is truly underway is the advent of the naysayers. There will come a day when internet access will be as common as electricity. You simply won't have a home or apartment where it isn't standard. Refinement of technology will progress as any science/technology does and all the doubt in the world will be no better at halting it than it's ever been.
- Posted By: Draconic Seraph @ 03/24/2008 22:54:08
  
  Comment: What I think it boils down to is humanity's general fear of change. There seem to be a lot of people who think that just because something is new and different, that makes it inherently bad, and liable to either slowly degrade the fabric of society, or destroy us outright. Which could be true, in some instances, but I firmly believe that good and bad comes with every discovery and step forward that is made. It's the price to pay for progress.
Posted By: GustoMaybe @ 03/24/2008 12:22:49 PM

Comment: Admittedly, unmoderated and unedited content has the majority. (my post proves the point :)
Also, virtual education still hasn't really caught on, and it seems to be gaining ground quite slowly compared to other things.

Also, had it not been for things like Google, we might still be in the search quandary the author was in.
The major point of disagreement I have with the article is the assertion that salespeople are capitalism's necessity. I don't need a salesperson to buy a book, buy my groceries, or to pick up some office supplies. Even on big-ticket items, I have seen many people decide on a purchase beforehand, and treat the salesperson basically as a sales clerk.
Posted By: GWMan @ 03/24/2008 12:09:57 PM

Comment: My post negates this article in its entirety.
Posted By: cyphertube @ 03/24/2008 10:19:26 AM

Comment: Well, he called the death of Usenet. But I remember what crap the Internet was then. We were still pushing the use of Gopher at the University of Minnesota. But 1995 is also when I learned HTML, started building online, and got going on a career. And now, here I am, in my bed, telecommuting and feeding my Amazon.com ordering addiction.
Posted By: Akujin @ 03/24/2008 8:19:48 AM

Comment: This is a great article to test people on whether or not they read the article till the end and pay attention to the appropriate meta data about the article (ie, the date) before commenting.
Posted By: worldvoyager @ 03/24/2008 8:01:06 AM

Comment: It's too bad you are contributing to the mis-infomation highway. Electronic books are not limited to laptops. Dedicated ebook readers have been around for years. Small handheld devices with power saving e ink screens, Sony ereader and the Amazon Kindle are just two. Without technology, we would still be chasing down bison with our bare hands.
Posted By: infostud @ 03/23/2008 11:34:42 PM

Comment: Please read another work by this author http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo's_Egg
Posted By: chasingtheflow @ 03/23/2008 10:20:44 PM

Comment: @jdempey

you're an idiot. this article was written in 1995 - google and wikipedia did not even exist yet, of course you encountered different results.

looks like my man missed the whole point of this digg story (as im sure you must have come from there or another social website as one does not simple stumble across mediocre 13 year old news stories too often).

though much of what the author of this article wrote seems like bullshit now it was legitimate thinking in context with the time it was written.

btw totally just had an XKCD "someone is wrong on the internet" moment.
Posted By: jdempcy @ 03/23/2008 9:54:49 PM

Comment: I just Googled "battle of trafalgar" and followed the very first link, to the Wikipedia entry. It contained the date of the battle. I'm not sure about the other results you encountered but I assure you, the Internet is an immensely helpful research tool. While it will never replace human interaction, it can certainly facilitate ever-greater knowledge-sharing and new possibilities for learning.
Posted By: jdempcy @ 03/23/2008 9:46:16 PM

Comment: I just Googled "battle of trafalgar" and followed the very first link, to the Wikipedia entry. It contained the date of the battle. I'm not sure about the other results you encountered but I assure you, the Internet is an immensely helpful research tool. While it will never replace human interaction, it can certainly facilitate ever-greater knowledge-sharing and new possibilities for learning.
Posted By: Geminate @ 03/23/2008 9:06:38 PM

Comment: Written almost 13 years ago by a non-visionist.
Posted By: indigosonic @ 03/23/2008 7:54:53 PM

Comment: I agree with GJAX , and i would like to know how old jimglidewell is, because he should know that google didn't even exist in 1995, google wasn't founded until 1998 and was created as a direct result of internet search's not bringing back relevant data for there quarries. I guess it's hard for todays kids to imagine a time before google , youtube, and broadband high speed but back in "95" all there was, was dial-up.
ps per sec , but
Posted By: samoth @ 03/23/2008 7:14:17 PM

Comment: http://popurls.com might be a solution
Posted By: jimglidewell @ 03/23/2008 4:47:18 PM

Comment: A google search of "battle trafalgar"(no quotes) gives me the date without even clicking on a link. Clearly, Mr. Stoll has an axe to grind, and is willing to bend the truth to "prove" his point.

In less genteel circles, this is referred to as "lying".

If this is the best example of how "useless" the Internet is, then I think he can be safely dismissed as a curmudgeon and a crank.
Posted By: GJAX @ 03/23/2008 4:43:36 PM

Comment: not sure who is dumber....the guy who wrote this or all you people commenting like it was written today...this was written in NINETEEN NINETY FIVE!!!!! In all fairness to the author, do a little searching back to 1995 and this perspective was widespread.....and in fact alot of the examples people give to refute this article are a direct result from the proliferation of this limited perspective and the challenge to disprove it.
- Posted By: PatrynXX @ 03/23/2008 21:25:16
  
  Comment: Can't believe this silly thing is now the number 2 article of the day. Stupid people breed more stupid people and before you know it it's number one. So are we partying like its 1995??
Posted By: GJAX @ 03/23/2008 4:40:35 PM

Comment: not sure who is dumber....the guy who wrote this or all you people commenting like it was written today...this was written in NINETEEN NINETY FIVE!!!!!
- Posted By: blnadri @ 03/24/2008 12:55:32
  
  Comment: Actually, I replied much the same IN 1995, so I had no issue with doing so when it appeared today. Sometimes it isn't stupidity, sometimes it's enjoying the fact you were/are correct. :)
Posted By: dswinscoe @ 03/23/2008 4:38:25 PM

Comment: Until I saw the dateline, I was in shock ... the contradiction overload was just too high. Followed by the second thought, almost as powerful: how must the author feel about this now, 13 years later? Fast-forward 2008: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar ... copy, paste click! Although, I 'm sure this article will still resonate with many a Luddite today.
Posted By: dswinscoe @ 03/23/2008 4:37:26 PM

Comment: Until I saw the dateline, I was in shock ... the contradiction overload was just too high. Followed by the second thought, almost as powerful: how must the author feel about this now, 13 years later? Fast-forward 2008: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar ... copy, paste click! Although, I 'm sure this will resonate with many a Luddite today.
Posted By: monish21 @ 03/23/2008 4:00:03 PM

Comment: misleading all the way ... The entire article. I hope I could publish an article in response to yours on the Sne website. But you talk about things that you dont like rather than things that are hit possible.

Goodluck with what you think but Internet is having lives everyday and every second. Just dig into ebay and google to just give you a few examples. (they boy do more online business on an hour to what your local mall dies on a day)

Dig into what cdrom education is doing to various parts of Africa where its almost impossible to get good teachers.

Dig why Swizerland has an online embasy in second life.

Dig why we are reading your article online instead of on a newspaper.

Internet is not changing the entire world but its sure is changing things.

Monish Khosla
monish21@gmail.com
Posted By: anschauung @ 03/23/2008 3:57:25 PM

Comment: Actually ... I was just being a smart-aleck, but it looks like the article actually *is* from the mid-90s.
Whoops!
Posted By: dave_J @ 03/23/2008 3:56:55 PM

Comment: You have nothing to say what the internet user already does not know. But you had to write something, so you ramble on. There are many reliable edited sources of info on the net. What the net does is make it available readily to a lot of people, just like your ramble.
Posted By: dave_J @ 03/23/2008 3:56:40 PM

Comment: You have nothing to say what the internet user already does not know. But you had to write something, so you ramble on. There are many reliable edited sources of info on the net. What the net does is make it available readily to a lot of people, just like your ramble.
Posted By: anschauung @ 03/23/2008 3:54:30 PM

Comment: Thank you Newsweek, for this great flashback article from the mid-90s.

Its always great to think back to how skeptical we all were 10 years ago, before banking, investments, dating, job hunting, socializing, reading the news, and even book shopping were all done primarily online. It makes for a great reminder of how easy it is to be wrapped up in our own ideas of how things are 'supposed' to be done, to the extent that it blinds us to newer and better ways.

However, I would recommend that you prominently mention the date this article was published. Without clearly marking it as an archived article, it looks suspiciously like some retrograde curmudgeon is trying to deny that the past decade ever occurred. How embarrassing would that be?
Posted By: anschauung @ 03/23/2008 3:54:13 PM

Comment: Thank you Newsweek, for this great flashback article from the mid-90s.

Its always great to think back to how skeptical we all were 10 years ago, before banking, investments, dating, job hunting, socializing, reading the news, and even book shopping were all done primarily online. It makes for a great reminder of how easy it is to be wrapped up in our own ideas of how things are 'supposed' to be done, to the extent that it blinds us to newer and better ways.

However, I would recommend that you prominently mention the date this article was published. Without clearly marking it as an archived article, it looks suspiciously like some retrograde curmudgeon is trying to deny that the past decade ever occurred. How embarrassing would that be?
Posted By: Wist @ 03/23/2008 3:41:43 PM

Comment: One thing I, as a 47-year-old man, have begun to understand is the ability (or susceptibility) that younger people have to adapt to new technology and integrate it into their lives, simply because it is all they have ever known. Your comments may all be true for "our" generation, but what then? (And by the way, I turned up reliable info on the Battle of Trafalgar in 15 seconds. You must not know where to look. ;)
Posted By: headwyvern @ 03/23/2008 3:32:37 PM

Comment: The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval battle west of Cape Trafalgar in the province of Cádiz in south-west Spain. A British fleet of 27 ships of the line destroyed an allied French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships of the line on 21 October 1805 in the most decisive naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars.
I agree with you... but wouldn't trans-humanism allow for integration of community and regulation of "the net"
Posted By: headwyvern @ 03/23/2008 3:31:01 PM

Comment: The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval battle west of Cape Trafalgar in the province of Cádiz in south-west Spain. A British fleet of 27 ships of the line destroyed an allied French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships of the line on 21 October 1805 in the most decisive naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars.
btw, i agree with you... but wouldn't trans-humanism allow for humanity to integrate and regulate the "net"?
btw, i
Posted By: GustoMaybe @ 03/23/2008 3:09:35 PM

Comment: > One or two things may have changed since the.
e.g. the ugly (but working) Kindle by amazon.
Posted By: gjbloom @ 03/23/2008 3:03:58 PM

Comment: Um... the article was copyright 1995. One or two things may have changed since the.
Posted By: Joe Stevens @ 03/23/2008 3:03:32 PM

Comment: What are these newspapers that you speak of?
Posted By: a8482918dh @ 03/23/2008 2:14:38 PM

Comment: So because the internet has created an environment where more people can get involved, we shouldn't listen? Should we just listen to those who are in public positions of 'power?' I thought the point to a democracy was that the power rested in the people. If people don't listen, thats because they don't want to and that is a different situation.Also, I hardly ever read a newspaper. All I have to do to get the news that I want is to log onto the BBC's web page, but then again they are just part of that 'big ocean of unedited data' right? Just like everything else, there are good things and bad things about the internet but you shouldn't let the bad out weigh the good.
Posted By: Unfocused @ 03/23/2008 2:02:45 PM

Comment: Battle of Trafalgar ??? Date: 21 October 1805.(0.06 seconds)
Posted By: Unfocused @ 03/23/2008 2:01:13 PM

Comment: Google says 21 October 1805. It took .06 seconds.
Posted By: kirk11 @ 03/23/2008 1:17:35 PM

Comment: Clifford the big red dumb ass
Posted By: ZackDanger @ 03/23/2008 12:55:52 PM

Comment: Just as accurate today as it was 13 years ago.

The "internet" (what does that mean, really?) is a fad, just as were 8-tracks and pet rocks.

Soon, people will be selling their cobweb and dust covered internets at yardsales every sunday.
Posted By: digimint @ 03/23/2008 12:21:06 PM

Comment: Sounds like an accurate analysis to me. there is so much junk on the net, however it is a great place to do research in advance of going to the store.
Posted By: GustoMaybe @ 03/23/2008 11:46:17 AM

Comment: Most of what he says is still true - no one reads books online. In fact, if it wasn't for google and amazon, his whole article would accurately reflect today's internet.
- Posted By: yadiboy @ 03/23/2008 12:32:34
  
  Comment: That's just not true. Almost every sentence in this article is wrong. For example: "The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works."
  
  In the last week, I have read only online news, have gone through 3-4 hours of video tutorials on a new software package, and both paid a parking ticket and filed my taxes online.
  
  Not to mention all of the the following also done in the last week: bought and sold about 10 stocks (with NO commission), researched about 10 others, bought an Amazon gift certificate for my mother's birthday, arranged a trip to Toronto including air, hotel and car rental, paid all of my bills without a single stamp or paper check, reconciled my bank account with my financial software automatically, shared my sister's PC desktop via web meeting software and helped her through some technical issues, did the same with a neighbor to help diagnose his slow DSL problems, ordered a new server for my business, started a cerdit card merchant account for an online business, reviewed the work of our completely telecomutting workforce (again, via web meeting software), updated my Blockbuster online queue, ordered a pizza from a local restaurant and paid for it, researched telephone headsets for the 40+ hours of web conferences I'll be in next week - and found a local store with inventory of the one I wanted, watched videos of the violence in Tibet, found and emailed a friend I haven't seen in years, and commented on this article.
  
  The only in-person human contact required in all of this was getting the headset at the store and paying the pizza guy... I did call my neighbor and sister. Though my sister lives 1000 miles away, my neigbor lives less that 300 feet away... and it was STILL EASIER to remotely share his PC desktop than to walk over there.
  
  I'm not sure what alternate dimension you live in dude...
Posted By: cyriac.kandoth @ 03/23/2008 11:20:39 AM

Comment: Everyone! Take it easy... this is an article from 1995.
- Posted By: cyriac.kandoth @ 03/23/2008 11:22:58
  
  Comment: In 1995, with dialup connections, no one even imagined stuff like Youtube or Digg.
Posted By: GustoMaybe @ 03/23/2008 11:20:00 AM

Comment: You people do realize this article is 13 years old, right?
Posted By: gzillgi @ 03/23/2008 11:19:24 AM

Comment: UPDATE:

Well, now I feel like the dummy. I didn't notice that this article is 13 years old.
Posted By: CorbinB2 @ 03/23/2008 10:16:50 AM

Comment: What the author fails to realize or perhaps overlooks is the purpose of the Internet. It is merely a tool by which people can do things easier. Paying bills, shopping, research, chatting with friends are all things that can be done online, when real life interaction is not possible.

The Internet also contributes to a greener society. As the three R's of an eco-friendly lifestyle state, Reduce is first and foremost and the Internet provides the avenue to help do that by providing a means by which you can perhaps avoid a carbon-burning trip to the mall in your car.

This is not to say that this is always the most appropriate way to accomplish the ins and outs of your day, but certainly it has many advantages. There is also the fact that people who previously had limited means of getting out to run errands, shop and meet with friends, can now do so on a regular basis. I'm sure that if a study was done in the grand scheme that statistics would show a society who is more happy and overall because of the Internet.

Like any new tool, it requires learning how to best use it. Many try to establish themselves as famous people through this medium or knaively and mistakenly think that to be succesful they need only post to it and the success will follow. It is only a part of the big picture and as my own personal experience in ths very area has taught me over the years, success online still requires personal interaction. However it does open up parts of the world, the country and even my own city that previously would have been unreachable to me without great expense.

When used properly this tool can be a great tool if you know how to use it.
Posted By: expat73 @ 03/23/2008 9:09:32 AM

Comment: This writer should obviously be working for our federal government given his depth of insight and understanding of the internets.
Posted By: biggestdog420 @ 03/23/2008 9:01:48 AM

Comment: ahhh seems like yesterday I was typing /AT#4582/972957 etc, to just get online at about 1200 BPS, and absolutely thrilled about it, and all that it could be. --- AND I STILL am every bit as thrilled today as I was then.
Posted By: mialynneb @ 03/23/2008 7:39:23 AM

Comment: I think the author was spot-on here! He was like the Nostradamus of 1995! I don't know about everyone else but when he speaks - I listen. I wonder if he has the lottery numbers because he is full of win and awesome.

The only problem is, he didn't give Al Gore credit for inventing the Internets!
Posted By: mialynneb @ 03/23/2008 7:38:27 AM

Comment: I think the author was spot-on here! He was like the Nostradamus of 1995! I don't know about everyone else but when he speaks - I listen. I wonder if he has the lottery numbers because he is full of win and awesome.

The only problem is, he didn't give Al Gore credit for inventing the Internets!
Posted By: PatrynXX @ 03/23/2008 7:22:38 AM

Comment: is msnbc pulling an april fools joke early. 1995 eh. we got online that year in January with a 2400 baud dial up. And certainly for a large chunk of the 90's, $170 for being online a month was pretty bad. now it's $35 a month for cable broadband. Kinda figured something was amiss saying the internet will never replace newspapers :P
Posted By: SmittyRN @ 03/23/2008 6:42:31 AM

Comment: OK..... don't any of you people leaving comments understand that this article was written EIGHTEEN years ago?
- Posted By: mstrom42 @ 03/23/2008 14:00:13
  
  Comment: Than why does he say at the beginning of the article that he's been online for 2 decades? I might not know my history that well, but I'm fairly sure "online" didn't exist yet in 1975.
  - Posted By: RKolk @ 03/23/2008 14:53:52
    
    Comment: You're right! You don't know your history that well.
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet
- Posted By: C_Boo @ 03/23/2008 06:52:57
  
  Comment: SmittyRN: It's 2013 already? This milk in my fridge must have gone bad by now. 1995 was thirteen, not eighteen years ago in my universe.
  
  Everyone else: SmittyRN's point is still valid. Part of reading the article is checking the date and who wrote it..
Posted By: SmittyRN @ 03/23/2008 6:41:35 AM

Comment: Ok... didn't any of the people leaving comments see that the article was written EIGHTEEN years ago?
Posted By: embarissed @ 03/23/2008 5:49:41 AM

Comment: 21st October 1805, time taken to find, 10.7 seconds. Time taken to backup that date with multiple other websites, 42 seconds. Time wasted of my life reading your article, 2 minutes I will never get back.
Posted By: mstrom42 @ 03/23/2008 4:32:13 AM

Comment: Interesting article, but I would disagree on a lot of points. For example much of my shopping is done on Ebay, especially for games and collectibles I can't get locally. My social life is online, every night I hop online after work to chat with friends all over the continent. I even went to visit one very good friend and had a delightful time. Furthermore, much of my news is gathered through the blogsphere, and.or yahoo news.
Posted By: Musashi @ 03/23/2008 3:44:38 AM

Comment: Clifford Stoll

This was a terrific read and a nice commone sense article. I wish there was more like it.
Posted By: 2468ben @ 03/22/2008 2:20:55 AM

Comment: You forget that the main reason so much overwhelming and useless information is on the web is because no one ever hung a "Don't Poop" sign. In fact, pooping has always been encouraged in a metaphorical sense, because the early Internet was viewed as a playground/toilet. Now parts of the Internet are useful, but the same people who code innovations into the Web are too full of pride to clean the poop off.
We are crapping where we eat, my friends.
Posted By: flipao @ 03/07/2008 3:07:32 PM

Comment: You nailed it mate.
- Posted By: gzillgi @ 03/23/2008 11:10:46
  
  Comment: It took the author 15 minutes to wade through search results in order to find the date of the battle of Trafalgar. I was able to find the date and confirm it within about 10 seconds of pressing the Google "Search" button. Try it - "battle of Trafalgar", first result is the Wkipediia article withe the date right at the top, and the third or 4th hit has the date right in the Google excerpt.
  
  I suppose if it took me 15 minutes to answer a question that should take 15 seconds, I'd consider the Web as being this overwhelming, confusing Babel. Thing is that's not the Web's fault.
  - Posted By: Cityzen Jane @ 03/23/2008 12:12:41
    
    Comment: I actually remember reading this article at the time! Cliff was reacting to an immense amount of hype. And had seen 20 years of the bullcrap that is usenet culture ... he soaked too much of that up - I mean usenet - the pit of despond it is...was...He was having his "Dude -where's my flying car" moment. WE were starting to see a LOT of crappy 'mulitmedia' being made. It was the responsible thing to say -- that THIS stuff is not education!!! Because it wasn't. All this said, he was still incredibly wrong....But here's a challenge. Please make ten technological prediditons - ( please be a little way out) - and in 15 years we will come back and see how right you were...Futurism is a dangerous business - Especially in the age of profound specialization...Having the breadth of knowledge of CURRENT developments in the sciences to make accurate predictions is rare - having the vision even more so. There is SO much that poor old Cliff didn't see coming...but few others did either.

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