"Life before the Internet"

[Sonny97]

Originally Posted by Butterfield

We had what I think was a rival at the time - the Amstrad CPC464. My fave games were Oh Mummy and Harrier Attack.

I had a Spectrum 48K which was a great machine for its time save for the rubber keys. Before that though I had a a Sinclair ZX81 with 16K RAM pack tacked on the back and a membrane keyboard, black and white display and 8K ROM.

Those were the days

[Bachy Soletanche]

I had a CBM64, I later bought a cheap second hand Spectrum, which I blew up and replaced with another cheap one, and I'll tell ya now, the Rubber Keys one was much better than the hard keys version, that was like typing on lego.

The Commodore was of course, much a much better 8bit machine!

And the Amiga was better than a Atari ST, etc. etc. etc.

(This one's taking me back!)

[BABYCAKES]

Originally Posted by CargoHold

"What did office staff do at lunch time before the internet"

Go to the pub.

still do.

[Jongeman]

Originally Posted by FLD

While there could be a lull for a couple of weeks before major news is announced for Birmingham, consider this. Do you remember life before the internet when you thought you were the only deranged person in the world with a weird & unhealthy attraction to tall buildings!!??

What a brilliant question. Before the internet, information was really difficult to come by wasn't it? I spent a lot of time in the 1980s sitting in libraries and reading newspapers and journals like 'North West Business Insider' to find out what was going on in the world of development and construction.

[Sonny97]

Originally Posted by Jongeman

What a brilliant question. Before the internet, information was really difficult to come by wasn't it? I spent a lot of time in the 1980s sitting in libraries and reading newspapers and journals like 'North West Business Insider' to find out what was going on in the world of development and construction.

Pre Internet I used to visit the Central Library at least 2 or 3 times a week for various sources of information.

But now that the wibbly wobbly web is with us, the last time I patronised the CL was over 2 years ago. Which got me thinking, will libraries still be relevent in say 5 or 10 years time now that we can get all the information we need off the web?

And if libraries do face a bleak future should we really be all that bothered about the proposed new Birmingham Library when in essence no one's going to bother using it?

[Boba Fett22]

I love it, but is the Internet a trust worthy medium? (for the most part?)

EDIT: MODS PLEASE DELETE THIS POST. I WAS JUST BROWSING AND MADE MY POST BEFORE I LOOKED AND REALIZED THE LAST POST BEFORE MINE WAS MADE FIVE YEARS AGO. SORRY!!

[Engels]

5 years since I posted on this thread, how the Internet has changed, or how little in comparison with the previous 5 years - discuss

[Guilbert53]

Originally Posted by Engels

Yes i had wondered if anybody would pickup on my confusion of World Wide Web and the Internet. I think 1991 is the accepted date for the start of the Web with Tim Berners Lee (a Brit) creating it by bringing together the concepts of hypertext and a browser (called Gopher). Something like that anyway. Then Al Gore passes a bill in the US Senate providing funding and it all gets a bit fuzzy in my mind...

Betting a bit pedantic here, but the first browser was Mosaic (Gopher was something else).

The people who created Mosaic then went on to form Netscape which was THE browser for a while before Internet Explorer came on the scene (very late).

Many people confuse the term "internet" and "World wide web".


The "internet" is a number of interconnected computers, and did indeed exist from the late 1950s and into the 1960s as a technology, but almost no "ordinairy" people used it.

Tim Berners Lee came up with the "face" of the internet, the World Wide Web. Working on it through the 1980s before it was "announced" in the early 1990s.

Tim Berners Lee created the idea of HTTP, web servers, browsers, HTML and so on.

The WWW sits "on top" of the internet.

The best way to think of it is that the interent can (and did) exist without the World Wide Web, but the World Wide Web could not exist without the internet.

Hats of to Tim Berners Lee.

[Guilbert53]

Originally Posted by Engels

5 years since I posted on this thread, how the Internet has changed, or how little in comparison with the previous 5 years - discuss

I think the biggest change is with social networking sites, like Facebook.

For many people Facebook (and similar) is now THE face if the internet.

Almost all their computer interaction is through Facebook.

People dont email, they sent private message on Facebook.

And have you noticed how many adverts on TV and in print now say "go to our facebook page Facebook/Pepsi" or whatever, and not their own web site.

Thats the biggest change I have noticed.

That and more advertising on sites like YouTube and so on that used to be mostly advert free.

[Engels]

Originally Posted by Guilbert53

I think the biggest change is with social networking sites, like Facebook.

.

While Facebook is massive now, it did exist in 2006, as did wikipedia, youtube etc. These were all small fledglings but they all existed and of course are now huge. Not sure we will be looking back in 5 years and be seeing the 'massive' recent startups of the last 2 years and be thinking the same - Groupon being perhaps the only example of a recent new service i can see being in that league in 5 years.

[hoody]

Before the internet, the only porn I would see was from jazz mags in bushes.

I love the internet.

[joshwebb]

When was the internet invented?

[Brum X]

It was born when you was born Josh, Lol

We have so much to thank you for ;-)

[adamdalziel]

Computer networks have been around since the 50s/60s but were standardised in the early 80s. The wonder web became commercial in the mid 90s. Personally, I don't think this 'internet' thing is going to catch on. Reckon it's just a fad.

[joshwebb]

Originally Posted by Brum X

It was born when you was born Josh, Lol

We have so much to thank you for ;-)

Do you have to be so sarcastic?

[Guilbert53]

Originally Posted by joshwebb

When was the internet invented?

The "internet" a number of interconnected computers, did exist from the late 1950s and into the 1960s as a technology, but almost no "ordinairy" people used it. It was mostly used by the US army and universities and research centres (like CERN).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

Tim Berners Lee came up with the "face" of the internet, the World Wide Web. Working on it through the 1980s before it was "announced" in the early 1990s. The WWW sits "on top" of the internet.

Tim Berners Lee created the idea of web browsers, HTML, HTTP, web servers, and so on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...World_Wide_Web

So what most of us use is the "World Wide Web" but the terms "internet" and "world wide web" have become interchangable.

The best way to think of it is that the interent can (and did) exist without the World Wide Web, but the World Wide Web could not exist without the internet.

Hats of to Tim Berners Lee (an Englishman !).

[NewTroll]

Those markup languages are based on SGML, which was also around in the 1960s. You can probably go back even further to with the idea of hypertext. Technology has taken a while to catch up with these ideas and make the possible! Quite often what is thought of as "cutting edge" can be unwound back to ideas that date back decades. When I did my PhD I was quite often researching articles from the 1960s. What's interesting is how individuals use these ideas and adapt them (Sometimes for totally different means) and further their use, and they subsequently end up becoming world wide standards.

[Guilbert53]

Originally Posted by NewTroll

Those markup languages are based on SGML

I worked for IBM for 30 years till I retired about 6 years ago.

Before PCs and PC application we had to create everything on mainframes (like technical documents and even presentations)

I used GML (IBMs version of SGML) a lot and it has great similarities to HTML.

Tim Berners Lee was of course aware of SGML / GML so probably based HTML on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standar...arkup_Language

[paul_kimber]

Also remember when people used to have their own website now they just have a Facebook page

[djay]

Originally Posted by paul_kimber

Also remember when people used to have their own website now they just have a Facebook page

remember when hi5 was popular