Imagining the Internet

Imagining the Internet 58

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday February 20, 2005 @11:11AM from the badger-badger-badger-badger-mushroom-mushroom dept.

oDDmON oUT writes ""Imagining the Internet", an ambitious project patterned after the book "Forecasting the Telephone: A Retrospective Technology Assessment" by Ithiel de Sola Pool, examines the potential future of what some deem the most revolutionary technological innovation of the 20th century, while providing a peek into it's history. Nearly 1,300 technology pioneers participated by responding to a survey posing questions about the effects of the internet on a wide range of topics, as well as giving their comments and impressions. Those predictions are indexed into a searchable database, and there is a report available as a pdf file."

Imagining the Internet

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Imaging the Internet? (Score:5, Funny)

by Frightcrawler ( 798418 ) writes: on Sunday February 20, 2005 @11:12AM (#11728531)

I use Norton Ghost.

- Re:Imaging the Internet? (Score:1)
  
  by puiahappy ( 855662 ) writes:
  
  The question is not "how?" is "WHY ?"
It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:2, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward writes:

You have to wade through a lot of crap (PDF) to get to the good stuff (the contents).
- Re:It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:1)
  
  by Koiu Lpoi ( 632570 ) writes:
  
  Personally, I like PDFs and how they work - you know, the way they seem to look exactly the same on every system? (unlike MS Office Docs). On Linux, PDFs are rather fast to render. So, what's up with the official Adobe one? Does anybody know of a muchfaster PDF renderer for Windows?
  - Re:It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:3, Interesting)
    
    by PaschalNee ( 451912 ) writes:
    
    Actually Adobe Acrobat will load very fast if you disable a lot of the plugins that it normally loads. I've done this and have yet to come across a case where the lack of the plugin causes a problem so I can only assume most plugins are required only for more advanced features. Quick search on Google will list a load a programs that will do this for you e.g.
    
    http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/PDF/PDF - SpeedUp.shtml [softpedia.com]
    - Re:It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:1)
      
      by Koiu Lpoi ( 632570 ) writes:
      
      Thanks you.
  - Re:It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:2)
    
    by Bambi Dee ( 611786 ) writes:
    
    Try Foxit PDF Reader [foxitsoftware.com]; I love it. Displays PDFs nearly instantly (though I don't know how fast Adobe's is on this machine as I've never installed it).
  - Re:It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:1)
    
    by CrazyTiger ( 797612 ) writes:
    
    Yes-Acrobat Reader 4.0. (At http://oldversion.com/program.php?n=acrobat) Turns out Adobe stuffed a lot of crapola into 6.0.
PDF text (Score:5, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday February 20, 2005 @11:16AM (#11728548)

The PDF in HTML form, courtesy Google's file converter [google.com]

- Re:I just know I'm going to regret this... (Score:1, Informative)
  
  by Anonymous Coward writes:
  
  It refers to this [badgerbadgerbadger.com].
Imaging or Imagining (Score:1, Redundant)

by goombah99 ( 560566 ) writes:

Headline is botched
In case of slashdotting, here is the image (Score:2, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes:

01001000100101001010010100100010100010100101010101 01010010101010201010100000011110010101001010101010 1010101010101010101...
- Re:In case of slashdotting, here is the image (Score:2, Funny)
  
  by Anonymous Coward writes:
  
  aaaaahhh i know i saw a 2 in there!
for those who dont get the subtitle... (Score:3, Informative)

by doormat ( 63648 ) writes: on Sunday February 20, 2005 @11:21AM (#11728567) Homepage Journal

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/21/ [weebls-stuff.com]

innovation? (Score:2)

by null etc. ( 524767 ) writes:

examines the potential future of what some deem the most revolutionary technological innovation of the 20th century
Which innovation is that?
- 'Net: Not most important, but most revolutionary (Score:1)
  
  by CGameProgrammer ( 650971 ) writes:
  
  I assume you're trying to be smarmy or something, but while the internet (or the world wide web) isn't the most important creation of the 20th century, obviously, it is arguably the most revolutionary. Transportation? OK, now we can get places quicker, encouraging growth outwards instead of concentrating in cities. Quite revolutionary. Better medicine? OK, people die less, or at least they cease dying of certain causes and instead die of different ones. Important, but not exactly revolutionary. Televisio
Mirrors courtesy of nyud.net (Score:4, Informative)

by gonffen ( 760698 ) writes: on Sunday February 20, 2005 @11:26AM (#11728588)

Ithiel de Sola Pool's Profile [nyud.net]
Forecasting the Telephone: A Retrospective Technology Assessment of the Telephone [nyud.net]
The Predictions Database [nyud.net]
The .pdf file [nyud.net]

its dieing (Score:1, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward writes:

Its kind of sad but if buisness dosnt stop trying to take over the internet it will be dead I think. With all the adware ect. on line I know a lot of people that don't even use it anymore.
- Re:its dieing (Score:2, Funny)
  
  by Anonymous Coward writes:
  
  It's kind of sad the English language is dying.
  - Who invented imaging? (Score:1)
    
    by LokieLizzy ( 858962 ) writes:
    
    You silly! Of course Al Gore imaged the internet! Every inventor always makes a backup.
- Re:its dieing (Score:1)
  
  by ianalis ( 833346 ) writes:
  
  With your argument, does that mean that Firefox [getfirefox.com]. is the saviour of the internet? ;)
Ing the Internet (Score:2)

by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) writes:

I'm much more interested in "imaging" the Net, some current traffic/protocol/fiber maps, than in yet another bunch of pundits' breathless spin on how the Internet "will change everything!". The maps will help change things, and the yakking is more of the same.
Maps? Get you Internet maps (Score:1)

by the_seal ( 758154 ) writes:

Well WWW anyway http://www.steveb.atomhosting.info/2004/12/maps.ph p [atomhosting.info]
- Re:boy, this is predictable (Score:1)
  
  by mtz206 ( 664433 ) writes:
  
  How did this story get approved?!?
Historical, not predictive (Score:1)

by mtz206 ( 664433 ) writes:

What the lede of this story doesn't tell us is that this "Imagining the Internet" project is merely rehashing predictions of the Internet from the 1990s, not what today's thinkers imagine what the Internet will be in the future.
They're using Lucene (Score:1, Offtopic)

by dilute ( 74234 ) writes:

I see they are using Lucene [apache.org] as their search engine. Lucene a powerful open source indexing system from the Apache Jakarta project written in Java. It's nice to see this, rather than MS indexing service or some other proprietary search solution. Lucene, with the appropriate open source plugins, can index a wide range of content, including MS Office and PDF files.
Most powerful technology of the 20th century (Score:2, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward writes:

Yet asshats everywhere still can't tell the difference between ITS and IT'S.
Here's my image of the internet! (Score:1)

by Nifrith ( 860526 ) writes:

I already got an image of the internet! Here! [mapquest.com]
Allready happens (Score:2)

by va3atc ( 715659 ) * writes:

Allready happens, its called the The Way Back Machine [archive.org]
My panel answer.. (Score:4, Funny)

by Deal-a-Neil ( 166508 ) writes: on Sunday February 20, 2005 @01:15PM (#11729063) Homepage Journal

..I imagine the Internets of being a place where politicians can invent parts of it, or the entire Intneret's invention alone can be credited to a single person or executive administration. That's my image of how I imagine the Internets.

Neighborhoods and Communities (Score:1)

by Al Mutasim ( 831844 ) writes:

The experts rank change to neighborhoods and communities as almost least likely to change (second only to same-users-manual-for-centuries religion). How many slashdotters are going to agree with that? If you include the change in the definition of a community, that category should high on the list.
Too Late (Score:3, Informative)

by Wes Janson ( 606363 ) writes: on Sunday February 20, 2005 @03:04PM (#11729699) Journal

William Gibson already thought of that idea long ago, in his Sprawl trilogy. I believe it was in Mona Lisa Overdrive, that one of the characters spends all of his time locked up in an abandoned building, trying to find the "shape" of the matrix (aka internet).

Re: (Score:1)

by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) writes:

Comment removed based on user account deletion
Ominous (Score:2)

by wowbagger ( 69688 ) writes:

The fact that the results are in a PDF file is somewhat ominous, given that this is a group dedicated to the purpose of predicting the future of the Internet.

So, instead of posting their results in a form that is easily browsed, cross-linked, and generally made a part of the Internet, they use a format which has as its primary claim to fame the ability to be printed out.

Perhaps I am just grouchy because I am still working on my morning coffee, but it would seem to me the future of the Internet looks like

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Imagining the Internet 58

Imagining the Internet More Login

Imagining the Internet

Imaging the Internet? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Imaging the Internet? (Score:1)

It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:2, Interesting)

Re:It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:1)

Re:It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:3, Interesting)

Re:It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:1)

Re:It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:2)

Re:It makes sense that it would be in PDF (Score:1)

PDF text (Score:5, Informative)

Re:I just know I'm going to regret this... (Score:1, Informative)

Imaging or Imagining (Score:1, Redundant)

In case of slashdotting, here is the image (Score:2, Funny)

Re:In case of slashdotting, here is the image (Score:2, Funny)

for those who dont get the subtitle... (Score:3, Informative)

innovation? (Score:2)

'Net: Not most important, but most revolutionary (Score:1)

Mirrors courtesy of nyud.net (Score:4, Informative)

its dieing (Score:1, Insightful)

Re:its dieing (Score:2, Funny)

Who invented imaging? (Score:1)

Re:its dieing (Score:1)

Ing the Internet (Score:2)

Maps? Get you Internet maps (Score:1)

Re:boy, this is predictable (Score:1)

Historical, not predictive (Score:1)

They're using Lucene (Score:1, Offtopic)

Most powerful technology of the 20th century (Score:2, Insightful)

Here's my image of the internet! (Score:1)

Allready happens (Score:2)

My panel answer.. (Score:4, Funny)

Neighborhoods and Communities (Score:1)

Too Late (Score:3, Informative)

Re: (Score:1)

Ominous (Score:2)

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