"The Internet? Bah!"

[WaylonJennings]

Newsweek column from 1995.

Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/106554/output/print

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

That's better than any parody some guy could write.

 

[Small Town Guy]

Newsweek column from 1995.

Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/106554/output/print

Well, the guy was right in a way. If they were actually buying newspapers over the Internet they'd still be in great shape.

I like that Bah is in the headline, and he also used it in the column.

 

[KJIM]

"Sure, kids love videogames—but think of your own experience: can you recall even one educational filmstrip of decades past?"

Schoolhouse Rock.

"STOLL is the author of "Silicon Snake Oil--Second Thoughts on the Information Highway," to be published by Doubleday in April."

Wonder how many book sales he had over the Internet?

 

[ripple]

<quote> What the Internet hucksters won't tell you is tht the Internet is one big ocean of unedited data </quote>

I lol'd

 

[SoCalString]

The Internet? That thing's still around?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

The Internet? That thing's still around?

Yeah. It's called the World Wide Web.

 

[Boom_70]

Well that certainly was a prescient story.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

Newsweek column from 1995.

Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.

I guess he got it partly right. Nobodybuys newspapers over the internet.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/106554/output/print

 

[poindexter]

Battle of Trafalgar googles up quite nicely today, Clifford.

 

[dixiehack]

Guess he's been too busy wearing an onion on his belt to doll up his homepage.

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~stoll/

 

[SoCalString]

Guess he's been too busy wearing an onion on his belt to doll up his homepage.

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~stoll/

...which was the style at the time. You could take the ferry to Shelbyville for a nickel. Course in those days a nickel had a picture of a BUMBLE BEE on it. 'Gimme five bees fer a quarter' that's what we'd say.

 

[Precious Roy]

Guess he's been too busy wearing an onion on his belt to doll up his homepage.

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~stoll/

...which was the style at the time. You could take the ferry to Shelbyville for a nickel. Course in those days a nickel had a picture of a BUMBLE BEE on it. 'Gimme five bees fer a quarter' that's what we'd say.

He had to wear a yellow onion, cause all the white ones were spoken for, because of the war.

 

[BTExpress]

Well, he was correct about this:

Your word gets out, leapfrogging editors and publishers. Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats.

Everyone --- SportsJournalists.com nation included --- followed the post-election drama in Iran on Twitter. Only no one ever knew if someone's "eyewitness" account was coming from the streets of Tehran or a basement in Buffalo.

 

[Point of Order]

Googling Clifford Stoll:

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

In his 1995 book, Silicon Snake Oil,[4] and an accompanying article in Newsweek.[5] Stoll famously called the prospect of e-commerce "baloney", and raised questions about the influence of the Internet on future society and whether it would be beneficial. Along the way, he made various predictions, e.g. about e-commerce (calling it unviable due to a lack of personal contact and secure online funds transfers) and the future of printed news publications ("no online database will replace your daily newspaper").

Stoll sells blown glass Klein bottles on the Web.[6][7] As of 2009[update], he is a "mostly" stay-at-home dad.[6] He teaches eighth graders about physics at Tehiyah Day School, in El Cerrito, California.[8] Stoll was a regular contributor to MSNBC's The Site. Stoll is an FCC licensed amateur radio operator, callsign K7TA.[9]

 

[sgreenwell]

Slate.com's tech guy actually just wrote about Stoll, and what makes a prediction a bad one:

http://www.slate.com/id/2246515/