Rotten Fruit, was Re: Correction Re: Foreseeing the Web, was Re: CONFESSIONS OF A CHEERFULLIBERTARIAN By David Brin

From: Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
Date: Thu Dec 07 2000 - 01:18:10 MST


"Most successful mass stuff like this"? Name three other things like
coding an HTML web page. Name five. There is no question that the Web
has succeeded. And so most people put up with all the things wrong with
it--"404 not found" being one of the biggest. No rotten fruit to be
thrown at you--you're eating it. And so am I. Every damned day.

Not sour grapes, though. :)

Emlyn wrote:
>
> Cool stuff. However, I'd say the web has done well because of the simplicity
> of html coding (ducks rotten fruit). Really, it's pretty easy to hack
> together a half-baked webpage. I'd reckon most successful mass stuff like
> this is probably just as basic.
>
> Emlyn
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael M. Butler" <butler@comp-lib.org>
> To: <extropians@extropy.org>
> Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2000 3:30 PM
> Subject: Correction Re: Foreseeing the Web, was Re: CONFESSIONS OF A
> CHEERFULLIBERTARIAN By David Brin
>
> > I misspoke. His comment was regarding HTML, not the Web.
> >
> >
> http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/TN/WRITINGS/TCOMPARADIGM/tedCompOneLiners.htm
> l
> > Search for the section headed
> > TWO CHEERS FOR THE WORLD WIDE WEB
> > in it you will find:
> > "The Web is a foam of ever-popping bubbles, ever-changing shopwindows.
> >
> > "The Web is the minimal concession to hypertext that a
> > sequence-and-hierarchy chauvinist could possibly make....
> >
> > "The Xanadu® project did not 'fail to invent HTML'. HTML is precisely
> > what we were trying to PREVENT-- ever-breaking links, links going
> > outward only, quotes you can't follow to their origins, no version
> > management, no rights management."
> >
> > Sunah Caroline Cherwin wrote:
> > >
> > > >And then there's all the people who got into computers because of Ted
> > > >Nelson's Computer Lib/Dream Machines. I was trying to get the Xanadu
> > > >insiders tuned into this weird "SGML" stuff back in '87.
> > > >
> > > >Of course, the later catchphrase from Ted is that the Web was what we
> > > >were trying to _prevent_, and to some extent he's right--but that's
> > > >another story. :)
> > > >
> > > oooh! and is that quote ... on the web?
> > >
> > > (When I conceived excitedly asking for a cite, the irony escaped me ...
> but
> > > it would be fun to read if extant.)
> > >
> > > --
> > > www.pobox.com/~sunah +!+ Sunah Caroline Cherwin +?+
> www.piclab.com/sunah/
> >



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:32:14 MST