A World Wide Web Graphic
Renee Montagne of National Public Radio did An Ode to the Internet’s Big Bang on Thursday, October 29, 2009, commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the Internet. I wrote a short blog about the World Wide Web being 5000 days old sometime ago. Though I think of the Web and the Internet as referring to the same thing, I’ve been told that they refer to different things, but the difference has never seemed clear to me.
You can read Renee Montagne doing her part to read the Ode to the Internet by clicking on the link above. I just want to point out that 20 years ago the conversation she has in the Ode would have made no sense – and maybe not even 10 years ago. The conversation references:
YouTube, Hulu, iTunes, USB, MP3, GPS, PDF, LCD, ISP, SMS, cookie wiki, Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, Paypal, Netflix, iMac, eBay, Wi-Fi, Xbox, and Second Life
I thought the piece was very clever.
It reminded me of a question I heard not too long ago but don’t remember where (Car Talk maybe?): A man calls his wife from work and when she answers the phone the first thing he does is to ask her a question that makes perfect sense today but 20 years ago would not have made any sense at all. What was the question?
I also heard a song a short while ago that had a line in it about a person knowing that the girl he liked was serious about him because as they were walking through a park she took his picture with her phone. That too would have made no sense just a couple of years ago. It also is a clue to answer the question at the end of the previous paragraph. The question was, “Where are you?”
It made me think of a bit of humor. After enough car wrecks from people talking on cell phones or text messaging while driving, and after enough people injury themselves by running into things while talking on a cell phone, some safety minded person will come up with a great method for preventing such accidents: they’ll figure out a technology that will require phones to be land based by attaching them to a wall with a wire.
Yeah. I was thinking the other day all they have to do is put a motion sensor in the phone, or a common sensor that would be triggered by a frequency from proximity to an vehicle engine… say within 10 feet… and allow it to shut down any open connection.
How many times have I seen double baby strollers pushed into a crosswalk ahead of cars – and against the light – with the “mother” (assumed, but could be a nanny) mindlessly yacking on the phone oblivious to the world of traffic screeching to halt around her? If it’d only been three times, I’d have felt blessed.
I am certain the technology is there that this would be a cinch. The insurance companies would love it, but phone companies probably wouldn’t.