CNET: Before the cats came: The web of 1995 leaves me nostalgic for simpler times. “My web circa 1995 will always be three sites: Suck, Argon Zark and the T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S Project. Put up by two Rice University students to document their experiments to determine the properties of Twinkies, the T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S Project was text heavy, with cheesy graphics and tiny photos. Ugly, but full of smarts, character and innocent charm. And a quarter of a century later, the homespun site still makes me , even if the only way to see it is in the Internet Archive.”
internet
Reddit turns 15: The dramatic moments that shaped the internet’s front page (Mashable)
Mashable: Reddit turns 15: The dramatic moments that shaped the internet’s front page. “It may seem like it has been part of the internet landscape forever, but Reddit — which turns 15 Tuesday — is a mere teenager. An uncoordinated, gangly teenager that still struggles with its size, its group of friends, and truly damning content in its browser history.”
When Hollywood finally noticed the web: What it got right and oh so wrong (CNET)
CNET: When Hollywood finally noticed the web: What it got right and oh so wrong. “It began in May 1995 with the release of Johnny Mnemonic, a delirious sci-fi action dystopia matching Keanu Reeves with seminal cyberpunk author William Gibson. In July, Sandra Bullock had her identity erased in conspiracy thriller The Net. In August, Denzel Washington pursued Russell Crowe’s computer-generated serial killer in Virtuosity, and in September Angelina Jolie found her breakthrough role in anarchic adventure Hackers. In October, Kathryn Bigelow served up dystopian thriller Strange Days.”
1843 Magazine: The internet, mon amour
1843 Magazine: The internet, mon amour. “Thirty-five years ago the internet was a fantasia, to be slipped into like Narnia, at the back of a shameful closet, out of sight of grown-ups. Though socially distanced, you could fall in love and have your heart broken there, but it was all your own very secret, very eccentric crisis. Now, by order of the state government, my daylight hours are supersaturated by the uniformly high-noon screen of my Macbook, as far from my Zenith interface as a craggy cave wall is from glossy magazine paper. I crave the time when the internet was a lacuna in regular existence, and not the entirety of it.”
Ubergizmo: Australians Researchers Achieve The World’s Fastest Internet Speeds At 44.2 Terabits Per Second
Ubergizmo: Australians Researchers Achieve The World’s Fastest Internet Speeds At 44.2 Terabits Per Second. “Internet speeds around the world vary from country to country, and provider to provider. However, over in Australia, researchers from Monash, Swinburne, and RMIT universities have managed to achieve the world’s fastest internet speeds where they managed to clock it at a whopping 44.2Tbps (terabits per second).”
Techdirt: New Study Tries, Fails, To Claim Community Broadband Is An Inevitable Boondoggle
Techdirt: New Study Tries, Fails, To Claim Community Broadband Is An Inevitable Boondoggle. “For years a growing number of US towns and cities have been forced into the broadband business thanks to US telecom market failure. Frustrated by high prices, lack of competition, spotty coverage, and terrible customer service, some 750 US towns and cities have explored some kind of community broadband option. And while the telecom industry routinely likes to insist these efforts always end in disaster, that’s never actually been true. While there certainly are bad business plans and bad leaders, studies routinely show that such services not only see the kind of customer satisfaction scores that are alien to large private ISPs, they frequently offer better service at lower, more transparent pricing than many private providers.”
Berkeley News: Google search data reveal Americans’ concerns about abortion
Berkeley News: Google search data reveal Americans’ concerns about abortion. “Residents of states with limited access to contraceptives and high rates of unplanned pregnancies are more likely to turn to the internet for information about abortion. These are the findings of a new study of Google search data across all 50 states by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.”
Techdirt: It Shouldn’t Have Taken A Pandemic To Make Us Care About Crappy U.S. Broadband
Techdirt: It Shouldn’t Have Taken A Pandemic To Make Us Care About Crappy U.S. Broadband. “…Americans have paid some of the highest prices in the world for broadband service that’s not only spottily available, but routinely ranks as mediocre across a wide variety of metrics. From telecom linked think tankers and hired economists to consultants and lobbyists, there’s an entire secondary industry dedicated to pretending this problem is either overblown, or doesn’t exist at all. Needless to say, it shouldn’t have taken a pandemic to expose the superficiality of such claims, or the fact that US telecom issues deserved more attention. With millions of Americans hunkered down at home, a brighter light than ever is being shined on the fact that 42 million Americans lack access to any broadband whatsoever (twice what the FCC claims). Millions more can’t afford service because we’ve allowed an essential utility to be monopolized.”
MIT Technology Review: Why the coronavirus lockdown is making the internet stronger than ever
MIT Technology Review: Why the coronavirus lockdown is making the internet stronger than ever. “More people started using the video-conferencing software Zoom in the first two months of 2020 than in all of 2019. Stay-at-home entertainment is also booming. Record numbers of people are using Steam, a popular online PC game store. At one point this weekend more than 24 million players were logged on at the same time, a 25% jump since February. And online grocery stores are unable to handle the surge in business, with customers waiting for hours in virtual lines tens of thousands of people long. So how is the internet coping with the most sudden burst of usage in its history? There are understandable signs of strain: Wi-Fi that slows to a crawl, websites that won’t load, video calls that cut out. But despite the odd hiccup, the internet is doing just fine. In fact, the covid-19 crisis is driving the biggest expansion in years.”
CNET: Coronavirus memes help an isolated world cope with ‘existential dread’
CNET: Coronavirus memes help an isolated world cope with ‘existential dread’. “As COVID-19 spreads to more cities and claims more lives, meme accounts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Reddit have cranked out more content seeking light and humor amid the darkness and uncertainty. Memes poking fun at everything from hoarding toilet paper to going stir crazy while in quarantine have dominated social media feeds.”
BetaNews: The Dark Web turns 20 this month
BetaNews: The Dark Web turns 20 this month. “While we’re all being encouraged to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ as we wash our hands to ward off the COVID-19 virus, you might like to know that you can sing it to the Dark Web, which turns 20 this month. To mark the occasion digital risk management company Groupsense hasn’t baked a cake but it has produced an infographic of the Dark Web’s timeline.”
Phys .org: Internet inventor warns web ‘not working for women’
Phys .org: Internet inventor warns web ‘not working for women’. “The internet is ‘not working for women’ and is fuelling a new era of widespread abuse against females, the creator of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, warned on Thursday. In a bleak assessment published on the World Wide Web Foundation, an organisation founded by Berners-Lee that advocates a free and open web for all, he also argued that a ‘dangerous trend’ of abuse threatens any advances in gender equality.”
Refinery29: How An Unlikely Instagram Trend Is Bringing Together Gen Z, Boomers, & Everyone In Between
Refinery29: How An Unlikely Instagram Trend Is Bringing Together Gen Z, Boomers, & Everyone In Between. “At the top of a new decade, slime is more than just a toy or an Instagram trend. It has the potential to be a fixture in trendy offices and bedside tables everywhere. But it has a long way to go: Slime sellers will tell you their customers on Etsy are mostly parents looking to feed the habits of their 8 to 12-year olds. But the people behind Instagram’s many slime accounts say that it’s teenagers and young adults who make up the bulk of slime’s online audience.”
Towards Data Science: Explore a database of the most popular “Florida Man” headlines
Towards Data Science: Explore a database of the most popular “Florida Man” headlines. “For almost a decade, ‘Florida Man’ has been a mainstay antihero of internet culture. Headlines like ‘Florida man too fat for jail’ and ‘Florida man steals dinosaur bones’ are easy fodder for meme-ification. In early 2013, ‘Florida Man’ was canonized on Twitter with @_FloridaMan and on Reddit with the r/FloridaMan subreddit. And after seven years of retweeting and upvoting, we can gather the most popular headlines to see what makes a ‘Florida Man’ headline successful.”
WPVI: Nora the Piano Cat still on key after 13 years of internet fame
WPVI: Nora the Piano Cat still on key after 13 years of internet fame. “A musical couple lives in perfect harmony with their cat, Nora. Born in 2004, the gray tabby was rescued off the streets of Camden, New Jersey. Burnell Yow! and Betsy Alexander, two musicians and artists, adopted her. Betsy is an avid pianist who provides lessons to locals. With music constantly ringing throughout the house, it’s no wonder why Nora, the cat, picked up an ear for it. One day, she hopped up on the bench and began to play the piano herself.” I love everything about this story. I love the cat, I love the people, I love their house…
