Entries tagged as 'internet'
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Posted Saturday, 9 August 2008
The convention center has free WiFi, but I need a break before dinner. I just spent 20 minutes finding a sweet spot for my hotel’s WiFi.
My room is behind a corner, so I moved the desk 3 feet towards the window and put a phone book under my computer.
That was enough to get a better view of the nearest access point.
Yes, I could sit in the hotel lobby like the other conference participants have done, or continue my vigil in the convention center, but I have my geek reputation to uphold… and I don’t have a cellular data card any more.
Image courtesy of billso through a Creative Commons License.
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hotel,
Internet,
radio,
WiFi
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Posted Thursday, 5 June 2008
Vanity Fair has published a long oral history of the Internet entitled How the Web was Won, and based on interviews with a variety of notable folks. Here’s links to the single page versions of the article and a photo portfolio. If I had been interviewed for the article, my response would have looked a lot like this:
My first direct connection to the Internet was through my faculty office computer at Marquette University in 1993. I was a visiting assistant professor on a one-year contract, teaching business ethics and management courses.
The main Internet service that I remember using at Marquette was Gopher, a text-based system that used menus instead of hyperlinks. In some ways, it resembled CompuServe, which I had used since 1981. CompuServe was a well-organized walled garden that had a nice variety of content, while Gopher was a rag-tag distributed network of university computers and a few commercial servers.
I became familiar with BITNET while I was at the University of Georgia. Both systems offered portals to Internet services. The first items I ever purchased through e-commerce were a Shriekback CD on CompuServe in 1987, and a Dead Runners Society t-shirt from a listserv in 1990.
In early 1994, the university installed a demo workstation that ran Mosaic. That was the first time i accessed the World Wide Web on a graphical browser. Later that year, I built my first web page, and I’ve had a presence on the web ever since.
Related pages on billso.com
Tags:
browser,
e-commerce,
history,
Internet,
network,
web
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Posted Tuesday, 20 May 2008
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I predicted this in my 29 April 2008 billso.com article: Netflix is unveiling a $100 set-top box today. The device is a 5-inch square box that hooks into a broadband Internet connection and streams movies from Netflix. A 1 mbps connection seems adequate, although HD movies may require more pipe.
Customers won’t need a computer to manage their Netflix account or view movies, as the box also connects to TVs and home theater components via component TV cables and HDMI.
Roku is one manufacturer that was already been revealed in the AP article. We already knew about LG. Others are coming. Read the AP story for more details. Reviews from Wired and Cnet, along with pictures of this rather ordinary looking black box, are available from this brief Engadget article.
Related posts and pages on billso.com
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broadband,
Internet,
netlfix,
television,
video
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Posted Sunday, 18 May 2008
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Rumors are swirling today that Microsoft may partner with Yahoo - specifically, the search company’s search advertising business, which matches Internet searches to targeted advertisements.
Lesson: If at first you don’t succeed, just make a deal with the most valuable part of Yahoo and leave the rest to wither and die. See Silicon Alley Insider, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times for more details.
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang may be willing to listen, if only to keep Mark Cuban off the Yahoo board. Yang developed a strong dislike for Cuban after the Broadcast.com founder years ago - Kara Swisher has more details in this different article.
Of course, Jerry has to keep his Yahoo employees and managers focused during all of this turmoil. Read his internal memos and some comments from Silicon Alley insider here.
Related pages on billso.com
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Internet,
Microsoft,
search,
Yahoo
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Posted Sunday, 18 May 2008
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In February 2008, Microsoft made a takoever bid for Yahoo. The bid was withdrawn in May, but both companies continue their nervous dance around each other, with Google and other competitive rivals waiting in the wings.
Tags:
Google,
Internet,
Microsoft,
search,
Yahoo
