Quickhit: “40 years of the Internet” summed up in one post

by tigtog on October 30, 2009

No, not this one. This post, over at PC World, which waxes rhapsodic about various landmarks in the development from a 4-node network in California (developed under the auspices of the ARPA and used only by researchers) into a semi-secret long-distance playground for computer nerds and then into the Internet of today. The immediate response to this exercise in nostalgia is the author being pulled up abruptly in the comments for failing to properly fact-check.

Perfect.

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Tagged as: ARPANET, fact-check, internet

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This article was written by tigtog

tigtog (aka Viv) lives in Sydney, Australia: husband, 2 kids, cat, house, garden, just enough wine-racks and (sigh) far too few bookshelves. Viv web-wrangles for hire and edits Gagging For It (Oz Comedy News). tigtog is the founder of Hoyden About Town and Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog.

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{ 5 comments }

1 Mindy October 30, 2009 at 1:18 pm: That’s why this will always be a classic.

Admin magic? I’m pretty sure I can’t do my own admin magic.
2 Deborah October 30, 2009 at 1:29 pm: It has become a “line” in our house, said by one of us when the other is typing away furiously. In tones of kindly understanding, “Is someone wrong on the internet, sweetie?”
3 Ken October 30, 2009 at 1:58 pm: Umm – Except that the commenter is probably more wrong than the article – I think 1990 is a realistic timeline marker for “wide availability of home dialup” – sure, people had it before then. In Australia, that date is probably closer to 1994…
4 tigtog October 30, 2009 at 2:21 pm: Ken, since when does actually being correct matter online when scolding someone else for inadequate fact-checking?
5 Ken October 30, 2009 at 3:55 pm: Yep – got that – and I got the irony