Ah yes, the throwbackiality of this Mabbly series is going strong. Ten years ago, in January of 2004 we had a rough month, in fact, it was somewhat of a rough year. In the world of politics George W. Bush was running against John Kerry, his economic principles were being put up to the test. We were at war, taxes were being slashed and the economy was poised for a comeback. Some would argue this didn’t necessarily occur, but it was the breeding ground for the elements which helped cause the financial crisis of 2008.
As usual, we will display several stories from various news media via The Wayback Machine, which snaps and has been snapping shots of websites for over 15 years. In fact, if you want to experience some nostalgia, consider using the site. Who knows, you may even find your old Myspace page or Xanga page.
3) 1996’s CyberTimes section:
Lets take a moment here to appreciate the classic design of this page. A couple of things one might notice is a section called ‘CyberTimes,’ which had news about electronic stuff. Today most publications have a dedicated ‘Technology’ section, including the New York Times. It would be cool though if they brought back the CyberTimes. Look at the lead story ‘Wired Trucker: Big Rigs Roll into CyberSpace.’ It was about internet connected semi trucks and how it was improving logistics. It was improving logistics too, and to this day connected rigs actually communicate with each other for more accurate and real time traffic data. Now, the only thing to bring back lexiconically is ‘cyberspace.’ It’s sad but true, lots of people chill these days in cyberspace.
The very interesting thing is the classified section. Only a year prior did Craigslist launch for the San Francisco Bay Area. The New York Times had a lock on the East Coast, and although they could have taken over the cyberspace market for classified ads (that were free) they didn’t. Now they still have a classified section, which probably has less users that Craigslist but its interesting to see a whole lot of wasted cyberspatial potential.
2) Woah, those fellas at AIG are being investigated?
Oh, so much nostalgia is involved with this! First off, if history were a book then this article would indicate serious foreshadowing. We got some players involved here, AIG, one of the massive conglomerate firms would made bogus insurance deals for all type of risky mortgages that blew up in 2008 showed signs of fiscal tomfoolery (to say the least). Articles like these ought to be considered for the questions they raise, for the future at least. You may notice a familiar name: Eliot Spitzer, former NY AG, Governor, and television personality, oh and philanderer. This piece of throwback is a reminder that journalism still works, but was not effective in its goal. It also raises questions regarding Spitzer and New York’s inability to prevent our generation’s Great Depression.
(The Collective Response to AIG)
1) I’d like the room with the Vista.
The short answer to that headline was and is: NO. Vista was announced nearly a decade ago and it was not necessarily a resounding flop, many people used it but just as many, if not more, stuck with Windows XP. Coincidentally, Microsoft recently announced that it was ending support of XP, including all patches and virus protection. The success and over ten years of XP usage has had Microsoft searching for a similar silver bullet to its operating systems. Who knows, maybe Windows 9 will be it.
Bonus Throwback:
This video from the 90’s talks about kid’s and cyberspace. It’s hilarious and brings back fond memories of a simple time full of dial up noise. Best quote: “Every website has an address, to access this address, you need to type ‘http://’ followed by ‘www.’ which stands for ‘world wide web!’.”
