CERN wants to preserve the first website and the experience of surfing it

http://www.itworld.com/cloud-computing/374423/cern-wants-us-surf-it-s-1990

by johnknox • 13 years ago

30 18 13 years ago

coldcode• 13 years ago

I remember seeing the web for the first time in a command-line browser. I didn't realize at the time what was about to happen.

Vivtek• 13 years ago

Neither did anybody. I remember the first time I saw a URL on a truck and realizing the world had changed pretty thoroughly.

Create3• 13 years ago

Ferguson then conducted postdoctoral research at MIT while also consulting to the White House, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Defense, and several U.S. and European high technology firms. From 1992–1994 Ferguson was an independent consultant, providing strategic consulting to the top managements of U.S. high technology firms including Apple Inc., Xerox, Motorola, and Texas Instruments.

In 1994, Ferguson founded Vermeer Technologies, one of the earliest Internet software companies, with Randy Forgaard. Vermeer created the first visual website development tool, FrontPage. In early 1996, Ferguson sold Vermeer for $133 million to Microsoft,[6] which integrated FrontPage into Microsoft Office.

High Stakes, No Prisoners: A Winner's Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars. W. W. Norton & Company. 1999. ISBN 978-1-58799-065-6.

treetrouble• 13 years ago

It seemed like a slick new iteration of Gopher with the capability of inline images (that no one really had yet)

Todd• 13 years ago

Of course, the images came later, thanks to pmarca.

csixty4• 13 years ago

That was my reaction, too. What's the big deal? It's just Gopher with graphics.

walshemj• 13 years ago

Back in 92/93 I found gopher and playing around on the ITU's gopher server found a link to the www via telnet.

Create3• 13 years ago

On values at CERN:

"The cost [...] has been evaluated, taking into account realistic labor prices in different countries. The total cost is X (with a western equivalent value of Y)" [where Y>X]

source: LHCb calorimeters : Technical Design Report

ISBN: 9290831693 http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/494264

Long PR story short: RPC was prevalent, that is how you control(led) your stuff remotely. Like Tim. Today, if you'd ask for a NeXT-like toy, you'd be denied were you an average Eastern (western equivalent). But real westerner asked for it and got one, and put the gopher link address ptr in the reserved field of the text font properties (where things like bold and italics properties are stored) and voilà. You can also hire a cheap student to actually write the web client to be cross platform (its true virtue/value). Thanks to Nicola Pellow, of whom almost nobody knows about. Would the "web" have just ran on NeXT, it would be long extinct, let alone take off. Clicking on text is how you used Oberon or even Genera Document Examiner (perhaps even over the network).

On linking and hypertext: all post-war era stuff is spin. The real stuff comes from Belgium:

For ADD-ers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwRN5m64I7Y

The story: http://www.archive.org/details/paulotlet

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/forgotten_forefather_paul...

"How should we make it attractive for them [young people] to spend 5,6,7 years in our field, be satisfied, learn about excitement, but finally be qualified to find other possibilities?" -- H. Schopper

icebraining• 13 years ago

Today, if you'd ask for a NeXT-like toy, you'd be denied were you an average Eastern (western equivalent).

What does this phrase mean? I'm a non-native speaker, and I'm honestly struggling to understand what you wrote.

waterlion• 13 years ago

This is either very incoherently written, automatically generated or pastiche word salad. It doesn't make any sense to me.

ChikkaChiChi• 13 years ago

Few things on the web MUST be preserved and I think this is one of them. Kudos to CERN for doing whatever they can to make this happen.

Create3• 13 years ago

don't worry, they are doing whatever they can: it is their propaganda lifeline to preserve the narrative.

nfoz• 13 years ago

That's how I want to surf, too!

lurkinggrue• 13 years ago

Wait, They are trying to remake Lynx?

dexen• 13 years ago

Gotta enjoy the HTTP2 as put forth in http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/HTTP/HTTP2.html and can't help but smirk at the never-ending discussions on DOCTYPE: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Architecture/Letter_1.html

CERN wants to preserve the first website and the experience of surfing it

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