You know, I've often wondered who invented he internet. Until now, I also thought it was just one of those things that materialized one day and people were just like "Oh, cool", and accepted it. Like post-its. However, in researching this latest blog topic, I discovered that there was an actual living, breathing founding-father of, let's face it, my home away from home.
Tim Berners is a British-born computer scientist and professor based in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1989, he wrote a research proposal for creating the internet, the first proposal on the subject. Two years later, in 1990, Berners was successful in bridging communication between an HTTP client and server via the internet, marking the early beginnings of what would grow to become a worldwide phenomenon.
Today, Berners still maintains an important web presence (pun intended). He is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium, which continues to develop the web; founder of the World Wide Web Foundation; and a senior researcher at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, which means that he's probably responsible for some of these:
Thank you, Tim Berners.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Blog Assignment 3
Jakob Nielsen is a web usability consultant, considered to be the foremost expert on usability in the world. As a web usability consultant, Nielson's job is to make software easier to use. His connection to us as students is that his expertise in user-friendly design and web usability has made it easier for us to learn the skill of website-building. His research into what makes a website work is beneficial to our budding knowledge structure.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
First post! Beginning of a beautiful friendship?
To whom it may concern,
I'm talking to you, fellow students and bored, anonymous individuals reading blogs at 2 in the morning; this is the christening post, the first of what I hope will become an entire body of work chronicling my last semester in Print Futures.
As I struggle to segue into the topic of this post, I can't help but think that the first post is truly the hardest. Probably because everything is so new, so undiscovered. I guess on that note, I'll say a little bit about myself. Well, I'm a voracious reader...of books. Not blogs. Reading online makes my eyes hurt. And reading other people's mundane activities makes my brain hurt, so I generally avoid these types of places. I mostly use the internet for research purposes (online stalking, you know, the usual) and listening to 50s music on Youtube because I don't have an iPod. However, there is one blog that I actually do like and read almost daily. Now that I have found a segue, I can begin discussing this entry's scholastic question: what is your favorite blog?
That title goes to an amazing website by the name of Everything is Terrible, which can be found (must be found, it's absolutely hilarious) here: http://www.everythingisterrible.com/. EIT, as we Youtube junkies call it, got its start on Blogger, but it has since progressed to owning its own domain name, though it is my understanding that it still operates out of blogger.com. I first discovered EIT sometime this past summer in the fashion that most great discoveries follow: purely by accident. I came across a strange viral video taken from an actual VHS tape from the 90s, and I was so amazed at the What the WHAT!? factor of it that I had to get more. Thus, EIT entered my life.
EIT is made up of a small group of mysterious individuals who scour the bargain bins of thrift stores across America, looking for the awful, the embarrassing, the unintentionally-funny dredge that unfortunately bypassed us back in the day as easily-forgettable movies of the 80s and 90s. These bringers of unparalleled awesome then edit these VHS and, I’m assuming largely, Betamax tapes down into short clips for our viewing enjoyment, adding simple special affects when appropriate for added comic effect. EIT is especially known for its 3-minute movies, which serve the purpose of not only causing bouts of continuous laughter long after the clip has ended, but re-introducing long-lost, and unjustly-overlooked, classics back into Friday family movie nights. I spend a good portion of my procrastination time watching the found footage on EIT, and leaving humorous comments on the video pages. I especially love how EIT makes me feel like I truly know the 80s and 90s, the former decade being before my time, and the latter unappreciated by me (I was too young at the time).
Anyway, just before I end this rambling kow-tow to my favorite comedy outlet, I should mention that the original video that got me hooked on EIT served the dual purpose of bringing about its Youtube demise. Apparently, the creator of the video from which the clip was taken complained about its misappropriation to the Youtube dictators, who promptly shut EIT down. Needless to say, the shrill, outraged cries of EIT’s colossal fanbase raised the site from the dead, and it was back up on Youtube—under an assumed name—in a matter days.
For those who have never heard of EIT, watch the video below. It's the one that got me hooked and it might just do the same to you.
Until next time!
-Bonnie
I'm talking to you, fellow students and bored, anonymous individuals reading blogs at 2 in the morning; this is the christening post, the first of what I hope will become an entire body of work chronicling my last semester in Print Futures.
As I struggle to segue into the topic of this post, I can't help but think that the first post is truly the hardest. Probably because everything is so new, so undiscovered. I guess on that note, I'll say a little bit about myself. Well, I'm a voracious reader...of books. Not blogs. Reading online makes my eyes hurt. And reading other people's mundane activities makes my brain hurt, so I generally avoid these types of places. I mostly use the internet for research purposes (online stalking, you know, the usual) and listening to 50s music on Youtube because I don't have an iPod. However, there is one blog that I actually do like and read almost daily. Now that I have found a segue, I can begin discussing this entry's scholastic question: what is your favorite blog?
That title goes to an amazing website by the name of Everything is Terrible, which can be found (must be found, it's absolutely hilarious) here: http://www.everythingisterrible.com/. EIT, as we Youtube junkies call it, got its start on Blogger, but it has since progressed to owning its own domain name, though it is my understanding that it still operates out of blogger.com. I first discovered EIT sometime this past summer in the fashion that most great discoveries follow: purely by accident. I came across a strange viral video taken from an actual VHS tape from the 90s, and I was so amazed at the What the WHAT!? factor of it that I had to get more. Thus, EIT entered my life.
EIT is made up of a small group of mysterious individuals who scour the bargain bins of thrift stores across America, looking for the awful, the embarrassing, the unintentionally-funny dredge that unfortunately bypassed us back in the day as easily-forgettable movies of the 80s and 90s. These bringers of unparalleled awesome then edit these VHS and, I’m assuming largely, Betamax tapes down into short clips for our viewing enjoyment, adding simple special affects when appropriate for added comic effect. EIT is especially known for its 3-minute movies, which serve the purpose of not only causing bouts of continuous laughter long after the clip has ended, but re-introducing long-lost, and unjustly-overlooked, classics back into Friday family movie nights. I spend a good portion of my procrastination time watching the found footage on EIT, and leaving humorous comments on the video pages. I especially love how EIT makes me feel like I truly know the 80s and 90s, the former decade being before my time, and the latter unappreciated by me (I was too young at the time).
Anyway, just before I end this rambling kow-tow to my favorite comedy outlet, I should mention that the original video that got me hooked on EIT served the dual purpose of bringing about its Youtube demise. Apparently, the creator of the video from which the clip was taken complained about its misappropriation to the Youtube dictators, who promptly shut EIT down. Needless to say, the shrill, outraged cries of EIT’s colossal fanbase raised the site from the dead, and it was back up on Youtube—under an assumed name—in a matter days.
For those who have never heard of EIT, watch the video below. It's the one that got me hooked and it might just do the same to you.
Until next time!
-Bonnie
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