Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

scriptingNews outline for 12/31/2000

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:12/31/2000; 7:57:05 AM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 12/31/2000
Msg #:22036
Prev/Next:22035 / 22037

DaveNet: Happy New Year.

Today's song: Auld Lang Syne.

Hey thanks to Leonard Rosenthol for pointing out that tomorrow is a binary number!

Hey I hear it's already 2001 in Europe. Those wacky Europeans. Always a few hours ahead of us Americans.

Sprezzatura takes it all off for the New Year.

Yesterday I said I had learned how to spell millennium. I had not. Now I have. ";->"

New word: revelationary. Think about it..

Adam's predictions for 2001.

Eric Kidd's asynchronous XML-RPC-in-C is working.

I scored 185 on the Archie McPhee Nerd Test.

Jake posted our plan for OPML character encoding in Radio.

I already knew where Iowa is.

Let me tell you a story Permanent link to 'Let me tell you a story' in archives.

Most of you are probably too young to remember this. Come sit on my knee and I'll tell you a story.

Back in the Old Days real men programmed computers by entering code using switches on the front panel of the computer itself. Then someone invented paper tape. Then someone invented magnetic tape and punch cards.

Then teletypes and glass teletypes. And floppy disks, Winchester disks, hard disks so small you could fit 70 gigabytes of data in the palm of your hand.

At the same time, someone thought of assembly language, then BASIC and Fortran and COBOL and C.

At every step, a well-meaning person would say "What do I need that for, I like entering my programs on front-panel switches. What does this do that I can't do with switches?"

It's the longest-running debate in software.





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