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Oooh now let's talk about PointCast. Who remembers when the future of the Internet was push? https://www.wired.com/1997/03/ff-push/ https://www.wired.com/1997/

Oooh now let's talk about PointCast. Who remembers when the future of the Internet was push? https://www.wired.com/1997/03/ff-push/ https://www.wired.com/1997/03/ff-push/

fredley 5y ago
Man I miss the enthusiasm and optimism of the 90's
- zippergz 5y ago
  I keep trying to figure out if the internet really was more fun back then, or if I was just younger and less jaded. Maybe both?
  - tekproxy 5y ago
    Both. The internet was full of early adopter, tech enthusiast types. You'd certainly pickup on this. Maybe a bit of the magic was your youth, but the tech was new and magical to everyone. Every article I read back then was written by a real person about something they cared about. Now it feels like every search result is just 100 pages of AI generated, generic content used to drive clicks to the site. And what content is actually written by a real person, it's in service to their brand and it's tuned for engagement and sharing on social media. A lot of software back then was open and didn't hide too many of the details. Today, all the technical bits are hidden away and user experiences are carefully controlled and tuned for engagement. Think IRC vs Slack or FB messenger. On irc, you can whois, dcc, technical bits everywhere in the UI. In the 90s, there was a question whether or not you should include ads and banners on your site. Later, it seemed like the ads went away but actually they took over. So much of the internet experience now is about monetization. Even malware is about making money. You gotta jump into the new tech to get that feeling of wonder and possibly.
    - queuebert 5y ago
      Exactly. When it was young, the internet was about communication. Now it is about money and all the tackiness that comes with it.
      - sparker72678 5y ago
        Yes! And learning, and experimentation, and *sharing*, as compared now to *hoarding*.
- r00fus 5y ago
  No, I knew that "push" was BS. The concept and the promise of the Internet as a whole was exciting but most of the startup scene (especially in the frothy late 90s) was pure land-grab easy-money types.
Cockbrand 5y ago
Haha, PointCast was one of the earliest "next big thing" apps I installed on my Mac in the Dot-com era. I never really found it useful apart from the always available implementation of SameGame.
- joezydeco 5y ago
  Man, but didn't it feel like the future? All this information in real time being shown on-screen! What's the weather? What is Ciena's stock price right now? Never mind those ads that keep showing up, that's just a minor inconvenience, right? And yeah, I need to keep my modem on all the time and tie up my voice line but maybe someday we'll get that T1 installed in the office.
  - Cockbrand 5y ago
    It sure did feel like the future, like a lot of things in the dot com era. Exciting times!
- twiddling 5y ago
  PointCast was what I what load up with new content for long flights. Catch up my news.
ctoth 5y ago
> This new medium doesn't wait for clicks. It doesn't need computers. It means personalized experiences not bound by a page - think of a how-to origami video channel or a 3-D furry-muckers VR space. It means information that cascades, not just through a PC, but across all forms of communication devices - headlines sent to a pager, or a traffic map popping up on a cellular phone. And it means content that will not hesitate to find you - whether you've clicked on something recently or not. Sounds pretty much completely accurate.
- joezydeco 5y ago
  I think writers for Wired in the 90s were paid by the buzzword.
  - toast0 5y ago
    In the most generous framing, Wired was (is?) a monthly magazine focused on how tech and the people in it are changing the world, oriented to a general audience. Every article needs to be about something that's world changing (positive or negative) and they need enough articles to put in between all the ads they sold. If there isn't enough world changing stuff in a given month, or the writers got started on the wrong things, they've got to hype up what they've got.
    - dublin 5y ago
      I remember someone once describing Wired as a dumbed-down version of High Technology and Byte dressed up in Mondo 2000's clothes. That's pretty accurate. Sadly, Wired has somehow been the one that still exists...
sparker72678 5y ago
Windows users might remember Active Desktop in the context of "push". Oh, those were the days.
dublin 5y ago
I ran software for Dell's portables during the height of PointCast craziness - they eventually banned it because aboutq 2/3 (IIRC) of the company's bandwidth for the Product Group offices was being consumed by PointCast news updates and animations!

Oooh now let's talk about PointCast. Who remembers when the future of the Internet was push? https://www.wired.com/1997/03/ff-push/ https://www.wired.com/1997/03/ff-push/

fredley 5y ago

Man I miss the enthusiasm and optimism of the 90's

zippergz 5y ago
I keep trying to figure out if the internet really was more fun back then, or if I was just younger and less jaded. Maybe both?
- tekproxy 5y ago
  Both. The internet was full of early adopter, tech enthusiast types. You'd certainly pickup on this. Maybe a bit of the magic was your youth, but the tech was new and magical to everyone. Every article I read back then was written by a real person about something they cared about. Now it feels like every search result is just 100 pages of AI generated, generic content used to drive clicks to the site. And what content is actually written by a real person, it's in service to their brand and it's tuned for engagement and sharing on social media. A lot of software back then was open and didn't hide too many of the details. Today, all the technical bits are hidden away and user experiences are carefully controlled and tuned for engagement. Think IRC vs Slack or FB messenger. On irc, you can whois, dcc, technical bits everywhere in the UI. In the 90s, there was a question whether or not you should include ads and banners on your site. Later, it seemed like the ads went away but actually they took over. So much of the internet experience now is about monetization. Even malware is about making money. You gotta jump into the new tech to get that feeling of wonder and possibly.
  - queuebert 5y ago
    Exactly. When it was young, the internet was about communication. Now it is about money and all the tackiness that comes with it.
    - sparker72678 5y ago
      Yes! And learning, and experimentation, and *sharing*, as compared now to *hoarding*.
r00fus 5y ago
No, I knew that "push" was BS. The concept and the promise of the Internet as a whole was exciting but most of the startup scene (especially in the frothy late 90s) was pure land-grab easy-money types.

Cockbrand 5y ago

Haha, PointCast was one of the earliest "next big thing" apps I installed on my Mac in the Dot-com era. I never really found it useful apart from the always available implementation of SameGame.

joezydeco 5y ago
Man, but didn't it feel like the future? All this information in real time being shown on-screen! What's the weather? What is Ciena's stock price right now? Never mind those ads that keep showing up, that's just a minor inconvenience, right? And yeah, I need to keep my modem on all the time and tie up my voice line but maybe someday we'll get that T1 installed in the office.
- Cockbrand 5y ago
  It sure did feel like the future, like a lot of things in the dot com era. Exciting times!
twiddling 5y ago
PointCast was what I what load up with new content for long flights. Catch up my news.

ctoth 5y ago

> This new medium doesn't wait for clicks. It doesn't need computers. It means personalized experiences not bound by a page - think of a how-to origami video channel or a 3-D furry-muckers VR space. It means information that cascades, not just through a PC, but across all forms of communication devices - headlines sent to a pager, or a traffic map popping up on a cellular phone. And it means content that will not hesitate to find you - whether you've clicked on something recently or not. Sounds pretty much completely accurate.

joezydeco 5y ago
I think writers for Wired in the 90s were paid by the buzzword.
- toast0 5y ago
  In the most generous framing, Wired was (is?) a monthly magazine focused on how tech and the people in it are changing the world, oriented to a general audience. Every article needs to be about something that's world changing (positive or negative) and they need enough articles to put in between all the ads they sold. If there isn't enough world changing stuff in a given month, or the writers got started on the wrong things, they've got to hype up what they've got.
  - dublin 5y ago
    I remember someone once describing Wired as a dumbed-down version of High Technology and Byte dressed up in Mondo 2000's clothes. That's pretty accurate. Sadly, Wired has somehow been the one that still exists...

sparker72678 5y ago

Windows users might remember Active Desktop in the context of "push". Oh, those were the days.

dublin 5y ago

I ran software for Dell's portables during the height of PointCast craziness - they eventually banned it because aboutq 2/3 (IIRC) of the company's bandwidth for the Product Group offices was being consumed by PointCast news updates and animations!