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Sir Tim Berners-Lee Stars in Olympic Opening Ceremony
- Posibyte 14y agoThis absolutely had my inner geek exploding in giddiness. It was one thing for the London Olympics to recognize him as a key part of the modern era, but to also place the (same model?) NeXT Cube next to him just topped it off. This made it memorable for me.
- arethuza 14y agoI realised that the whole event was probably going to be interesting when they had an engineer reading Shakespeare at the start. NB My personal favourite was the NHS/GOSH/kids-fiction section.
- djhworld 14y agoTim sent this tweet https://twitter.com/timberners_lee/status/228960085672599552 https://twitter.com/timberners_lee/status/228960085672599552 pretty much right at the moment he was revealed, sadly it wasn't from the computer he was using (it was from his iPhone) but a nice touch!
- ralfd 14y agoAlso a wonder of the modern world: He got phone reception in that heavily crowded stadium.
- gaius 14y agoIt should have been an Acorn Archimedes, at CERN all those years ago.
- atomicdog 14y agoThey used Archimedes at CERN? Truly one of the greatest computers of all time.
- larrywright 14y agoThe actual computer he used to create the web was a Next Cube, so that was more historically accurate.
- excuse-me 14y agoI think the point was that if this as an ideal world then CERN would have used the most revolutionary personal computer available in the 80s - the archimedes - rather than just a 680x0 unix box in a fancy metal case
- djhworld 14y agoIt made me very, very happy to see Tim there. A lot of the media in the UK is very populist and anti-intellectual, celebrating questionable people (pop stars et al.) for their less than desirable achievements. So it was good to see Tim being given such a platform celebrating his input into the world.
- betageek 14y agoI don't think that's just a UK problem...
- atomicdog 14y agoThat's why Danny Boyle did such a good job. If the British media had been in charge of the ceremony in could have very easily been a cringeworthy ordeal featuring a cast of z-list celebrities dancing about. The inclusion of Tim Berners-Lee and the NHS section were excellent ideas.
- gadders 14y agoI thought the NHS section was stupid. You might as well as had bin men.
- pbhjpbhj 14y agoNHS is our largest employer (5th in the world apparently, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17429786 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17429786 - c.5.8% of the working population when coupled with data here http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/february-2012/statistical-bulletin.html http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/f...) and, despite it's failings, is an area the UK have led in (nationalised health care), and an important element of nearly everyone in the UKs life at one time or another. Refuse collection is worthy and widespread but not really something the UK leads in I feel nor would it likely provide the visuals the designer was aiming for ...
- gadders 14y ago
- atomicdog 14y agoExcellent attention to detail by Danny Boyle. They could have had him on any old PC and 90% of the audience wouldn't have noticed. http://i.imgur.com/bthc3.jpg http://i.imgur.com/bthc3.jpg
- jmj42 14y agoI noticed that too. As the house was lifting, I pointed out that the computer should be a next cube. If not, they did it wrong.
- cantbecool 14y agoWhen I saw a NeXTCube by his side, I knew this was going to be a memorable ceremony.
- derleth 14y agoSo, is the British media claiming TimBL (and, by extension, the UK) invented the Internet?
- jonhendry 14y agoUm, no, he invented the web.
- derleth 14y ago> Um, no, he invented the web. I know that. It seems fewer and fewer others do. Also, condescension works incredibly badly when you clearly did not read what you were responding to.
- tymekpavel 14y agoYou wrote that the British media was claiming Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet. During the opening ceremony, they clearly referred to him as the inventor of the World Wide Web. I'm not quite sure what jonhendry misread.
- derleth 14y ago> You wrote that the British media was claiming Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet. No, I asked if they were claiming that. As in, I asked a question. Since when is that equivalent to making a claim?
- jonhendry 14y agoIn that case, no, it's the US media doing that.
- tymekpavel 14y agoYour question implied the British media was claiming Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet, otherwise you wouldn't have asked it. I never said you made the claim. The bottom line is, TBL's appearance in the opening ceremony clearly labelled him as the inventor of the WWW.
- Create 14y agofitting the scence: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19021660 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19021660 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. But western equivalent 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. Not to mention Groff, doing his compulsory civil service. Would the "web" have just run on NeXT, it would be long extinct, let alone take off. On linking and hypertext: all post-war era stuff is spin. The real stuff comes from Belgium: For ADD-ers: http://youtu.be/qwRN5m64I7Y http://youtu.be/qwRN5m64I7Y The story: http://www.archive.org/details/paulotlet http://www.archive.org/details/paulotlet http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/forgotten_forefather_paul_otlet 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 http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1127343?ln=en http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1127343?ln=en The answer is a nice PR story on the web -- https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Spin_%28public_relations%29#Techniques https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Spin_%28publi... On values at CERN, as a warning for non-western members: "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 http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/494264
- aprendo 14y agoWhat do you want to say with the last four paragraphs? That's value as in monetary value, i.e. about the costs of the calorimeter system described in the report, taking into account labor costs in different countries. It has nothing to do with the other meaning of value, i.e. how the contributions of "non-western members" are valued. Racism is still pervasive in western countries, so it's certainly possible – my guess is likely – that it plays some role even at CERN, but what you are quoting there is no evidence for racism. That's an absurd interpretation.
- sgt 14y agoI didn't see the opening ceremony - and not the NeXTCube scene either. Is there a video on YouTube or somewhere else?
- cfn 14y agoYou can watch the highlightd on the BBC if you have access: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19022259 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19022259
- sgt 14y agoThanks for the link but it doesn't appear it's available to my country.
- atomicdog 14y agoA picture here: http://i.imgur.com/bthc3.jpg http://i.imgur.com/bthc3.jpg
- atworkatwork 14y agoIronic, isnt it, that this celebration of the open and free web is not avaliable for everyone because of licences, and that he at the same time send a message thru twitter, a centralized service. Even sent it from an iPhone, a device that hinders hacking it as much as possible. But the trusty Pirate Bay have the warez you crave! http://thepiratebay.se/search/olympic*/0/3/0 http://thepiratebay.se/search/olympic*/0/3/0
- gaius 14y agoIT angle: the Olympic budget was £2.4bn, this ballooned to £13bn, but surprisingly, it was delivered on time (unlike the project Accenture did for the NHS, £12bn and nothing delivered).
- timthorn 14y ago£12bn was spread across several integrators including BT, CSC and Fujitsu, and delivered many successful services - particularly the Spine and PACS. The whole programme failed to deliver on the original goals and cost way too much, but it wasn't a complete loss nor was that the fault of any one supplier.
- pestaa 14y agoDoes anyone know why it would cost more than 5 times more than the original budget? And how did they manage to reallocate that much resources? This being the 3rd Olympic event in London, I'm surprised the estimate was that much off.
- gaius 14y agoThe first, a combination of incompetence (e.g. forgetting they'd have to pay VAT) and corruption. The latter: by getting into debt, that now necessitates cuts to the very things being celebrated, e.g. the NHS. We spend more on interest on government debt in the UK than we do on defence.
- hazov 14y agoMaybe it has something to do with cost overrun that professor Bent Flyvbjerg researches. Basically he says that budget estimations are prone to a cognitive fallacy by those with planning powers. EDIT: added "estimations"
- simonw 14y agoLast time London hosted the Olympics was post-war 1948, on a budget of less than a million pounds (I'm not sure if that figure is adjusted for modern currency or not, but either way it's not much money) - they didn't even build any new buildings for it.
- lclarkmichalek 14y agoThe industrial portion ceremony started with Isambard Kingdom Brunel, while the modern portion of the ceremony finished with Tim Berners-Lee. I definitely think that Danny Boyle was drawing a parallel between the two people, and it will be interesting to see if history does the same.
- Someone 14y agoI do not see much of a parallel between the two. Brunel is known for zillions of physical objects, built over decades; TBL is known for only one thing, created in less than two years (probably not as his main project, I guess) Also, Brunel must have been quite an organizer to get done what he got done; TBL created the web almost alone.
- wseymour 14y agoBoth men applied their intellect to substantially improve the standard of living for the rest of mankind.
- 7952 14y agoThe parallel is their fame. Brunel didn't build the industrial world on his own any-more than TBL built the interweb on his own. Its just good to have heroes.
- Someone 14y agoSurely, fame is insufficient reason to start drawing parallels? If not, what about Brunel vs Phelps or Paris Hilton?
- cdent 14y agoHis message was a nice warning for us all to work harder to keep the web a thing for people, all people, not corporations.
- wangweij 14y agoI guess that keyboard and the monitor are somehow wired to an iPhone.
- cstross 14y agoNo credit to NBC, however, who apparently replaced a tribute to the victims of the 7/7 terrorist massacre with a talking head off American Idol, had no idea who Sir Tim was, and censored the first lesbian kiss ever seen on Saudi TV: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/28/london-2012-nbc-opening-ceremony http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/28/london-2012-nbc-...
- jmj42 14y agoyeah, I thought NBC's coverage was horrible. Do they really believe that the majority of the world actually needs _all_ of the imagery explained? I mean, who doesn't know who that lady on the umbrella, flying out of the sky is (for example)?
- pavel_lishin 14y ago> I mean, who doesn't know who that lady on the umbrella, flying out of the sky is (for example)? I actually wonder how many people under 20 know this.
- cup 14y agoA big Satellite TV distributor once accidently transmitted Italian pornography onto the sets of Saudi Televisions, so I doubt it was the first lesbian kiss seen on TV.
- raldi 14y agoIs there any way for me to watch the "This is for everyone" moment on the Internet, or is it not for me?