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"...such that any statistic on the numbers of connected computers and users is obsolete before the numbers are uttered." This quote struck me as a little over

"...such that any statistic on the numbers of connected computers and users is obsolete before the numbers are uttered." This quote struck me as a little over the top; was such parlance common in those days? Certainly the Internet's growth was shocking, but this sentence seems more spirited, like something from a 90s hacker movie.

SoftwareMaven 12y ago
To some extent, that's what it was like. There was a feeling of the future happening faster than our eyes could take it in. I would be you'd see similar hyperbole discussing micro computing in the 80s, space flight in the 60s and jet flight in the 50s. The 70s and 00s seem to have suffered from no optimistic technology boom. I hope the teens fixes that.
- PhasmaFelis 12y ago
  As a boy, I was fond of a quote to the effect of "If all technology had progressed as quickly as computer technology, you would be able to buy a Space Shuttle at the corner store, fold it up and put it in your pocket, and fly it to Mars on a gallon of gas." That was from the late '80s. By now, presumably, your gallon of gas would get you to Alpha Centauri. I also find it kind of depressing that the excitement over the infinite potential of the Net has settled down to workaday humdrum.
  - rbanffy 12y ago
    > your gallon of gas would get you to Alpha Centauri. In less than an hour ;-)
dredmorbius 12y ago
This was the age of an email which would list new WWW sites -- compiled by hand, daily. The number of Internet hosts had recently surpassed one million, in 1993, and would top 10 million by 1997 -- growth was rapid. So, yes, you were probably seeing hundreds to thousands of hosts being added daily during this period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_host_count_1988-2012_log_scale.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_host_count_1988-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet
georgemcbay 12y ago
"Holy shit, the hosts file I just started tftping from nic.ddn.mil is over a megabyte now! Gonna take me an hour to transfer that!"

SoftwareMaven 12y ago

To some extent, that's what it was like. There was a feeling of the future happening faster than our eyes could take it in. I would be you'd see similar hyperbole discussing micro computing in the 80s, space flight in the 60s and jet flight in the 50s. The 70s and 00s seem to have suffered from no optimistic technology boom. I hope the teens fixes that.

PhasmaFelis 12y ago
As a boy, I was fond of a quote to the effect of "If all technology had progressed as quickly as computer technology, you would be able to buy a Space Shuttle at the corner store, fold it up and put it in your pocket, and fly it to Mars on a gallon of gas." That was from the late '80s. By now, presumably, your gallon of gas would get you to Alpha Centauri. I also find it kind of depressing that the excitement over the infinite potential of the Net has settled down to workaday humdrum.
- rbanffy 12y ago
  > your gallon of gas would get you to Alpha Centauri. In less than an hour ;-)

dredmorbius 12y ago

This was the age of an email which would list new WWW sites -- compiled by hand, daily. The number of Internet hosts had recently surpassed one million, in 1993, and would top 10 million by 1997 -- growth was rapid. So, yes, you were probably seeing hundreds to thousands of hosts being added daily during this period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_host_count_1988-2012_log_scale.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_host_count_1988-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

georgemcbay 12y ago

"Holy shit, the hosts file I just started tftping from nic.ddn.mil is over a megabyte now! Gonna take me an hour to transfer that!"