Biggest Technological Advance of the Last 20 Years

[Brownian Motion]

I thought it was "Saran Wrap"-- at least that was what the 2000 year old man said and he should know.

I thought it was "Baggies"

[Dan Gould]

Most important would be not the Internet but the Web.

I've never heard an actual reason why "The Web" and "The Internet" are not interchangeable terms. They certainly are interchangeable to the general public. So please enlighten me.

[brownie]

I think the person who voted that the Internet is most annoying should explain, as should the 4 who chose "something else" for most annoying.

I'm one who chose 'something else' for most annoying.

Did not think any of the options were really annoying. I'm more concerned by other aspects of the technology such as the drop in quality of news reports because of the technical developments (things have to move instant fast which prevents the reports from keeping the proper perspectives) or the advance of chemical enhancers that boost sports performances, among other 'improvements'...

[Dan Gould]

I think the person who voted that the Internet is most annoying should explain, as should the 4 who chose "something else" for most annoying.

I'm one who chose 'something else' for most annoying.

Did not think any of the options were really annoying. I'm more concerned by other aspects of the technology such as the drop in quality of news reports because of the technical developments (things have to move instant fast which prevents the reports from keeping the proper perspectives) or the advance of chemical enhancers that boost sports performances, among other 'improvements'...

OK. Thanks for the clarification.

[Neal Pomea]

Below is the entry for Web in Encyclopedia Britannica. Note the distinctions between it and the Internet. The Internet is bigger, encompassing other information retrieval services such as email, ftp, and gopher.

"The Web the leading information retrieval service of the Internet (q.v.; the worldwide computer network). The Web gives users access to a vast array of documents that are connected to each other by means of hypertext or hypermedia links—i.e., hyperlinks, electronic connections that link related pieces of information in order to allow a user easy access to them."

So it is part but not all of the Internet. And there are other information retrieval services on the Internet, including email with DOS, ftp, and gopher, though these are mostly superceded by Web communications.

Here is a quote from the entry on Internet:

"a system architecture that has revolutionized communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks around the world to interconnect.

It supports human communication via electronic mail (e-mail), “chat rooms,” newsgroups, and audio and video transmission and allows people to work collaboratively at many different locations. It supports access to digital information by many applications, including the World Wide Web."

I know most people use Internet and Web interchangeably, but they are different.

I am told that kids today don't use either word much anymore. The just say they are online. Save it to historians, I guess, to remember the original distinctions. And it's like Stephen Colbert of Comedy Cental said of Wikipedia: if you get enough people to say something's true, then it becomes true. Enough people have blurred the distinction, so for all practical reasons they have made the two indistinguishable.

That's all I meant.

[Dan Gould]

Below is the entry for Web in Encyclopedia Britannica. Note the distinctions between it and the Internet. The Internet is bigger, encompassing other information retrieval services such as email, ftp, and gopher.

"The Web the leading information retrieval service of the Internet (q.v.; the worldwide computer network). The Web gives users access to a vast array of documents that are connected to each other by means of hypertext or hypermedia links—i.e., hyperlinks, electronic connections that link related pieces of information in order to allow a user easy access to them."

So it is part but not all of the Internet. And there are other information retrieval services on the Internet, including email with DOS, ftp, and gopher, though these are mostly superceded by Web communications.

Here is a quote from the entry on Internet:

"a system architecture that has revolutionized communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks around the world to interconnect.

It supports human communication via electronic mail (e-mail), “chat rooms,” newsgroups, and audio and video transmission and allows people to work collaboratively at many different locations. It supports access to digital information by many applications, including the World Wide Web."

I know most people use Internet and Web interchangeably, but they are different.

I am told that kids today don't use either word much anymore. The just say they are online. Save it to historians, I guess, to remember the original distinctions. And it's like Stephen Colbert of Comedy Cental said of Wikipedia: if you get enough people to say something's true, then it becomes true. Enough people have blurred the distinction, so for all practical reasons they have made the two indistinguishable.

That's all I meant.

thanks for the info.

[(BB)]

I think the person who voted that the Internet is most annoying should explain, as should the 4 who chose "something else" for most annoying.

A cell phone is just a thing, and just as there are bad/rude/dangerous drivers there are bad/rude/dangerous cell phone users. I just blame the people, not the technology. I am much more annoyed by the super-sonic bass people have installed in their cars that makes my ribcage vibrate from 3 cars away.

Bill

[RDK]

Let's just all call it the Interweb...

[Brownian Motion]

I think the person who voted that the Internet is most annoying should explain, as should the 4 who chose "something else" for most annoying.

I'm one who chose 'something else' for most annoying.

Did not think any of the options were really annoying. I'm more concerned by other aspects of the technology such as the drop in quality of news reports because of the technical developments (things have to move instant fast which prevents the reports from keeping the proper perspectives) or the advance of chemical enhancers that boost sports performances, among other 'improvements'...

I too thought of the drop in the quality of news reporting, most of all on television, which has come about with the rise of the internet. Certainly the new and ongoing technological achievments in communications have not come without a stiff price.

[Aggie87]

Being a young lass (barely 25)

Question - how come you're buying a suit over in the other thread, and yet you're a "lass" over here in this one? Shouldn't you be buying a dress?

[7/4]

Being a young lass (barely 25)

Question - how come you're buying a suit over in the other thread, and yet you're a "lass" over here in this one? Shouldn't you be buying a dress?

I was wondering about that.

[connoisseur series500]

Being a young lass (barely 25)

Question - how come you're buying a suit over in the other thread, and yet you're a "lass" over here in this one? Shouldn't you be buying a dress?

A dress for a 6'5" lass, no less!

[Tjazz]

Alot of people wouldn't get a computer, if it weren't for the internet.

Alot of people can barely use a computer, but they can search the internet and do email.

[Guest sailor]

The most harrowing thing - seriously folks.

Walking on campus for the first time this semester and seeing

75 percent of the kids on cell phones. This is truly a sinful device

and codependent device. Not good.

[Dan Gould]

The most harrowing thing - seriously folks.

Walking on campus for the first time this semester and seeing

75 percent of the kids on cell phones. This is truly a sinful device

and codependent device. Not good.

"Sinful" and "codependent" - that's a new one.

Care to explain how it became "sinful"?

Considering the way cell phones are prevalent in high school, I'm surprised its not over 90% for college.

[md655321]

Being a young lass (barely 25)

Question - how come you're buying a suit over in the other thread, and yet you're a "lass" over here in this one? Shouldn't you be buying a dress?

I was wondering about that.

Which brings me to why I voted 'other' in technological advancement...

[Dan Gould]

Think about 'sinful' :

—"Synonyms iniquitous, depraved, evil, immoral, corrupt."

1. Cell phone detract from true communication. People talking into a cell

phone - loudly, disrupting other's concentration. Come on...sinful...totally. A figure

speaking into a cell found loudly, having other's around them to forcefull listen to their

crap is -- an ugodly act! Listening to other's peoples coversations can be compared

to smelling their fucking farts!

2. Children and some adults have been conditioned (corrupted) to have their cell phones

with them at all times. There could come a time when it will be written "how selfishly a depraved society

relied on their cellphones"

I hate the cell phone.

3. Hence leading to co dependency "one person is psychologically dependent in an unhealthy way on someone who is addicted to a drug or self-destructive behavior, such as chronic gambling."

Try taking your childrens cell phone away or perhaps put yours away for a week.

You have an exceptionally unique definition of cell phone usage as "iniquitous, depraved, evil, immoral, corrupt."

Do people fart in your space every day? Yeah, I bet they do. Have they sinned, too?

People aren't "conditioned" to have their phones with them at all times - they need their phones with them at all times - for business;, to be able to communicate for whatever reason at a moment's notice. I kept my cell phone with me at all times last week because my brother was in the hospital. Am I "corrupted"? My VO gigs come via cell phone. My wife's mortgage brokerage business depends on her cell phone. Are we "corrupted"?

Your only legitimate gripe is about people who speak loudly into their cell phones in public places.

Everything else you claim is completely

[Chuck Nessa]

I went "something else" in both categories.

Part 1: Can't believe you didn't mention Sausage McGriddles.

Part 2: Rumsfeld Pentagon.

[JSngry]

What, no votes for the Sybian?

[Chuck Nessa]

What, no votes for the Sybian?

[BruceH]

Most obnoxious technological advance of the last 20 years: the cellphone, easily.

When people use it while driving it's also the most dangerous advance of the last 20 years.

[Chuck Nessa]

Couple of days ago I was in Kentucky - Mammoth Cave National Park - driving down the road and a dude on a bike is weaving side to side. I surmise he's either drunk or "emotionally disabled" and cut a huge curve around him. As I passed, he's on a friggin' phone!

[JSngry]

The cell phone is a great invention. Too bad that a lot of the people who use it aren't.

[BeBop]

The cell phone is a great invention. Too bad that a lot of the people who use it aren't.

Timing. I've been offline for a few weeks. I'm back now to cast a vote for the developing world. (Okay, since I spend so much of my time in the developing world, it's really MY vote, but, you catch my drift.)

The greatest advance is the cell phone. Twenty years ago, a large majority of the people on earth had never seen or used a phone. (I've seen statistics, but wouldn't want to try to recall from memory.) If there was sickness, a natural disaster, whatever, well, they were SOL. (And that includes me personally.) Now, whether it's cell or sat(tellite), by golly, help can at least be summoned. And, on a more mundane level, people can simply keep in touch.

As for the internet/web, well, I haven't had access for twenty days. Lotta good it would have done me if I'd needed it. But I didn't. A telephone (though I didn't use one of those either) would have been far more useful.

To the extent the 'net reaches the furthest and poorest outposts, it'll almost certainly be 'cellular' or sat communications.

[kinuta]

Cell phones.

They are a plague, folks riding bicycles with umbrella in one hand and cell tucked under the chin,guys riding MOTORBIKES gabbing on cellphones, teachers being attacked for telling children to stop texting during class.

I refuse to have one.