Google's Legacy + Retro Social Media

   1. Is Google making us smarter or dumber?
   Two articles with opposing viewpoints:
   * "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"
     <http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google>
   * "How Google Is Making Us Smarter"
     <http://discovermagazine.com/2009/feb/15-how-google-is-making-us-smarter>

   2. "Social Media in the 1990s"
     <http://copybrighter.com/blog/social-media-in-the-1990s>
   Compares modern social media with their precursors from a different era.

   Mentioned in a comment as an omission, bulletin board systems:
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system>
   "A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software
    that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal
    program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading
    and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and
    exchanging messages with other users, either through electronic mail or
    in public message boards... Early BBSes were often a local phenomenon,
    as one had to dial into a BBS with a phone line and would have to pay
    additional long distance charges for a BBS out of the local calling
    area."

   I was a member of a few BBSs in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Around
   the mid-1980s, Telecom Australia (now Telstra) provided a subscription-
   style service for dialup access to an information directory, called
   "Viatel":
     <http://blog.une.edu.au/ome/2009/02/09/telecom-viatel/>

   Here's a scan of an old newspaper advertisement explaining "Australia's
   National Videotex Service":
     <http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QqIQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lZUDAAAAIBAJ&
        pg=5380,7114713&dq=telecom-viatel>

   The French were using something similar even earlier, "Minitel":
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel>
   "The Minitel is a Videotex online service accessible through the
    telephone lines, and is considered one of the world's most successful
    pre-World Wide Web online services. It was launched in France in 1982...
    Minitel uses dumb terminals consisting of a text based screen, keyboard
    and modem. Simple graphics can be displayed using a set of predefined
    graphical characters."

   These services provided pretty much the same sort of information as
   teletext does, but at no cost, via a television.  Unfortunately, it
   seems Channel 7 will shut down the Austext service on 30 September 2009:
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austext>

Odds and Ends, Sun 12 July 2009

   1. "Humans prefer cockiness to expertise"
     <http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227115.500>
   "The research ... shows that we prefer advice from a confident source,
    even to the point that we are willing to forgive a poor track record".

   2. "Why your brain just can't remember that word"
     <http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17263>
   "In tip-of-the-tongue experiences, for instance, words suddenly and
    perplexingly go missing only to reappear seconds or minutes later.
    Another brain quirk — déjà vu — confirms the fallibility of memory.
    Now two new studies have shed light on both phenomena."

   3. "Our complex brains thrive on the edge of chaos"
     <http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127015.000>
   "Chaotic thinking is rarely a recipe for success, but evidence is
    emerging that operating at the edge of chaos may drive our brain's
    astonishing capabilities."

   4. "MBA: Mostly bloody awful"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2009/2526727.htm>
   "Something happened to management culture decades ago and now being
    a Master of Business Administration, especially from Harvard, is
    rather on the nose. MBA, it's being said, can also stand for 'Mediocre
    but Arrogant', or 'Management by Accident'."

   5. "What's Better: Stocks, Bonds, or Lobbyists?"
     <http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/whats-better-
        stocks-bonds-or-lobbyists/>
   "Looking for a 22,000 percent return on your investment? Hire a
    lobbyist, send her to Washington on your behalf, and watch the
    money roll in."

   6. "Health insurers want you to keep smoking, Harvard doctors say"
     <http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?
        id=health-insurers-want-you-to-keep-sm-2009-06-03>
   "Health and life insurance companies in the U.S. and abroad have nearly
    $4.5 billion invested in tobacco stocks, according to Harvard doctors.
    'It's the combined taxidermist and veterinarian approach: either way
    you get your dog back'."

   7. "Teens capture images of space with £56 camera and balloon"
     <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5005022/Teens-
        capture-images-of-space-with-56-camera-and-balloon.html>
   "Proving that you don't need Google's billions or the BBC weather
    centre's resources, the four Spanish students managed to send a camera-
    operated weather balloon into the stratosphere."

   8. "How to Develop Film Using Coffee and Vitamin C! Srsly!"
     <http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/coffee-caffenol-film-developing/>