The end of an era...

Before google - there was altavista. And now altavista, originally of DEC, is finally shutting down. I remember it well - the origins of babelfish and the best search engine of its time.

Things have certainly changed in the last 15 years or so. I can still remember getting to the "end" of Yahoo - back when it was small enough to do that. It was before yahoo got this big - back when it was a directory and not a "portal" (before "portal" was part of our common nomenclature). Back when the Yahoo random link was the "stumbleupon" of its time.

Clicking through that old set of yahoo pages can be interesting - the early ads are still there - "devour the web in almost half the time" - "Rockwell k56flex is here". I remember my first 56kbs modem - it was amazing in its time :) And it was a Rockwell.

Well said...

I have nothing to add to this...

Well said.

A tiny challenge...

Check out this asktom post and see if you can answer "why that probably won't ora-1555".

A follow up...

A follow up to my last post. I think this guy just hit the nail on the head. I've read some of his stuff in the past. He breaks down and explains security issues pretty darn good. I think he got this idea (Washington Monument) right too.

Stuff happens. There are crazy people out there. There is a fine line between being safe and being paranoid. Maybe not even that fine. We now know that if a hijacking takes place, you don't sit in your seat - you rush the people trying to do it and pummel them. The cockpit doors being reinforced is the greatest security measure ever - and more than enough. The rest of it all - just intrusive and sometimes just embarrassing.

You have to draw a line between reasonable security and "we'll reactively respond to every new tactic as it comes along".

My big fear - they start doing this (the 'security' thing) for monuments, buses, subways, trains, state parks, restaurants, movies, etc.

I've flown over 200,000 miles this year - that is about 10 working weeks in the air - that involves a lot of airports. I know how intrusive this stuff can be. I would hate to see the "security stuff" impose itself on my other 40 some weeks (and everyone else's time).

I don't know why, but I'm reminded of one of my favorite movies. Brazil.