[HN Gopher] Netscape's Constellation (1997) ___________________________________________________________________ Netscape's Constellation (1997) Author : Lammy Score : 29 points Date : 2023-01-06 19:34 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (people.apache.org) (TXT) w3m dump (people.apache.org) | 082349872349872 wrote: | For context, IIRC 1997 is close to when UserLand was first | pushing blogging and syndication. | | The first generation of walled gardens had largely been | conquered, and the next generation had not yet arisen... | blakesterz wrote: | https://people.apache.org/~jim/NewArchitect/webrevu/index.ht... | | Wow, these site is quite a fun trip back in time! So much good | reading here. | | I love this one "How librarians are shaping the web." | | https://people.apache.org/~jim/NewArchitect/webrevu/1997/07_... | [deleted] | fifteenforty wrote: | Ahh, remember Windows 95/98 Active Desktop? What a resource pig! | Seemed cool at the time though. | [deleted] | don-code wrote: | It took awhile before PCs really caught up with the demands | that a full-fledged Active Desktop would put on them. I | remember trying it on my 83MHz Pentium with 16MB of RAM, and | later a 233MHz Pentium II with 32MB of RAM, both without much | success. | | Towards the early 2000s, I was using it successfully on an | Athlon XP with 256MB of RAM, displaying some live-updating | weather widgets. That worked wonderfully, and actually felt | like a great use of Active Desktop. Screenshot: | https://hardwarehacks.org/lt/bcweather4tn.jpg | Lammy wrote: | There's a live demo of Constellation in Computer Chronicles' | Comdex '96 episode for anyone who wants to see it in motion: | https://youtu.be/FNPCD55IQ8Q?t=711 | karpour wrote: | I came here to post just that! On a different note, I'll take | this chance to plug the Computer Chronicles Metadata project! | If you're _really_ into Computer Chronicles, you might even | want to join our efforts to properly archive every episode on | the IA :) | | https://computerchronicles.karpour.net/ | Lammy wrote: | Thanks for making me aware of this! I am right in the middle | of doing my own encodes (cropped, color-corrected, | deinterlaced, consistent audio levels, HEVC/AAC, etc) from | the MPEG files on Archive, and this will save me a ton of | time. | rconti wrote: | > Let's say you subscribe to the hypothetical MTV live site. You | specify the music you like and it's automatically downloaded in | the background or overnight. Clips for new music in your genre | can be automatically broadcast to you -- no need to click and | wait. | | ah, the nostalgia of slow connections | yjftsjthsd-h wrote: | Also, a vision of a world not hampered by DRM to excess. | TheDudeMan wrote: | "Clips", not whole tracks. | yjftsjthsd-h wrote: | On the one hand, I did actually miss that. On the other | hand, no; I don't believe that even clips would fly today. | rzzzt wrote: | https://www.my90stv.com/ | watersb wrote: | Wow. I was a contractor on the Netcaster team summer of 1997. | That's the offline web subscription thing, the UI of which runs | along the right side column in that Constellation screen shot. | | A small group built a simple desktop UI as a tech demo. They'd | start the talk at that desktop, launch the "web browser" and demo | some web page techniques, then close the "browser" and deliver | the punchline: "Now we're back to the desktop. And we're still in | the web browser." | | Front-end development in that era was called "web design", not | programming. A big part of our job was to change that perception, | to show that a web "site" could be an interactive experience. | | The front-line techs at companies committed to a web presence | already knew this stuff, and it was an incredible privilege to be | working with them. But those responsible for allocating web site | budgets had some tough decisions to make, 25 years ago. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-01-06 23:00 UTC)