This three-minute promotional video from Digital Equipment Corporation produced in 1994 sure takes me back. At that time people were using 14.4kbps Modems to dial into an Internet service provider and read pages on the Web. And the number of sites was only in the hundreds or possibly thousands.

Compare that to today… there are 160 Million sites and I visit them on my 10,000kbps (10 Mbps) cable connection (a 700x increase!). My house has more bandwidth than the backbone in 1994!

One of the choice quotes from this video:

In the future you will be forced to compete with distant companies you’ve never encountered before, and you’ll be able to expand to new markets at low cost.

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October is Black History Month in the UK (it’s February in the US), and one very unique individual is Gil Scott Heron, an American poet and musician known primarily for his late 1960s and early 1970s work as a spoken word performer.

Mr. Heron recites a poem in which he uses sarcasm and wit to make the point that the white people who “discovered” Africa weren’t exactly discovering anything, and certainly weren’t good for the indigenous people.
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Thanks to Sean from Geek With Laptop we’ve got the first ever demonstration of a MacIntosh computer by Steve Jobs.

This post is dedicated to Terry and Debbie who both mercilessly persecute me for being a die hard PC user and paying no homage whatsoever to the Mac.
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In the 1950’s and 1960’s Charles Manson and his gang of drugged out hippies preyed on society as few criminals ever have. After eventually being sentenced to death, then having that sentence commuted to life in prison (California repealed the death penalty) the Manson “family’s” reign of terror came to an end.

The name Charles Manson now strikes fear in people, but most of us don’t really know much about the man behind the myth. For example, the fact that he was 5′ 2″ tall and under 140 pounds lets you know right off the bat that he was not a physically intimidating human.

He is also not known to have actually committed murders. Instead, he used his charisma to control a bunch of drugged out people who were desperately seeking someone to follow.

In 1981 Tom Snyder interviewed Charles Manson. This interview provides a rare look into the mind of a crazy person who simply has no remorse or comprehension of morality.
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It’s hard to believe that it’s been 18 years since the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the legendary “tank man”. But this month marks the anniversary, and given that enough time as passed that a new generation has been born and without hearing about it I thought I’d give a little reminder surrounding events of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Although it is believed that Chinese troops under orders from the communist leadership massacred thousands of people, the event was immortalized in Western media by the famous video footage and photographs of a lone man in a white shirt standing in front of a column of tanks. This man has come to be known as “Tank Man” around the world.

He reportedly said, “Why are you here? You have caused nothing but misery.” As the tank driver attempted to go around him, the “tank man” moved into the tank’s path. He continued to stand defiantly in front of the tanks for some time, then climbed up onto the turret of the lead tank to speak to the soldiers inside. After returning to his position blocking the tanks, the man was pulled aside by onlookers who perhaps feared he would be shot or run over.
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I actually missed the anniversary by about a month, but thought it would still be appropriate to remember one of the most notable accidents in world history.

Along with some background information, I’ve embedded a video that includes all of the original footage and audio commentary including the famous words by Herbert Morrison, “Oh the Humanity”.
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Now days, when I think of India I think of a hot dry climate, a billion people, call centers and engineers. But this is a country with a long, rich history that predates most Western civilizations.

Here is an interesting video which demonstrates many of the inventions from ancient India including things such as the number 0, cotton, art, and more. In fact, about 37 minutes into the video, they discuss the manufacture of Wootz - or Damascus - steel, used for making the finest swords ever created.
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I’m not sure about you, but I had some preconceived notions about American political parties tendencies to go to war. Interestingly, they turned out to be completely wrong.

Here is a historical recounting of all US wars, how many lives were lost in each, and the responsible ruling party at the time.

This is not to say that the US necessarily initiated the conflicts, but these parties were in power at the time the decision was made to go to war, so it still demonstrates willingness to fight.
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This is a very interesting look at 2005 from the vantage point of the Google search engine. It shows how people’s interests and concerns vary according to what is happening around them. I think this is really worth a read, and I can’t wait to see the summary for future years as well.

Previous Google years include 2004, 2003, 2002, and 2001.

You can also see the current Zeitgeist to learn what’s happening right now!
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Google has added some fascinating footage of the moon to commemorate the anniversary of our Apollo moon landings.

This is interesting from a historical perspective, but even more fascinating is the incredible detail of the moon surface that can be seen when you zoom all the way in. I guess this definitively answers all questions regarding what the moon surface is made of.
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