Win 3.0

Nice Reg article about the 20th anniversary of the launch of Windows 3.0 and it’s impact on computing and the industry (and notes the importance of Solitaire!).

Us Unix Workstation people sneared at the time of course – and (as linux users) still do

Any Windows anniversary is an excuse to watch this stunning promo-video for an earlier 386/2.1 version. If you’ve never seen this you MUST watch (if you don’t have time for it all – jump to around 7 mins) . What were they thinking!?

As covered widely in the press & on the web – today is the anniversary of the peak of the NASDAQ tech stocks.

“On 10 March 2000, the Nasdaq index of leading technology shares spiked, bursting the Dotcom bubble.”

I was in my tenth year at Oracle at the time – though would leave in the Summer and join in with a badly/unluckily timed yet prescient start up intended to digitally distribute classical music. Searching for funding for an Internet venture in Q2 of 2000 turned out to be not a good plan!(Of course I blame the likes of pets.com and boo.com and the fools who gave them millions to burn with no sound business plan).

Those late nineties boom years were great fun though.. with much of the promise being fulfilled within a decade or so.

I have fond memories of touting an (ahem) N|C (network computer) around Europe… another idea before its time (and of course fatally flawed in execution). But we see the promise of “thin client computing” fulfilled in today’s IT via various technologies (netbooks, smartphones, tablets, “cloud computing”, virtual desktops etc.). Larry’s vision was good – the timing and execution questionable.

The other main technology I was associated with at that time was “Video on Demand”. Fifteen years on from the excitement of the early trials (with BT in the UK) streamed high quality (OK,  decent-ish quality) video is normal today (BC iPlayer Youtube et al).

Some of my friends and colleagues from those days are still at Oracle – some (unbelievably!) having served 20+ years there.

So where were you and what memories do you have?

BBC News – Dotcom bubble burst: 10 years on.

WIRED: March 10, 2000: Pop Goes the Nasdaq!

networkworld: Time Flies Dept.: Dot-com craze peaked 10 years ago

Looking geek chic, Computer Engineer Barbie® wears a t-shirt featuring binary code and computer/keyboard icon along with a pair of black knit skinny pants. Computer Engineer carries a Barbie® smart phone, fashionable laptop case, flat watch and Bluetooth earpiece. With stylish pink-frame glasses and a shiny laptop, she is ready to conquer the day’s tasks on the go or from her desk.

via Computer Engineer Barbie coming soon to a toy store near you • The Register.

I have just installed and am experimenting with TweetDeck.

It seems very impressive – handling multiple accounts and most usefully (for me) allowing the creation of groups to allow you to follow multiple users grouped into categories. It also (apparently) allows access to Facebook accounts too – however the account setup just hangs for me.

It runs on Linux via Adobe Air – which is a bit scary closed/proprietary but probably becoming a “necessary evil” (like Flash)… sigh.

Let’s se if it changes/improves my use of Twitter.