Wired Reread

March 24, 2010 6:14 AM

Wired Reread: "In the fast paced world of tech, we often lure ourselves into believing that everything is different now, and old rules don’t apply. Well, quite often they do (if not always) and checking out our collective tech-past can help us get a perspective on the present."
posted by sveskemus (43 comments total)

Wired [Ads] Reread

Since when are advertisements known for their honesty and journalistic integrity?
posted by Pollomacho at 6:20 AM on March 24, 2010

Good post! Now that it's 2010 I guess I can finally feel nostalgic for the '90s...
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 6:23 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

This is a great idea but shouldn't be limited to tech or even just journalism. Pretty much all of the first/western/modern world considers 10 years to be a long time. Going back to re-evaluate "old" thought processes by checking their predictions is the basis of Long Bets.
posted by DU at 6:24 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

Whether or not the ads are truthful, the site actually introduced me to some stuff I was previously unfamiliar with such as Iridium. For that reason I give this site 3 1/2 stars.
posted by josher71 at 6:32 AM on March 24, 2010

Good post! Now that it's 2010 I guess I can finally feel nostalgic for the '90s...

Let me just ...stop you right now. Before you make it worse. We are not doing a 90s revival. K? I don't care how crappy the economy is, I don't care how many big floppy hats you bought, I don't care that "you know the flannel is really comfortable". Just. No.
posted by The Whelk at 6:33 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Flannel revival? Err....I've been wearing warm flannel shirts this entire time.
posted by DU at 6:36 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Flannel shirts have been back for two or three years by this stage - they're tighter/more metrosexual than the average lumberjack's, though. Actually, speaking of lumberjacks...
posted by kersplunk at 6:41 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

If anyone puts on big denim overalls, I'm leaving, just sayin'
posted by The Whelk at 6:44 AM on March 24, 2010

Going back to re-evaluate "old" thought processes by checking their predictions is the basis of Long Bets.

Wow, that's a great site! You should post that to the front page if it hasn't been posted previously.
posted by sveskemus at 6:45 AM on March 24, 2010

Not ten minutes ago, I tossed out my most recent copy of Wired after trying and failing to read an article about tablet PCs. I just could not penetrate the Sugarape-style layout to get to the actual content. All I was able to glean was "Apple is Awesome and Sidebars moreso."
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:46 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

FACT: Wired is the only magazine able to provoke seizures merely by being read.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:50 AM on March 24, 2010

Ten years and Wired still emails you your login password in clear text. The past is now!
posted by iamkimiam at 6:53 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

If only clicking on these actually did something...
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:53 AM on March 24, 2010

The Long Boom!
posted by Artw at 7:24 AM on March 24, 2010

Wired? Even the name of the magazine is anachronistic. Might as well subscribe to Analog, or The Telegraph.
posted by ericbop at 7:29 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

Bah...I've got some Mondo 2000s here...now that is some fun re-reading!
posted by exparrot at 7:31 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Bah...I've got some Mondo 2000s here...now that is some fun re-reading!

Ah, for the days when Kai's Power Tools and a mandelbrot generator were the only design tools you ever needed...
posted by Artw at 7:32 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

All I was able to glean was "Apple is Awesome and Sidebars moreso."

It wasn't always that way.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:39 AM on March 24, 2010

I love this Long Bet (from the site DU linked)--

“By the year 2150, over 50% of schools in the USA or Western Europe will require classes in defending against robot attacks.”
posted by haveanicesummer at 7:45 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm surprised that nobody has put a scanned PDF complete run of Mondo 2000 up on BitTorrent yet.
posted by mrbill at 7:51 AM on March 24, 2010

These give me the same feeling of hollow nostalgia that I get from rereading Microserfs.
posted by nonane at 8:16 AM on March 24, 2010

You're surprised, mrbill. I'm disappointed and perhaps a bit offended.
posted by cgc373 at 8:17 AM on March 24, 2010

We totally had one of these in our art school slide library. It actually worked with a System 7 Mac.
posted by device55 at 8:22 AM on March 24, 2010

Halloween Jack: "It wasn't always that way."

Huh, Apple actually did a whole bunch of those suggestions:

14. Do something creative with the design of the box and separate yourselves from the pack. The original Macs stood out because of their innovative look. Repeat that.

15. Dump (or outsource) the Newton, eMate, digital cameras, and scanners.

23. Create a new logo. The corporate graphic of the multicolored apple was tired in the 1980s, now it's positively obsolete.

31. Build a PDA for less than $250 that actually does something: a) cellular email b) 56-channel TV c) Internet phone.

34. Port the OS to the Intel platform

39. Build a laptop that weighs 2 pounds.

50. Give Steve Jobs as much authority as he wants in new product development.

71. Become a graphic design company and dominate your niche the way Sun and Silicon Graphics do.
posted by octothorpe at 8:34 AM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

We are not doing a 90s revival. K? I don't care how crappy the economy is, I don't care how many big floppy hats you bought, I don't care that "you know the flannel is really comfortable". Just. No.

If I start seeing little girls on TV wearing those floppy denim hats with the sunflowers on the front, I'm stocking up on canned food and firearms.
posted by brundlefly at 8:43 AM on March 24, 2010

(Which, now that I think about it, is another 90s trend that seems to be making a comeback.)
posted by brundlefly at 8:50 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wired was such an interesting magazine in the 90s. It was the magazine that broke the idea of what a tech magazine should be about, with long features on politics and worldchanging ideas. As a teenager in South Dakota, Wired exposed me to a whole variety of ideas and ways of thinking that I hadn't been exposed to at all. Why this blog seems to focus on the least interesting parts of the magazine is a mystery to me.

Also, why did Wired change so quickly? What magazine is the new Wired?
posted by roll truck roll at 8:53 AM on March 24, 2010

What magazine is the new Wired?

You might want to look at that word there.

Besides, I think you're reading it right now.
posted by The Whelk at 8:59 AM on March 24, 2010

Wired? Even the name of the magazine is anachronistic. Might as well subscribe to Analog, or The Telegraph.

I thought that was gonna link to Analog, rather than A.N.A.L.O.G., and I was gonna be all GRAR THAT'S NOT WHAT THE NAME MEANS ... but nevermind.
posted by Amanojaku at 9:17 AM on March 24, 2010

...the site actually introduced me to some stuff I was previously unfamiliar with such as Iridium. For that reason I give this site 3 1/2 stars.

Then, you might be interested in checking-out the Iridium Flares. Even in death, the technology lives on.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:21 AM on March 24, 2010

If anyone puts on big denim overalls, I'm leaving, just sayin'

I was kicked out of an art opening that we crashed whilst dressed as bunnies on saturday by a large man wearing big overalls. They're already here.
posted by flaterik at 9:26 AM on March 24, 2010

Flaterik, you need to find a way out of Wonderland, trust me.
posted by The Whelk at 9:37 AM on March 24, 2010

I've already seen one club that has a 90s night. It has already begun.
posted by Uncle Ira at 10:06 AM on March 24, 2010

...but how do we stop it?
posted by The Whelk at 10:08 AM on March 24, 2010

The avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:09 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Bunny suits never go out of style.
posted by brundlefly at 10:13 AM on March 24, 2010

The Whelk: "You might want to look at that word there.

Touche. What website or other media thingamabob is the new Wired?

Besides, I think you're reading it right now."

Hmm, I think I subscribe to a couple of their blogs, but no. There was a distinct moment around 1999 or 2000 when at became substantially more business-oriented. I quit reading it and haven't really read anything like it since.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:35 AM on March 24, 2010

I remember those old "You Will" ads from AT&T, trying to get people excited about their goofball future telecom ideas. Oh, and remember those horrible POTS videophones?
posted by delmoi at 1:42 PM on March 24, 2010

Oh, Wordperfect. We had 5.1 at home because that's what my mother used at work. I'll give it this: Anything we printed through a Windows word processor looked like crap compared to the quality we got from WP on our dot matrix.
posted by TrialByMedia at 5:28 PM on March 24, 2010

Touche. What website or other media thingamabob is the new Wired?

Ars Technica, but YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THE ADS OR ELSE
posted by armage at 7:06 PM on March 24, 2010

the new magazine should be called air, and be an app that curates your twitter feed and rss reader and whatnot
posted by By The Grace of God at 5:46 AM on March 25, 2010

Ahh, Wordperfect. I recreated my 1993 computing environment a few months ago with DOSbox.
posted by mrbill at 10:05 AM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Just because we are on Facebook, doesn't mean the rules of social conduct has changed, although we're more on the cyber space, the rules of the social conduct still the same as it was.
posted by neworder7 at 9:41 PM on March 26, 2010