The Gadgets Page

If you enjoyed last month’s episode of The Electronic Frontier that Andy Baio posted, then you’ll love the two episodes of the BBC’s “The Net” that he has made available:

• BBC Two’s “The Net,” Episodes 2 and 5 from 1994 – Waxy.org

Some highlights from Episode 2 (April 20, 1994):

1. Investigating the computers controlling critical safety systems at the Sizewell B nuclear power plant in Suffolk. It’s never had a serious accident, but two days ago, it had its first unplanned shutdown in three years. (0:50)

2. Talking to ordinary people who just started using the Internet, lightly touching on issues of identity, online dating, digital music, emoticons, and slang. Very charming segment, with great shots of CompuServe’s software and NCSA Mosaic for the Mac. (7:45)

3. Jules Gibbons “reviews” FIFA International Soccer for the SNES. Filler. (13:15)

4. Report on Apple’s switch to the RISC chipset and the marketing of the Power Mac. Interviews with the founder of Aldus, a PowerMac product manager, and a director at BBDO, the ad agency that won their account from Chiat/Day (before losing it again in 1997). Shots of an unknown 3D modeling application, the graphic calculator, and a SoftWindows beta. Also, clips from early Power Mac ads and a “road show” to educate consumers. (16:05)

5. Computer-aided surgery and CAT scans with 3D visualizations at Guy’s Hospital in London. (22:15)

6. Very short clip about a company called Ultrabra using computer-aided design to “take the bra into the 21st century.” (28:05)

Highlights from Episode 5 (May 11, 1994):

1. Fluffy coverage of the UK Internet infrastructure, loaded with language like “infobahn,” “cyberslobs,” and “digital superhighway.” Early UI interfaces for an Internet kitchen appliance, with an awkward 1 frame-per-second VRML interface. Great interview with a Blockbuster VP about video-on-demand, from inside a Blockbuster store using a ginormous cell phone. Footage of Al Gore talking about the Internet. (0:05)

2. Another fluffy explanation of the Net. How average people are using the Internet. Very basic explanations of email, Usenet, Web, Gopher, IRC, and FTP. Screen captures from Usenet, Ircle, and TurboGopher for the Mac. Shots of the W3C, World-Wide Web Virtual Library, and The Louvre website from Mosaic. (8:00)

3. Jules reviews Twisted for the 3DO. These are the worst game reviews I’ve ever seen. (13:45)

4. Nice look at Bletchley Park, the Colossus computer, and the 12,000 people that worked towards breaking German codes during World War II. Interviews with several of the women that worked there. (15:30)

5. How marketers are studying computer networks to learn about Generation X, with an emphasis on the San Francisco cafe and computer culture in the early ’90s. Interview with Wayne Gregori from SF Net, writer Andrew Hultkrans, and a very dated 3D tutorial for the inTouch iStation. (21:05)

6. Way too brief clip about parsing word frequency in Shakespeare’s works to detect plagiarism. (27:45).

These shows are an interesting time capsule into the perceptions of the Internet in the early nineties.