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I have beside me a website from 1887. No, really. Here's the story.
Down the road from my house some people were cleaning out the basement, and selling the various things they found. I was walking my dog past their yard sale, and he (the dog) absolutely had to have a little stuffed teddy bear they had in a box on the ground, right in dog range. Since I was obviously buying this bear (the alternative was seeing if the hospital would reattach my fingers after trying to take it away from him), I looked around a bit more and found a book of John Greenleaf Whittier's poems from 1887. Whittier was a local poet, and I like old books, so for 50 cents I was the new owner. The bear also cost 50 cents, by the way.
Leafing through it later it occurred to me that this particular book is a website. It has a comments section (the whole thing), and I know, for instance, that it was given as a Christmas gift in 1888. It has a bookmarking function (the bookmarks are bits of newsprint that have been in the book so long that they've slightly discolored the pages). There's a change tracking area -- there were some earlier editions, noted in this version). And a welcome note from the author, who was nearing the end of his career and wrote an introduction that mentioned his embarrassment about some of his very early work, which is included anyway.
Many of the poems resemble email, in a way. Or at least blog entries. Whittier wrote about some very big, high-level themes like slavery, war, and religion. He also wrote some very local, very down-to-earth pieces about, for example, his neighbors and some local landmarks. And he was certainly as prolific as a blogger (well, maybe not me, but I've heard that some bloggers post a lot more often!)
All in all, a good use of fifty cents. My dog still has that bear, too.
Comments
thank you
Posted by: العابgood blog!
Posted by: mp3 песни | November 17, 2007 05:03 AMi like cheese
Posted by: charley | September 14, 2007 01:16 PMHello Pete,
do you feel the breath of the opera mini team in your neck? These fellows have implemented minimap in a fairly interesting way. You are still ahead in my book for the capacity to display 800x600 web pages on the E70 screen, by zooming pictures out and text in. That is ingenious...
and more... I think it is revolutionary...
But look out! They are getting the point too...
and finally, now they have a mouse too...
did you give it to them?
Regards!
Posted by: Aron | September 10, 2007 03:39 PMAron