#1030 Earth Reach

Back before the turn of the century, we had this decade called the 90s. The Tech Nineties some called it, because during that time we had the tech bubble. The tech bubble, as you may remember, was characterized by soon-to-be-proved wrong expectations that everything computer and web related was guaranteed to bring in amazing investment returns.
Slackers were throwing together tech-related start-up ideas and venture capitalists were giving them money and the stock market was bidding up shares and no one had produced widget one.
Venture capital in internet startups was not quite credit default swaps but it occupied that same rarified realm of undistilled hope. So it was with amusement the other day that I reflected on who survived and who thrived.
Google for one. They saw that the biggest problem was going to be too many people on the web so they enabled the first internet “phone book” that really worked well. Except unlike a phone book, it turns the pages for you and points out the entry you’re probably looking for.
Or another analogy. Google is like a really good librarian. You can spend all day plying the Dewey Decimal system or you can ask the librarian. Google even helps with spelling. I just typed in a vaguely misspelled version of Dewey Decimal system and my spellchecker couldn’t suggest the right one. I typed the same garbled word in the Google search bar and Dewey, spelled d-e-w-e-y- came up right away.
Pretty cool, since one of the original search engine paradigms was the Dewey Decimal System, invented by none other than Melvil Dewey in 1876.
Even then, the name Melvil destined you to be a nerd.
I saw something else the other day that made me chuckle about the survivors of the tech bubble. It was on the website of Amazon dot com. Amazon was criticized and/or applauded early on for creating a huge company without having yet sold one book. Well they got around to it. There new tagline says it all.
Amazon dot com. Earth’s Biggest Selection.
Sounds like they plan to expand.
...Opening soon...on Mars...
Hey, if they let astronauts bring up Kindles, it may be closer than you think.
America, ya gotta love it.