Posted 3/23/2008 05:22:00 PM by Douglas

I thought this article was from 1994 when I first looked at it. Yeah, that whole "internet" thing. It's probably not going to work out.

Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

Funny. A CD-ROM may not replace a great teacher, but it'll do wonders to replace several crappy ones.

Consider today's online world. The Usenet, a worldwide bulletin board, allows anyone to post messages across the nation.

Usenet? That really takes me back.

Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping--just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete[sic]. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet--which there isn't--the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

Isn't this just adorable? I guess not everyone can have quality editing that corrects spelling mistakes. I guess he's never heard of Amazon or PayPal, either. But then again, he writes for Newsweek, the Parade Magazine of print weeklies. Or maybe he could get a job selling encyclopedias.