Tuesday, 12/11/01

Google just took the wraps off their usenet archive, going back to 1981. There's a fascinating timeline of the first usenet mentions of various events, including AIDS, Madonna, the Challenger explosion, the Mac, AOL, and "Star Wars Episode 6", excerpted in part below:

The release date for us humans that want to see it is still the summer of 1983. I guess it takes that long to score all the music, do all the film-editing, prepare all the promo material, and all that junk.

I wish Lucas & Co. would get the thing going a little faster. I can't really imagine waiting until 1997 to see all nine parts of the Star Wars series.

Turns out I've met the author of that one -- Randal Schwartz, Perl hacker of wide repute. Perl was invented five years later; the first usenet mention of which that I can find appearing in a notice announcing the slightly later birth of one of Larry Wall's daughters. 11:12PM «

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