The workings of the Web

Chapter 4, New Media , in Lisa Gitelman's "Always Already New" future demonstrated the common phrase, "Don't trust what you read on the internet." From the "internet" being mentioned in the New York Times in 1854, to the H-Bot retrieving the wrong date for a given event. Gitelman goes into depth on how the internet is not always correct remain correct. There are difficulties to being accurate 100% of the time.

As she goes into depth about how inaccurate the internet may be, there were a few things that I found interesting. The most interesting was the "least recently modified web page". Found this particularly interesting based on what factor they used to classify the webpage.

This is the "least recently modified web page". Since its creation, it has changed servers, URL, and company.

 The picture above shows the "least recently modified web page" overlay with the source code for the page. The source code has not changed one bit since the creation of the web page.

One thing that I found annoying with the chapter, instead of defining most of the definitions up front to allow coherent thought as the piece progressed, she had them spread; it seemed for a little that at the start of every paragraph there was another clarification or definition.

However, I did enjoy reading about the average life of a webpage. I can say I have been a factor in decreasing the life span. There have been times where I have tried to create a webpage, only to get bogged down with other work, or just lacked the motivation to continue.