Opera Going Old School

[Sean Malone]

Link (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/16/opera_unite/)

This caught my eye this morning.


Opera raised the browser feature ante today by announcing Opera Unite - placing a web server in every client and encouraging end users to share content from their own desktop with the world.

Rather than compete with the cloud-based services that are currently so popular, Opera is proposing, and enabling, a return to how the internet used to work: everyone runs their own host device, with their own applications running on their own hardware, which can then be accessed from anywhere using any web browser.


Routing is handled by servers at Opera, and the computer on your desk is addressed as "unite://computername.username.operaunite.com". Where possible connections are peer-to-peer, in just the way that the internet was originally envisioned, but much routing will be through the Unite proxy. Conspiracy fans have long posited that the proliferation of NATs and Firewalls is part of a process to divide the internet into "publishers" and "consumers", and Opera is happy to play up their part in reversing this process:

[opinionated ow]

I thought you were going to tell me of a production of Figaro or Carima Burana or something without microphones or electric lights.

[Indy]

What a rip. Where's the fat lady?

[G.]

What a rip. Where's the fat lady?

Her plane is landing at Indy as we speak.

[nrc]

I'm trying to remember when the internet used to work that way...

[JLMannin]

I'm trying to remember when the internet used to work that way...

Sounds like the video bulletin boards of the 1980's. I, too, thought this thread was actually going to be about opera (The singing kind)

[RusH]

It must have worked that way at universities...in the beginning.
I just tried it, cool utility anyway. I bet the file sharers will love it. ;)

[WickerBill]

Sounds like the video bulletin boards of the 1980's.

BBS -- bulletin board. Not VBB... you just gave yourself up (at least to me *grin*)

[ChampcarShark]

I thought for a moment about the old days of the internet.

No images, just plain text. download everything from everywhere.

No RIAA, no copyright, no advertisement, no pop ups, just one big happy family sharing everything..


It is amazing how time flies, and changes.

[dando]

I thought for a moment about the old days of the internet.

No images, just plain text. download everything from everywhere.

No RIAA, no copyright, no advertisement, no pop ups, just one big happy family sharing everything..


It is amazing how time flies, and changes.

A man had to work for his pr0n back in the day. ;)

-Kevin

[RusH]

And then there was that thingy that preeceded the web I remember from Netcom. It was either Gopher, Veronica, Archie or Jughead...lol.

[datachicane]

I was an early tester for Wildcat! Navigator back in the day. A year of free innerweb access through my .edu BBS back in 1993 or so was a hot commodity, even if it was slow and buggy as hell.

[Michaelhatesfans]

A man had to work for his pr0n back in the day. ;)

-Kevin

Damn right.

One had to either muster up the gumption to walk into a Circle K and point behind the counter, or else browse the documentary section in the video store until no one would notice you discreetly slipping in to something the size of a broom closet where the adult section was.

:laugh:

[datachicane]

Damn right.

...or else browse the documentary section in the video store until no one would notice you discreetly slipping in to something the size of a broom closet where the adult section was.

:laugh:

...and hope you didn't bump into your father-in-law in there.
:eek::eek:

[cameraman]

It was a huge deal when we moved from alt.binaries.whatever on the unix boxes to ncsa mosaic on the Macs. That was what, 20 years ago? Damn I'm getting old.

[cameraman]

I'm clearly going senile, how the hell did we access our email before Pine? I remember we got rid of the token ring right when I started (recabling everything was memorable) and replaced the whole setup with a Vax 8800. I managed to snag my own vt220 (I wish they still made keyboards of that quality:shakehead) but I can't remember how the email was handled. It must have been command line but those neurons seem to have died.:confused: I just used the computers, I didn't run them.

[ChampcarShark]

I was an early tester for Wildcat! Navigator back in the day. A year of free innerweb access through my .edu BBS back in 1993 or so was a hot commodity, even if it was slow and buggy as hell.

Back in the late 1980's the local community college was providing free internet access, limited by 45 minutes at an amazing speed of 14 kbps. telnet phone to phone connection.

after 45 mins the connection timed out, but had the option of signing in again for another 45 mins.

The BBS where fun, left a message and then had to wait till the next refresh of the system the next day.

Thank God for Mosaic and Netscape (RIP) for the graphic browser.

[RusH]

Let's not forget Trumpet Winsock for Windoze 3.1....It was so much fun configuring it for each new ISP...lol

Btw, you still access the alt.binaries. NNTP is not dead...yet.

[datachicane]

Back in the late 1980's the local community college was providing free internet access, limited by 45 minutes at an amazing speed of 14 kbps. telnet phone to phone connection.

after 45 mins the connection timed out, but had the option of signing in again for another 45 mins.

The BBS where fun, left a message and then had to wait till the next refresh of the system the next day.

Thank God for Mosaic and Netscape (RIP) for the graphic browser.

The Wildcat! Navigator was a graphic browser. Your connected BBS would run a server app that provided www access through the client. My local CC offered free limited BBS access as well, 4 hr/month IIRC, or you could pony up for 45 hr/month at something like $30/year.

[Insomniac]

Let's not forget Trumpet Winsock for Windoze 3.1....It was so much fun configuring it for each new ISP...lol

Btw, you still access the alt.binaries. NNTP is not dead...yet.

My best memory of trumpet winsock was setting the date on the PC 10 years forward (like we were going to use it for 10 years!) and then installing it.

On topic, Opera sucks (EU too).

[eiregosod]

too dumb for Oprah, too smart for NASCAR

[TrueBrit]

I thought you were going to tell me of a production of Figaro or Carima Burana or something without microphones or electric lights.

I thought Opera was old school pretty much by definition...