Good discussions on the Blue about Big Things at their infancy?

September 18, 2019 7:20 AM

Inspired by today's post about pulsed power fusion, I wondered what it looked like when Tesla was first being discussed and found this thread that came out in 2009 just as the Model S was being introduced. It's fascinating to read people's takes. That reminded me of the 2001 thread discussing the nascent iPod, which is even better. Do you have any favorite posts discussing now giant things when they were just being born? Tech especially is cool but more serious things like the two "Trump is running for president" threads from 2011 - where Artw presciently calls him "America's Boris Johnson!" - and 2015 are interesting too.
posted by AgentRocket to MetaFilter-Related at 7:20 AM (43 comments total)

Oh by the way valleywag is skeptical that this car will ever make it to production.
posted by delmoi at 1:32 PM on March 28, 2009 [+] [!]

Things that got produced: Tesla Model S

Things that went out of business: Valleywag
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 7:39 AM on September 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

From 2002: that Global Positioning System thingy.
posted by Melismata at 8:06 AM on September 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Flickr (2004); 'The Facebook' (2005); Twitter (2007: at least I couldn't find a prior post about it, although an earlier comment explains 'Twitter is the new odeo').
posted by misteraitch at 8:13 AM on September 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

iPhone, announced January 9, 2007, released June 29, 2007:

Confirmed Sighting of the iPhone in the Wild January 9, 2007
Apple's Billion Dollar Gamble Riding On Its Lack of Keyboard June 13, 2007
iPhone Disassembled June 30, 2007
posted by zamboni at 8:14 AM on September 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

o god reading those threads makes me think there must be a german compound word for 'regret echoing thru the ages and landing smack in my forebrain this morning'
posted by lalochezia at 9:09 AM on September 18, 2019 [7 favorites]

I remember making a post about the first Android phone but it was deleted for being an advertisement. I had included pricing, I think.
posted by soelo at 9:16 AM on September 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

Not new but

earth trembles*
posted by abcde at 3:16 PM on April 29, 2004
posted by clavdivs at 9:39 AM on September 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

IT -> Ginger ->Segway
posted by briank at 10:04 AM on September 18, 2019

AgentRocket, this is a fantastic idea for a thread and I look forward to spending the next few evenings popping in in order to luxuriate in the inevitable [german compound word for 'regret echoing thru the ages and landing smack in my forebrain this morning'].
posted by youarenothere at 10:30 AM on September 18, 2019 [4 favorites]

What could I have possibly said in any of those threads that I would regr...? Oh, fuck.

*sits down, stares at now archetypal black mirror slab of an Android iPhone clone with multitouch and without a keyboard and mired in Google Apps and cloud*

I STILL WANT A KEYBOARD AND I MISS KEYBOARDS ON PHONES, OK? I MISS MY DROID AND G1! MY G1 HAD TRACKBALL AND IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME.
posted by loquacious at 10:49 AM on September 18, 2019 [17 favorites]

If you predict the inevitable failure of every new innovation, over a sufficiently long time scale you will never be wrong.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:28 AM on September 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

First post about Tumblr--"World's simplest blogging system!" 2007.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:47 AM on September 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

OK? I MISS MY DROID AND G1! MY G1.

THIS HOW YOU SUMMONED ARCH-WIZARDS!
posted by clavdivs at 11:48 AM on September 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

gmail
gmail invite thread on AskMe
posted by thatwhichfalls at 11:58 AM on September 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

Oh man, that gmail thread. I remember it being total freaking chaos and several of us were trying to bring order to the chaos, but it was still chaos, just slightly more efficient chaos.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:07 PM on September 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

A giant iPhone? Really? — The Apple iPad
posted by roger ackroyd at 1:22 PM on September 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

Thefacebook has really exploded. I love seeing which people from highschool became archconservatives and which didn't. Really great stuff for the gossip mill.
posted by deafmute at 2:01 PM on March 19, 2005 [+] [!]

Glad to remember the site has always had this as a primary utility.
posted by General Malaise at 1:29 PM on September 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

This is only tangentially related but if you do a site search for the earliest mention of "bin laden" on MetaFilter, it pulls up the following comment:

[…]
Really, you know I hear Bin Laden sends secret, covert messages over boards like this...
posted by geoff. at 6:30 PM on September 10, 2001 [+] [!]
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:34 PM on September 18, 2019 [10 favorites]

And that was the one and only thing asfaras ever did on this site.
posted by General Malaise at 2:40 PM on September 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

The email account I was gifted/invited to is still my primary account. I've had it longer now than any actual physical residential address or phone number.
posted by bonehead at 5:29 PM on September 18, 2019 [4 favorites]

I made a post about Truvada (PrEP, the pill that prevents HIV transmission) in 2013. At the time, there were a lot of negative reactions to the concept, disbelief that it could really work, etc. Now it's extremely widespread and broadly accepted as a public health intervention.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:37 PM on September 18, 2019 [12 favorites]

Obama's been lauded - The first black president of the United States (July 28, 2004)

Bryan Cranston is doing career-defining stuff with this role, but then if an actor finds his perfect groove in the cultural wilderness and theres noone around to admire it blah blah blah fucking blah. (March 2, 2008)

Minecraft is a multiplayer block-based sandbox game. (June 10, 2009)

I first discovered one of my all-time favorite bands (Alabama Shakes) thanks to a blind link from BitterOldPunk in October 2011, years before they blew up
posted by Rhaomi at 12:46 AM on September 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

I didn't comment in that Tesla thread but if I had I probably would have been as skeptical as the rest of them. Now I see Teslas every time I drive anywhere.
posted by octothorpe at 5:06 AM on September 19, 2019

I am loving reading these.

I am reminded also of FPPs and comments predicting events that didn't happen, at least in the short term, like all of the "peak oil" discussions right before oil production went up and prices settled down.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:18 AM on September 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

A throwaway link in this post - Bitcoin reaches $1 in value, and this post from May 2011 including the on-point comment from demiurge "Why would you pay someone money to waste electricity?"
posted by Gordafarin at 8:09 AM on September 19, 2019

I have relatives going into debt paying $150 (cheapest hotel) to be near a hospital while taking care of other sick relative. They found a summer dorm for $40/night but once the students come back, they might be out of luck. Craigslist and a cheap sublet is their next bet.

This could be very handy if it caught on.

From a 2008 thread about a new little site called AirBed and Breakfast.

Also, from the same thread:

And I wonder how this works with tax, landlords etc? Cos if you're taking payment, there will be a lot of laws that wuill suddenly apply, no?
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:20 AM on September 19, 2019 [5 favorites]

hurdy gurdy girl: "From a 2008 thread about a new little site called AirBed and Breakfast. "

Reminds me of the fun fact that BirchBox was originally a MeFi Project.
posted by Rhaomi at 10:58 AM on September 19, 2019 [8 favorites]

Kindle Fire, future of reading? (November 18, 2007)

Marvel to finance up to ten new films (September 7, 2005) -- "I honestly can't think of a superhero film that I want to see made" -- brace yourself, past craniac.

DARPA's second Grand Challenge where autonomous vehicles competed in a off-road race (October 8, 2005), where internet capacity was so low, and/or MetaFilter users were so numerous to lead someone to say that "the server is mefi'd" and they provided a coralized link (using the Coral Content Distribution Network, which I hadn't thought about in years).

Um, does anyone want to venture a guess as to why google's logo is surrounded by threes? (December 29, 1999) -- three days 'til Y2k? Speaking of which ...

Urge everyone to upgrade their browsers. Why? Well many of the older browsers out there have Y2K problems. (August 11, 1999)
posted by filthy light thief at 11:08 AM on September 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

I feel like the Kindle one is a good example of Faint of Butt's comment about naysayers being right on a long enough timescale. It did look like eBooks might take over the world for a little while, but now they've settled in as just a portion of the overall book market instead, and Kindles themselves are likewise just a portion of the overall tablet market.

(Although I have to say that reading on the original Kindle's E-Ink displays under ambient light was a lot more comfortable than reading on a a standard tablet's OLED display.)
posted by tobascodagama at 12:10 PM on September 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

That Marvel movie thread is fascinating. Image if you had said in 2005 that in fourteen years Marvel movies would have taken over popular culture. You'd have been laughed out of the thread.,
posted by octothorpe at 12:22 PM on September 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

luriete nailed one of the more consistent aspects of the MCU, at least.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:40 PM on September 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Robocop is bleeding:Watchmen would make a great season's worth of an HBO show.

A decade and a half later and that's actually happening.
posted by octothorpe at 1:01 PM on September 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Nintendo 3DS.

Nintendo Revolution, sorry, I mean Nintendo Wii.

Nintendo Switch.
posted by mbrubeck at 7:32 PM on September 19, 2019

Crap on a cracker, I remember that Wii thread, the whole endless argument some folks were making that the name was going to sink it because people wouldn't be able to not think about pee constantly and so would just avoid the console in droves. Glancing through it 13 years later confirms what I was afraid I'd find: I was right about what I was saying in there but god was I obnoxious about how I was saying it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:56 PM on September 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

MetaFilter: I was right about what I was saying in there but god was I obnoxious about how I was saying it

(I am being obnoxious about how I'm saying this, I am aware)
posted by ambrosen at 12:54 AM on September 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

'So, is anyone else sick of all the crappy video links? Just reposting the latest "wow, look at this"/"isn't this funny" stuff from Google Videos and YouTube gets a bit dull.' (March 1, 2006)

RIP Google Videos. YouTube was started in February 2005, and Google bought the site in November 2006.

Since then, there have been thousands of posts with YouTube links, and the following tags:

youtube (3866)
youtube. (1)
youtube.com (1)
youtubeactivism (1)
youtubeagain (1)
youtubebeta (1)
youtubechannel (1)
youtubeclone (1)
youtubecomments (2)
youtubecompilations (1)
youtubecookingshows (1)
youtubefad (1)
youtubefilter (4)
youtubefpp (1)
youtubeism (1)
youtubeisnottheanswer (1)
youtubeitude (1)
youtubemusicawards (1)
youtubemusickey (1)
youtubemusicvideos (1)
youtubeplaylist (3)
youtubepoop (3)
youtubequickdraw (1)
youtuber (4)
youtuberage (1)
youtuberance (1)
youtubereacts (1)
youtuberecommendations (1)
youtuberewind (1)
youtubers (2)
youtubery (2)
youtubes (1)
youtubeslow (1)
youtubestar (1)
youtubevideo (3)

Similar tags
yotube (1)
youtbe (1)
youtoube (1)
you-tube (1)
youtube. (1)
youtuber (4)
youtubes (1)
youtude (1)
youtue (1)
youtupe (1)

In addition to MetaTalk discussions with tags:
youtube (107)
youtubeclone (1)
youtubeplayer (3)
youtubeport (1)
youtubery (1)
youtubeseries (1)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:17 AM on September 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

TIL there's a 1978 Dr. Strange TV Movie and a young Jessica Walter is in it.
posted by condour75 at 7:57 AM on September 20, 2019

Feb 2005: google maps beta ("whoa...")
Apr 2005: Google Maps now does satellite images.

Of course Google got much of its satellite mapping tech when it acquired Keyhole, in 2004. That 7-day free trial of Keyhole pretty much halted all work in my office for a week, as we explored the world.

Other mefites had been satellite spying with Keyhole's Earth Viewer as early as 2002.

I look back with fondness at those innocent early days of wonder, and remember the excited feeling of "I can actually see my house!"
posted by Kabanos at 9:41 AM on September 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

Oh hey, look at how accurate picture of a credit card controlled charging station at the restuarant in the middle of a provincial park this comment turned out to be:

I wouldn't be surprised to see combination charging and parking meters appear once electric cars take off; if not on the street then at car parks for sure. Pull up to the meter; swipe your AMEX; plug the cord into the locking socket; come back an hour later to a full battery.

--

That or they remember when the web and the internet weren't cesspools of commercial activity and are just reverting their experience to the original. posted by Mitheral at 14:13 on September 2, 2008

Past me I've got some very bad news for you.
posted by Mitheral at 9:17 PM on September 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

I can't find the link but I remember a thread with a headed debate and meltdown over google deciding to index blogs, because blogs were like, opinions, unlike the rest of the internet. 2003-ish? I thought it was a comical place to plant a flag even at the time, although maybe (stretching here) it was a distant rumbling of what google was going to become in the future as just another shameless rent seeking monopoly, and this site used to have a lot of techno-optimism.
posted by MillMan at 12:31 AM on September 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

Looking for the thread that MillMan mentioned, I found this: Google Click-to-Call. (November 28, 2005) -- that's about 5 years before Google Voice was first launched (Wikipedia)

Digging deeper, I found this discussion of wacky misses from internet searches leading people to MeFite's blogs and sites: Somebody found my blog while searching for a 'doctor's surgery webpage'. (October 16, 2000) -- the first three search engines listed are AltaVista, Yahoo, Lycos, and there's a mention of "lovely, nifty little Google." -- "has anyone ever found anything useful from any search engine ever? Really? I don't believe you."

People chime in to say Google generally works for them, and there's this interesting comment:

Google finds what I'm looking for 95% of the time. Really, that's amazing considering it's being done by computer. How much intelligence do computer apps really have usually?

Just you wait, 'enry 'iggens! Er, daveadams.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:08 AM on September 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

My reactions to all of this:

1) Surely most of this stuff with 200x dates actually happened in the 1990s?
2) Oh god, 2000 was 20 years ago.
posted by maxwelton at 12:20 AM on September 24, 2019 [5 favorites]

The "iWalk" post was interesting. Not as upfront dismissive as the infamous Slashdot post, but you still have people predicting its imminent demise, until someone shows up who has actually used an iPod and clearly gets why it's exceptional. And, of course, the iPhone is much closer to that initial speculation.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:43 PM on September 24, 2019