Tom Brokaw hypes it up
Today's media hype of the day: Tonight on the 6:30 NBC news, Tom Brokaw's voice came with an urgent, strident tone, emphasizing emergencies and dire things everywhere, such as the possible attack on Iraq, the terrorist threat level, and the nightclub disasters, to the tune of booming loud martial-like music. Then he mentioned that Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers Neighborhood TV show for children) died at the age of 74, to the same bombastic music and tone of voice. What hype. And you really goofed it up this time, Tom. That was not Mr. Rogers' style! He was laid back, friendly, and optimistic. I think Tom should have cut the boom-music off and told us about Mr. Rogers in the same way that Mr. Rogers would have - softly and matter-of-factly.
A Journey through Blogrealm
Blogtrek
Blogtrek
2003/02/27
2003/02/24
JavaScript
I ran into an interesting word today, JavaScript. I have known about it for some time. It is a "scripting" programming language for the Web. The code goes inside an HTML file and is executed when the user requests the web page. I have constructed some JavaScript programs and once in a while I will post one. But my interest is in the word JavaScript itself and what it says about human nature. There is another web programming language called Java, invented by Sun Microsystems, but the two have little in common. The language was invented in 1995 and called LiveScript or ECMAScript by Netscape. However, the language did not catch on. The reason why is because Java came on the market, and programmers all over the place saw their chance to make the Web dynamic. Java drew all the interest and LiveScript dropped by the wayside. So, to pick up interest in LiveScript, Netscape got permission from Sun to change the name of the language to JavaScript. Immediately, it became a hit. Programmers rushed to it thinking it was some variation of Java. While the two languages are both based ultimately on C, they differ more than they have in common. After that it became a source of confusion among programmers. The idea is that exactly the same language fizzled when it was called LiveScript and succeeded greatly when it was JavaScript, simply because it was a "Java" language. It shows that words do matter, and that many people are not able to separate the object from the word for it. This is not a good way for things to be, but while it is the case, if you can put a so-called "buzz" word into the title of your endeavor, it will probably succeed.
I ran into an interesting word today, JavaScript. I have known about it for some time. It is a "scripting" programming language for the Web. The code goes inside an HTML file and is executed when the user requests the web page. I have constructed some JavaScript programs and once in a while I will post one. But my interest is in the word JavaScript itself and what it says about human nature. There is another web programming language called Java, invented by Sun Microsystems, but the two have little in common. The language was invented in 1995 and called LiveScript or ECMAScript by Netscape. However, the language did not catch on. The reason why is because Java came on the market, and programmers all over the place saw their chance to make the Web dynamic. Java drew all the interest and LiveScript dropped by the wayside. So, to pick up interest in LiveScript, Netscape got permission from Sun to change the name of the language to JavaScript. Immediately, it became a hit. Programmers rushed to it thinking it was some variation of Java. While the two languages are both based ultimately on C, they differ more than they have in common. After that it became a source of confusion among programmers. The idea is that exactly the same language fizzled when it was called LiveScript and succeeded greatly when it was JavaScript, simply because it was a "Java" language. It shows that words do matter, and that many people are not able to separate the object from the word for it. This is not a good way for things to be, but while it is the case, if you can put a so-called "buzz" word into the title of your endeavor, it will probably succeed.
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