Flashback time again, where I talk about gadgets of years past with Becky Want on BBC Radio Manchester. 1990 and 2006 are today's years. Listen live on 95.1 at 4:15pm if you live in the Manchester area, or listen any time via the marvellous iPlayer.
Here's what was happening in technology in 1990:
- Tim Berners-Lee created the world wide web, including the 'protocol' (HTTP), language (HTML) and address system (URL). Working at the European nuclear physics laboratory (CERN) outside Geneva, the 35-year old Brit built the system to overcome his frustration at the poor tracking and sharing of information between scientists.
- The same year, the first commercial internet service provider, The World, went online. Notice the difference between the internet (the system for transporting data) and the web (the data we now know as web pages). The first search engine, Archie, was also released this year, as was a predecessor to the web browser, Gopher, a menu-driven search-and-retrieval tool.
- The GSM standard for mobile phones was defined and soon became accepted across the world. Except for in the US, where, upset that it was a European standard, they decided to plump for the alternative CDMA instead. They're coming around...slowly.
- Nintendo launched the GameBoy in Europe (as usual the US and Japan got it first in 89). Tetris became a global phenomenon. I have fond memories of beating all challengers at two-player Tetris on a school coach-trip.
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