More interesting links

The 16 Greatest Moments in Web History and The 13 Most Embarrassing Moments in Web History
Things I learned from these articles include:
- The "Yahoo" name is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle".
- The first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer that went for $14.83. Broken.
- Oddpost was the webmail company that springboarded people's use of AJAX and Ruby on Rails to give an application-like feel in a browser.
- Amazon's first headquarters was a garage in Washington with 3 SPARC workstations and a bell that would ring with every sale.
- CNN has pre-prepared obituaries of many public figures ready to go for its website - in 2001 it was discovered that these were publicly accessible.
- A Florida cop blew off his own toe at a gun safety demonstration at an elementary school in 2004, after saying "I'm the only one in the room that I know of that's professional enough to carry a Glock .40."

Children detach from the natural world as they explore the virtual one
Outdoor activity for children is decreasing greatly. Some theories and possible explanations for this include:
- video games, television, internet, cell phones (6.5 hrs/day on electronic media for kids 8-18)
- more pressure on kids in this day and age academically - "5 times as much" homework as there was 30 years ago
- wilderness not taught in school (kids think of it as "a big open space with nothing to do")

The story reminds me of the many Calvin and Hobbes comics about playing outside and how that seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people from my generation. I'm also reminded of my coworker who told me that his parents allowed him and his siblings 1 hr of TV/video game time per day when he was growing up.

I'd want my kids to get out of the house and play... sports, exploring, parks, etc. It seems that with the growing tech-savviness of the current generations, that may get progressively harder and harder as youth communities become more and more found online.