Overheard in re: a Metafilter conversation [1] about the original cross platform web browser; a line-mode application which is essentially a TTY [2] interface.

Imagine that… a typewriter that types by itself like some kind of terrible player piano. You read what it’s writing while it chatters away. And then once in a while it stops and you press a key that tells it what to type next. There’s fanfold of dead trees a thousand feet long under the desk, slowly being transferred into the trash bin behind it. And that’s you browsing the web.

Downright depressing, that.

[1] http://www.metafilter.com/132359/There-is-to-top-to-the-World-Wide-Web#5210791
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_terminal