The Daily Ping

It’s been a long while since I’ve been really really impressed by a website. Other than the Ping of course – we’re always impressing me.

But surely one of the coolest things I’ve seen in recent memory is BetaMaXmas. It’s a ‘working’ TV set based on the schedules of 1988 – the video all works, and the TV Guide is real-time.

I was already blown away by the commercials and specials here. I had totally forgotten about One to Grow On but there it was, right in front of me, followed by a Growing Pains Christmas special.

Other than the obvious greatness of this, there’s a very nice archival quality here. The creators of the site have hinted that more may be in store. But think about how neat it would be to pull up a working emulator of today’s internet in 20 years – something that goes beyond archive.org. Imagine having this linked to the day you were born, like a new birthday machine. There are a whole lot of possibilities and I really do hope that some of these come to fruition.

Now if you’ll excuse me, The Smurfs Christmas Special is on. Oh, Gargamel!

Posted in Childhood Memories