3 chapters across the catalog
A retrospective on Pointcast, a popular 1990s screensaver that delivered news and stock prices, describes how the service frequently overwhelmed corporate network bandwidth. Despite a $450 million acquisition offer from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 1997, the company's founders held out for more money before the product eventually failed.
A host describes upgrading to a 5-gigabit symmetrical fiber connection, noting significant improvements in audio quality and latency for the podcast recording. The conversation transitions into a retrospective on networking history, including 56k modems, ISDN, and the technical limitations of T1 lines. An anecdote is shared regarding Pacific Telephone technicians and the persistent issue of squirrels chewing through capsicum-laced wire coatings.
Nancy Pelosi is mocked for requesting applause during a healthcare speech. The discussion transitions to Lyft's successful IPO and Uber's potential delay, drawing historical parallels to the 1980s Atari era and the failure of PointCast, a 1990s "push technology" news service that crashed corporate networks.
