But the drive was essentially no different from an ancient chinese rocket. Not a lightsail, ion drive, nuclear fusion drive etc. But your platform vs product point is well taken. A screwdriver can open a paint can or assemble a spaceship.
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totally, and i like that thought: screwdrivers as a technology are pretty stable; but, what we can do with them is incredibly versatile.
maybe the question is: is the web more like a screwdriver, or more like an infinitely deep toolbox?
i’d tend towards the latter – but, it probably depends on what exactly we mean by “the web”.
I think the best simile is to the printing press. It’s essentially a communications medium. Gutenberg didn’t imagine “idiot’s guide to C++” or “The Anarchist’s Cookbook”. But he probably did imagine “50 shades of Gray”. Some things don’t change.
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Not to get too in the weeds, but impact drivers plus screws with a type 17 tip have completely changed, err, screwing. (Are we still doing Phrasing?)
ETA
I sunk 3 1/2" screws, eight feet up on my toes in a cured, hard knot at a 45 degree angle without predrilling. That was pure magic.
Posted this other places, but advances in… Damnit, sigh… Screwing technology have not been standing still.
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well… i did say “pretty” stable 
also, nice work!!! if it’s okay to innovate commas around – that looks like one pretty, stable fence you have there!
( actually… i wonder to what extent computing played a hand in the creation of your drill? any sort of computer aided design, or tolerance analysis… or electronic speed control… would the web be considered to have “progressed” if it enabled the creation of some new category of real world of things? )
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But they do so much unnecessary stuff. I don’t need to create an interactive document with embedded apps and real-time whatever. Some of my most important documents are text files.
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Interesting that he completely ignores the smartphone stuff, though.
A lot of smart people think the web is basically dead, that everything will be mobile apps and the web + web browsers will slowly die off. I don’t agree, but there is a strong contingent of smart, very rich people who truly and deeply believe this will come to pass.
You have a pretty fence…said Ripley to the android
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