The Web That Never Was - Dylan Beattie

NDC Conferences
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 7 months, 2021–2026
YouTube
96K views · 7 years ago · talk · intermediate · evergreen

Dylan Beattie's NDC talk, The Web That Never Was, an entertaining alternate history of the web that imagines how it might have turned out differently. It opens with a poem before the talk proper.

HN people link it whenever someone talks about forking or rebuilding the web, as the favorite take on a hypothetical alternative web, though one finds it loose on some details.

“I will always push Dylan Beattie's talk about this exact thing!”
Web design
#webhistory#alternatehistory#dylanbeattie#webstandards#forkingtheweb

9 comments from Hacker News

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@x-complexity2026 · in “Forking the Web”
Whenever someone talks about forking/rebuilding the web, I'll always link to my favorite Dylan Beattie talk about such a hypothetical alternative: ▶ this video
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x
@x-complexity2025 · in “Show HN: Using Common Lisp from Inside the Browser”
I will always push Dylan Beattie's talk about this exact thing! ▶ this video
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x
@x-complexity2024 · in “The Web That Never Was – Dylan Beattie [video]”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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x
@x-complexity2024 · in “Blitz: A lightweight, modular, extensible web renderer”
Then you'll especially love Dylan Beattie's talk on this exact subject, regarding an alt-history take on the web. ▶ this video
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@taejavu2024 · in “Was Javascript really made in 10 days?”
You might enjoy this talk by Dylan Beattie, it explores that kind of alternate history. “The Web That Never Was”: ▶ this video
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@x-complexity2024 · in “The Web That Never Was – Dylan Beattie [video]”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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A
@AlbertoGP2023 · in “Poor Man's Web”
> I feel like more people should watch Dylan Beattle's "The Web that Never Was" presentation. Didn’t know about it, here is the video of that talk in YouTube: ▶ this video There is a poem-style intro titled “Flatscreens / a song about code” until the talk proper starts at 5’11”: ▶ this video Edit: I’m watching it and it is done in an entertaining style but is a bit loose on some details I know about, such as implying that the IBM PC development was started in the early 1970’s when it was in fact started in 1980. Still worth watching so far. Edit 2: finished, it is definitely worth watching. It goes into “The Twilight Zone” of a very interesting alternative history. And does a good job reporting on the Gary Kildall / IBM missed deal for their PC OS.
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@prirai2021 · in “Facebook Renames to Meta”
This might be fun to watch: ▶ this video
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@artemissian2023 · in “The State of HTTP in 2022”
They should ofc have used SELECT CREATE UPDATE DELETE SUBMIT and nothing more :D #TheWebThatNeverWas ▶ this video
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