RAINMAN
I was using Wikipedia to look up terms of a "historical" nature with regards to the Internet and stumbled upon an entry for RAINMAN which used to be AOL's proprietary content publishing language. Back before everything was web based, this is how all static content was maintained, through a odd series of libraries, resources, id's, and lots of commands with /'s.
It's strange to think back about the time that AOL was publishing this way- the existence of RAINMAN itself was kept under wraps, and users who brought up the term were eyed as troublemakers. AOL employees and key volunteers could take classes (the former in VA, the latter online) in the language, though access to the courses was strictly controlled. I think it was around this time that I had a SecurID to log on, to ensure that my publishing rights wouldn't fall into malicious hands.
What an odd thing, that the very existence of the language was supposedly secret. The forms and icons that were available to use did help to maintain a consistent user experience throughout the system, though it looks like this was ultimately the language's limiting demise since all content eventually switched over to HTML.
Strangely enough, it looks like some relics of the language are still kicking around as evidenced by this aricle by Anil Dash on RAINMAN, Blackbird (a Microsoft web platform), and how the two are similar to and influence Facebook today.
I wonder if this means I should list familiarity with RAINMAN on my resume. I think people who've been kicking around the net awhile would see it as an in joke, or at least a nod to that I've been working in the industry long enough to understand where the industry has been.
It's strange to think back about the time that AOL was publishing this way- the existence of RAINMAN itself was kept under wraps, and users who brought up the term were eyed as troublemakers. AOL employees and key volunteers could take classes (the former in VA, the latter online) in the language, though access to the courses was strictly controlled. I think it was around this time that I had a SecurID to log on, to ensure that my publishing rights wouldn't fall into malicious hands.
What an odd thing, that the very existence of the language was supposedly secret. The forms and icons that were available to use did help to maintain a consistent user experience throughout the system, though it looks like this was ultimately the language's limiting demise since all content eventually switched over to HTML.
Strangely enough, it looks like some relics of the language are still kicking around as evidenced by this aricle by Anil Dash on RAINMAN, Blackbird (a Microsoft web platform), and how the two are similar to and influence Facebook today.
I wonder if this means I should list familiarity with RAINMAN on my resume. I think people who've been kicking around the net awhile would see it as an in joke, or at least a nod to that I've been working in the industry long enough to understand where the industry has been.