[Air-L] origins of "an internet year is like a dog year"

Dominic Pinto dominic.pinto at ieee.org
Thu Jun 25 02:36:44 PDT 2009



Nishant Shah wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 8:53 AM, Barry Wellman <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca>wrote:
>
>   
>> Does anyone know the origins of this phrase. I've heard it so long, I
>> don't have a clue as to where it came from. I need a proper citation to
>> keep a journal editor happy.
>>     
<snip>

Barry Wellman wrote:
> Does anyone know the origins of this phrase. I've heard it so long, I
> don't have a clue as to where it came from. I need a proper citation to
> keep a journal editor happy.
<snip>

This is not one I'd heard or recall (and after 29 years in telecoms/ICT 
and the internet industries I thought I would have)

A quick search has kicked up these:

Some insist that human years should be multiplied by seven to get dog 
years. The logic is completely backwards. Some argue by analogy with 
Internet years, where it is sometimes said that three months on the 
Internet is equal to a normal year. OK, if you apply the analogy 
correctly, i.e., a dog's year is speeded up just as an Internet year is 
speeded up, so use a multiplier to convert to human years or 
normal-events years, respectively. And, finally, some use the term just 
to mean bad years.

http://www.unh.edu/NIS/Courses/JS3min/Demos/dog-years-whatis.html

Internet Years & Dog Years: Remembering Jake 
<http://tametheweb.com/2008/01/01/internet-years-dog-years-remembering-jake/> 


http://tametheweb.com/2008/01/01/internet-years-dog-years-remembering-jake/

Best wishes


Dominic
London

-- 
Please help me support the Pirate Castle at
http://www.justgiving.com/dominicpinto




More information about the Air-L mailing list