I dove through the linkfarming: This is repackaged gizmodo content which itself was repackaged from <a href="http://www.psmag.com/culture/the-like-button-that-came-before-facebook-55563/" rel="nofollow">http://www.psmag.com/culture/the-like-button-that-came-befor...</a>
Here is the original patent from the 1930s: <a href="https://www.google.com/patents/US2092120" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/patents/US2092120</a>
> Handy buttons as a part of the standard equipment of receiving sets should put many a counterfeit statesmen and professional hot air artist in his place; and, of course, they should be equally valuable as registers of sober, thoughtful public opinion.<p>And this is precisely why some powerful interests are so afraid of the internet, and of letting it run its course instead of using it to fiddle with people. Here's hoping that these boots actually <i>are</i> made for walking, and that walking is just what they'll do.
The page was causing 100% CPU usage in Chrome for me. Admittedly, this may have been the result of using an adblocker and some aggressive rules or possibly some kludgy userscripts. Anyways, the page was giving console output suggesting that it was trying to use javascript to actively change the layout of the page. Whatever the actual intent, I managed to stop such activity by blocking 'devicepx-jetpack.js' and 'jquery.sticky-kit.min.js', and article site appeared to stay mostly intact.
"Press one button for “no,” another for “yes,” and a third for “present.”"<p>Well, after eight decades, we and our social networks have almost caught up with Dr. Nevil Monroe Hopkins, but are still at least one button short.<p>Edit: Reference: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7453293" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7453293</a>