A moment where you encounter or realize something new and wonderful that changes the way you view things forever. Examples:

* First time I saw a GUI (Macintosh)

* First time using VisualBasic (whether you agree with it from a quality perspective, it is a neat concept in so far as it gave instant GUI gratification.)

* CompuServe - A pre-taste of the web before seeing the web. I ran up some big bills because I was so enthralled with the concept.

* First time I played with a PDA (AppleNewton).  In fact, I still get more Wow out of playing on my old Newton than using an iPaq or Palm.

* Early encounters with ExBase introduced me to CollectionOrientedProgramming. --top

* Wiki mark-up language (TextFormattingRules), much friendlier than HTML. I wish my verbose web-site had initially used it.  Actually at first I found the concept a bit odd, largely due to the tab-handling oddities. Then one day while working on a short-cut notation to replace HTML for some personal writing, I realized that Wiki had the right general idea. It just needed to toss the tab reliance and a few other minor tweaks to fit what I really wanted. That was the "Wow" moment. If there is ever an IT Nobel, WardCunningham deserves one! ACM award candidate? --top

* CommodoreAmiga. NuffSaid.

* My brother was on a business trip in China a few months ago (summer 2010), and while strolling along through the airport like any other business traveler, he had a moment almost comparable to the "3D Jaws" scene in the Back-To-The-Future II movie. He suddenly noticed a floating thing just to the side of his head, as if a big bug was about to crash into his face. He reflexively turned around and saw a 3D projection of some demonstration animation, and was completely dumbfounded. He says he stuck his arm out and was trying to grab the image. He realized afterward that he probably looked like a fool playing with thin air. As he described it, we were both puzzled by how it worked without special glasses. It wasn't a fast rotating laser projection plate, used in some medical monitors, because he could put his hand "through" some of the projected items. Plate rotation technology can't do that. Here's an article that describes technology that may have been involved: http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2010/100510-toshibas-no-glasses-3d-tv-how.html --top

'''Anti-Wow'''

* First accidental "Goatse" link. (If you don't know what that is, don't bother googling it. Trust me.)
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See: Aha, AhaMoment, FutureShock