The Internet At 35

Anonymous writes "CNN has a story on the 35th anniversary of the Internet, overviewing its past and the future. According to the article the history began on 'September 2, 1969, as bits of meaningless test data flowed silently between the two computers.' So, happy birthday, the Internet!"

Comments

What progress

[Alcimedes]

Initially, the internet was bits of meaningless data between two computers.

Today? Bits of meaningless data between millions of computers.

All joking aside though, I have no idea how people got anything done before the internet.

Need to fix something around the house? Check the 'net.

Need to figure out where the hell a business/friend is? Check the 'net.

Have some jackass who insists they're right about some obscure factoid, and want to make them admit they're full of crap now, before they can deny it ever happened? Good 'ol internet.

Between wireless, high-speed access, and laptops within an arm's reach, the average person now has access to information that used to be obscure and almost impossible to come by at a moments notice.

In 35 years, the internet has probably done more to change the way people live than any other invention. (at least in the last 100 years or so) That dude who discovered fire and the wheel did pretty well for humanity.

Re:What progress

[abborren]

Visiting the library once in a while is useful. It is quite a mistake to believe that the internet is a good source for all information you need. Sure, it can provide a lot of useful information but often in low quantities and very spread out (and what about peer-review?).

Finding good and useful information in a library is way more efficient than searching the web, if you compare time spend vs. amount of found (and good) information, IMHO.

Re:editors?

[UserGoogol]

Actually, the Internet is 21. That's when The Network was officially switched over to TCP/IP.