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The Web Is 16 Today
GuNgA-DiN writes, "Today marks the 16th anniversary of the World Wide Web. According to the timeline on the W3.org site: 'The first web page [was] http://nxoc01.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. Unfortunately CERN no longer supports the historical site. Note from this era too, the least recently modified web page we know of, last changed Tue, 13 Nov 1990 15:17:00 GMT (though the URI changed.)' A lot has happened in 16 years and this little 'baby' has grown into quite the teenager."
Has Netcraft confirmed this?
Dang...
And what state/country is the internet? Just wondering if she's legal.
I'd say more, but my guild is raiding.
You can still see a version of TheProject.html at
r text/WWW/TheProject.html
http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hype
although I'm not certain how outdated it is, the 1992-11-03 seems to be encouraging.
In 1993 on a University VAX my bet would of been Gopherspace. It had Archie and Veronica for godsake!!
It is a shame that the original page still isn't up.
Thank you Al Gore. He's the most important man of the 21st century, hands down.
You've just slashdotted the entire World Wide Web!
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
The Web is old enough to drive, now.
/* No Comment */
GROWN ? Boy, if we are talking about the 'web', it is on the brink of ascending into supernatural dimensions, growth and 'lore' wise.
It has become a connection that binds us who are all over the world, it has become a revealer of truth that uncovers the hiddens in the doings of wrongdoers, it has become a place that chinese and canadian and namesoever teenagers come play in, it has become a place where we can find anything in, it is reshaping politics, nations, lives, even inner thoughts of people.
'It' is actually 'us'. We are the web.
Welcome to utopia being realized
Read radical news here
Back in the early '90s, I was working at American Airlines. Then as now, they were largely mainframe-oriented, though access was via PC emulation. A suggestion came across that we should look at this thing called SGML -- a way of digitizing our voluminous documentation so that it would be accessible from any platform. Mainframe, PC, Mac... anything.
I wasn't terribly impressed. Sure, it was cool to be able to add "hyper links" to other parts of the document, or to other documents, but the conversion process would be murder. And tables! What was all this TR TH TD mishmash, just to make a simple table?
My recommendation: Why doesn't everyone just use Microsoft Word format? It's available to everyone, and it's not like the internal format is going to change or anything!
Thank goodness I was working somewhere else by the time my first thoughts on SGML -- the precursor of HTML -- were proven to be utterly, completely Wrong.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Back then, we used Gopher... And we liked it! These kids and their new fangled web thingy need to get off my lawn.
I thought the least recently modified web page was actually my personal home page still held on my old University programmer's society account. Thanks for the clarification.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Hey, Nov. 13 is my birthday! (Happy birthday to me...) The WWW and I were born on the same day! Well, this explains a lot!
I guess there are limits for compatibility . . . some of the stuff in there looked pretty experimental.
Its also batman, accompanied by a half naked annoying teenager
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I was back in '81. Heck, I spent the 80's flame warring on GEnie and CompuServe, and paying by the hour to do it!
And then there was FidoNet.
And everyone's own homebrewed BBS software.
87? 87 was for the latecomers.
I still get a kick out of searching for "my first home page" to find old snapshots of early internet splendor.
it was, appropriately enough for the web and its future as the pr0n superhighway, of scantily clad women
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
So what kind of Sweet 16 party are you going to have? Going to get a ferrari cake?
Time for a little party? Who's up for mortgaging their house to fund it?
I would have thought the first web page would have said "Under Construction".
A lot has happened in 16 years and this little 'baby' has grown into quite the teenager.
And like most teenagers, it's preoccupied with pornography.
"The Wright brothers were the first to fly with a heavier-than-air machine, but boy did they have a lousy plane"
Gopher came about 1991-ish. Respect.
There's an ever so slight difference between "online" and "World Wide Web".
I don't have cause to use unix shells much these days. :-)
But screen was incredibly handy in the old days. I remember being quite excited the first time I discovered it.
Try running the W3C Validator on that woozy.
Sheesh. Some people have no respect for standards...
groupthink: It's good for self-esteem.
There is a big difference between "being online" and the World Wide Web.
If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty
Ignore what other idiotic posters said in reply to your comment, what is said is both true & insightful - all our technology is simply an extension of evolutionary processes - I wish I had those mod points I ignored now! and yes, we may end up in Utopia!! Yippee!
This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
When you try to control use and charge for standards.
WWW is a good example of what happens when you don't.
Commercializing the internet?
How'd that ever work out anyway?
over the Internet? Perhaps more than any other medium before it...?
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
You've got to love the html from the least recently modified web page:
<title>Hypertext Links</title>
<h1>Links and Anchors</h1>
A link is the connection between one piece of
<a href=WhatIs.html>hypertext</a> and another.
Welcome to utopia being realized -- $2/mo, 150Mb disk, 5GB Bw, MySQL, PHP [mindonthenet.com] And it's so cheap too!
If you can read this, it's already too late.
The longest-serving web server (the search engine behind the current celt.ucc.ie) was the 9th web server in the world and it's still sitting there, still serving the project it was bought for. Something of a two-edged sword: kudos to Sun for making a machine that has never crashed and never dropped a bit, and to Tim Bray for the PAT search engine which runs on it; but a victim of its own success in that it's only now being scheduled for replacement as the project moves from SGML to XML.
Most of us know that distributed networking goes back to the 60's or so, with ARPAnet. In fact, according to wikipedia (I feel a slight tinge of irony looking these details up), our beloved TCP/IP began taking shape in the early 70's and ARPAnet began using TCP/IP in 1983. Meanwhile, services like Compuserve began offering private dial-up networks, and augmented them with email in 1979. Usenet popped up at the same time. The BBS's started popping up in short succession.
So all this was in place by 1990 when Tim coined the term world wide web and created the first browser, but it is the experience of browsing inter(hyper)linked files that defines most people's understanding of the internet. I suppose it's fitting to consider the start of this, if any one event, as the birth of the world wide web.
I'd really like to see a more general timeline, showing the major steps forward from the first electronic computers, first networked computers, ARPAnet, Compuserve et al, TCP/IP, DNS (did DNS already exist when CERN posted their first page?), etc...along with brief descriptions of how each came to be, and maybe some way of conveying how these technologies all converged to create the internet we have today. Most "histories" of the internet I've seen are pretty scattered and it's hard to get a grasp of how things really came together. The wikipedia article, for example, barely discusses DNS and the sections aren't really tied together into a "big picture" of the internet.
When is the My Super Sweet 16 episode airing?! Who will be the totally awesome special guest super star?! Will daddy spring for the 600 baud modem or will be stuck with a measly 200?! OMG I can't wait to ditch my middle income friends for this party.
from 1996 to 2006, down from $20.000 a month to $2 a month.
We are on a very fast trend. It will definitely not reach zero, but approach zero faster.
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Happy sweet 16th birthday to the World Wide Web!
Now, who do we designate to take the obligatory birthday spanking?
This space unintentionally left blank.
I thought he brought it out in the '70s. Hmm!
Learn something new every day...
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
I looked under the "Technical" link and found nothing about tubes, and under "People" Al Gore was nowhere to be found!
Gravity is a contributing factor in nearly 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects. -Dave Barry
Commercializing the internet?
I do indeed. I remember working at a company which used the net for commercial purposes in about 1993. We formatted and transmitted journals to the IEEE, and used ftp to do it.
The whole thing had to be kept pretty quiet on both sides, as it was a near certainty that if the net-powers-that-be discovered we were using the internet for sordid commerce then there would probably be hell to pay and access to lose.
The web was something I seriously misjudged at first. I remember seeing the X11 Mosaic floating around and thinking...err....yes? And? Then I'd point to the much more advanced Hypercard. I just didn't see the real significance until about 1994 when I finally bought my own modem (Linelink 144e, imported from the States to the UK for a breakthrough price of $99) and decided to swallow the vast phone bills that came with it.
And now? Well, it's a part of my life.
Cheers,
Ian
Two more years. I'd hit it.
Saying your "phone ran out of batteries" is like saying your "car ran out of gas tanks".
Call me when she's 21.
Then we'll have a par-tay, let me tell you!
Realizing that I am a good deal older than the internet, and that a fair percentage of the readers of this article probably aren't, make me feel old. Get off my lawn.com you damned kids!
Philosophy.
So where's the web-controlled car?
I think you are correct in saying that "We are the web". It is true. The web is a reflection of humanity. In represents mankind, warts and all.
However, because of that I wouldn't want to call the web a utopia. It is a communications mechanism, but it can't fix our flaws, it reveals them.
That article links to the first post EVER!
I think Gopher is too new. Remember the original Kermit?
now those were the days... or PACX ?
now I really feel old. thanks!
PS - I *own* the computer that forged the final connection to make the internet complete!
the same system that email was first developed on.
... but.. credit WAS his. Al Gore was the first or surely among the first of the members of Congress to become a strong supporter of advanced networking while he served as Senator. As far back as 1986, he was holding hearings on this subject (supercomputing, fiber networks...) and asking about their promise and what could be done to realize them. It was clear that as a Senator and as Vice President, Gore has made it a point to be as well-informed as possible on technology and issues that surround it.
w ww.mids.org/mn/904/vcerf.html with modifications.
Al Gore has played a powerful role in policy terms that has supported its continued growth and application, for which we should be thankful. As Vice President, he has been very responsive to recommendations made, for example, by the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee that endorsed additional research funding for next generation fundamental research in software and related topics.
We're fortunate to have leaders like Al Gore who embrace new technology and have the vision to see how it can be put to work for national and global benefit.
In my opinion to not acknowledge the great benefits and give credit for intelligent leadership shown by polititions like Al Gore, leads to poor choices and bad decisions being played out for decades to come.
Give the man his due, thank him for pushing intelligent policy.
Quotes taken from http://web.archive.org/web/20000125065813/http://
The Web may have turned 16, but she better not come home knocked up by one of those damned football playing apes I've seen her hanging around with!
Ah! The old NSF transition period. I remember that.
qz
Almost as sad as your failure at the concept of a joke?
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
The system goes on-line November 13th, 1990. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. The Internet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th 2010. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Come to Australia so we can strip search you and rob you of your internets, pr0n, rights and freedoms.
That's pretty insulting. I wouldn't put 4chan and myspace on the same list. Myspace is much much worse.
I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
I'm 16 today too! And only for the second time.
...are we scared yet?
Don't be such a prude, or perhaps feign innocence. Embrace it.
...are we scared yet?
The Internet is for porn
The Internet is for porn
Hold your dick and double-click for porn, porn, porn...
...are we scared yet?
Even on the net.
...are we scared yet?
Finer details like drivers, operating systems, internet vs www etc just cause many eyes to glaze over.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
No, sadder. Seriously, adolescent jokes revolving around getting some or not getting some aren't funny.
On vit, on code et puis on meurt.
It is indeed an excellent definition list. I think if you added a doctype, changed to , and took it it would even validate.
PS: Who jumped at the sight of a nextid tag? This is some seriously old markup. Then again, the fact it stills displays on my 2006 browser is a tribute to the longevity of the Web, I guess.
16 years and I'm still waiting for them to finish writing this damn page! How does anybody ever manage to set up one of these new-fangled WWW servers anyway?
If you can't convince them, convict them.
Maybe so, maybe so.
But he's certainly not infallible on tech policy. He is, after all, Al "Clipper Chip" Gore, and for that I cannot forgive him.
In the greatest of ironies, it was John Ashcroft who led the fight against good ol skipjack.
Times do change...
This is an obvious hoax - I didn't see Al Gore ANYWHERE on the people involved list.
or else!
At least they haven't Slashdotted slashdot! Can you imagine what would happen? Some kind of massive paradoxical space rift would open up and the entire universe as we know it would be swallowed and uh, AND!
The *smack* Internet *smack* is *bang* not *whomp* the *splat* World *smack* Wide *bang* Web *whomp*
Why don't you go and hang around MySpace until you understand the basic concepts under discussion. That goes for every other retard that has posted in this thread and confused the Internet with the WWW.
and dont forget that revelation of flaws is the first step to fixing them.
not only that, but web - 'us' is now affecting politics and the way of life too. and it is evolving fast.
heck. people around the world are timing their dinners, snacks, chores according to gigs they are going to do on the net that night - whether it be online gaming, community dwelling and such.
Read radical news here
http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hyper text/WWW/MarkUp/Tags.html#20
A NAME=xxx HREF=XXX
They new what it would be used for, those sly dogs!
What does it mean to "create the internet"? Obviously TCP/IP existed before Al Gore came on the scene, but back then it was called the NSFnet (and ARPAnet before that) and only really became the "Internet" as we know it after it was opened up to the community at large and not just limited military/university access. Who was it that pushed for research money to be put into the NSFnet? Al Gore. Who was it that pushed the initiative in congress to open it up to the community at large? Al Gore.
Do yourself a favor and find out what actually was said and what really happened. If you believe the trash that's on TV and most newspapers then you're only getting the spin.
I would suggest to start fixing them by putting a ban on Anime music videos. That would solve one thing that is wrong with mankind today.
molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
Given a 16 year old web, what's the oldest continous content? Dr. Fun ceased, User Friendly "only" goes back to 1997 (a mere 9 years), I know of a monthly column that's come out each month since 1996 (RPGnet Soapbox, 10 years), but I'm out of examples.
Sites like photo.net date back to 1993 (13 years), but that's not the same as a single person chugging steadily for all 16. Anyone know of a creator who has hit their deadlines on the web for all 16 years?
A.
Didn't the W.T.F. in August?
And a slightly more useful comment: shouldn't we have a couple related stories linked? (heh, they don't even agree on the Web's age, what to say about the day and month)
Ah, netcom. I loved my shell account. It broke my heart when they got bought by earthlink. I'm still angry, but I still have my earthlink account. Someday soon I'm going to get everything transferred to gmail or something. Someday soon.
Man, you really need that seminar!
"karekuro no anime gg no re !"
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If you use the W3C Validator set to HTML 2, it gets close:
As the page is written in HTML 0.1 or some such, the first and second errors don't really count.
Interestingly, www.microsoft.com has two errors at the time of writing. So MS have finally got to the point where they're producing something only twice as broken as what we had 16 years ago :-)
Using HTML in email is like putting sound effects on your phone calls. Just say <strong>no</strong>.
The first web page [was] http://nxoc01.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.htm l. Unfortunately CERN no longer supports the historical site
This is why I hate people. What self-respecting scientific establishment would fail to maintain such a significant piece of modern technological history? Without even so much as a C record and redirect to a maintained hosted copy? Such a notion should not be difficult for the inventors of the first web server, suck though it may have.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
Actually, I'd say the that the fact itself is notable is a tribute to the transitory nature of the Web. Nobody's surprised when they can read a 250 year old text.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!