Slashdot Mirror


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."

25 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Confirmed? by aedan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Has Netcraft confirmed this?

    1. Re:Confirmed? by YA_Python_dev · · Score: 4, Interesting
      The URI changed, so it's not the oldest page on the net.

      Well, the content is still the original one and (surprise!) is still almost 100% valid HTML 4.01 Transitional! I kid you not: try it for yourself!

      The only missing thing is the DOCTYPE declaration, but everything else is just fine: call it a tribute to the incredible backward/forward/whatever compatibility and flexibility of HTML!

      --
      There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
  2. Re:Is she legal yet? by Throtex · · Score: 5, Funny

    Legal? I'm sure she could teach you a thing or two!

    Everything I never wanted to know about sex I learned on the Internets. :P

  3. Well, you can still see it. by Umbrae · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can still see a version of TheProject.html at

    http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hyper text/WWW/TheProject.html

    although I'm not certain how outdated it is, the 1992-11-03 seems to be encouraging.

    1. Re:Well, you can still see it. by Zeinfeld · · Score: 4, Interesting

      OK, who was the last person to surf the entire Web? By this I mean visit every site manually. I did that sometime in November 1992. Took me about 8 hours. At the time there were about 100 sites that were linked to the CERN list of sites.

      --
      Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
      Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
  4. Meh ... it will never take off by Average_Joe_Sixpack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In 1993 on a University VAX my bet would of been Gopherspace. It had Archie and Veronica for godsake!!

  5. Thanks Al Gore by fit4130 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thank you Al Gore. He's the most important man of the 21st century, hands down.

  6. Oh, My Gawd, Now You've Done It! by darkonc · · Score: 4, Funny

    You've just slashdotted the entire World Wide Web!

    --
    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
  7. Teenager ? TEENAGER ? by unity100 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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

  8. Remembering SGML by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  9. Bah! by NinePenny · · Score: 5, Funny

    Back then, we used Gopher... And we liked it! These kids and their new fangled web thingy need to get off my lawn.

    1. Re:Bah! by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 4, Funny

      And we had to walk 15 miles to send that email!

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
  10. Informative! by syousef · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
  11. Re:Is she legal yet? by dysplay · · Score: 5, Funny

    A lot has happened in 16 years and this little 'baby' has grown into quite the teenager.

    And like most teenagers, has an over-abundant collection of porn.

  12. don't forget the first photo ever on the web by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
  13. First web page by DaveM753 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would have thought the first web page would have said "Under Construction".

  14. Oldest server still serving by frisket · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Oldest server still serving by radu.stanca · · Score: 5, Funny
      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.


      Posting to Slashdot a link to to a web-server hosted on ~15 years old hardware? PRICELESS
  15. Not offtopic, but shows misperceptions by iamlucky13 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Then why have I been online since 1987?
    People really should try to be more clear what they are talking about. The story submission isn't, and "internet" and "world wide web" are somewhat ambiguous terms.

    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.
  16. Re:Al Gore invented it 16 years ago? by WilliamSChips · · Score: 5, Funny

    The. Internet. Is. Not. The. World. Wide. Web.
    Now write that on a board 50 million times.

    --
    Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
  17. Re:Is she legal yet? by Kent+Simon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't bother man, everyone and their grandmother has been on her, and if you aren't careful you can catch a virus ;)

    --
    Kent Simon Multitheft Auto
  18. 16, eh? by proxy318 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Two more years. I'd hit it.

    --
    Saying your "phone ran out of batteries" is like saying your "car ran out of gas tanks".
  19. Re:Who wasn't online in 87? by HarryCaul · · Score: 4, Interesting


    My usenet access came through a state university where I had a friend of a friend who was an admin.

    I might be mis-remembering, but I don't think I had usenet directly until my netcom account.

    And then when AOL got usenet! Ah the screams of pain! But it turned out usenet was too complicated for the AOL masses and it didn't matter all that much anyway.

    Now usenet is essentially the same small group of people it was 10 years ago. The same exact people, in fact.

    So that's good.

  20. Re:Teenager ? TEENAGER ? by grouchomarxist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  21. Re:BUT SNOPES SAYS!!!!!!11!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... 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.

    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://w ww.mids.org/mn/904/vcerf.html with modifications.