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Happy Birthday, Internet!
NobodyExpects writes "I'd like to wish a happy birthday to the Internet! Today marks its 40th birthday!
In fall 1969, computers sending data between two California universities set the stage for the Internet, which became a household word in the 1990s. On September 2nd 1969, in a lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, two computers passed test data through a 15-foot gray cable. Stanford Research Institute joined the fledgling ARPANET network a month later; UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah joined by years end, and the internet was born."
all knowledge, all questions, answered all the time (that might change the way we think of our education system!)
Yes, by providing even less incentive for people to actually study anything ;) To quote a friend of mine: A masters in Google and a doctorate in speed reading.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
1982, depending on who you ask. The migration to TCP/IP on ARPANET occurred in 1982 and was completed by January 1, 1983. The Internet was designed primarily by Cerf beginning in the early seventies. See Inventing The Internet by Janet Abbate.
Let me ask: what are the milestones that will matter 10, 30 years from now?
Amazingly, you missed the invention of DNS and the World Wide Web, arguably the two most popularizing developments.
Before everyone starts posting stories about how they grew up on their Apple II using a 300 baud modem,
Too late. Did you watch the movie? There's some heavy handed "Get off my lawn"-ness going on in the article itself. To quote:
a lot of the youngsters nowadays have no real idea how primitive things were a few years ago.
"This is the first one I could say was my computer [...] You would have to plug it in because there was no battery, and you would work forever to get very little out of it..."
today's children have no concept of a life before computers.
Regardless, I say Happy Birthday, Internet! I can't wait to find out what sorts of wonders you will bring to my kids in another decade or so.
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
Adoption of a true IP infrastructure across the board... no more IP over (insert your favorite old tech, like ATM or GSM), and all the extra overhead it causes.
Uh... ? What is a true IP infrastructure in your eyes ? Because I don't see anything in IP that permits physical interconnexion like ATM or GSM does. IP will always be over (insert some link layer and physical media here). Otherwise, IP wouldn't work.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
A masters in Google and a doctorate in speed reading.
This has actually been somewhat true (if you replace Google with Searching, that is) for a lot longer than the internet has existed. One of the most important things to learn at medical university/college, for example, is how to look stuff up. Ever wonder why doctors have giant libraries sitting around in their offices? That's all knowledge they gained in university, then promptly forgot, like any sane person would. They learned the reference system available to them at the time, and know how to use it - where one person gets hopelessly lost, they can find something useful. My mother collected a ridiculous number of books over the years for her practice - and she says her laptop and the internet almost invalidated nearly half of them.
Some basic training will always be required to understand certain things without a reference, though. Very simple example: nowhere in the wikipedia article on "clouds" does it say they're too diffuse to stand on. :) Don't go skydiving with intent to land on one, folks!
Are you kidding? The author's probably convinced he's still right, and weeps for the wonders we'd have had if only the government had left Ma Bell alone.
Maybe not, but you'd think that from the political atmosphere in this country.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
He never claimed that. It was just political games and a clumsy choice of words.