nPostednon October 29, 2014
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nAnloong, loong time ago, there were dinosaurs. Did you know that, atnthat time, there was no internet?
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nHavenyou ever wondered when the internet was first created? Or what thatneven means?
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nTodaynis Internet Day, sometimes called International Internet Day, and itncelebrates the very first time two far-away computers communicatednelectronically. It happened on this date in 1969 – just a fewnmonths after the world was shook up by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrinnlanding on – and walking on – the moon.
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nButnthis much less grand even shook the world up, arguably, even more.
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nHere’snhow it went down:
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nUCLAnstudent Charley Kline tried to send a message to a computer aroundn350 miles away, at the Stanford Research Institute.
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nThenmessage was, perhaps, not the earth-shaking sort of message you mightnhope for. As a matter of fact, it was just one word:
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nLOGIN.
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nHere’snwhat happened, in Kline’s words:
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nSonI’m on the phone to SRI, and I type the L and say, “OK, I typed innL, you got that?” n
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nBillnDuvall, the guy at SRI, is watching his monitor, and he has the L. n
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nIntype the O. Got the O. n
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nTypednthe G. “Wait a minute,” Bill says, “my system crashed. I’llncall you back.”
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nSo,nyeah. This world-shaking event was the transmission of TWO LETTERS!nThe one-word message didn’t get through, because one of the computersncrashed partway through the attempt!
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nStill,nthis half-success was the beginning of something big. ARPANETn(Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was a system developednunder the auspices of the Department of Defense to connect fournuniversity departments that were working on military R & D. n
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nAboutnan hour after “LO” was transmitted, Kline and Duvall tried againnand were able to transmit the entire word “LOGIN.” And n
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Now,nthe Internet is:
Now,nthe Internet is:n
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nworldwide
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npubliclyn accessible
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nan series of interconnected computer networks
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nnetworksn that transmit data by packet switching, or breaking up the messagen into parts that are sent independently, and then reassembled at then other end
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nnetworksn that use standard Internet Protocol (IP)
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nAndnof course, the Internet is:
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videosn of kittensn
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nsocialn media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
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nmillionsn and millions of blogs, in which we publicly journal our days orn review local restaurants or otherwise self-publish our self-esteen
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naboutn a billion live websites – a milestone that was just reached lastn month! (September 2014)
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nbajillionsn of searchable images of everything from green thermos flasks ton Ancient Egyptian-themed birthday parties for kids
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irreverentn and often ridiculous memes, most of them involving grumpy cats, Tedn of Bill-and-Ted, the Dos Equis guy, or someone face-palmingn
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nAlsonon this date:
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nNationalnCat Day
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nCreolenDay in Dominica
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nFossilnhunter and “Bone-Wars” participant Othniel Marsh’s birthday
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
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- Historicaln anniversaries in October
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nNovembern holidays
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nNovembern birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in November
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