Friday, November 10, 2006

Its that time of the month again!

That's right, its time to set the record straight.

Lately, my ears and eyes have been stinging from an avalanche of rampant ignorance. The solution is simple. Education! So, once and for all, here is the history of the internet, in a nutshell.

Theodore Pedersen, 1994.


















First of all, the internet was invented by Horace Treamer and Theodore Pedersen. Please notice the http found at the beginning of a web address. Yup, that stands for their names. People like naming things after themselves, the Sandwich, the Crapper...I digress.

Horace Treamer, 1989.














In 1958, after Sputnik was launched, the US felt the need to regain the technological edge, creating the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, later changed to DARPA, the D is for Defence not Dorky). HTTP worked there. It was through DARPA that they invented the internet. The Internet!















Later on, HTTP worked at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). How times have changed. Like the internet. HTTP's work at the NCSA led to Mosaic. Go to the question mark/Help on Internet Explorer, and check out About Internet Explorer...see the credit to NCSA Mosaic? There ya go. Essentially this web browser allowed the internet to virtually explode for real. Prior to that it was primarily confined to academics and institutions.

There. That's all you need to know about the internet. Ever. Now go off and revel in your newfound knowledge!

You're welcome.

P.S. Sorry about the serious post, but ignorance really gets my goat. Like a goat thief.

3 comments:

Karl Hungus said...

I can't believe I just read that whole thing.

alex trebek said...

seriously.
"so this guy did this and the other one did that and they had names that they used everyday..."

Dementor said...

yeah, honestly, I mean, whats up with all the... pictures ... man ?