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maandag 4 mei 2009 |
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From military project to the masses - how the internet was born
CLICK ALSO HERE TO READ Wiki - History of the Internet The history of the internet is a story of military precision, academic vision and the occasional screw-up. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the technologies that led to the creation of the internet and revolutionised the way we work, talk and play. While computer modems could connect machines as early as the 1960s, they were limited to one-to-one communication. Eminent scientist J.C.R. Licklider first outlined his vision for an "intergalactic computer network", that predicted many of the ways we use the internet today, in 1962. Six years later, the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency – or DARPA – put the call out for computer scientists to build a network based on Licklider's ideas. Information chief Robert Taylor knew there must be a better system than what he had in his office. His three computers were connected to other machines, but he still had to get up and change seats every time he wanted to look at different data. The solution DARPA was looking for was as simple as placing a machine between all the others that would help them exchange information with each other. By 1969, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had heeded the call from DARPA and developed a basic network. On the evening of October 29, at about 10:30pm, scientists watched as the first successful connection was made between computers at Stanford University, in Silicon Valley, and UCLA about 400km away in Los Angeles. The network was dubbed ARPANET. The first message transmitted over the network was unintentionally puzzling. It was supposed to be "login", but the connection failed after two keystrokes – so the first official transmission was actually "lo". While ARPANET would be unrecognisable to most web users today, it provided the inspiration and the architecture for the development of the internet. In the following years, new networks were built, others spread and split, migrating to new shores for military and academic use. They were eventually united by a protocol called TCP/IP that still rules the internet today. In fact, one of the scientists who helped to create the protocol – Vint Cerf – is now working on plans for a similar network in outer space with NASA. Maybe in our lifetime, we will see the completion of Licklider's extraordinary vision – the intergalactic internet. SOURCE: www.news.com.au
Posted: 9:20:53 AM
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