Happy Birthday, Internet! 213
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."
Re:Looking forward... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Pity it won't last long (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:When did ARPAnet become "internet" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Looking forward... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:When did ARPAnet become "internet" (Score:3, Insightful)
I remember the newsgroups were the main thing for me, I wasted alot of time on them. Now I waste a lot of time on /.
Re:Looking forward... (Score:3, Insightful)
You forgot
Nuclear disarmament: No one can afford internet downtime from emp anymore.
I know thats why it was originally invented, but I don't think the modern internet is emp resistant.
Re:Looking forward... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Looking forward... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Looking forward... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Looking forward... (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
Re:Looking forward... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Probably the best thing ever happened to mankind (Score:3, Insightful)
because it is the culmination of all the good things that happened to mankind.
now it brings people together, regardless of location, time, situation, condition, race, gender, nation, age, occupation, social status, from all over the world. even if their governments or rulers do not want that.
children around the world growing up together playing same games, growing up in the flourishing new internet culture. when they are grown up, all of them will have much more in common than previous generations. this will remove many barriers and estrangements in between the nations.
internet is very important.
Re:Looking forward... Al Gore (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Looking forward... (Score:3, Insightful)
If anyone was in need of a new .sig that has to be it ! ;-)
Re:Looking forward... (Score:3, Insightful)
> a lot of the youngsters nowadays have no real idea how primitive things were a few years ago.
I told my kid the Internet turned 40.
"The internet is only 40 years old??!?!?!"
"Well, yes, there weren't even personal computers 40 years ago"
"There were no computers 40 years ago?!?!?!?!?!!"
yeesh