Posted on 10/30/2019 11:51:10 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
On October 29, 1969, the internet era began as UCLA Computer Science Professor Len Kleinrock sent the first message on ARPANET, a network of computers that would evolve to become the internet.
Five decades later, and 30 years since the World Wide Web brought the internet into the mainstream, global digital connectivity has fundamentally changed our world.
Marking the anniversary, our founder and inventor of the web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, said:
“It’s astonishing to think the internet is already half a century old. But its birthday is not altogether a happy one. The internet — and the World Wide Web it enabled — have changed our lives for the better and have the power to transform millions more in the future. But increasingly we’re seeing that power for good being subverted, whether by scammers, people spreading hatred or vested interests threatening democracy.
“A year ago, I called for a new Contract for the Web, bringing together governments, companies and citizen groups to come up with a clear plan of action to protect the web as a force for good. In a month’s time that plan will be ready. This birthday must mark the moment we take on the fight for the web we want.”
We urgently need an ambitious, coordinated effort to tackle the threats facing the internet and the web, and make sure that everyone is able to access the benefits of digital technology. Next month, we’ll publish the Contract for the Web — a plan created by experts and individuals from across the world to make sure our online world is safe, empowering and genuinely for everyone.
Wait....I thought al gore invented the internet!
Code speak for censorship. You either take the good with the bad or burn it all down.
Sorry, I assumed you were around for the last century like many posters! I was on the Internet back in the early 1970s, using mini's in large facilities. Got on early PCs after the mid-1970s, and used early trial software to access the Internet via 300 BAUD modems. Think in terms of a character for each byte, and BAUD in terms of bits, commonly 8 bits per byte, so 300 BAUD is 300 bits per second (rough explanation). Took forever to download, painfully painting each character slowly from left to right.
I used CompuServe a lot to access forums and bulletin boards, in the late 1970s through the 1980s. That was one service, and quite popular. Friends of mine were admins. So yeah, lots of public internet long before the 1990s.
When the WWW came along I got criticized but trainers of computer education courses for disabling the graphics (I was used to quickly scanning the text content), because the teachers said a lot of work went into the graphics and they paid money to developers to fund the WWW. Well, I still block lots of pop-ups to this day!
‘We are a Republic.’
a republic is a system of governance, a democracy is a philosophy that shapes how the government is run; a republican form of governance allows a country to be democratic...
A Democracy is mob rule.
We have a Republic, a representative form of government for a reason.
That actually sounds like a smart idea.
And wow I didn’t know there was ANY internet that early.
300. It must have taken FOREVER to print something out.
i remember working in a graphics dept in the late 90s and the queue for all of us waiting for our print outs took FOREVER.
My first computer had 16MB storage!!!
Mine had 4KB storage. And half of that was for system use with bootstrap routines and temp use, so all of 2KB for my personal use. 16K storage cost an additional $500; I was happy when it dropped to $250 so when I upgraded I had 20KB storage. You had 4000 times the storage I started with. And we didn't have disk drives or floppies, we saved programs to cassette tapes, which were an improvement over the punched paper tape I used on minis. Lots of changes in the last 5 decades! Now I know the feeling my dad had watching our astronauts land on the Moon, having started out driving a Model T car many decades earlier.
WHAT CAN YOU POSSIBLY DO WITH 2KB?!?!!?!?!
I would have stroked out with impatience!!
I can’t even figure in my head how many more times storage a terabyte holds than your original.
I’m getting ridiculous numbers in my head that can’t be right. Wow.
You do what you can in the times you live in. With assembly language, you can create very precise programs that take up little machine language space as compared to higher level programming. I wrote a Keno gambling program, complete with graphics in that 2K space. A couple Computerland stores displayed my Keno program as demos in their stores. I was in a computer club, and members often showed their work to each other, and we gave away code for free.
I worked as a systems programmer on IBM mainframes, and even there we learned to be frugal with code. One of the languages I programmed was a 5-bit code, limited character set that used 62 percent of space compared to regular machine code which took 8-bits per character. Wrote and maintained some programs for police departments. Even mainframes were limited in space in the early days.
Democracy = Two wolves and a sheep voting on what is for dinner.
That’s incredible and great.
And yeah my question was a silly one because YOU WORK WITH WHAT YOU HAVE.
Kids today would say to me “how did you work on a 16mb computer!!!!??!!??!
I worked with what i had at the time.
Sounds like you guys were really good at what you did.
Everyone is a
“Zombie Phone”
Prisoner.
We Are Doomed.
Censors abound.
Vote them out, and if eventually necessary, cut their throats.
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