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Internet - "Remember When" thread
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, July 24 2012 @ 11:38 AM EDT
Well, Al Gore, despite n3ever having worked an honest job in
his life, claimed to have "invented the InterNet".

Hmmmm...

Maybe it is his claim to fame since his name implies his
possession of the necessary (drum roll) AlGorithms.

All right, so I was desperate for a laugh.

That being said, the TCP/IP standard *did* undermine the
idea (which IBM first published) where you'd need BFI ("Big
Iron") to run a network (i.e. "SNA", now relegated to be
infrastructure for the "Old Boy's Network") which means all
virtual circuits are "centrally managed". The concept of
pushing the "intelligence" into the network itself (albeit
within the routers) was taken up by others (Sperry's "DNA",
a reaction to IBM's SNA, was only one of them) but it was
TCP/IP that leveled the playing field.

Consider the VHS tape format which leveled the playing field
for manufacturers by minimizing the patent licensing cost
vs. Sony's format (whose name escapes me right now, probably
justifiably). Look at how IBM's inadvertent publishing of
the AT Bus became the "ISA" (Industry Standard Architecture)
because it wasn't encumbered by patents.

The InterNet succeeded only because no single entity
(including the various common carriers providing the DS0,
DS1, DS3, &c circuits) held the technology hostage.

Nowadays, now that a lot of these (ahem, M$) firms have
gotten close to a monopoly, there is a desire to hold
technology hostage to avoid new "disruptive" technologies to
undermine their cash cow(s).

The InterNet, being an entity that "just growed" by a
plethora of relatively small companies who weren't in it to
make a killing, just wanting to make a living, on top of
various telcos (who got their income from the leased lines
and probably regret not jumping on the bandwidth-wagon
sooner) made it useful... and it grew from there.

I doubt if there is any one point in time where you can
point and say "the InterNet started at 4PM on Thursday,
April 20th, 1978, and didn't exist a minute before that"
since it kind of faded into existence as these smaller
proto-ISPs started connecting circuits together. (Perhaps
the best date would be when the MAE NATs (MAE-East & MAE-
West, for instance) were first assembled, but even that was
likely gradual and "accidestiny" in action.)

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Internet - "Remember When" thread
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, July 24 2012 @ 11:38 AM EDT
Young'n here, Wasn't the internet created when ARPA and CERN decided to run a
cable across the atlantic so they could talk to each other easily?

Or is that more half-truths and misunderstandings?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Internet - "Remember When" thread
Authored by: Tyro on Tuesday, July 24 2012 @ 01:34 PM EDT
FWIW, in the early days commercial entities weren't allowed on the internet.
Only the government (including the military) and educational institutions (and,
I believe, a few "org"s, but I'm less certain about that).

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Internet - "Remember When" thread
Authored by: rcsteiner on Tuesday, July 24 2012 @ 01:50 PM EDT
Other worldwide networks existed prior to the internet; they were just
proprietary to certain industries. The airline industry is a primary case, since
SITA and ARINC were both flipping telex messages around the globe between
systems well before IP networking appeared in the 60's. Older airline protocols
like MATIP (which runs over IP these days) are still in heavy use.

---
-Rich Steiner >>>---> Mableton, GA USA
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Internet - "Remember When" thread
Authored by: JamesK on Tuesday, July 24 2012 @ 02:19 PM EDT
{
Ok you old codgers. Tell me how you invented the internet so that businesses
could prosper.
}

I thought Al Gore invented it. ;-)


---
The following program contains immature subject matter. Viewer discretion is
advised.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

maybe too soon
Authored by: mcinsand on Tuesday, July 24 2012 @ 06:04 PM EDT
Remember when we had no real competition among browsers?

Sure, most of us remember the browser wars and anticompetitive forces that won
it. But those are in the past, and I hope that the browser monopoly is past.
I'm just thankful to have a browser choice that I would have simply drooled over
ten years ago!

Regards,
mc

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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