Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols?

#51

Post by teh_klev » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 12:55 PM UTC

no_protocol wrote: post #8

Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet By Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684832674 -- I read the Audiobook version of this book. It presents a narrative of the development of the very early stages of the internet. I enjoyed it. I think it would also have been fine in print or ebook formats. It is not too long and seems to present the events in a mostly linear fashion. You'll…

"Casting The Net" by Peter H Salus is also a pretty decent read:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0201876744/

Re: Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols?

#52

Post by mellamoyo » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 1:47 PM UTC

If you're interested in this type of information in podcast format, check out the History of Networking series from The Network Collective: https://thenetworkcollective.com/category/episodes/history-o...

Re: Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols?

#53

Post by hoppelhase » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 2:04 PM UTC

Some posts in this blog under the "Development" tab are pretty nice. https://eager.io/blog/

Re: Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols?

#54

Post by js2 » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 2:26 PM UTC

A few folks are pointing to the RFCs. In particular, let me recommend RFC 1000 as a place to start:

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1000

(This RFC is a reference guide for the Internet community which summarizes of all the Request for Comments issued between April 1969 and March 1987. This guide also categorizes the RFCs by topic.)

Where Wizards Stay Up Late, also recommender by a bunch of folks here, is also a great read.

Re: Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols?

#55

Post by tinktank » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 2:34 PM UTC

tonyg wrote: post #33

You will find an interesting point of view on these matters presented in: "Patterns in Network Architecture: A Return to Fundamentals" by John Day Prentice-Hall 2008 ISBN 0-13-225242-2

Thank you for this!

Re: Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols?

#56

Post by timlangeman » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 2:40 PM UTC

The internet would not be nearly as useful as it is without Ted Nelson's hypertext concepts.

For those of you who are interested in understanding Ted Nelson's role in envisioning and evangelizing hypertext, I wrote a review of Ted Nelson's Ph.D. thesis which he wrote in Japan.

https://www.openpolitics.com/articles/ted-nelson-philosophy-...

Re: Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols?

#57

Post by alankay » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 2:57 PM UTC

The best all around book about the ARPA/Parc research community is Mitchell Waldrop's "The Dream Machine". Covers pretty much everything pretty much outstandingly.

Re: Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols?

#58

Post by Habesha » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 3:18 PM UTC

Check out IEEE Computing Conversations Podcast by Chuck Severance. Fascinating history and chat with people who made great impact in computing. You can subscribe to the podcast, read the column and also check the youtube channel.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/computing-conversations/...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4660FB7F523B1770

Re: Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols?

#59

Post by siosonel » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 3:19 PM UTC

8bitsrule wrote: post #21

This short, 1995 history of the web (a timeline) may prove handy. http://www.netvalley.com/archives/mirrors/robert_cailliau_sp... Edit: Here's one from Tim Berners Lee circa 1993-4. https://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/TimBook-old/History.html

This book [1] by Robert Cailliau and James Gillies is very approachable, entertaining, and somewhat comprehensive.

Edit: The book has lots of historical details about competing early technologies such as the OSI vs TCP/IP, C vs well-structured languages, Archie/WAIS/Gopher, attempts from different parts of the world such as AlohaNet in Hawaii and Minitel in France. That's just a sampler, but the story telling does not get too bogged down with too much details and moves along at a quick pace.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/How-Web-was-Born-Story/dp/0192862073

Re: Ask HN: Where can one learn about the history of the internet and the protocols?

#60

Post by aasasd » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 3:19 PM UTC

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #43

no_protocol wrote: post #8

Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet By Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684832674 -- I read the Audiobook version of this book. It presents a narrative of the development of the very early stages of the internet. I enjoyed it. I think it would also have been fine in print or ebook formats. It is not too long and seems to present the events in a mostly linear fashion. You'll…

> I read the Audiobook version of this book. Slightly OT, but this concept really intrigued me.

Books with denser technical content get difficult in the audio form, though it's probably a matter of habit―but generally audiobooks are a great way to consume narrative material: I think I got through around thirty books in the past seven months. Walks, shopping and house chores are much more productive on the brain front now.

Pro tip: VLC lets you speed up the audio. 1.3x to 1.5x is no problem with many narrators.