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?

#41

Post by pieterr » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 11:36 AM UTC

kmxm wrote: post #40

AndyMcConachie wrote: post #35

I've read an absurd number of Internet histories. And I think one of the problems with studying the history of the Internet is that it very quickly grew up and out of the small group of people who got it started, and thus writing its history must take into account the increasing number of perspectives that chronologically track its development. Also, it can be very difficult to disambiguate the history of the Interne…

The link to the dissertation is not working for me…

Just remove the %3E percent cruft after the .pdf

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

#42

Post by MisterTea » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 11:36 AM UTC

kmxm wrote: post #40

AndyMcConachie wrote: post #35

I've read an absurd number of Internet histories. And I think one of the problems with studying the history of the Internet is that it very quickly grew up and out of the small group of people who got it started, and thus writing its history must take into account the increasing number of perspectives that chronologically track its development. Also, it can be very difficult to disambiguate the history of the Interne…

The link to the dissertation is not working for me…

Looks like some copypasta got in there. Delete the angle bracket at the end.

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

#43

Post by SmellyGeekBoy » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 11:37 AM 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…

> I read the Audiobook version of this book.

Slightly OT, but this concept really intrigued me.

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

#44

Post by MichaelAO » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 12:02 PM UTC

Alan Kay's 'Normal Considered Harmful' is a good place to start (more about computing in general): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvmTSpJU-Xc

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

#45

Post by okket » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 12:02 PM UTC

If you can understand German, the "Request for Comments" podcast is gold:

https://requestforcomments.de

Some episodes are in English, sadly they are not labelled as such as far as I can see.

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

#46

Post by spyder » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 12:07 PM UTC

Uh, did you try Wikipedia? It has a lot of info with lot of links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

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

#47

Post by some1else » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 12:08 PM UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z685OF-PS8

This April 2006 Google Tech Talk by Van Jacobson of PARC proposes a content-addressing based replacement for the IP protocol. But before doing so, he explains what shaped the telephony and the current networking paradigms.

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

#48

Post by AndyMcConachie » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 12:26 PM UTC

kmxm wrote: post #40

AndyMcConachie wrote: post #35

I've read an absurd number of Internet histories. And I think one of the problems with studying the history of the Internet is that it very quickly grew up and out of the small group of people who got it started, and thus writing its history must take into account the increasing number of perspectives that chronologically track its development. Also, it can be very difficult to disambiguate the history of the Interne…

The link to the dissertation is not working for me…

Sorry, should be fixed now.

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

#49

Post by weirdkid » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 12:29 PM UTC

Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet

Robert X. Cringely's follow-up to Triumph of the Nerds was pretty good. It looks like you can watch the whole thing fit free on line now too - check the links at the bottom of the Wikipedia article.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerds_2.0.1

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

#50

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

As mentioned previously, "When Wizard Stay Up Late - The Origins of the Internet" is considered by many as the authoritative text on how the Internet came to be.

For more technical aspects and if you're inclined to sift through tons of emails, mailing lists archives may be of interest

for example the end-to-end mailing list http://www.postel.org/e2e.html (seems down at the moment)

also various IETF mailing lists archives - https://datatracker.ietf.org/list/wg/