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The web is 30 years old today

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Re: The web is 30 years old today

#131

Post by Drdrdrq »

devxpy wrote: post #118
tannhaeuser wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web != all things transferred over TCP/IP. Talk and meet? Skype, Zoom don't run on "the web" as such; need dedicated apps even if those may be based on Electron. Video (Youtube) only has left Flash-based playback behind like 3 or 4 years ago; the resulting DRM required for video playback hasn't made purist happy, and resulted in a bitter controversy over TBL accepting interfaces to proprietary DRM into (proprieta…

Zoom also runs on the web browser last I checked. It's a hidden feature, but you can join meetings without the native app.

What do you mean, hidden? It's just a link.

Re: The web is 30 years old today

#134

Post by Kye »

papito wrote: post #89

The Web accelerated everything . The speed of picking up knowledge and general developments has multiplied by who knows how much. The know-how in every single vocation is no longer compartmentalized. A chef comes up with a new trend in an Austin restaurant, a few weeks later it's all over L.A. Thank you for visiting! Please sign my guestbook.

Part of the reason we got a covid-19 vaccine so fast is because researchers posted the genetic sequence of the virus on the web for anyone to download.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/01/china-re...

I can't find much more than that because mainstream search engines increasingly don't return relevant or useful results.

Re: The web is 30 years old today

#135

Post by reaperducer »

ghaff wrote: post #75
bartread wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because the long distance phone bill was $926 and my dad was furious Blimey. I'm not surprised. In today's money that's $2,239.52. You were like a very early forerunner of those kids running up massive credit card bills on in-app purchases. Great story though: thanks for sharing.

Long distance calling used to be a pretty big deal. Even intrastate calls outside of your local calling area could be expensive--in fact, sometimes more than interstate. For BBSs, there was various software available that basically let you logon, do your uploads and downloads of messages, hang up and do your reading and writing offline. Go back a few years further and people would do all kinds of tricks if, for examp…

For BBSs, there was various software available that basically let you logon, do your uploads and downloads of messages, hang up and do your reading and writing offline.

I used to run a node of one of the first public BBS networks (1983ish). Messages went from one node to the other using store-and-forward overnight. With enough nodes in the right LATAs, you could send messages (e-mail at first, then bulletin board messages) across the entire region.

Where I lived at the time, I could make a local call between two area codes in two different states, so my node was very busy overnight relaying all the messages that got bottled up in either state at 300 baud.

Re: The web is 30 years old today

#136

Post by Apofis »

spacedcowboy wrote: post #51

When I set up my first website, you had to email CERN to be put on a list of websites around the world, that was published on their website... I think it was about the 60th (I forget the exact number, it was a long time ago :) website in the UK, serving the “needs” of (ok, playing with tech for) the image processing group in Kings College London’s physics dept while doing my PhD. The server ran on my desktop DECstati…

Wow, I didn’t realize I’m older than the internet. When I have grandkids, I’ll tell them stories that start with your first paragraph.

Re: The web is 30 years old today

#138

Post by DonHopkins »

spacedcowboy wrote: post #51

When I set up my first website, you had to email CERN to be put on a list of websites around the world, that was published on their website... I think it was about the 60th (I forget the exact number, it was a long time ago :) website in the UK, serving the “needs” of (ok, playing with tech for) the image processing group in Kings College London’s physics dept while doing my PhD. The server ran on my desktop DECstati…

Wasn't it named uk.ac.kcl.ph.asterix, or had you Brits finally stopped driving on the wrong side of the internet by then? ;)

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

Re: The web is 30 years old today

#139

Post by spacedcowboy »

DonHopkins wrote: post #138
spacedcowboy wrote: post #51

When I set up my first website, you had to email CERN to be put on a list of websites around the world, that was published on their website... I think it was about the 60th (I forget the exact number, it was a long time ago :) website in the UK, serving the “needs” of (ok, playing with tech for) the image processing group in Kings College London’s physics dept while doing my PhD. The server ran on my desktop DECstati…

Wasn't it named uk.ac.kcl.ph.asterix, or had you Brits finally stopped driving on the wrong side of the internet by then? ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JANET_NRS

That was JANet [1], the fastest network in the world at the time, and it grew out of the packet switching research in the 60’s [2]. A few years later they upgraded to gigabit links and called Super-Janet :)

You could send email to either form address, and there was an internet/JANet gateway that figured it out. Everyone decided it was easier to use one naming standard though, so we went with what we have today.

[1] https://www.jisc.ac.uk/janet/history

[2] https://www.newscientist.com/letter/mg24532640-100-how-we-ne...

Re: The web is 30 years old today

#140

Post by severino »

I find it really exciting to be part of a generation that discovered the internet (which was mostly a synonym for the www and the irc) in the mid-late 90s, as opposed to the current ones who had always internet present in their lives.

Back then, at least in my country, internet connections were very scarce, nobody had internet at home and "connecting" to the internet was actually a thing... So you can perfectly remember the first time you got into the internet, which one was the first site you visited, from where, and how you discovered that world that today almost everybody is familiar with.

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