The World Wide Web is 20 years old today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY WWW!

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/154572-the-world-wide-web-is-20-years-old-today

20 years ago today, on April 30 1993, CERN contributed the technologies underpinning the World Wide Web to the royalty-free public domain. These simple technologies — the humble URL, HTTP, and HTML — were developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in the early ’90s, but it wasn’t until they were open-sourced that the WWW actually became the web. If CERN had decided otherwise, much of what you consider to be the internet probably wouldn’t exist, including Facebook, Steam, and the humble website that you’re reading right now.

In 1989 and 1990, Berners-Lee began toying with the idea of an information management system, where hypertext pages (records) are linked together via hyperlinks. This might seem like an incredibly obvious concept now, but the web was really the first system to achieve this kind of interlinking on a broad scale. Prior to hypertext, all that really existed was searchable databases, with no way to jump between pages and records. Imagine Wikipedia without links, or ExtremeTech without links, where you have to type in the exact name/location every page, or find the exact search term every time you want to visit a page. To celebrate the WWW’s 20th birthday, CERN has re-released Berners-Lee’s original website, at its original address: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html .

-t

[RockEnds]

I remember hearing the buzz and visiting the college computer lab to see what all the fuss was about. I wasn't impressed at first. It's come a long way since then!

[PSYOP]

And what better way to celebrate such an occasion then for congress to destroy the fourth amendment by passing CISPA -- can I get a yay?

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

And what better way to celebrate such an occasion then for congress to destroy the fourth amendment by passing CISPA -- can I get a yay?
It's the internet's birthday punches

[TruckinMike]

I bet Al Gore is Proud :)

[brandon]

Wow I always thought it was older. My first time on was around 1995...hard to believe it was only 2 years old then.

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

Wow I always thought it was older. My first time on was around 1995...hard to believe it was only 2 years old then.

Little kids now are spoiled being born with the internet already have existed :P I'm going to be part of the generation that knew what the world was like without the internet ,just like how the last knew what the world was like without television. hah.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Wow I always thought it was older. My first time on was around 1995...hard to believe it was only 2 years old then.

I was on it when it was all command line. None of this WWW stuff. It was possible to read every USENET post in a single LONG day! Things we take for granted today, like photographs were in rar or tar files. You needed to complete several steps to download, assemble them and then view them, possibly shifting byte orders (big/little Indian) in the process - for every picture!

First computer I ever used was a IBM mainframe that we communicated to via a teletype and recorded our programs on 1" wide yellow paper tape. It was a throw back to the previous generation, but they were still using them. Ditto a ASM class at a community college, that was punch cards. Again, very old tech being phased out...

Then workstations, n backing up on 3.5" floppies that took 15-20 minutes to write or QIC 150's that took forever to write or read - like start the job and go to bed, should be done in the morn...

WOW!

At least I wasn't stuck with replacing tubes!

Back before the "unwashed masses" jumped on board, you cold find world class PhD's and famous authors and stuff online. Then they retreated into private mailing lists and to an extent they have returned, but just because the place has gotten so big, it's hard to find them.

-t

[tangent4ronpaul]

Little kids now are spoiled being born with the internet already have existed :P I'm going to be part of the generation that knew what the world was like without the internet ,just like how the last knew what the world was like without television. hah.

I lived outside one winter and in a cabin with no TV, no internet and little in the way of indoor plumbing. There was an outhouse. Has a rarely used phone and finally broke down and bought a radio. I kinda miss that lifestyle.

-t

[KrokHead]

One small step for man, one giant leap for pornography.

[heavenlyboy34]

One small step for man, one giant leap for pornography. LMAO!! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV7ou6pl5wU

[RockEnds]

I was on it when it was all command line. None of this WWW stuff. It was possible to read every USENET post in a single LONG day! Things we take for granted today, like photographs were in rar or tar files. You needed to complete several steps to download, assemble them and then view them, possibly shifting byte orders (big/little Indian) in the process - for every picture!

First computer I ever used was a IBM mainframe that we communicated to via a teletype and recorded our programs on 1" wide yellow paper tape. It was a throw back to the previous generation, but they were still using them. Ditto a ASM class at a community college, that was punch cards. Again, very old tech being phased out...

Then workstations, n backing up on 3.5" floppies that took 15-20 minutes to write or QIC 150's that took forever to write or read - like start the job and go to bed, should be done in the morn...

WOW!

At least I wasn't stuck with replacing tubes!

Back before the "unwashed masses" jumped on board, you cold find world class PhD's and famous authors and stuff online. Then they retreated into private mailing lists and to an extent they have returned, but just because the place has gotten so big, it's hard to find them.

-t

The first computer I ever used was something my husband bought. Not only did it lack a hard drive, it lacked any drive whatsoever. He spent almost $500 on that thing, and I still have no clue what purpose it was intended to serve. I remember going to see the Macintosh when it first hit the market. It could do graphics. Wow.

I took my first computer course back in '88 or '89. Word Perfect and Lotus123. The workstation was 512k. The program was loaded from floppy, and the data was saved to a different floppy. Shift F7, and it printed to the state-of-the-art dot matrix. It seemed pretty high-tech at the time. :)

[Anti Federalist]

The first computer I ever used was something my husband bought. Not only did it lack a hard drive, it lacked any drive whatsoever. He spent almost $500 on that thing, and I still have no clue what purpose it was intended to serve. I remember going to see the Macintosh when it first hit the market. It could do graphics. Wow.

I took my first computer course back in '88 or '89. Word Perfect and Lotus123. The workstation was 512k. The program was loaded from floppy, and the data was saved to a different floppy. Shift F7, and it printed to the state-of-the-art dot matrix. It seemed pretty high-tech at the time. :)

Tandy color 64k, here.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/TRS-80_Color_Computer_2-64K.jpg/800px-TRS-80_Color_Computer_2-64K.jpg

[RockEnds]

Tandy color 64k, here.



Hey, that was a big one! Ours was 32k. I don't remember the brand, but he bought it at Radio Shack. They may have had their own brand. IDK, it's been a few years back....

[dannno]

So can we buy/sell alcohol on the internet freely next year :confused:

[dannno]

I remember hearing the buzz and visiting the college computer lab to see what all the fuss was about. I wasn't impressed at first. It's come a long way since then!

My first introduction to the internet was in middle school drafting/woodshop. Lol. Also my first introduction to AutoCAD.

[gwax23]

Thank god ford al gore.

[heavenlyboy34]

Thank god ford al gore.
He is our Great Benefactor for making it open source.

[Anti Federalist]

Hey, that was a big one! Ours was 32k. I don't remember the brand, but he bought it at Radio Shack. They may have had their own brand. IDK, it's been a few years back....

That was a Tandy.

That was Radio Shack's brand.

Bought my first CD player from them as well.

They made a 16/32/64 k version of each.

[RockEnds]

That was a Tandy.

That was Radio Shack's brand.

Bought my first CD player from them as well.

They made a 16/32/64 k version of each.

I don't remember my first CD player. I do remember looking at my vinyl and thinking, "Noooooooooooooo!" I don't even know what happened to all those albums. It's a good thing I had babies to keep my mind off of replacing all that music. lol.

[Anti Federalist]

I don't remember my first CD player. I do remember looking at my vinyl and thinking, "Noooooooooooooo!" I don't even know what happened to all those albums. It's a good thing I had babies to keep my mind off of replacing all that music. lol.

I found it!!!

LOL - $299 in big fat 1986 dollars.

And now I've got tubes and vinyl again. Some things mankind got right the first time.

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1986_small/

http://i.imgur.com/3pggpcR.gif

[CPUd]

Tandy color 64k, here.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/TRS-80_Color_Computer_2-64K.jpg/800px-TRS-80_Color_Computer_2-64K.jpg

I had the same one. Floppy drives (the 5.25" ones) were about $300 at the time, but you could hook up a flat-top cassette recorder and save data on it.

http://i.imgur.com/hxtuX3F.jpg



But we could play Oregon Trail:

http://i.imgur.com/Xm0kBys.png


And write programs in Color BASIC:

http://i.imgur.com/4qHGSGK.png



Here is the first announcement of the WWW (not exactly the same as the internet):
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=6487%40cernvax.cern.ch

[Anti Federalist]

I had the same one. Floppy drives (the 5.25" ones) were about $300 at the time, but you could hook up a flat-top cassette recorder and save data on it.

But we could play Oregon Trail:

http://i.imgur.com/Xm0kBys.png

I was still using that cassette deck for recording talk radio to listen to in the truck, up until a couple of years ago.

LOLOLOL - TIL that your oxen die (or pass out) when raped by a pervert.

[Anti Federalist]

$1200

http://i.imgur.com/msdiBCk.gif

[heavenlyboy34]

lol, thanks for the trip down memory lane. I'd forgotten about the oxen rapist in Oregon Trail. :D

[TruckinMike]

I might as well join in on the old fart show and tell...

My first computer was an IBM 8088 w/ no hard drive... learned basic with the official IBM basic 3 ring binder manual at home. But when I went off to school I wrote Fortran code on punch cards. I didn't even know what punch cards were until I walked into the computer lab. Neither the prof nor the TA explained it in class. -- Ha Ha!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2488/4025312836_7a1e23631c.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/IBM_PC_5150.jpg/280px-IBM_PC_5150.jpg

[dusman]

Whew.. I remember being about 14 years old building my first web site.. that would have been around 1998. Hard to believe it all started just 5 years before then. I feel lucky to have gotten into building on the web as a hobby early on. None of my peers have any idea how it was in those days.

[RockEnds]

I read this, and I feel like my grandma. Oh wait. I'm a grandma. :eek: She was a little older than I am, though. She was 72 when I was born. She was born 119 years ago today. She saw so many changes in her lifetime. Even as a kid, I was amazed at the changes she saw in her lifetime. I just loved her old stories. The tipping of the outhouse stories were the best, lol! Oh, the good old days. She lived to see those old computers, too. She was still alive when I got my first one. Happy birthday, grandma.