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The Internet At 35

Posted by timothy on Sun Aug 29, 2004 05:59 PM
from the can-drive-drink-and-buy-porn dept.
The Internet
Anonymous writes "CNN has a story on the 35th anniversary of the Internet, overviewing its past and the future. According to the article the history began on 'September 2, 1969, as bits of meaningless test data flowed silently between the two computers.' So, happy birthday, the Internet!"
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  • editors? (Score:5, Funny)

    by ack154 (591432) * on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:00PM (#10105024)
    So which is it? 25? or 35? Come on... :p

  • Haha (Score:5, Funny)

    by pHatidic (163975) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:01PM (#10105031) Homepage
    35 Years Ago Today: Frist PSOT!!!1

    • 35 and counting (Score:5, Funny)

      by yintercept (517362) on Sunday August 29 2004, @07:24PM (#10105466) Homepage Journal
      ...bits of meaningless test data flowed silently between the two computers

      What I am looking forward to the day when we finally get beyond the meaningless test data phase...uh, anyway, I looked at /. for the day and am off to the email account to perform a spam harvest.

  • Over the hill (Score:5, Funny)

    by cloudscout (104011) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:01PM (#10105037) Homepage
    "The Internet At 25"... but it started in 1969. I think this "Internet" is a lot like some 35 year old guys I've seen in various chatrooms trying to convince all of the co-eds that they're really 25.

  • I motion that... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by EmperorKagato (689705) * <sakamura@gmail.com> on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:02PM (#10105045) Homepage Journal
    the delay in final submission for articles should be moved from 10 minutes to 20 minutes. I submit the mistakes to the editor on duty, but unfortunately, I was too late. :(

  • Memories.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by JoeLinux (20366) <joelinux@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:02PM (#10105051) Homepage
    ...Ah yes, the internet. Putting porn and pipebomb instructions in the hands of 13-year olds since September 3rd, 1969...

    • Re:Memories.... (Score:5, Funny)

      by pHatidic (163975) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:07PM (#10105084) Homepage
      Remember ten years ago when the porno used to load line by line? I remember being 13ish when my friend linked me to some surprise.jpg and it loaded line by line for like 5 minutes and then at the bottom the girl had a penis. What the fuck. I should really sue AOL for scarring me for life.

      • Re:Memories.... (Score:5, Funny)

        by emc (19333) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:14PM (#10105138)
        What the fuck. I should really sue AOL for scarring me for life.

        I have always thought that all non-AOL users should get to sue AOL for bringing all of these 'users' onto the Internet in the first place.

      • Re:Memories.... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Rorschach1 (174480) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:41PM (#10105256) Homepage
        Yeah, that brings back memories. For us, the hard part was getting fake accounts on the local adult BBSes, when they all required validation calls. I figured out a social engineering solution to that problem - just put down a totally unpronounceable foreign name, and the sysops would never call to validate for fear of mispronouncing the user's name.

        Then it was just a matter of dialing up at 2400 baud and batch downloading everything we could find. Of course, this was using Telix in DOS, so to actually see anything in real-time we'd use a TSR program (ShowGIF?) that'd decode the image as it was written to disk. We'd stare at the image as it came across line by line, and try to figure out what body parts we were looking at.

        "Is that an elbow?" "No, I think it's a knee." "No, no, it's the back of someone's neck..." "No it's not, it's a... oh, God! Cancel!! Hit cancel!! My eyes!"

        Great fun, and really challenging when you've got four or more people in an unusual configuration in the picture.

        Of course, the 40 meg hard drive didn't leave much room for pr0n archives. We had to start offloading it to 200 meg QIC tapes at some point. Ah, the good old days.

  • First Data Transmitted on the Internet (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:03PM (#10105054)
    1) 1 x 1 pixel of goatse.cx 2) Two sentence SPAM email trying to get investors into something called TCP/IP 3) The famous "Nixon" worm of '69. Crippled 3 machines.

  • I get the feeling... (Score:4, Funny)

    by msgregory@earthlink. (98641) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:03PM (#10105056)
    ...that the largest discussion of the difference between 25 and 35 in the history of the internet is about to ensue.
  • Ah, the Internet. Designed so that even in the event of nuclear war, our military leaders would still be able to access pornography.

  • 35 years going on 25 (Score:4, Funny)

    by Aexia (517457) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:04PM (#10105060)
    Is the Internet going through a mid-life crisis or something? First it found it out that Al Gore wasn't his real father; it was actually adopted by the US government. Then everyone blamed it for the tanking economy.

    And now it's just bought a Porsche and is going in for botox treatments.

  • Silly Mainstream News... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FlipmodePlaya (719010) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:04PM (#10105063) Journal
    The focus of the article seems to be security issues of the Internet. Talk of virusses, spam and whatnot. They even qute a guy saying he wishes security had been a priority when it was first invented. Shouldn't it be noted these issues are in software, not the hardware infastructure or protocal of the Internet?

    • Re:Silly Mainstream News... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by 3l1za (770108) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:09PM (#10105107)
      The hardware infrastructure != the protocol of the Internet. The protocol of the internet is very much implemented in software. And, yes, the ease in ability of spoofing an Internet Protocol address is a security issue with the protocol, not just with a particular software implementation of that protocol.

      Ditto there are issues with the various routing protocols, which are issues not just with any particular implementation of that protocol but with the protocol itself.
  • It would forever be 29 years old.

  • Lighten up (Score:4, Funny)

    by outriding9800 (547724) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:06PM (#10105077)
    I think the editors are under enough stress. I mean they first have to make sure the article wasnt posted 3 times before and do a spell check. Now you all want them to check basic math. gessh give them a break

  • The ARPAnet, not quite the Internet (Score:5, Informative)

    by isdnip (49656) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:07PM (#10105085)
    Well, let's not let the title get too carried away on accuracy, even disregarding its subtraction error. In 1969, the prototype ARPAnet started up. It used NCP (TCP/IP came later). It didn't become the "Internet" until there were multiple interconnected networks, and that was not until the early 1980s, after the TCP/IP transition (which was completed in 1983). There were multiple networks once the more production-oriented MILNET split off of the more research-y ARPAnet. And after that came CSnet and all sorts of others.

    But yes, it was in many ways better in the early days (pre-1993), because there was no spam, or for that matter any other advertising. Although Google and the like do sort of make up for it.

    • Re:The ARPAnet, not quite the Internet (Score:5, Interesting)

      by aardwolf204 (630780) on Sunday August 29 2004, @07:17PM (#10105433)
      I know I cant be the only one that misses dialing into a local BBS to check FidoNET, play some door games, chat with locals in the message boards. And whenever I had a problem I could actually ring the SysOp and actually break into chat with a real human. Those were the days. I used to pick up the local BBS newsletter for free at the supermarket. The coolest BBSs were multi node and you could "chat" with other users. It was like TTY on unix but with beautiful ANSI art. Some of the ASCII and ANSI art the came out of the BBS scene was truly beautiful. Its amazing what one can do with 255 characters and 16 colors.

      Then one day one of the bigger BBSs in town, a 10 node WildCat board got Lynx and things started to change.

      I remember getting "online" in '94, hitting lycos to see what the fuss was about and feeling totally alone, like a little kid in a huge subway terminal full of hundreds of people, yet no one talking. And by then USENET was already just a place to get binaries.

      Well, at least theres a community on slashdot, where else am I going to get my 1. Nat Portman 2. Hot Gritz 3. in Soviet Russia 4. BSD Dieing 5. Profit fix?

      My how its changed, I miss 120 pixel wide, 16 color animated gif DMCAless banners.

  • Karma killer (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Zorilla (791636) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:08PM (#10105093)
    Wow, the Slashdot editors must really have a grudge against the masses today. I figured this would be the best way to justify killing everybody's karma through redundant mods.

    Also, who would even be surprised anymore if they didn't even see as much as an acknowledgement of the mistake being corrected, just a quick change from "25" to "35"?

  • What progress (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Alcimedes (398213) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:08PM (#10105095)
    Initially, the internet was bits of meaningless data between two computers.

    Today? Bits of meaningless data between millions of computers.

    All joking aside though, I have no idea how people got anything done before the internet.

    Need to fix something around the house? Check the 'net.

    Need to figure out where the hell a business/friend is? Check the 'net.

    Have some jackass who insists they're right about some obscure factoid, and want to make them admit they're full of crap now, before they can deny it ever happened? Good 'ol internet.

    Between wireless, high-speed access, and laptops within an arm's reach, the average person now has access to information that used to be obscure and almost impossible to come by at a moments notice.

    In 35 years, the internet has probably done more to change the way people live than any other invention. (at least in the last 100 years or so) That dude who discovered fire and the wheel did pretty well for humanity.

    • Re:What progress (Score:5, Informative)

      by Inthewire (521207) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:15PM (#10105141)
      Air conditioning.
      Polio vaccine.
      Traffic lights.
      Frozen food.
      Television.
      Large-scale farming.
      Credit cards.
      Flouride.

      There have been dozens if not hundreds of things invented in the past 100 years that have changed lifestyles more than the internet.

    • Re:What progress (Score:5, Funny)

      by nuclear305 (674185) * on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:16PM (#10105142)
      "All joking aside though, I have no idea how people got anything done before the internet."

      That was back when people still left their houses to find their friends, and read books to research those obscure factoids :)

    • Re:What progress (Score:5, Funny)

      by toxcspdrmn (471013) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:22PM (#10105165) Homepage
      That dude who discovered fire and the wheel did pretty well for humanity
      That was the same guy both times? Cool.

      • Re:What progress (Score:5, Insightful)

        by abborren (773413) on Sunday August 29 2004, @07:22PM (#10105456) Journal

        Visiting the library once in a while is useful. It is quite a mistake to believe that the internet is a good source for all information you need. Sure, it can provide a lot of useful information but often in low quantities and very spread out (and what about peer-review?).

        Finding good and useful information in a library is way more efficient than searching the web, if you compare time spend vs. amount of found (and good) information, IMHO.

  • Internet Day - Sept 2 (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ravensign (134410) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:13PM (#10105132)
    Sept 2 should be a national holiday.

    What are you getting for Internet Day?

    Why a new Cisco 7x00 series router!

    Thank you Linus Claus!

  • First Spam (Score:4, Funny)

    by TheFairElf (669537) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:31PM (#10105215)
    "...as bits of meaningless test data flowed silently between the two computers"

    So they first tested Internet with spam? With that kind of a start no wonder we're in the current mess!

  • Who would have guessed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dev32810 (748540) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:35PM (#10105226)
    that in the summer of 1969 the just completed moon landing would have almost no impact to our lives 35 years later, but these bits between two computers would change the face of the world. Weird...

    • Re:Who would have guessed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by YouHaveSnail (202852) on Sunday August 29 2004, @07:44PM (#10105541)
      No, that's not right. The moon landing, along with the rest of the Mercury and Apollo missions, had a profound and lasting impact on the world. Yes, we're not all flitting from one planet to the next in our own personal rocket ships, but we think about ourselves and our place in the universe differently now. If you think the moon landings have had no impact on your life, it's most likely that you've never lived in a world without space travel.

      The Internet happened in a very different way. Its inception was, at the time, incomprehensible to everyone but a few smartypants researchers. And even those scientists really had no idea how the net would grow to encompass so much of our lives. Even fifteen years after its birth, very few people had any clue about the Internet. The Internet may have been technically born when the first two machines were plugged in, but it wasn't important until many years later, when it became a movement.

  • In the year 2014.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by monoqlith (610041) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:44PM (#10105273)
    The Internet suddenly has a mid-life crisis. Looking back on its life, it realizes its squandered its time on earth on porn, e-commerce, and petty IM conversations. . The Internet feels hollow and worthless. To console itself, it buys a Porsche from www.porsche.com, and takes it out on the road. Now feeling youthful and vibrant, the Internet uses the Porsche to woo a younger network. Soon enough, the Internet and the younger network are in the throes of a sultry affair. One night, the Internet's rubber breaks and he accidentally gets the younger network pregnant. Scared, the Internet runs away, and the younger network is left on its own to raise the Subnet. The Subnet grows into a full Class C and then into an Internet of its own.

  • And... (Score:5, Funny)

    by atomm1024 (570507) on Sunday August 29 2004, @06:53PM (#10105310)
    The "meaningless test data," by the way, read thusly:
    g00b3r69: hey a/s/l?
    h0t_arpa_chik: 19/f/dc
    g00b3r69: kewl 20/m/dc wanna cyber?
    h0t_arpa_chik: k
    In other news, September 3 marks be the 35th anniversary of Goatse (and, additionally marking the birthday of leetspeak, we must remember that back then it was known only by its IP address -- 60.47.53.101).

  • It's the Meaning, Stupid (Score:5, Insightful)

    by handy_vandal (606174) on Sunday August 29 2004, @07:05PM (#10105366) Homepage Journal
    ... bits of meaningless test data ...

    Meaningless? Meaningless?

    Those bits weren't "meaningless" -- they meant something very clear and important:

    Test successful.

    -kgj

  • BBN & IMP at McClellan (Score:4, Interesting)

    by chiph (523845) on Sunday August 29 2004, @07:06PM (#10105371)
    In 1986 I was stationed at McClellan AFB, and got to watch some contractors install about 4 racks of beige equipment called an "Interface Message Processor" from a company called BBN. I had no clue at the time it was part of the internet. About ten years later I realized what it was, and thought "Wow, I got to see an IMP in person!"

    Sorry, I don't have a photo (and couldn't find one via Google) -- cameras weren't allowed in the area. The very first IMPs looked like this [ed-thelen.org], though.

    Chip H.

  • Was going so well (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bigberk (547360) <bigberk@users.pc9.org> on Sunday August 29 2004, @07:09PM (#10105390)

    So it started with technological innovation, and saw rapid development through the cooperation of governments and universities. It was refined and improved thanks to the effort of a bunch of awfully dedicated academics [postel.org] to the point where it could merge with mainstream technologies (talking PPP over analog phone modems). The new worldwide resource gave us the ability to communicate like never before [rfc-editor.org].

    Things were going so well, until the marketers came on board and started flooding people with ads and junk whatever way they could find. Spam was funny at first; now it's a serious waste of bandwidth and resources, with business people resorting to purely criminal activities [securityfocus.com] in order to flood their advertising and harm benevolent volunteer organizations [google.com]. Thanks to dirty business the Internet has become a battle ground. Spyware and even viruses are directly linked [sysdesign.ca] to immoral advertising/spam.

    Now, I don't hate marketing people (I run a businses, and am a student in Management) but it's safe to say that immoral marketers are f*cking up the Internet.

  • OSQ (Score:5, Funny)

    by Aggrazel (13616) <aggrazel@gmail.com> on Sunday August 29 2004, @07:18PM (#10105440) Journal
    They have the internet on computers now?

  • Houston we have a problem... (Score:4, Funny)

    by dfj225 (587560) on Sunday August 29 2004, @07:58PM (#10105585) Homepage Journal
    "Working with NASA, Cerf is also trying to extend the network into outer space to better communicate with spacecraft."
    Astronaut: Houston, we have a problem...one of the display screens is reading "j00 R pAwned".

  • 1969 Internet maps (Score:5, Interesting)

    by oob (131174) on Sunday August 29 2004, @08:01PM (#10105601)
    Here's a nice collection of Internet maps [cybergeography.org] from September 1969 onwards, showing the network build out from UCLA to include Stanford, UCSB, Utah and so on.

    • Re:ipv6 vs ipv4 inaccuracy in CNN article (Score:5, Informative)

      by suwain_2 (260792) on Sunday August 29 2004, @07:09PM (#10105391) Journal
      Ipv4 running out of room is a bit of a myth -- there's still plenty of companies and uninversities with huge blocks of ipv4 address space that they have for historical reasons.

      Rather than debunk the myth, you've proved it.

      The whole reason we're "running out of room" is that "old" companies have massive netblocks they're not even beginning to use.

      This is like saying, "There's still plenty of land left in the city. Big companies bought it all up to hold onto." There's plenty of unused IPs out there. The problem is that they'll probably never be assigned.

      I once wrote a script to do a whois on every Class A, and lump them into a text file. I was surprised to find that the United States Government owns something like 30 Class A's.

      It's not a lack of unused IPs. It's a lack of allocatable IPs.

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