Well, there may be no cake, but yesterday was a day to celebrate, because this year, October 29th marks forty years since the birth of the Internet!
Yes, it's true -- despite the fact that many people think it first started in the mid 1990s, the Internet actually got its first start all the way back in 1969.
The exact date is actually somewhat debatable -- some historians prefer to count September 2, 1969 as the Internet's "birthday", since that was the first time
two computers were connected to each other with a cable and sent a small amount of information between them.
This definitely marked the very first tiny step towards what we now know as the Internet, but others prefer to count this day at the end of October in that same year as the real birthday. October 29, 1969 was the first day that information was sent from one computer to another *in different locations*, which was a big step closer to the modern Internet where we now have computers sending information to each other around the world ceaselessly.
The main name behind this amazing first step into today's world is Leonard Kleinrock, who does consider the 29th to be day marking "the first breath of life the Internet ever took."
And what a way we've come, since.
It took until around 1994, a few years after the invention of the Web (which is not the same as the Internet, but merely part of it, as is email and many other services) before the average person started to hear about it and widespread use began.
Personally, I started using the Internet directly back in 1990, before you had web pages or much of anything a newer Internet user would even recognize. Back then it was all text and you typed commands or used the arrow keys on a keyboard to navigate from one place to another.
I still vividly remember the first time I used something called IRC (short for Internet Relay Chat) which was sort of the great grandparent of modern chat programs and sites like Twitter.
I ended up somehow getting in contact with someone in Japan, and we sat and typed messages back and forth to each other, chatting about nothing in particular, while I felt in awe of the fact that someone was communicating
with me from the other side of the world.
It was painfully slow, but still an incredible experience most people take for granted these days where so many of us are constantly connected to each other through computers and cell phones and more.
As it happens, I actually was regularly using email (although through a system called a "BBS" which was not directly connected to the Internet about five years before that, putting me a good ten years ahead of when most people had even heard of it.
But the real pioneers were people like Leonard Kleinrock, who we all owe a debt of gratitude for -- if it wasn't for him and others like him, you wouldn't be reading this, and we wouldn't live in an age when people have greater opportunities to connect with others, make friends, keep in touch with loved ones, reach customers or find that perfect gift for yourself or someone you care about which you could never find at the local store.
Happy birthday, Internet!
Until next time, take care, and enjoy,
Worth Godwin
Plain English Simplicity for This Complex Modern World
P.S. If you sometimes feel left out of the opportunities computers and the Internet offer, you might want to try out my easy, Plain English audio and video computer lessons, which are available for both Apple's Macs and Windows PCs.
Just use the form below to sign up for my free newsletter and member site to discover more of my lessons...
Yes, it's true -- despite the fact that many people think it first started in the mid 1990s, the Internet actually got its first start all the way back in 1969.
The exact date is actually somewhat debatable -- some historians prefer to count September 2, 1969 as the Internet's "birthday", since that was the first time
two computers were connected to each other with a cable and sent a small amount of information between them.
This definitely marked the very first tiny step towards what we now know as the Internet, but others prefer to count this day at the end of October in that same year as the real birthday. October 29, 1969 was the first day that information was sent from one computer to another *in different locations*, which was a big step closer to the modern Internet where we now have computers sending information to each other around the world ceaselessly.
The main name behind this amazing first step into today's world is Leonard Kleinrock, who does consider the 29th to be day marking "the first breath of life the Internet ever took."
And what a way we've come, since.
It took until around 1994, a few years after the invention of the Web (which is not the same as the Internet, but merely part of it, as is email and many other services) before the average person started to hear about it and widespread use began.
Personally, I started using the Internet directly back in 1990, before you had web pages or much of anything a newer Internet user would even recognize. Back then it was all text and you typed commands or used the arrow keys on a keyboard to navigate from one place to another.
I still vividly remember the first time I used something called IRC (short for Internet Relay Chat) which was sort of the great grandparent of modern chat programs and sites like Twitter.
I ended up somehow getting in contact with someone in Japan, and we sat and typed messages back and forth to each other, chatting about nothing in particular, while I felt in awe of the fact that someone was communicating
with me from the other side of the world.
It was painfully slow, but still an incredible experience most people take for granted these days where so many of us are constantly connected to each other through computers and cell phones and more.
As it happens, I actually was regularly using email (although through a system called a "BBS" which was not directly connected to the Internet about five years before that, putting me a good ten years ahead of when most people had even heard of it.
But the real pioneers were people like Leonard Kleinrock, who we all owe a debt of gratitude for -- if it wasn't for him and others like him, you wouldn't be reading this, and we wouldn't live in an age when people have greater opportunities to connect with others, make friends, keep in touch with loved ones, reach customers or find that perfect gift for yourself or someone you care about which you could never find at the local store.
Happy birthday, Internet!
Until next time, take care, and enjoy,
Worth Godwin
Plain English Simplicity for This Complex Modern World
P.S. If you sometimes feel left out of the opportunities computers and the Internet offer, you might want to try out my easy, Plain English audio and video computer lessons, which are available for both Apple's Macs and Windows PCs.
Just use the form below to sign up for my free newsletter and member site to discover more of my lessons...
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