Internet / WWW / Lamarr / Wi-Fi / Bluetooth
Internet / WWW
The internet is a large network of computers that is able to connect with one another through network nodes, connection points that allow for communication and redistribution of data. This system was created through the numerous developments done by several scientists while the credit for inventing the internet that we still use today mostly goes to Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn who both came up with the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Published in 1974, TCP and IP became the standard for how information would be able to be shared between networks. The earliest version of the internet was created by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA but formally known as ARPA) to link computers in institutions funded by the pentagon over telephone lines (through AT&T). Military leaders during the Cold War wanted a sort of communications network without a central nucleus to stop their enemies from being able to attack one headquarters and prevent the shutdown of all operations. Computers at the time were very immobile and data needed to physically be moved from computer to computer. The official start of the internet is considered to be January 1st, 1983. After expanding commercially, the internet has a seemingly limitless list of services. From playing games to scamming people for money, the internet has brought forth many opportunities and benefits to the world along with its drawbacks.
Created by English computer scientist, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web was based on the emerging technology of hypertext. Beners-Lee had experienced the troubles of having to collect different information from different computers and making tasks more difficult than they had to be. A proposal was presented in March of 1989 that would not be immediately accepted. Soon after being able to start working on it, Berners-Lee had come up with three elemental technologies that still are used in the current web: HTML, URL, and HTTP. Along with these, the first web page browser and server were created: WorldWideWeb.app and httpd. By the end of 1990, the first web page was opened. The web would be agreed to by the company CERN (who Berners-Lee worked for) that it would be royalty-free for as long as it existed. Other companies that worked on web standards also stuck with the royalty-free basis. Since then people have used the web in countless ways that are never ending.
Though seeming very similar, the internet and the world wide web are different. The internet is more of a physical infrastructure for the web to sit on while the web is what allows users access/share data and information. The web is dependent on the internet while the internet does not need the web to function. There were other applications and services that worked with just the internet such as email.
The first website ever created, info.cern.ch, was made by CERN and Berners-Lee to dedicate the World Wide Web project. In 2013, CERN wanted to resurrect the site to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the internet. The full URL that works now is http://info.cern.ch/.
Lamarr / Wi-Fi / Bluetooth
Hedy Lamarr was a Hollywood movie star, but a secret genius. Thanks to her husband, Howard Hughes, Lamarr would once again tap into the inventor that had been bottled up inside of her. Lamarr would invent new things while away from acting. During a dinner party, she was able to meet George Antheil, a fellow entertainer and genius. Collaborating together the pair were able to create “frequency hopping” to prevent intercepted radio waves from disrupting the Allies torpedoes during World War II. Frequency hopping technology would eventually become the basis for bluetooth, wifi, and other wireless connections.
The song titled “This is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr” was composed by Jeff Beck and Johnny Dept in an attempt to pay homage to who she was and how she was “erased by the world” as she lived her last few decades hardly spending time with anybody in person.
In 1994, A Dutch engineer by the name of Jaap Haartsen was able to lay the foundations for what would soon be called Bluetooth. Haartsen and his team were inspired by Viking King Harold “Bluetooth” Gormsson who united all of Denmark and reportedly had a dark colored and dead tooth. The Bluetooth symbol is a combination of his initials in Younger Futhark runes.
In 1997, the NCR Corporation and AT&T created the original wifi named “IEEE 802.11” after the standard number scheme adopted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The “802” refers to the committee number within the IEEE that managed the development of industry protocols for wireless networks. The “11” refers to a WLAN standard working group within the 802 committee.
Cited Works:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/ARPANET
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Internet
https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/modern-internet
https://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit07/internet07_02.phtml
https://webfoundation.org/about/vision/history-of-the-web/
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/whats-difference-internet-web/
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/hedy-lamarr
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