The earliest form of pyramid, the step, dates back to the 3rd Dynasty, and consists of several steps. A descending passage from the north leads to the burial chamber. Underground galleries surround the pyramid on all but the south sides. The first, and probably the only step pyramid ever completed, is that of King Netjerykhet Djoser at Saqqara. The Step pyramid is not near as pleasing to the eye as the True pyramid, which could explain the quick abandonment of this type of pyramid.
The true pyramid is a natural development and improvement on the step pyramid. The first true pyramids were introduced in at the beginning of the 4th Dynasty. The structure of a True Pyramid is virtually the same as a step pyramid. Packing blocks are stacked until the dimensions were right, and then finishing blocks (usually limestone) were the last touch. The aesthetics are much more pleasing than the step pyramid, but the construction isn't really that different.
A major problem facing the builders of the Ancient Egyptian Pyramids, was that of getting the Large stone blocks to the height they required. the method shown at left, is the only one proven to have been used. The ramps were built on inclined planes of mud brick and rubble. They then dragged the blocks on sledges to the needed height. As the pyramid grew taller, the ramp had to be extended in length, and its base was widened, else it would collapse. It is likely that for the construction of each pyramid, several ramps were probably used..The arrangement of the ramps used for building is in much dispute. Assuming that the step pyramid was built before the outer structure, and then the packing blocks were laid on top, the ramps could have run from one step to another rather than approaching the pyramid face at right angles.
Some of the pyramids indicate an accurate understanding of Pi, but the mathematical knowledge of the Egyptians did not include the ability to arrive at this by calculation. It is possible that this could have been arrived at "accidentally" through a means such as counting the revolutions of a drum.
The internal construction of most true pyramids consists of a series of buttress walls surrounding a central core. The walls decrease in height from the center outwards. In other words, the core of the true pyramid is essentially a step pyramid. The internal arrangement added stability to the structure. Packing blocks filled the "steps" formed by the faces of the outermost buttress walls and casting blocks (often Limestone) completed the structure of the true pyramid.
Architects and builders used a different form of construction in the pyramids of the 12th and 13th Dynasties. Mainly because of economy, for it was suitable for relatively modest structures in inferior materials. Solid walls of stone ran from the center, and shorter cross walls formed a series of chambers filled with stone blocks, ruble or mud bricks. An outer casing was usually added, and although quite effective in the short term, it did not even come close to the earlier construction methods. Pyramids which were built with this structural design are quite dilapidated and worn.
Before the physical orientation and layout of a new pyramid took place, considerable planning was needed under the direction of a "royal master builder". Ultimately, the responsibility fell on the vizier, who was typically the head of all royal works. The first step in the process was taken by specialists who would draw up plans for the pyramid on papyrus. After the construction began, plans and sketches were drawn on papyri or flat slabs of limestone. Planners even made models of their projects, as evidenced by a limestone model of a substructure found in the Pyramid of Amenemhet III at Dahshur. After the planning stage, each step of pyramid building was initiated with foundation rituals.
Pyramids, unlike many other types of religious structures, required strict orientation to the cardinal points. Pyramid alignment may have been carried out through a number of different means, including some methods we have probably never thought of. The primary theory of how the ancient Egyptians oriented most any building that had to conform to true primary coordinates has been by stellar measurements. This involved building a small, circular wall of perhaps mudbrick that had to be perfectly level at the top. Within the circle, a man would stand and through a straight pole with a forked top called a bay, sight a circumpolar star as it rises. A second man at the perimeter of the small circular wall would then "spot" the wall where the star rose. Using a type of plumb line, or merkhet, he would also spot the mark at the bottom of the wall. When the star set, the process would be repeated. Measuring between the two spots would then provide true north from the center sighting pole.
Recently several other theories have been raised, all of which involve some sort of astronomical measurements. A British scholar named K. Spence believes that the Egyptians used two circumpolar stars (Delta Ursae Majoris and Beta Urae Minoris or Epsilon Usae Majoris and Gamma Urae Minors) Another theory set out by a Slovak Egyptologist, D. Magdolen, believes that the ancient Egyptians oriented their monuments using the sun, by means of wooden stakes and ropes. There is in fact a reference in ancient text referring to "the shadow" and the "stride of Ra".
The sun rises and sets in equal but opposite angles to true north. Using a plumb line, a pole would have been set as vertically as possible. Then, about three hours before noon, its shadow would be measured. This length then becomes the radius of a circle. As the sun rises higher, the shadow shrinks back from the line and then becomes longer in the afternoon. When it reaches the circle again it forms an angle with the morning's line. The bisection of the angle is true north. However, this method would be less accurate then the stellar method, but could be fairly accurate during the solstices.
Creating the Ground Plan
After the primary coordinates were determined, the ground plan would be marked out. Some of the methods used to do so varied from pyramid to pyramid. Here, we examine the means by which the ground plan of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza was determined.
Initially, a reference line along true north was constructed from the orientation process. The next step would be to create a true square with precise right angles. Within Khufu's pyramid, there is actually a massif of natural rock jutting up that was used as part of the pyramid's core. Therefore, measuring the diagonals of the square to check for accuracy was impossible.
A second method would have employed the use of a sacred or Pythagorean triangle. The triangles seem to be present in the design of the Old Kingdom pyramids, but there is no real conclusive evidence of their use. Basically, this triangle uses three equal units on one side, four on the next, and five on the hypotenuse to give a true right angle. At Khufu's pyramid a series of holes along the orientation line are dug at seven cubit (3.675 meters or about 12 ft) intervals, so the triangle probably used these positions in the measurement. In other words, the triangle would have been measured as 21 cubits by 28 cubits with a 35 cubit hypotenuse. This would have resulted in a much longer measurement for the perpendicular line then with the use of a set square. If the unites used were any greater, the measurement would have been interrupted by the rock outcrop.
A third method possibly available to the early Egyptians would have been through the use of intersecting arcs. In this method, two circles would have been sketched by rotating a cord around two points on the orientation line. The intersection of the two circles would then provide a right angle. Some doubt this method was used because the elasticity of the string or rope used to sketch the circles would lead to inaccuracies. However, at Khufu's pyramid, there are a number of post holes dug that might have been used to draw such circles, so the method cannot be ruled out. Furthermore, the Egyptian may have used a rod or other device rather than rope or string to draw the circle, eliminating elasticity.
The Platform
An orientation reference line was set up in a larger square by measuring off the established square ground plan. This was done by digging post holes at measured distances from the inner square in the bedrock and inserting small posts through which a rope or string ran. These holes were dug at about 10 cubit intervals. This outer reference line was needed because the original orientation lines would be erased by building work. Various segments of the reference line could be removed so that building material could be moved into place. Then measurements were taken from the guide line as the material for the platform were put in place so that the the platform was in accord with the initial floor plan.
Not only was the platform required to be laid in a perfect square, but it was also required to be very level. In Khufu's pyramid, the platform is level to within about 2.1 cm (one inch). There were several means that this too could be accomplished. Traditional though, apparently originally conceived by Edwards, suggests the use of water to level the platform. He thought that the ancient Egyptians might have built a mud enclosure around the platform that was then filled with water. A grid of trenches would have been cut at a uniform depth below the water. However, modern Egyptologists believe this method would have been cumbersome at best. The platform would have had to have been chiseled beneath the water. Perhaps a more accepted theory involves channels being cut to form a grid within the platform, which was then filled with water. At the top of the water's surface, the level would be marked along the sides of the channels, and then the platform cut accordingly.
Our thinking on pyramids has evolved considerably over the years. Many of us who are a bit older were taught that the pyramids were built using Jewish slave labor, which is a fabrication of immense proportions. Most of the pyramids were built long before the Jews made their appearance historically and currently, many if not most scholars believe they were not built using slave labor at all (or perhaps a nominal number of slaves).
Otherwise, we can also dismiss offhand alternative theories related to aliens or some lost culture being responsible for pyramid building. There is just far too much evidence, including tools, drawings, evolutionary changes, and even worker villages that rule these farfetched ideas obsolete.
However, some mysteries remain, even in some of the best well known Pyramids. The most famous of them all, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, continues, year after year, to give up a few more secrets, and there doubtless remains much to learn from these Egyptian treasures. There may even be one or more pyramids yet to be discovered.
(c)Tour Egypt & The data from the Museum of Antiquities,Cairo
Friday, November 26, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Mobile phones.. Since when have we been seeing these things around?
This morning I stumbled upon a very cool article on PCWorld.com called "In Pictures: A History of Cell Phones."
(Ref. Al Sacco in Soapbox)
What follows are few of the most notable events in the evolution of the cell phone, according to the article.
1973
* Motorola touts a prototype of the world's first mobile cellular phone, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. It's more than a foot long, weighs nearly 2 pounds and sells for $4,000. However, it wasn't commercially available until a decade later.
1982
* Finnish handset maker Nokia introduces its first mobile phone, the Nokia Mobira Senator. The device looks very much like a portable radio and it weighs a whopping 21 pounds. Yikes.
1993
* BellSouth/IBM unveil the world's first mobile phone with PDA features, including phone and pager functionality, calculator and calendar applications, as well as fax and e-mail capability. The BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator weighs 21 ounces and sells for $900.
1996
* Motorola debuts its StarTAC mobile phone, merging fashion and functionality into the cell phone. It weighs 3.1 ounces--light by even today's standards--and it is a clam shell device.
2000
* Kyocera introduces its QCP6035 mobile phone, the very first widely available Palm OS-based phone. It costs between $400 and $500 but only included 8MB of memory.
2001
* Before Palm acquired Handspring, the company released its Handspring Treo 180 cellular phone, which came in two versions. The Treo 180 was available with a QWERTY keyboard as well as in a separate version with text input method called Graffiti.
2002
* The Danger Hiptop, which later became known as the T-Mobile Sidekick, hits the mobile space. It is one of the first mobile devices to include a quality Web browser, reliable e-mail access and instant messaging, as well a unique swiveling form factor. (PCWorld.com later went on to name the device its 2003 product of the year.)
* The BlackBerry 5810 hits the market in 2002, and though it's not the first BlackBerry, it's the first such device from Research In Motion (RIM) to include voice functionality--though a headset is required because it doesn't have an external microphone or speaker.
* Sanyo and Sprint make the Sprint SCP-5300 PCS available, and both companies claim it's the first mobile phone in the United States to include a digital camera. Image quality is, however, less than impressive.
2004
* Motorola announces its RAZR v3 cell phone and starts a trend toward ultra-thin, stylish phones that's still influencing mobile device manufacturers today. The RAZR v3 is a "cool" device that everyone, from high schoolers to businessmen, wants. It's still one of the most popular mobile phones, and its one of the few handsets offered by the majority of major cellular carriers.
2006
* RIM, known for its high-end business phones and reliable "push" e-mail technology, makes its first foray into the consumer space with the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. The device is the first from RIM to include a digital camera and media player and it's also the smallest, thinnest BlackBerry--currently, the company's 8800 series of devices are the thinnest it offers. (Read CIO.com's review for more on the BlackBerry Pearl.)
2007
* Apple releases the iPhone, a beautifully designed device that includes an innovative--and much hyped up--touch screen navigation interface, which doesn't require the use of a stylus. The device is available exclusively through AT&T in the United States, and it comes in a 4GB version for $499 and an 8GB version for $599.
Digital wireless and cellular roots go back to the 1940s when commercial mobile telephony began. Compared with the furious pace of development today, it may seem odd that mobile wireless hasn't progressed further in the last 60 years. Where's my real time video watch phone? There were many reasons for this delay but the most important ones were technology, cautiousness, and federal regulation.
First generation analog cellular systems begin:-
BatelcoThe Bahrain Telephone Company (Batelco external link) in May, 1978 began operating a commercial cellular telephone system. It probably marks the first time in the world that individuals started using what we think of as traditional, mobile cellular radio. The two cell system had 250 subscribers, 20 channels in the 400Mhz band to operate on, and used all Matsushita equipment. (Panasonic is the name of Matsushita in the United States.) [Gibson]Cable and Wireless, now Global Crossing, installed the equipment.
In July, 1978 Advanced Mobile Phone Service or AMPS started operating in North America. In AT&T labs in Newark, New Jersey, and most importantly in a trial around Chicago, Illinois Bell and AT&T jointly rolled out analog based cellular telephone service. Ten cells covering 21,000 square miles made up the Chicago system. This first equipment test began using 90 Bell System employees. After six months, on December 20th, 1978, a market trial began with paying customers who leased the car mounted telephones. This was called the service test. The system used the newly allocated 800 MHz band. Although the Bell System bought an additional 1,000 mobile phones from Oki for the lease phase, it did place orders from Motorola and E.F. Johnson for the remainder of the 2100 radios needed. [Business Week2] This early network, using large scale integrated circuits throughout, a dedicated computer and switching system, custom made mobile telephones and antennas, proved a large cellular system could work.
The Rise of GSM
Europeans saw things differently. No new telephone system could accommodate their existing services on so many frequencies. They decided instead to start a new technology in a new radio band. Cellular structured but fully digital, the new service would incorporate the best thinking of the time. They patterned their new wireless standard after landline requirements for ISDN, hoping to make a wireless counterpart to it. The new service was called GSM.
GSM first stood for Groupe Speciale Mobile, after the study group that created the standard. It's now known as Global System for Mobile Communications, although the "C" isn't included in the abbreviation. In 1982 twenty-six European national phone companies began developing GSM. This Conference of European Postal and Telecommunications Administrations or CEPT, planned a uniform, European wide cellular system around 900 MHz. A rare triumph of European unity, GSM achievements became "one of the most convincing demonstrations of what co-operation throughout European industry can achieve on the global market." Planning began in earnest and continued for several years.
In the mid-1980s commercial mobile telephony took to the air. The North American terrestrial system or NATS was introduced by Airfone in 1984, the company soon bought out by GTE. The aeronautical public correspondence or APC service breaks down into two divisions. The first is the ground or terrestial based system (TAPC). That's where aircraft placed telephone calls go directly to a ground station. The satellite-based division, which came much later, places calls to a satellite which then relays the transmission to a ground station. AT&T soon established their own TAPC network after GTE..
PCS or Personal Communication Services were all digital, using TDMA routines and also code division multiple access or CDMA. These were IS-136 and IS-95, respectively. The most notable offering was European GSM, brought to America at a higher frequency and sometimes dubbed PCS1900. It uses TDMA. The evolution of IS-54, IS-136, came into being shortly after these new spectrum blocks were opened up. Today some carriers use both 900 MHz and 1900 MHz spectrum in a single area, putting a mobile call on whatever band is best at the time.
As we look toward the future the demand for new mobile wireless services seems unlimited, especially with the mobile internet upon us. Existing voice oriented systems will continue and be updated. New systems such as 3G will arrive in America once additional spectrum is cleared for their use. These new services will combine data and voice, treating transmission in a different way. Packet switching is a fundamental, elemental change between how wireless was delivered in the past and how it will be presented in the future.
(Ref. Al Sacco in Soapbox)
What follows are few of the most notable events in the evolution of the cell phone, according to the article.
1973
* Motorola touts a prototype of the world's first mobile cellular phone, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. It's more than a foot long, weighs nearly 2 pounds and sells for $4,000. However, it wasn't commercially available until a decade later.
1982
* Finnish handset maker Nokia introduces its first mobile phone, the Nokia Mobira Senator. The device looks very much like a portable radio and it weighs a whopping 21 pounds. Yikes.
1993
* BellSouth/IBM unveil the world's first mobile phone with PDA features, including phone and pager functionality, calculator and calendar applications, as well as fax and e-mail capability. The BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator weighs 21 ounces and sells for $900.
1996
* Motorola debuts its StarTAC mobile phone, merging fashion and functionality into the cell phone. It weighs 3.1 ounces--light by even today's standards--and it is a clam shell device.
2000
* Kyocera introduces its QCP6035 mobile phone, the very first widely available Palm OS-based phone. It costs between $400 and $500 but only included 8MB of memory.
2001
* Before Palm acquired Handspring, the company released its Handspring Treo 180 cellular phone, which came in two versions. The Treo 180 was available with a QWERTY keyboard as well as in a separate version with text input method called Graffiti.
2002
* The Danger Hiptop, which later became known as the T-Mobile Sidekick, hits the mobile space. It is one of the first mobile devices to include a quality Web browser, reliable e-mail access and instant messaging, as well a unique swiveling form factor. (PCWorld.com later went on to name the device its 2003 product of the year.)
* The BlackBerry 5810 hits the market in 2002, and though it's not the first BlackBerry, it's the first such device from Research In Motion (RIM) to include voice functionality--though a headset is required because it doesn't have an external microphone or speaker.
* Sanyo and Sprint make the Sprint SCP-5300 PCS available, and both companies claim it's the first mobile phone in the United States to include a digital camera. Image quality is, however, less than impressive.
2004
* Motorola announces its RAZR v3 cell phone and starts a trend toward ultra-thin, stylish phones that's still influencing mobile device manufacturers today. The RAZR v3 is a "cool" device that everyone, from high schoolers to businessmen, wants. It's still one of the most popular mobile phones, and its one of the few handsets offered by the majority of major cellular carriers.
2006
* RIM, known for its high-end business phones and reliable "push" e-mail technology, makes its first foray into the consumer space with the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. The device is the first from RIM to include a digital camera and media player and it's also the smallest, thinnest BlackBerry--currently, the company's 8800 series of devices are the thinnest it offers. (Read CIO.com's review for more on the BlackBerry Pearl.)
2007
* Apple releases the iPhone, a beautifully designed device that includes an innovative--and much hyped up--touch screen navigation interface, which doesn't require the use of a stylus. The device is available exclusively through AT&T in the United States, and it comes in a 4GB version for $499 and an 8GB version for $599.
Digital wireless and cellular roots go back to the 1940s when commercial mobile telephony began. Compared with the furious pace of development today, it may seem odd that mobile wireless hasn't progressed further in the last 60 years. Where's my real time video watch phone? There were many reasons for this delay but the most important ones were technology, cautiousness, and federal regulation.
First generation analog cellular systems begin:-
BatelcoThe Bahrain Telephone Company (Batelco external link) in May, 1978 began operating a commercial cellular telephone system. It probably marks the first time in the world that individuals started using what we think of as traditional, mobile cellular radio. The two cell system had 250 subscribers, 20 channels in the 400Mhz band to operate on, and used all Matsushita equipment. (Panasonic is the name of Matsushita in the United States.) [Gibson]Cable and Wireless, now Global Crossing, installed the equipment.
In July, 1978 Advanced Mobile Phone Service or AMPS started operating in North America. In AT&T labs in Newark, New Jersey, and most importantly in a trial around Chicago, Illinois Bell and AT&T jointly rolled out analog based cellular telephone service. Ten cells covering 21,000 square miles made up the Chicago system. This first equipment test began using 90 Bell System employees. After six months, on December 20th, 1978, a market trial began with paying customers who leased the car mounted telephones. This was called the service test. The system used the newly allocated 800 MHz band. Although the Bell System bought an additional 1,000 mobile phones from Oki for the lease phase, it did place orders from Motorola and E.F. Johnson for the remainder of the 2100 radios needed. [Business Week2] This early network, using large scale integrated circuits throughout, a dedicated computer and switching system, custom made mobile telephones and antennas, proved a large cellular system could work.
The Rise of GSM
Europeans saw things differently. No new telephone system could accommodate their existing services on so many frequencies. They decided instead to start a new technology in a new radio band. Cellular structured but fully digital, the new service would incorporate the best thinking of the time. They patterned their new wireless standard after landline requirements for ISDN, hoping to make a wireless counterpart to it. The new service was called GSM.
GSM first stood for Groupe Speciale Mobile, after the study group that created the standard. It's now known as Global System for Mobile Communications, although the "C" isn't included in the abbreviation. In 1982 twenty-six European national phone companies began developing GSM. This Conference of European Postal and Telecommunications Administrations or CEPT, planned a uniform, European wide cellular system around 900 MHz. A rare triumph of European unity, GSM achievements became "one of the most convincing demonstrations of what co-operation throughout European industry can achieve on the global market." Planning began in earnest and continued for several years.
In the mid-1980s commercial mobile telephony took to the air. The North American terrestrial system or NATS was introduced by Airfone in 1984, the company soon bought out by GTE. The aeronautical public correspondence or APC service breaks down into two divisions. The first is the ground or terrestial based system (TAPC). That's where aircraft placed telephone calls go directly to a ground station. The satellite-based division, which came much later, places calls to a satellite which then relays the transmission to a ground station. AT&T soon established their own TAPC network after GTE..
PCS or Personal Communication Services were all digital, using TDMA routines and also code division multiple access or CDMA. These were IS-136 and IS-95, respectively. The most notable offering was European GSM, brought to America at a higher frequency and sometimes dubbed PCS1900. It uses TDMA. The evolution of IS-54, IS-136, came into being shortly after these new spectrum blocks were opened up. Today some carriers use both 900 MHz and 1900 MHz spectrum in a single area, putting a mobile call on whatever band is best at the time.
As we look toward the future the demand for new mobile wireless services seems unlimited, especially with the mobile internet upon us. Existing voice oriented systems will continue and be updated. New systems such as 3G will arrive in America once additional spectrum is cleared for their use. These new services will combine data and voice, treating transmission in a different way. Packet switching is a fundamental, elemental change between how wireless was delivered in the past and how it will be presented in the future.
Monday, November 1, 2010
The Origins & Future of the Internet
he Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and computer set the stage for this unprecedented integration of capabilities. The Internet is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location.
The Internet represents one of the most successful examples of the benefits of sustained investment and commitment to research and development of information infrastructure. Beginning with the early research in packet switching, the government, industry and academia have been partners in evolving and deploying this exciting new technology.
A brief history of the development of the Internet is shown below:
1969. A group of DoD researchers linked four computers at UCLA, SRI, University of Utah and the UCSB. They created a network to communicate with one another about government projects. The network was part of the DoD's Advanced Research Project Agency, and was dubbed ARPAnet;
· 1972. More than 50 universities and military agencies were linked together on the network. For a short period of time it was a top secret defence project, ensuring that computers could talk to each other in the event of a nuclear attack. The communication system between the sites was called email and was invented by Ray Tomlinson of Bolt, Berank and Newman;
· 1973. The links were extended to Norway and England;
· 1974. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) was published and the military and educational links diverged. Organisations like NASA began to experiment with computer networks, and the networks began to interconnect and the name Internet was coined;
· 1976. The Queen sends an email from RSRE Malvern.
· 1983. TCP/IP become the protocol standard for ARPAnet. Scott Fahlman invents the smiley to convey emotions in email;
· 1984. In the US, the NSF built high speed, long distance lines that connected supercomputer sites across the USA. These eventually replaced the original ARPAnet. In time, NSFnet was joined by other networks at dozens of universities, research laboratories and high-tech companies. The system for assigning names to computers on the network was introduced - DNS. JANet was launched to connect British Universities;
· 1986. The NSF established its own faster network NSFnet and Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) was introduced making on-line interactive discussion a reality. Backbone speed was 56 Kbps;
· 1987. 1000th RFC and 10,000th host;
· 1988. Robert Tappan Morris releases the first Internet Worm and CERT was set up in response to this. Backbone speed upgraded to 1.544Mbps. IRC developed;
· 1989. 100,000th host. Cuckoo's Egg released by Cliff Stoll telling true story of East German cracker accessing US installations;
· 1990. ARPAnet ceased to exist and the Internet effectively took its role;
· 1991. Gopher, a software program for retrieving information from servers on the Internet was made available by the University o f Minnesota. The US Government announced that it no longer intended to restrict activity on the Internet to research. This policy shift was sufficient for 12 companies to co-operate and produce CIX. Phil Zimmerman released PGP. Backbone speed upgraded to 44.736 Mbps;
· 1992. The World Wide Web became a possibility after CERN, in Switzerland, released hypertext. 1,000,000th Host. The author gets his first dialup email account with Demon Internet (November 1992);
· 1993. Mosaic, a software program to browse Web sites written by Marc Andreesen, was released followed by Netscape;
· 1994. Shopping Malls arrive on the Internet. The UK Treasury goes on line and the first cyberbank opens. The first banner adverts appeared for Zima (a drink) and AT&T;
· 1995. Traditional dialup services (AOL, CompuServe etc) start to provide dialup services. The Vatican goes on line. A number of Internet companies go public. Netscape leads the field with the largest ever IPO on NASDAQ. DEC launches AltaVista, which claims to index every HTML page there is. Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com. eBay is launched;
· 1996. 9,272 organizations find themselves unlisted after the InterNIC drops their name service as a result of not having paid their domain name fee. Various ISPs suffer extended service outages, bringing into question whether they will be able to handle the growing number of users. AOL (19 hours), Netcom (13 hours), AT&T WorldNet (28 hours - email only). China requires users of the Internet to register with the Police. Saudi Arabia restricts use to Universities and Hospitals. Domain name tv.com sold to CNET for US$15,000. Backbone speed upgraded to 622 Mbps;
· 1997. 2000th RFC. 16 Million hosts. 1,000,000th Domain name registered (March 6th for Bonny View Cottage Furniture Company);
· 1998. 3,000,000th Domain name registered. US Postal authorities allow purchase of postage stamps on line for downloading and printing. Gigabit Ethernet standard ratified. Google is launched;
· 1999. First full service bank opens on the Internet (First Internet Bank of Indiana). First forged web page, looking like Bloomberg, raises the shares of a small company by 31% (7th April). Melissa strikes. 5,000,000th Domain name registered. First Cyberwar starts between Serbia and Kosovo. Shawn Fanning Launches Napster - record labels are furious;
· 2000. 10,000,000th Domain name registered. French Courts require that 'hate' memorabilia for sale on Yahoo's auction site must be removed. Gnutella is launched. ICANN selects new top level domains. Backbone is upgraded to IPv6;
· 2001. Forwarding email becomes illegal in Australia (Digital Agenda Act). Napster forced to suspend service after legal action. Taliban bans the Internet in Afghanistan. Nimda released on the Internet;
· 2002. Distributed denial of Service attack hits 13 DNS root servers, causing national security concerns;
· 2003. The first official Swiss online election takes place in Anières (7 Jan), SQL Slammer (goes round the world in 10 minutes and takes out 3 of the 13 DNS Servers). Followed by SoBig.F (19 Aug) and Blaster (11 Aug);
· 2004. Lycos Europe releases a screen saver to help fight spam by keeping spam servers busy with requests (1 Dec). The service is discontinued within a few days after backbone providers block access to the download site and the service causes some servers to crash.
.Web 2.0
Beginning in 2002, new ideas for sharing and exchanging content ad hoc, such as Weblogs and RSS, rapidly gained acceptance on the Web. This new model for information exchange, primarily featuring DIY user-edited and generated websites, was coined Web 2.0.
The Web 2.0 boom saw many new service-oriented startups catering to a new, democratized Web. Some believe it will be followed by the full realization of a Semantic Web.
Predictably, as the World Wide Web became easier to query, attained a higher degree of usability, and shed its esoteric reputation, it gained a sense of organization and unsophistication which opened the floodgates and ushered in a rapid period of popularization. New sites such as Wikipedia and its sister projects proved revolutionary in executing the User edited content concept. In 2005, 3 ex-PayPal employees formed a video viewing website called YouTube. Only a year later, YouTube was proven the most quickly popularized website in history, and even started a new concept of user-submitted content in major events, as in the CNN-YouTube Presidential Debates.
The popularity of YouTube and similar services, combined with the increasing availability and affordability of high-speed connections has made video content far more common on all kinds of websites. Many video-content hosting and creation sites provide an easy means for their videos to be embedded on third party websites without payment or permission.
This combination of more user-created or edited content, and easy means of sharing content, such as via RSS widgets and video embedding, has led to many sites with a typical "Web 2.0" feel. They have articles with embedded video, user-submitted comments below the article, and RSS boxes to the side, listing some of the latest articles from other sites.
Continued extension of the World Wide Web has focused on connecting devices to the Internet, coined Intelligent Device Management. As Internet connectivity becomes ubiquitous, manufacturers have started to leverage the expanded computing power of their devices to enhance their usability and capability. Through Internet connectivity, manufacturers are now able to interact with the devices they have sold and shipped to their customers, and customers are able to interact with the manufacturer (and other providers) to access new content.
Lending credence to the idea of the ubiquity of the web, Web 2.0 has found a place in the global English lexicon. On June 10, 2009 the Global Language Monitor declared it to be the one-millionth English word.
The Internet represents one of the most successful examples of the benefits of sustained investment and commitment to research and development of information infrastructure. Beginning with the early research in packet switching, the government, industry and academia have been partners in evolving and deploying this exciting new technology.
A brief history of the development of the Internet is shown below:
1969. A group of DoD researchers linked four computers at UCLA, SRI, University of Utah and the UCSB. They created a network to communicate with one another about government projects. The network was part of the DoD's Advanced Research Project Agency, and was dubbed ARPAnet;
· 1972. More than 50 universities and military agencies were linked together on the network. For a short period of time it was a top secret defence project, ensuring that computers could talk to each other in the event of a nuclear attack. The communication system between the sites was called email and was invented by Ray Tomlinson of Bolt, Berank and Newman;
· 1973. The links were extended to Norway and England;
· 1974. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) was published and the military and educational links diverged. Organisations like NASA began to experiment with computer networks, and the networks began to interconnect and the name Internet was coined;
· 1976. The Queen sends an email from RSRE Malvern.
· 1983. TCP/IP become the protocol standard for ARPAnet. Scott Fahlman invents the smiley to convey emotions in email;
· 1984. In the US, the NSF built high speed, long distance lines that connected supercomputer sites across the USA. These eventually replaced the original ARPAnet. In time, NSFnet was joined by other networks at dozens of universities, research laboratories and high-tech companies. The system for assigning names to computers on the network was introduced - DNS. JANet was launched to connect British Universities;
· 1986. The NSF established its own faster network NSFnet and Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) was introduced making on-line interactive discussion a reality. Backbone speed was 56 Kbps;
· 1987. 1000th RFC and 10,000th host;
· 1988. Robert Tappan Morris releases the first Internet Worm and CERT was set up in response to this. Backbone speed upgraded to 1.544Mbps. IRC developed;
· 1989. 100,000th host. Cuckoo's Egg released by Cliff Stoll telling true story of East German cracker accessing US installations;
· 1990. ARPAnet ceased to exist and the Internet effectively took its role;
· 1991. Gopher, a software program for retrieving information from servers on the Internet was made available by the University o f Minnesota. The US Government announced that it no longer intended to restrict activity on the Internet to research. This policy shift was sufficient for 12 companies to co-operate and produce CIX. Phil Zimmerman released PGP. Backbone speed upgraded to 44.736 Mbps;
· 1992. The World Wide Web became a possibility after CERN, in Switzerland, released hypertext. 1,000,000th Host. The author gets his first dialup email account with Demon Internet (November 1992);
· 1993. Mosaic, a software program to browse Web sites written by Marc Andreesen, was released followed by Netscape;
· 1994. Shopping Malls arrive on the Internet. The UK Treasury goes on line and the first cyberbank opens. The first banner adverts appeared for Zima (a drink) and AT&T;
· 1995. Traditional dialup services (AOL, CompuServe etc) start to provide dialup services. The Vatican goes on line. A number of Internet companies go public. Netscape leads the field with the largest ever IPO on NASDAQ. DEC launches AltaVista, which claims to index every HTML page there is. Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com. eBay is launched;
· 1996. 9,272 organizations find themselves unlisted after the InterNIC drops their name service as a result of not having paid their domain name fee. Various ISPs suffer extended service outages, bringing into question whether they will be able to handle the growing number of users. AOL (19 hours), Netcom (13 hours), AT&T WorldNet (28 hours - email only). China requires users of the Internet to register with the Police. Saudi Arabia restricts use to Universities and Hospitals. Domain name tv.com sold to CNET for US$15,000. Backbone speed upgraded to 622 Mbps;
· 1997. 2000th RFC. 16 Million hosts. 1,000,000th Domain name registered (March 6th for Bonny View Cottage Furniture Company);
· 1998. 3,000,000th Domain name registered. US Postal authorities allow purchase of postage stamps on line for downloading and printing. Gigabit Ethernet standard ratified. Google is launched;
· 1999. First full service bank opens on the Internet (First Internet Bank of Indiana). First forged web page, looking like Bloomberg, raises the shares of a small company by 31% (7th April). Melissa strikes. 5,000,000th Domain name registered. First Cyberwar starts between Serbia and Kosovo. Shawn Fanning Launches Napster - record labels are furious;
· 2000. 10,000,000th Domain name registered. French Courts require that 'hate' memorabilia for sale on Yahoo's auction site must be removed. Gnutella is launched. ICANN selects new top level domains. Backbone is upgraded to IPv6;
· 2001. Forwarding email becomes illegal in Australia (Digital Agenda Act). Napster forced to suspend service after legal action. Taliban bans the Internet in Afghanistan. Nimda released on the Internet;
· 2002. Distributed denial of Service attack hits 13 DNS root servers, causing national security concerns;
· 2003. The first official Swiss online election takes place in Anières (7 Jan), SQL Slammer (goes round the world in 10 minutes and takes out 3 of the 13 DNS Servers). Followed by SoBig.F (19 Aug) and Blaster (11 Aug);
· 2004. Lycos Europe releases a screen saver to help fight spam by keeping spam servers busy with requests (1 Dec). The service is discontinued within a few days after backbone providers block access to the download site and the service causes some servers to crash.
.Web 2.0
Beginning in 2002, new ideas for sharing and exchanging content ad hoc, such as Weblogs and RSS, rapidly gained acceptance on the Web. This new model for information exchange, primarily featuring DIY user-edited and generated websites, was coined Web 2.0.
The Web 2.0 boom saw many new service-oriented startups catering to a new, democratized Web. Some believe it will be followed by the full realization of a Semantic Web.
Predictably, as the World Wide Web became easier to query, attained a higher degree of usability, and shed its esoteric reputation, it gained a sense of organization and unsophistication which opened the floodgates and ushered in a rapid period of popularization. New sites such as Wikipedia and its sister projects proved revolutionary in executing the User edited content concept. In 2005, 3 ex-PayPal employees formed a video viewing website called YouTube. Only a year later, YouTube was proven the most quickly popularized website in history, and even started a new concept of user-submitted content in major events, as in the CNN-YouTube Presidential Debates.
The popularity of YouTube and similar services, combined with the increasing availability and affordability of high-speed connections has made video content far more common on all kinds of websites. Many video-content hosting and creation sites provide an easy means for their videos to be embedded on third party websites without payment or permission.
This combination of more user-created or edited content, and easy means of sharing content, such as via RSS widgets and video embedding, has led to many sites with a typical "Web 2.0" feel. They have articles with embedded video, user-submitted comments below the article, and RSS boxes to the side, listing some of the latest articles from other sites.
Continued extension of the World Wide Web has focused on connecting devices to the Internet, coined Intelligent Device Management. As Internet connectivity becomes ubiquitous, manufacturers have started to leverage the expanded computing power of their devices to enhance their usability and capability. Through Internet connectivity, manufacturers are now able to interact with the devices they have sold and shipped to their customers, and customers are able to interact with the manufacturer (and other providers) to access new content.
Lending credence to the idea of the ubiquity of the web, Web 2.0 has found a place in the global English lexicon. On June 10, 2009 the Global Language Monitor declared it to be the one-millionth English word.
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