Week 4 Blog

Lecture Summary:
Using the WWW:


Internet vs. Web


Internet allows you to find computers; connections are cables in between computers

The Web allows you to find document, sounds videos, information etc; connections are hypertext links.

The web is an abstract virtual space of information could not exist without the net

Before the Web or internet was developed the first document on packet switching theories was published in 1961, in 1965 a computer in Massachusetts was connected to another in California using dial up modems

Developed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, to facilitate sharing research information.
The WWW is a vast space of accessible information stored on computers and servers throughout the world.

Protocols of the World Wide Web:

• TCP/IP – Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; allows computers to communicate to one and other. TCP allows the conversion of data signals into telephone like signals. IP allows data to be routed from one network to another over the internet.


• HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol; method of communication that allows the interpretation of data to determine how to display and/or exchange data between computers


• DNS – Domain Name Server; www, .com, .org, .net, .au, .uk


• URL – Uniform Resource Locator
  

Types of Web Browsers:

• Internet Explorer


• Neoplanet


• Firefox

Functions of the browser interface ‘Back’ and ‘Forward’ buttons, ‘home’, ‘history’ newer more advanced IE’s have Tabs, and Bookmark settings, Tabs allows user to have multiple web pages open within the one browser window.

Workshop Write Up:

Visit the site http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.com/ and www.molossia.org and question their authenticity.

Haggishunt:

• The advertisements on the page, camvista.com


• It is a competition site, basically watch the ten webcams If you see a ‘haggis’, report it an you go in the draw, if you see a ‘gold haggis’ report it an you win instantly.


• The site appears to be that of a promotions company that has a competition currently running, this is an attempt to attract visitors


• The “haggis facts” at the top of the page, and the “haggisclopedia” page, are obviously made as a joke.

Molossia:

• When you click on the teachers only link. It quite obviously explains that it is a fake website to teach students how to not be fooled by fake websites as what is not necessarily a real country is however a real place and is quite possible to actually visit


• The scrolling banner at the bottom of the page seems out of place, how often on a government site would you see a scrolling banner saying listen to our radio podcasts


• When you click on the information regarding the molossian navy you are directed to ‘cafepress’ site for online shopping


• The site just doesn’t feel official, it lacks authority

Consider the web address www.martinlutherking.org you would expect to find information about Martin Luther King and his works, and what he achieved in his life, however what I already know that you will find is a site that is run by a group of white supremacists, which thus contains large amounts of racist information towards Martin Luther King, and the African Americans. Basically aimed at shaming Martin Luther King and the good he did, their main purpose is to try and discredit any information published about or by Martin Luther King.

Readings:

History of the Internet, Internet for Historians (and just about everyone else)

Chapter 1: The Origins and Growth of The Internet and the World Wide Web

Began in the early 1830’s and progressed at a slow pace, world war 2 occurred an advances in technology sped up greatly with the development of many new navigational tables and tracking and aiming devices for anti aircraft guns, development of Harvard Mark 1 (did not have an inbuilt program, instructions were given by paper tape. The war had aided in the development however we were still at a time of large complex calculating machines and nothing else.

In June 1948 Manchester University developed Manchester Mark 1, 3 years later saw the integration of RAM, 1958-59 saw the development of the silicon chip, it entered into commercial production in 1961.

Chapter 2: From ARPANET to World Wide Web

ARPA was created initially with its focus set on space, ballistic missiles, and nuclear test monitoring; in 1962 ARPA opened a computer research program. ARPANET was created from teams at MIT, National Physics Library, and the RAND corporation, the final requirement was the design of a protocol to allow computers to send an receive messages and data. In 1971 ARPANET consisted of 23 host computers linked together.

1974 saw the development of the TCP/IP protocol to enable different networks to communicate with each other. Expansion of the internet gradually grew, the amount of people hosting servers and WebPages. In 1991 WWW was released to the public an no longer a military or higher education system.

Chapter 3: History of E-mail

ARPANET developers had considered such a process of electronic mail, at the time when computers where of ridiculous sizes and the everyday person could not afford one, this idea was not overly important. In 1971 Ray Tomlinson of ARPANET sent the World’s first email, he sent it to himself as a test then sent further emails to ARPANET users explaining how to address emails to other users.

1990 saw the democratisation of the internet, 1995 saw internet providers as CompuServe, AOL, and Prodigy start business and deliver a connection to the world.

Chapter 4: Search Engines

The late 1980’s saw so much data on the internet that it was too difficult to rely on tips from other users. In 1992 there were 1,000,000 hosts. This saw the creation of search engines, servers that would catalogue available web pages an allow them to be easily accessed or found search engines included (Archie, The Gopher System, WAIS).

More recent search engines, Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista

Histories of the Internet – A Brief History of the Internet
The internet has revolutionised the computer and communications industry, ARPANET was the original internet that transformed into the World Wide Web as we know it today. Robert Kahn was behind the development of a new protocol which would support open=architecture environments, thus the creation of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.

Kahn was successful with his creation of the TCP/IP protocol which worked well on large time sharing systems, people doubted that a PC could handle the complexity of TCP/IP, David Clark and research team from MIT proved it is possible to run TCP/IP on PC’s they reconfigured Khans version and made it suitable for a smaller less complex machine. 1980’s saw the widespread development and implementation of LANS, PC’s and WAN connections.

Commercialisation in the early 1980’s saw the development of many private network services and systems being made available. Internet currently controls the majority of activities, as most things are now made accessible online, or through portals, that allow access anywhere, and anytime.