Some really cool stuff!
In the
past editions of Everything Office, I've
focused on a number of helpful computer issues. With Spring upon us, and
daylight-savings time in place, I think it's time for a change of pace, so I'm
going to tell you about some really cool Internet stuff. First, you MUST read
the following!
Five years ago, they were calling it the Information
Super Highway. Now you know why! And, of course, if you still don't get it,
click
here to drop Al Gore a line. After all, he invented
it!
What is the Internet….really? At one time or another,
you've probably wondered, haven't you? Actually, it's quite fascinating, so
here in a nutshell is how it all happened. It's much more than the Web!
In the early '70's, the Internet began as a project of the US Defense
Dept. and was called ARPAnet. Its purpose was (and still is) to keep vital
government and military computers networked together. If part of the network
suffered an outage, the theory was that communications between any two
computers would still take place using any available alternative route across
the network.
In the early '80's, local area networks (LAN's) were
developed using the same 'communication-talk methodology' (protocol, for short)
as ARPAnet. Universities and other government agencies connected their new
LAN's to ARPAnet further expanding its scope. Next, the National Science
Foundation (NSF) created five regional supercomputer centers, making the
resources of the world's fastest computers available for academic research.
ARPAnet seemed the logical choice to connect these centers, but wouldn't you
know it, bureaucracy got in the way and the idea was abandoned.
So, the
NSF built its own network, NSFnet, which initially connected over special,
expensive phone lines. To cut costs, regional networks were created that
enabled sites to connect to their nearest neighbor in daisy-chain fashion. Each
chain was connected to one of the supercomputer centers, and the centers
themselves were linked together.
This strategy was so successful that
the network quickly became overloaded when researchers discovered that it was
also useful for sharing resources not directly related to the supercomputer
centers. In 1987, Merit Network, Inc. was contracted to maintain and upgrade
the network. They replaced the original NSF network with high-speed phone lines
and the network was then opened to most academic researchers, government
employees and contractors, as well as to international research organizations
in US allied countries. In the early 1990's, a few large commercial sites were
allowed access.
Today, the Internet is a collection of high-speed
networks comprising the national backbone network provided by the NSF,
connecting millions of local, regional, state, national, international, campus
and corporate networks. It is estimated that nearly 290 million people are
on-line right now!
The World Wide Web (WWW): The "Web" as it is
affectionately called, was invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, a CERN
(European Center for Nuclear Research in Switzerland) computer scientist, and
is just one part of the Internet. Tim originally conceived and developed it for
the large high-energy physics collaborations which have a demand for
instantaneous information sharing between physicists working in different
universities and institutes all over the world. Of course now it has millions
of academic and commercial users.
Using the special HTML format, the
Web tries to 'suck in' all sorts of data from all sorts of sources. HTML
(Hypertext Markup Language) refers to nonlinear text. Normally we read left to
right, top to bottom, beginning to end. Using the HTML format, you follow
'links' that take you to various places in the document or in other documents
(no matter where on the Net they may be).
HOT…HOT…HOT…HOT !!!!!!
Now that you know what the Internet really is, here's one neat
trick that you'll wonder how you ever got along without. When you're surfing
the Net and you don't know the address (URL-Uniform Resource Locator) of the
company, organization or topics for which you are searching, try the following.
You'll be surprised at how well it works!
In the box where you would
normally enter the website URL you want to browse to, use the word "go"
followed by a space and then the name of the company, organization, product,
item or category in which you are interested.
For example, if you
wanted to check out USA Today and didn't know the URL, just type 'go USA Today'
and press the ENTER key. It will take you right to the USA Today website. It
doesn't always work perfectly, but I use it all the time and it's pretty cool
stuff! Check it out.
WE'RE CHANGING!!
We're just about ready to present our
brand new Website, which will have more information for you, and be easier to
use. In the interim, we've already made a few new changes, but there's more to
come.
One of the new features, which is already there, is our weekly
"Top Tips, Hot Links and Dazzling Downloads".
This week's Top Tip just happens to be the one I described above. Next week
we'll have another. You'll want to check back often, because we'll be posting
the latest, cutting-edge stuff there which we know you'll find very useful.
Thanks for reading Everything Office! We appreciate the opportunity to
have you as a reader and hopefully, as a client.
-
Rich Poremba
PS….For you
Airplane Nuts out there
Here's a cool website
which has a new desktop calendar that you can download each month. I like it
because it not only has a really neat airplane, but includes a monthly calendar
right on your desktop. Check it out!
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