THE INTERNET

The internet is a name for a group of worldwide information resources. These resources are so vast as to be well beyond the comprehension of a single human being. Not only is there no one who understands all the internet, there is no one who even understands most of the internet. The internet is often thought of as a global network of computers, or as a group of computer networks worldwide. The computer networks are simply the medium that carries the information. The beauty and utility of the internet lie in the information itself that is being transmitted.

The internet has undergone a remarkable transformation since its early days. Originally, the internet was a low-speed, text-based network used to connect a few government sites to the research and defense contracting community. The internet came into existence by the U.S department and Defense project called ARPAnet (Advanced Research Project Agency Network) in the late 1960’s. It was designed by network architects to interconnect government computers with defense contractors. The design of the network was such that no single computer system would be dependent on any other computer systems within the network.

In the 1970’s, the internet began to be interconnected with large universities and research organizations. The type of information going across the internet began. To change from being defense oriented to that of research oriented. During the 1980’s, more universities and government contractors began using the internet, contributing to its growth. As the amount of network traffic increased, the speed of the internet began to slow down. In the mid-1980’s, the U.S department of Defense split up the network into the ARPAnet and the MilNet. The MilNet consists of only traffic to and from military sites and other government locations vital for national defence. The National Science Foundation (NSF) took over ARFAnet and merged it into a high speed network called NSFnet.

The NSFnet was the prototype for the internet infrastructure that we have today. It provided high-speed links among scientists and supercomputing facilities and servesd as the main Internet traffic arteries for the U.S. People at Universities and elsewhere immediately began using the increased speed for everything other than supercomputing. In 1995, the NSF handed over control of the internet to commercial carriers.

In the last couple of years internet usage has shifted from universities to commercial use. This shift came about with the development of the World Wide Web by CERN (the high-energy physics research institute in Geneva, Switzerland. Coupled with this came the development of the first practical web browser, Mosaic, from the National Centre for the supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

Web browsers allowed people to explore the resources of the internet in a way that was far easier than the original text-based applications like FTP (file transfer protocol), Gopher (a search engine) and Telnet (remote access of a computer). As more people become interested in the internet, the more web browsers were developed and came into use. The popular web browsers in use today are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Web browsers were developed that were more graphics oriented and easier to use than the old text-based applications.

Today, the internet is being used by people from all walks of life. The internet is like a 24-hour library that is never closed with countless books and resources in almost any language of your choice.

A COMPUTERISED WORLD

Since the first computer was made in the late fifties, the technology has developed extremely. Computers which took the place of a living room then are now being made not much bigger than credit cards!. More and more areas are being taken over by the computer. The world is being computerized!.

As computers are capable of handling large amounts of data in a very short time, they are well-suited for word processing. It won’t be long before all paper archives are replaced by magnetic tapes and CD-ROMs. Even a 1.44 megabytes (MB) diskette can hold hundreds of times more information than a written page. And it takes up less space, too!.

In the near future, maps and road directories will be replaced by CD-ROMs. A single CD is sufficient to store all the information on the different routes within a state or even a country; not to mention much more information and tips to short-cuts from one point to another. In fact, some would-be prophets of the computing world have firmly declared that drivers in the future would only have to insert the CD-ROM that contains the route map into the car’s computer and the car will automatically drive him to his destination!.

Virtual reality is also currently being tested in a big way. Although still in its infancy, virtually reality research has made great headway. With sophisticated electronic gadgetry, virtual reality machines can make an experience frightfully real. Using a powerful computer and microsensors, a person can simulate reality and experience flying a jet fighter, swimming beneath the ocean among fish or any other experiences the system has been programmed to simulate. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States have used this technology successfully to train its astronauts.

Now, let us a take a look closer to home. The urban children of today know not the simple joys of flying kites or shooting marbles. They get their fun out of computer and video games. In a way, it is a great advantage that children are being exposed to computers at an early age because they will definitely have to use them later as almost all schools now use computers and interactive teaching aids in teaching some difficult lessons.

Today, more than half of all the homes have a personal computer. People use the computer for personal budgeting, to calculate taxes, to surf the web or just to write a simple letter. Some home owners also have a dial-up connection with their workstations at work. Computer networking has made it possible to send and receive from one remote system to another. Therefore, these people can log on to their computers at work from their own homes if the need arises.

In conclusion, with all the rapid advancements in computer technology, it is quite safe to say that in the future there will be few occupations which do not employ computers in one way or another.