world wide web

CERN and its Brilliant Minds

10. June 2019 Tabea Tietz

On June 10, 1955, the laying of the foundation stone of the European Organization for Nuclear Research Laboratory (CERN) was performed by Felix Bloch, the organization‘s first President. Since 1955, numerous essential experiments were executed, leading to significant contributions in the world of physics and to our daily lives. Physics Research in Europe The name CERN is originally derived from the French acronym ‘Conceil Europeén pour la Recherche Nucléaire’. In 1952, a…

computer science

Don’t Be Evil – The Birth of Google

27. September 2018 Harald Sack

On September 27, 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google and began their work in the garage of businesswoman Susan Wojcicki. Up to this day, the company has become one of the most powerful in the field of search, cloud computing, productivity software, and advertising, running more than one million servers world wide. “I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. Since no one else is crazy…

computer science

Ted Nelson and the Xanadu Hypertext System

17. June 2018 Tabea Tietz

On June 17, 1937, American pioneer of information technology, philosopher, and sociologist Theodore Holm “Ted” Nelson was born. Nelson coined the terms hypertext and hypermedia in 1963 and published them in 1965. Nelson founded Project Xanadu in 1960, with the goal of creating a computer network with a simple user interface, a predecessor of modern World Wide Web. “HTML is precisely what we were trying to PREVENT— ever-breaking links, links going outward only,…

communication

Tim Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web

8. June 2018 Tabea Tietz

Tim Berners-Lee should know what he is talking about, when he says ‘Celebrity damages private life’. The person who is considered to be the inventor of the World Wide Web was on June 8, 1955. “I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and — ta-da!— the World Wide Web.” Tim Berners-Lee, Answers for Young People Joining Hypertext and the Internet Everything started with…

history

How Mosaic has Changed the World

22. April 2018 Harald Sack

On April 22, 1993, version 1.0 of NCSA Mosaic, or simply Mosaic, was released, the web browser credited with popularizing the World Wide Web. It was the first Web browser as we know today with a graphical user interface enabling an interactive easy to use browsing experience. And without graphics the Web as we know it today would not exist. NCSA Mosaic was the web browser that led to the Internet boom…

communication

The Publication of the First RFC

7. April 2018 Harald Sack

On April 7, 1969, Steve Crocker of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), published the first Request for Comment – RFC 1 – entitled “Host Software”. This might be considered as the beginning of the internet, because Request for Comments (RFC) are memoranda describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems. Originally, Steve Crocker’s RFCs were intended to help record unofficial notes on the…

computer science

Vannevar Bush and his Vision of the Memex Memory Extender

11. March 2018 Harald Sack

On March 11, 1890, American engineer, inventor and science administrator Vannevar Bush was born. He is best known as as head of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) during World War II, through which almost all wartime military research and development was carried out, including initiation of the Manhattan Project. In computer science we know Vannevar Bush as the father of the Memex, an adjustable microfilm viewer with a…