A Brief History of the Internet (1999) | Hacker News Reader

A Brief History of the Internet (1999)

arxiv.org

If you are interested in the early history of the Internet, and would like a lot more detail than provided by this paper, I cannot recommend the following book enough: "Where Wizards Stay Up Late - The Origins Of The Internet": http://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up-Late/dp/06848326...

This is the first time I've seen someone else on here reference/recommend this title. I quite enjoyed it, as well. (My copy ended up water damaged and I can't refer to it right now, but from memory...)

...and Al Gore???

Guderian insisted in 1933, within the high command, that every tank in the German armoured force must be equipped with radio- and visual equipment in order to enable each tank commander to communicate and perform a decisive role in blitzkrieg.

Guderian Kenngruppenheft, Funk in jedem Panzer -> Hut 6 -> SAGE -> SRI - > Cerf "inspiration" --> Edward Bernays.

Without getting into what Al Gore may have said or meant, let me quote the following lovely little tidbit from Paul Ginsparg (who created arxiv.org). It's about physicist Ken Wilson, but Al Gore and Newt Gingrich make a fascinating appearance:

"He [Wilson] was on the NSF taskforce that pushed for the implementation of the early NSFNet, and I was told by George Strawn (one of the people on the NSF side shepherding the process) that Ken was the key person who argued for using the TCP/IP (i.e., internet) protocol, rather than the DECnet protocol favored by many of the other physicists, and we know where that has led… (George also told me that the absolutely essential people who moved the NSFNet through the senate and house, respectively, were … Al Gore, Jr and Newt Gingrich)"

http://quantumfrontiers.com/2013/06/18/we-are-all-wilsonians...

BS. There is almost no conceptual difference between the two below, which would allow for any substantial credit in terms of innovation for the people you are mentioning.

http://www.ilord.com/images/enigma-in-use-3-600px.jpg http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm//wp-content/uploads/201...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Kenngrup... https://awarmanf.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/us-4.png

Concept of datagrams, encapsulation, Radio Identifiers (~ MAC/IP address) etc.: http://operationturing.tumblr.com/Enigma

care to elaborate what was Cerf's & Co. crucial distinguishing insight?

Now I just need someone to explain the history of subnets. Never worked out how they ended up as they are.

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