Internet and ME, MYSELF AND I!

There are so many concepts that struck me about the our discussion in class about the "web", the "Internet but what really got me.. umm should I say worried? is the effect of the evolving web to our generations, to MY generation. Some people they call this generation THE Me, Me, Me, I, I, I Generation. Number one proof of the self-absorption you can see them through the different social networking sites. People update their status all about themselves, what i ate for lunch, where am I hanging out now, what I'm feeling now.. blah, blah, blah! Looking at the bigger picture here.. I've realized (with the help of some people that  I converse with regarding these things and more)   that people they are so full of themselves that they fail to see the real reason why and what the Internet is for. It is for people to communicate easier but not to use it as a tool each other's reputations, It is for people to access information to the help the society evolve and explore more possibilities but not to lose capability to think creatively and limit ourselves.  Instead of using the net as a tool to extend ourselves to other people, to help them, to change and to evolve with technology we are getting stuck in the I concept not with what I can do for other people. I guess what I'm trying to say is we should rethink how are we utilizing what we have now such as the Internet and how we want to affect the bigger things out there aside from ourselves.

-Jalyssa May Caccam

CHRISTMAS in the New Media Generation

Merry Christmas everyone!
:)

If I Controlled The Internet

The Internet's Sewage System

Online forums and communities contain the most vile, disgusting and ridiculous content thinkable. The following link will lead you to Something Awful's Weekend Web. Something Awful is a fantastic gag site and their Weekend Web section is devoted to showing the worst of online forums and communities. If you lose hope in humanity after clicking this link, I am deeply sorry. Warning: the following content may not be work friendly. I also advise that you check the articles written by Hassan "Acetone" Mikal. They're way funnier.

-Wack

We All Want To Be Young

We All Want to Be Young from box1824 on Vimeo.

Here's the video I want to share to the class. We are so badass! :)

The movie "We All Want to Be Young" is the outcome of several studies developed by BOX1824 in the past 5 years. BOX1824 is a Brazilian research company specialized in behavioral sciences and consumer trends.
This movie has an open license by Creative Commons.
Written and directed by Lena Maciel, Lucas Liedke and Rony Rodrigues.
Thanks:
Zeppelin Films

The Internet is Very Very Stupid

Cotton candy.

Cotton Candy. A piece of enticing sugar momentarily satisfying your tongue but never really giving you the nutritional values you need.

This is what has been running through my head as I read Text Without Context by Michiko Kakutani in his New York Times article. (I was listening to Katy Perry too) I constantly nod in agreement to almost every point he makes. I grin as I read situations where I myself usually get into. Indeed reading his article made me think. He makes so much sense, I thought. But somehow I don’t feel the same kind of gloom he has for Web 2.0, I feel some kind of bother-it ignited a rebellious spark inside me.

Mediocrity is the enemy. According to the article, the ideas and information we get nowadays from the Internet are said to be second-rate, mediocre or lackluster-no formal and depth research about a particular subject matter. It can be written by anyone; any first-hand information we find online. It can be so convincing that we deem it to be true. This happens to us all the time. The article says we have jeopardized online information. We have “pasted-together” inferior quality content that we, Internet users, feast upon today thinking that these are what matters-- the essential information.

It reiterated the "instant" (snap snap!) mentality of the 21st century. Sacrificing the content of the carefully and intellectually written works for the speedy up-do-date substandard offers the Internet gives us.

Everything moves at a blistering phase nowadays. Not so long ago, we wait for the television to give us the news; today, at the very instant, we get the information we want thanks to social-networking sites like Twitter. I myself do not watch that much television anymore. I get all I know from the Internet. There was this one time when I turned on the TV and all that I saw was what the internet told me days earlier. I already know these things I thought.

The article also mentions that in the world of WRU, ROTFLMAO, LOLJK andWTFs, there is less and less civil discourse going on. There are no intellectual discussions about the things that really matter. What we have now is a culture of chat rooms, anonymous chatting sites and online groups discussing common and sometimes conflicting interests from people of different ages around the world. We have discussion threads that enable different opinions and various sides to be heard. We not only have third opinion but fourth, fifth, six and so on. Now let me ask, where’s the "less civil discourse" in that? It got me thinking, what do we call these discourse we have online nowadays, a barbaric one?

Freedom and Power. If by sitting on that chair hitting those letters on the laptop creating input for the Internet doesn’t make you powerful, then think again. I think these advantages are what an Internet newbie underestimate. An undying quote that we hear over and over (and over) says that with "great power comes with great responsibility." I think this should be applied to the Internet.

If not for the users (you and me) of the Internet and World Wide Web, these tools would be nothing. We are the power behind the Internet. It should not be the other way around. If we let over sensationalism, gutter press, and cotton candy mechanism run over the Internet, then we are in deep trouble.

I think the Intellectual Elite would fear the Internet for one very essential factor: the Internet is an equalizer. It is an equal playing ground for anyone with access to it.

Everyone has a chance to participate.

Everyone has a chance to share.

Everyone in the world.

We must make use of this advantage. To inspire people. To let people get into working.

This is one great challenge for the established people above the constructed hierarchy of the social world. It is theirs to ponder, How will we get into this pseudo-world that kids dwell most of their time upon these days? I think they are asking the wrong question right there. I think the appropriate query should be: How can these brilliant people bring back the true essence of the Internet? The Internet—--significant ideas shared among people that matter, you and me. Sharing ideas and information among peers. Making these ideas interact with other ideas and form offspring, which is another ideas.

The youth must be alerted! The youth of today has so much potential in bringing the Internet and the World Wide Web into good use. What we need is Internet education— that can lead the proper use of it. The image below shows you the State of the Internet. Take note how the youth takes over the Internet!

What the article lack is the answer to the posed problems in the Internet and Web 2.0. It presented a dark and pessimistic perspective of the Internet (and of its users, in effect). I see the answer to this sad reality is in theyouth and the users of Internet themselves. But I think the youth has more potential since they compose the majority of the Internet nation.

As a teenager myself, I see a lack of awareness of the possibilities I can do. I would confine myself to the comforts of the social networking terrain of the Internet. A usual line-up would compose of unlimited checking of Facebook updates, sending and responding to funny quotations and tweets in twitter and browsing through endless Tumblr posts. I’m quite sure I’m not the only one in the world having the same Internet habit. In behalf of these people, I say what we need is a real-time smack in the head—that light bulb moment when we say, “Wow! That hit me”. I think the youth have some real reality check WebPages to check out. And it is never to late.

“…what the Web 2.0 revolution is really delivering is superficial observations of the world around us rather than deep analysis, shrill opinion rather than considered judgment.” –Andrew Keen,“The Cult of the Amateur”

Yes. They may be superficial but they are still observations. By superficial I think Mr. Keen refers to it as shallow and cursory observations. I say, “at least these people voice out what they think”. The generation we have now is one that speaks out—even the shy and meek and the unsocial. I take pride to be part of this generation. The Internet is indeed the Great Leveler.

We should not discriminate the opinions of people neither do we have the right to do so. The Internet is not just limited to the intellectual elite but it is also for the many who are just getting started and those who lack general awareness. Tim Burners Lee gave the World Wide Web for free. He didn’t come up with a manual saying it was only for the learned and the affluent. It was for everyone who has an Internet connection—which by today is increasing everyday.

What Web 2.0 needs is a reality check on the information they get and send off. We must not condemn this new age Web 2.0 but rather improve it. Let's remind ourselves that we do not need to burn the house to roast the pig. The answer to this "Internet content quality" decline is that we should get smarter. We should outwit these kinds of content.

We are smarter than we think we are.

We have to be reminded that they are in a wide social circle and what we put up online contributes to this mass social circle. We must be constantly reminded that the Internet is not Neverland. We are not free from responsibility in the online world. Produsers have to be instilled the responsibility. Once this happens, then we are on the right track my friend.

We have to be instilled the feeling that we are indeed significant in this large arena of the web. Some people might think, “Hey I’m anonymous, I can do whatever I want and get away with it”. These kinds of people must be reminded of their responsibility. And what if they don’t listen? Well we’ll just have to wait for it until they do. With enough motivation and persuasion, it can happen. We can start off by ourselves. Spread the word around.

Responsibility. Spread awareness about the consequences of irresponsibility in the use of Internet. The youth has so much potential in them. We just have to instill in them this potential. They need to get inspired. Deep analysis and considered judgment must have its prerequisites too you know. Where else but from superficial observations and shrill opinion. Let the "cult of the amateur" mature and you’ll be enthralled by the wonder it brings.

This Internet we have. It’s not all cotton candy after all.

The World Wide Web isn’t a utopian world. We must accept that fact.

But I guess that’s just the way the world let’s us battle away the evils of complacency.

FOR THE FULL TEXT WITH PHOTOS,

You can access my webpage at: http://marjisthinking.freewebpages.org/sample7%201.html

So What

*Anyareh?
Definition: One of the more popular expressions used by young Filipinos to express shock and disbelief with a certain situation or a specific thing/idea; shorter version of "Anong nangyari?"; usually expressed with sarcasm

"Pinas, anyareh!?" 
Funny how things turned out for our country over the past decade. And by funny I mean it in a "it's-not-actually-funny-but-what-the-hell-are-we-doing-about-it" tone. Being branded as a nation with a bright future ahead of us back in the 90s was definitely something very promising for us - and not to mention one of the many things we can just brag to anyone in any part of the globe. But... what happened? Why did we just let that chance at development slip away?

I have so much hope for our country - no doubt about that. And seeing it miss the opportunity it was given to improve and prosper at a time when we were a cut above the rest just makes me feel pity for the present generation of Filipinos. We could've done so much if it weren't for the selfish ways of some and the "blah-mentality" of the many. We could've developed and improved every aspect of our lives - from economy to technological advancements to even health and education. We could've produced more Filipinos worthy of recognition here and overseas. We could've simply done more and we could've been a better country... Something more than what we already are today.
There are, obviously, a number of countries ahead of us. Case in point, Japan. Which, surprisingly, was way behind our standards years back. But, it doesn't mean we'd stop where we are.
There is absolutely no point in complaining and dwelling over missed chances - like how that buzzer-beater shot just didn't get in the basket. Because at the end of the day, what matters is now and what tomorrow holds for each and everyone of us.
With all optimistic vibes I can produce, I dare say to everyone that, screw seemingly underdeveloped technologies and internet connections. Screw whatever other countries may say and regard the Philippines as a Third World country. So what. Every successful nation started with such crude ways of living... It's never really too late. The past decade may have been a waste, so let's not add another to our list. I am very hopeful, indeed. That belief that we know way better and that we all our ready to embrace change and radical development (especially virtually) is enough to believe tomorrow will be brighter.

And 10 to 20 years from now, when I say "Pinas, anyareh!?" ... I'd have that smile on my face like Manny Pacquiao won his 50th title.


-Jara Lucero

Philippines and the Web

The state of the Internet and its suppressed growth in the country is no unique story.

After learning that the Philippines had one of the greatest potentials of Internet growth in the continent, even ahead of Japan, it's not a surprise that it never optimized its growth. The snail-slow growth in recent times is just a repercussion of a complacent political culture that we have.

Tracing the roots, internet is a product of science and technology. If the country doesn't have a strong base for the sciences, we cannot really develop a scientific culture, much less develop scientific and technological thinking, and much less connecting at least half of the population in the web. Although there are many science-oriented high schools that produces quite a big number of scientists in the country, our technological status as a nation remains stagnant as there are no further opportunities to explore after the tertiary level.

More than the scientific sense, is our views on education. It plays a domino effect. If our government does not prioritize education, we cannot develop much science and technology, and without science and technology, perhaps the internet won't bloom, too.

I'm not saying that the 'virtual revolution' is inexistent in the Philippines. It's just taking a very slow pace. After all, we can see our younger (I'm talking of 5-year olds) cousins having facebook accounts, and our parents (to our dismay) also having facebook accounts. The digital divide is going from black to gray. But facebook literacy is not internet literacy.

I am afraid that we are slowly developing a superficial internet culture. That our views of the net is just facebook, twitter, and the likes. Many do not think of the internet as a platform for the media and communication.

But after all, how many Filipinos are connected to the web? 20%? 30%? That's a small amount.

It's time for a radical virtual revolution!

The Filipino Resilience?

If you were asked to describe a Filipino, there's an 80% chance you'd say hospitable or resilient. For many people, those two adjectives best describe a Filipino. It is in our culture to be polite and accommodating as well as being strong and hopeful. We are the only country in Asia that ousted two presidents in two people power revolutions. Where else can you see a former president with so many controversies and allegations of corruption elected a seat in the congress? Ondoy and Pepeng destroyed a lot of properties and washed away many lives but Filipinos still remained hopeful and strong. They say that the way we put ourselves together after the greatest perils is the one trait that best describes a Filipino.

Are we truly a resilient nation or are we just a bunch of uncomplaining people? We just accept and tolerate everything that is happening around us. We let our leaders control and impose their ways on us. We always let the "smarter people" overpower the oppressed. A classic example of this is our government officials whom we judge as stupid , arrogant jerks for passing the 2011 budget. But what we don't see is that they are smart enough to make us believe that there are no cuts in the budget of SUCs by stating technical terms no one would dare question. These government officials are very smart that their corrupt and evil ways are not exposed.

I think we have been resilient for so long that we are not developing as a country. The Philippines is left behind by its neighboring countries like Korea, Japan and China. Technology-wise we are obsolete compared to Japan's advanced technology. It is just sad to think that we were once ahead of them. We can easily blame our leaders for this but we should also look at ourselves. What have we contributed to make a change? We can complain all we want, rally to the streets and demand for change but as the old saying goes, "be the change you want to see in the world." Being strong in face of adversity is an admirable characteristic but not all the time. In times like these, being resilient is not enough. It's time to be infuriated!

Online Media Literacy Program NOW!

PDI reporter fears for life over Tim Yap tweet

 - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

      This is the very reason why Philippines should have an online media literacy program. Too much democracy and power on the use of the web means less time to think critically- trying to grasp the freshest news even without confirmation, just to create a buzz online.

oh yeah, I'm Asian

There is no better hype machine than the war machine.

Not this one

The thought of impending doom and the loss of thousands of lives is a spooky thing but it's also very interesting. Cue the latest news from East Asia as "tensions mount" between North and South Korea. One side has a basketball obsessed dictator with nukes idly resting on his lap and the other has terrible music, women disguised as boy bands, and a people with a Hajj-esque mission to learn English from a 3rd World country. It's a battle between face-melting nuclear weaponry and cultural corruption. Verdict: stalemate.

What surprises me is how close we actually are to this action. Geographically we aren't as far to these at-horn nations as we perceive ourselves to be. We are culturally distant from our neighbors but the cold, hard fact is we're still Asian and we are "related" to Japan, Korea and Singapore as we are related to our weird second cousins. Even if we aren't that close, their achievements still tickle a sense of envy in us. Seeing then how our Asian neighbors have risen from the stereotypical notion that our continent produces nothing but rice-and-noodle loving degenerates begs the question: What happened to us? 

Just ten years ago we had faster Internet capabilities than Japan. Okay. Right now, a Japanese boy just downloaded a movie in a minute and a half while a Filipino dad is on the phone talking to a PLDT representative complaining about his intermittent 1Mbps connection.The gulf in available technology is vast- it's ridiculous but not incredible. Our country is plagued by so many problems that any dream of advancement is hampered and eventually brought to stagnation. I have no hope left for this place. Unless, of course, people would be willing to give up some of their freedom for the sake of the country (which will never happen because people are selfish and they believe that their freedom is a right).

What Martin Luther King Jr Said

At the end of this entry, you will know what Martin Luther King Jr. said. But as of now, you will get to know what I'll say.

I never knew that in fact, about 15 years ago, the Philippines once had the utmost potential in Internet technology. When this fact came to light last week during class, I want to cry over spilled milk. Sayang. Like a girl who thinks of The One Who Got Away, Thoughts of the what-could-have-beens raced through my head. Imagine if we have what Japan have now (with regards to Internet).

All those possibilities.

All those opportunities.

Snap back to reality! There's no use crying over spilled milk. Thinking of the what-could-have-beens without any action is rather useless now. I think if we think that we can still rise from our downfall. It's not like the end of the world for us. We can rise again. We just need to be back in the game. We can be like Japan before it became an internet roaring giant. Japan started slow. What difference is that to the "slowing" of the Philippines? I mean if we work on the technological developments here in the country, I would not be surprised if we would be really successful. Imagine watching the other countries talking about us and looking at us as if we were a resurrected Phoenix.

All hope is not lost! We still have the potential. I think we have more potential now that we ever had in the past. All we need is that tipping point in Internet development. I read about Japan's pitfalls. One is language barrier. Filipinos can work around that! I mean, we know English and the number of people using the Internet is growing.

It's never too late! I hope I get to witness this rise in my lifetime. Just like what Martin Luther King Jr. said, We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

The End Marks The Beginning Of Something (Better).

by Chryl Martinez

I was born on February 17, 1990. Unfortunately, I can’t find anything related to the internet on the exact date of my birth. But I did find a lot of interesting events that happened on the same month and year.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was tasked by the government to do research and improve on defense-related fields. One of the advancements made was the creation of an “intergalactic network of computers and people.” The ARPAnet started as a military experiment funded by the government. But later on its potential as a communication tool was recognized.
Then came a time when the ARPAnet can no longer cope up with fast-growing internet. ARPAnet users encountered several problems like difficulty to connect, expensive cost for set-up, unauthorized users, etc. So on February 1990, the ARPAnet was terminated. But the end of something marks the beginning of another thing. Although the ARPAnet has ended, it signified the beginning of the NSFnet.
Like radio, it can be said that the interconnectivity of computers also started from the military. The initial objective was to use the technology for defense, then for communication. Now, we call these technologies as mass media and we use it not only for communication but for entertainment as well. Come to think of it, at first only soldiers who has gone through rigid training can use these technologies but now almost everyone has access to the internet. Even children knows how to surf the net. Another thought, these technologies were made by the military to help them protect or defend what it is that they wanted to protect. But now it seems like it's the same technology that is becoming their enemy. It is because the internet can now be used to spy on the government and the military. It is like the internet has become a "tool
for transparency."

P.S.
Aside from the arrival of the NSFnet, I’ve also learned that Pegasus Mail “has been made available as a free service to the internet since February 1990.”
Adobe Photoshop 1.0 was also released on February 1990. This marked a history for the digital imaging world. We can see the immense influence of Adobe Photoshop through the processed digital images rampant on the internet.

References:
http://www.randomhistory.com/2009/01/12_internet.html
http://www.cybertelecom.org/notes/internet_history90s.htm
http://www.pmail.com/history.htm
http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/compsoft/soft1990.htm
http://photoshopnews.com/2008/02/19/most-important-date-in-digital-imaging-history/
http://www.answers.com/topic/adobe-photoshop#ixzz161nGfpoV

Me and the Dot-Com Bubble- April 1992.

            The birth of the Internet in the Philippines was on the year 1990- 1995. It was when the Philippine Network Foundation (PHNet), a consortium of private and government institutions, enabled the Filipinos to be connected live via a 64 kbps link to Sprint in the United States .I was lucky because I was born on the year 1992 where internet began to become a popular medium for communication.

When I was googling for my assignment, I was confident that researching for an internet related activity that happened on the same month and year of my birthdate was easy. And yes, I was right. Even though my birth date was not remarkable in the history, some worldwide events had happened such as the biggest concert of Ferry Mercury in London where 80 000 people had attended and the celebration of Adolf Hitler’s birthday. (Yes, we have the same birthday!).

As I continued to research for an internet-related event that happened on the 20^th day of April 1992, I found out that this date was the birth of the Dot-com bubble. I was clueless about it that’s why I made further research about what this dot-com bubble is. According to google, Dot-com bubble was an internet-based company that did most of its business on the Internet. Its type of bussiness model relied on harnessing network effects by operating at a sustained net loss to build market share . These companies offered their services or end product for free with the expectation that they could build enough brand awareness to charge profitable rates for their services. 

Some of the companies involved in the dot-com bubbles were: Boo.com- a British Internet company that was launched in the Autumn of 1999 selling branded fashion apparel over the Internet, Free Internet. Com which was a Free Internet Provider, GeoCities which was purchased by Yahoo! for $3.57 billion, Hotmail, The Learning Company, Info Space, and many more

This business, though didn’t last until the year 2000 was still influential because it gave rise to the idea of using internet not only for the purpose of communication but for the purpose of business and globalization.  

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freei

http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/ahitler.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boo.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startups.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Freddie_Mercury_Tribute_Concert 

By: Kathleen Joy Gabaon

 

May 17, 1993: Intel® Corporation released its new Pentium® Processor.

Well that explains it, then.


I've never really figured myself to be someone inclined to technology. When I was a kid all I did was play with my toys and with some kid-neighbors. I even remember often playing that stupid chinese garter game. -_-'


I am pretty aware that I am the oldest student in the class. Come on, that's downplaying it. I may even be the oldest student in our batch for heaven's sake. But that's not stopping me to fit in. Ha, not at all.


IMO my generation straddled the line between being the old, traditional lifestyle of the "analog" age, with which term I used only to contrast with the digital age being the other side of the line my generation sat on. When we discussed about the digital natives and the digital settlers, I was at the end of my wits figuring out where I even belong.

I like to think that I was born amidst the boom of computing, computer gaming and the peak of the internet "revolution", but as it turns out it was then that I was growing up. I was able to use every computer processing technology from Intel's Pentium® Processor--which, strangely enough, was introduced on my 4th birthday, May 17, 1993--up to the most current Intel Core i-series. I was able to play game consoles from Atari to the FamiCom to the Playstation One, Two and Three. I saw black and white Televisions, we had CRT Monitors and TV's when I was growing up. I think we also had a plasma TV once and now, of course, LCD/LED TV's and monitors. I was fascinated for a few months how analog wristwatches worked but when my dad introduced me a digital Casio watch that has a cool blue backlight, I never reverted back to analog watches until I was in high school.


Well, I know most of us probably went through similar accounts, but I just feel that I did savor everything these tech products have to offer at the time and, thus, might have been the reason why I'm a techie nerd like me.


I'm also a music person. When I was young I got to listen to songs that my auntie like. So those were Eraserheads songs, Oasis, and that bit of stuff. Although I didn't really get into music when I was young (I was a J-pop fanboy in my early highschool years) I did like listening to them when they're being played, even to the point of me associating different songs to different points in my life. Yeah, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" reminds me of the day my dad introduced a certain computer game. Now looking at a site about my birthday here, there were a number of songs and singles released on May 17, none of which I recognize but most of which I think became hits. I assume as much because, well frankly I think of myself as a hit. HAHA.


My mother used to tell me stories about how catastrophic the Earth was when I was growing; I was a baby in need of looking after when the Pinatubo erupted years ago, and actually, closer to home, when I was born--I think it was around about 4pm on May 17th, 1989, there was a really really aggressive storm, according to my parents. My dad had to rush from Canlubang to Makati in heavy rain when my mom was on labor with me.

Looking up in the same website, there were a total of five nuclear tests in three different years in Texas and Colorado on May 17. On the same day in 1940, Germany began invading France. on 1976, an earthquake in Uzbekistan killed at least a thousand. Well, there's a fair number of tragedies during the May 17's on different years. Could it be that I'm a disaster myself?...


...NOT A CHANCE!

Jb Aquino

the "beatbreaker"

P.S. for commenting, we should use our own accounts or something, right? That'll be mine.

We Don't Have It Easy (An Unsmooth Segue)

I squirm and swear under my breath whenever older people tell us that we have it easy. It may be true that we can access all the information we may need by a single mouse click but the laws of life will never make anything easier (not forever, at least). The fact is when you can produce something faster and easier, you're expected to produce more. In our case, it's "work". 

My parents would tell me that there was once a time when googling was unheard of and libraries were still the first choice source for info. They failed to tell me how the situation was back then though: the ratio of students to in-demand books, how detailed their reports had to be and what else they had to do at the same time. Googling is a double-edged sword. You can find information faster but you'll be expected to have more information or find out more information about other things. We now have to do so much stuff at the same time, the oldies had to coin the term "multi-tasking" to keep up. It seems that old expressions such as "nagsusunog ng kilay" and "hitting the books" can't accurately describe the modern student anymore. 

Think about it. We know so much stuff that our parents haven't even heard of even if those things existed before and during their time as students. Man. The modern search engine plays an important part in this phenomenon. In September of 1990, the first search engine, Archie (a play on the word archive) was born. It didn't have the indexing capability that we enjoy with our current search engines. You had to know the exact file name to access the document. Unbelievable, I know. 

All this technology available and the Internet is amazing but we really shouldn't be surprised anymore. Heck, Mark Twain conceptualized the Internet in 1898, the year of our independence from Spain. With every astonishing achievement in technology comes a challenge to maximize our output and that's something that will go on until the world ends via zombie apocalypse.

I'm ready for that too.

                                                                                                                     Wacky Torres

Delayed Gratification

January is the most beautiful month in calendar for it marks the start of another year. It symbolizes another opportunity to make life even better. The same goes for the year 1990 which marked the beginning of a wonderful decade of Metallica, boy bands, Spice girls, Leonardo de Caprio and etc. Combining January and 1990 together, the month and year I was born, should be one of the greatest moment in time. Or so I thought?

As I was google-ing for amazing events, cool inventions and personalities born on January 1990, I was expecting to see A-list celebrities to have the same birthday as me, mind blowing inventions of man and unforgettable events in history but Google failed to meet my expectations. I found insignificant results leaving my ego crushed and disappointed. I’ve always thought that the day I entered this earth was something so special that the world celebrated with my parents by having grandeur events and stupefying inventions commemorating my existence. Was that too much imagination? I guess the world postponed everything the day I was born because my mere nativity was way too special to handle. Kidding!

In all actually, I was just trying to comfort myself with the fact that almost all great digital and internet inventions were released in 1991. However, Tim-Lee Berners was still on the process of perfecting the HTML on January 1990. Even though, the internet and digital world were on hiatus on my birth month something remarkable did happen too.

In January 1990, a man named Andrew Cushman rejoined Microsoft Corporation. His contributions to Microsoft allowed us to enjoy the internet to what it is today. He acquired his bachelor’s degree in international studies at the University of Washington and a master’s degree in international business in Seattle University. Andrew Cushman held positions in various Microsoft teams such as Microsoft Money Team, Microsoft International Product Group and most importantly, the Internet Information Services (IIS) team. He spearheaded the development of the IIS 6.0 in the Windows Server 2003. The IIS is a web server application that enables a computer to host and manage a website and other internet contents. It also provides WWW publishing services, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) and Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) services. It also has a feature called Modules which allow the server to process requests. This IIS of Microsoft is one of the top web server applications used by many internet websites. At present, an IIS version 7.5 is already available. Features such as Client Certificate Mapping, IP Security, Request Filtering, URL Authorization are added in the IIS 7.5. Cushman is also the Senior Director of Strategy in the Trustworthy Computing Group of Microsoft where he strives for a safer and more trusted Internet. He is also part of the Industry Consortium for the Advancement of Security on the Internet (ICASI), a non-profit forum of collaborating IT vendors that battles internet security threats for a better and protected IT infrastructures. Andrew Cushman represents Microsoft and he shares his knowledge of IT in ICASI for the improvement of security response programs and in minimizing security threats in the internet.

Andrew Cushman’s contributions to the internet are truly remarkable and significant. We must be thankful that on January 1990, he decided to rejoin Microsoft Corporation because he has done so much in improving internet features. We can say that if it was not for him, the security of the internet would not have been this rigorous. We would not be able to enjoy the websites that we religiously visit. Nothing great may have been released on that day but that job opening led to something unexpectedly good.

Sources :

http://www.icasi.org/?q=node/11

http://www.icasi.org/aboutus

http://www.iis.net/team

Remember, remember the 6th of August

Tim Berners-Lee
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ,2000. 
Photo: Ed Quinn / Corbis

 

On August 6, 1991, the world witnessed the introduction and launch of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee. On this day, Berners-Lee posted the “first web pages summarizing his World Wide Web project, a method of storing knowledge using hypertext documents”. His post was put up on a certain alt.hypertext discussion group where other people were given the chance to download and work around with it. Remarkably, the idea of creating a “world wide web” started in 1980 when Berners-Lee began his project called the Enquire (basically the forerunner of the Web)  when he was still working at CERN.   

I found it rather amusing when I discovered that on the month I was born, something life-altering was brought out to the world. I bet back then, harvesting your strawberries or checking up on updates of celebrities wasn’t much of a big deal, neither was looking at the latest video with a million hits over night. Things were far different from what they are today, where it seems as if people have been absorbed to the cyber world – captivated and under the control of these things (or websites for this case), pretty much how drugs work (Why not make the internet illegal as well? But that’s obviously out of the question).

World Wide Web by ~art-exp
(DeviantArt)

As I read more articles regarding Berners-Lee and his “World Wide Web”, I slowly realize how things have rapidly changed through the years. Funny how my brain wasn’t even filled with any information back then but someone has already come up with something brilliant - the idea of linking people together. The World Wide Web we know today, though quite “new” as compared to other revolutionary inventions, has developed and improved greatly over a short span of time. From simpler web pages with more complicated and lengthy HTML codes, we now have more sophisticated pages with unfussy and unproblematic codes that practically anyone can master and create. Aside from rapid development, in a matter of years, the web has influenced a great number of people, if not almost everyone in the world, offering different things that cater to whatever need man can think of. We communicate and entertain ourselves using the web and the internet, and not to mention, we also gather a large amount of the information we use from them.

Ever since I exposed myself to this technological advancement, I couldn’t quite grasp what it would be like without it – how would the world be without the web? This modern innovation has made the world smaller in all aspects and has linked and connected people in different ways. I could never be more thankful for a Tim Berners-Lee who has made things more accessible and easy for the rest of us. However, I still strongly believe that we must never be slaves of what we create because, in the end, we still should take responsibility over our lives. These things we create, like the web, are meant to ease daily activities, not completely consume our time and effort for worthless doings. It’s not all about the strawberries you get, or the number of retweets and hits you receive in hours, nor is it about the image you project to everyone in your profile to catch the attention of someone. Tim Berners-Lee had an exceptional idea of connecting everyone on the phase of the planet so why waste it on just these when we can optimize the use of this commodity for further development and progress.

Posted by

 Jara Lucero

Sources:

"Internet History Timeline." History Timelines. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. <http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/events-timelines/11-internet-history-timeline.htm>.

Long, By Tony. "Aug. 7, 1991: Ladies and Gentlemen, the World Wide Web." Wired News. 7 Aug. 2007. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. <http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/08/dayintech_0807>.

Quittner, By Joshua. "TIME 100: Tim Berners-Lee." Time Inc. Portal. 29 Mar. 1999. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. <http://205.188.238.109/time/time100/scientist/profile/bernerslee.html>.

Ward, By Mark. "BBC NEWS | Technology | How the Web Went World Wide." BBC News - Home. 3 Aug. 2006. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5242252.stm>.

Tim Berners-Lee photo by Ed Quinn/Corbi. 2000. <http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/08/dayintech_0807#ixzz15sTWyt1U>

World Wide Web in Traditional Art/Drawings/Unsorted by ~art-exp in DeviantArt, copyright 2002-2010 <http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=world%20wide%20web&order=9&offset=48#/dfln5>