Monday, November 7, 2011

Response to Article: The World-Wide Web

     So many times it seems that we take the world wide web for granted. We don't appreciate or are not aware of the way that it works. This article wne through the motions of how the "web" works for us. It seems that pages appear effortlessly to us but the web is actually actually from independent sources.
     I'd like to bring up a few points here 1)URI Syntax, 2)Hypertext Protocol and 3) the increase in the amount of servers. I would also like to mention my first time jumping onto the web.
     I learned something new tonight. Everyone has seen the symbols ? and / in the URL. However, they actually mean something. The / represents a hierarchical space. For example www.watsonvillehighreunion.com/reunions. Two pages. The ? is a space between a address and a query. I had always thought that most charecters were "thrown" in there as chop suey, so to speak. There is really a method to the madness.
    The hyper transfer protocol was the most interesting part of the article for me. It is interesting that our computers basically let a server know what type of formats that can be used and then sends the requested information. I thought this to be amazing.
   Thirdly, the comment on how many internet servers were registered at the beginning to what it is at the time of publication is staggering. 62 in 1993. 829 in 2002(I saw this date on the reference page).
    Reading this article brought back memories to me. I can remember getting my first computer. I was so excited when it arrived from Gateway. I remember plugging it in and then learning how the damn thing worked. It was about a week before I figured out how to jump on the internet. It was a brand new world, once I was on.
    

3 comments:

  1. Reading about your memories of getting your first computer brought back my memories to me. Our first computer was a Commodore 64, and we were so proud of that machine and all it could do, although it was frustratingly slow. Another memory I have is around 1996 when I went to a friend’s house to learn about grant-writing, and she moved so quickly from one site to another and I was too embarrassed to tell her I didn’t even know what the Internet or how to get on it, much less navigate on it. I wrote a lot of notes that day that made absolutely no sense to me! Another not so good memory is that, although we had upgraded to a different computer by 2000, it would freeze over and over again part way through the online submission of FAFSA and then we’d have to start all over again. And again. And yet again. It would take us endless hours and frustration to submit the FAFSA.

    When I look back at all I didn’t know, and now all I can do using the computer and Internet, I’m amazed.

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  2. It was such a departure for all of us Lee. Thanks for posting the comments.

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  3. I agree, I also believe that we all take the World Wide Web for granted at times. The convenience that it provides to societies across the world and the complex way it operates deserves much appreciations and recognition. I truly believe that the internet is the most important invention developed since perhaps the automobile since, perhaps, the automobile. I also thought that the hyper transfer protocol was the most interesting part of the article for me. As I mentioned in my response to this article, HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. There is a lot to learn in regards to HTTP. It is quite fascinating; however, this is coming from an engineer major lol. Thanks for your post Wildcat.

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