The Internet

[easyasit]

Hi all

I am going to pose another one of those questions again, another debate. But a friendly one.

We all know the power of the interent, i think also there are few ppl alive today who in some way shape or form have not come into contact with it.
We email through it, we surf, shop, etc etc.

But how would you define the internet. If someone, an alien with perfect english asked you what the internet was, how would you describe it.

for me the internet is repidly becoming another world, an encyclopedia of enyclopedia.
Wen i was at university, 10 years ago now this was barely thought of. now look at it.

what do u guys think the internet is?

Al

[Jayne]

Message to the aliens..lol

We are from Earth, we live on this thing called the internet. The only time we leave is to eat food and drink beer. :D

Jayne

[Jayne]

Right serious answer, promise :D

The internet is like living in a Library with lots of people to chat to while you read. You can use it for pleasure, business and to talk to people many miles away. It's freedom in a box.

Jayne :D

[DuaneJackson]

Sorry, I'm going to be really pedantic now : )

The internet is a network of computers communicating using shared protocols. Not much more.

The encyclopedia you mention would actually be the web, newsgroups etc which are entities in their own right that run on the internet.

And 10 years ago it was very much alive and kicking.

Right, pedantry aside. It is bloody amazing how far it has all come over the past 10 years. I cancertainly relate the the feeling that it is it's own little world.

Ever read any William Gibson or Neal Stephenson?

[Jayne]

It is a little world Duane, I moved here at the beginning of last year and don't think i've moved yet :lol:

Jayne

[Hedgehog Toys]

Ermmmmmmmmm...what's the internet.......??? :roll:

[DuaneJackson]

It is a little world Duane, I moved her at the beginning of last year and don't think i've moved yet :lol:


I stared at that sentence for 3 whole minutes trying to work out what you meant before I worked out there was a missing E in "here". *doh*

I think I better go to bed!

[Jayne]

lol..me too, missing bits off now, been up since 6am, getting sleepy :lol:

Jayne

[DuaneJackson]

lol..me too

but it was you that WROTE the sentence! Go to bed now - that's an order!

[Jayne]

10 more mins Dad, please :D

Jayne

[Cornish Steve]

The Internet provides the means for people in different places, times, and cultures to interact with one another and with an increasing body of accumulated knowledge. In that sense, it is shattering distances more effectively than the airplane ever has. It's the closest thing we have to "beam me up, Scottie."

[easyasit]

i think thr amazing thing here is in contrast to howe it was 10 years ago, and mine is prob the last generaton that will prob rember.

To chat to someone is realtime, even if they are on the other side of the world.

Having as live webcam conference.

Emailing as opposed to writing to someone. for not even the price of a stamp, and the deliver is now, not tomorrow, or next week.

Sending files to someone need only take minutes, not days, or even weeks. Plus it is cheaper too. The cost of ur isp connection.
with business's, shops, an overal highstreet now available at the touch of a button or a click of the mouse.
This new era has arrived. All you need now is at ur finger tips.

With ppls knowledge, and expertise being barted for or sold via email or site. This for sure makes the internet the encyclopedia of encyclopedias.

not just the internet but computers as well. now look at the encyclopedia britannica u bought ur kids, is it in the 20 or so volumes it comes in, or on two CDs?
The A-Z, same question
The phone book, now online lol

The bookshelf, replaced by ebooks.
open and search for what u want at the click of a button!

in fact here is an experiemtn for you, see how long u can survive at home, without going out?
There is no need anymore.

The world is being shaped by the internet.

Need i say more?

Al

[Cornish Steve]

in fact here is an experiemtn for you, see how long u can survive at home, without going out?
There is no need anymore.
And herein lies the biggest danger. As we form dynamic new communities that transcend national borders, we no longer know our neighbours.

[webit]

The internet is a means of communication, nothing more. From ARPANET to using ascii terminals over fax modems to hook to the Compuserve BBS (when I first stated using it) to the pressent day.

I most cases it aint going to change your world or your business, just allow you to to tell more people about it and sell stuff.

Good book - 'Weaving the Web' by Berners-Lee.

I do find it hard to be without, I resort to GRPS on my mobile for Email or WiFi/Blutooth browsing on my PDA when away from a PC.

[Pebble Communications]

It's such a major part of my life now it is easy to forget that it hasn't always been there. It forms an essential business resource for me. I'd say 90% of my customers come to me via the internet in one way or another. I use it for research. I distribute a lot of my work via e-mail.

My business would not work at all without the internet. In fact, I have a hard time imagining HOW I could do all these things in other ways but of course businesses did and many still do.

I meet up with 3 other people in the same line of business now and then and we were amazed last time when we found that the two who set up within the last few years were very reliant on the net, and the other two (established a very long time) did not even have a website. Astonishment all round. We could not imagine how they function without one, and they could not imagine what we use one for. So we shouldn't assume that all businesses are using this resource.

There are also many individuals, and communities, who are either afraid of the technology or have no understanding of its benefits and have decided not to get involved. Very frustrating when you have to deal with them. I've given up trying to convince people to give it a try as I think that if you are not involved by now, you never will be.

[Enigma121]

To use the clinical definition, the Internet is a diverse collection of computer networks linked together to form a global interconnection between computing machines.

The Internet works because those machines use a common set of protocols to communicate (the TCP/IP based suite).

Oh yeah and it's existance is changing the way that the world works... (due to the major social impact of the existance of such a "construct").

[Richard Conyard]

I'm glad I'm not the only one to get wound up by people spouting off with no idea what they are on about.

I must admit one of the words that winds me up is Interweb, it's b****ks. Every time I hear some such supposed expert say the word I want to hit them around the head with one of my network books until through some form of knowledge osmosis they state the seven layers of OSI/ISO how they cross over to TCP/IP and can list out the bit and octet structures of a TCP packet including header and footers.

[Tazuk]

Or as they say in Bolton, Tinternet.

[easyasit]

i think thereis much truth in what fiona says there

Business's do reply so heavily on the interent these days. for example

Ebay,
Amazon
Friends Reunited
Cd WOW

All these would die a sudden death if they did not have the interent.

Steve, ur business venture would never take off, neither really would mine.

so yes we are effected by the loss of the internet.

All these things put together, how does one define the interent. I would add the Oxford English definition but it was published in 1992, therefore no mention.
A sign still of how comparitively new the net actually still is :-)

Al

[DotNetWebs]

I would add the Oxford English definition but it was published in 1992, therefore no mention.

Here is the current Oxford English Dictionary definition:

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/internet?view=uk

[Coding Monkey]

i think thereis much truth in what fiona says there

Business's do reply so heavily on the interent these days. for example

Ebay,
Amazon
Friends Reunited
Cd WOW


I think it's a bit misleading to say they'd suddenly all die if the Internet didn't exist, as their businesses were all built up through having the existence of a new media format. They have no offline sales, so they wouldn't have setup with the Internet, whereas the use of "dependent" makes me think offices with e-mail and communications world wide. I'd certainly have no company without the Internet, but it'd purely mean I'd have taken another route.

[webit]

I'd also like to point out that the use of www has no real meaning.

:)

[easyasit]

I would add the Oxford English definition but it was published in 1992, therefore no mention.

Here is the current Oxford English Dictionary definition:

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/internet?view=uk

Do you know u just answered my question, i wondered if there was a decent free online dictionary.
Now there seems to be :-)

Thanks for that

[videotalker]

and the next big INTERNET explosion is ?
web based global communication by video email
use the power of tv advertising to promote business via email
keep in visual touch with friends and families around the globe
and so on
remember when they said:-
- the motor car will never become popular
- the world will only need 5 computers (founder of IBM)
- CDs will never replace vinyls and cassettes ??
- people dont need mobile phones
- email will only be used by a few businesses (1989 ?)
Forrester Research in US say
"video email will replace text messagesas the online communications mechanism, text-based email will seem as archaicas black and white television"

[DuaneJackson]

WOW, now if only there was a company around that could help me take advantage of the explosion....

[Richard Conyard]

Hmmm,
To be honest I can't see it, after all video phones have been around for ages and haven't really progressed much beyond a gimmic.

Personally I quite like the fact with e-mail I can write it, read it, think about it and write it again if required. Doing the same with video would be too time consuming.

[dagr]

Sorry Richard, but I love the term "InterWeb". I use it on purpose when I'm annoyed with any internet-related activity (eg, "Damn this InterWeb thingy, my Inbox is full of Spam"). Wasn't the word invented just to annoy people?

David.