Topics for Discussion and Research
Net Neutrality
The U.S. government plans to propose broad new rules Monday that would force Internet providers to treat all Web traffic equally, seeking to give consumers greater freedom to use their computers or cellphones to enjoy videos, music and other legal services that hog bandwidth.
Digits: What Is Net Neutrality?
The move would make good on a campaign promise to Silicon Valley supporters like Google Inc. from President Barack Obama, but will trigger a battle with phone and cable companies like AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp., which don’t want the government telling them how to run their networks.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=113960
By matt buchanan, 8:59 AM on Mon Jul 27 2009, 17,317 views
It’s indisputable at this point that AT&T blocked 4chan—what’s 4chan, you ask?—the cesspool that has spawned some of the internet’s greatest memes, like LOLCATs. We hear it’s because of a massive DDoS attack emanating from that IP address.
Whatever the reason, the fact that AT&T won’t officially comment on the matter virtually confirms that they were taking some action against 4chan earlier today. If there wasn’t a valid security reason for blocking access to the site, then AT&T’s actions are deeply troubling, to say the very, very least.
Access has since been restored, but expect the reprisal from 4chan—like planting the story that AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson died outside his house—to continue. 4chan’s Moot says AT&T has yet to contact them. [4chan, TechCrunch]
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125329467451823485.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9jHOn0EW8U
Fiber Optics
You hear about fiber-optic cables whenever people talk about the telephone system, the cable TV system or the Internet. Fiber-optic lines are strands of optically pure glass as thin as a human hair that carry digital information over long distances. They are also used in medical imaging and mechanical engineering inspection.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llI8Mf_faVo]
Tier 1 level of Access
tier n ISP An INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER with a connection to a tier n-1 service provider. For example, a tier 2 ISP has a connection to a TIER 1 ISP.
http://current.com/items/90534690_at-t-has-begun-to-censor-the-internet.htm
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O12-Tier1ISP.html
History of the Internet
“History of the Internet” is an animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to file sharing, from Arpanet to Internet.
http://vimeo.com/groups/3200/videos/2696386
History HTML
After Vannevar Bush first proposed the basics of hypertext in 1945, it laid the foundation for Tim Berners-Lee and others to invent the World Wide Web, HTML (hypertext markup language), HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) and URLs (Universal Resource Locators) in 1990.
Definition of HTML
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, it is the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web. HTML is used to define the structure and layout of a Web page, how a page looks and any special functions. HTML does this by using what are called tags that have attributes. For example <p> means a paragraph break. As the viewer of a web page you don’t see the HTML, it is hidden from your view, however, you do the results.
http://inventors.about.com/od/computersoftware/a/html.htm
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRvJ9ff0TUs&feature=related]