Tim Berners - Lee invented the Internet and he is British, we should be shouting this from the rooftops to tell the World and be proud.

Also, to show what a good guy he is, say that he did not wish to profit from it so that everyone would benefit from his invention.

Whilst all his colleages made millions of pounds from their research, Berners - Lee is still a relatively poor man, but happy that he gave this wonderfull gift to mankind.

Erm...

No I think you'll find he invented the web browser... and as a result became known as the inventor of the web...

The internet was a whole other invention... Easy mistake to make but the net is a hell of a lot bigger and more complex than just that dinky web thing you know :)

The Internet itself has it's origins in a project run by the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a science research body set up in 1957 by the Pentagon. The popular belief is that ARPA created ARPAnet, the precursor of today's Internet, so that data held on Pentagon computers could survive a nuclear attack by being downloaded to other remote computers not affected by such an attack. This is false. ARPAnet was commissioned so that early mainframes at universities, research centres, defence contractors, and arms of the military could share resources with each other. Unlike today's small personal computers which are portable, the computers linked in the first ARPA experiments were the size of a large refrigerator and could not be transported easily if at all. Another obstacle was that these mainframe computers were not compatible. ARPA commissioned Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) to link these large, complicated, and incompatible computers together in a network so that computing power could be shared amongst various applications. In 1970, the first for nodes of the ARPAnet were online, and experimenters began developing protocols and uses for the network. While working on the file transfer protocol (FTP) for the network, researchers and programmers often used real time text based computer mediated communication (CMC). Hafner writes that in 1971 - 72, "Members of the team would all log on at once, from Palo Alto and Cambridge and L.A. and Salt Lake, and for an hour or two at a stretch trade comments back and forth. Conversing through keyboards and terminals was less spontaneous than speaking, but Bhushan [the chairman of the FTP group] believed in forced clarity into their thinking. it also had the advantage of creating a record of their work." This was perhaps the first use of real time CMC.

Check out:

http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml

Originally posted by Martin_s
Erm...

No I think you'll find he invented the web browser... and as a result became known as the inventor of the web...


He had to create a web browser to view the new HTML files he had invented using the URL system he just invented.

Anyone else here use Mosaic 1.0?

Originally posted by halevan
Tim Berners - Lee invented the Internet and he is British, we should be shouting this from the rooftops to tell the World and be proud.

We have ! He was awarded a KBE and its been seen around the world on such pages as

http://www5.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/12/31/britain.honors.webman/

http://www.britainusa.com/science/xq/asp/SarticleType.1/Article_ID.4595/qx/articles_show.htm

http://www.zdnetindia.com/print.html?iElementId=95200

Probably one of the better recipients of the new years honors...

Yes as Martin_s says he did not invent the internet - but he did invent the world wide web 1989 and the first web browser and server in 1990. Most people agree that the internet was born out of a system called Arpanet which was a system invented by the Americans in 1969.
Sadly, I did read something similar to what Halevan has claimed in one of our national tabloids i.e. that the British invented the internet.

But yes,....he is a good bloke and well derserving of his New Years Gong.

More info on Tim Berners Lee (http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/)

More info on the history of the internet (http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet)

Nomme

Originally posted by halevan
Tim Berners - Lee invented the world Wide Web and he is British, we should be shouting this from the rooftops to tell the World and be proud.

Also, to show what a good guy he is, say that he did not wish to profit from it so that everyone would benefit from his invention.

Whilst all his colleages made millions of pounds from their research, Berners - Lee is still a relatively poor man, but happy that he gave this wonderfull gift to mankind.

This is no earthly use to this discussion but my ex sister - in - law used to lodge with Tim Berners Lee's parents (V. Nice house ;)) - I got the impression they would agree with Halevan and Phan :)

This isn't open to opinion it's down to definitions and then fact... The web is NOT the internet..

The internet is a MASSIVE collection of communication protocols of which the web is only one part...

Email
IRC
Instant messaging
and the list goes on...


Why is this even being argued... ?

<shrugs> dunno - was just taking the opportunity to name drop ;)

Originally posted by Siân
<shrugs> dunno - was just taking the opportunity to name drop ;)
yes... but did you have to drop it on my head? :P :D

Oh yes <grins> AND massage it in ;)

If you are interested in the subject, his book Weaving the Web (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587990180/txtbux-21) is very interesting - not only how he designed it, but the ideas and principles behind it, and how he continues to oversee the development of the web, even though he isn't happy with the way it has gone.

Originally posted by Martin_s

Why is this even being argued... ?

I don't see any arguments, just people clarifying the facts.

Is a markup language really an 'invention' though? Surely it's more of a discovery?

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
Anyone else here use Mosaic 1.0?
:lol:

of course it is!

you can only discover something that exists already.

But it's a language, surely it's always existed, just never been put to use before?

For example, when humans first learnt to communicate with speech, was speech discovered or invented?

Originally posted by Sidla
But it's a language, surely it's always existed, just never been put to use before?

For example, when humans first learnt to communicate with speech, was speech discovered or invented?
*Bzzzzt...*

Inappropriate use of the word language... It's not a "language" but a programming code... C'mon.. stop with the semantic juggling Sid...
:P

It's a markup language. Do you know what HTML stands for?

Originally posted by Martin_s
*Bzzzzt...*

Inappropriate use of the word language... It's not a "language" but a programming code... C'mon.. stop with the semantic juggling Sid...
:P

If you're being picky..

HTML = HyperText Markup Language


All language is an invented concept - if I decide there should be a new word for a particular item or concept - for example I will call the empty space between double yellow lines 'yelgapspace' - I haven't DISCOVERED a new word, I have invented it.

Ok, fair enough. I knew I was on shakey ground with that argument...:loopy:

how about a thread for people to post their own made up words?

;)

:)

Bzzzt... again..

A language for communicating between living beings is different from a programming language or code because a programming language or code is a direct set of commands for a computer to carry out...

A living language is one where much more such as concepts can be exchanged... Not to mention ambiguities, misunderstandings... Computers don't use Languages.. they use instructions... hence the expression.. garbage in, garbage out...

So :P

Well bugger me, he ONLY invented the WWW

Is that all??

A British bloke too

I am REIGHT CHUFFED me

One assumes old Billy Gates had something to do with some of it too

Originally posted by ncrossland
how about a thread for people to post their own made up words?

;)

:)

Hmmmm...maybe - as long as they have definitions too.

Or normal words with new meanings like they have on 'Im Sorry I Haven't Clue'.

eg One of my favourites from Stephen Fry:

Countryside : To kill Piers Morgan

Loads more here (http://www.g0akh.gothere.uk.com/ISIHAC/New_Definitions_Page.htm)

Nomme

Originally posted by Martin_s
Bzzzt... again..

A language for communicating between living beings is different from a programming language or code because a programming language or code is a direct set of commands for a computer to carry out...

A living language is one where much more such as concepts can be exchanged... Not to mention ambiguities, misunderstandings... Computers don't use Languages.. they use instructions... hence the expression.. garbage in, garbage out...

So :P

Will you be e-mailing TBL to point out his mistake? Should get Watchdog onto him, for falsely ancronym-ising* HTML (not to mention XML, SML, etc) as a [programming] language.

;)

* Yay another new word!

Originally posted by ncrossland
Will you be e-mailing TBL to point out his mistake? Should get Watchdog onto him, for falsely ancronym-ising* HTML (not to mention XML, SML, etc) as a [programming] language.

;)

* Yay another new word!
Nah... journalists are a hopeless cause ;)

But as with the word "ass" it can mean lots of things but you can't apply the meaning of one concept to the other in order to win an arguement... it's called cheating...

Originally posted by Martin_s
But as with the word "ass" it can mean lots of things but you can't apply the meaning of one concept to the other in order to win an arguement... it's called cheating...

and without it there would have been no carry on films

'what a lovely pear/pair' etc.

:)

Originally posted by ncrossland
Should get Watchdog onto him, for falsely ancronym-ising* HTML (not to mention XML, SML, etc) as a [programming] language.

;)

* Yay another new word!

Warning, pedantry alert.



HTML is not an acronym, it is initials. To be an acronym the initials should be pronounceable as in WHO, UNO, scuba, nylon, radar, etc.

To be really pedantic, scuba, nylon and radar are anacronyms as the acronyms are accepted as words in their own right.

Acronym = Abbreviated Coded Rendition Of Name Yielding Meaning*

So that makes it an anacronym ... going dizzy... head exploding

:wow:

*not true

Originally posted by Belle
One assumes old Billy Gates had something to do with some of it too

I don't think the Gates had anything to do with it really. Microsoft were quite ambivalent about the internet for some time, but then went into double speed when they saw it's rate of uptake.

Does anyone know the name of the manager at present?