Today's Information Highway - The Internet

The Internetis a collection of networks - a network of networks - that communicate with each Other by using the same standards (protocols) of communication. The com­puters that make up these networks are of different types. Currently, over one million computer systems - with tens of millions of users worldwide - make up the Internet. Users access the Internet by contacting a computer that connects to the Net. The Internet began in 1969 as a government-sponsored research network called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network).

This network linked Department of Defense (DOD) research centers with university researchers. Scientists working on the ARPANET developed Internet protocols(also called TCP/IP), the standards that enable computer users to exchange data through the Internet. The network grew to include contractors and subcontractors with the DOD. Many universities and colleges then joined. Libraries, other government agencies, and interested businesses also joined. Today, the Internet is growing at the rate of about 150,000 new users a month.

An interesting fact about the Internet is that it was deliberately designed with no central office. Don't look for an Internet Headquarters. The Internet's designers were told to think of the possible consequences of a nuclear attack. If an enemy attack were to take out a node of the Internet, it is designed to route around the destroyed node and not be crippled.

One outcome of this lack of centralization has been uncontrollable growth. There is nothing to stop anyone from adding a new computer or local area network to the Internet. Of course, this factor benefits everyone. The more people joining the richer the Internet's resources. The cost for this enormous growth, however, can be delays. E-mail '.hat is supposed to be sent immediately may be delayed for hours because there is no room on the communication lines to send it.

Look through the text and find the passage where it is told about Internet protocols. Read this passage and translate in the written form.

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Internet and Its Uses

The World Wide Web (WWW) is a worldwide hypermedia system. When you read a Web document (Web site), you see underlined words. Each underlined word refers to a computer resource—a program, graphic, or document. Concealed "under" the word is the address of another Internet computer. When you select, or click, the word, the Web software connects you to that computer. You don't have to know exactly where the resources are located—you just click. In the course of an hour, you may access computers in Hawaii, France, Canada, Norway, and California.

The Internet and the World Wide Web are redefining the global community. Small, local Internet service providers (ISPs) have sprung up everywhere to provide Internet access that is just a local phone call away. Subscribers are finding a whole new world where they can obtain information about products and services, as well as join online groups of people with whom they share interests.

Where is the Internet headed? Many people believe that the Internet will evolve into the National Information Infrastructure (Nil), However, this development is unlikely. The Internet is designed to sacrifice the timely delivery of data in favor of accuracy. For this reason, the Internet is not the best network for real-time voice and video. Real-time voice and video require a smooth, uninterrupted delivery. The Internet cannot ensure this quality. (If you see a video while using a Web navigator like Netscape, it is because the program has downloaded an entire video file to your com­puter. After a delay for the downloading, you see the video—but not in real time.) New technologies will be required to do a good job with real-time voice and video. One proposed solution is asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), a wide area network design that uses high-speed switching devices to route messages. ATM can deliver real-time voice and video as well as computer files and programs.

Look through the text and find the passage where it is told about a worldwide hypermedia system. Read this passage and translate in the written form.

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The First Computers

The idea of computing is as old as civilization itself- and maybe older. Computers are merely complex counting devices.

The first computing device could have been as simple as a set of stones used lo repre­sent bushels of wheat or herds of animals. Figuring the total number of animals in two combined herds or trading cattle for wheat could be represented with stones. When people followed a standard set of procedures to perform calculations with these stones, ihey created a digital counting device, the predecessor of a computer. The abacus illustrates how these ancient computers worked. This computing device could be seen during a siroll through the marketplaces of ancient Beijing, and it is still used today. An abacus has a wooden frame holding wires on which beads are strung. To show a number, you pull down the beads so that each rod represents a digit. For example, you use four rods to represent the number 3,741. To solve a math problem, you simply follow a set of instructions telling you when and where to move the beads.

Another omtiiing device, "Napier's bones," was invented al ilie beginning of the 1600s by John Napier, a Scottish mathematician. The "bones" were strips of ivory wilh numbers written on them. When the bones were arranged properly, the user could read the numbers in adjacent columns to find the answer to a multiplication op­eration.

Clockwork Calculators

If you can solve problems by following a set of simple rules (as you do with an aba­cus), you can produce a machine to calculate answers automatically. During the six­teenth through the nineteenth centuries, Europeans created several calculating ma­chines that made use of existing technology, specifically clockwork gears and levers. The first known automatic calculating machine was invented in France in 1642 by Blaise Pascal, who was only nineteen years old at the time. Pascal would later be­come one of Europe's great philosophers and mathematicians. He was the son of a tax commissioner and frequently worked in his father's office. The job must have bored Pascal, for he dreamed about a device that would save people like his father from the drudgery' of doing sums over and over. Pascal's answer was the Pascaline, a mechani­cal calculator that worked with clockwork gears and levers. To add and subttact, the Pascaline rotated wheels to register values and used a lever to perform the carrying operation from one wheel to another.

Look through the text and find the passage where it is told about the abacus. Read this passage and translate in the written form.

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