On this day in 1969 UCLA issued a press release announcing that it would be the first station in a nationwide computer network that would, for the first time, link computers of different makes and use different machine languages in one time-sharing system. This essentially announced the birth of the Internet, originally known as ARPANET, which officially took place some months later that year.
The original press release went on to correctly predict that “Creation of the network represents a major forward step in computer technology and may serve as the forerunner of large computer networks of the future.” Then UCLA project head and engineering professor Leonard Kleinrock also made a prediction that has come to fruition: “As of now, computer networks are still in their infancy. But as they grow up and become more sophisticated, we will probably see the spread of ‘computer utilities’, which, like present electronic and telephone utilities, will service individual homes and offices across the country.”
To get informed of an inside event of this era, one should read; The Cuckoo’s Egg by Cliff Stoll. A fascinating documentation of Stoll’s involvement in tracking down some of the first Internet Hackers. Reads like a SF story. The scary part is that the event really happened.
The Nova episode of this story may be found at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTx9h3Sm29I .
Cliff now makes Klein Bottles and this project of his may be found at: https://www.numberphile.com/podcast/cliff-stoll .
Further to the above response. Cliff Stoll also wrote Silicon Snake Oil – Second Thoughts on the Information Highway in 1995 by McMillan, paperback published in 1996.
He asks: Are networks really educating, or are they simply diversions from learning? Is electronic mail useful, or electronic noise? Why do online services promise so much, yet deliver so little? What makes computers so universally frustrating?
Some of us are still asking those very same questions today!