So today marks the anniversary of the adoption of TCP/IP. 24 years ago today, the internet as we navigate it today was formed.
The only reason I know this is because it’s linked to the google logo on my home page (digg it if you must) I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I click on a link telling me about a revolutionary process that was adopted sometime in the distant past (distant for some of you; I distinctly remember 1983. I graduated technical school and was dumped by my high school sweetheart. It was a great year) I want to know what the mystical acronym means. I had to go to look it up on Wikipedia just to find a description that passed for layman’s terms:
The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols that implement the protocol stack on which the Internet and most commercial networks run. It has also been referred to as the TCP/IP protocol suite, which is named after two of the most important protocols in it: the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), which were also the first two networking protocols defined. Today’s IP networking represents a synthesis of two developments that began in the 1970s, namely LANs (Local Area Networks) and the Internet, both of which have revolutionized computing.
…and no, I didn’t know what TCP/IP meant until I looked it up. Yes, I know, a self-respecting geek should know these things. That’s what happens when you get to geekiness through scifi and gaming, rather than through rich parents who can afford to pay for the latest hardware as it rolls off the assembly line (do you know how much an Altair cost when it was new? As much as my first car. I’d rather have had the car) I never needed to know what it meant to make the household LAN work, or to make the browser go where I wanted it. So sue me.
Don’t mind the attitude. It’s the tail-end of mean champagne buzz. Time for some coffee and breakfast burritos. Happy New Year.
