The Internet via Mosaic and the World Wide Web - 12 years on

A long time ago, back in 1994, I wrote a book about the Internet, which was published by Ziff Davis Press: The Internet via Mosaic and the World Wide Web. It was the first book published to cover the Web in detail, and sold moderately well. Not a best-seller, but it did OK.

Looking on my bookshelf just now, I thought it would be fun to start looking at what I wrote 12 years ago, to see what, if anything has changed. Remember this was in a world of Mosaic - the first graphical web browser. Netscape had yet to fully appear on the scene. Internet Explorer didn't exist, and Firefox and Opera hadn't even been thought of.

So, without further chit chat, let's start with chapter 1.

The first interesting point is the number of active hosts on the Internet. At the time of the book (well, early 1994), that number was 2.2 million. A large number you may think, but the numbers just kept growing...

1995 - 4.8 million

1996 - 9.4 million

1997 - 16.1 million

1998 - 29.6 million

1999 - 43.2 million

2000 - 72.3 million

2001 - 109.5 million

2002 - 147.3 million

2003 - 171.6 million

2004 - 233.1 million

2005 - 317.6 million

2006 - 394.9 million

(source: Internet Systems Consortium)

Wow. What an increase. Back then, although it was obvious that the Internet was going to get big, that kind of growth was unimaginable. The rest of chapter 1 is pretty much explaining how the Internet hangs together, IP addresses, domain names etc. which hasn't really changed.

What has changed is the reference to getting connected. This was pre-broadband, so the choices were dial-up or leased line. In this age of ADSL and cable modems, dial-up seems prehistoric.

An explanation of ARCHIE, GOPHER and WAIS plonk us firmly in the past. When did you last use one of those? The Web has smothered everything else.

That's all for chapter 1. When I get some more time I'll look into other chapters.

10 years of being Dad

Our first born is 10 years old tomorrow. It's hard to believe that we had Life Before Kids, as the last 10 years have changed us completely.

We've got used to not going out on the weekend, not having lay-ins, and spending a fortune in various combinations of Mothercare, Boots and Toys R Us.

We've also got used to sharing our life with another little person (well 4 in total) who make us laugh mostly, makes us cry sometimes and makes us realise that it's a far better way to spend our lives than hitting the pub every weekend. (Although once in a while might be nice!!)

Finishing Touches

Our garden landscaping is coming to an end. The lawn is taking, the climbing wall is built, and the patio (All 120 sq M!), is pretty much laid. Just some finishing touches, electrics and planting to go.

We're amazed at just how much more usable space we're going to have at the end of this!

Old magazine update

I'v been busy on ebay and bought another bunch of old computer magazines. This time it's som very old Personal Computer World mags. I already have issue 1, so was looking for some to go with it. I managed to get issues 3, 5, 7 and some later issues.

They'll join the pile of old Computing Today I got recently as well, until I have a bit of time to go through them properly.

Nintendo DS Lite almost here

I popped into my local GAME to see whether they would be letting the DS-Lite out early (like they did the US), but alas no... I'll just have to hold on until tomorrow. I'm sure I'll manage!

I'm looking forward to this Brain training thing for the next week or so, and then the new Mario game at the end of the month. Wonder if it'll have the "cool" feel tha the PSP did when it was new? The PSP is still pretty damn good, but it hasn't had as much use as I was wanting really. It just has that touch of the future about it - stuff that was inconceivable when I was a kid (raised on Astro Wars and Atari 2600s), but seems quite normal to kids of today.

I avoided the original DS as it looked like a bit of an ugly sister of the PSP... The new DS Lite fixes that I thknk, and the game library is certainly more casual gamer friendly than the PSP.

The slabbing begins

Well, after a few weeks of a bare garden, during outr big summer landscaping, turf was laid on Thursday and the slabbing began today.

We had to water the turf like a member of the government over the weekend, but it looks like it's taking, with the small roots breaking through, and even worms taking up residence!

The paving looks great. We opted for Travertine in the end, a natural stone halfway between limestone and marble. It's smooth with some pitting, and a nice light colour that looks great against the green grass and the wooden sleepers.

We can't wait until it's done and we can get the bbq out!