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The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the interlinked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, internet telephony, and file sharing.

The origins of the Internet date back to research that enabled the time-sharing of computer resources, the development of packet switching in the 1960s and the design of computer networks for data communication. The set of rules (communication protocols) to enable internetworking on the Internet arose from research and development commissioned in the 1970s by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the United States Department of Defense in collaboration with universities and researchers across the United States and in the United Kingdom and France. The ARPANET initially served as a backbone for the interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the United States to enable resource sharing. The funding of the National Science Foundation Network as a new backbone in the 1980s, as well as private funding for other commercial extensions, encouraged worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies and the merger of many networks using DARPA's Internet protocol suite. The linking of commercial networks and enterprises by the early 1990s, as well as the advent of the World Wide Web, marked the beginning of the transition to the modern Internet, and generated sustained exponential growth as generations of institutional, personal, and mobile computers were connected to the internetwork. Although the Internet was widely used by academia in the 1980s, the subsequent commercialization of the Internet in the 1990s and beyond incorporated its services and technologies into virtually every aspect of modern life. (Full article...)

Selected article

"Free speech flag" protesting suppression of the HD-DVD encryption key
The AACS encryption key controversy, also known as the AACS cryptographic key controversy, arose in April 2007 when the Motion Picture Association of America and the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator, LLC (AACS LA) began issuing demand letters to websites publishing a 128-bit number, represented in hexadecimal as 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 (commonly referred to as 09 F9), which is one of the cryptographic keys for HD DVDs and Blu-ray Discs. The letters demanded the immediate removal of the key and any links to it, citing the anti-circumvention provisions of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In response to widespread internet postings of the key, the AACS LA issued various press statements, praising those websites that complied with their requests as acting in a "responsible manner", warning that "legal and technical tools" were adapting to the situation. The controversy was further escalated in early May 2007, when aggregate news site Digg received a DMCA cease and desist notice and then removed numerous articles on the matter and banned users reposting the information. This sparked what some describe as a digital revolt, or "cyber-riot", in which users posted and spread the key throughout the internet en masse. The AACS LA described this situation as an "interesting new twist".

Selected picture

Chinese internet café in Lijiang, Yunnan, PR China from the inside.
Chinese internet café in Lijiang, Yunnan, PR China from the inside.
Credit: chrislb

An internet café or cybercafé is a place where one can use a computer with Internet access, most for a fee, usually per hour or minute; sometimes one can have unmetered access with a pass for a day or month, etc. It may serve as a regular café as well, with food and drinks being served.

Norid AS is the registry for the Norwegian country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) .no (Norway), .sj (Svalbard and Jan Mayen) and .bv (Bouvet Island). By agreement with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, Norid is delegated the exclusive authority to assign, administer and register domain names under these three top-level domains. Of these three top-level domains, second-level domains may only be registered under .no, while use of .sj and .bv is presently reserved. (Full article...)

WikiProjects

WikiProjects

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

  • ... that Barack Obama made an election promise to make non-emergency bills freely available online for a five-day public consultation period under "sunlight before signing"?
  • ... that Jeff Baena, while unable to film in Italy in 2020, created Cinema Toast from an idea during an online poker game to re-cut and dub old movies into new stories?
  • ... that the 2000 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was the first to be broadcast live over the internet?
  • ... that Kenshi Yonezu's song "Dune" describes his perception of a "desert-like atmosphere" on the video-sharing website Niconico?
  • ... that the University of Memphis football team posthumously retired Danton Barto's number following an online petition?
  • ... that the Mobile Adapter GB was an early, albeit unsuccessful, attempt at handheld online gaming for the Game Boy Color and the Game Boy Advance?

Selected biography

Steve Jobs in 2005
Steve Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) was the American co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Inc, and was the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios until it was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2006. Jobs is currently the Walt Disney Company's largest individual shareholder and a member of its Board of Directors. He is considered a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries. He is also widely credited as the inventor of the Macintosh, the iPod, the iTunes Store, and the iPhone. Jobs's history in business has contributed greatly to the myths of the quirky, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design while understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. Together with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Jobs helped popularize the personal computer in the late '70s. In the early '80s, still at Apple, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven GUI. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. Next's subsequent 1997 buyout by Apple brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he has served as its chief executive officer since shortly after his return.

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The following are images from various internet-related articles on Wikipedia.

Selected quote

Mike Godwin
The people who've been fighting to censor the Net say that they're the ones who care about families and children. They say that those of us who oppose them — who insist that the real danger lies in not giving the Net the same freedoms we give to magazines and newspapers, to libraries and bookstores — don't care about our children. They can't be talking about me. Not a day goes by when I don't worry about my little girl, when I don't worry that I haven't provided properly for her future. And part of the future I want to give her is the freedom of the Net.
Mike Godwin, (Cyber Rights, 2003 ed., p. xxiii.)

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