The Internet: The World's Greatest Megaproject

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  • čas přidán 3. 05. 2022
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Komentáře • 368

  • @TheKalaxis
    @TheKalaxis Před 2 lety +353

    Without the Internet, Simon would have actually had to use his business degree to get a real job rather than being the world's favourite fact boi 🤣

    • @renaissanceredneck3695
      @renaissanceredneck3695 Před 2 lety +6

      I thought he went to school for law, hmm learn something new every day 🤔

    • @Ezra411st
      @Ezra411st Před 2 lety

      He would and I wounder what he would use with it?

    • @Unknowngfyjoh
      @Unknowngfyjoh Před 2 lety +13

      The global "entertainment industry" is the largest industry in the world. Even larger than oil. What's not real about it? CZcams has replaced television to many.

    • @listenhere1623
      @listenhere1623 Před 2 lety +11

      Do you realize the massive existential rabbit hole your comment leads to. What's your definition of a real job. Is earning an income from a stock exchange a real job. Is having a corporate office job typing and talking on the phone all day a real job. Where do you draw the line between bureaucratic, entertainment, or laborious jobs. What is real

    • @chrisyanover1777
      @chrisyanover1777 Před 2 lety +3

      Without the internet, Simon would be communicating with the world via phone by asking you "Have you thought about life insurance and what your love ones would do if you die?"

  • @philwood5288
    @philwood5288 Před 2 lety +24

    12:04 "Luckily for mankind, the millennium bug just didn't happen". Frowns after spending five years of my life ensuring that the bug "just didn't happen" for the company I worked for.

    • @jamesbond1231
      @jamesbond1231 Před rokem +1

      Except... you didn't actually DO anything lol

    • @philwood5288
      @philwood5288 Před rokem

      @@jamesbond1231 Exactly. It was a transparent fix, so nothing appeared to change. If we hadn't done the fix, you would DEFINITELY have noticed.

  • @Boozak242
    @Boozak242 Před 2 lety +44

    I know other commenters have said this... But the Y2K bug prevention effort should be considered a Megaproject itself. The massive number of engineers and developers that were all hands to prevent it was truly... massive. What will really bake your noodle is that the 2038 problem is significantly... worse...

    • @hazy2414
      @hazy2414 Před 2 lety +1

      The what bug?

    • @velvetnightmare3133
      @velvetnightmare3133 Před 2 lety

      U time travell'n, bro?

    • @ferociousgumby
      @ferociousgumby Před 2 lety

      I thought it was a complete fizzle. More or less a joke.

    • @the-chillian
      @the-chillian Před rokem +5

      @@hazy2414 Older UNIX-type systems represent time as a signed 32-bit integer counting seconds since January 1, 1970. The maximum time that can be represented under this scheme occurs on January 19, 2038. On that date at 03:14:07, this integer will overflow and roll over to the minimum negative integer, resetting the date to December 13, 1901.
      More recent releases of the relevant time utilities have upgraded this to a 64-bit integer, which will be able to count seconds until the universe goes dark. But systems that have not been upgraded like this are everywhere, and are especially endemic in network infrastructure. In 2038, the whole internet may well crash.

    • @chlorineismyperfume
      @chlorineismyperfume Před rokem +1

      I remember it well, finishing uni and spending most of my time twiddling Word doc assignments in Windows 95. The concern was real among my computer science friends in the next building but we all assumed "they" would fix it, no worries. Heh, back when "they" were the ever-present good guys.
      These problems are way outside my everyday thinking so this is the first I've heard of the potential 2038 blackout. As before, I'm sure it'll be worked out but it would be nice to lose the internet for a month (without the fallout).
      Great idea for an episode BTW!

  • @the-chillian
    @the-chillian Před 2 lety +58

    Yeah, there was absolutely nothing "lucky" about avoiding the millennium bug. A lot of us worked very hard for years to make damn sure nothing happened. Hell, I saw it coming in a project for my first professional job in 1986. My project lead assured me no one would be using that code by then. In that specific case he was right -- by the time 2000 rolled along, the computers on which that software ran didn't even exist anymore. But overall he was very, very wrong.

    • @kieronparr3403
      @kieronparr3403 Před 2 lety +6

      Yeah I hate when people brush it off as never happened. There's bug reasons why it didn't happen

    • @Abomin81onVlog
      @Abomin81onVlog Před 2 lety +5

      Came here to say this, take a thumbs up ChrisC

    • @wrightmf
      @wrightmf Před 2 lety +4

      In 1999 did you worked 18 hour days and on weekends, lived on pizza and Mountain Dew for the longest time? Sat in your cubicle endless days doing all that IT stuff so users had no idea potential major problems was averted?

    • @the-chillian
      @the-chillian Před 2 lety +1

      @@wrightmf Fortunately, the project I was working at the time was responsible for an internal product and mostly represented times as double precision 10-microsecond intervals since an epoch. (Not the Unix epoch.) So for the most part, we only had to fix some conversion utilities. Others weren't so lucky.

    • @jamesbond1231
      @jamesbond1231 Před rokem

      "I BELIEVE I made a difference"
      Does your mom tell you that as well?

  • @chaseweeks2708
    @chaseweeks2708 Před 2 lety +11

    You might be surprised how many IT professionals do not care to have smart devices in their home or connected features in their vehicles. We're rightfully weary of blind progress.

  • @christycullen2355
    @christycullen2355 Před 2 lety +1

    Gordon Welchman a British man also had a massive part in it. He developed what is essentially the cloud in the 60s for the US military "During his efforts with the US military defence in the Cold War, Welchman pioneered a revolutionary ‘horseshoe’ system, not unlike The Cloud that we have today - a constantly updated shared network connecting planes, ground forces, submarines, and battleships."

  • @ignitionfrn2223
    @ignitionfrn2223 Před 2 lety +6

    1:00 - Chapter 1 - Architects of the future
    3:20 - Chapter 2 - 1st contact
    7:00 - Chapter 3 - The world wide web
    9:05 - Chapter 4 - A global free for all
    12:55 - Chapter 5 - Innovating the internet

  • @xessenceofinsanityx
    @xessenceofinsanityx Před 2 lety +29

    Having only known the internet in my lifetime, it was really funny to read my father's 1990s journal paper on how this 'internet' thing wasn't going to have a major impact on the way businesses run 😂 He certainly ended up eating his words 😂

    • @Shinzon23
      @Shinzon23 Před 2 lety +1

      I still have in my book collection a 1994 Reader's Digest that talks about the internet as a potentially important thing but that it would stay to being used by businesses and government, not personal usage.
      Described it more as this super archive with limited advertising capabilities than anything else.

    • @extragoogleaccount6061
      @extragoogleaccount6061 Před 2 lety

      @@Shinzon23 And now people who dont know what Adblock is spend countless hours watching CZcams ads!

    • @monopalle5768
      @monopalle5768 Před 2 lety

      To be FAIR, there is not that much ORGANIC growth in internet.... Much of it, even now, is HYPE to sell phones and leech user data. I was around in the 80s. We could already do all the things THEN, that people could do now.... I have NOT experienced life getting easier, or any of that crap.... Now I have to log in and type in a code to get coffee, in the 90s I could just drop a coin in the jar.

  • @jerrysstories711
    @jerrysstories711 Před 2 lety +51

    The Millennium Bug didn't just "not happen". Thousands of engineers like me spent the better part of 1999 preventing it!

    • @rekiirek5601
      @rekiirek5601 Před 2 lety +7

      came here to make just the same comment. We spent a hell of a lot of time and money to make sure that things wouldn't fall apart

    • @MadceltStevo
      @MadceltStevo Před 2 lety +1

      Not just 1999, we spent the 10 years before making sure the Millennium Bug wasn't the disaster it could have been had we done nothing.

    • @SemiDad
      @SemiDad Před 2 lety +1

      1 Jan 1997 our company that manufactured pharmaceuticals suddenly had new product “expire” and automatic recalls issued.
      It was only then that management realized the impact & danger the Y2K bug posed.

    • @monopalle5768
      @monopalle5768 Před 2 lety +1

      .... And TWICE that number, made BANK convincing people that THEY were in danger too! ..... Every store had products to buy, to rescue your win 95/98 PC.... OMG.... LoL.

    • @ruaboutasize14
      @ruaboutasize14 Před 2 lety

      Did you work at Initech????

  • @rogueviking9268
    @rogueviking9268 Před 2 lety +65

    When are we getting the mega project we all want to know about: Simon's basement dungeon for Danny?

    • @motherdragon67
      @motherdragon67 Před 2 lety +2

      Yes please!

    • @badluck5647
      @badluck5647 Před 2 lety +3

      A leaking roof and a radiator is hardly a megaproject.

    • @JO-cw5xe
      @JO-cw5xe Před 2 lety +1

      Heard a rumor that was in the works for next April

    • @patatoko1834
      @patatoko1834 Před 2 lety

      I would for sure watch that

    • @almighty3946
      @almighty3946 Před 2 lety +1

      Don’t forget David, Arnaldo, Kevin etc.

  • @twocvbloke
    @twocvbloke Před 2 lety +4

    Born in 1985, I've grown up with the internet growing from something nerds played with on their commodore 64s to becoming the all-inclusive, all-invasive thing it is today, the fascination of watching a low-res picture downloading via Compuserve over an hour, to just clicking or tapping something to reveal massive space pictures as taken by NASA in an instant, it's amazing really, just a shame it's still hampered by connectivity in a lot of places, be it infrastructure being under-invested, or just simply not there at all, still reliant on dial-up technologies form decades ago...

  • @The_Tactical_Taco
    @The_Tactical_Taco Před 2 lety +11

    12:08 The millennium bug is real (despite what many people claim), but the impact was minimized thanks to many software engineers around the world fixing the software that had to keep time. The problem was that a lot of software was written without thinking about the shifting century. Most dates were stored with only 2 places for the year. That would make 2000 (written as 00) interpreted as 1900. In the last months before 2000 (most) of the software was patched and this "bug" was removed.
    By claiming that the millennium bug was not real, you are grossly overlooking the effort the software engineers have put in to prevent the problem.
    We are by the way heading to a new one in 2038 for 32-bit systems, but since most systems are 64-bit these days it should not be a problem.

    • @The_Tactical_Taco
      @The_Tactical_Taco Před rokem

      To clarify my last point about the 2038 problem:
      We are storing the time by taking the amount of seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC (known as epoch)
      This number of seconds is stored in a signed integer value. This used to be a 32-bit, but newer system use a 64-bit number.
      A 32-bit number can only have 2^32 values, because we use a signed number the first bit does double duty as both the value of 2^31 and showing that the number is negative.
      This gives us roughly 2.1 * 10^9 positive and negative values.
      If you take the maximum positive value and represent it as a binary numbers you get a zero with 31 ones. If you add one you get an one with 31 zeros, which is the maximum negative number.
      Is you calculate the amount of days that are in 2*10^9, you get just over 2.48*10^4 days.
      If you add that to epoch, you get somewhere in January of 2038. Which would roll over to December 1901.
      So make sure you are not using any 32-bit system by the year 2038.

  • @shorttimer874
    @shorttimer874 Před 2 lety +5

    I remember working in the local library system as a volunteer, and using a Sun workstation in their computer room traveling the world using gopher, a predecessor to web browsers.
    Mostly universities, the Library of Congress, and for some reason Godiva Chocolates, which had mouth watering images that took forever to download.

  • @wrightmf
    @wrightmf Před 2 lety +1

    Old guy here and former user of a Compuserve account in early 1980s. Equipped with a personal computer, S-100 with two 8" floppy drives, I got a acoustic modem for $5. It was marked not working but it did work! I connected its RS232 to the computer, mailed to Compuserve application which they mailed back account and phone number to call. My first was to find local phone numbers as long distance was a huge money drain. From there I was able to do "electronic mail" with my friend. Compuserve also had various groups owhere someone posted news bulletins from AP on missions and other NASA activities. It stopped when AP got word people were getting news for free.
    Oh boy then this thing called the information superhighway came along. Work had Mosiac installed on their Macs, that http was really easy to use. Of course such a thing becomes a time pit. I found a MIT student rigged up a camera to occasionally post stills of their Mr Coffee along with current temperature of the coffee. Engineering societies had presenters about how to use the information superhighway, some people never got a straight answer how such a thing can be used for serious business. Many saw it as means of societies posting online their meeting schedule and articles, or for techie stuff. How to make money was unclear. Of course shortly after it became a money maker with VC throwing piles of cash to anyone with a hairbrain idea (I never could figure out how people can do that).
    I thoroughly enjoyed usenet where you can have actual answers to questions about technical stuff. FYI, usenet is not the "United States Network,]." And then there was ebay where you can buy good stuff from real people, things like HT220s, Connie Francis rare LPs, Gina Lollobrigida photos, aircraft coffee maker (with green tag!). But all that ended when marketing people took over.

  • @bobfels5343
    @bobfels5343 Před 2 lety +1

    Great summary of the history of the internet, I love how you build up top all ingredients you need for common use. I think 2 technical details were a bit off:
    -You were talking explicitly about tcp/ip, but I think its better just call it ip, there are many (critical) layers ontop, one of them is tcp ofcourse.
    -You make it sound like the y2k bug wasnt a problem. It was indeed made bigger than it was, but because of a lot of effort, it was properly mitigated (even I updated software that would have hampered the water supply of a city if we didnt fix it)

  • @karlsantos
    @karlsantos Před 2 lety +4

    Again the idea that the millenium bug didn't happen...
    It did happen, and a lot of people were overworked for years preparing stuff so that it in the end it would not affect us.

  • @Shinzon23
    @Shinzon23 Před 2 lety +2

    I still have in my book collection a 1994 Reader's Digest that talks about the internet as a potentially important thing but that it would stay to being used by businesses and government, not personal usage.
    Described it more as this super archive with limited advertising capabilities than anything else...boy how that was wrong!

  • @kyidyl
    @kyidyl Před 2 lety +113

    The only reason y2k didn't happen was because of the tireless and thankless work of thousands of IT people. And they did such a good job that many people, yourself included, think it just wasn't a thing.

    • @jprehberger
      @jprehberger Před 2 lety +9

      So true! I saw some of the systems crash when a Y2K date rollover was simulated on them beforehand.

    • @garry1214
      @garry1214 Před 2 lety +11

      Spot on, there was so much work and resources dedicated to Y2K preparation that it went very smooth. Kudo's to everyone involved.

    • @chadbouss
      @chadbouss Před 2 lety +5

      yeah i was very surprise that this was omitted from this, found it weird. makes me think of other mistakes they make.

    • @Ayelmar
      @Ayelmar Před 2 lety +7

      Yep! I was working IT support for a Fortune 100 corporation, and I spent the stroke of midnight dealing with our only *actual* Y2K problem that hadn't been remediated beforehand -- an obscure but vital legacy interface system that was still running on Windows 3.1.... >_<
      But we'd spent the last 2 years and millions of dollars getting all those other mission-critical systems updated or in most cases, replaced before zero-hour.
      And, of course, all vacations for all of December and January were cancelled, we were all hands on deck (with FULL staff working overnight NYE into Jan 1) -- with a dire warning that if you called out, you'd better be calling from your hospital bed or you'd be cleaning out your desk when you returned.

    • @ssjwes
      @ssjwes Před 2 lety +4

      My excuse for not worrying about Y2K was exactly that. Those thousands of IT people and the billions it could cost the economy if nothing was done about it. I knew someone would fix it there was no way they wouldn't.

  • @Stucc0Dude
    @Stucc0Dude Před 2 lety +4

    It's not that the millenium bug "didn't happen", us IT people busted our ass to fix everything before hand.

  • @nunya___
    @nunya___ Před 2 lety +29

    12:02 It wasn't a "Luckily for mankind the bug just DIDN'T happen" situation. That's a gross misrepresentation of history. Years of extensive code rewrites and updates is WHY the Y2K disaster didn't happen. The bug was a _REAL_ thing.

    • @wombatwilly1002
      @wombatwilly1002 Před 2 lety +1

      And Hitler and Stalin are on Pluto too,right? lol

    • @kyidyl
      @kyidyl Před 2 lety +3

      @@wombatwilly1002 you must be very young. Nunya is right; the reason it didn't happen was because of the work of thousands of IT people.

    • @wombatwilly1002
      @wombatwilly1002 Před 2 lety

      @@kyidyl Sorry darlin',I'm from the "old Skool" when society wasn't a f*CKING joke like it is now with the wokes,cancels,I'm OFFENDEDS,and millennial Karen's.😁

    • @kyidyl
      @kyidyl Před 2 lety +3

      @@wombatwilly1002 Then I guess you don't know shit about IT. 🤷‍♀️ Either way, you're wrong. Y2k was avoided thanks to the actions of people doing their jobs.

    • @wombatwilly1002
      @wombatwilly1002 Před 2 lety

      @@kyidyl It was a big hulabaloo over nothing.This world was so much better without computers,internet,cell phones,or video games

  • @bradbrandon2506
    @bradbrandon2506 Před rokem

    Wow. That closing speech was simply, as you say, legendary.

  • @JC-ks3yk
    @JC-ks3yk Před 2 lety +1

    I've been using the Internet since 1984... my college was connected. It's been one helluva ride....

  • @wyskass861
    @wyskass861 Před 2 lety +4

    The internet was like inventing writing for the second time.

  • @ProffesionalZombie12
    @ProffesionalZombie12 Před rokem

    I know a lot of folks see the vices of the internet, but I met my boyfriend of 14 years on a social media network on the internet. I think a lot about how, if the internet never existed, we might never have known each other existed. It's a haunting thought in that, without the internet, our paths would likely never have crossed; and our memories never have happened. But a beautiful thought in the sense of how deeply connected the internet makes us to each other; how folks anywhere from half a country, to a world apart, can connect and build a future together. The internet is a truest example of a double edged sword, but one I'm thankful for.

  • @BobFrTube
    @BobFrTube Před 2 lety +1

    The story of the Internet is far more exciting once you understand that it is a discontinuity from the very idea of networking as a service. The ARPANet was modeled on conventional communications networks while the internet is a best-efforts packet infrastructure whose success comes from completely decoupling the applications from the facilities. The fact that the World Wide Web is NOT built into the Internet but is a way of using it is part of the story. The Internet has allowed us to repurpose existing telecommunications networks as a packet medium but the future of a native packet transport is far more exciting. The story of VoIP is a good example, it did not come as an improvement to telephony but, rather, despite it. It is very important to understand the deeper story because today's public policies are limiting us by treating the Internet as if it we were paying for phone calls when those calls are now apps. The future is a public packet infrastructure that goes well beyond today's Internet.

  • @JDFloyd
    @JDFloyd Před 2 lety +8

    Not since Al Gore invented the Internet have I heard such good news.

  • @dapprman
    @dapprman Před 2 lety +1

    Off the back of this video is it worth covering 'The Mother of all Demos' - when Douglas Engelbart demonstrated live the first desk top computer system and the mouse ? To add a further link it was Joseph Licklider who helped find the funding for Engelbart's work.

  • @timbrwolf1121
    @timbrwolf1121 Před 2 lety +20

    Something I am incredibly hopeful for is that the starlink network and its eventual upgrades will be able to back up the internet to space based servers in the event of cataclysm. Essentially taking a snapshot of everything we know

    • @gomahklawm4446
      @gomahklawm4446 Před 2 lety

      Starlink isn't a viable business model.....just like Solar City.....it will go bankrupt. There's not enough market for it. The equipment is expensive etc.....it WILL go bankrupt. And probably SpaceX too, Elon even warned about it. Without Starlink there's no real reason for Starship, without Starship making many paid for flights this year, there will be no SpaceX.....unless the govt bails him out.....again.

    • @timbrwolf1121
      @timbrwolf1121 Před 2 lety

      @@gomahklawm4446 But fast wireless internet from a network in space will be pursued by another company even if starlink fails. My point is I want all of human history backed up to space.

    • @billsimpson604
      @billsimpson604 Před 2 lety

      One of the guys who used to do the 'Our Ludicrous Future' CZcams channel said that Starlink might have the potential to duplicate the internet & eventually make billions for Musk. Being a tiny bit faster would force financial transactions onto it, rather than being on cables like the internet uses. The 3 fellows who used to do the weekly discussion are now down to once a quarter discussions. They discuss developments in electric cars and rocketry a lot.

    • @Thros1
      @Thros1 Před 2 lety +1

      We need a "library" on the moon, even with starlink all the data is earth based and not on the satellite. On top of that the sun wouldn't leave them operating for very long especially without us.

    • @timbrwolf1121
      @timbrwolf1121 Před 2 lety

      @@Thros1 I've been thinking the same thing. Need to send a space craft to encase a crater on the dark side of the moon. Fill it with a server

  • @michiganengineer8621
    @michiganengineer8621 Před 2 lety +4

    Who else here remembers logging into various "Bulletin Board" systems 30+ years ago? It was true then just as it is now. 90% of what is accessed "online" is of questionable legality (depending on where you live and your age). Of the remaining 10%: 90% are cat/pet videos, 7% have Simon in them, and only 3% are otherwise useful.

  • @padawanmage71
    @padawanmage71 Před 2 lety +2

    I would ask to have a segment done on the magic area call XEROX PARC, where so many technologies were invented.

  • @dickiemcgeezacks9458
    @dickiemcgeezacks9458 Před 2 lety +3

    That's a very good video on Al Gore's internet.
    Good job.

    • @Kirovets7011
      @Kirovets7011 Před 2 lety

      "Al Gore's internet"?!!!😡 Wtf?!! Al Gore has NOTHING tot do with the internet!! Have you heard Simon mention his name?! NO!! Of course not!!

    • @dickiemcgeezacks9458
      @dickiemcgeezacks9458 Před 2 lety

      @@Kirovets7011 Calm down, Pjotr. It was a joke.

  • @tnekkc
    @tnekkc Před 2 lety

    In 1991 I became addicted to usenet from my spark workstation doing medical electronics design. In 1995 I worked on a ultrasound cart that had its own internal web page.

  • @kreiner1
    @kreiner1 Před 2 lety +1

    Please do this on brain blaze, and just so you know I have been rewatching bb from the start, sweet sweet watch time

  • @JJ-si4qh
    @JJ-si4qh Před 2 lety +1

    OMG THANK YOU! I've been asking for this for years! Now do the Maritime Prepositioning Force!

  • @adamfoster2121
    @adamfoster2121 Před 2 lety +7

    I am really suprised you dont do a side project on what goes in to your videos from yourself to others that co create these videos or a biographic on yourself simon.

    • @megaprojects9649
      @megaprojects9649  Před 2 lety +6

      There's too much cocaine involved for me to not get into trouble.

    • @sandybarnes887
      @sandybarnes887 Před 2 lety

      There's a Simon Whistler interview that's over an hour long on the ThoughtLeaders channel if your interested

  • @GrievousReborn
    @GrievousReborn Před 2 lety +1

    The creation of the internet was a blessing and a curse.

  • @dannypope1860
    @dannypope1860 Před 2 lety +1

    Thanks America! For the internet, electricity, and airplanes to name a few.

  • @HeyMJ.
    @HeyMJ. Před 2 lety +19

    Yes. Y2K code updates were req’d by systems globally. It was a HUGE job that meant countless hours, effort & big budgets to get the job done.🎉

    • @meander112
      @meander112 Před 2 lety

      This seems like a good subject for Sideproject or even Megaproject video.

    • @ernestbywater411
      @ernestbywater411 Před 2 lety +1

      Y2K was a bug created solely by lazy programming in the first place and could only ever affect systems that required date to date calculations like accounting systems. There is a similar problem caused by limited programming with dates called the 2038 due to 32 bit integers.
      I was involved with checking systems for the Y2K issue and never found a single computer that had an issue with it, but did find some programs that had a problem because the whole Y2k was due to using 2 digit years dates instead of 4 digit year dates and was a storm in a teacup that wasted millions of dollars due to panic merchants.

    • @richv1893
      @richv1893 Před 2 lety +1

      @@ernestbywater411 The computers back then couldn't handle the 4 digit dates for a host of reasons, lack of memory and processing power, though it should not have been left to the last minute to correct the issue.

    • @ernestbywater411
      @ernestbywater411 Před 2 lety

      @@richv1893 I disagree as most of the programs that were affected by it were originally written in Cobol and some of the very early Cobol programs did use and handle 4 digit dates. The problem was the way they wrote programs then meant a routine that handled the four digit year dates was a lot longer then than one that handled two digit year dates, so they got lazy and wrote for two digit dates to save themselves writing all of that extra code every time they need a date comparison routine.
      The claim the computers couldn't handle it is a total furphy as the dates were always kept as an integer based on the amount of lapsed time since a preset initiating date and the system deducted one integer from the other then converted it to a date, but the complexity was in the code to display the date itself. It was a lot easier to write the code to discard the first two digits of the year.

    • @laurendoe168
      @laurendoe168 Před 2 lety +1

      @@ernestbywater411 It wasn't caused SOLELY by lazy programming. Remember, there was a long time where each and every byte of storage was no small expense. A database with many entries which include even one date required twice as much storage for the year if the year was stored as four digits as opposed to merely two. This expense adds up very quickly, with no seeming benefit. Yes, this situation changed in the 1990's, but in order to maintain "backward compatibility" with older programs.... (think how color TV was backward compatible with B&W for decades)... this was implemented even in updates.... until people finally realized "We really ought to do something about this."

  • @ExperimentIV
    @ExperimentIV Před rokem

    this makes me want to see a sideprojects episode about cool advancements in IT, like the Mother of all Demos

  • @squeezypop1
    @squeezypop1 Před 2 lety +1

    Hey Simon, remember when you and Mr. Hiskey went over this on the Brainfood Show?
    I miss it so much :(
    Good vid tho!

  • @anonymousrex5207
    @anonymousrex5207 Před 2 lety +1

    The internet: a compendium of human knowledge to give everyone the ability to access whatever relevant information they may need.
    Humanity: social media, memes, endless idiotic conspiracy theories and cat videos.
    We're all doomed.

  • @svrsakura
    @svrsakura Před 2 lety

    you finally made a video about the internet!!!

  • @RCaIabraro
    @RCaIabraro Před 2 lety +1

    Do an episode on the integrated circuit

  • @StoneInMySandal
    @StoneInMySandal Před 2 lety

    The Millennium Bug was the biggest intelligence community victory in digital history.

  • @wombatwilly1002
    @wombatwilly1002 Před 2 lety +2

    This one could've been called "Mega Blunder"!

    • @mirzaahmed6589
      @mirzaahmed6589 Před 2 lety +1

      Why?

    • @MrPossumeyes
      @MrPossumeyes Před 2 lety

      Yeah, why?

    • @wombatwilly1002
      @wombatwilly1002 Před 2 lety

      @@mirzaahmed6589 Take a look around at society and see how bad society has devolved with the internet and cell phones.Misinformation from the internet has been left unchecked and it's spawned a generation of idiots that don't know any better.And kids standing around with cell phones jammed up their a$$es lazy as he11.Society was far better off with no internet,computers or cell phones!

  • @scorchdraken3513
    @scorchdraken3513 Před 2 lety

    On the topic of computer systems, maybe a video on programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and a video on PID control systems could be good subjects for mega projects or side projects.

  • @chrisgironde6669
    @chrisgironde6669 Před 2 lety +2

    We had terrorist attack on phone network last week, eastern Gironde France. One area out of a few in last few weeks
    Major cables cut, www down phone networks down for 24 hrs
    Amazing how difficult everything was without it all

  • @anarchyantz1564
    @anarchyantz1564 Před 2 lety +2

    Actually there is an even greater mega project that needs to be shown. Simon Whistler.

    • @sandybarnes887
      @sandybarnes887 Před 2 lety

      Check out the Simon Whistler interview that's over an hour long on the ThoughtLeader channel

  • @dantetre
    @dantetre Před 2 lety +1

    Internet is free?!
    Then why are we getting bills from our telephone companies?!

  • @user-bw4ye5es1q
    @user-bw4ye5es1q Před rokem

    TCPI/IP doesn't mean "TCP also known as IP", it means "TCP on top of IP". TCP and IP protocols are two related, but separate protocols achieving different goals.

  • @GrievousReborn
    @GrievousReborn Před 2 lety +1

    I want to know more about this Arab Spring you should do a video about on one of your channels

  • @dantetre
    @dantetre Před 2 lety +2

    Millennium bug? Is he talking about Y2K? :D

  • @dudeyoudontneedmyname
    @dudeyoudontneedmyname Před 9 měsíci

    1:30 Your Earth is spinning the wrong way.

  • @deansheets
    @deansheets Před 2 lety +2

    Can we get a mega project on fire 😆

  • @SpikeMatthews
    @SpikeMatthews Před 2 lety +1

    The internet and light: two things that cannot be seen except by the effect they have on other things.

    • @justincase3772
      @justincase3772 Před 2 lety +1

      Can we add Wind to this list?

    • @SpikeMatthews
      @SpikeMatthews Před 2 lety +2

      I don't see why not. 😁

    • @MrPossumeyes
      @MrPossumeyes Před 2 lety +2

      And electricity. Felt but not seen. Can't feel light, can't feel the internet (sad considering all the nudity ....)

    • @SpikeMatthews
      @SpikeMatthews Před 2 lety +2

      I see your point.

  • @gingja
    @gingja Před 2 lety

    The last part reminded me of the WWW trilogy books. Just imagine

  • @deathisonlythebeginning5098

    Simon moves his hands around so much that he should be able to fly around the room. And now that you have seen it, you cannot unsee it. You are welcome.

  • @ruaboutasize14
    @ruaboutasize14 Před 2 lety

    Al Gore: I invented the internet! Tim Berners Lee is the DEBBIL!!!!

  • @missheadbanger
    @missheadbanger Před 2 lety +2

    In my opinion the Internet should be free to use for everyone, we shouldn't have to pay for an integral part of modern life.
    Estonia has already done so..

  • @marlboro9tibike
    @marlboro9tibike Před 2 lety

    In normal world you have access to the internet. In soviet russia, the internet have access to YOU!

  • @marksapollo
    @marksapollo Před 2 lety +2

    It’s also the biggest machine in the world. And consumes obscene amounts of power. But IMO the benefits of it outweigh the power it uses.

  • @chrisyanover1777
    @chrisyanover1777 Před 2 lety +1

    It crazy that the current generation doesn't understand a world without internet. To them they just don't understand how a world could function without social media or the without the world of information in the palm of your hand. I remember I'm early 2000's when I was I. College there were professors trying to fight the internet and required papers being written without any sources coming from any internet sites. Like they actually tried to make us use the library as the only source of information to write papers. I wonder if there are still professors trying to do this?

  • @WillBreaksStuff
    @WillBreaksStuff Před 2 lety

    What about message store and forward at Western Union or ComLogNet and AUTODIN which also used data packet switch in the late 50's?

  • @jokuvaan5175
    @jokuvaan5175 Před 2 lety +1

    Next great topic would be the electric grid. Or just some more recent grid project in EU or China

  • @agent_meister477
    @agent_meister477 Před 2 lety

    The Information Super Highway 👍

  • @chadvarnell1889
    @chadvarnell1889 Před rokem

    Al Gore would like to see Simon in his office...

  • @Grommish
    @Grommish Před 2 lety

    Solemn Simon is the Best Simon

  • @viniciusgomes5147
    @viniciusgomes5147 Před 2 lety +2

    The megaproject that ruined my life

  • @crazybrit-nasafan
    @crazybrit-nasafan Před 2 lety +2

    The first (but please correct me if I am wrong) person to suggest something like the internet was probably the doyen of science fiction, Isaac Asimov. His version was called Multivac. A device that could answer any question put to it, and was used to sort out the world's resources.

    • @garyscott7095
      @garyscott7095 Před 2 lety +1

      From Wikipedia - Memex is the name of the hypothetical electromechanical device that Vannevar Bush described in his 1945 article "As We May Think". Bush envisioned the memex as a device in which individuals would compress and store all of their books, records, and communications, "mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility".

    • @garyscott7095
      @garyscott7095 Před 2 lety +1

      JCR Licklider - developed the idea further in his 1960 paper "Man Machine Symbioses" But took it beyond just ideas in that he found a way to actualize the ideas in Darpa. Robert Taylor of PARC called him "the father of it all".

  • @baggieknight8411
    @baggieknight8411 Před 2 lety

    All those things that you mentioned that the Internet can do........
    YOU FORGOT THE BIGGEST THING ON THE NET
    PPOOORRRRNNNNN LOL

  • @J.A.Smith2397
    @J.A.Smith2397 Před 2 lety

    And still being built!

  • @brett4264
    @brett4264 Před 2 lety

    That was almost an "Into the Shadows" video!

  • @globalautobahn1132
    @globalautobahn1132 Před 2 lety

    To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long for this subject.

  • @pamelamays4186
    @pamelamays4186 Před 2 lety

    Computer graphics, a future Simon channel, perhaps?😉😆

  • @Derekzparty
    @Derekzparty Před 2 lety

    The satellite graphics look like planetary extractors from Eve

  • @tylermaclennan1420
    @tylermaclennan1420 Před 2 lety

    anyone else think of the west wing episode when he was talking about ARPA changing their name to DARPA

  • @Shadyshooter
    @Shadyshooter Před 2 lety

    Please do the LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard. Work of Art and broke speed records

  • @jackgibsxxx0750
    @jackgibsxxx0750 Před 2 lety

    We need a Megaproject on Simon's head to face hair transplant.

  • @wilhelmsarasalo3546
    @wilhelmsarasalo3546 Před 2 lety

    PHP, MySQL? Sure, but they are not the only game in town. JavaScript and CSS have some popularity as well. And various databases.

  • @MrJay500
    @MrJay500 Před 2 lety

    we was talking about this the other week and it was said the internet was an idea of a british man that gave it to the world

  • @05Crewchief
    @05Crewchief Před 2 lety

    An idea for you guys. Subtropolis in KC, Missouri.

  • @helpmereach45ksubswithoutvideo

    These videos is the thing we need

    • @TheDigitalAura
      @TheDigitalAura Před 2 lety +1

      Is the thing? Don't you mean are the thing? Not to mention all the typos in your avatar name.

  • @lazyishardwork
    @lazyishardwork Před 2 lety +1

    still can't fuck via the internet no matter how wonderous VR may become. It also can't bring the dead back; VR reality is virtual and virtually rendering people will never be a substitute for the real thing. VR and the internet are just a primitive and glitchy approximation. When fully viable quantum computers are realised in their full potential, they may answer some questions we're struggling over, and probably answer questions we can't even currently imagine. But the internet and computers are in their infancy, they're the first cells of an embryo compared to likening quantum computers to Einstein. We're still taking the first two steps up the base of the Mount Everest of what quantum computers will achieve for us technologically and scientifically.

  • @sifublackirishdiamondjedi4197

    I am not worried about an EMP, I have plenty of books to read.

  • @sargi769
    @sargi769 Před 2 lety

    Talk about a poisoned chalice

  • @carlstanland5333
    @carlstanland5333 Před 2 lety

    How about a Mega or Side Projects on fiber optics, fiber cabling and laying on the sea floor?

  • @archtroll
    @archtroll Před 2 lety

    down with the metaverse!

  • @ernestbywater411
    @ernestbywater411 Před 2 lety +4

    Just reached 3:55 in this and have a couple of issues with what's been said so far. First, a world wide connected computer system had been proposed by a lot of science fiction writers as far back as the 1930s, so I wouldn't give these guys that big a claim on the idea. Second, the packet switching process had been part of logistics supply systems for over a hundred years by then, just not called that - it;s also part of how the post office has worked since it's conception. So the concept already existed as well. However, the people mentioned do deserve great recognition for coming up with the way of transferring those concepts into being automated electronic systems. That's a great achievement, but please don't make it sound like they developed these concepts from scratch when what they did was recreate them in the electronic computer environment.

    • @KonradTheWizzard
      @KonradTheWizzard Před 2 lety

      Please don't mix up physical packets and data packets - they are not the same thing. Packet switching for data was fairly new and it was actively resisted, even sabotaged, by the telecom companies whose lines were being used in the early experiments. So coming up with it and developing it was no small feat.

    • @ernestbywater411
      @ernestbywater411 Před 2 lety

      @@KonradTheWizzard As I said, the creation of an electronic variant is a great achievement in itself. However, the way it was presented was as if the FULL concept of breaking up a shipment into smaller bits was a totally new and ground-breaking concept, when it wasn't.

  • @leemiller4375
    @leemiller4375 Před 2 lety +1

    We are the Borg

  • @Lafiel17
    @Lafiel17 Před 2 lety +1

    You can't see the internet? Obviously you've never seen "The IT Crowd".

  • @amazingtoast3255
    @amazingtoast3255 Před 2 lety

    So basically what youre saying, is that the internet could become scarlet nexus

  • @austinwagner3231
    @austinwagner3231 Před 2 lety +1

    IDK what Simon is talking about, everyone knows Al Gore invented the internet

  • @cyrilio
    @cyrilio Před 2 lety

    Do a DARPA mega projects video

  • @kieronparr3403
    @kieronparr3403 Před 2 lety +1

    The millennium bug would have happened had millions not been spent fixing the problem. Your writers need to fact check.

  • @TheEvilCommenter
    @TheEvilCommenter Před 2 lety +2

    Good video 👍

  • @jmcg7906
    @jmcg7906 Před 2 lety

    Wait…….I thought Al Gore invented the internet? Lol

  • @Michael500ca
    @Michael500ca Před 2 lety +1

    No, the keyboard and mouse will be around for quite a while.

  • @johntotten4872
    @johntotten4872 Před 2 lety

    What about Bonzi buddy the purple gorilla helper lol? Early www was like the wild west.

  • @thepretenda
    @thepretenda Před 2 lety

    Don't tell me this is the finale to the series?!?!?

  • @blairpenny1526
    @blairpenny1526 Před 2 lety

    Thanks Al Gore, not that he actually did anything but he just needs to get credit