Introduce yourself

[humbert]

I would like to gain more knowledge from your Encyclopedia.

OK. The internet's history goes something like this. I know because, unlike many of you, I lived through most of it.

Let's go back to 1964 and the mindset that existed in America at the time. The threat of nuclear war with what was then the Soviet Union was quite real, and taken very seriously at the highest levels of the US government. Then, one guy at the Rand Corporation (a major defense contractor) has an idea: what if we created a network of military-only computers, but did in in such a way that it would be totally decentralized? In other words, there is no "head computer" anywhere -- if one were taken down the rest of the network would keep on going, plus the fact that any new ones could be brought out of bomb shelters and promptly reconnected. They could also be moved around and relocated. Such a thing would make it extremely difficult for the enemy to take out our central command, whose existence would be critical in order to coordinate both defense and counterattacks. The guy shared his idea with others at Rand, they liked it and took it to the top brass. Finally the Defense Department bought the idea and ordered Rand to proceed. Not even remotely did anyone suspect they would end up creating what for ruling authorities would become a Frankenstein.

After 5 years of research and development (hardware, software, communication lines, etc), finally in 1969 the ARNAPET (acronym for Advance Research Projects Agency Network) went on line with 4 computers, all in California. History will record that the very first characters transmitted over what we know today as the internet would be the letters "lo" -- as they tried to type in the world "login", the first 2 letters went through, when they typed "g" the whole thing crashed! Clearly much more work was necessary.

By 1972 many errors had been solved and there were now 15 computers on the network -- and counting. As time passed and more computers were added, lines expanded and software improved, the dreaded nuclear war this system was designed for never came, so the people who tended the computers simply used the system to gossip and establish "newsgroups" to discuss all kinds of different matters. The Department of Defense had no objection given the fact that, if the war did come, it was imperative that people knew now to use the system. What's the point of spending all that money to build a system nobody knew how to use in the middle of nuclear missles falling?

Fast forward to the 1980's. Gorbachev arrives in power in the USSR and the chances of a nuclear strike diminish even further. Finally the government decides to open up the system to scientists at universities for them to discuss their findings freely, even allowing those universities to hook their own computers to the network. At first only few people had accounts, but as time went on that number began to increase at an exponential rate. Finally by the end of the 1980's, the government decides to "demilitarize" the ARPANET and let anyone get on. This lead to a worldwide explosion of computers on it, plus more lines, software, and what have you. I'm not sure exactly how the word "Internet" came about, but I think it's got something to do with "network of networks".

I first got on in 1993 when there were few ISP's. I remember the whole thing was text. You dialed into a Unix workstation and issued commands, meaning you had to have a working knowledge of Unix, which I managed to learn. About 2 years later the GUI we use today came and eventually completely replaced the Unix shell, which now made the Internet "user friendly" as opposed to something only a computer nerd would enjoy. With this and now that the thing had gone commercial, it simply exploded and would soon touch almost every part of the world.

This why I am not so afraid of these internet restrictions. From its inception this was a system designed precisely to make it next to impossible to destroy or stop. Those people back in the 1960's unwittingly let the genie out of the bottle, and there's no putting it back now.

[BLADESHARK]

Thanks for this detailed INFO
Wiki never knew this [I doubt]
Many thanks for the Pains in typing.

[humbert]

Thanks for this detailed INFO
Wiki never knew this [I doubt]
Many thanks for the Pains in typing.

Not a problem. Maybe some of my factual details might be slightly off, but generally this is what happened.

The reason I gave this detailed explanation is precisely to explain the reason I firmly believe governments legislating the internet is a battle they have no chance of winning. From its onset, the network was designed not just to be impossible to fully destroy, but also with high flexibility and as many workarounds as possible. Even in totalitarian states where ISP's are banned, it is still not impossible to get on the network if you have the know-how. Of course we all know that, given that so many companies worldwide do business on the net have friends in high places, banning ISP's is simply out of the question. My favorite example of all this is TPB. Not even the imprisonment of their founder in his native Sweden had deterred it. They restrict it one place, in hours it's back as something else. Reminds me of someone trying to kill an army of ants with a fly swatter.

And speaking of TPB and the rest of the torrent sites, could anyone enlighten me on something? How exactly do these guys make money? Keeping the system up isn't free, and few if any sites ask for donations. I wonder if they do it by selling ads that my adblock plus add-on won't let me see -- which is transparent because I wasn't going to click on them anyway.

[BLADESHARK]

How exactly do these guys make money?

Most uploader's don't make money, they do it for personal values (sharing) and earning respect.

You can make money in a variety of ways, you may develop your own private BitTorrent website with it's own private trackers, which give users the illusion of privacy & security. You could do this buy requiring an "invite", charging $x.xx for 2 invites, one for himself and one for a friend.If you can find an affiliate, you can always advertise by including a text or image file in your torrents about the affiliate. If your torrents get really popular, they will most likely pay you for your advertising.

Another possibility through an affiliate program, if you have a decent connection speed (especially upload) you could setup a computer on your network as a seedbox. This is where the system's main duty is simply to upload the torrent data to other users. You will usually need at least a consistent 2GB/upload speed.

You could use the CPA password method, which is generally frowned upon in the P2P community. This method involves password protecting an archieve and only giving a link to where the password is, the link itself is usually something like Sharecash or some service that pays you for the amount of people who visit your link.

This is what I think

[Shadow.97]

How exactly do these guys make money?

Most uploader's don't make money, they do it for personal values (sharing) and earning respect.

You can make money in a variety of ways, you may develop your own private BitTorrent website with it's own private trackers, which give users the illusion of privacy & security. You could do this buy requiring an "invite", charging $x.xx for 2 invites, one for himself and one for a friend.If you can find an affiliate, you can always advertise by including a text or image file in your torrents about the affiliate. If your torrents get really popular, they will most likely pay you for your advertising.

Another possibility through an affiliate program, if you have a decent connection speed (especially upload) you could setup a computer on your network as a seedbox. This is where the system's main duty is simply to upload the torrent data to other users. You will usually need at least a consistent 2GB/upload speed.

You could use the CPA password method, which is generally frowned upon in the P2P community. This method involves password protecting an archieve and only giving a link to where the password is, the link itself is usually something like Sharecash or some service that pays you for the amount of people who visit your link.

This is what I think

www.adf.ly links?

[katana]

hi, guys! jny here from the Philippines. any female members here?

[Ahmad]

@ katana.
Welcome to our world.
I hope you enjoy your stay.

[katana]

@ katana.
Welcome to our world.
I hope you enjoy your stay.

Thanks, Ahmad! I've been lurking around and, so far, I like what I'm reading here...

[Ahmad]

@ katana.

At first, I did exactly like what you're doing now..
I found this forum by chance... liked it very much... started to read all topics.
Really, I've learnt a lot here.

[katana]

@Ahmad

Much like you and the others before me, I know I'll learn a lot from here.... Thank you, Maher!