The Guardian.co.uk’s landmark compilation of stories of 40 years of the Internet — and by those who make up the Internet: people like you and I — presents the most attractive Internet timeline just yet.

Scanning through online aggregator’s snippets, specifically of favorite, minimalist popurls.com’s site, led me to the 40-year tapestry of stories in short but very engaging prose. The linear web of accounts outlines the most important and updated milestones in the ‘Net’s continuing story that I simply feel compelled to share it here, especially to the generation that may not understand the exhilaration associated with (nor recognize the sound of) a digital modem handshake: the generation reared in broadband speed and e-games or playing “house” for hours in their chairs clicking away on their keyboards, or being highly dependent on online search engines — if not their cellphone keypads — for their homework.

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…the first message (only the “L-O” of the word “L-O-G-I-N” travelled from UCLA to SRI before the first ‘Net crash…

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Vinton Cerf et al. published a proposal to link up Arpa-like networks. (It) is notable for containing the first published use of the word "internet"

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The year 1969 is notable for many significant events.

In the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos was reelected for another 4-year term; The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati (then, a municipality of Rizal Province, now, a city of Metropolitan Manila) had its campus groundbreaking and admitted its first batch of students[1].

In the Middle East, Moammar Khaddafy staged a coup and ousted Libya’s King Idris. In Asia, “the United States, governments of South and North Vietnam, and the Viet Cong met for the first plenary session of peace talks in Paris, France” [2|"American Assistance to the South"], yet Cambodia was at the receiving end of the USA’s B-52 bombs[3] as exposed in the New York Times by William Beecher the same year.  Meanwhile, Andy Warhol and Gerald Malanga co-founded Interview Magazine[4], The Boeing 747, which we grew up to know as the “Jumbo Jet”, took off ground for the first time [5] (as did France’s Concorde in its test flight). Dorothy Fisher became the first female heart transplant recipient under Dr. Christian Barnaard [6], and the first manned spaceflight lands on the moon [7].

Oh, that generation’s version of homeschooling, Sesame Street, premiered in the US the same year, too, and many Filipinos of the 70s, including myself, learned English grammar and alphabet from people interacting with puppets. In the flesh and beauty arena, dusky 18-year old Gloria Diaz made headlines for winning the Philipines’ first Miss Universe crown.

(if video above does not load, watch it here)

In the same year, Seiko unveiled the first quartz watch [8], the microprocessor chip was born [9], and UNIX was developed by Bell Labs [10].

⇔

This post is populated by information made possible in one sitting without getting off my chair, as I, like many from today’s generation who I mean to address, and from the generation ahead of mine, am a beneficiary of all the events mentioned above; but, more profoundly, by this much less significant event in 1969 that is now capable of calling back the past at one’s behest.

The Guardian.co.uk calls it’s project A People’s History of the Internet and starts with the ARPANET research project that was borne out of the Cold War.

This days, many attribute the Internet as this generation’s “great leveler”. It is  just 40 years old, yet, like many of the darkened areas of the world maps back in those days, the internet — as technology and way of life — has still to touch the world’s majority population.

I wonder what people’s history will be like, how the ‘Net will play out in the next 40 years, if we only look back to any of the these significant events, and learn, particularly from those that deal with conflict, crises and territoriality, to build a better world for others from here.

…or why decent, proprietary Internet access remains a dream for the Filipinos in the Philippines while Finland enforces rules[1] to make Internet access a legal right for all by 2010.[2]

HUWEI E1552
HW v. CD6ATCPU
FW v. 11.608.10.00.00
Mac OS 10.4

The Philippines will probably take decades to even catch up with Finland at this point as it has other Internet and computer technology-related issues to deal with.

And so, I write this post, a follow-up post to an earlier one about Globe Tattoo (Postpaid). I am posting this from a neighborhood internet cafe as sending a 786kb zipped file attachment was a painful experience all day today.

It also did not help that Gmail was both slow to load and even slower in uploading the file. I wasn’t sure if the slowness in the Tattoo connection had anything to do with Google and Gmail’s much slower response time which resulted in my being disconnected several times.

Another recent development with regards Globe Tattoo is how its desktop interface freezes up on manual disconnection.

I have had to force-quit the app several times today. Out of 6 attempts, 4 of them would quit on the Option+Command+Escape window, but remain among the open apps that show up on Alt+Tab toggle command.

I had to do a hard reset 4 times just today because of it; this is not good for the laptop.

Anyone else had a similar experience with Globe Tattoo, especially recently?

WP Notes

By the way, this is my first ever post using a 14in. monitor at the ‘net cafe and, my, do I miss the real estate of the home-based portable.

I am posting on the WP “HTML” view option on Windows XP and IE 6.0(!!!) as the “Visual” view messes up the widgets to the right, causing them to stay on top of the post window.

Oh well.

HUWEI    E1552
HW v. CD6ATCPU
FW v. 11.608.10.00.00

I understand that the recent typhoons rendered some base stations and cellsites damaged by Ondoy/Ketsana last week, resulting in a slowdown in most cell networks, Globe included.

While Peping/Parma hovers over the north-eastern part of Luzon as of this writing, Globe Tattoo’s USB wifi connection has been painfully slow.

It’s 4 am in Quezon City and I had not gone past any significant webpage, viewed sites or uploaded/downloaded attached files successfully from Gmail. I am on WCDMA network now in which my download speed is at 39 kbps and upload at 1.6kbps.

I’m supposed to be getting better bandwidth because almost everyone in the Philippines is asleep, thereby freeing up some data transfer rates but there is no marked difference between WCDMA now and GPRS an hour ago. It does not help that the remote server keeps on disconnecting &emdash thrice since 1am earlier &emdash if not an “error in connection” from unknown reasons.

I had been viewing email on Gmail using the basic HTML version for a week just so that I can successfully open and respond to several mails.

Are we getting a raw deal from this postpaid Globe Tattoo USB wifi stick? Should I tweak the firmware to make this connection alive and moving? Should I dump it in favor of Sun USB wifi modem which has been getting favorable feedback from users in the past month, or SmartBro PlugIt which has been a second choice of several mobile wifi users?

What gives, Globe?

If I were to rate this from 1-5, with 5 as “recommended”, I’d give this a “1″, unfortunately.

I created an ALL ONDOY SHOUTOUT PAGE for information on rescue and donations, a CENTRAL HUB, a DISASTER MAP and Twitter posts.

Watch a visualisation of all posts on ONDOY in the Twittersphere.

Please help when you can.

Currently needed for donations:

CANDLES

READY-TO-EAT FOOD that will NOT spoil

TOWELS, TOWELETTES

ALCOHOL

DIAPERS

Also, NEW intimate wear for the women/girls and men/boys
SLIPPERS
MATS
MATCHES
BAGS for their belongings
FOOD HOLDERS or VESSELS to hold relief food.

Thank you.

Billy Corgan has finally announced on 16 September 2009 new updates and plans for the upcoming album to be called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope “…beginning around Halloween of this year…” | [late Nov-early Dec 2009, PHI time]

The best thing about this announcement — besides a box set with accompanying glorious artwork (as usual) — is:

Each song will be made available absolutely for free, to anyone anywhere. There will be no strings attached. Free will mean free, which means you won’t have to sign up for anything, give an email address, or jump through a hoop. You will be able to go and take the song or songs as you wish, as many times as you wish.

Not only is this offer a generous one, it comes directly from a band which knows how the Internet works in the most equitable way that fans can enjoy its music.

The full announcement and SP’s blog can be read in one the web’s most visually satisfying sites here.

And so it’s great that a boxed set will available, and I am hoping to get a hold of it, too. It would make a fine match to my other SP set that’s been in the collection by its lonesome for some time now.

Also, read Billy Corgan’s new personal site everythingfromheretothere.com

~/K

with heads up from /tribeofnoise a great follow for things music. | tribeofnoise.com

I am listening to all of Nature’s collection of drum rolls in its arsenal right now.

~ 2:29 pm, Quezon City

Post scriptum

Really, when Nature puts on a show, everybody halts to listen, watch or do some inward reflection.

After all, what else can we do when caught in a light show in the mid-afternoon, with incessant rolling and barreling and banging of the skies above, and a burst, an unstoppable flow of the skies’ mighty waters that rushes our negligence away.

And then, a deafening silence. And a sigh. And then the sound of every body’s routine creeping back in, slowly breaking the hush, taking over what was, for a few minutes there, a reminder of our fragility.
~ 3:27pm

http://www.philippineblogawards.com.ph

An animated short to promote Swarovski’s crystal line by Mr. Court Productions.

I also love the illustrations of Brigette Barager. “Camille”, “Theo”, “Pierre” and “Marie” are like my cats.
- – - – - – - – - – - – -

Credits
Directed by Courtland Lomax
Music by Brian Young
Compositing by Ethan Metzger
Backgrounds and Designs by Brigette Barrager
Layouts by Sean Jimenez

Animation:
Adam Muto
Jules Soto
Shiyoon Kim
Bert Youn
Matthais Bauer
Eric Fountain
Courtland Lomax
Leo Matsuda
Matt Pugnetti
Jennifer Hager
David Nam

Cleanup:
Sean Jimenez
Esther Shin
Jinyoung Park
Juliana Park
Kelli Kuest
Matt Pugnetti

Michael Jackson, performer and compleat artist Aug. 29, 1958-June 25, 2009

Thanks to Garry, co-founder of Posterous.com’s Michael Jackson tribute page, from whom I read about this. Truly a post worth re-republishing.

My mailbox in the past 5 years or so had been mainly of gallery invites and greeting cards, neighborhood flyers and some bills, or legal notices that find its way to our side of the compound which obliges me to sign forms on behalf of their intended recipients.

I’m talking of the slits on our gate facades to the street, not the free web space that has virtually all but wiped out the mailman from oblivion; the one that receives envelopes with words that match our identities.

Anyway, there were very few occasions when the mailbox springs surprises since people stopped trooping to post offices but never tired of forwarding chain upon chain of jokes, gossip and email what-have-you’s.

One late morning, in the early days of June, came two postcards from Singapore. These were, however, not in the mailbox, but were inserted in between the ornamental iron grillwork of our gate that sat just above it.

The postcards were from Kate, fellow Mac user and Mac forum member, online friend and who, like myself, is an animal lover. A kindred soul, Kate, a former PAWS volunteer, was now giving her design services to a company based in Singapore and who, she once posted online, while more than ready to jump into the OFW bandwagon, was torn about being apart from her dear Nugget.

Kate chanced upon two vintage-looking postcards in Singapore she said reminded her of me because of the coffee drawings and the word “kaffee”, my online nick, prominent on one of them.

I was more than happy to be notified by Kate about her sending me these. When they finally arrived at my doorstep, practically, I was joyous because it brightened my dreary June morning.

Handwritten mail is always special and not just because I love collecting postcards; I value what’s written on them more than anything. It was those rare days when the mailman’s knock was more than welcome.

Hey, Kate, here they are, happy among my set of special ones from family and friends. Thanks!

……………
PS. See that one on the upper left-hand corner? That’s PiCATso, from Paris