This week, we finished up the discussion of the history of the internet and its creation. I found the readings and conversations about the evolution of the original ARPAnet to be quite interesting; however, I am more intrigued about the current uses of the internet and how it can be used to progress society. With that being said, I am greatly looking forward to the coming discussions.
Someone brought up the decline of Uber in the conversation this week; I had heard of this recently, but I was excited to learn the reasons why the seemingly successful company is failing. If you did not watch the news or was around anyone that does, I don’t think that you would realize that Uber is losing money at a rapid rate.
I was also interested to learn about top-level domains. TLDs are the end of any given URL. For example, in www.harvard.edu, .edu would be the top-level domain. I had always wondered why the .(insert TLD here) protocol was a thing. I also have had experiences where I was asked to go to a particular website, and I inputted the incorrect TLD, leading me to a completely unrelated website. The example given in class, about www.whitehouse.gov, has a completely weird agenda. I can imagine the reactions of those who inputted the incorrect TLD, when trying to look up some information about the White House.
In the first few weeks of class, I have learned a great deal about computers and how primitive networks were established. I have been reflecting on these things, and wonder what the future of computer science holds. I am beyond excited to start delving into the everyday uses of the internet that most of us probably take for granted… to be continued!
I’m glad you’ve found the discussion illuminating. It’s fun for Jim and me because each year we’re pushed to talk about different aspects of the same main topic. I look forward to hearing where you push us in the upcoming seminars. They sound like they’re in your sweet spot!