I agree that the origins of the Internet was the Department of Defense. However, I worked on the Internet during those early days and with tools such as ftp and telnet, the Internet was simply a world of geeks, nothing like it is today.

Downplaying Berners-Lee contribution is an injustice. It was his creation, the World Wide Web, that makes the Internet the fun, user-friendly place that even little children could use. Not only did he create the HTTP protocol, but he also applied a little-known, non-Internet standard at the time (SGML/HTML) and made it a success. His team also developed the first server libraries which were very important when the World Wide Web was an embryo.

But anyway, excuse me, I digress.

I don't care who is wrong or right but this attitude of yours is just plain childish, rude and moron.

You won't pass a message and look clever by talking to someone like this. You are not a child nor a teenager, aren't you? So talk like an adult will do in an adult conversation...

Cheers,

Nil

I believe his "rant" was meant to be sarcastic (imitating Colbert or perhaps a Fox News commentator). An emoticon might have helped though.

It is difficult to say from him.... Maybe we should change the title for:

''Imitation of Colbert, the good, the bad and the ugly''

Fine. There were many contributors in that space. And I should note that even after Berners-Lee's contribution, the Internet was still quite a geeky place. Web pages were viewed in a text interface (Lynx). It wasn't until Marc Andreessen created Mosaic, the first web browser, that you you had a mouse clickable interface. And it wasn't until artists got into the picture that you had fun little interfaces that little children could use. Neither of these are creditable to Berners-Lee.

One of my peeves is when the Swiss or anybody makes a silly claim that "The Internet was invented in Switzerland". It's a sad wannabe claim that I do not find respectable. As if Switzerland and Europe were capable of such a grand innovation. Berners-Lee was not even Swiss.

I wondered what happened to Siadwell - now I know!!!



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I think you miss the point of his show. Not to worry though. (Shhh, It's on Comedy Central..)
I'd be more worried about Americans getting their news from Fox news.

Wasn't the Internet invented by Al Gore?

If you let the Swiss (ok CERN) claim the invention of the Web, I'll let the Americans claim that Colbert is a world-renown comedian.

Well, that'll get Europeans to see your point of view. He's just trying to avoid blanket statements and bring nuance to the discussion, guys!

Wikipedia suddenly struggles under the sudden onslaught of traffic..

I'm sorry, but there are way too many people who worked hard and contributed a lot more to simply allow Switzerland to claim credit for it. Switzerland didn't do anything for it. Berners-Lee was not even Swiss.



You're right, that wasn't necessary.

But he was British, ladies & gents. Berners-Lee was a Brit.

How about the Internet was invented by the US, with the help of a few Brits?

You obviously don't understand the difference between Internet and the HTTP protocol, but that's completely excusable.

Your English sucks though. Big time. Here are a few tips to get you started.

And YOU are are moron!

You do not start a sentence with 'and'.
Consecutive 'are's are meaningless.
You missed the article. ('a' and 'the' are called articles)

The correct sentence would be ... You are a moron.

Also, had you'd paid attention

Do not start a sentence with 'Also'.
Besides, "Had you'd" is completely American. Not English.

The correct phrase would be ... Had you paid attention.

You have obviously been imparting of FAR too many illegal substances

You do not 'impart of' substances. That is a lame attempt at British English. Please do not try that again.

Correct English usage would be You have obviously been using far too many illegal substances.

Ending with "Back OFF, PUNK!" makes you sound American. But it does nothing to correct the impression that you appear arrogant, ill-mannered and generally ignorant.

Easy, unfriend them.

I see it as the Irish being proud of Jameson whiskey, even though John Jameson was Scottish. The country provided the working, commercial, inventive (or what have you) environment for the thing to happen. Sure you'll have some ignorant people exaggerate its contribution, but it doesn't deserve to get dismissed outright.

Aheam... Bible, King James version.
King John by Shakespeare....

Carry on..

Wow, go home to play some hockey, have a good nights rest, and come back to find this thread has now shifted to Internet specifics and grammar. I love this forum

But don't stop yet, we need to Godwin this thread before it gets closed!

OK, here it comes - the world's first programmable, digital, electronic, computing device was designed and built by an Englishman, Tommy Flowers, to break WWII German coded messages.


So the real credit for all modern digital computing, internet, WWW and lots of other good stuff must go to - HITLER!

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In the whole scheme of things, what the hell is an American anyway? If he is not a native American Indian, he originated from any country/tribe in the world.

But, yeah, Hopp Schwiiz!!

Well I tried to get it back on to Colbert, but no one seems to be interested in talking about him now. Anyway, this is the Off-Topic forum so long live this thread!