Rabbithole42.blog
Rabbit hole 42 - Blog of Never Ending Rabbit Hole Problems around the Web.
a Gor.bio project.
Since Aug 4th 2024
The ARPANET, the precursor to the modern Internet, officially ceased operations in 1990, marking the end of an era that had significantly shaped the development of digital communication. This momentous event didn't just close a chapter on early network technology; it paved the way for the emergence of the global Internet as we know it today.
On a quiet Sunday afternoon in February 2008, millions of internet users around the world suddenly found themselves unable to access YouTube. It wasn’t a typical outage caused by technical glitches or server overloads. Instead, this disruption was the result of a controversial government decision in Pakistan that inadvertently created a global internet blackout. The event became a striking example of how actions taken in one country can have far-reaching consequences across the entire internet.
In the spring of 1997, the internet was still something of a digital frontier, rapidly expanding and connecting more people every day. But on April 25, a single mistake by a small Florida-based ISP (Internet Service Provider) triggered an event that showed just how fragile this burgeoning network truly was. Known as the AS7007 Incident, this event became one of the most infamous outages in the history of the internet, offering a stark lesson on the vulnerabilities inherent in the system that underpins global web traffic.
In the mid-90s, Microsoft was riding high. Windows 95 was about to launch, and the company was cementing its place as a tech giant. But not everything Microsoft touched turned to gold. One of its most obscure and ultimately doomed projects was something called Microsoft Bob—a user interface designed to make computers more accessible by turning them into a sort of virtual home.
In the mid-1990s, the internet was still in its infancy, and the concept of virtual worlds was something out of science fiction. But for a brief, shining moment, a digital city called CyberTown offered internet users a glimpse into the future—long before the likes of Second Life or the Metaverse.
