Al Gore

Important ! Il y a dix ans... en 2006:

The black hole that made you possible

From what I understand, we now have a proof that the "Big Bang" was not an isolated, unique, event.  Those spur of energy are creating the basic elements that will become the foundation of new stars!

Four small video of less than 5 minutes.

1

2

3

4

Google self driving car

Self Driving car, ... ça s'en vient !!!

Voyez le vidéo promo des tests urbains fait par Google.  

Tout cela fera, dans un avenir rapproché, parti de nos vies !   Imaginez les gains en mobilités pour les personnes âgées et les gens à mobilité réduite.

Gravity Light - DEL à Gravité

Mise-à-jour : (Publié initialement le 25 janvier 2013)

J'ai reçu ma "gravity light" cool !!! Les enfants sont bien intrigués, ils veulent comprendre comment ça fonctionne.  Je leur ai parlé des dynamos de vélo - qu'ils n'ont jamais vu - puis de la production de l'hydro-électricité.  Bref, ils s'amusent à monter le poid.   Une seule surprise, il y a un petit grondement, normal, résultant de tous les engrenages qui servent à ralentir la chute tout en produisant l'énergie.  Très heureux.

Voyez:

C'est important!
Un projet humanitaire, écoénergétique, simple et prêt à être lancé.

La lumière à gravité, DEL à gravité;  un reprise du vieux système qui alimentait les horloges, avec les fausses cocottes suspendues à une chaîne ;-)

Le projet permet de remplacer l'éclairage au kérosène utilisé dans les pays en développement.  Ils prétendent qu'à moins de 10$ le délai de recouvrement est de 3 mois.  Ensuite ils ont de la lumière gratuite puisqu'il n'y pas de frais d'opération.  En plus, le design est simple et robuste.  C'est sensationnel !  

Pour financer, jusqu'au 14 janvier 2013 : Lien-Indiegogo
(Oui, j'ai contribué ! Basé sur le principe : "Put your money where your mouth is")

Le site web du projet : Deciwatt

deciwatt.org is a research initiative focussed on low power devices within therefore.com, a London based design and innovation company.

... J'adore la loi de Koomey

LED Nanolight - Des canadiens inventent l'ampoule la plus économique

Mise-à-jour : (Post original 3 janvier 2013)
J'ai reçu mon ampoule ;-)  Elle fonctionne à merveille et elle est d'une puissance surprenante !

Voyez:

Un p'tit film à voir.
Je suis dans l'économie d'énergie pour l'éclairage ces jours-ci... mais en fait je ne fais que communiquer les nouvelles qui passent mon chemin.

Plus d'info ici : www.thenanolight.com

Leur projet sur le site de financement Kickstarter
(j'ai commandé la mienne ;-)

et ici : Article de La Presse du 7 février



Des Canadiens inventent une ampoule pliante très économique
Agence France-Presse (Montréal)
07 février 2013 | 13 h 25


Trois Canadiens ont affirmé mercredi avoir inventé l'ampoule la plus économique du monde, d'une puissance de 12 watts mais diffusant autant de lumière qu'une ampoule classique de 100 watts.

Dite «Nanolight», l'ampoule est en fait un circuit imprimé parsemé de diodes électroluminescentes (LED), plié comme un origami et qui se branche sur secteur comme n'importe quel luminaire, a indiqué à l'AFP le principal auteur du projet, Gimmy Chu.

L'idée avait permis à ses inventeurs de recueillir plus de 100 000$ sur un site américain de financement par le public.

Le mois dernier, ils ont reçu des commandes de 3000 ampoules au total.

«Nous avions besoin d'une source de lumière allant dans tous les sens, pour imiter l'ampoule à incandescence traditionnelle», a ajouté M. Chu.

Au bout de trois ans de travail sur son projet, il a lancé l'année dernière avec ses partenaires Tom Rodinger et Christian Yan une société devant commercialiser leur invention, vendue 45 dollars l'unité.

«C'est un peu cher, mais sa durée de vie permet de faire des économies», dit l'inventeur.

Les trois hommes se sont rencontrés à l'Université de Toronto lors de la préparation d'une compétition de voitures à propulsion solaire.

ZipLine pour réduire les cicatrices

Un peu de médecine ... En voyage on ne part pas sans "duck tape", "Ty-rap" et sac "Ziploc". Quelle ne fut pas ma surprise de découvrir ce nouveau produit pour suturer les plaies, ça vous fait penser à qqchose... moi oui !



Le lien ici

the last pictures photos intended for aliens after humans are gone

100 pictures engraved on disk,
Sent out in space, Earth orbit,
for a billion + years.

How romantic, like a bottle at sea.

The last pictures photos intended for aliens after humans are gone

Trevor Paglen

Article from The Guardian


The project was partially inspired by Carl Sagan's Golden Record, which went into space on board Voyager in the 1970s.

Curiosity : rounded pebbles spotted

Curiosity science team member Sanjeev Gupta explains how rounded pebbles spotted by the rover are convincing evidence of an ancient streambed on Mars.

This is real science based on facts !!!  Love it !

Drake, encore, et le nombres de civilisations...

Drake,
Encore.
Et le nombre de civilisations dans la galaxie et l'Univers.

Pourquoi ?
Parce que mon frère est parti sur un trip "extra-terrestre" et que j'ai recommencé à fréquenter ces sites; avec un plaisir assumé.

Ce que j'ai déniché aujourd'hui était pas mal cool et graphique, alors je vous le partage.

Attention lorsque vous souhaitez changer des paramètres avec les "+" ou les "-", il faut laisser le "bouton" enfoncer pour que les hypothèses chiffrées soient changées.

Amusez-vous !!

Le lien vers le site de la BBC : -> Calculateur <-


Voici le LIEN vers mon post de 2009...

Mes résultats : Une dans la Voie Lactée, 76 Milliards dans l'U.  Ouf !

Go for launch !!

Space Shuttle getting ready for launch,
Time-lapsed movie.

... it's already history :-(

Kepler 22b

Une nouvelle intéressante ce matin,
Kepler 22b, planète jumelle de la Terre a été découverte par le satellite Kepler.  C'est la première fois que l'on trouve une planête aussi similaire !!  J'ai passé la journée la tête dans l'espace intersidéral à m'imaginer quelles seront nos premières communications avec la civilisation évoluée s'y trouvant peut-être (bon là je me fais de la science fiction feuilleton).



Pour l'article, en anglais : ici
...et afin d'éviter que l'accès se  corrompe j'ai copié l'article ici (anglais encore):

Kepler-22b: NASA discovers most 'Earth-like' planet yet (VIDEO)

NASA scientists have discovered a new planet, Kepler-22b, that they describe as the most Earth-like planet yet found.

News DeskDecember 6, 2011 09:48

NASA scientists have identified a new planet they believe to have several similarities to Earth.

Kepler-22b, named for the Kepler planet-hunting telescope it was spotted with, is the first planet to be confirmed beyond our solar system in what the Guardian called the "Goldilocks zone:" not too hot, not too cold, and therefore possibly habitable.

The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth. It orbits a star similar to the Earth's sun and is believed to have a surface temperature of around 22 degrees Celsius, according to NASA.

Astronomers say Kepler-22b's temperate climate makes it possible that it possesses liquid water, CNN reported.

More from GlobalPost: Double sun "Star Wars" planet discovered by NASA

Kepler program scientist Douglas Hudgins described the discovery as "a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin."

NASA still does not know what the planet is made of, however; it could be predominantly rock, gas or liquid. Scientists have "no idea" about the typical composition of planets of this size, Kepler deputy science team lead Natalie Batalha said, since there is no precedent in our own solar system.

Since Kepler-22b is about 600 light years - or 3,600 trillion miles - from Earth, the chances of any earthlings ever making it there are slim.

Kepler uses the "transit method" to detect new planets,MSN said: it monitors stars' brightness and searches for minute dips in light levels when a planet crosses in front of the star.

The $600-million observatory has detected 2,326 planets since it began operating in May 2009. Scientists will extrapolate its findings to estimate how many stars have potentially habitable planets orbiting them, Reuters said.

Its astronomers are currently preparing a bid for more funding to extend their mission, which is due to end in November 2012.

The triumph of coal marketing

The triumph of coal marketing

via Seth's Blog by Seth Godin on 3/22/11

Do you have an opinion about nuclear power? About the relative safety of one form of power over another? How did you come to this opinion?
Here are the stats, and here's the image. A non-exaggerated but simple version of his data:

For every person killed by nuclear power generation, 4,000 die due to coal, adjusted for the same amount of power produced... You might very well have excellent reasons to argue for one form over another. Not the point of this post. The question is: did you know about this chart? How does it resonate with you?
Vivid is not the same as true. It's far easier to amplify sudden and horrible outcomes than it is to talk about the slow, grinding reality of day to day strife. That's just human nature. Not included in this chart are deaths due to global political instability involving oil fields, deaths from coastal flooding and deaths due to environmental impacts yet unmeasured, all of which skew it even more if you think about it.
This chart unsettles a lot of people, because there must be something wrong with it. Further proof of how easy it is to fear the unknown and accept what we've got.
I think that any time reality doesn't match your expectations, it means that marketing was involved. Perhaps it was advertising, or perhaps deliberate story telling by an industry. Or perhaps it was just the stories we tell one another in our daily lives. It's sort of amazing, even to me, how much marketing colors the way we see the world--our reaction (either way) to this chart is proof of it.

Searching for data I  found this blog post filled with interesting comments.
Then I found this post ! ... the source... very interesting!  Hope it's reliable.

Les machines de l'île - Nantes

Dans la plus pure fusion entre l'art et l'ingénierie éclatée; inspiré à fond par Jules Verne et sise dans la ville qui l'a vu naître.  Ce festival / exposition permanente qui revitalise les chantiers navals de Nantes est un passage obligé pour tous ceux qui ont la fibre "mécaniste" en eux.  Lien

Les Machines de l’île sont un projet artistique totalement inédit. Né de l’imagination de François Delarozière et Pierre Orefice, il se situe à la croisée des « mondes inventés » de Jules Verne, de l’univers mécanique de Léonard de Vinci et de l’histoire industrielle de Nantes, sur le site exceptionnel des anciens chantiers navals.

Les Machines de l'Ile
envoyé par ncep. - Futurs lauréats du Sundance.

Un post issu de questions posées à Marc L. suite à des images qu'il a laissé filtrer sur la toile.  Merci !

Water on Mars

Water on Mars !
This is not new, but new images suggest that water still flow in brief spurts on Mars.  How amazing !

Follow this link to get the complete article : Link




... and because article have a tendency to disapear... here is a copy of it :

NASA photographs have revealed bright new deposits seen in two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them sometime during the past seven years.

"These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, Washington.

Liquid water, as opposed to the water ice and water vapor known to exist at Mars, is considered necessary for life. The new findings heighten intrigue about the potential for microbial life on Mars. The Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor provided the new evidence of the deposits in images taken in 2004 and 2005.

"The shapes of these deposits are what you would expect to see if the material were carried by flowing water," said Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. "They have finger-like branches at the downhill end and easily diverted around small obstacles." Malin is principal investigator for the camera and lead author of a report about the findings published in the journal Science.

The atmosphere of Mars is so thin and the temperature so cold that liquid water cannot persist at the surface. It would rapidly evaporate or freeze. Researchers propose that water could remain liquid long enough, after breaking out from an underground source, to carry debris downslope before totally freezing. The two fresh deposits are each several hundred meters or yards long.

The light tone of the deposits could be from surface frost continuously replenished by ice within the body of the deposit. Another possibility is a salty crust, which would be a sign of water's effects in concentrating the salts. If the deposits had resulted from dry dust slipping down the slope, they would likely be dark, based on the dark tones of dust freshly disturbed by rover tracks, dust devils and fresh craters on Mars.

Mars Global Surveyor has discovered tens of thousands of gullies on slopes inside craters and other depressions on Mars. Most gullies are at latitudes of 30 degrees or higher. Malin and his team first reported the discovery of the gullies in 2000. To look for changes that might indicate present-day flow of water, his camera team repeatedly imaged hundreds of the sites. One pair of images showed a gully that appeared after mid-2002. That site was on a sand dune, and the gully-cutting process was interpreted as a dry flow of sand.

Today's announcement is the first to reveal newly deposited material apparently carried by fluids after earlier imaging of the same gullies. The two sites are inside craters in the Terra Sirenum and the Centauri Montes regions of southern Mars.

"These fresh deposits suggest that at some places and times on present-day Mars, liquid water is emerging from beneath the ground and briefly flowing down the slopes. This possibility raises questions about how the water would stay melted below ground, how widespread it might be, and whether there's a below-ground wet habitat conducive to life. Future missions may provide the answers," said Malin.

Besides looking for changes in gullies, the orbiter's camera team assessed the rate at which new impact craters appear. The camera photographed approximately 98 percent of Mars in 1999 and approximately 30 percent of the planet was photographed again in 2006. The newer images show 20 fresh impact craters, ranging in diameter from 7 feet (2 meters) to 486 feet (148 meters) that were not present approximately seven years earlier. These results have important implications for determining the ages of features on the surface of Mars. These results also approximately match predictions and imply that Martian terrain with few craters is truly young.

Mars Global Surveyor began orbiting Mars in 1997. The spacecraft is responsible for many important discoveries. NASA has not heard from the spacecraft since early November. Attempts to contact it continue. Its unprecedented longevity has allowed monitoring Mars for over several years past its projected lifetime.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, manages the Mars Global Surveyor mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:http://www.nasa.govhttp://www.nasa.gov  

Media contacts: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Erica Hupp/Dwayne Brown 202-358-1237/1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington 

Expedition Titanic

Expedition Titanic

Discovered it a while ago.
I was hooked first time I surfed it. It's fun, filled with information and the subject, even though spoiled, still it is intriguing. And not to forget, the design of the web page is awesome, it keeps your curiosity up and it's trilling to surf.

Have fun scrolling down to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and stop by the facts points, I learned few things.

"Take a deeper look" at the shipwreck and it's surrounding. It is filled with fun fact points.

And follow the feeds, to see their progress in real time.

Les sillons d'un disque sous le microscope électronique Vinyl record grooves under electron microscope

Agrandi / Magnified 1000x

Suivez le lien pour plus de détails, un vidéo "How it's made" et une vue en 3D.

Follow the link for more details, a "How it's made" video and a 3D view ;-)

Épigénétique

J'ai appris via l'émission Découverte que deux chercheurs canadiens avaient, pour la première fois, démontré que des intérations sociales pouvaient modifier le code génétique.  C'est stupéfiant !  Vous vous rendez compte des implications !!

Des recherches [...] avaient identifié des mécanismes biologiques par lesquels les expériences de vie modifient l'expression de certains gènes, ceux du stress par exemple.


Leurs travaux, effectués à partir de cerveaux de personnes suicidées, ont montré que les mauvais traitements subis dans l'enfance altéraient de façon durable des gènes impliqués dans la réponse au stress.

Pour la première fois, [...] Gustavo Turecki, Michael Meaney [...] ont observé de tels mécanismes chez l'humain.

L'article complet


J'étais sous l'impression, depuis longtemps, que le code génétique était une recette inchangée qui se reproduisait, simplement, à chaque division cellulaire et qui était mélangé lors de la reproduction.  Et bien il semble que ce soit un peu plus complexe.  Et c'est la base de l'épigénétique:


L'épigénétique, dans son sens le plus récent, est l'ensemble des modifications transmissibles d'une génération à l'autre et réversibles de l'expression des gènes sans altération des séquences nucléotidiques.

 « On peut sans doute comparer la distinction entre la génétique et l’épigénétique à la différence entre l’écriture d’un livre et sa lecture. Une fois que le livre est écrit, le texte (les gènes ou l’information stockée sous forme d’ADN) seront les mêmes dans tous les exemplaires distribués au public. Cependant, chaque lecteur d’un livre donné aura une interprétation légèrement différente de l’histoire, qui suscitera en lui des émotions et des projections personnelles au fil des chapitres. D’une manière très comparable, l’épigénétique permettrait plusieurs lectures d’une matrice fixe (le livre ou le code génétique), donnant lieu à diverses interprétations, selon les conditions dans lesquelles on interroge cette matrice. » Thomas Jenuwein (Research institute of molecular pathology, Vienne, Autriche)

Entretien audio aux "Années Lumières"


Résumé de leur article

The History of the Internet in a Nutshell

Je suis nerds,... parfois
... et je m'assume entièrement.

The History of the Internet in a Nutshell

via Six Revisions by Jacob Gube on 11/15/09

If you're reading this article, it's likely that you spend a fair amount of time online. However, considering how much of an influence the Internet has in our daily lives, how many of us actually know the story of how it got its start?
Here's a brief history of the Internet, including important dates, people, projects, sites, and other information that should give you at least a partial picture of what this thing we call the Internet really is, and where it came from.


While the complete history of the Internet could easily fill a few books, this article should familiarize you with key milestones and events related to the growth and evolution of the Internet between 1969 to 2009.

1969: Arpanet

Arpanet was the first real network to run on packet switching technology (new at the time). On the October 29, 1969, computers at Stanford and UCLA connected for the first time. In effect, they were the first hosts on what would one day become the Internet.
The first message sent across the network was supposed to be "Login", but reportedly, the link between the two colleges crashed on the letter "g".

1969: Unix

Another major milestone during the 60's was the inception of Unix: the operating system whose design heavily influenced that of Linux and FreeBSD (the operating systems most popular in today's web servers/web hosting services).

1970: Arpanet network

An Arpanet network was established between Harvard, MIT, and BBN (the company that created the "interface message processor" computers used to connect to the network) in 1970.

1971: Email

Email was first developed in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, who also made the decision to use the "@" symbol to separate the user name from the computer name (which later on became the domain name).

1971: Project Gutenberg and eBooks

One of the most impressive developments of 1971 was the start of Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, for those unfamiliar with the site, is a global effort to make books and documents in the public domain available electronically–for free–in a variety of eBook and electronic formats.
It began when Michael Hart gained access to a large block of computing time and came to the realization that the future of computers wasn't in computing itself, but in the storage, retrieval and searching of information that, at the time, was only contained in libraries. He manually typed (no OCR at the time) the "Declaration of Independence" and launched Project Gutenberg to make information contained in books widely available in electronic form. In effect, this was the birth of the eBook.

1972: CYCLADES

France began its own Arpanet-like project in 1972, called CYCLADES. While Cyclades was eventually shut down, it did pioneer a key idea: the host computer should be responsible for data transmission rather than the network itself.

1973: The first trans-Atlantic connection and the popularity of emailing

Arpanet made its first trans-Atlantic connection in 1973, with the University College of London. During the same year, email accounted for 75% of all Arpanet network activity.

1974: The beginning of TCP/IP

1974 was a breakthrough year. A proposal was published to link Arpa-like networks together into a so-called "inter-network", which would have no central control and would work around a transmission control protocol (which eventually became TCP/IP).

1975: The email client

With the popularity of emailing, the first modern email program was developed by John Vittal, a programmer at the University of Southern California in 1975. The biggest technological advance this program (called MSG) made was the addition of "Reply" and "Forward" functionality.

1977: The PC modem

1977 was a big year for the development of the Internet as we know it today. It's the year the first PC modem, developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, was introduced and initially sold to computer hobbyists.

1978: The Bulletin Board System (BBS)

The first bulletin board system (BBS) was developed during a blizzard in Chicago in 1978.

1978: Spam is born

1978 is also the year that brought the first unsolicited commercial email message (later known as spam), sent out to 600 California Arpanet users by Gary Thuerk.

1979: MUD – The earliest form of multiplayer games

The precursor to World of Warcraft and Second Life was developed in 1979, and was called MUD (short for MultiUser Dungeon). MUDs were entirely text-based virtual worlds, combining elements of role-playing games, interactive, fiction, and online chat.

1979: Usenet

1979 also ushered into the scene: Usenet, created by two graduate students. Usenet was an internet-based discussion system, allowing people from around the globe to converse about the same topics by posting public messages categorized by newsgroups.

1980: ENQUIRE software

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (better known as CERN) launched ENQUIRE (written by Tim Berners-Lee), a hypertext program that allowed scientists at the particle physics lab to keep track of people, software, and projects using hypertext (hyperlinks).

1982: The first emoticon

While many people credit Kevin MacKenzie with the invention of the emoticon in 1979, it was Scott Fahlman in 1982 who proposed using :-) after a joke, rather than the original -) proposed by MacKenzie. The modern emoticon was born.

1983: Arpanet computers switch over to TCP/IP

January 1, 1983 was the deadline for Arpanet computers to switch over to the TCP/IP protocols developed by Vinton Cerf. A few hundred computers were affected by the switch. The name server was also developed in '83.

1984: Domain Name System (DNS)

The domain name system was created in 1984 along with the first Domain Name Servers (DNS). The domain name system was important in that it made addresses on the Internet more human-friendly compared to its numerical IP address counterparts. DNS servers allowed Internet users to type in an easy-to-remember domain name and then converted it to the IP address automatically.

1985: Virtual communities

1985 brought the development of The WELL (short for Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), one of the oldest virtual communities still in operation. It was developed by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant in February of '85. It started out as a community of the readers and writers of the Whole Earth Review and was an open but "remarkably literate and uninhibited intellectual gathering". Wired Magazine once called The Well "The most influential online community in the world."

1986: Protocol wars

The so-called Protocol wars began in 1986. European countries at that time were pursuing the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), while the United States was using the Internet/Arpanet protocol, which eventually won out.

1987: The Internet grows

By 1987, there were nearly 30,000 hosts on the Internet. The original Arpanet protocol had been limited to 1,000 hosts, but the adoption of the TCP/IP standard made larger numbers of hosts possible.

1988: IRC – Internet Relay Chat

Also in 1988, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was first deployed, paving the way for real-time chat and the instant messaging programs we use today.

1988: First major malicious internet-based attack

One of the first major Internet worms was released in 1988. Referred to as "The Morris Worm", it was written by Robert Tappan Morris and caused major interruptions across large parts of the Internet.

1989: AOL is launched

When Apple pulled out of the AppleLink program in 1989, the project was renamed and America Online was born. AOL, still in existence today, later on made the Internet popular amongst the average internet users.

1989: The proposal for the World Wide Web

1989 also brought about the proposal for the World Wide Web, written by Tim Berners-Lee. It was originally published in the March issue of MacWorld, and then redistributed in May 1990. It was written to persuade CERN that a global hypertext system was in CERN's best interest. It was originally called "Mesh"; the term "World Wide Web" was coined while Berners-Lee was writing the code in 1990.

1990: First commercial dial-up ISP

1990 also brought about the first commercial dial-up Internet provider, The World. The same year, Arpanet ceased to exist.

1990: World Wide Web protocols finished

The code for the World Wide Web was written by Tim Berners-Lee, based on his proposal from the year before, along with the standards for HTML, HTTP, and URLs.

1991: First web page created

1991 brought some major innovations to the world of the Internet. The first web page was created and, much like the first email explained what email was, its purpose was to explain what the World Wide Web was.

1991: First content-based search protocol

Also in the same year, the first search protocol that examined file contents instead of just file names was launched, called Gopher.

1991: MP3 becomes a standard

Also, the MP3 file format was accepted as a standard in 1991. MP3 files, being highly compressed, later become a popular file format to share songs and entire albums via the internet.

1991: The first webcam

One of the more interesting developments of this era, though, was the first webcam. It was deployed at a Cambridge University computer lab, and its sole purpose was to monitor a particular coffee maker so that lab users could avoid wasted trips to an empty coffee pot.

1993: Mosaic – first graphical web browser for the general public

The first widely downloaded Internet browser, Mosaic, was released in 1993. While Mosaic wasn't the first web browser, it is considered the first browser to make the Internet easily accessible to non-techies.

1993: Governments join in on the fun

In 1993, both the White House and the United Nations came online, marking the beginning of the .gov and .org domain names.

1994: Netscape Navigator

Mosaic's first big competitor, Netscape Navigator, was released the year following (1994).

1995: Commercialization of the internet

1995 is often considered the first year the web became commercialized. While there were commercial enterprises online prior to '95, there were a few key developments that happened that year. First, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption was developed by Netscape, making it safer to conduct financial transactions (like credit card payments) online.
In addition, two major online businesses got their start the same year. The first sale on "Echo Bay" was made that year. Echo Bay later became eBay. Amazon.com also started in 1995, though it didn't turn a profit for six years, until 2001.

1995: Geocities, the Vatican goes online, and JavaScript

Other major developments that year included the launch of Geocities (which officially closed down on October 26, 2009).
The Vatican also went online for the first time.
Java and JavaScript (originally called LiveScript by its creator, Brendan Eich, and deployed as part of the Netscape Navigator browser – see comments for explanation) was first introduced to the public in 1995. ActiveX was launched by Microsoft the following year.

1996: First web-based (webmail) service

In 1996, HoTMaiL (the capitalized letters are an homage to HTML), the first webmail service, was launched.

1997: The term "weblog" is coined

While the first blogs had been around for a few years in one form or another, 1997 was the first year the term "weblog" was used.

1998: First new story to be broken online instead of traditional media

In 1998, the first major news story to be broken online was the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal (also referred to as "Monicagate" among other nicknames), which was posted on The Drudge Report after Newsweek killed the story.

1998: Google!

Google went live in 1998, revolutionizing the way in which people find information online.

1998: Internet-based file-sharing gets its roots

In 1998 as well, Napster launched, opening up the gates to mainstream file-sharing of audio files over the internet.

1999: SETI@home project

1999 is the year when one of the more interesting projects ever brought online: the SETI@home project, launched. The project has created the equivalent of a giant supercomputer by harnessing the computing power of more than 3 million computers worldwide, using their processors whenever the screensaver comes on, indicating that the computer is idle. The program analyzes radio telescope data to look for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

2000: The bubble bursts

2000 was the year of the dotcom collapse, resulting in huge losses for legions of investors. Hundreds of companies closed, some of which had never turned a profit for their investors. The NASDAQ, which listed a large number of tech companies affected by the bubble, peaked at over 5,000, then lost 10% of its value in a single day, and finally hit bottom in October of 2002.

2001: Wikipedia is launched

With the dotcom collapse still going strong, Wikipedia launched in 2001, one of the websites that paved the way for collective web content generation/social media.

2003: VoIP goes mainstream

In 2003: Skype is released to the public, giving a user-friendly interface to Voice over IP calling.

2003: MySpace becomes the most popular social network

Also in 2003, MySpace opens up its doors. It later grew to be the most popular social network at one time (thought it has since been overtaken by Facebook).

2003: CAN-SPAM Act puts a lid on unsolicited emails

Another major advance in 2003 was the signing of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, better known as the CAN-SPAM Act.

2004: Web 2.0

Though coined in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci, the term "Web 2.0", referring to websites and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) that are highly interactive and user-driven became popular around 2004. During the first Web 2.0 conference, John Batelle and Tim O'Reilly described the concept of "the Web as a Platform": software applications built to take advantage of internet connectivity, moving away from the desktop (which has downsides such as operating system dependency and lack of interoperability).

2004: Social Media and Digg

The term "social media", believed to be first used by Chris Sharpley, was coined in the same year that "Web 2.0" became a mainstream concept. Social media–sites and web applications that allow its users to create and share content and to connect with one another–started around this period.

Digg, a social news site, launched on November of 2004, paving the way for sites such as Reddit, Mixx, and Yahoo! Buzz. Digg revolutionized traditional means of generating and finding web content, democratically promoting news and web links that are reviewed and voted on by a community.

2004: "The" Facebook open to college students

Facebook launched in 2004, though at the time it was only open to college students and was called "The Facebook"; later on, "The" was dropped from the name, though the URL http://www.thefacebook.com still works.

2005: YouTube – streaming video for the masses

YouTube launched in 2005, bringing free online video hosting and sharing to the masses.

2006: Twitter gets twittering

Twitter launched in 2006. It was originally going to be called twittr (inspired by Flickr); the first Twitter message was "just setting up my twttr".

2007: Major move to place TV shows online

Hulu was first launched in 2007, a joint venture between ABC, NBC, and Fox to make popular TV shows available to watch online.

2007: The iPhone and the Mobile Web

The biggest innovation of 2007 was almost certainly the iPhone, which was almost wholly responsible for renewed interest in mobile web applications and design.

2008: "Internet Election"

The first "Internet election" took place in 2008 with the U.S. Presidential election. It was the first year that national candidates took full advantage of all the Internet had to offer. Hillary Clinton jumped on board early with YouTube campaign videos. Virtually every candidate had a Facebook page or a Twitter feed, or both.

Ron Paul set a new fundraising record by raising $4.3 million in a single day through online donations, and then beat his own record only weeks later by raising $4.4 million in a single day.
The 2008 elections placed the Internet squarely at the forefront of politics and campaigning, a trend that is unlikely to change any time in the near future.

2009: ICANN policy changes

2009 brought about one of the biggest changes to come to the Internet in a long time when the U.S. relaxed its control over ICANN, the official naming body of the Internet (they're the organization in charge of registering domain names).

The Future?

Where is the future of the Internet headed? Share your opinions in the comments section.

Sources and Further Reading

• A People's History of the Internet: from Arpanet in 1969 to Today: A timeline of the Internet from guardian.co.uk.
• History of the Internet: An early timeline of the Internet, from precursors in the 1800s up through 1997.
• A Brief History of the Web: A series of videos from Microsoft to celebrate the launch of Internet Explorer 8.
• The History of the Internet – Tim Berners-Lee: A brief history of major developments associated with the Internet from About.com.
• Hobbes' Internet Timeline – the definitive ARPAnet & Internet History: A very thorough timeline of the Internet, starting in 1957 and going up through 2004, with tons of statistics and source material included.
• Internet Timeline: A basic timeline of Internet history from FactMonster.com.

Related Content

• The History of Web Browsers
• Popular Search Engines in the 90's: Then and Now
• 10 Revealing Infographics about the Web
• Related categories: Web Development and Infographics

About the Author

Cameron Chapman is a professional web and graphic designer with over 6 years of experience in the industry. She's also written for numerous blogs such as Smashing Magazine and Mashable. You can find her personal web presence at Cameron Chapman On Writing. If you'd like to connect with her, check her out on Twitter.

La source

Martian landscapes

Since 2006, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been orbiting Mars, currently circling approximately 300 km (187 mi) above the Martian surface. On board the MRO is HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, which has been photographing the planet for several years now at resolutions as fine as mere inches per pixel. Collected here is a group of images from HiRISE over the past few years, in either false color or grayscale, showing intricate details of landscapes both familiar and alien, from the surface of our neighboring planet, Mars. I invite you to take your time looking through these, imagining the settings - very cold, dry and distant, yet real.

Martian landscapes - The Big Picture - Boston.com

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