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'Father of the internet' Vint Cerf explains how web addresses work
For most of us, browsing the web is pretty easy: type in a domain name, mash the enter key, and well, here you are. Behind the scenes, however, it's a mess of IP addresses, numbers and international stake holders. Part of ICANN's job is sorting all that out and making your web experience simple -- and recently its players have been trying to reduce the US government's influence on the organization. A little unsure how this power shift will effect you? Then read on: Google and internet progenitor Vint Cerf have teamed up to explain what ICANN is, how it's managed and why its global changes are good for the future of the internet. You can see the full video (complete with meme references and funny pictures) after the break.
Vint Cerf: Google services need a degree of anonymity, and they deliver it
Google has drawn flak for wanting much of our access to its services linked under a single Google+ identity -- and preferably a real one. However, company internet evangelist Vint Cerf argues that Google shouldn't (and doesn't) cross a line in the sand on user anonymity. He contends in a Reuters interview that no one should be forced to use their real name, and that Google won't press for one, especially in politically oppressive situations where there could be dire consequences to protesting under a real identity. What about less sensitive conditions, however? Cerf would like to strike a balance: he prefers solutions that "strongly authenticate" people when necessary, without eliminating anonymity altogether. We're glad to hear that there's a place Google won't go in its quest for social network supremacy, although we're sure some would like the search giant to take another step back and restore the controls over anonymity and privacy that they believe have been lost. [Image credit: Joy Ito, Flickr]
Internet Hall of Fame gets first inductees at inaugural event in Switzerland
Major League Baseball has Cooperstown, Robots have their HOF in Pittsburgh and now we finally have a Hall of Fame to call our own. Today marks the inaugural set of Pioneers, Innovators and Global Connectors inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame, having taken place at an Internet Society conference in Geneva, Switzerland. The web HOF is part of an initiative by the nonprofit organization to "celebrate the advancements of 33 talented people who have made significant contributions to the design, development, and expansion of the internet." Among these are folks such as the Father of the Internet Vint Cerf, ARPANET engineer Paul Baran and the 45th US Vice President Al Gore, just to mention a few names. Between the 2012 inductees there were nine different countries represented, 11 PhDs, 11 published authors and a winner of an Academy Award and Nobel Prize. Interested in knowing who else made it in? The full list of inductees can be found at the source below.
June 6th 2012: IPv6 goes live
When Vint Cerf and his friends at DARPA concocted a system that allowed for 4.3 billion IP addresses, it was never conceived that everyone's computer would be able to access the internet -- before the age when your telephone, fridge and air conditioning unit would too. The IPv4 system officially ran out of addresses last year, but fortunately the moment was prepared for: June 8th 2011 was "World IPv6 Day," where a host of sites including Google, Bing and Facebook quietly tried out the new system for 24 hours to make sure it wouldn't cause the internet to explode. June 6th this year will see the final activation of the new network provision that has a capacity of around 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 unique addresses, which we figure will keep us going until Black Friday, at least.
Vint Cerf on IPv4 depletion: 'Who the hell knew how much address space we needed?'
Father of the internet, Vint Cerf, is taking one on the knuckles this week for the inevitable diminution of the world's IPv4 addresses. Last Friday, The Sydney Morning Herald ran a sensational story titled, "Internet Armageddon all my fault: Google chief," in which Cerf warned of an end to unique IP addresses "within weeks." The story was, of course, a bit tongue-in-cheek, considering the industry has long anticipated and prepared for said Armageddon. Back in 1977, Cerf led a team of DARPA researchers in creating IPv4, which limits IP addresses to four 8-bit numbers or 32-bits total, providing for 4.3 billion addresses: not nearly enough by today's standards. In the article, Cerf said he never expected his protocol to take off, adding, "Who the hell knew how much address space we needed?" The IPv4's successor, IPv6, which enlists four 32-bit numbers or 128 bits total, was developed soon after Cerf's protocol and is now getting attention from internet giants like Google and Facebook, who will launch World IPv6 Day this June. Considering IPv6 makes for 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 unique addresses, we probably won't be hearing of an IP apocalypse anytime soon.
Google Science Fair 2011 boasts big names, big prizes (video)
Dust off the baking soda and bust out the vinegar, because Google's throwing a science fair. That's right, the internet giant is taking the time-honored tradition of hastily constructed teenage science experiments online. Entrants must be between 13 and 18 years old and submit their projects (in English) via Google Sites by April 4th. Once the projects are in, a panel of real-life teachers will select 60 semi-finalists. From there, the pool will be narrowed down to a group of 15, who will attend an in-the-flesh fair at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA, this July. The big event's judges include CERN's Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Google's Vint Cerf, and Nobel Laureate Kary Mullis. Grand prize winners in three age groups will receive a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos islands, and some stuff from LEGO and Scientific American. On second thought, maybe the baking soda volcano isn't such a great idea. (Rube Goldberg-inspired promo video after the jump.)
NASA's interplanetary Internet tests a success, Vint Cerf triumphs again
NASA is reporting the first successful tests of its Deep Space Network modeled after Earth's own Internet. Instead of using TCP/IP, however, the interplanetary communication network relies upon DTN (Disruption-Tolerant Networking) co-developed by none other than Google's Vinton Cerf. As such, NASA's network does not assume a continuous end-to-end connection -- if a link is lost due to solar storms or a planetary eclipse, the communication node will store the information until the connection is re-established. So, what's the big deal you rightly ask, after all, we've been (purposely) transmitting data to and from space for a half-century. As Leigh Torgerson, manager of NASA's DTN Experiment Operations Center explains it:"In space today, an operations team must manually schedule each link and generate all the commands to specify which data to send, when to send it, and where to send it. With standardized DTN, this can all be done automatically." Testing of the Deep Space Network began in October with twice-weekly communications between NASA's Epoxi spacecraft (on a mission to rendezvous with Comet Hartley 2) and nine ground-based nodes meant to simulate Mars landers, orbiters, and operation centers. The International Space Station is scheduled to join the testing next summer. Although the nature of the data transmitted wasn't specified, we can only presume that it was laced with Google ads for Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong.
Google phone rumors shot down -- for the moment
We were afraid the fun couldn't last long, and indeed a Google bossman has come forward in an attempt to quell rumors of a Google phone. Richard Kimber, Google's South-East Asia managing director of sales and operations, says that Google is obviously investing in the software side of things, but that it has no interest in entertering the crowded handset market. "At this point in time, we are very focused on the software, not the phone." This echoes Vint Cerf's statments from earlier this month, who said "becoming an equipment manufacturer is pretty far from our business model." Of course, while both of these guys are confirming that mobile software, services and ads are in the works, neither one has come straight out and denied an actual device, or taken steps to contradict Isabel Aguilera's statements about a low-end phone in the works -- but it's pretty clear that these guys are at least implying we won't be seeing such a device for a while yet.
