In 1987, an engineer used a new computer program “rwall” to send a message to his university server. Instead, the program broadcasted the message to every user on the internet—including the Pentagon.
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Internet
The President of the United States…
The President of the United States technically has the right to shut off the internet for all US citizens in case of a “national emergency” – also known as the presidential internet kill switch.
The 1 Percent Rule states that only…
The 1 Percent Rule states that only 1% of an Internet community creates new content. The rest of the community is divided between content editors (9%) and content viewers (90%).
A cyberchondriac is someone…
A cyberchondriac is someone who scours the Internet looking for details of their illnesses.
The first person to stream…
The first person to stream their life on the internet was Jennifer Ringley aka Jennicam, a 19 year old woman who from 1996, broadcasted her life from her college dorm room 24/7. At its peak, she got 7 million hits per day, a significant proportion of the internet at the time.
Passive internet use…
Passive internet use (looking at stuff but not posting) affects your well-being in a more negative way than active internet use (commenting and posting).
France had a “proto-internet” called Minitel…
France had a “proto-internet” called Minitel, to which half the population had access. It allowed for buying plane tickets, shopping, 24-hr news, message boards & adult chat services. It was used to coordinate a national strike in 1986. Some believe it hindered the internet’s adoption in France.
Free services like Craigslist…
Free services like Craigslist have decimated the classified advertising departments of newspapers, some of which depended on classifieds for 70% of their ad revenue. Research has shown that Craigslist cost the newspaper industry $5.4 billion from 2000-2007.
The Soviet Union lasted long enough to be given…
The Soviet Union lasted long enough to be given it’s own internet domain name, .su, which it received only 15 months before dissolving.
100% of Iceland’s population has…
100% of Iceland’s population has the internet, the only country in the world.