Prior to Syracuse, we were in NYC where I picked up a new book at the New Museum entitled Web Aesthetics: How Digital Media Affect Culture and Society by Vito Campanelli. After hours and hours of reading History of the Internet and Typography on the Web (which were both written in the late 90s), I think this hot-off-the-press book could be of great value. It's been really interesting reading outdated information, especially when the authors predict the future of the internet, and its capabilities. There is something really endearing about it.
I find that I'm getting caught in an information overload and can't get out of it. I can't put History of the Internet down, and I'm reading about things that, although somewhat related to my research, isn't taking my into the milieu that I should be in. That being said, I am getting a clearer sense of the history, language and origins of the internet and web design. Two little tidbits:
1- Talking about computers in biological terms (like when we talk about our computer's memory) stems from a 1945 report on the design for the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer). The EDVAC was finally built in 1952 and became the model for modern computer technology.
2- The term computer 'bug' is popularized in 1947 when mathematician Grace Murray Hopper (yes, a woman...and yes, one of the few female names I have come across so far in my research) finds that a moth got caught in MARK II (another early computing system) causes a malfunction.
More soon...about how Sputnik (poor, poor dog), Grad students gone wild and Hippies helped start the internet.
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