Index: A-B | C-D | E-H | I-L | M-O | P-S | T-Z A º Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) º Alger, Jr., Horatio (1832-1899) º ARPANET º Artificial Intelligence (AI) º Atomic Bomb B º Balto (1922-1933) º Baran, Paul (1926- ) º Barlow, John Perry (1947- ) º Battery º Berners-Lee, Tim (1955-) º Billings, John Shaw (1838-1913) º Bit º Bolt, Beranek and Newman or BBN º Browser

 

A Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) Defense Department agency created in 1958 to sponsor advanced research. At times known as DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). Creator of the first packet-switched computer network, the ARPANET. Alger, Jr., Horatio (1832-1899) From the late 1860s to the early 1900s, America's best known author of juvenile fiction. Alger's books typically featured a rags-to-riches story in which a young hero overcomes adversity and makes good. ARPANET The first large-scale packet-switched computer network, created by ARPA in 1969. Later split into a defense network (MILNET) and a civilian network (ARPANET), with the civilian network's functions being absorbed by the National Science Foundation's NSFNet in the late 1980s. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Branch of computer science devoted to the simulation of human cognitive processes by computers, either to improve computer performance or to provide insight into human thought processes. Atomic Bomb Weapon of immense destructive power, first created by the United States and used during world War II against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945. The atomic bomb harnessed the power of fission — the splitting of the nucleus of an atom — to generate its enormous force. The Soviet Union developed its first atomic bomb in 1949. [Back] [Index] [Close]

 

B Balto (1922-1933) The sled-dog who led the final leg of the relay that brought diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska in the frigid winter of 1925. Baran, Paul (1926- ) Mathematician who developed influential theories about distributed communications and networking. Barlow, John Perry (1947- ) Former songwriter for the Grateful Dead, now a widely read commentator on the Internet and society, especially on the implications of the Internet for the economic and legal status of intellectual property.< br/> Papers: "The Economy of Ideas" and "Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace" Battery A device that generates a direct current by converting chemical energy to electrical energy. The first electrical batteries were developed in the late 18th and early 19th century. Berners-Lee, Tim (1955-) Computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web by creating a set of protocols for managing information on the Internet. These protocols included a language for displaying documents on different computers (HTML, the Hyper-Text Markup Language), a system for referring to documents stored on networked computers (URL, the Uniform Resource Locator), and a program for finding and displaying documents (the first browser). Paper: "Information Management, A Proposal" Billings, John Shaw (1838-1913) American surgeon and librarian, a major figure in the organization and expansion of the Surgeon General's Library, later known as the Army Medical Library and then the National Library of Medicine. Billings developed a logical classification system for the Library, and founded two indispensable works of medical reference, Index Medicus, a monthly guide to current medical literature, and the Library's Index Catalogue. Bit Short for binary digit, the bit was invented to be a measure of information by Claude Shannon, a mathematician and electrical engineer working for Bell Labs. Eight bits equals one byte of information, the amount necessary to represent a single text character. Bolt, Beranek and Newman or BBN Company contracted by ARPA to construct and administer the ARPANET. Now a subsidiary of GTE. Browser Computer program used to retrieve and display documents available on the Internet. The best known browsers are Netscape and Internet Explorer. [Back] [Index] [Close]