Index: A-B | C-D | E-H | I-L | M-O | P-S | T-Z E º Economy of Ideas, The º Edison, Thomas Alva (1847-1931) º Electromagnetism º Electronic Mail (email) º Electrotherapy º Enciphering º Encryption º Epic Saga of the Well, The º Ethernet F º Fair Use º Fiber Optics º Fire Alarm Telegraph º FTP (File Transfer Protocol) G º Gates, William (Bill) (1955- ) º Glass Arm º Gopher º Gore, Albert (1948- ) º Gould, Jay (1836-1892) º Graphical User Interface (GUI) H º Hafner, Katie (1957- ) º Hoff, Ted (1937- ) º Homing Pigeon º Host º HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) º Hypertext

 

E Economy of Ideas, The Paper: "The Economy of Ideas," Author: Barlow, John Perry 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. Edison, Thomas Alva (1847-1931) Prolific American inventor whose inventions transformed the modern world. Although Edison is known today primarily for the electric light bulb, the phonograph, and motion pictures, he held over a thousand patents, and created the world's first industrial research laboratory. His first major inventions were adaptations of the electric telegraph: the Edison printing telegraph (also called the stock ticker) and quadruplex telegraphy, which enabled four messages to be sent simultaneously over one wire. Electromagnetism The idea that electric and magnetic fields are interrelated and that each can be used to produce the other. Electromagnetism was discovered and studied in the 1820s and succeeding decades by Hans Christian Oersted, Michael Faraday, Joseph Henry and other scientific researchers. Faraday showed that a magnetic field could be generated by running an electric current through a wire wrapped around a ring of soft iron. The electromagnet was an essential component of the Morse telegraph, the Wheatstone and Cooke telegraph, and all subsequent electrical telegraphs. Electronic Mail (email) Method of transmitting text messages electronically over a network. Ray Tomlinson of Bolt, Beranek, and Newman wrote the first programs for sending and receiving electronic mail in 1972 and distributed them widely across the ARPANET in 1973. Electrotherapy The application of electric currents to the human body as a therapeutic agent; first popularized in the 1830s. Enciphering In the 19th century, the encryption of a message into code. Encryption The process of scrambling information to keep it secret. Once encrypted, information is usually accessible only to persons having the correct decryption key. Epic Saga of the Well, The Paper: "The Epic Saga of the Well" Author: Hafner, Katie Journalist known for her writings on the history of the Internet, especially her article on The Well and her book, Where Wizards Stay Up Late. Ethernet One of several technologies used to connect personal computers and workstations into local area networks. Ethernet uses different transmission devices and protocols than are used for inter-network communications. Invented by Robert Metcalfe in 1972-73. [Back] [Index] [Close]

 

F Fair Use Legal doctrine that permits people to use copyrighted material, in certain circumstances, without permission from the owner of the rights to that material. Some examples of "fair use" include quoting from a work for the purpose of criticism or commentary and the making of a limited number of photocopies for educational purposes. Fiber Optics Glass fibers used to transmit signals in the form of pulses of light. Optical fibers are able to transmit vast quantities of information, far more than copper wires. Fire Alarm Telegraph Also called the "municipal telegraph"; an adaptation of the electromagnetic telegraph. The first system, installed in Boston in 1852, consisted of three box circuits, three bell circuits, forty boxes, sixteen alarm bells, and a central office apparatus. See William F. Channing. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Protocol for transmitting files over the Internet, typically used for downloading large files. [Back] [Index] [Close]

 

G Gates, William (Bill) (1955- ) Computer programmer who created Microsoft, the world's leading maker of computer software. Glass Arm An occupational illness that afflicted telegraphers, akin to carpal tunnel syndrome, caused by the repetitive motion of tapping on a telegraph key. Also called telegraphists' cramp. Gopher Computer program used to retrieve and display documents available on the Internet. Similar in some ways to a browser in that gophers also support hyperlinks. Unlike browsers, gopher programs were limited to text-only display and did not support graphics or sound. Called gopher because it was developed at the University of Minnesota, home of the Golden Gophers. Gore, Albert (1948- ) Former Senator and Vice President of the United States and a strong supporter of the improvement and expansion of the Internet. Gould, Jay (1836-1892) Railroad tycoon, financier, and speculator, notorious as one of the most unscrupulous "robber barons" of 19th-century America. In the 1870s Gould set his sights on a hostile takeover of Western Union. After almost a decade of struggle, he succeeded in 1881. Graphical User Interface (GUI) Way of displaying information on a computer screen in graphical rather than text-only form. First developed at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in the early 1970s but not commercially available until the development of the Macintosh computer by Apple (1984) and the Windows operating system (1983) by Microsoft. Allowed the use of a mouse (an electronic pointer) to select commands or objects on screen. [Back] [Index] [Close]

 

H Hafner, Katie (1957- ) Identification: Journalist known for her writings on the history of the Internet, especially her article on The Well and her book, Where Wizards Stay Up Late. Paper: "The Epic Saga of the Well" Hoff, Ted (1937- ) Engineer who developed the microprocessor in 1971 while working at the Intel Corporation. Homing Pigeon A pigeon specially trained to return home when released in a distant location. See carrier pigeon. Host Computer connected via a router to a network. HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) Computer language for describing information, and how to present it, created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. Documents encoded in HTML (or its descendants, such as XML) contain instructions that tell a browser how to display the document. Documents written in HTML will look almost identical from browser to browser and computer to computer. Hypertext Non-linear form of text, invented by Theodor Nelson in the mid-1960s. A hypertext document contains links to other documents or other places in the original document. [Back] [Index] [Close]