I/W/W/B

Almost everyone in these modern times uses a smart device to access information. They can use the Internet or the World Wide Web, but many need to learn the difference between them. They may also use Wi-Fi to connect to these different services. After they are connected to the Wi-Fi, they may connect to their headphones using Bluetooth. Many of us are so used to these services but don't actually know what each of them is. All of the services have similarities but also have many differences.

The beginning of the internet is said to be January 1, 1983, but there we many things that were done before that to make it a reality. Both scientists and engineers put their smarts together to come up with this complex system. During the 1900s, Nikola Tesla thought of a system that could connect the world wirelessly. He cleverly came up with the name "world wireless system." It was not until the 1960s that Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider came up with the idea of using a computer to accomplish this system. From there, computer scientists came up with a way to share electronic data wirelessly through a system called "packet switching." The next stepping stone would be in the 1960s when the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was born. This network produced a working prototype of the Internet that allowed computers to transfer information to one another on one network. The first piece of information sent was on October 29, 1969, when a computer at the University of California Los Angeles sent a message to another computer at Stanford. These computers were the size of a small house. The message read "LOGIN" but the receiving computer only got the first two letters before it crashed. In the 1970s scientists Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf were responsible for developing a "communications model" which allowed for easier transmission. Soon thereafter, ARPANET used their model to create what we now know as the Internet.

Tim Berners-Lee is credited for creating the World Wide Web in 1990. Most people confuse the WWW and the Internet. The WWW allows people to access pages on the Internet using hypertext. In other words, it allows people to access different sources using links that open up to display the desired information. The hyperlink consists of the URL, which is a specific address for a page. The WWW is essentially a feature that the Internet allows people to use. The WWW was originally created because there was a demand for it by people who were working on the Internet. It is used today to access a lot of resources like online bank statements, social media, and streaming services.

On August 6, 1991, in a physics lab in Switzerland, a British computer scientist named Tim Berners created the first functioning website. Berners was surrounded by computer scientist his whole life, as his parents were also computer scientists. Berners studied computer science at Oxford and then got a job at The European Organization for Nuclear Research. In 1989, Berners talked with his managers about creating a hypertext that would allow them to connect it to an online document. From there, he created the first website that would be called "http://info.cern.ch/." This website is still accessible but not running like its original use. It acts as more of a source of information about the website and how it was created.

Hedy Lamarr was both an actress and credited for the assistance in creating WiFi and Bluetooth. She was born in Austria on November 9, 1914, and originally was named Hedwig Eva Kiesler. She was born into a stable, well-to-do family where she was encouraged to explore her logical and creative side. She studied acting from a young age and landed her first role in a German film called Geld auf der Straβe (“Money on the Street”). In 1932, she starred in her most recognized and controversial film Ecstasy. She later visited London where she met Louis B. Mayer who paved her way in Hollywood. That is where she met Howard Hughes who soon turned into her boyfriend. Hughes inspired Lamarr to explore her scientific mind and always try and improve things in the world. Lamarr met George Antheil in 1940 at a dinner party where the two both shared an interest in exploring how to gear America up for World War II. Both of them came up with a system that allowed torpedoes to hit the correct targets using "frequency hopping". This system caused the receiver and transmitter to switch through frequencies which prevented other radio waves from being intercepted. At the time, the US Army denied the proposal to use their system, but it paved the way for modern WiFi to be created. Lamarr was awarded many different awards and even had a song about her created by Johnny Dept called "This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr". She sadly died before she was able to witness this, but her legacy will live on forever.

Bluetooth is another aspect of our daily media usage that many people do not know a lot about. The term "Bluetooth" was created by Sven Mattisson and Jim Kardach. They had just had an unsuccessful pitch about Bluetooth and were trying to distract themselves from the sadness by talking about ancient Vikings. They were also in need of a catchy name to call what we now know as Bluetooth. They decided to name Bluetooth after a Viking named Harald Bluetooth and combine his Nordic runes initials (seen below) for the logo. Even though those men were coined for naming Bluetooth, Jaap Haartsen is the one who invented it. He is an engineer who was born in the Netherlands. He came up with it in 1994 while working with phones. He came up with a way to use small amounts of radio frequencies to send information to and from mobile phones. As previously stated, Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil are partly responsible for the invention of Wi-Fi. However, Victor Hayes is said to be the person who actually invented it in 1997. He was the chairman of IEEE 802 (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and was working on a way for devices to transfer data to one another over a wireless network. The logo represents a device being connected to Wi-Fi and having access to the wireless network. It was originally named "high-fidelity" but was soon changed to Wi-Fi. The reason for that is unknown! It was just a catchy name that people in the industry liked. It was easy to remember, which was good for the market. Little did those people know that it would be running the world.

In conclusion, many of us are so used to using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, WWW, and the Internet but don't actually know what each of them is. All of the services have similarities but also have many differences. Almost everyone in these modern times uses a smart device for work, recreation, and communication. I think staying educated and informed about the services we use will better help us utilize them. This could help us make even more technological advancements in society.