During one of my trips to Wikipedia, which started with me reading about Computer Graphics, Ivan Sutherland and the Sketchpad, I landed on an article called “Intergalactic Computer Network” that sent me into a joyful rabbit hole about the Internet and its creators. I was hooked and eager to learn more about what to me is one of the most exciting times of the twentieth century. A couple of roundtrips later I found what appeared to be (according to some kind individuals that left their opinions on the Internet) a book that told the story in full detail, titled “Where Wizards Stay Up Late” by Katie Hefner and Matthew Lyon.
That is the place from where the “IMP Guys” that you see in the header of this article comes from, a group of visionaries and pioneers that assembled together to work on J. C. R. Licklider vision of what computers could be, and set out to make possible for computers with different architectures and from different makes to talk to each other; and in doing so created what we’ve come to know as the Internet, the backbone of our modern society, built with an almost maniacal focus on reliability—they couldn’t allow themselves to flounder or else the already suspicious telecom companies would’ve buried it under the ground—and decentralized by nature.
Not much has changed from its original design and implementation since then, we’ve added things on top of it, that’s for sure, but the foundation is still there and is holding strong. What’s becoming more and more problematic is our over-reliance on hosting providers, which at times throw half of the Internet into the void for hours on end (yes, I’m talking about AWS and the recent “us-east-1” outage). This completely overrides two of its most important features and leaves the future of our Internet in a though spot.
It is time to go back to first principles and venture into the realms of self-hosting to honor and carry on the legacy that the “IMP Guys” bestowed on us.
PS, I will be self-hosting this site no later than next year.
During one of my trips to Wikipedia, which started with me reading about Computer Graphics, Ivan Sutherland and the Sketchpad, I landed on an article called “Intergalactic Computer Network” that sent me into a joyful rabbit hole about the Internet and its creators. I was hooked and eager to learn more about what to me is one of the most exciting times of the twentieth century. A couple of roundtrips later I found what appeared to be (according to some kind individuals that left their opinions on the Internet) a book that told the story in full detail, titled “Where Wizards Stay Up Late” by Katie Hefner and Matthew Lyon.
That is the place from where the “IMP Guys” that you see in the header of this article comes from, a group of visionaries and pioneers that assembled together to work on J. C. R. Licklider vision of what computers could be, and set out to make possible for computers with different architectures and from different makes to talk to each other; and in doing so created what we’ve come to know as the Internet, the backbone of our modern society, built with an almost maniacal focus on reliability—they couldn’t allow themselves to flounder or else the already suspicious telecom companies would’ve buried it under the ground—and decentralized by nature.
Not much has changed from its original design and implementation since then, we’ve added things on top of it, that’s for sure, but the foundation is still there and is holding strong. What’s becoming more and more problematic is our over-reliance on hosting providers, which at times throw half of the Internet into the void for hours on end (yes, I’m talking about AWS and the recent “us-east-1” outage). This completely overrides two of its most important features and leaves the future of our Internet in a though spot.
It is time to go back to first principles and venture into the realms of self-hosting to honor and carry on the legacy that the “IMP Guys” bestowed on us.
PS, I will be self-hosting this site no later than next year.