What is RAM ?

RAM (random access memory) is the place in a computer where the operating system, application programs, and data in current use are kept so that they can be quickly reached by the computer's processor. RAM is much faster to read from and write to than the other kinds of storage in a computer, the hard disk, floppy disk, and CD-ROM. However, the data in RAM stays there only as long as your computer is running. When you turn the computer off, RAM loses its data. When you turn your computer on again, your operating system and other files are once again loaded into RAM, usually from your hard disk.

RAM can be compared to a person's short-term memory and the hard disk to the long-term memory. The short-term memory focuses on work at hand, but can only keep so many facts in view at one time. If short-term memory fills up, your brain sometimes is able to refresh it from facts stored in long-term memory. A computer also works this way. If RAM fills up, the processor needs to continually go to the hard disk to overlay old data in RAM with new, slowing down the computer's operation. Unlike the hard disk which can become completely full of data so that it won't accept any more, RAM never runs out of memory. It keeps operating, but much more slowly than you may want it to.

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What is URL ?

On the Web (which uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP), an example of a URL is:

       http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt

A URL for a particular image on a Web site might look like this:

      http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/WhatIs/images/coaxla.gif

A URL for a file meant to be downloaded using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) would require that the "ftp" protocol be specified like this hypothetical URL:

     ftp://www.somecompany.com/whitepapers/widgets.ps

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What is memory?

Memory is sometimes distinguished from storage, or the physical medium that holds the much larger amounts of data that won't fit into RAM and may not be immediately needed there. Storage devices include hard disks, floppy disks, CD-ROM, and tape backup systems. The terms auxiliary storage, auxiliary memory, and secondary memory have also been used for this kind of data repository.

Additional kinds of integrated and quickly accessible memory are read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), and erasable programmable ROM (EPROM). These are used to keep special programs and data, such as the basic input/output system, that need to be in your computer all the time.

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What is a hard drive ?

A hard disk drive (HDD), commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk or fixed disk drive,^[1] is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. Strictly speaking, "drive" refers to a device distinct from its medium, such as a tape drive and its tape, or a floppy disk drive and its floppy disk. Early HDDs had removable media; however, an HDD today is typically a sealed unit with fixed media.^[2]

HDDs were originally developed for use with computers. In the 21st century, applications for HDDs have expanded beyond computers to include digital video recorders, digital audio players, personal digital assistants, digital cameras and video game consoles. In 2005 the first mobile phones to include HDDs were introduced by Samsung and Nokia.^[3] The need for large-scale, reliable storage, independent of a particular device, led to the introduction of configurations such as RAID arrays, network attached storage (NAS) systems and storage area network (SAN) systems that provide efficient and reliable access to large volumes of data.

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Who invented the internet ?

No, it wasn't Al Gore. 

A single person did not create the Internet that we know and use today. Below is a listing of several different people who've helped contribute and develop the Internet.

The idea

The initial idea is credited as being Leonard Kleinrock's after he published his first paper entitled "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets" on May 31, 1961.

In 1962 J.C.R. Licklider becomes the first Director of IPTO and gave his vision of a galactic network. In addition to the ideas from Licklider and Kleinrock, Robert Taylor helped create the idea of the network, which later became ARPANET.

Initial creation

The Internet as we know it today first started being developed in the late 1960's.

In the summer of 1968 the Network Working Group (NWG) held its first meeting chaired by Elmer Shapiro with the Stanford Research Institute (SLI) with attendees: Steve Carr, Steve Crocker, Jeff Rulifson, and Ron Stoughton. In the meeting the group discussed solving issues related to getting hosts to communicate with each other.

In December 1968 Elmer Shapiro with SLI released a report "A Study of Computer Network Design Parameters". Based on this work and earlier work done by Paul Baran, Thomas Marill and others; Lawrence Roberts and Barry Wessler helped to create the final version of the Interface Message Processor (IMP) specifications. BBN was later awarded the contract to design and build the IMP sub network.

Introduction of the Internet to the general public

UCLA puts out a press release introducing the public to the Internet on July 3, 1969.

First network equipment

August 29, 1969 the first network switch and the first piece of network equipment (called "IMP", which is short for Interface Message Processor) is sent to UCLA and on September 2, 1969 the first data moves from UCLA host to the switch.

The first distributed message

On Friday October 29, 1969 the first Internet message was sent from computer science Professor Leonard Kleinrock's laboratory at UCLA after the second piece of network equipment was installed at SLI. This connection not only enabled the first transmission to be made but is also considered to be the first Internet backbone.

The first message to be distributed was: "LO", which was an attempt at "LOGIN" by Charley S. Kline to log into the SLI computer from UCLA. However, the message was unable to be completed because the SLI system crashed. Shortly after the crash the issue was resolved and he was able to log into the computer.

E-mail is developed

Ray Tomlinson introduces network e-mail in 1972, the first messaging system to send messages across a network to other users.

TCP is developed

Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn design TCP during 1973 and later publish it with the help of Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine in December of 1974 in RFC 675.

Ethernet is conceived

Bob Metcalfe develops Ethernet idea in 1973.

TCP/IP is created

In 1978 TCP splits into TCP/IP driven by Danny Cohen, David Reed, and John Shoch to support real-time traffic. This allows the creation of UDP. TCP/IP is later standardized into ARPANET in 1983 and is still the primary protocol used for the Internet.

DNS is introduced

Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel introduce DNS in 1984.

HTML

In 1990 Tim Berners-Lee develops HTML, which makes a huge contribution to how we navigate and view the Internet today.

WWW

Tim Berners-Lee introduces WWW to the public on August 6, 1991.

Internet experiences large growth

In 1993 the Internet experienced one of its largest growths and today is accessible and used by people everywhere in the world.

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Do you have a question ?

If you have a specific question about computers, please fill out the form under contact  or send us an e-mail.  We'll post the question and answer here!

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