Thursday, February 09, 2006
The history of 404
Today i got a mail from one of my friends which stated the The history of 404, ya the HTTP error/status code as:
"Before the beginning of time, when the Internet was still very much under the spell of bare Unix shells and Gopher, before SLIP or PPP became widely used, an ambitious group of young scientists at CERN (Switzerland) started working on what was to become the media revolution of the nineties: the World Wide Web, later to be known as WWW, or simply 'the Web'. Their aim: to create a database infrastructure that offered open access to data in various formats: multi-media. The ultimate goal was clearly to create a protocol that would combine text and pictures and present it as one document, and allow linking to other such documents: hypertext.Because these bright young minds were reluctant to reveal their progress (and setbacks) to the world, they started developing their protocol in a closed environment: CERN's internal network. Many hours were spend on what later became the world-wide standard for multimedia documents. Using the physical lay-out of CERN's network and buildings as a metaphor for the 'real world' they situated different functions of the protocol in different offices within CERN.In an office on the fourth floor (room 404), they placed the World Wide Web's central database: any request for a file was routed to that office, where two or three people would manually locate the requested files and transfer them, over the network, to the person who made that request. When the database started to grow, and the people at CERN realized that they were able to retrieve documents other than their own research-papers, not only the number of requests grew, but also the number of requests that could not be fulfilled, usually because the person who requested a file typed in the wrong name for that file. Soon these faulty requests were answered with a standard message: "Room 404: file not found".Later, when these processes were automated and people could directly query the database, the messageID's for error messages remained linked to the physical location the process took place: "404: file not found".The room numbers remained in the error codes in the official release of HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) when the Web left CERN to conquer the world, and are still displayed when a browser makes a faulty request to a Web server. In memory of the heroic boys and girls that worked deep into the night for all those months, in those small and hot offices at CERN, Room 404 is preserved as a 'place on the Web'. None of the other rooms are still used for the Web. Room 404 is the only and true monument to the beginning of the Web, a tribute to a place in the past, where the future was shaped."
The story of this mail doesn't stop there. I searched the net and came across the site: http://www.404lab.com/404/history.asp, which contradicts this email story. The site reads:
Tom S. tells us:
"Having visited CERN myself, I can tell you that Room 404 is not on the fourth floor - the CERN office numbering system doesn't work like that - the first digit usually refers to the *building* number (ie. building 4), and the second two to the office number. But, strangely, there is no room "04" in building "4", the offices start at "410" and work upwards - don't ask me why. Sorry to disappoint you all, but there is no Room 404 in CERN - it simply doesn't exist, and certainly hasn't been preserved as "the place where the web began". In fact, there *is* a display about this, including a model of the first NeXT server, but the whole "Room 404" thing is just a myth."
Myth yes, but the creator of this myth should be appreciated for crafting a fine story befind a ERROR: 404 which is supposed to go unnoticed by any fellow citizen while browsing...
"Before the beginning of time, when the Internet was still very much under the spell of bare Unix shells and Gopher, before SLIP or PPP became widely used, an ambitious group of young scientists at CERN (Switzerland) started working on what was to become the media revolution of the nineties: the World Wide Web, later to be known as WWW, or simply 'the Web'. Their aim: to create a database infrastructure that offered open access to data in various formats: multi-media. The ultimate goal was clearly to create a protocol that would combine text and pictures and present it as one document, and allow linking to other such documents: hypertext.Because these bright young minds were reluctant to reveal their progress (and setbacks) to the world, they started developing their protocol in a closed environment: CERN's internal network. Many hours were spend on what later became the world-wide standard for multimedia documents. Using the physical lay-out of CERN's network and buildings as a metaphor for the 'real world' they situated different functions of the protocol in different offices within CERN.In an office on the fourth floor (room 404), they placed the World Wide Web's central database: any request for a file was routed to that office, where two or three people would manually locate the requested files and transfer them, over the network, to the person who made that request. When the database started to grow, and the people at CERN realized that they were able to retrieve documents other than their own research-papers, not only the number of requests grew, but also the number of requests that could not be fulfilled, usually because the person who requested a file typed in the wrong name for that file. Soon these faulty requests were answered with a standard message: "Room 404: file not found".Later, when these processes were automated and people could directly query the database, the messageID's for error messages remained linked to the physical location the process took place: "404: file not found".The room numbers remained in the error codes in the official release of HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) when the Web left CERN to conquer the world, and are still displayed when a browser makes a faulty request to a Web server. In memory of the heroic boys and girls that worked deep into the night for all those months, in those small and hot offices at CERN, Room 404 is preserved as a 'place on the Web'. None of the other rooms are still used for the Web. Room 404 is the only and true monument to the beginning of the Web, a tribute to a place in the past, where the future was shaped."
The story of this mail doesn't stop there. I searched the net and came across the site: http://www.404lab.com/404/history.asp, which contradicts this email story. The site reads:
Tom S. tells us:
"Having visited CERN myself, I can tell you that Room 404 is not on the fourth floor - the CERN office numbering system doesn't work like that - the first digit usually refers to the *building* number (ie. building 4), and the second two to the office number. But, strangely, there is no room "04" in building "4", the offices start at "410" and work upwards - don't ask me why. Sorry to disappoint you all, but there is no Room 404 in CERN - it simply doesn't exist, and certainly hasn't been preserved as "the place where the web began". In fact, there *is* a display about this, including a model of the first NeXT server, but the whole "Room 404" thing is just a myth."
Myth yes, but the creator of this myth should be appreciated for crafting a fine story befind a ERROR: 404 which is supposed to go unnoticed by any fellow citizen while browsing...
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
A bloggers Handbook
Today i was just browsing the net when i came accross a e-book titled : "HANDBOOK FOR BLOGGERS AND CYBER-DISSIDENTS". I felt this book will be useful for my blogger friends. It talks about everything with respect to blogging. A useful book for a novice 'like me' to the experts.
The topic includes :
• BLOGGERS, THE NEW HERALDS OF FREE EXPRESSION
• WHAT’S A BLOG ?
• THE LANGUAGE OF BLOGGING
• CHOOSING THE BEST TOOL
• HOW TO SET UP AND RUN A BLOG
• WHAT ETHICS SHOULD BLOGGERS HAVE ?
• GETTING YOUR BLOG PICKED UP BY SEARCH-ENGINES
• WHAT REALLY MAKES A BLOG SHINE ?
• PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
• HOW TO BLOG ANONYMOUSLY
• TECHNICAL WAYS TO GET ROUND CENSORSHIP
• ENSURING YOUR E-MAIL IS TRULY PRIVATE
• INTERNET-CENSOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Go through it, it is interesting one from a blogger's prospective.....
The topic includes :
• BLOGGERS, THE NEW HERALDS OF FREE EXPRESSION
• WHAT’S A BLOG ?
• THE LANGUAGE OF BLOGGING
• CHOOSING THE BEST TOOL
• HOW TO SET UP AND RUN A BLOG
• WHAT ETHICS SHOULD BLOGGERS HAVE ?
• GETTING YOUR BLOG PICKED UP BY SEARCH-ENGINES
• WHAT REALLY MAKES A BLOG SHINE ?
• PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
• HOW TO BLOG ANONYMOUSLY
• TECHNICAL WAYS TO GET ROUND CENSORSHIP
• ENSURING YOUR E-MAIL IS TRULY PRIVATE
• INTERNET-CENSOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Go through it, it is interesting one from a blogger's prospective.....
Friday, February 03, 2006
KlueLESS: I am clueless
Was fun solving KlueLESS a puzzle game designed for IIM, Indore fest iris. This game was introduced to me by one of my Colleague Mr. Manoj Kalita. As in the first two weeks we were not assigned any major work at iflex, i sat for solving it. It took arround one whole week to solve the puzzle till 22nd stage. Its pretty tough to even reach 22nd. The whole puzzle consisited about 30 puzzle. which comes one after the other. You cant skip any thing,ie cant bypass any of these stages.. If you are going to try solving this puzzle, i am sorry that this is going to eatup your lot of Precious time. the link is :http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris/irising/klueLESS/. And if possible please tell me the 22nd puzzles answer if you get through that, so that i can complete my puzzle. Please do inform me about your progress
The 22nd puzzle shows up this figure:
i am needed to figure out the login name and password from this figure..
and the clueless clue statement given for this is :
Authenticate for "a=z"
gsrh ovevo rh hrnkov qfhg rmevig gsv trevm fhvimznv zmw kzhhdliw
fhvimznv: uozpv
kzhhdliw: tilfmw
Are you fed up of these ciphers? I'm not... I can come back to where I began to end it... :-)
So Enjoy KlueLESS
The 22nd puzzle shows up this figure:
i am needed to figure out the login name and password from this figure..
and the clueless clue statement given for this is :
Authenticate for "a=z"
gsrh ovevo rh hrnkov qfhg rmevig gsv trevm fhvimznv zmw kzhhdliw
fhvimznv: uozpv
kzhhdliw: tilfmw
Are you fed up of these ciphers? I'm not... I can come back to where I began to end it... :-)
So Enjoy KlueLESS
My phitar Experience
Its been long that i am an active member of www.flickr.com. And from the day one of my flickr experience i am facinated by a photographer named philippe tarbouriech. Who have uploaded around 400 photos till now, taken by him from all over the world. so my fickr experience can be termed as phitar (thats how he is known to the flickr world) experience.
This is the 'Best of 2005' released by phitar
for the entire collection of philippe tarbouriech check out : www.flickr.com/photos/phitar
I also want you to see CHILDREN AT RISK FOUNDATION - CARF Brazil photo collection on flickr contributed by many famous photographers. Even this collection is excellent and this is also one which i was following for a long time from now.
The link : www.flickr.com/photos/beija-flor/
This is the 'Best of 2005' released by phitar
for the entire collection of philippe tarbouriech check out : www.flickr.com/photos/phitar
I also want you to see CHILDREN AT RISK FOUNDATION - CARF Brazil photo collection on flickr contributed by many famous photographers. Even this collection is excellent and this is also one which i was following for a long time from now.
The link : www.flickr.com/photos/beija-flor/
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
I am back to this page..
My starting was fine... But could't capitalize on that. The main reason for this long wait for the second post was my semester exams and my BUZY ( Ha Ha ) life.. Now i am Out of manipal ( My College) and starting my career as a software professional at iflex solutions here at Bangalore, the Cyber capital of India.. I have started my work on 2nd Jan, 06. And today i will be completing my 1st month at Job.
I dont know where life will take me from here. Hope so its always good which is waiting for me. I think from now onwards i will find time to post my mind into this blog.
I dont know where life will take me from here. Hope so its always good which is waiting for me. I think from now onwards i will find time to post my mind into this blog.
About Me
ME the word itself confuses me.. when i think about me the whole world around me comes in to my mind.. my parents, my friends, my institutions, my teachers, my ....... this list goes on. this is not because i have doubt about why i exist, but this is because i know clearly with whoes support i exists.. These are the people who had helped me in my existence, who have made me what i am now.. ::: even though i did not achieve much till now in my life.. what i know about myself is that I am a hi-dreamer and hard-worker( if i start a work !!) ..
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