3 ms·

Amusing anecdote: The computer that hosted the original WWW is in a little museum at CERN, open to the public. When my family saw it several years ago, it still

Amusing anecdote: The computer that hosted the original WWW is in a little museum at CERN, open to the public. When my family saw it several years ago, it still had a hand written note taped to the side of it, something to the effect of "Please don't turn this computer off." It still amuses me to think that at one point, the entire WWW depended on someone remembering to not shut it down. Edit: See below. Reality is much more accurate than my memory. ;-)

mattl 5y ago
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/104/298158460_5495a9443c.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/104/298158460_5495a9443c.jpg
codegeek 5y ago
It said "This machine is a server". Isn't that still true for any server ? I mean if you power off a server, it stops serving. I guess the what makes that note truly unique is that it was THE only server at that time ?
- anyfoo 5y ago
  I guess it just means "even though this machine looks like a desktop computer (which it very much usually was as a NeXT station), it's actually acting as a server, so please don't shut it down like you would with a desktop machine". It by far wasn't the only "server" at that time. The WWW may be 30 years old, but the Internet is much older.
  - codegeek 5y ago
    correct. I mean the only server for WWW ?
    - analog31 5y ago
      Yes, I believe it was. One machine had to be the first www server.
Gradient-Ascent 5y ago
> still had a hand written note taped to the side of it, something to the effect of "Please don't turn this computer off." You sound like "nobody has cleaned this piece of paper off [yet]" or "will be cleaned of soon". But it is the central piece of the exhibit, very intentionally. Probably written by TBL himself and illustrating a feature of the new invention: "The internet is always on" And I heard of this before, that TBL developed the WWW on a (NEXT-)workstation, which also was the first www-server with a sticker on it that said "This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER DOWN!" (https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:This_Machine_is_a_server_DO_NOT_POWER_IT_DOWN!!_-_London_Science_Museum,_2015-03-19_(by_Binary_Koala).jpg https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:This_Machine_is_a_...)

mattl 5y ago

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/104/298158460_5495a9443c.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/104/298158460_5495a9443c.jpg

codegeek 5y ago

It said "This machine is a server". Isn't that still true for any server ? I mean if you power off a server, it stops serving. I guess the what makes that note truly unique is that it was THE only server at that time ?

anyfoo 5y ago
I guess it just means "even though this machine looks like a desktop computer (which it very much usually was as a NeXT station), it's actually acting as a server, so please don't shut it down like you would with a desktop machine". It by far wasn't the only "server" at that time. The WWW may be 30 years old, but the Internet is much older.
- codegeek 5y ago
  correct. I mean the only server for WWW ?
  - analog31 5y ago
    Yes, I believe it was. One machine had to be the first www server.

Gradient-Ascent 5y ago

> still had a hand written note taped to the side of it, something to the effect of "Please don't turn this computer off." You sound like "nobody has cleaned this piece of paper off [yet]" or "will be cleaned of soon". But it is the central piece of the exhibit, very intentionally. Probably written by TBL himself and illustrating a feature of the new invention: "The internet is always on" And I heard of this before, that TBL developed the WWW on a (NEXT-)workstation, which also was the first www-server with a sticker on it that said "This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER DOWN!" (https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:This_Machine_is_a_server_DO_NOT_POWER_IT_DOWN!!_-_London_Science_Museum,_2015-03-19_(by_Binary_Koala).jpg https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:This_Machine_is_a_...)