Appendix A
Appendix A in 'The Internet' introduced me to various fundamentals of the Internet, such as electrical interference and packet switching. While I knew some of its basics, I was mostly unaware of the things that set the stage for it, like wired connections and the development of their cables. It was interesting to see how old-fashioned cables originally had a trade-off between installation speed and costs. For example, living through an era where the Category 1 cable existed sounds inconvenient, with the slow information transmitters and inaccessibility. It must’ve been life-changing witnessing the development from a cat-1 cable to a cat-5 cable or even fiber-optic. This progression underscores how technological advancements have continually balanced efficiency, cost, and accessibility in shaping the network cables we rely on today. When thinking about the evolution of connections it is necessary to debrief the development of communication through sending messages specifically the origin of packet switching. Thinking about how packets used to be interpreted when using circuit switching underscores how significant the change was to packet switching. The national security risk between America and Russia explains the incentive to rapidly improve the way we send and receive our messages. Overall, Appendix A was a great introduction to the rise of the internet and all the concerns that were attached to it, while I already had a decent foundation on its development hearing the historical side was intriguing as it explained the motive of the fast progression of security.