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Lo and behold: the first words on the Internet

Most people know of the Internet only from the mid '90s on. But actually, the Internet started long, long ago, in a galaxy, well, that you live in.

I recently came across a page on UCLA's website that showed the first words uttered on the Internet. The day was Oct. 29, 1969, which also happens to be my mom's birthday. The researchers sent an "l" and an "o" before the system crashed. Apparently they were trying to login, and, much like any old computer I've used, it crashed almost immediately.

Website selling personal info ... but how much?

Is it possible to obtain someone's personal information online? There's a site that proclaims this is the case ... for a price.

As reported by Snopes.com, ZabaSearch.com will tell you everything the site can find regarding a particular person. Snopes coughed up $20 and received some personal information, but nothing that couldn't be found already through public records.

Kids need opportunities, not Disney movie endings

Nine-year-olds care about winning baseball games. Just ask Peter Smith, Maurice Robinson and Billy Rogers.

Peter has been to many Washington Nationals games this year, and he just recently started keeping track of the team's boxscores. Maurice listens to Baltimore Orioles games and his great-grandfather, who tells tales of John McGraw, Babe Ruth and Frank Robinson. Billy never seems to come inside until after dark, usually because he is in front of his house, playing baseball with the neighborhood friends.

Crawfordsville and Champaign this weekend

I'll be heading back to familiar territory this weekend as I host a book talk in Crawfordsville, Ind., at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Crawfordsville Public Library. A little later in the day (3 p.m. CST), I'll be at the Champaign, Ill., Borders.

I lived in Crawfordsville in 1998-99, working at the Journal Review during my time there. I will be discussing writing and publishing at the library, as well as explaining the process of putting together my novel, The Developers.

Thank you Columbus, Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Emo Phillips

I just wanted to thank everyone who stopped by during my weekend Borders book tour. I was really encouraged by the turnout in Columbus, especially considering I know few people up that way.

From the Archive

Wait, people still use IE 3?

So the news out recently is that PayPal is going to block "unsafe browsers." I'm not talking about people here, but actually web browsers. How will PayPal know if something is unsafe? Good question, but one way they will tell, according to this article, is by determining the version of the actual browser.

Take a vacation with my vocabulary lesson

I'm on vacation right now. I wasn't when I wrote this, but by the time you read it, I should be on the beach somewhere. Because I'm relaxing, I thought maybe you should relax a little too. Unfortunately, there wasn't any room left in the car for readers to go on vacation with me, so instead, your relaxation is going to be reading this.

Spam generates a lot of wasted energy, apparently

Taking a quick glance at your inbox and/or junk mailbox, I suspect you'll see plenty of email messages that you'll be deleting immediately. According to computer security company McAfee, there are about 62 trillion of those messages sent each year, and they consume enough electricity (33 billion kilowatt hours of electricity) to power 2.4 million homes.

Looking for celebrities easier than contacting them

So the other day, I remembered I needed to contact Michelle Branch.

This seemed like a simple goal at the onset, but there were various problems: How would I go about actually doing this? What did I need to tell her? Who is she anyway?

New U.S. government 'transparent' sites

Where do your tax dollars go? What data is being collected in this country anyway? Previously, these were difficult questions to answer, but the new administration appears to be making headway toward real answers.

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