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The Internet’s naming system is distributed, not one giant address book.

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Data center equipment illustrating distributed network infrastructure
Tech

1983

The Internet’s naming system is distributed, not one giant address book.

DNS distributes responsibility for Internet domain information across many authoritative servers. It can translate names into IP addresses, but it is a delegated naming system rather than one giant centrally maintained address book.

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Trojan Room coffee pot as seen in its early network camera image
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1991

The first webcam was pointed at a coffee pot.

The camera widely remembered as the first webcam watched a coffee pot at Cambridge in 1991, initially over a local network. It became accessible through the World Wide Web in November 1993.

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Photograph of the original wooden computer mouse prototype
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1964

The first computer mouse was made of wood.

The first mouse prototype in Douglas Engelbart’s research program was built in 1964 with a wooden body. Engineer Bill English constructed the device, which tracked movement using two perpendicular wheels.

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