I've got nothing. Two days of traveling and TV watching and eating too much and palm greasing. Total lack of brain stimulation. Although I did find some time to review a brief history of the internet.

It started with Sputnik. Well, that's up for argument, as far as original causes go. One could blame it on the Czars, or the Commies, or maybe the Commies parents, for having them in the first place, or maybe just the whole USSR for ever getting together anyway. Perhaps we could blame the hard winters and the vodka. But let's just boil it down to Sputnik.

As a response, the US started both NASA and a lesser known organization named ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency - originally DARPA, D for Defense). The first real attempts at networking computers were by lab rats at various leading tech uni's, and the first word actually transmitted via computer network was "lo." It was supposed to be "log" but the internet (the whole thing, at that point), crashed before the "g" got through. In response, the word "on" was supposed to be transmitted back. I suppose at some point when they got things working again, they did.

Despite what Al Gore may claim, he didn't invent the internet, although he is generally credited with doing more to help the progression of it than any other elected official at the time of its initial growth (I can only assume that this meant helping secure public funds for it). And then he went totally bonkers. Also he was vice president, for a while.

From here the story generally degenerates into lots of catchy acronyms, plus all the interesting stuff like how Internet Protocol's were first written and then eventually evolved (devolved?) into verbal website names, and how stuff like email and FTP and whatnot came to be. By the way, the interesting thing about IP is that every actual website name still has an IP - you even have your own IP if you're reading this right now. But we don't speak popularly in those terms anymore.

Then there was a tech boom and bubble and then the bubble popped, and lots of other interesting stuff. If my econ memory serves me correctly, the last bubble we saw of such a nature had something to do with Dutch tulips. Really.

That's all you really need to know about it, I think.

I'm trying to find a decent book out there that gives a general history of the internet in terms that an interested lay-man could readily ascertain, but haven't found one yet. If I don't find it, perhaps I'll add it to my to-be-researched-and-written list. Sure, you have people out there attempting to do what I speak of, but I plan to write one people actually want to read. Besides, they are all clearly outdated, as evidenced by the fact that they are in print. My version will contain a much more up-to-the-minute analysis.

See, I told you - nothing is what I've got. Said remember that.