Amar E. Chakravarthi’s Blog

Wall Street (1987)
Message: Every dream has it’s price.
Summary: Bud Fox is a Wall Street stockbroker in early 1980’s New York with a strong desire to get to the top. Fox finally meets with extremely successful (but ruthless and greedy) broker Gordon Gekko, who takes the youth under his wing and explains his philosophy that “Greed is Good”. Taking the advice and working closely with Gekko, Fox soon finds himself swept into a world of “yuppies”, shady business deals, the “good life”, fast money, and fast women; something which is at odds with his family including his estranged father and the blue-collared way Fox was brought up.

Tucker: The Man & His Dream (1988)
Message: Leaders never give up on their vision.
Summary: Based on a true story. Shortly after World War II, Preston Tucker is a grandiose schemer with a new dream, to produce the best cars ever made. With the assistance of Abe Karatz and some excellent salesmanship on his own part, he obtains funding and begins to build his factory. The whole movie also has many parallels with director Coppola’s own efforts to build a new movie studio of his own.

Glengarry Glenn Ross (1992)
Message: Make success your only option.
Summary: Times are tough in a New York real-estate office and 4 salesmen are given a strong incentive by Blake to succeed in a sales contest. The prizes? First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado, second prize is a set of steak knives, third prize is the sack! There is no room for losers in this dramatically masculine world; only “closers” will get the good sales leads. There is a lot of pressure to succeed, so a robbery is committed which has unforeseen consequences for all the characters.

Rudy (1993)
Message: Determination and heart will get you further than talent.
Summary: Rudy is a true story about Dan Ruettiger, an aspiring Notre Dame football player and his struggles to make it. Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people invested a lifetime into hard labor. With poor grades, mediocre athletic skill, and half the physical size of the other players, Rudy shows he can overcome all challenges with spirit and drive.

Forrest Gump (1994)
Message: Life is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re gonna get.
Summary: A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events – in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. Yet, despite all the things he has attained, his one true love eludes him. “Forrest Gump” is the story of a man who rose above his challenges, and who proved that determination, courage, and love are more important than ability.

Braveheart (1995)

Message: What are you willing to fight for?
Summary: One of the best movies of all time. When he was a young boy, William Wallace’s father and brother, along with many others, lost their lives trying to free Scotland. Once he loses another of his loved ones, William Wallace begins his long quest to earn Scotland’s freedom from English rule around the end of the 13th century. Wallace leads the people of his country into a outnumber battle and never looses sight for what he believes in.

Jerry Maguire (1996)
Message: The journey is everything.
Summary: Jerry Maguire used to be a typical sports agent: willing to do just about anything he could to get the biggest possible contracts for his clients, plus a nice commission for himself. Then, one day, he suddenly has second thoughts about what he’s really doing. When he voices these doubts, he ends up losing his job and all of his clients, save Rod Tidwell, an egomaniacal football player. Can Jerry resurrect his career while still staying true to himself?

Office Space (1999)
Message: The 9-5 may not get you very far.
Summary: Peter Gibbons is a cubicle-dwelling employee stuck in the rat race. His girlfriend is cheating on him, he has an obnoxious neighbor, and he’s completely miserable with his job as a small cog in a company called Initech. Then he visits a hypnotherapist, who put Peter into a state of complete bliss. Free of worrying about making a living, he no longer feels the need to keep his job, just as the company is going through a massive downsizing. However, his new attitude only makes him more valuable in the company’s eyes.

Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
Message: Copying may just mean good business.
Summary: From the obscure dorm-room and backyard origins to their very public battle for corporate supremacy, recap the journey of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak — the former a crafty Harvard dropout, the latter a pair of hippies with jobs at Hewlett-Packard and a yen to sell miniature versions of corporate mainframes to small businesses and at-home enthusiasts. The former plot thread recounts how Jobs and Wozniak “borrowed” key concepts from a Xerox computer lab, eked out their success as counter-cultural businessmen.

Boiler Room (2000)
Message: Selling will close one deal, caring will change your life.
Summary: A morally decent college dropout finds himself at conflict with his harsh federal judge father. From running a profitable underground casino, he gets a job as a stock broker and gets on the fast track to success. The firm is full of hard-nosed young go-getters striving to make it rich. Only things take a turn for the worst when he learns that his job isn’t what’s it cracked up to be.

Remember the Titans (2000)
Message: We all are one.
Summary: Suburban Virginia schools have been segregated for generations, in sight of the Washington Monument over the river in the nation’s capital. One Black and one White high school are closed and the students sent to T.C. Williams High School under federal mandate to integrate. The year is seen through the eyes of the football team where the man hired to coach the Black school is made head coach over the highly successful white coach. Based on the actual events of 1971, the team becomes the unifying symbol for the community as the boys and the adults learn to depend on and trust each other.

A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Message: The only thing greater than the power of the mind is the courage of the heart.
Summary: From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash, Jr. experienced it all. A mathematical genius, he made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery. After many years of struggle, he eventually triumphed over his tragedy, and finally – late in life – received the Nobel Prize.

Blow (2001)
Message: Cut corners to easy street and it can cost you everything.
Summary: I had to include my favorite gangsta flick in this list. George Jung is the son of a struggling small business owner. Seeing his family struggle to make ends meet and failing, George vows never to share a similar fate. Moving to California, he starts his own pot pushing operation in which he finds both success and imprisonment. In prison, he meets a cellmate who introduces him to the lucrative new market in cocaine. Upon release, George Jung quickly becomes a druglord moving masses of narcotics. However, for all the fabulous wealth and power he gained, the true costs of his dangerously treacherous occupation catch up with him in ways from which he would never recover.

Startup.com (2001)
Message: Through our failures we become a greater success.
Summary: Friends since high school, 20-somethings Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman have an idea: a Web site for people to conduct business with municipal governments. This documentary tracks the rise and fall of govWorks.com from May of 1999 to December of 2000, and the trials the business brings to the relationship of these best friends. Kaleil raises the money, Tom’s the technical chief, and a third partner wants a buy out. The constant need for cash and for improving the site brings venture capital in by the millions. Kaleil is on C-SPAN, CNN, and magazine covers. Will the business or the friendship crash first?

The Corporation (2003)

Message: Will you do what’s right or what will make you rich?
Summary: Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of “person” typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

The Aviator (2004)
Message: Imagine a life without limits.
Summary: Phenomenal public success contrasts with private behaviors close to madness: Howard Hughes from the late 1920s to the late 1940s, from “Hells Angels” (spending a fortune on details) through the only flight of the Hercules, a huge, money-losing transport plane. Along the way, the public Hughes sees the big picture – in movies and in aviation, building TWA and leading it through a fight with Pan Am and the US Senate. In private, phobias and compulsions threaten him with self-imposed solitary confinement. How long can his imagination, drive, and the sympathies of Katharine Hepburn, Ava Gardner, and the men who work for him stave off these internal disorders?

The Secret (2006)
Message: You are what you attract.
Summary: The Secret is a feature length movie presentation which reveals The Great Secret of the universe. It has been passed throughout the ages, traveling through centuries… This is The Secret to everything – the secret to unlimited joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth: everything you have ever wanted. All the resources you will ever need to understand and live The Secret. The world’s leading scientists, authors, and philosophers will reveal The Secret that utterly transformed the lives of every person who ever knew it… Plato, Newton, Carnegie, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Einstein.

Peaceful Warrior (2006)
Message: Our true-self will always outperform our ego.
Summary: A talented college gymnast with serious Olympic aspirations, Dan Millman, leads a charmed life of first-place trophies, fast girls, and rowdy parties until a career-threatening injury and a chance meeting with a mysterious stranger named Socrates (Nick Nolte) show him how little he truly knows about living. In the months that follow his tragic injury, both Socrates and elusive beauty Joy impart to the growing young man the wisdom that he needs to leave the past behind and follow the path of destiny and fulfill his transformation into the peaceful warrior.

Pursuit of Happiness (2006)
Message: Life isn’t easy and we must make sacrifices.
Summary: In 1981, in San Francisco, the smart salesman and family man Chris Gardner invested the family savings in Ostelo National bone-density scanners, an apparatus twice more expensive than x-ray with practically the same resolution. The white elephant financially breaks the family, bringing troubles to the relationship with his wife that leaves him and moves to New York. Without money and wife, but totally committed with his son Christopher, Chris sees the chance to fight for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, disputing for one career in the end of six months training period without any salary with other twenty candidates. Meanwhile, homeless, he has all sorts of difficulties with his son.

The Bucket List (2007)
Message: If you are not living, you are dying.
Summary: Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers have nothing in common except for their terminal illnesses. While sharing a hospital room together, they decide to leave it and do all the things they have ever wanted to do before they die according to their bucket list. In the process, both of them heal each other, become unlikely friends, and ultimately find the joy in life.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Message: It’s not where you’re from, but where you’re going.
Summary: In Mumbai, the eighteen year-old orphan from the slums Jamal Malik is tortured by the policemen in a precinct accused of cheating a game show. Jamal, who has no education and works in a call center serving tea, is close to wining twenty million rupees in the show “Kaun Banega Crorepati?” (Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?) hosted by Prem Kumar, giving precise answers to the questions and raising suspicion of fraud. The police inspector shows the videotape and after each question, Jamal tells parts of his childhood with his brother Salim, his crush for Latika and their fight to survive on the streets to justify each correct answer, guided by his common sense and past experience, and prove his innocence.

If you have any favorites that are not on the list, please share them in the comment box below…

Do we ever question ourselves,
the very reason why we fight for someone/something sometimes?
Its because that someone/something is important to us. Like how it hurts,
to see something you have build up just fall to pieces just like that,with a snap.
Or see something you fight for,then later seeing yourself let go.

To the world you maybe just one person,but to one person,you maybe the world.
We do things for the ones we love,sometimes because we love them too much.
So much so that,we do things though it might hurt ourselves,but for the sake of them?
Nothing else pretty much matters. We rather hurt ourselves,then seeing the other get hurt.
Why can’t ya’ll just fight a little harder with life gets a little tougher? =/
Fight for this love,because its worth fighting for isn’t it?
This depressing state of me is coming back,I didn’t maintain it for two days,fail.
Not even for one day.

Today is another day & I still love you.
I want you to stay, I really do.
I can never love anyone like the way I love you.
Only you could break down the walls of my heart.
Only you can make me love you this much.

and my heart bleeds for the second time tonight.
Do you not know,I love&miss you, so much?

Life, while mostly enjoyable, does have its ups and downs. The sun shines on the evil and the good. Pain is an inevitable part of life. Never think that you’ve been singled out for pain. We all seem to understand that physical pain takes time to subside, and as the wound or illness that caused the pain heals, the pain will ease. What we have more trouble with is realizing that emotional pain also takes time to heal.

1. Don’t try to cure normal. Emotional pain is caused by any number of events: death of a loved one, a breakup, thoughtlessness or cruelty on the part of others. When you’re hurting because of any of the above, accept that it’s normal to feel hurt. Let’s face it: if a loved one dies, what sort of cold person just goes about his business as if all were well? If you love someone and that person dumps you, it’s natural that you would feel hurt, angry, scared. These things are normal. Trying to cure what is normal is pointless. So expect to feel pain for a while – it’s normal

2.There’s a statement that goes something like, ‘If you get (enter mad, hurt, insulted, offended, etc., here) it’s your fault.’ That’s just not true. That suggests that people don’t love, or bond, or trust, or invest emotions. If you have emotional pain, there’s a reason for it.

3.Don’t pretend you don’t feel it. The pain is real. You have to address it, or you will never get beyond it. Don’t try to rush through this season of pain. Even though all you can really think about is ending the pain, the truth is that just allowing yourself the feelings is important. Masking your pain when you’re trying to work or just get through each day may be necessary to a point, but make sure to allow yourself some “me-time” – some time to allow yourself to really feel all of the feelings you are having, rather than just suppressing and denying them.

4.Identify all of your feelings. Are you just heartbroken? Or are you angry, too? Maybe just the tiniest bit relieved – which is also making you feel guilty? Do you feel betrayed? Insecure? Afraid? Giving some thought to exactly how you are feeling can be very helpful in processing all of your emotions in the wake of a traumatic or life-changing event.

5. Endure it. Things that cannot be cured must be endured. It sounds obvious, but sometimes, thinking of emotional pain as if it were physical pain can be very helpful. Think of your broken heart just as if it were your arm that is broken instead. A broken arm takes time to heal, and it hurts like crazy just after it’s broken, even after it’s been set and casted. A few days later, it doesn’t hurt so much. But weeks or even months later, if you bump or jar it, that pain can come roaring back to life with a vengeance. You baby it a little, take care not to aggravate it, and eventually, it’s stronger where it was broken than it was before. You have no choice – you can’t cut off the arm. That won’t make it hurt any less. You just have to endure it while it heals.

6. Talk to someone. There are times when it seems that the hurt you feel inside is just too deep to talk about. You feel like no one could understand. Or maybe you worry because your loved ones didn’t share your feelings about whatever it is that’s hurting you. Maybe they didn’t care for your boyfriend, whom you just broke up with, or they didn’t know your friend, who passed away. You may be right – they may not totally understand. But right now, it isn’t being understood that you need. It’s compassion. Your family and friends love you. They see you hurting and want to help. Sometimes, if you will just try to talk out your feelings, say something about what hurts, it can help start your healing. Letting someone put his or her arm around you and hearing them say, “It’s going to be okay” may not seem that helpful, but it really is, because it helps you feel you’re not totally alone. Realizing that someone wants to be there for you will help.

7. Don’t let anyone tell you that your feelings aren’t real. They are real, significant, and important.

8. Get your mind off yourself and how bad you feel. You have the right to feel sorry for yourself – for 10 minutes. Then you have to move on. No exceptions. Go out with friends. Tell yourself that you will not talk about your pain for more than a few minutes – you will not bring down the activity by wallowing in it. Don’t let your friends walk on egg shells around you just because you’ve been traumatized. You still need to live. Distract yourself by just forgetting it for a little while. If you’re grieving a death, or heartbroken over a breakup, especially, giving yourself a little time to just be without obsessing on the event that hurts will help you to heal and move past it. That’s not to say that you just forget about it and move on – no. It’s only to say that even grief needs to take a breather. Give your weary heart a little respite, and let it mend with the love and lightness of heart that comes from being with friends, or doing something that brings you pleasure. There will be time to cry again, but not just now.

9. Allow time to heal you. This is part of just enduring. You will need to muster up the patience to allow healing to commence. There isn’t any substitute for just … waiting. Time requires one thing: that you allow it to pass. There’s a process for all grieving processes, and emotional pain is no different.

10. Don’t let your pain define you. Remember you are greater than this hard time, you have a past and a future. This is one episode which will pass sooner or later.

11. Write a letter. Writing down your feelings can help you to sort them out. It can help more if you use positive “I messages” instead of negative ones.

12. Stay away from statements that blame you or others. Take responsibility for your actions, and your part of whatever went wrong, but do not indulge in blaming. The question of “And whose fault is/was that?” does not apply.

13. Develop a learning orientation. Life hands you difficulties so you can learn from them. People who have really easy lives fall apart when bad things happen because they have never learned how to cope or let things role off their backs. Everything, even very painful times, can be used to learn better coping skills and to develop wisdom and perspective about life that will help you deal with all the difficulties of life. Whatever doesn’t destroy you can serve to make you stronger.

14. Make a ‘Thankfulness List’. Write down what you are thankful for, even basic things like having clothes and a warm place to sleep, then moving to people who care for you, and good things in your life. Being thankful is naturally healing and will balance out any trauma over time.

It’s normal to feel hurt or pain for some time after an event. How much time is up to you. Don’t let others rush or pressure you into “getting over it” on some timetable. But if you feel hopeless, or helpless, and this feeling doesn’t improve over time, but instead seems to linger, seek professional help. Emotional injury can lead to depression, which can be treated – don’t let yourself continue a downhill slide indefinitely. You should reach a peak or plateau, and things should start to turn around. You shouldn’t just feel like you’re continuing down, down, down.

Watch out for addiction to drama. You can get a lot of attention when things get bad – but it’s not healthy to keep working your friends for attention to your dramas. It can be hard to give up the experience of having people sympathize as you tell how bad it is, but drama can become a way of life that sucks all the good feelings out of your relationships. If you find yourself telling the same story over and over again, or similar stories where you are the victim and someone else is the villain, it’s time to get a handle on yourself!

“Et tu, Brutus”, went the famous refrain spoken by Julius Caesar, when he found out that two of his most trusted “friends” had stabbed him in the back. Such people have been a part of society, and workplaces, since time immemorial. At the workplace, backstabbers are those, who would go to any extent to rise up the professional ladder. They may be sugar (saccharine) sweet on your face, probably the last ones, anybody would suspect of spreading malicious rumours about anyone. Well, they need the veneer of extra sweetness to disguise all that malice! They should, however, not be a cause for your vexation. Such people need to be handled with cautious indifference, causing them to lose the confidence of others, in the workplace.

Have you ever considered whether you should create your personal brand? Have you been procrastinating? Are you thinking that 2010 will be the year you jump on the personal branding band wagon?

Have you ever considered whether you should create your personal brand? Have you been procrastinating? Are you thinking that 2010 will be the year you jump on the personal branding band wagon?Maybe you should read this first before you take the plunge.

Here are 26 reasons to NOT create your personal brand:

1. You do not want to differentiate yourself
2. You want to receive less opportunities
3. You want to achieve your goals slower
4. You do not want to be found online
5. You do not like meeting new people digitally
6. You do not want to be seen as a thought leader
7. You want to make less money
8. You prefer more risk
9. You want less job security
10. You do not want to make sacrifices
11. You do not want to take control of your career
12. You do not see the value in social media
13. You are unwilling to learn new trends
14. You do not want to try something new
15. You do not care about personal branding
16. You are willing to let others speak for you
17. You prefer to live in the past
18. You are stubborn
19. You are a late adopter
20. You are not driven to succeed
21. You do not want to rise above the noise
22. You do not aspire to be a leader
23. You do not want to create your circumstances
24. You prefer to be passed over
25. You prefer to not have a voice
26. You think branding is only for companies

Personal branding is your gateway to success

I’m sure you all get it by now — there is no good reason to not create your personal brand. If you have a goal and it is something you want to reach — your personal brand can help get you there faster. I have still haven’t heard a reasonable excuse to not create your personal brand — and there are some creative excuses out there.

What do you think? Did I miss any reasons to NOT create your personal brand? Please leave your reason to NOT create your personal brand in the comment section below. Let’s get some good one’s going.

Have a great weekend.

Mother Teresa said, “Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”

Loneliness is more than a feeling or an emotion… it’s isolation, it’s emptiness. It isn’t just wanting company… it’s feeling disconnected and alone.

It’s not the type of thing that you can list a few statistics to understand, but it is something we all would have experienced at some time.

It can be found in big cities, where people feel anonymous and cut off… lost in the crowd… without a community to attach to and identify with.

With all the talk about sustainable development, it is important to look at the people who should make up half the effort. At the Clinton Global Initiative, former President Clinton stated that women produce 50% of the world’s food, do 66% of the world’s work, earn 10% of the world’s income and own 1% of the world’s property.

Over the past couple weeks, there’s been a lot of buzz over the latest development book Half the Sky. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the book focuses on how investing in women can lift communities out of poverty. The title comes from a Chinese proverb, “Women hold up half the sky” and illustrates how empowering women creates opportunity for communities.

Last year, The Girl Effect illustrated the theory that women are the key to ending poverty in their viral video.  A woman is more likely to spend her money on education, health and improving her family’s status. Hopefully, Half the Sky will reach out to an even larger audience to support women around the world by telling the stories of women trapped in oppressive conditions and the few success stories. For example, Sheryl WuDunn, in a TV interview, shared the story of the woman in Pakistan who went from getting beaten by her unemployed husband to receiving a US $65 and started an embroidery business employing thirty families in the village including her husband.

The book goes beyond narrative and encourages readers to participate online. Kristof regularly blogs on the topic and has created the hashtag on Twitter for #HalfTheSkyTuesday to spread the word. Readers can also help finance microloans to women through Kiva.org, Pro Mujer or any number of organizations listed on the Half the Sky Movement page. It’s easy to make a difference too.

No. This is not some Nike Propaganda

Last night I saw a show – “The New Inventor” on You Tube. One of the inventors being profiled on the show made a statement, one that I have heard in the past, but one so profound that it deserves its own blog post.

I paraphrase his statement below -

When you have an idea or a vision, it can have three possible outcomes -

• You give it all you’ve got and you suceed
• or, You give it all you’ve got and fail
• or, You ignore it and spend a lifetime wondering “What If?” !!!

The first outcome is the happy path. The second outcome involves a temporary downside accompanied by lessons that will serve you for a lifetime. The last outcome involves a lifetime of doubt.

With some free time on my hands, this week I am investigating various Cloud platform providers. The vendors I am reviewing are -

3Tera

Elastra

Zimory

Vmware

Cassatt

Datasynapse

Appistry

Eucalyptus

Citrix

If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you spend a fair amount of time online. However, considering how much of an influence the Internet has in our daily lives, how many of us actually know the story of how it got its start?

Here’s a brief history of the Internet, including important dates, people, projects, sites, and other information that should give you at least a partial picture of what this thing we call the Internet really is, and where it came from.

While the complete history of the Internet could easily fill a few books, this article should familiarize you with key milestones and events related to the growth and evolution of the Internet between 1969 to 2009.

1969: Arpanet

Arpanet was the first real network to run on packet switching technology (new at the time). On the October 29, 1969, computers at Stanford and UCLA connected for the first time. In effect, they were the first hosts on what would one day become the Internet.

The first message sent across the network was supposed to be “Login”, but reportedly, the link between the two colleges crashed on the letter “g”.

1969: Unix

Another major milestone during the 60’s was the inception of Unix: the operating system whose design heavily influenced that of Linux and FreeBSD (the operating systems most popular in today’s web servers/web hosting services).

1970: Arpanet network

An Arpanet network was established between Harvard, MIT, and BBN (the company that created the “interface message processor” computers used to connect to the network) in 1970.

1971: E-mail

Email was first developed in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, who also made the decision to use the “@” symbol to separate the user name from the computer name (which later on became the domain name).

1971: Project Gutenberg and eBooks

One of the most impressive developments of 1971 was the start of Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, for those unfamiliar with the site, is a global effort to make books and documents in the public domain available electronically–for free–in a variety of eBook and electronic formats.

It began when Michael Hart gained access to a large block of computing time and came to the realization that the future of computers wasn’t in computing itself, but in the storage, retrieval and searching of information that, at the time, was only contained in libraries. He manually typed (no OCR at the time) the “Declaration of Independence” and launched Project Gutenberg to make information contained in books widely available in electronic form. In effect, this was the birth of the eBook.

1972: CYCLADES

France began its own Arpanet-like project in 1972, called CYCLADES. While Cyclades was eventually shut down, it did pioneer a key idea: the host computer should be responsible for data transmission rather than the network itself.
1973: The first trans-Atlantic connection and the popularity of emailing

Arpanet made its first trans-Atlantic connection in 1973, with the University College of London. During the same year, email accounted for 75% of all Arpanet network activity.

1974: The beginning of TCP/IP

1974 was a breakthrough year. A proposal was published to link Arpa-like networks together into a so-called “inter-network”, which would have no central control and would work around a transmission control protocol (which eventually became TCP/IP).

1975: The email client

With the popularity of emailing, the first modern email program was developed by John Vittal, a programmer at the University of Southern California in 1975. The biggest technological advance this program (called MSG) made was the addition of “Reply” and “Forward” functionality.

1977: The PC modem

1977 was a big year for the development of the Internet as we know it today. It’s the year the first PC modem, developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, was introduced and initially sold to computer hobbyists.

1978: The Bulletin Board System (BBS)

The first bulletin board system (BBS) was developed during a blizzard in Chicago in 1978.

1978: Spam is born

1978 is also the year that brought the first unsolicited commercial email message (later known as spam), sent out to 600 California Arpanet users by Gary Thuerk.

1979: MUD – The earliest form of multiplayer games

The precursor to World of Warcraft and Second Life was developed in 1979, and was called MUD (short for MultiUser Dungeon). MUDs were entirely text-based virtual worlds, combining elements of role-playing games, interactive, fiction, and online chat.

1979: Usenet

1979 also ushered into the scene: Usenet, created by two graduate students. Usenet was an internet-based discussion system, allowing people from around the globe to converse about the same topics by posting public messages categorized by newsgroups.

1980: ENQUIRE software

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (better known as CERN) launched ENQUIRE (written by Tim Berners-Lee), a hypertext program that allowed scientists at the particle physics lab to keep track of people, software, and projects using hypertext (hyperlinks).

1982: The first emoticon

While many people credit Kevin MacKenzie with the invention of the emoticon in 1979, it was Scott Fahlman in 1982 who proposed using after a joke, rather than the original -) proposed by MacKenzie. The modern emoticon was born.

1983: Arpanet computers switch over to TCP/IP

January 1, 1983 was the deadline for Arpanet computers to switch over to the TCP/IP protocols developed by Vinton Cerf. A few hundred computers were affected by the switch. The name server was also developed in ‘83.

1984: Domain Name System (DNS)

The domain name system was created in 1984 along with the first Domain Name Servers (DNS). The domain name system was important in that it made addresses on the Internet more human-friendly compared to its numerical IP address counterparts. DNS servers allowed Internet users to type in an easy-to-remember domain name and then converted it to the IP address automatically.

1985: Virtual communities

1985 brought the development of The WELL (short for Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link), one of the oldest virtual communities still in operation. It was developed by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant in February of ‘85. It started out as a community of the readers and writers of the Whole Earth Review and was an open but “remarkably literate and uninhibited intellectual gathering”. Wired Magazine once called The Well “The most influential online community in the world.”

1986: Protocol wars

The so-called Protocol wars began in 1986. European countries at that time were pursuing the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), while the United States was using the Internet/Arpanet protocol, which eventually won out.

1987: The Internet grows

By 1987, there were nearly 30,000 hosts on the Internet. The original Arpanet protocol had been limited to 1,000 hosts, but the adoption of the TCP/IP standard made larger numbers of hosts possible.

1988: IRC – Internet Relay Chat

Also in 1988, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was first deployed, paving the way for real-time chat and the instant messaging programs we use today.

1988: First major malicious internet-based attack

One of the first major Internet worms was released in 1988. Referred to as “The Morris Worm”, it was written by Robert Tappan Morris and caused major interruptions across large parts of the Internet.

1989: AOL is launched

When Apple pulled out of the AppleLink program in 1989, the project was renamed and America Online was born. AOL, still in existence today, later on made the Internet popular amongst the average internet users.

1989: The proposal for the World Wide Web

1989 also brought about the proposal for the World Wide Web, written by Tim Berners-Lee. It was originally published in the March issue of MacWorld, and then redistributed in May 1990. It was written to persuade CERN that a global hypertext system was in CERN’s best interest. It was originally called “Mesh”; the term “World Wide Web” was coined while Berners-Lee was writing the code in 1990.

1990: First commercial dial-up ISP

1990 also brought about the first commercial dial-up Internet provider, The World. The same year, Arpanet ceased to exist.

1990: World Wide Web protocols finished

The code for the World Wide Web was written by Tim Berners-Lee, based on his proposal from the year before, along with the standards for HTML, HTTP, and URLs.

1991: First web page created

1991 brought some major innovations to the world of the Internet. The first web page was created and, much like the first email explained what email was, its purpose was to explain what the World Wide Web was.

1991: First content-based search protocol

Also in the same year, the first search protocol that examined file contents instead of just file names was launched, called Gopher.

1991: MP3 becomes a standard

Also, the MP3 file format was accepted as a standard in 1991. MP3 files, being highly compressed, later become a popular file format to share songs and entire albums via the internet.

1991: The first webcam

One of the more interesting developments of this era, though, was the first webcam. It was deployed at a Cambridge University computer lab, and its sole purpose was to monitor a particular coffee maker so that lab users could avoid wasted trips to an empty coffee pot.

1993: Mosaic – first graphical web browser for the general public

The first widely downloaded Internet browser, Mosaic, was released in 1993. While Mosaic wasn’t the first web browser, it is considered the first browser to make the Internet easily accessible to non-techies.

1993: Governments join in on the fun

In 1993, both the White House and the United Nations came online, marking the beginning of the .gov and .org domain names.

1994: Netscape Navigator

Mosaic’s first big competitor, Netscape Navigator, was released the year following (1994).

1995: Commercialization of the internet

1995 is often considered the first year the web became commercialized. While there were commercial enterprises online prior to ‘95, there were a few key developments that happened that year. First, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption was developed by Netscape, making it safer to conduct financial transactions (like credit card payments) online.

In addition, two major online businesses got their start the same year. The first sale on “Echo Bay” was made that year. Echo Bay later became eBay. Amazon.com also started in 1995, though it didn’t turn a profit for six years, until 2001.

1995: Geocities, the Vatican goes online, and JavaScript

Other major developments that year included the launch of Geocities (which officially closed down on October 26, 2009).

The Vatican also went online for the first time.

Java and JavaScript (originally called LiveScript by its creator, Brendan Eich, and deployed as part of the Netscape Navigator browser – see comments for explanation) was first introduced to the public in 1995. ActiveX was launched by Microsoft the following year.

1996: First web-based (webmail) service

In 1996, HoTMaiL (the capitalized letters are an homage to HTML), the first webmail service, was launched.

1997: The term “weblog” is coined

While the first blogs had been around for a few years in one form or another, 1997 was the first year the term “weblog” was used.

1998: First new story to be broken online instead of traditional media

In 1998, the first major news story to be broken online was the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal (also referred to as “Monicagate” among other nicknames), which was posted on The Drudge Report after Newsweek killed the story.

1998: Google

Google went live in 1998, revolutionizing the way in which people find information online.

1998: Internet-based file-sharing gets its roots

In 1998 as well, Napster launched, opening up the gates to mainstream file-sharing of audio files over the internet.

1999: SETI@home project

1999 is the year when one of the more interesting projects ever brought online: the SETI@home project, launched. The project has created the equivalent of a giant supercomputer by harnessing the computing power of more than 3 million computers worldwide, using their processors whenever the screensaver comes on, indicating that the computer is idle. The program analyzes radio telescope data to look for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

2000: The bubble bursts

2000 was the year of the dotcom collapse, resulting in huge losses for legions of investors. Hundreds of companies closed, some of which had never turned a profit for their investors. The NASDAQ, which listed a large number of tech companies affected by the bubble, peaked at over 5,000, then lost 10% of its value in a single day, and finally hit bottom in October of 2002.

2001: Wikipedia is launched

With the dotcom collapse still going strong, Wikipedia launched in 2001, one of the websites that paved the way for collective web content generation/social media.

2003: VoIP goes mainstream

In 2003: Skype is released to the public, giving a user-friendly interface to Voice over IP calling.

2003: MySpace becomes the most popular social network

Also in 2003, MySpace opens up its doors. It later grew to be the most popular social network at one time (thought it has since been overtaken by Facebook).

2003: CAN-SPAM Act puts a lid on unsolicited emails

Another major advance in 2003 was the signing of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, better known as the CAN-SPAM Act.

2004: Web 2.0

Though coined in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci, the term “Web 2.0″, referring to websites and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) that are highly interactive and user-driven became popular around 2004. During the first Web 2.0 conference, John Batelle and Tim O’Reilly described the concept of “the Web as a Platform”: software applications built to take advantage of internet connectivity, moving away from the desktop (which has downsides such as operating system dependency and lack of interoperability).

2004: Social Media and Digg

The term “social media”, believed to be first used by Chris Sharpley, was coined in the same year that “Web 2.0″ became a mainstream concept. Social media–sites and web applications that allow its users to create and share content and to connect with one another–started around this period.

Digg, a social news site, launched on November of 2004, paving the way for sites such as Reddit, Mixx, and Yahoo! Buzz. Digg revolutionized traditional means of generating and finding web content, democratically promoting news and web links that are reviewed and voted on by a community.

2004: “The” Facebook open to college students

Facebook launched in 2004, though at the time it was only open to college students and was called “The Facebook”; later on, “The” was dropped from the name, though the URL http://www.thefacebook.com still works.

2005: YouTube – streaming video for the masses

YouTube launched in 2005, bringing free online video hosting and sharing to the masses.

2006: Twitter gets twittering

Twitter launched in 2006. It was originally going to be called twittr (inspired by Flickr); the first Twitter message was “just setting up my twttr”.

2007: Major move to place TV shows online

Hulu was first launched in 2007, a joint venture between ABC, NBC, and Fox to make popular TV shows available to watch online.

2007: The iPhone and the Mobile Web

The biggest innovation of 2007 was almost certainly the iPhone, which was almost wholly responsible for renewed interest in mobile web applications and design.

2008: “Internet Election”

The first “Internet election” took place in 2008 with the U.S. Presidential election. It was the first year that national candidates took full advantage of all the Internet had to offer. Hillary Clinton jumped on board early with YouTube campaign videos. Virtually every candidate had a Facebook page or a Twitter feed, or both.

Ron Paul set a new fundraising record by raising $4.3 million in a single day through online donations, and then beat his own record only weeks later by raising $4.4 million in a single day.

The 2008 elections placed the Internet squarely at the forefront of politics and campaigning, a trend that is unlikely to change any time in the near future.

2009: ICANN policy changes

2009 brought about one of the biggest changes to come to the Internet in a long time when the U.S. relaxed its control over ICANN, the official naming body of the Internet (they’re the organization in charge of registering domain names).

The Future?

Where is the future of the Internet headed? Share your opinions in the comments section.

Sources and Further Reading

A People’s History of the Internet: from Arpanet in 1969 to Today: A timeline of the Internet from guardian.co.uk.

History of the Internet: An early timeline of the Internet, from precursors in the 1800s up through 1997.

A Brief History of the Web: A series of videos from Microsoft to celebrate the launch of Internet Explorer 8.

The History of the Internet – Tim Berners-Lee: A brief history of major developments associated with the Internet from About.com.

Hobbes’ Internet Timeline – the definitive ARPAnet & Internet History: A very thorough timeline of the Internet, starting in 1957 and going up through 2004, with tons of statistics and source material included.

Internet Timeline: A basic timeline of Internet history from FactMonster.com.