Investors can use mutual funds and ETFs to buy a wide swatch of stocks or bonds without making too large a bet on any one company or sector. Take the S&P 500. You can buy the entire index, and the gains of the nationâs largest companies that comprise the list, for a minimal amount with either the Schwab S&P 500 (a mutual fund) or SPDR S&P 500 ETF (an exchange-traded fund).
Mention the history of the Internet to a group of people, and chances are someone will make a snarky comment about Al Gore claiming to have invented it. Gore actually said that he took the initiative in creating the Internet [source: CNN]. He promoted the Internet's development both as a senator and as vice president of the United States. So how did the Internet really get started? Believe it or not, it all began with a satellite. It was 1957 when the then Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite.
Now it supports a world-wide network of servers and clients, and is stringing to cope with growth. Over the past 2 years, the average number of users connected to the main IRC network has grown by a factor of 10. - J. Oikarinen, D. Reed; Internet Relay Chat Protocol; RFC 1459; May 1993. Who invented Internet Relay Chat? IRC was invented by Jarkko Oikarinen for use on the Internet in 1988. However, there has also been an interesting history to the development of distributed chat communications that goes back to the early 1970's. The following subsections provide more information: Early Programs.