404 Not Found? It crashed again...

The dreaded "404 Page Not Found" error code has haunted computer screens for decades. Although many Internet users have no idea what this error code is, over the past 30 years, its frequency has made it into pop culture, becoming one of the ultimate online urban legends.

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Image from Baotu.com

We don’t pay much attention to it, but since most websites have new broken links every day, these error pages are hit countless times.

Furthermore, clicking on a web page from before 2005 takes us directly to a graveyard called the HTTP 404 Page Not Found.

On those "pastures" that are not evergreen all year round, the tombstones of the 404s are lined up in rows, and people today can imagine how many there are.

Today, 404 has become an influential symbol around the world that highlights all kinds of unknown things. Did you know that police often use 404 to refer to "unknown trouble"?

1. The story behind “404 Page Not Found”

We have all seen the 404 page, but why does it appear? 404 is an HTTP status code. When a user visits a web page, the device requests data from the server based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).

Then, the gears of the World Wide Web started turning, and we realized that the Internet is based on the exchange of data (one data transmission depends on another data transmission).

Before the web page jumps out, the server has sent an HTTP header field containing the status code, and our browser will also respond with a header field.

If the data exchange is successful, there will be a code representing the normal status: "200 OK", which means "data request successful".

We can't see this status code because in this case the server only sends the content of the requested page. Only when an error is encountered will the page display the corresponding status code.

“404 Page Not Found” – This message appears when the requested page does not exist or has been deleted. This is very common and can happen on any website.

2. Debunking the Myth About Room 404

From 1981 to 1992, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and co-developer Robert Cailliau, worked at CERN to create a new system for browsing and transferring information based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

To respond to different requests, they must manually allocate files and transfer them over the network.

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Kidschoolz

It wasn't long before they were overwhelmed and unable to respond to all the requests being sent over the network. Many users were entering incorrect data and therefore were not sending the correct file names.

This happened so often that the duo had to update the system to send the following message to users who edited the file name incorrectly: "Room 404: File does not exist."

More and more people have seen this message. In 1992, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) introduced the HTTP status code developed in 1990.

Tim and Robert work on the fourth floor, the same floor where the central database for the World Wide Web is said to be located, in Room 404.

As the home of the first web server and the birthplace of the World Wide Web, Room 404 has naturally become the stuff of urban legend:

The first website created at CERN – and the first website in the world – was originally created solely for the World Wide Web project and existed only on Tim’s NeXT computer. In 2013, CERN launched a project to restore this original website, info.cern.ch.

Later, Roberto Cariou dispelled the rumor that the 404 page was named after Room 404. There is no Room 404 on the fourth floor of CERN:

But strangely, there is no room 404 on the fourth floor. The rooms on the fourth floor are actually numbered starting from 410 and going up from there - I have no idea why. Sorry to disappoint you all, but there is no room 404 at CERN, it does not exist, and it is certainly not "where the World Wide Web was born".

Roberto Cario confirmed this in an interview:

The number 404 has nothing to do with a room number or any physical location at CERN. That's a myth.

When asked what he thought of people's obsession with deciphering the meaning of 404, Robert responded:

This speculation is meaningless. The person who created the rumor may not be rational enough, unwilling to present facts and evidence, and prefers falsehood to reality. Such people are common.

3. Uncover the mystery of 404

The 404 error has become the web’s ultimate puzzle and nihilistic paradox. Yet, more by accident than by design, I may have found the answer.

Pinterest

I was reading an article about the history of aviation when suddenly the answer was right there, hiding in plain sight.

I thought someone must have figured it out, so I opened Google, hoping to find someone who had the same problem as me.

But I got nothing! Urban legend enthusiasts and rumor busters alike were running around in the wrong circles trying to solve the 404 mystery.

4. The dreaded 404 flight

After Robert stated that Room 404 was nonsense, I don't think I can consciously understand where this code came from anymore.

While a data scientist’s brain is like a hyperdrive, everyday life and subconscious factors still play an important role; scientists are human, after all.

I believe that 404 has been all over the news since the dawn of the web. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, and that was the year Flight 404 disappeared.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404: On August 25, 1989, flight PK404 disappeared shortly after takeoff.

The Fokker F27 Friendship aircraft took off from Gilgit, Pakistan at 7:35 and was due to land in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

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A PIA F27 similar to the accident aircraft. Source: Wikipedia

A few minutes later, at 7:40 a.m., the pilot made the usual radio call, and the plane disappeared from radar - the last communication.

Experts believe the plane crashed in the Himalayas, but to this day, no wreckage has been found; Flight 404 is nowhere to be found.

Can you imagine how many times Tim and Robert have seen this news? They probably didn't even pay attention to the news that "Flight 404 could not be found".

Alitalia Flight 404 (AZ404/AZA404): Alitalia Flight 404, which crashed on November 14, 1990, was an international passenger plane that was originally scheduled to fly from Milan Linate Airport to Zurich Airport in Switzerland.

The Douglas DC-9–32, operated by Alitalia, crashed in the Weiach woodlands near Zurich Airport, killing all 46 people on board.

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The plane involved was photographed at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in August 1990 (3 months before the accident). Source: Wikipedia

Having written this far, I believe that some readers have already understood the situation - Weiach is only about 150 miles away from CERN, the birthplace of the Internet.

The news media will most likely link this tragedy to flight PK 404. Therefore, we can assume that 404 is already present in everyone's subconscious.

05Overview

Looking back at the history of the Internet, I think it was a series of catastrophic events, the so-called "misfortunes never come singly," that gave rise to the 404 status code.

I'm confused as to why I was the only one who connected the following threads until today:

• In August 1989, flight PK404 disappeared shortly after takeoff.
• In October 1990, Tim Berners-Lee began writing code on his newly equipped NeXT computer to develop the client program (the browser/editor he called the World Wide Web).
• In November 1990, Alitalia Flight 404 crashed in Switzerland.
• In December 1990, the first website nxoc01.cern.ch was born.

Lifewire

Tim and Robert remained silent and never explained why they used 404 as the error status code. But as mentioned above, they may not even realize that 404 is in their subconscious.

So, this “webpage is dead” error page will continue to annoy web users until the end of time.

Source: Leviathan (ID: liweitan2014)