This is very similar to my trajectory (PhD in the mid to late 90's).
I made friends with some people working in the computer center (the famous 513 at the time, may have changed by now). I discovered UNIX, then Linux and I was sold. During my PhD I started to work for the industry in IT and never stopped since then.
CERN had an outstanding computer system, they invented the "grid". As for HTTP, it just happened to be invented at CERN when Tim Berners-Lee was working there (there was nothing special related to CERN). The hardware-software interface was bleeding edge technology (built into the detectors) and the data bandwidth capacities were ahead of their times.
All of this, however, is not particle physics and if CERN did not exist there would be not much "holes" in today's computers (as opposed, say, to DARPA or Linus).
I made friends with some people working in the computer center (the famous 513 at the time, may have changed by now). I discovered UNIX, then Linux and I was sold. During my PhD I started to work for the industry in IT and never stopped since then.
CERN had an outstanding computer system, they invented the "grid". As for HTTP, it just happened to be invented at CERN when Tim Berners-Lee was working there (there was nothing special related to CERN). The hardware-software interface was bleeding edge technology (built into the detectors) and the data bandwidth capacities were ahead of their times.
All of this, however, is not particle physics and if CERN did not exist there would be not much "holes" in today's computers (as opposed, say, to DARPA or Linus).