internet | SysNet

Are cellular networks really overloaded?

When I read Joe Weinmans prediction for 2011, I felt troubled. I seems to take too much of the cellular companies claims at face value. Om Malik, one the other hand, take a more critical view at the same claims.

While on the whole, a more frugal approach to cellular connected devices operating systems, applications and content delivery is a good idea, the same holds true for the wired connection. I would seem that as the Google and Verizon so called net neutrality initiative failed, the carrier in the US have failed back to capacity limitations argument.

Internet, friends, trust and continuity

When Dave Winer asks "Can we use S3 and EC2 to host free speech?", following Amazon decision to remove the wikileaks site from its server, he is following up on a discussion started in the Rebooting the News podcast on Friends of the internet. In this he more or less said that the internet has no friends in the corporate world. While originally viewing this as the realpolitik of the corporate world, leaving his own servers on Amazon, he now seems to be more troubled. He is correct in both cases, but I also think he is also overly pessimistic.

There are services which are inherently more Internet friendly, such as WordPress or Acquia. By simply providing their platform as open source they allow their client to chose between the comfort of hosted service, installation and support on other services (such as Amazon) or private hosting. This means that of your platform is important enough for you you can move more rapidly if your current provider has gone to the dark side.

This, however, is not the same for one of the more basic and fundamental services of the Internet, the DNS system. This is the system which makes it possible to use domain names. Blocking, manipulating or overtaking this can fragment the Internet. This is much harder to fix or migrate from, and poses a more serious question then trusting a hosting provider.

Three Internets

Wikileaks is being chased off the internet, and the US government is commandeering the DNS records of web sites. This is done both via the infrastructure services (DNS), pressuring network service providers and other service providers.

Regadless of your feeling about Wikileaks, it is obvious those encountering such measures will look for alternatives for their activities. This might seem fine for the policy makers, as it will move such troublemakers of the radar for the general public and themselves. But this "out of site" mentality may have larger consequences. Looking at the development of the Internet (or rather, the web, the presentation function of the Internet), I can see how the Internet will split into three networks:

Charging into the landmines

As was only to be expected, Jon Stewart quickly points out the absurdity of the Google and Verizon proposal for the schminternet 1:

1. Jeff Jarvis is actually less offensive in his critique then others.

האינטרנט זה אמריקה

רוח משונה נושבת בארה"ב. הסנט מסמיך את הנשיא לנתק את האינטרנט וצוות הבטחון הלאומי יוזם מערכת זהות לאומית. דומה כי האמריקנים הם קרתניים לא פחות מאיתנו.

האינטרנט קמה במקורה להתמודד בדיוק עם הסכנה של כשל בנקודה מרכזית. הסכנה בזמן פיתוח האינטרנט הייתה של טילים או מפציצים סובייטים, כעת עליה להתמודד עם ממשלת ארצות הברית. מערכת הזהות הלאומית גם היא חסרת ערך, כאשר לא מעט מהפשיעה הקיברנטית נובעת מתוך הסחר הבין לאומי. האם מהיום נצטרך ויזה רק כדי לקנות ב-eBay?

The Internet is in the eyes of the beholder

In a recent article in Market Watch, John C, Devorak comments on the ruling against the FCC in it's actions against comcast. His premise is interesting: allowing the FCC into internet connection is dangerous, and it's a slippery road leading to government regulating the traffic of the internet.

Good onya, mates

We are not the only drongos. The figjam in the parlamet down under are also trying to implement an internet filter. (look her for traslation from -->

Dinosaurification

When a corporation is described as a dinosaur, it usually means that it has become two big and too slow for it's environment. IBM was an example of this. Trying to treat the PC market as they did the mainframe market, they were outsmarted by the new mammal in town, Microsoft.