Slashdot Mirror
Intel says Internet needs to change
Nurgled writes "At a recent Intel conference, CTO Pat Gelsinger said that something needs to be done to avoid the Internet buckling under the strain of new technologies and millions of new users. The BBC reports that Intel is attempting to layer a 'new Internet' over the existing network which can detect and counteract things like worm outbreaks and route traffic more intelligently during low and high traffic periods. Intel's prototype, PlanetLab, has 441 nodes but claims to be an open platform with documentation available on the site. What's in it for Intel, though?"
I don't like the idea of Intel owning the internet
What's in it for Intel is to sell chips to power said 'new internet'. How dare they.
X.400 was also designed WAY back, and it solves every problem people have with SMTP.
However in order to do this, you need central control (aka the Phone Company), which is exacty what the modern Internet was designed to avoid.
So, no, you're not going to get a wonderful replacement for SMTP that's spam/virus/fraud proof and still allows you to do things in a decentralized manner (like setup your own mailserver). Any fix people have come up with can easily be applied to SMTP email.
(If the government wanted to do us a favor, they'd give you a X.509 certificate along with your driver's licence.)
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
what's in it for Intel?
Serious do-las I imagine. The question is can they do that and will companies like Cisco play along.
-----
One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
Intel, by providing free and open standards will showcase themselves as a pioneer willing to make sacrifices to maintain the leadership role their company currently has. Nothing lasts forever and if they think only with greed they will more easily lose their "number one" status.
In general, you want to keep the field you play on in good shape. You need to take care of your arena so people find value in your products. If the Intel research will make internet use greater for more people, this directly benefits Intel as it will lead to presumably more chip sales in the end.
If they really get something good going here and fail to keep it open and free, no one will adopt it and they will have just wasted money on research that will not pay off and not have increased chip sales.
Then again, I could be entirely wrong here and Intel needs to figure out a way to increase their already huge profit margins. This may be the way?
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
This has nothing to do with "scaling". It has everything to do with re-inventing the technology so that they control. Basically, Intel is not able to take on Cisco directly, so instead will attempt to shift the playing field to their backyard.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
If we are talking about mandatory authentication, then there needs to be some way to securely authenticate. We have optional authentication now, which is good, but too easy to circumvent. Secure authentication requires a protocol and secure hardware and software. Both are right up the Wintel alley, with thier embedded ID chips and closed OS. Again, the protocol could be open and free, but only certified machines are allowed ont he network. Will certification be anything other than a $50 bill slipped to Intel. Maybe not.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Plus, don't forget that on IPv4, NATs have become compulsary; making some worms unable to contact some 'natted' pcs... IPv6 might mean these machines will be contactable directly....
Just my £0.0111123, tho I'm not that knowledgable of IPv6 yet... Apart from that nice article the other day. That was good, that was. Probably should read it though.
The Internet needs to change, yes. The people who have the technological understanding of how the Internet works need to make a systematic and concerted effort to CRUSH the spammers. The spammers are a cancer that is destroying the web by absorbing all of its bandwidth. Even if that were not so due to some massive increase in capacity, they still need to be crushed because they are polluting the web environment with unwanted commercial messages.
In other media, advertisments are tolerated because they pay the cost of the development of the content and the fixed cost of delivering the content to the audience (primarily the TV and radio broadcasting costs, and magazine paper and distribution costs). That is not so with the Internet. They are getting the medium for free and filling it with content specifically oriented to their private financial gain.
Governments and laws can not and will not stop them due the transnational nature of the medium. It is up to the technological community to stop them, even if the spammers have manipulated the legal structure to make attempts to stop them illegal.
It is up to the technological community that created the web to set enforced guidelines for its use. No one else has the ability to do it.
Of course it is Intel that needs to change. Hardly anyone cares about PC cpu MHz anylonger. The Itanium is such a magnificent failure. PC and server CPUs will soon cost less than $50, and nobody will care about brands anymore.
What should Intel do? They have to do something that makes the market believe Intel is at least part of the future. Pushing that Internet needs to change seems to be a way to get heard at all.
Maybe Intel is part of the future - and maybe they will revolutionise Internet. But primarily it Intel that needs to change - not the Internet.
No, there is no need for change and spam is hardly a major problem for the Internet as a whole. It might be frustrating for mail admins, but for the most part it's not seriously threatening the Web, IRC, FTP, SSH, VNC, NNTP and a host of other protocols which may have spam-like activity but also have workarounds. Sure, it's an annoyance everywhere, but a major threat --no way. Even when it comes to e-mail I get hardly any spam just using the defaults on Spam Assasin. So, this does not seem like a major emergency.
The real story here is Intel is struggling for relevance. You do realize they're planning to run their new dual cores at 200watts? Have you seen the heat sinks that are going on these things? They're enormous. This is a totally irresponsible move at a time when energy resources are at the forefront of the political stage.
So, no wonder they're looking to scare up some attention elsewhere. But the fact is, the Net is damn fine. The scarry thing is that it's better outside the US than in. If the Net is in such danger then why is it that in Korea, Japan, Taiwan and major cities in China things are so smooth. And yes, as a matter of fact it is both smooth and cheap here. Thank you very much.
Fix the net? Hah. You'll have to build it and then break it first. Of course in the States it's easy to create the image it's broken, but actually it hasn't hardly started yet.