Slashdot Mirror
P2P - From Internet Scourge to Savior
microbrewer writes "The MIT Technology Review has up a feature discussing the future of p2p networks. Specifically, they look at their role in content distribution, in the age of ubiquitous video services. Soon, the article asserts, the very same p2p-style networks that 'threatened' legitimate business may be the basis for most video-on-demand services." From the article: "So how could additional P2P traffic actually be a good thing for the Internet? Carnegie Mellon's Zhang points out that because peer-to-peer networks exploit both the downlink and uplink capacities of users' Internet connections, they distribute content more efficiently than centralized 'unicast' technologies. Zhang also says it should be possible to label P2P traffic so that service providers can track it and decide how much of it to allow through their networks. He and colleagues from the University of California at Berkeley have founded a startup, Rinera, to develop software that will give service providers such control."
Follows a familiar pattern. ...... Profit!
1. X is brilliant! In the future everyone will X!
2. Of course, to do X, you need Y.
3. Oh, did I mention, we're starting a company for producing Y?
I don't know how many venture capitalists they'll find on slashdot, but we finally know step 2.
myspace is the public bathroom of the internet.
Fixed that for ya.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Fear is the mind killer.
we don't live in some federated decentralized anarchist council structure, we live in an imperialist, capitalist society where capital is centralized in a few hands, along with the media, political power for the most part, and so on.
I told you, we're an anarco-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to be a sort of executive officer for the week, but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting; by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two thirds majority in the case of more serious...
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
"Powerful technologies can be used for powerful things."
Every technology developed by man, from animal husbandry to television, has eventually resulted in its use to improve porn. Scientists refer to this as the "Porn Point". Once that is reached then a new technology to even further the use/distribution of porn will be developed until we reach the "Porn Singularity". The "Singularity" is a point in the future when porn progress will improve at an incredible rate unprecedented in human history. While scientists debate whether or not this event is a good thing, it is inevitable.
I'm sure, that whatever this p2p technology is, the future of it has something to do with porn.
There are many tongues to talk, and but few heads to think. -Victor Hugo