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Think-Tank Warns of Internet "Brownouts" Starting Next Year
JacobSteelsmith writes "A respected American think-tank, Nemertes Research, reports the Web has reached a critical point. For many reasons, Internet usage continues to rise (imagine that), and bandwidth usage is increasing due to traffic heavy sites such as YouTube. The article goes on to describe the perils Internet users will face including 'brownouts that will freeze their computers as capacity runs out in cyberspace,' and constant network 'traffic jams,' similar to 'how home computers slow down when the kids get back from school and start playing games.' ... 'Monthly traffic across the internet is running at about eight exabytes. A recent study by the University of Minnesota estimated that traffic was growing by at least 60 per cent a year, although that did not take into account plans for greater internet access in China and India. ... While the net itself will ultimately survive, Ritter said that waves of disruption would begin to emerge next year, when computers would jitter and freeze. This would be followed by brownouts — a combination of temporary freezing and computers being reduced to a slow speed.'"
Nuff said
Smivs on the intertubes!
"This would be followed by brownouts a combination of temporary freezing and computers being reduced to a slow speed."
I have Comcast; how will I be able to tell when this starts to happen, compared to what I see today?
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
And here i thought it was the geeks getting home and downloading Ubuntu.
Uh-oh, someone's got the swine flu.
Everyone's computer is going to jitter or freeze because the net will be over capacity? Are the rest of you still using Windows 95 or other OS's that don't multithread properly?
Otherwise, the idea that your whole computer will freeze due to a network issue is kind of laughable...
So far, carriers have added capacity often enough to stay ahead of the curve. I don't see why that would change now.
All the average user is capable of understanding is that the internet will be slow. But didn't you listen to Scott McNealy? The Network is the computer. Therefore, the user's computer will stutter and choke! IT MUST BE TRUE!
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It's running Windows, Duh!
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
WOOOOOOSH!!
ive been using an alternative-internet technology based on corn and soybean oil for years now...with the only side effect being that my slashdot posts sometimes smell like french-fries or donuts.
Good people go to bed earlier.
streaming video.
porn
You're just being redundant.
brownouts that will freeze their computers as capacity runs out in cyberspace
It sounds like some BS description they'd put into a movie when they forgot to hire a tech consultant. You know, like some dude with spiky hair who describes himself as a 'hacker' would be typing furiously on a keyboard, and then suddenly yell, "Oh no! We're in too many firewalls and cyberspace is almost full! All of our computers are going to crash if I don't do something quick!"
and stuff.
I see what you did there. But you're not fooling anyone. We know what you really mean. And no, we don't feel sorry for you.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
Don't you love it when people who don't understand irony think you actually mean what you say.
Actually, no, I don't.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
Yup, and now we're experiencing monetary brownouts, and the financial system is freezing. Oh wait, no, that was because of the streaming peer-to-peer profits in the banking industry! If we don't do something fast, all our industries will crash!
Reminds me of the doomsday cults who predict the end of the world is coming every year, and then when it doesn't, they just adjust their prediction to next year. Sort of like a Cubs fan.
Modern codecs are pretty CPU-intense. As long as you keep the data flowing, the CPU stays busy and generates a lot of heat. If the pipe stalls, what happens is that the CPU idles. Now, the article is probably written for an audience where most people overclock with some rather extreme cooling solutions. When these peoples' CPUs idle, the water-cooling can actually ice up.
When the coolant freezes, the tubes burst. (Senator Stevens warned us about this, but people didn't understand, and some even ridiculed him.) Then when more packets come in and the CPU resumes working and heats up, the coolant thaws and leaks out of the broken tubes. Coolant gets all over the motherboard, and the computer crashes.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Correction: "steaming video"
What's really dumb about that, is that whenever I'm in too many firewalls and cyberspace is almost full, I just code up a gui in visual basic and trace an ip address. Everyone knows how to do that. Sheesh, some "hacker!"
Yeah, that's crazy that a computer would freeze or crash just because the connection is slow. My internet slows down often and it never causes my computer to cra
I have never heard of this "Internet" company before, but I am 100% certain they are infringing on a Microsoft patent.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
I laughed at this.
And then I died a little on the inside because it's so unfortunately true.
Home computers do not run on the internet. Just because a page won't load doesn't mean your computer's gonna freeze. Oh wait, maybe for those still running Windows.
Maybe if we pass legislation to make it illegal to sell faster, cheaper connectivity...
Don't you love it when people throw around the word irony and don't understand what the word actually means?
... While the net itself will ultimately survive, Ritter said that waves of disruption would begin to emerge next year, when computers would jit -
Buffering... Buffering... Buffering...
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Just hack the gibson and free up all that extra cyberspace.
It's quite simple really, I'll explain:
A computer is a machine that has to fill with data in order to work, just like a lightbulb has to fill with electricity in order to work. Back in the old days, you purchased your data on little disks, and inserted them into the slot in order to fill your computer with data. Now, with the internet, you connect your computer to the data tube, which fills your computer with data from the cloud, just like taking your car to the gas station. The problem is, with pirates and pedophiles and enemies of the Comcast's Rightful Profit start consuming large amounts of data, the data pressure of cyberspace falls. When cyberspace's data pressure is lower than your computer's data pressure, data starts to flow out of your computer through the data tube, rather than flowing in. As your computer's data pressure falls, it starts to slow down and crash.
See?
Or Linux desktop advocates.
If I were a Cubs fan, I'd look forward to the end of the world, too.
Comment of the year
LIES! Next you will be telling people that the GUI isn't the operating system, knowing how to use GUI office applications isn't the sole requirement to be the system administrator, and the internet isn't installed on their machines!
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
And I thought it was the network getting slow, not the computer itself.
I'm waiting to see my computer "jitter and freeze" rather than just timeout.
Maybe if I shake it...
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.