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Virgnia:Internet Capital
cpt kangarooski writes "Wired is reporting that the state of Virginia plans to issue license plates bearing the motto "Internet C@pital." I suspect Network Solutions put them up to it. " Really funny article. Everyone knows that Michigan is the real c@pital anyway.
Visit me on #weirdness on the Galaxynet.
Since the first packets were sent from California to... well, some other place, the answer is obvious and not even worth putting on a license plate. Insecure displays like that are for people that know they're wrong.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
-- Pablo Picasso
Here's an excerpt:
. .......7 ..............................................7
----------BEGINNING OF EXCERPT-----------------
Network Working Group
Request for Comments: 8888
Category: Fake Standards Track
A. Gore
UVA/LCS
September 1999
The Commonwealth of Virginia as Internet Capital
Status of this Memo
This document specifies a Fake Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
The Commonwealth of Virginia is a state of rich heritage and extraordinary
natural beauty. Its attractions are as broad and diverse as its geography
and as abundant as its history. Stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Blue
Ridge and Allegheny mountains, Virginia is a mixture of exciting cities,
historic homes and towns, plentiful resources, and a wealth of recreational
activities.
It is therefore the purpose of this RFC to recommend that the Commonwealth
of Virginia be known for evermore as the Internet Capital of the World.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction.....................................
1.1 Purpose
----------END OF EXCERPT-----------------
I didn't think it was posible even here in Iowa we have a decent website...
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
TheGeek
Geekrights.org
TheGeek
http://www.geekrights.org
Kill the monkey
I think they should, because if it's the Internet C@pital, some psycho nutbar like Saddam "The Internet is the great Satan" Hussein will blow the hell out of it trying to shut it down.
POOF! No Virginia. POOF! No Iraq.
TheGeek
Geekrights.org
TheGeek
http://www.geekrights.org
Kill the monkey
Interesting how you seem to equate the geekiness of a populace to the corresponding regions influence in an industry. Also completely irrelevant. The truth is, the greatest growth of any industry comes upon its adoption by the masses, not hobbyists, early adopters, or "geeks".
Corporations in Northern Virginia have done an excellent job in taking the broad view and determining how technology can help us, as opposed to "hey, I can make this really cool thing that no one can use easily". And in my opinion, the more powerful technology is that which hides its internal complexity. 'Nuff said.
and id are there. Yup, that's right, Quake was born in one of the most stable states in the union. Epic too, right? (I'm from Richardson like the above, but now I live in Colorado, mountains and DSL keep life interesting.)
+&x
In protest, I put on my car "Vagina is for lovers." Could 'ave sold a million.
So, if I move to Vrginny, can I have my own special plate. Just image the picture!
Or, alternatively, for those looking for a real "capitol", the PacBell NAP (part of MAE West) is coincidentally on the same plot of land in downtown San Jose where the first capitol of California was 150 years ago. (Next time you're in SJ, look for the ring of palm trees around the historical marker between the Fairmont Hotel and Fairmont Office complex.)
Anyway, with the distributed nature of the Net, it's inevitable that lots of places will try to make their own criteria where they're the most important place on the Net. They're welcome to do so because, in their hype process, they'll buy more communications gear from Silicon Valley companies. (And that's good for my stock options. :-)
I personally think that the proportion of net.geeks in the population is the criteria that most people miss when they try to claim they've imitated Silicon Valley. It's taken all of this century to build up Silicon Valley to what it is. The technoculture here is just plain different.
Big deal. Tell us what you have which is real.
heh. Leave it to the internet to have a high "net worth".
:)
Anyhow, from definition 2, "I" would be the capital of "internet".
(and, therefore, TI would be the capitals of "the internet". Texas Instruments? What?)
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I think the idea that Virginia is the "Internet Capital" is way biased by the fact that there's this company called America Online that is based in Vienna, VA--by far the largest user base of Internet users from a single ISP on the 'Net.
There's only one thing though: AOL wouldn't have made it big if it weren't for companies based in Silicon Valley called 3Com, Cisco Systems and Netscape. Remember, Cisco provides the vast majority of the router hardware for Internet connections, and without Netscape, the Internet revolution would have taken a big longer to get going.
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
Gore is from Tennessee. Virgina has their own set of luser politicos.
_________
Sometimes, when I'm feelin' bored, I like to take a necrotic equine and assault it physically.
I enjoy Gore's proclamations as much as anyone, but let's face it: He is but a pale shadow of Quayle, and will never be able to fill the true genious' shoes.
---
Have a Sloppy day!
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Holland?
You're BOTH missing it. Kalamazoo is OBVIOUSLY the capital of the Internet... at least we agree Michigan is the home of the capital of the internet :)
Werd.
Don't you mean "Virginia is for Lusers"? :)
Nope, why do you think Virginia qualifies for educational assistance from christian Children's Fund.
and that's the only reason i'm stuck down here, too. =P
Now now, we all know how meaningful "Internet C@pital" is, but must you really call "Live Free or Die" stupid...I mean really now, I resent that being a New Hampshire resident...
(note: sarcasm intended but not evident...I'm too tired to be funny)
A couple years ago I saw a map showing the 'density' of installed Internet bandwidth by location. At that time, the SF Bay Area was massively more dense than any other part of the world.
While things probably have leveled out today, where the bandwidth is installed is probably more interesting than the topographical center or where the traffic is going through.
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
No no, the birthplace of the internet is Virginia. Nine months prior to it's birth, Al Gore and Bill Gates made sweet, sweet love. I'm not sure who's the father, though.
Actually, Jersey is the Garden State. I don't like admitting it, either, but it's really a green, gardeny place. Ever been to Sussex County (actually, Suss-hicks cow-nty)? It's all green around there. And to the moron who said "what exit are you from?" The Garden State and the Turnpike only run from New York City to (respectively) Cape May and Delaware. There's whole areas inaccessible to either. My parents live over an hour away from the Turnpike, and they're still in New Jersey! SO to you, I say: Bite me.
--
Umm, is it just my elitist northern bias, or is the word you're thinking of secede?!
I'm confused. I thought Al Gore was the capital.
-F
Number two my ass! You must have missed the article in the Washington Post this spring: We surpassed LA in traffic congestion last year! Whoo hooo! Maybe "Tr@ffic C@pit@l" should go on our plates...
It was bad enough that we're the home of AOL ... now this.
... quick, someone tell him he pioneer DNA cloning!
We need Al Gore to proclaim something outrageous again to divert attention
Just wanted to point out that Canada is overall more wired than the US. And we dont have any "internet decency" censorship laws either. So I vote Canada. I'm typing this on DSL right now from a rather small little place that SHOULDNT have DSL at all, but DOES.
Just being down the road from Slashdot, in Holland, Michigan, I'd have to agree :)
Ahh yes, when all else fails ... attack grammar or spelling. Bravo.
Puleeeeze... none of the mips are in either place. california is it for sure
sounds like a sextoy for cats?
Need a Catering Connection
I'm gonna have to disagree that the ARPANet and Internet were the same thing. One may be a descendent of the other, but thats as far as I would take it.
And none of this supports the idea of placing the 'capital of the Internet' in Virginia.
What the hell's a "catpital"?
MAE East is most definitely in Tyson's Corner, a mere stone's throw from the giant mall. While there are a lot of companies based in Reston, you'll find that there are a *whole* bunch in a highly dense, contiguous area in Tyson's. They essentially center on the MAE East facilities.
Wipe out VA and you'll be typing ip addresses to get to your favorite websites.
There is a little known government law which rquires contractors and agencies to have offices to be within so many miles of the DC. The result a lot of things are based in Maryland and Virginia which into turn makes it one of the worst places for traffic.
Anyone ever seen the "Virginia is for Lovers" stickers? Heh.
----
We all take pink lemonade for granted.
There is no K5 cabal.
I am not the real rusty.
They also claim that blacksburg, VA is the most wired town in the US. I believe that VA Tech is located there, strangely enough.
Hear me out on this one.
Oct. 1999: VA issues internet capital plates.
Jan. 2000: M$ wins contract w/ VA DMV thru y2k glitch.
Mar. 2000: VA allows 12 character ICOW plates; think "IP address".
Apr. 2000: M$ turns VA autos into "internet appliances" running WinCE.
Jun. 2000: VA traffic problems alleviated, M$ cars no longer run.
Graham
Graham
Linux - Fast Pane Relief
Absolutely. As we all know, Network Solutions is the Emperor of the Internet.
The real capital of the Internet is not in the backwoods commonwealth of Virginia.
... but the traffic is lousy (2nd only to LA! woohoo!)
Everyone knows that a disproportionate chunk of the Internet is centered in the Independent Privateer Republic of Fairfax (made up of Fairfax and Arlington counties and the city of Alexandria).
We have nothing to do with the rest of the state. We don't get along with them particularly well either.
My house is 1/2 mile from the UUNet building in Tysons to the north and 1/2 mile from the other UUNet building to the south (on 50). Novell is with AOL out in Dulles (AOL used to be near me in Vienna). In Tysons is Sprint, MCI, TCI, AT&T, Unisys, and just about everyone else.
It's a great place to live, much better than Pittsburgh (CMU should up and move)
Two comments:
1) If you don't want to grow up to be a goon, VCU might not be your best bet. Try VT or (gag) UVa.
2) I thought VA was the good ol' boy state too, until I moved to NC, which has a considerably higher good ol' boy factor. Then I saw SC, and that took the cake. I hope I never have to go to Georgia.
----
----
If we're not supposed to eat cows, why are they made out of steak?
Sounds like a good idea for e-mail address...Too bad they already registered pital.com, perhaps I will go for internetc@pital.net or internetc@pital.org.
Maybe then everyone will want to be my friend...
"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." -- Thomas Jefferson
Oh goody goody!!
Does this mean everyone in Washington, D.C. will get funky new plates that say, "Bull-shitters Capitol" and California will get the "Plastic Surgery Capitol"?!?! What should Rhode Island have??
on the sixth day God created man.
on the seventh day, man returned the favor.
The AOL 1.x software was based on AppleLink, the BBS that Apple operated as a developer resource for 3rd party Mac developers (headers, devtools, developer tech support, preleases of MacOS). Its now long defunct, but longtime Mac developers will wince at the memory of AppleLink.
k
http://hypermall.com/History/ah22.html#AppleLin
I find it less than surprising that less than 3 months after I moved to Fairfax, VA, the state (er, Commonwealth) declared themselves the Internet Capital...
:)
.net or a .org
I should try moving to West Virginia as a joke and see if it helps them at all
Side note : You know, I'd be much happier with this if I could get a
Wait, wait, wait...
AOL, NSI, UUNet, *and* PSInet all in one small area?
Tempting. What's the LatLong coordinates again?
Seriously, though: does any of this matters? In order for this to go through it has to come from lawmakers, and we know how they fsck things up...
8300 Boone Blvd.
It's not even the wrong spelling, it's the wrong word entirely. And many of us in nova would be perfectly happy seceding from the rest of Virginia so that we won't have them living off of our tax dollars. Hell, maybe we can get Montgomery county to come along with us.
Sorry, NCP was an ARPANET thing. The first routed IP packet defined the start of the Internet.
If we just declared the place "Virginia, home of both NSI and AOL", they probably wouldn't even know we were poking fun at them.
Must be one of those "states" smaller than western states' area codes. :-)
Clearly both are derived from the root /cap/ meaning, of course, "head" (and usage of one influenced the other). Separate but related etymologies.
lake effect weblog
{Network engineer in Chicago--looking for work!}
Why?
:(
For one thing, we are the telcom capital of the world... Okay, so maybe its not the internet now, but you wait... All these companies will be/are shifting their business towards internet switches, etc..
PS: How many companies are here, you ask? Just in a teeny tiny little area here in Richardson (north of Dallas), we have over 600 different telcom companies. That's not counting the companies in other parts of Richardson or anywhere else in or around Dallas.. (Its about a 2mi * 5mi range called the Telcom corridor)
Ahhhh well... Perhaps in a few years we'll get recognition.
--
"A mind is a horrible thing to waste. But a mime...
It feels wonderful wasting those fsckers."
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
Eventhough I went to JMU and recently graduated you shouldn't bust on VCU. It's a very good liberal arts schools, and its art program is one
of the best in the world. Its medical school MCV
is also very good.
People put down VCU all the time because it's located in downtown Richmond. They're just scared
of going to one of the only schools in Virgina
where white people don't make up over 50% of the
population.
It all depends what you're looking for in the end.
And VCU is the most diverse school in Virginia.
The Information Revolution will be fought on the command line.
1 a (1) : a stock of accumulated goods especially at a specified time and in contrast to income received during a specified period; also : the value of these accumulated goods (2) : accumulated goods devoted to the production of other goods (3): accumulated possessions calculated to bring in income b (1) : net worth (2) : CAPITAL STOCK c : persons holding capital d : ADVANTAGE, GAIN
(make capital of the situation)
2 [capital] a : a capital letter; especially : an initial capital letter b : a letter belonging to a style of alphabet modeled on the style customarily used in inscriptions
3 [capital] a : a city serving as a seat of government b : a city preeminent in some special activity (the fashion capital)
"Trouble is, just because it's obvious doesn't mean it's true"
"Trouble is, just because it's obvious doesn't mean it's true"
--Terry Pratchett
Huh?
i ver/docs/dp090999.htm
I thought the first TCP/IP transmission happened between UCLA and Stanford, thus defining the 'birth' of the Internet:
http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/columns/modemdr
That firmly places the 'birthplace' of the Internet in California...
I live in Pennsylvania and there are so many damned specialized license plates that it's really starting to get annoying. For example, if you donate money to some "save the animals!" thing, you get a license plate with an owl on it. There are several variations of that theme. Then there's another one for D.A.R.E., one for every public university, and various military ones (I suppose I shouldn't whine too much about those). And there are probably others I don't know about.
The link from the Wired story that has the actual picture of the plate says that that "Virginia offers more than 150 specialized plates...". 150!?!? That's ridiculous! Isn't the primary point of license plates to identify the car for legal purposes? How is a Virginia cop supposed to recognize 150 different license plates so he knows that one or another isn't a fake? What do you say when you see a hit-and-run or something?
cop: Did you see the license plate?
you: Yeah. It was 32DFJ-23.
cop: What state?
you: Uh, I dunno. It had a picture of a rabbit, I think. Or maybe it was a Klansman. All I know is that he had a carrot or a flaming cross.
cop: uh-huh.
Now I'm not really suggesting that these types of plates are going to enable people to remain anonymous from crimes (no security through obscurity!), but I'm just "nostalgic" (imagine that at 19 years old) for the days when Virginia's license plate was Virginia's license plate and they all looked the same. Do you have to pay to get a special "internet" license plate (probably)? It sounds like a stupid scheme to get more money from the super-consumers that the internet has contributed to. If you really need to express your personality to people behind you in traffic, just get a bumper sticker. It just seems really lame to try to pigeonhole your personality through some government-created license plate.
The papers which started it all were written at RAND in Santa Monica, CA (though the Pentagon paid for them). As for the birth of the ARPANET, which became the Internet--well, even though BBN (in Cambridge, MA) was contracted by (D)ARPA to build the hardware, the actual "first byte" was transmitted at UCLA, which last time I checked was in Los Angeles, CA.
The most popular Internet site is based in Santa Clara, CA. (AOL claims more visits, but a significant fraction of these aren't Internet-based). The major manufacturers of Internet infrastructure equipment are based in Silicon Valley, also in CA.
If being the center of Net VC and Net Companies doesn't make Silicon Valley the "center of the Internet," what would?
You didn't know the Fredericksburg area is a DC burb?
'Bolded'? I think you'll be finding that isn't a valid word.
it is also the home of MCI Worldcom and UUnet (ok... well technically MCI Worldcom is in DC)
DC gets a bad rap, but there are a lot of people who would rather not live in the endless NoVa suburbia. Whatever your choice is, more power to ya. And yes, currently I live in "the yuppie section" of DC (Dupont), but I used to live in heavily hispanic Adams Morgan, and I miss my old neighbors.
There's also poor sections of town, and dangerous sections. Show me a city where there aren't poor and dangerous sections. All I know is I've never once felt threatened walking around the city, alone, very late at night. People are just nicer here. Whenever I'm in NoVa, everyone looks hurried, mean and unhappy.
I roll my windows up and lock the doors when I leave the city.
----
We all take pink lemonade for granted.
There is no K5 cabal.
I am not the real rusty.
just kidding -- public internet access sucks here
I used to live in Richmond. We have a client who was very excited at getting a 56k dedicated dialup, apparently there isn't much to be had. Thank Ghod for Northern Virginia; it sucks in every way except for the fact you can get DSL or cable at the drop of a hat.
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
NO! NO! NO!
You got it ALL wrong!
Janet Reno's the mother of the Internet, Al Gore is the father of the Internet, Linus helped deliver the child, and Virginia adopted the worthless little shit.
San Diego, Ca is now and has for years been the most connected city in the country. It sure as hell isn't Virginia.
Plus we're the birthplace of digital wireless.
anything south of maryland is hick whq and should be destroyed. -your friendly neighborhood yankee
I've got a fake CA plate that reads W4R3Z.
It wasn't the first time, so I'm guessing it probably won't be the last! :)
Of course, NJ is really "The Garbage State."
marlyand is south of the mason dixon. so it is technically in "the south" the mason-dixon line divides maryland and penn not maryland and va. -sv
The problem is that Qualye wasn't as dumb as he sounded, and Gore is (as dumb as Quale sounded). Qualye recognized when he said something stupid (leading to the "I stand behind all my misstatements" quip), while Gore sets his staff out to defend them . . . .
The first two nodes: UCLA and Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International).
KV
Yup.
I'm saying this as anonymous since I happen to work there but not live there.
Virginia is a communist state. Police that I've ever encountered are pretty rude and obnoxious.
I agree with that one guy, virginia is for loosers (and old people)
It's interesting that you would falsly accuse the good Commonwealth of using the wrong spelling of the word, when it is actually you who suggested the wrong spelling of the word.
What makes it even more interesting is that you went so far as to include the definitions of the two words, which proved their spelling and disproved yours.
As I learned many years ago, and the definitions in your post clearly explain, is that the city is capital and the building is capitol.
RP
Ok, i don't get it...Virginia [to coin a phrase] "sux0rz", i should know, i live here. i havn't seen anything to make me think that this is the "internet capital of the world" besides for UUnet and AOL (does it count?)...i mean, i do have 2 ISPs in my town, but only one counts (my isp kick ass...a bunch of load-ballanced FreeBSD boxes..the one accross town runs Linux, but the admins just play Quake logged in as root on 2 tty's).
how ever, half the population at least is like, bubba-ville (atleast the part of the state i'm in)
maybe if i got my ass out of my room, off of my computers, and looked out side, i might see where the c@pital is...hrm...oh well
---------------------
bsDaemon
dfree@inna.net
"the United States is like that guy at the party who gives everyone cocaine and still nobdy likes him"
Nah. boston's already the center of the universe. let one of the other little states have this one.
"'Internet C@pital'? Aww, Virginia thinks it's important! that's awful cute."
Yo! The Virignia government has a law that says that it can't be sued.
For God's sake, it's "Capital."
Not for long... MCI Wordcom+UUNet HQ is currently being built in Ashburn, VA
Yeah, but their CS program is outdated and is tought by cueless idiots. Their IS Department is better clued in.
Okay, so Network Solutions and AOL and major hub are in Virginia. But Washington state has far more companies that influence were the net and tech will be going.. Real Networks, M$, Starwave, Amazon.com (just to name a few) and a ton of start-ups that are too numerous to list and many that we don't know about yet are based in the Seattle-Bellevue area. The content, the technology (both hardware and software), the vision is coming out of this region. If any state deserves the title of Internet C@pital it's Washington!
<--#insert file="witty.sig"--
To UVa). This is really embarassing. It's like when you were a kid, and your grandmother
made you wear a shirt that said "Nana's Favorite Boy"
and all your friends saw you and they'd laugh.
Not that it ever happened to me...or if it did, I blocked it out.
Did @l Gore invent Virginia? I'm confused...
--------------------------
Your Favorite OS Sucks.
^D
Just about sums things up.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
How would you pronounce "Internet C@pital?" "In-tur-net Cat-pit-ul"
:D
Internet Cat Piddle? Sounds like Mr. Bigglesworth is involved somehow!
hey hey hey...
watch your flame.
Opinionated Law Student Strikes Again!
So where is "Virgnia" anyway?
That technological hotbed that is...Mississippi
_________
Sometimes, when I'm feelin' bored, I like to take a necrotic equine and assault it physically.
"Internet Capital"? Like "Internet Money"? Perhaps they mean "Internet C@pitol" instead? Sheesh! Can't the State even spell?
Home of the U. of Utah, some of the pioneers of the internet. Home of stampede and caldera linux. Hub for the west. SLC REPRESNT
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If we're not supposed to eat cows, why are they made out of steak?
Well, no. A "capitol" is a building.
netsol did actually put them up to it:
Network Solutions and Northern Virginia e-business, Strategic-INFO developed the plate and worked with Virginia Delegate Jeannemarie Devolites to garner support for it from Virginia's General Assembly.
rm -rf ~/.signature
"There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."
If not the c@pital, at least they had the first node.
I can tell you the meaning of life,
I can tell you the meaning of life,
but you have to promise not to laugh.
Just waiting for my T1 to come up in my townhouse so I can move the box.
Ahh, just another reason why statehood should be granted to Northern VA! It's a whole different state..
IL is the real capital. and that @ sign sucks.
I don't get it. What's a catpital. Is this some play on the word "caterpillar"? That's gotta be it. Virginia is the caterpillar of the Internet, chewing up the pesky milkweed pods that cause packet loss, data corruption, and dandruff.
Eventually, Virginia will pupate and finally become an adult butterfly, fluttering across a green meadow, chased by a cat... Hey, cats, CATpital... obviously, I'm on the right track.
That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
and Maine is "Vacationland", and New Jersey is "The Garden State". Since when did these things have to make any sense?
----
We all take pink lemonade for granted.
There is no K5 cabal.
I am not the real rusty.
The kind like Washington, or the kind like all the $10 fees they'll be getting?
Seriosly, in my state the money from these specialty plates goes to groups associated with the plate. Who will be getting the cash from these?
I just think the world is the Capital of the internet.. :) A lot of the friends I chat to, and Slashdot are there.. :) It's pretty much the center of _my_ personal subjective internet.. :)
When you think of it, everywhere is really right next to each other (in terms of referring to the internet in it's own context, as a network)..
In future years we're likely to get away from the planet, and have other networks too...
But, at least for the forseeable future, Earth is the capital (capitol, whatever) of the internet...
And Michigan is a fine a place as any, to select as the center..
I really think subjective centers of it is about as close as you can really get to an answer really, isn't it??
Malk (In a philosophical mood)
IIRC correctly from my AOL days, aol's internet connection is in virginia. So that's why it's the capital :-)
Ok, he didn't say he "invented" the internet, he said he "created" it. Here's the clip from wired.com.
... shyeah right. Before you say someone else "sounds stupid", you may want to get your facts straight.
WASHINGTON -- It's a time-honored tradition for presidential hopefuls to claim credit for other people's successes.
But Al Gore as the father of the Internet?
That's what the campaigner in chief told CNN's Wolf Blitzer during an interview Tuesday evening. Blitzer asked Gore how he was different than other presumptive Democratic challengers, such as Bill Bradley. "What do you have to bring to this that he doesn't necessarily bring to this process?"
Replied Gore: "I'll be offering my vision when my campaign begins, and it'll be comprehensive and sweeping, and I hope that it'll be compelling enough to draw people toward it.... I've traveled to every part of this country during the last six years."
Then came the kicker: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
(My bold)
Reference it for yourself at http://www.wired.com/news/ news/politics/story/18390.html
I guess now you'll say Wired is a tool for the conservitive right wing
The very moment you own the plate, you get sued by a corporation who bears the .com trademark of the same name. What a stupid idea by Virginia government.
... reads like an article from "TheOnion". Laugh? Cry? .... laugh, it's more fun...
Since 1995, Virginia, or more specifically Tysons Corner has been the "center" of the internet, topologically speaking. The MAE East public peering point has and still is the most populated peering point. At one time over 60% of
all internet traffic, and some 80% of international traffic passed through MAE East.
Recently however the proliferation of private peering has significantly reduced those
numbers (of course a significant ammount of private peering occurs between backbone routers at
the MAE East location(s).
As for where the Internet was born, The Pentagon in Arlington, VA is technically the correct location, while the Implementation began in Cambridge, MA.
As for Sillicon Valley? Well they were the capital of the previous revolution,
the Personal Computer. They might even say they are the center of Net VC, and Net Companies, but
not the Internet itself.
Heh. I live in Richmond, Virginia.
Northern VA is an internet haven. AOL and NSI are both based there. Cable and DSL access is everywhere.
The problem is, outside of the D.C. area burbs, it stinks. No DSL, cable is spotty at best, ISDN prices are outrageous!! (thanks bell-atlantic!).
I can't wait to move to someplace more connected once I'm out of school.
Bill Gates, who invented the internet long before Al Gore ripped it off, got his start here!
---
Have a Sloppy day!
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I'm in alabama everybody knows the internet was formed here by a few cotten bails and some barbed wire fence. Or was it with a shrimp net strung between two shrimp boats, so they could communicate. Yah, I like that better.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Go virginia! hell, it's better than our old motto, "Virginia is for Lovers" At least now we can be something that means something.
"Internet Capital"? Like "Internet Money"? Perhaps they mean "Internet C@pitol" instead? Sheesh! Can't the State even spell?
We can spell just fine, thank you. A "capitol" is a building. A "capital" is a place.
-- Old Man Kensey
I go to school at VCU in Richmond Virginia,
:) if they really want to stay on the leading edge of things, then they need to get started on more shameless commercialism, (although selling crappy license plates where $plate =~ s/[Aa]/\@/g; is a good start) and catch up with the rest of the internet.
and I can tell you first hand that virginians
like to think that we're on the cutting edge
of technology. Motorola semiconductor plants
which may or may not be build here, of course
we've got AOL, and many other tech companies in
NOVA (northern VA).
The governor, Jim Gilmore, even appointed a
special group for information technology advising
recently. Among the appointees? The president of VCU, (who is a PhD *history* major, and who I know couldn't compute his way out of a wet paper bag) Steve Case, one of everybody's favorite evil internet millionaires. All in all, it's a very colorful collection of goons we've got down here in the good ol' boy state.
It seems that businesses for quite some time now have been falling all over each other trying to get to the internet to ply their wares, and governments are no different, only in that what they're selling is slightly different. They want prestige for "fostering a technology friendly environment where the innovation of tomorrow becomes a reality".
Jeez, I wonder when the state government page is going to start carrying pr0n banners...
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
A capital is the city that is the seat of government for a region, a capitOl is a building in which activities of said seat of government are carried out.
Obviously the subject above should be /.'ers are smart enough to know how to read ... so feel free to attack my typo's rather than address the issue.
Now we will see individuals buying tons of unused licence numbers so they can sell them to companies for inflated prices.
We have nothing to do with the rest of the state. We don't get along with them particularly well either.
... then you can get your own TLD, .ass.
So maybe you elitist northern snobs should succeed from the commonwealth
He was correcting the previous poster. in otherwords. you agree with him. The part in Italics is a quote from the prvious post
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
This is just stupid. One of the great things about the internet is that there is no capitol. Saying there is a capitol of the internet is like proclaiming yourself leader of the anarchist movement. If there COULD be a capitol, it would most likely be based around a university were early internet developement took place, like Berkley. Silicon Valley might be able to proclaim "computer capitol", but not "internet capitol". Whoever it was in Virginia who decided this probably doesn't even really know much about the internet (you know, those people who think world wide web = internet). Network Solutions, considering all the problems they have had of late, would be better off not trying to brag. They have become "internet pain-in-the-ass". Besides, isn't the Virginia state flower the home satellite dish? C'mon, they can't monopolize ALL the technology.
'Live Free Or Die' compared to Internet C@pital. For crying out loud, we americans MUST be a stupid as the rest of the world makes us up to be..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
GIVE A FSCK??? Who cares where the meatspace coordinates of any bit of the internet are...with sufficient redundancy, it is everywhere
This is just as bad as all the Internet IPOs. Every politian has to jump on the "Internet Bandwagon". Unfortunately, the people who claim they are the most "wired" are usually the most clueless.
As was pointed out in the article, there really is no center of the internet. It's built on the hub and spoke system. Almost any major metro area can claim to be "internet capitol". Usually, they are just satisfied with "the next silicon valley".
Its funny, in the Midwest, we have several areas competing to be the Silicon Prarie!
And I'm sure all this will play well over in Europe... These stupid politians keep forgetting that the internet is only partially based in the US.
---- Proudly marching to the beat of a different kettle of fish.