The thought of virtual continents never entered my mind while standing in line at the card reader with a stack of cards that represented lines of fortran. Networking in that era involved talking to the next person in line about critical issues such as whether or not the cat messed up our card order. At a frantic pace, the computing climate has changed from utilitarian convenience to indespensible communication. No one predicted the vast use this net of cyber information and communication would produce. It became a living entity, with many diverse ideas about where it should head. Those of us who have taken the wild ride from its humble beginnings are in awe of its reality and potential. I therefore propose a separate universe for we old geezers who have seen this develop in spite of ourselves.
The clueless press endlessly bemoans the loss of a few hour's business by relative newcomers to the net, yet it ignores the rapidly changing trends in cyber traffic that threatens the last free-thought zone on the planet. The net system is being changed from a free zone of intellectual exchange to another tool of mega-commerce for the sole purpose of extracting bucks from the populace. Could it be that these latest contortions on the net are but the early stages of a groundswell of reprisals to the changes of late, such changes exemplified by the "dotcom" Superbowl? It is rather conspicuous that all of the attacked sites are commercial. The FBI is obviously scrambling to nab these native "terrorists", regardless of their motive, so that the new frontier of commercial cyberspace can be safe and expand. Wait, didn't we play this scenario out in the 19th century? The next step is to herd the rest of us to "Oklahoma.gov"
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The thought of virtual continents never entered my mind while standing in line at the card reader with a stack of cards that represented lines of fortran. Networking in that era involved talking to the next person in line about critical issues such as whether or not the cat messed up our card order.
At a frantic pace, the computing climate has changed from utilitarian convenience to indespensible communication. No one predicted the vast use this net of cyber information and communication would produce. It became a living entity, with many diverse ideas about where it should head.
Those of us who have taken the wild ride from its humble beginnings are in awe of its reality and potential. I therefore propose a separate universe for we old geezers who have seen this develop in spite of ourselves.
How right you are! The dollar rules and the noose tightens.
The clueless press endlessly bemoans the loss of a few hour's business by relative newcomers to the net, yet it ignores the rapidly changing trends in cyber traffic that threatens the last free-thought zone on the planet. The net system is being changed from a free zone of intellectual exchange to another tool of mega-commerce for the sole purpose of extracting bucks from the populace.
Could it be that these latest contortions on the net are but the early stages of a groundswell of reprisals to the changes of late, such changes exemplified by the "dotcom" Superbowl? It is rather conspicuous that all of the attacked sites are commercial. The FBI is obviously scrambling to nab these native "terrorists", regardless of their motive, so that the new frontier of commercial cyberspace can be safe and expand. Wait, didn't we play this scenario out in the 19th century? The next step is to herd the rest of us to "Oklahoma.gov"