Yes but unless you drive an RX-7, the basic premise of the internal combustion engine is still beating inside your car just as much as in a Model T. The original poster wasn't suggesting that the internet won't *evolve*, as it is quite clear that it is and will. But he's contending that history has shown that once a technology has been accepted, attempts to radically alter that technology will be met with apathy and disinterest, and the core technology will be preserved.
Though honestly, I'm not sure if that applies to the internet. Other than the basic concept of a de-centralized global network, there isn't much *core* ideology inherent in the 'net. Perhaps the concept of the browser/WWW/http protocol, I believe that such a concept is well-rooted in the minds of the 'netters, and that it will prevail. After all, when people think of the internet, they mostly think of the http protocol - things like ftp and smtp/pop are more of an afterthought.
You missed the joke. Before Diet Coke, there was Coca-Cola Classic, and before it was classic it was...well, it was it. "Coke is it". That was the slogan. That was the jingle.
Which, by the by, had the unintended effect of prompting my then 4-year-old sister to beg my mother to run to the store and buy her some "Cokeisit".
I'm too young to remember what coke was before it was it, but my parents remember trying to by the world a coke. Not sure this was a round of coke, or a single coke with a few billion straws, but either way it was a rather laudy proposition.
In all the whining about napster, one of the biggest arguments I've heard in defense of the service is that "The RIAA and the record labels screw the artist and the customer, and are bad evil and immoral". Well, looks like we'll finally figure out whether they're illegal as well.
The way I see it, one cannot justify one's own illegal acts (napster use infringe on copyrights) because one thinks something else (the record companies) are wrong. Much better to expose the illicit affairs of the music industry big wheels through legal channels than music piracy.
John, though I normally have no problem with you expressing your increasingly libertarian views, you've gone a bit far by drawing parallels between this farmer and the American Revolution. Our revolution was justified because it was our only means of expressing our views, because America was governed by a foreign power without proper representation (yes, I realize "No taxation without representation" is a trite phrase, but nonetheless). France is not under dictatorial rule. It is a republic. This farmer had other ways of expressing his views, of attempting to change the system. Peacefully. He chose instead to smash up a McDonald's. Call him a revolutionary only if you are prepared to call those who attack abortion clinics revolutionaries. I prefer to call them both what they are: criminals.
Do you *own* a Kenwood Excelon head unit? I do. The x811. And I wouldn't trade it for an Aiwa. Not on your life. Is it worth the extra $300? Well, that depends on what you're looking for. But it definitely justifies it's higher price, I'll tell you that. (And yes, I realize the Z919 isn't branded with their Excelon logo - it's a Japanese import for those who didn't know, which is why it doesn't include the branding, MASK, or high voltage preouts that one generally see on the Excelon line - but it's internally comparable to the Excelon line and that's what counts). Aiwa sound. Hey, it's *cheap*!
Pull your head out of your desktop for a second there, and take a look at the real world. By that I mean, look at the business world. Case in point: the company I work for pays rougly $40,000 dollars PER LICENSE for software to compile and simulate Verilog code. We own 4 licenses and are purchasing 4 more, and I still run out of licenses sometimes. Would we have a use for an ASP with a large block of licenses, where we either A) Pay only for the time that we spend actually using the simulator, or B) Buy "timeshare" block during the day where we can use the VCS simulator? I believe we would. We have a relatively fast connection to the internet, and the Verilog simulator we use is nearly all text input and output anyway (input 100k of Verilog code, output waveform analysis and gate-level code), would run just fine on a company 300 miles away over a T1. Hell, I'm on an NT box right now and I use an X-Server to get to the simulator anyway(Not for long of course, there's an Ultra/10 sitting on my floor waiting for the MIS guys to set it up...because, of course, I'm not allowed to touch it yet...bah) I believe there's a huge market for this, and the only thing stopping me from going out and doing this myself is the lack of several million dollars in startup cash to buy the initial licenses and servers. I guarantee you though, there will be millions made (and probably are already) by those who get together the venture capital and start "renting out" high-dollar licensed software like that used in simulation, or the large expensive product databases used by small businesses like glass cutters (just the example that pops into my head because I used to work for a auto/home glass installer). I agree with you that the microsoft.net idea is a useless design. But ASP's, while they may never catch on in the home-user market, are gonna be big big big in the commercial and industrial sector. I only wish I could get in on the ground floor - but of course, I'm only 20, still a student. I'll have to see what the hot technology will be when I graduate in two years...
Actually, that's not what I meant at all. I meant that Be goes to great lengths to hide the complex details of system configuration from the user (go into networking setup in Be and you'll see what I mean) which has a two-fold effect of making it difficult for the user to damage his/her configuration and also for him/her to make "tweaks" to better suit their needs. I see this as a tradeoff - one that the target Be audience is willing to make, and one that the Linux community is not. I approve very much of the ease-of-use features rapidly being implemented in Linux, but I know that while Linux might give you the *option* of doing it the easy way, it will always let you screw things up if that's your choice. Whereas I see the MacOS/BeOS philosophy more like "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, we'll manage your OS, here's a web browser, go start your own E-Business or somethin". Different alternatives catering to different demographics. That's all I was trying to say.
On a whim, I downloaded the personal edition of BeOS over this last weekend. Mostly on a whim - I'd heard about it but had never had the time to give it a runthrough before. My initial impression of it from about 3 or 4 hours of use is this: BeOS is everything that Windows 98 should be and that Linux, regardless of what you might think, doesn't want to be. By that, I mean that it is suitable for the 99% of the world's population that wants a lightweight, easy to use desktop operating system that is allows them to access the "new technologies" they've heard of (you know, this email stuff and the world wide wait?) with a minimum of intervention or knowledge on their part. Those of us who enjoy the power and configurability of linux should really stop trying to jam it down the throats of the average consumer - we like our operating system powerful and configurable, but the average consumer does not agree with us. Oh sure, we say "look, it's got a GUI, and an installer, it's waay easy, check out RPM, a monkey could install Linux". But we forget that the average monkey, apart from eating bananas and scratching their butt, has very little else to do and could spend the next week or so finding the proper drivers and poking through configuration scripts. Joe Consumer sees his computer and thinks TeeVee and he wants to be able to boot up his computer and have everything set up and clean with no "do not touch this" buttons that could potentially ruin everything. This is why the "non user serviceable" parts to a TeeVee (ie the syncs and other such adjustments)are hidden away from view. As they are with BeOS. Linux, OTOH, is like a TeeVee with the back cover removed - it's suitable for those who like to fiddle and know enough not to touch the toroid. Anyway, just thought I'd mention that - I do hope that linux continues to gain support and popularity, but if you're looking for something that's going to replace Windows for the majority of home users, I'd say look no further than Be.
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Though honestly, I'm not sure if that applies to the internet. Other than the basic concept of a de-centralized global network, there isn't much *core* ideology inherent in the 'net. Perhaps the concept of the browser/WWW/http protocol, I believe that such a concept is well-rooted in the minds of the 'netters, and that it will prevail. After all, when people think of the internet, they mostly think of the http protocol - things like ftp and smtp/pop are more of an afterthought.
You missed the joke. Before Diet Coke, there was Coca-Cola Classic, and before it was classic it was...well, it was it. "Coke is it". That was the slogan. That was the jingle.
Which, by the by, had the unintended effect of prompting my then 4-year-old sister to beg my mother to run to the store and buy her some "Cokeisit".
I'm too young to remember what coke was before it was it, but my parents remember trying to by the world a coke. Not sure this was a round of coke, or a single coke with a few billion straws, but either way it was a rather laudy proposition.
What can I say? We're a tech school. If the word has more than 2 syllables, and it's not "capacitor", who needs it? :)
The way I see it, one cannot justify one's own illegal acts (napster use infringe on copyrights) because one thinks something else (the record companies) are wrong. Much better to expose the illicit affairs of the music industry big wheels through legal channels than music piracy.
John, though I normally have no problem with you expressing your increasingly libertarian views, you've gone a bit far by drawing parallels between this farmer and the American Revolution. Our revolution was justified because it was our only means of expressing our views, because America was governed by a foreign power without proper representation (yes, I realize "No taxation without representation" is a trite phrase, but nonetheless). France is not under dictatorial rule. It is a republic. This farmer had other ways of expressing his views, of attempting to change the system. Peacefully. He chose instead to smash up a McDonald's. Call him a revolutionary only if you are prepared to call those who attack abortion clinics revolutionaries. I prefer to call them both what they are: criminals.
Do you *own* a Kenwood Excelon head unit? I do. The x811. And I wouldn't trade it for an Aiwa. Not on your life. Is it worth the extra $300? Well, that depends on what you're looking for. But it definitely justifies it's higher price, I'll tell you that. (And yes, I realize the Z919 isn't branded with their Excelon logo - it's a Japanese import for those who didn't know, which is why it doesn't include the branding, MASK, or high voltage preouts that one generally see on the Excelon line - but it's internally comparable to the Excelon line and that's what counts). Aiwa sound. Hey, it's *cheap*!
Pull your head out of your desktop for a second there, and take a look at the real world. By that I mean, look at the business world. Case in point: the company I work for pays rougly $40,000 dollars PER LICENSE for software to compile and simulate Verilog code. We own 4 licenses and are purchasing 4 more, and I still run out of licenses sometimes. Would we have a use for an ASP with a large block of licenses, where we either A) Pay only for the time that we spend actually using the simulator, or B) Buy "timeshare" block during the day where we can use the VCS simulator? I believe we would. We have a relatively fast connection to the internet, and the Verilog simulator we use is nearly all text input and output anyway (input 100k of Verilog code, output waveform analysis and gate-level code), would run just fine on a company 300 miles away over a T1. Hell, I'm on an NT box right now and I use an X-Server to get to the simulator anyway(Not for long of course, there's an Ultra/10 sitting on my floor waiting for the MIS guys to set it up...because, of course, I'm not allowed to touch it yet...bah) I believe there's a huge market for this, and the only thing stopping me from going out and doing this myself is the lack of several million dollars in startup cash to buy the initial licenses and servers. I guarantee you though, there will be millions made (and probably are already) by those who get together the venture capital and start "renting out" high-dollar licensed software like that used in simulation, or the large expensive product databases used by small businesses like glass cutters (just the example that pops into my head because I used to work for a auto/home glass installer). I agree with you that the microsoft .net idea is a useless design. But ASP's, while they may never catch on in the home-user market, are gonna be big big big in the commercial and industrial sector. I only wish I could get in on the ground floor - but of course, I'm only 20, still a student. I'll have to see what the hot technology will be when I graduate in two years...
Actually, that's not what I meant at all. I meant that Be goes to great lengths to hide the complex details of system configuration from the user (go into networking setup in Be and you'll see what I mean) which has a two-fold effect of making it difficult for the user to damage his/her configuration and also for him/her to make "tweaks" to better suit their needs. I see this as a tradeoff - one that the target Be audience is willing to make, and one that the Linux community is not. I approve very much of the ease-of-use features rapidly being implemented in Linux, but I know that while Linux might give you the *option* of doing it the easy way, it will always let you screw things up if that's your choice. Whereas I see the MacOS/BeOS philosophy more like "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, we'll manage your OS, here's a web browser, go start your own E-Business or somethin". Different alternatives catering to different demographics. That's all I was trying to say.
On a whim, I downloaded the personal edition of BeOS over this last weekend. Mostly on a whim - I'd heard about it but had never had the time to give it a runthrough before. My initial impression of it from about 3 or 4 hours of use is this: BeOS is everything that Windows 98 should be and that Linux, regardless of what you might think, doesn't want to be. By that, I mean that it is suitable for the 99% of the world's population that wants a lightweight, easy to use desktop operating system that is allows them to access the "new technologies" they've heard of (you know, this email stuff and the world wide wait?) with a minimum of intervention or knowledge on their part. Those of us who enjoy the power and configurability of linux should really stop trying to jam it down the throats of the average consumer - we like our operating system powerful and configurable, but the average consumer does not agree with us. Oh sure, we say "look, it's got a GUI, and an installer, it's waay easy, check out RPM, a monkey could install Linux". But we forget that the average monkey, apart from eating bananas and scratching their butt, has very little else to do and could spend the next week or so finding the proper drivers and poking through configuration scripts. Joe Consumer sees his computer and thinks TeeVee and he wants to be able to boot up his computer and have everything set up and clean with no "do not touch this" buttons that could potentially ruin everything. This is why the "non user serviceable" parts to a TeeVee (ie the syncs and other such adjustments)are hidden away from view. As they are with BeOS. Linux, OTOH, is like a TeeVee with the back cover removed - it's suitable for those who like to fiddle and know enough not to touch the toroid. Anyway, just thought I'd mention that - I do hope that linux continues to gain support and popularity, but if you're looking for something that's going to replace Windows for the majority of home users, I'd say look no further than Be.