1) i understand that internet2 is only in a few universities right now and will never be available to the general public (although some of the technology might be). my point was that while we americans were patting ourselves on the back for how technologically sophisticated we are, canada was quietly reminding us their networks were of equal or greater stability. improved resiliency was one of internet2's most touted features. of course, having dedicated fiber laid between university A and college B will still make for a faster connection.
2) while i'm quite certain about the $40/month advertised price, i didn't investigate it too thoroughly, so it's likely that there's some kind of catch. i think the name of the company was shaw cable and i was in calgary.
i just spent two weeks vacationing in snowy canada (i live in california) and while i was there i had the opportunity to learn about canada's internet. in short, it kicks ass. it is very fast, very resilient, very regulated, and most importantly, very cheap. the canadian government has been developing and regulating broadband since before anyone knew what broadband was and their investment has surely paid off. how does digital cable service AND broadband internet for $40/month sound? that's 40 candian dollars, or a little over $30 dollars american currency. not only that, but it's purported to be more resilient than the internet2 project that is just barely getting off the ground in the states.
canada's regulated deployment scheme has made it one of the most wired nations in the world. we could learn a lot from them.
p2p isn't going away. it isn't even slowing down.
on
Cringely on P2P
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· Score: 3, Interesting
i'm surprised nobody has mentioned IRIS (infrastructure for resilient internet systems, or something like that) yet. it's an open source p2p project coming out of MIT and Berkeley. It uses something called "distributed hash table" technology that i don't understand. it's supposed to make it so that as the number of nodes increases, search speed increases logarithmically. if nothing else, it proves that large-scale decentralized p2p networks can be as fast as closed networks like Kaza.
in short, all the of the big problems with p2p are being solved. while i'm sure new ones will crop up in the future (particularly if cringley's prediction about phase two of the industry's anti-p2p tactics comes true), it isn't going away. if RIAA ever manages to hit the "off" switch on p2p, they're going to have to deal with one hell of a stink, not just from media consumers, but from video and audio hardware makers, optical drive manufacturers, broadband providers, and musicians themselves.
it's nice to know that free media advocates have a few 800 lb. gorrillas in their corner.
as a neophyte linux user, perhaps i can offer some perspective on what is holding open-source back. in my opinion, it comes down to three little words: ease of use. open-source software can be fantastically useful if you've got the brains and grit to sit down and figure it out. i think sophisticated computer users (the people who write and use open-source) are the kind of people who get enjoyment out of this challenge. i know i do.
the average person, however, doesn't have the slightest interest in using software to it's fullest potential. they just want to point and click and have it work.
what kills me about many open-source programs is that there are so many opportunities to make it easier. problems of setup and configuration are something that should have been eliminated with the invention of the wizard.
you take really difficult, complex tasks and break them up into tasks so simple and trained chimpanzee couldn't screw up. that's it. that's the solution.
the first time i install a piece of software, i don't want to configure it to the nth degree. i don't know enough about it at that point. i just want basic functionality, and i'll learn the hard stuff later.
Slashdot Mirror
in a year we'll all be using an IRIS-based p2p app anyway. then we can all say good riddance to the spyware-laden menace to society that is kazaa.
http://iris.lcs.mit.edu/
1) i understand that internet2 is only in a few universities right now and will never be available to the general public (although some of the technology might be). my point was that while we americans were patting ourselves on the back for how technologically sophisticated we are, canada was quietly reminding us their networks were of equal or greater stability. improved resiliency was one of internet2's most touted features. of course, having dedicated fiber laid between university A and college B will still make for a faster connection.
2) while i'm quite certain about the $40/month advertised price, i didn't investigate it too thoroughly, so it's likely that there's some kind of catch. i think the name of the company was shaw cable and i was in calgary.
i just spent two weeks vacationing in snowy canada (i live in california) and while i was there i had the opportunity to learn about canada's internet. in short, it kicks ass. it is very fast, very resilient, very regulated, and most importantly, very cheap. the canadian government has been developing and regulating broadband since before anyone knew what broadband was and their investment has surely paid off. how does digital cable service AND broadband internet for $40/month sound? that's 40 candian dollars, or a little over $30 dollars american currency. not only that, but it's purported to be more resilient than the internet2 project that is just barely getting off the ground in the states. canada's regulated deployment scheme has made it one of the most wired nations in the world. we could learn a lot from them.
i'm surprised nobody has mentioned IRIS (infrastructure for resilient internet systems, or something like that) yet. it's an open source p2p project coming out of MIT and Berkeley. It uses something called "distributed hash table" technology that i don't understand. it's supposed to make it so that as the number of nodes increases, search speed increases logarithmically. if nothing else, it proves that large-scale decentralized p2p networks can be as fast as closed networks like Kaza.
in short, all the of the big problems with p2p are being solved. while i'm sure new ones will crop up in the future (particularly if cringley's prediction about phase two of the industry's anti-p2p tactics comes true), it isn't going away. if RIAA ever manages to hit the "off" switch on p2p, they're going to have to deal with one hell of a stink, not just from media consumers, but from video and audio hardware makers, optical drive manufacturers, broadband providers, and musicians themselves.
it's nice to know that free media advocates have a few 800 lb. gorrillas in their corner.
as a neophyte linux user, perhaps i can offer some perspective on what is holding open-source back. in my opinion, it comes down to three little words: ease of use. open-source software can be fantastically useful if you've got the brains and grit to sit down and figure it out. i think sophisticated computer users (the people who write and use open-source) are the kind of people who get enjoyment out of this challenge. i know i do. the average person, however, doesn't have the slightest interest in using software to it's fullest potential. they just want to point and click and have it work. what kills me about many open-source programs is that there are so many opportunities to make it easier. problems of setup and configuration are something that should have been eliminated with the invention of the wizard. you take really difficult, complex tasks and break them up into tasks so simple and trained chimpanzee couldn't screw up. that's it. that's the solution. the first time i install a piece of software, i don't want to configure it to the nth degree. i don't know enough about it at that point. i just want basic functionality, and i'll learn the hard stuff later.