More than just the network
on
Internet2 and You
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Disclaimer: I've worked with Internet2 for about 8 years. Now I work with the LHC guys, too.
Internet2 has been on Slashdot a number of times. Each time people focus on the network. To me be fair the networking stuff is kind of cool. They're doing some interesting things; tackling some hard problems, providing feedback to hardware vendors that makes their products a bit better, dealing with various political aspects of international networking. All nice things.
However, the networking group is only one of 5 areas within the Internet2 group. Some of the areas are real stinkers and, as best as I've ever been able to tell, produce nothing of value. Others though do. Years ago I saw a presentation from the engineering group about various TCP/IP projects they were working on. Some dealt with intelligent back-off algorithms, some with various aspects of IPv6, a few with QoS that actually worked. The Middleware group, with which I work, has produced some nice work to help educational institutions record basic person information in a standard way (doesn't sound very exciting but it can sure help if you're an app writer). The Shibboleth project, and the related OpenSAML project, deal with making user data available in a secure and privacy preserving way (in theory it wold preclude any more lost laptops with millions of user records). It has seen adoption by various schools, governments, realtor software vendors, and others.
So, the point, I guess, is that it's not just about the network. Another point is that I doubt I2 will be around much longer. The recent failure to merge with NLR, a process that was like watching two of the greasiest used car salemens try to screw each other over, was probably the death toll.
Most people think of Internet2 as Abilene, the lower latency, higher bandwidth network that connects universities and some of our partners. In addition to that Internet2 funds a number of research and software development projects in partnership with the universities. Some of these research projects are focused on the network (TCP/IP stacks, network management, end-to-end diagnostics, etc.), other projects focus on "middleware" software (identity management, federated identity system, privilege management, etc.).
So, if I had to describe Internet2 I would say that is was a collection of universities and vendor partners that are trying to create a good environment for researchers to work together starting from the network layer up.
No, global communication has not made the world one big happy family, and it never will. No amount of technology will make this happen. Technology, regardless of it's form, is only a tool. If you really want global understanding try some education instead of mindless media drivel. If you don't want American's to have a deep seated distrust, or in some cases hatred, of Islamic people then don't show the Twin Towers getting blow up 24/7 for months with commentators remarking on how insidious and evil these people are.
Instead use the tool as a means to end. For example, instead of showing the planes crashing into the towers over and over, show what most Muslims are like. Let the commentators inform the viewers that a billion+ Islamic followers think that what happened was a horrible tragedy, the people who did it were not Muslims but derranged heritics, and that jihad is all about your internal struggle to be right with God, and not terrorizing your fellow man.
I suppose though that this sort of tolerance breeding information is not sensational enough to be "news" worthy, and we gotta keep up those ratings.
DWDM (Dense Wave Division Multiplexing) does indeed put more through a fiber then 80Gbs (current max is around 53Tbs). DWDM however only addresses the phase of a light wave as it goes through a fiber. Most of the dark fiber we have out there today can handle up to three different polarized waves (or set of phase multiplexed waves). Therefore this technology could in theory be couple with DWDM, allowing three DWDM signals to be multiplexed onto a single fiber, giving a total bandwidth of around 160Tbs per fiber. I say in theory because current DWDM trans/recievers are not yet up to this kind of job.
If you can blow your system away with it, how does that "rock"? The number one complaint about linux focuses on how usable, or not, it is for people who haveless technical backgrounds then most slashdot readers. If any package manager has the ability to toast your system, with out much doing, then I don't think it's what we really need. We need something that offers the power of RPM and apt-get for those users who know how to use it, but also something that's going to help out those newer to Linux. Hand holding for those less technically adpet and robust features for those who can safely use them.
NOTE: This my opinion only and in no way reflects IBM's policies or plans
It seems most people are happy that IBM is throwing money to the linux community, and I personally agree. It's nice to see any influx of money going into R&D work for Linux. This is not, however, the first time IBM has made such a move. IBM is working on porting it's jounalizing file system to Linux, it's working on a version of linux of it's servers, and many other things. Here are my predictions on WHY IBM is doing this all.
IBM has been VERY slow picking up new technologies on the OS front (look how long it took us drop OS/2). With Linux they can get in on the ground level.
Small, Medium, and increasingly so, Large business are starting to use Linux.
Linux is stable, windows is a little less then so.
IMHO it goes like this. Linux + publicity = Install base. Install base + IBM linux software = $$ for IBM. It all comes down to where the money is. Linux is coming into it's own and IBM wants to be the first name on the returns list.
Slashdot Mirror
Disclaimer: I've worked with Internet2 for about 8 years. Now I work with the LHC guys, too.
Internet2 has been on Slashdot a number of times. Each time people focus on the network. To me be fair the networking stuff is kind of cool. They're doing some interesting things; tackling some hard problems, providing feedback to hardware vendors that makes their products a bit better, dealing with various political aspects of international networking. All nice things.
However, the networking group is only one of 5 areas within the Internet2 group. Some of the areas are real stinkers and, as best as I've ever been able to tell, produce nothing of value. Others though do. Years ago I saw a presentation from the engineering group about various TCP/IP projects they were working on. Some dealt with intelligent back-off algorithms, some with various aspects of IPv6, a few with QoS that actually worked. The Middleware group, with which I work, has produced some nice work to help educational institutions record basic person information in a standard way (doesn't sound very exciting but it can sure help if you're an app writer). The Shibboleth project, and the related OpenSAML project, deal with making user data available in a secure and privacy preserving way (in theory it wold preclude any more lost laptops with millions of user records). It has seen adoption by various schools, governments, realtor software vendors, and others.
So, the point, I guess, is that it's not just about the network. Another point is that I doubt I2 will be around much longer. The recent failure to merge with NLR, a process that was like watching two of the greasiest used car salemens try to screw each other over, was probably the death toll.
Most people think of Internet2 as Abilene, the lower latency, higher bandwidth network that connects universities and some of our partners. In addition to that Internet2 funds a number of research and software development projects in partnership with the universities. Some of these research projects are focused on the network (TCP/IP stacks, network management, end-to-end diagnostics, etc.), other projects focus on "middleware" software (identity management, federated identity system, privilege management, etc.).
So, if I had to describe Internet2 I would say that is was a collection of universities and vendor partners that are trying to create a good environment for researchers to work together starting from the network layer up.
Instead use the tool as a means to end. For example, instead of showing the planes crashing into the towers over and over, show what most Muslims are like. Let the commentators inform the viewers that a billion+ Islamic followers think that what happened was a horrible tragedy, the people who did it were not Muslims but derranged heritics, and that jihad is all about your internal struggle to be right with God, and not terrorizing your fellow man.
I suppose though that this sort of tolerance breeding information is not sensational enough to be "news" worthy, and we gotta keep up those ratings.
DWDM (Dense Wave Division Multiplexing) does indeed put more through a fiber then 80Gbs (current max is around 53Tbs). DWDM however only addresses the phase of a light wave as it goes through a fiber. Most of the dark fiber we have out there today can handle up to three different polarized waves (or set of phase multiplexed waves). Therefore this technology could in theory be couple with DWDM, allowing three DWDM signals to be multiplexed onto a single fiber, giving a total bandwidth of around 160Tbs per fiber. I say in theory because current DWDM trans/recievers are not yet up to this kind of job.
"...but that's... my own fault. Apt-get rocks."
If you can blow your system away with it, how does that "rock"? The number one complaint about linux focuses on how usable, or not, it is for people who haveless technical backgrounds then most slashdot readers. If any package manager has the ability to toast your system, with out much doing, then I don't think it's what we really need. We need something that offers the power of RPM and apt-get for those users who know how to use it, but also something that's going to help out those newer to Linux. Hand holding for those less technically adpet and robust features for those who can safely use them.
It seems most people are happy that IBM is throwing money to the linux community, and I personally agree. It's nice to see any influx of money going into R&D work for Linux. This is not, however, the first time IBM has made such a move. IBM is working on porting it's jounalizing file system to Linux, it's working on a version of linux of it's servers, and many other things. Here are my predictions on WHY IBM is doing this all.
- IBM has been VERY slow picking up new technologies on the OS front (look how long it took us drop OS/2). With Linux they can get in on the ground level.
- Small, Medium, and increasingly so, Large business are starting to use Linux.
- Linux is stable, windows is a little less then so.
IMHO it goes like this. Linux + publicity = Install base. Install base + IBM linux software = $$ for IBM.It all comes down to where the money is. Linux is coming into it's own and IBM wants to be the first name on the returns list.