Saturday, April 14, 2007

Rebuilding internet ?

Today's article on Yahoo news carries an interesting headline "Researchers explore scrapping Internet"

"The idea may seem unthinkable, even absurd, but many believe a "clean
slate" approach is the only way to truly address security, mobility and other
challenges that have cropped up since UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock helped
supervise the first exchange of meaningless test data between two machines on
Sept. 2, 1969."

I am of course in awe at the technological capacities of the researchers and all the people who made internet a possible reality. So bravo to them, the fact they invented it the first time means they can do it better again. However. I'm not sure how will this be done as it is going to have a global effect now that internet is so widespread in every sector of the economy.

Why doesn't everybody simply switch to internet 2 ? It's been there for a while, it's the best NOT ketp secret :P i.e. it is not a secret but the masses are not aware of it as much ...

Russo had a good piece about it back in 2005 - that's when I first heard about while I was doing a little research on cybersecurity.

"Yes, there is another Internet. The term "Internet" simply refers to a
network of computers. The one that most of us use is Internet1, or the
"commodity Internet." Internet2 was created nearly a decade ago by academics at
research universities as a noncommercial prototype-something like what the
Internet was back when just a few university researchers were logged on
to ARPANET [...] Internet2 was built for speed-the roads are all wide and smooth, like your own private autobahn. Internet2 moves data at 10 gigabits per second and more, compared with the 4 or so megabits you'll get using a cable modem [...] More than 200 universities, 70 private companies, 45 government agencies, and 45 international organizations log on to Internet2 every day[..]There are no secret Web addresses or special browsers required to log on, no buttons saying, "Click here for Internet2." Organizations that want to join up must demonstrate a research-related purpose, pay dues, and meet minimum technical requirements so they don't slow down the rest of the Internet2 empire."

If security is a concern it can be added to this internet 2 infrastructure since it has big highways why start from scratch ? hmmm but then I'm not a computer engineer ... whatever the future has in store for us - programmers won't be out a job so soon :P

10 comments:

NOMAD said...

yeah, papy will be still busy :lol:

Highlander said...

Nomad t'est marrante :P

programmer craig said...

I don't do internet programming! :P

They better not try and re-invent the internet. The computer industry isn't full of revolutionary creative geniuses anymore. It's full of a bunch of low-talent and unimaginative hacks, now. Just my opinion. But I ought to know, eh? :)

Anonymous said...

Nice call H. Internet II will become inevitable once the infrastructure is in place. The US congress passed a law a few years ago setting a deadline to put fiber cables into every houshold in the US. I believe that deadline is some time between 2010 and 2014. Most places in urban areas already have fiber trunks to the local neighborhoods. They were installed where I live three years ago. The IP v6 addressing system is already built into just about all modern network hardware devices. :-)

> said...

God never mind Internet 2. Internet 1 has got me occupied.

I just ran across some Iraqi blogs, with the broken english and the whole 9 yards. Truley depressing.:(

And whats even more depressing is when you start reading their blogs, and you kinda feel like you kinda know them you know what I mean and then all of a sudden they disappear off the face of the earth. And you think I wonder what happened to them? So many off them talk about all these Bombs going off and 70 people being killed as if it was a normal natural thing, they live like this, but for some reason life goes on, like this one dude who I ran across when i was looking for some Arab Metal blogs, hoping to discover a good band or something, but he was just a Arab Metal head, and he was writting about all of this insane crap, militias running around with butcher knives, and only traveling during certain times during the day, and on top of this he was talking about a PHYSICS EXAM! Seriosly. You have to respect that, people are being killed by the hundereds less then a mile from your place, most likley you are lossing family members, and if not you live with the reality that in any second you may die, or your friends and loved ones may die, but yet you still persist in school. That is truley insperational, I feel like such a.... I dont know the word, but spolied brat comes across. Seriosly man. Why exactly am I writting this? Bordom.lool.

The computer industry isn't full of revolutionary creative geniuses anymore. It's full of a bunch of low-talent and unimaginative hacks.

Dude i dont know about all that, I am sure that when Al Gore fixes global Warming, he will Re-invent the Internet.:P


You know H, if you ask people here who created the internet they will actually assert that the con-artist of the 21 century Mr.Al Gore did. Seriosly. They dont know that DARPA launched it to piss of the Rus cuz, of Sputnik.

Anonymous said...

"and he was writting about all of this insane crap, militias running around with butcher knives, and only traveling during certain times during the day, and on top of this he was talking about a PHYSICS EXAM!"

Actually Lost Libyano, I kinda know what they mean. I was a "Duck and Cover" kid. When I was about five to twelve years old, we used to regularly have drills in school where there were nuke attack bell sequences. If there was little warning, we would just get under our desks. There were other bell sequences where we would file out into the hall ways and put our backs against the outer walls and put our heads between our knees. If the Soviet missile hit between three and fifteen miles away (depending on the yield) these measures could possibly save our immediate lives.

We usually found ways to have fun during these exercises, but the deadly seriousness of the drills was never lost on us.

Granted, the carnage was not taking place on the streets and playgrounds before us, but the under current was very palpable and desturbing and I believe it affects my generation to this very day.

Highlander said...

LOL Craig , what do you mean there are no talents anymore ?

Wow you already have the infrastructure ? thanks for sharing.

The Lost Libyano and Curt, you see you can find some common ground :P

> said...

Lol. Yeah I geuss we have found common ground.

programmer craig said...

LOL Craig , what do you mean there are no talents anymore ?

I didn't say that, H. I happen to think I have a lot of talent, myself :P

It's just that the computer industry is not what it used to be. I've watched it change. And I can tell you from firsthand experience that 90% of the professional programmers out there don't have any talent or any creativity at all. They do everything "by the book" and have very little to offer when it comes to brainstorming or problem solving. And believe it or not, I'm talking about people who work at software companies making commercial software. I won't even talk about the script kiddies who work in the IS departments at big companies who call themselves programmers.

And it's not better on the hardware side. Used to be, people had to upgrade their computers every year if they wanted to run the latest and greatest. That just isn't so, anymore. There isn't anything I can do on my desktop today that i couldn't do 3 or 4 years ago. Nothing. I have ZERO motivation to upgrade, and even if I did have the motivation, what would I upgrade to? A top of the line brand new system is only marginally better than what I have.

The computer industry has become stagnant. And it would be a major disaster for the business types that run the industry now to try and come up with something like the internet, from scratch. I don't even think there is the competence to improve upon the internet on a software level, at this point in time.

No, the people who founded today's software companies were programmers themselves, and good ones. The people who founded the chip companies were engineers, and good ones. Companies like Intel and Microsoft are run by people with a business background, now. They are no longer capable of any true innovation, they are in it strictly for the money. It's not a niche industry anymore, it's a commodity industry.

And yes, I am bitter. I miss the days when I was working with talented individuals :)

Highlander said...

I didn't say that, H. I happen to think I have a lot of talent, myself :P

He He He Craig well since I know nothing about this business I can't judge your claim :P I'll just take your word for it !

But on the other hand I do agree my sturdy pentium III is doing just fine :)