OT perhaps? Old vs New Internet (was Re: BBSs & PPP)

From: Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner <spc_at_conman.org>
Date: Sun Nov 3 13:07:00 2002

It was thus said that the Great Tothwolf once stated:
>
> I actually made more use of local BBS systems then the web right up till
> the end. I found once I lost those, that I still had little use for the
> web, and instead more often made use of services such as irc, usenet, and
> ftp. Reluctantly, I have been forced more and more to use the web over
> more efficient services such as ftp, but I have not been happy with that
> change.

  I was the opposite. I used BBSs until I found the Internet (actually,
first I found the IBM internal forums when I worked there in 1990, then in
1991 I really started using email/Usenet) and I never looked back. With a
wider range of people and topics to talk about, the local BBS scene just
didn't interest me any more.

  That, and the porn was easier to get 8-P

  Also, FTP is no more efficient than HTTP---once the data starts coming
there is *no* difference in the protocol at this point---it's just a
straight TCP copy from one system to another and it then comes down to how
efficient TCP is. Zmodem is probably the *most* efficient in the
transferring of data, but you need a nice clean 8-bit communications channel
to gain those benefits; I could *not* use Zmodem reliably while dialed into
the university for instance (couldn't even use Xmodem reliably and instead
had to use Kermit, which is probably the *least* efficient in transferring
data but it works when nothing else can).

  I do remember using archie to locate programs available via FTP, and even
pulling one or two packages off Usenet but nowadays I find most of the
software on the web (via Google). Also, using FTP is a pain in these days
of firewalls and NATing (try, just try, FTPing a file between two systems,
each behind a firewall. Can you say ``futility?'')

> Perhaps I am being abit of an alarmist here, but I really don't see the
> internet _as a whole_ being able to continue along its current path of
> corporate abuse. In reality, it goes well beyond just the internet, and
> can be expanded to technology and society in general.

  [ snip ]

  Most of this I can attribute to entrenched interests maintaining the
status quo, and learning that legislation is a very effective way to those
ends.

> The current US (and sadly, even the evolving global) patent and copyright
> systems tend to allow for major corporate abuse. Even universities today
> have really tightened down on the free-flow of information, which overall,
> has really hurt R/D and innovation in general. Many of the very R/D labs
> that gave us the technology that created the internet no longer exist. The
> ones that do still exist are for the most part not in R/D mode anymore.

  R & D takes a long view on investments, which our current economic system
does not reward. Heck, today, a long view is considered a year, maybe two.
Not enough to support basic research.

> > CC has the minds that could set up some sort of FIDO, the thing is to
> > do it.
>
> Yes, CC seems to be made up of some of the best and brightest minds I've
> found on the internet (and over the years, I've been all over the darned
> thing). I really wish I'd found classiccmp years ago, since it seems to be
> one of the few places where I can often find like minded people that can
> understand what I happen to be talk^H^H^H^Hranting about at any given
> moment ;)

  Which comes to you via the Internet, which is a local call. Imagine if
you had to dial long distance to participate? Or wait several days for your
message to propagate via UUCP/FIDO? Would it still be as effective?

  -spc (Possibly, but it would be a lot slower ... )
Received on Sun Nov 03 2002 - 13:07:00 GMT