Technology in Egypt, etc.

At the moment Egypt is in the news daily. This whole thing in Egypt makes on think about the technology and the Internet again. The actions in Egypt were coordinated for a large part via the Internet, people communicated with one another via the Internet and information was getting out of the country that way as well. Nowadays you can do nearly everything over it. Learn, buy, create, make money, fight, communicate, telephone... The list goes on and on.
I grew up with the Internet from young childhood on. I don't know it any other way. But think back twenty, thirty years. None of this would have been possible as easy. Coordinating protests, etc. has become immensely easier with the development of the Internet. I think this World Wide Web is one of the most important factors in making the saying that the world gets smaller every day true. Not all that long ago it was difficult to keep in touch with someone living only a few hundred km away... now he/she can live on the other side of earth.
Hm, anyway, I am curious to see how the Internet develops in the future - I do believe some changes will be made, though.
- Johann

The Internet is full

A recent article that I read said that the last IPv4 blocks were given out to Asia, there are now no more newer IP addresses that can be created. There is as Johann said a lot of space on the internet for individuality. the problem is that most of the websites that only a few websites account for most of the internet usage n the world. I will not say that it is impossible to create something new, but it will become harder as space for new entry points is fading.

I personally think that the IPv4 addresses would last at least until 2012, it is amazing how fast technology has developed that we now have to switch to IPv6 so fast. After finishing the unit about networking I am more and more amazed about the amount of effort that is put into global communications. the challenges that are to face in the future are hard, the hardest will be incorporating old with new technology, the developments are so fast, that standards have to be made for eg. operating systems so they will still run on old computers. hardware can last an eternity, many people got a computer during the big boom in the 1990s and do not see the need for a new computer. the thing that changes is the speed, that is the reason to buy a new computer not that it breaks.

Thoughts on the Internet

I was reading Daniel's last post about the Internet the other day... I find myself agreeing to some of his points. True, things are changing. But does change always have to be a bad thing? Change can be development and in this case it is, I think, and isn't that what the human race aims for? Yes, the Internet is over-commercialized. Tracking cookies, ad-overloaded pages and information-collecting applications are common. And there is 'crime' in the Internet as well. I was taking a look at my web server access logs the other day and was amazed once again of how many thousands of entries it had - 99.9% of them probably hack-attempts.

I find the Internet reflects the real life very much. I mean, nowadays there are wars fought online - just look at the example of wikileaks and the aftermath.

Anyway, nevertheless I find it wrong to say that there is little space for individuality. Actually there is nearly unlimited space for individuality - more, probably, than most people ever have in real life. It is just 'a teardrop in the rain', as Daniel pointed out. So to be truly individual one has to come up with something new, something different... then suddenly this teardrop in the rain becomes noticeable. Maybe one should not use 'individuality' in the context Daniel did. Maybe one should use 'privacy' instead. Because for privacy there truly doesn't seem to be much space in the Internet. If you want privacy, don't go online.

So long - Jocbe