The Internet

The Internet? It's just a passing fad.

Set your sights on Internet2.

Well the internet has fallen into the black hole of the commercial world, there is no saving it from that now.

Black hole?

I disagree. Would you rather pay for google? Or this page for instance?

And what will be different about Internet2?
Will it spontaneously make the world different?

If it is so terrible, then why are you on it now?

Besides, those answers don't even respond to the question asked. Again, all i wanted to know was how fast people's connections were.

Well, I'm betting I have the most bandwidth. The network I maintain (I'm the network architect) at work has two (redundant) OC12s for ~1240Mb/s (yes, I have over a Gb of internet bandwidth to the computer I am using right now). I've had them for the last four years. In addition, because of their size, they are both plugged into core systems from major providers, reducing the number of hops. If I can find a fast enough site (which I have a few times), the local hard drive is slower than the internet connection.

The good news is that I'm tentatively planning to upgrade to two full metro Gb pipes next year for a total of 2Gb of bandwidth. I can't justify an OC48...yet.

Sorry for being flippant.

From my ISPs website.

"Modem set-up of up to 8.0 Mbps download and 800 Kbps upload."

What my actual performance is, I have no idea. I'm running broadband cable in Toronto.

And Internet2 is the fastest, it's just not public. Governments and Universities only, and it's an ongoing project. Eventually it will trickled down to us though.

I do apologize Ferrel, I was being immature.

Ah my dear nieve freind.... Of course i pay for Google - via advertising (and probably passive spyware as well), and this forum via bying the game - this forum website is funded by profits from sales of the game, sales meaning money that you and i paid.

My point is that the internet is at the mercy and dictates of the commercial world which like a black hole, is a very powerful force that even light cannot escape!! lol

Ah, but are not gamma rays light and not the indicatory signature of a black hole?

If you really paid for any website, even in the fashion you describe, you would have a link to FugenTech on your desktop. (My company) We specialize in that stuff, get my drift?

I think you are confusing the internet, which is a collection of hardware, with the software that people use to access it. The internet is simply a bunch of computers, servers, switches, routers, cables (fiber optic and other), etc. that span the globe and are joined together by a common communication protocol (TCP/IP). That's it. What we do with this internet entirely up to the software. This software is only limited by human ingenuity. To standardize any further would mean to add some type of restrictions or rules. If some group decided to enforce new rules of standardization to software using the internet, they would be effectively cutting themselves off from the the majority that would undoubtedly reject their vision for new world order. You could also end up with various factions disagreeing about what these standards should be and then you've got a bunch of stuff that won't work together. That's basicly what you've got with various companies wanting their web browser to set the standard, and is why you've got the java/C# battle between Microsoft and Sun.

Oh, I usually connect via my wireless laptop and see about 54MBS speed.

Just the internet. (rhetorical)

TINSTAAFL

Commercial interests on the internet are like weeds, weeds in competition with each other to the extent that it creates somewhat of a balance - remember the Simpsons episode where Mr burns had so many bad deseases that they cancelled each other out... yea kinda like that! so your link would indeed appear if it were not for all the bigger nastier weeds getting in your way!

Would you call a telephone conversation between two people hardware too?

The hardware is merely the comunications network, the software is the conversation which is taking place on the network, and it is that conversation that is the internet!

Sorry, you got it backwards.

The internet is a shortend term from it's original name which was the Inter-network. Any network is a collection of physical hardware. I would not call a telephone conversation a network, no. I also wouldn't call the software running on the internet, the internet. Your analagy makes my point perfectly: The Phone Network is to a conversation as the Internet is to the software using it.

Ah ic, your going by the stuffy old technical definition. The question is do you actually agree with the way the definition of the internet is applied in this case? I do not.

I like stuffy old things, my favorite chair, my first teddy-bear, and definitions of civilization-altering technologies.

Yes, I agree that the user was refering to the internet in the manner you described. And there's nothing wrong with tweeking the definition a bit, as long as it's universally understood. However, I think it is helpful to understand the old definition before changing to a new one.

I imagine one day some whipper-snapper will start referring to any downloadable music as an "iPod". I'd exclaim, "No, the iPod is hardware!", but no one would listen because they changed the definition while I was out shopping for depends.   

Totally Agree

Some things never change but the name/definition does according to better understandings or just plain language variation but with other things like the internet, it is not just the 'definition' that evolves, Also the thing itself is evolving and changing as well.

The internet is an idea. It's a collective thought. Never before in the history of our species have we been able to communicate 'whatever' so readily. Good or bad.

Interesting times.

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/internet

Internet
One entry found.

Internet

Main Entry: In·ter·net
Pronunciation: \`in-tər-net\
Function: noun
Date: 1985
: an electronic communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the world

Here is an interesting comparison - Lets look at the roads network for example;

So lets say roads are like the network for the internet, and the vehicles are like the information on the network.

Is there a defining word for our roads network that compares to the word 'internet'?
roads? Ok then, we should call the internet 'wires'!

Glad to facilitate meaningful discussion.

768kps. DSL. It's really all I need. IF I were to add something to the internet, it would be more compatibility across platform/browser. Really, The internet should appear the same to everyone regardless of operating system or browser.

The internet is not a big truck. Its not something you just dump something on!

An apt analogy. It was once called the super-information highway.

Whatever the means of transport, it's not just a tangle of wires and wireless. It's a concept. An old one at that.

Yes, once. But then someone said let's call it the information super-highway and they did that instead.