Liz and I are in the process of moving to our new home...a slight delay was
encountered when our ISP hit a glitch getting the proper circuits for our
Fractional T-1 (hurray!) from Nevada Bell - but everything got worked out
and we're set for an Aug. 22 full install - 1.1Mb/sec. plus 6 land phone
lines, all for a rather reasonable monthly fee, considering. Oh, and we've
decided to order some spread spectrum wireless while we're at it, from
a second provider - 3Mb/sec half/duplex 802.11, 2.4 GHz radio transceiver,
soon to be located on a warehouse roof in south Reno. And another on our
roof. Soon (if all goes well) we'll have effectively 4-8 times more bandwidth
than we have today with SDSL - probably with a much higher degree of
reliability - for less than twice what we're paying today for the DSL, ISP
and three phone lines. Not a bad deal, really - especially when you consider
that the house we bought was only the second home in Reno to have
ISDN installed, and the place is only 17 years old.
There's a fire burning in Washoe county tonight - we saw the lightening strike
late this afternoon during a thunderstorm; we paid for the few rain drops
that fell with several fires in the area, one of which is now a large circle
of flame about 8 miles south of here, which we can see from our balcony. The
air tastes of sage brush smoke.
Micro$oft has appealed to the Supremes. I'll wait for their judgement
before weighing in with mine -- after the election last fall and the
rather unpredictable judicial actions viz. Bush/Gore, there is nothing
but uncertainty now, until the Supremes judge. WindozeXP may yet be
curtailed...or not. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
Will Micro$oft own the Internet? Will TCP/M$ replace the standard, making
Micro$oft the only gate-keeper that matters? Will Bill Gates stand between
you and your credit card? Or your bank? Or your stock broker, your phone
company, your cable provider, your educational institution of choice, your
email, your taxes, your government, your assets, your identity? Wow.
Is that really the future? I remember a time, before taking my first
Computer Science class at Fordham University in New York in 1980 or
there abouts, when I vowed I would never touch a computer. At the
time, computers were represented by punch cards, which invaded nearly
every aspect of life. Remember those times? I do. And I remember how
great it was, when I first got it, when I realized that computers were
really all that. And over time, I became a believer.
I don't know...I guess for me, if Bill Gates does manage to corrupt and
then coopt the Internet such as to exclude others from playing, I may
yet again vow to never touch a computer. But upon reflection, that choice
I thought I could make in 1980, I realize I cannot make today - I cannot
choose to never touch a computer again. Computers are everywhere. No
matter what I do, short of a monastic existance in the remotest of areas,
it would be practically impossible to live a life without touching
a computer at some juncture. So maybe a Bill Gates controlled world really
is something we should avoid at all costs -- seriously.
If
there's hope for humanity it's in software