[Eug-lug] Operating Systems.

[Ben Barrett]

See in-line below...

On 2/13/07, Alan <euglug at thebucks.net> wrote:
>
> Ben Barrett wrote:
> > Dare I say, their "negligence" is a "passive evil"....
> ...
> >  If I ran a major petroleum
> > business, I
> > know that various other organizations would be on my case about the
> > infrastructure
> > threats & liabilities involved... shipping security, site safety,
> > etc.  IT
> > is simply not
> > mature and this is a major arena where the "wild west" concept still
> > has a
> > hold,
> > and we're still in the infancy of the web, so to speak.
> >
> A petroleum spill has lasting consequences for the health of the planet
> and the people.
> A "router spill" means someone's myspace page gets updated every 30
> minutes rather than every 5.


Well I think of a myspace page like a compact car on I5.  Yes, I know the
metaphor
for physical does not carry over very well... there *are* important things
happening
on the network infrastructure as we all know!!  Network outages do cost a
lot more
than myspace outages, no?


> IMHO, those who provide networks & bandwidth to the masses should be
> > liable
> > for what they allow to happen in their [virtual] spaces & "series of
> > pipes"
> > transport
> > systems.
> Liable to whom?


IANAL, but liable to the public good?  Like any other infrastructure which
our society,
government, and businesses deem  important enough to be part of the public
good.
Again with the physical-world comparisons, I know :)

> Consider similar scenarios in a physical space, if you have not,
> > and the
> > disparity becomes pretty obvious.
> Despite many attempts, the online world does not match up with the
> physical world.
> What works in one is not a good basis for decisions in the other.
>
-ajb


Yes, I know, but in order to educate & discuss these things the metaphors
*are* useful,
to me at least.  I know the difference between water and wine, and between
things and
thoughts.... so anyway if you've got a "concrete" way to explain the
idiosyncracies we're
discussing here, that would be easily understandable to non-techies, let're
rip!  ;)

You make good points, I just don't have a good common-parlance way to
describe
these things, for instance without referring to RFC's, network layers, etc,
other than
using some physical world metaphors.  I'll go ahead and stand by my
metaphors,
acknowledging that they're not a superb basis for decision-making, I just
think it is
part of human nature to express and understand things using this
methodology.


Thanks for chiming in, Alan.

--ben
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