The Virtual Revolution – The Internet Tankies Version of History February 5, 2010
Posted by Neuromancer in Geek Stuf, Internet.add a comment
Watching the BBC and Alaks Krotoski’s take on the “internet” is an interesting experience whilst not to bad for a guardian tech journalist. The program has some fairly obvious biases and some of its statements about the history of the internet and its precursors are a little wobbly if not in fact twisted or wrong.
They cover the precursors to the internet / www in a very cursory way obviously they just read the Cliffs notes version of internet history and have brought some of the more happy clappy views of the internet from some of the usual American suspects – A species of induhvidual I have just coined the name “Internet Tankies” for. And to totally ignore the ideas for Vannevar Bush who of course postulated a hypertext system in 1945 not a good start there.
The early part covering the pre internet days was particularly bad when covering the Well which was a BBS system and not a system that used internet protocols just because it was based in SV and had a few well known users. A lot of the research and work was done outside of California MIT, Rand and the NPL all playing major roles for example
As some one who was involved early on sceen see cyber gypsies and was one of the mice in the walls finding uses for things I should know that! In fact BBS sysops I know though that connecting the hobbyist BBS systems like Fidonet and WWIV to the internet would spoil and eventually destroy Fidonet.
And no mention of Gopher which is where I found the early text mode only www stuck away on the end of the ITU’s gopher sever which I was looking as it had a copy of BT’s x.500 directory.
And the whole segment on Microsoft just didn’t make sense MS got jumped on because they stopped the ability of 3rd party browsers manufacturers to charge for browsers. Netscape’s business model was to charge for browsers and that is what the regulators fell on Microsoft on from a great height for (and also in some cases being American)
It will be interesting to see what the rest of the series comes up with but it does seem that they need some more people with a longer term view and to be able to look beyond oh look purty pictures on my mac, and the often patronising Candide like twaddle pushed by Negreponte et. All about how giving poor people in third world some crap laptop will automagicaly make theirs lives better NO! access to water and basic medical services will do far more.
And don’t get me started how Stephen Fry gets to pontificate on tech just because you have read your iphone manual Stephen doesn’t mean you have an in depth knowledge on the internet – let alone what it means in the broader political and economic sense . I bet you don’t even know what the 8th layer of the OSI stack and the 5th layer of the TCP/IP stack are J By that argument as I have watched all the Stargate DVD directors commentaries that means I should have been the replacement for Russell Davies on Dr Who/Torchwood.
Whist I agree with Aleks with her skeptical view right at the end she did give Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia) in particular a freeride. Ask Alex Chancellor about how Wikipedia announced his death 
PS Aleks as an American if you don’t know what a “tankie” is ask one of the older hacks at the Guardian down the pub.
PPS that is assuming you can stop Charles Arthur from going of on his extended rants about how the Kulaks at the ordinance survey should be liquidated.
Scobelizer vs Randall Kennedy over chrome January 13, 2010
Posted by Neuromancer in Chromium, Google.add a comment
this is a response to the post scobelizer made responding an InfoWorld columnist Randall Kennedy crtiquieing the new chrome OS ad why Randal thinks it will fail (a view that i think is 99% likely)
The original article is here and Roberts response here
With all respect Robert saying its not going to fail but only because inventing a new “category of computer that chrome OS suits is the sort of tactic you hear politician do when they don’t want to answer the question put to them.
Its not about developers at all. The argument that it’s a new type of companion device is interesting but in the end but that ignores that normal people don’t really want 2 computers and they really don’t want is another cut down Microsoft bob Linux interface. People want the GUI interface they are used to; note that notebooks really didn’t take off until XP was available
If I need reference in the kitchen I use the 45+ year old copy of Marguerite Patten we have I can boot that in a lot less than 7 seconds (ie open the book)
Lets look at the history of the network computer as this is yet another attempt to get this particular nag up and running. A few years ago Sun, Oracle and others tried this and I actually tried to use the network computer and this was in BT in a flag ship building with state of the art networks (we actually used up the local exchanges spare pairs )
It didn’t work then for use as a pc it made a nice small x terminal to connect to our sun servers though.
Going further back this is the model that Videotext used a relatively dumb terminal and every thing in the cloud (well a bunch of GEC 4000’s) that didn’t work that well ok it did sort of work but only because the French government/ France telecom gave away 100,000’s minitels.
Even further back we come to IBM back in the day IBM used to sell a complete package software bundled with mainframe which you rented looks like Google is trying to reinvent the 1960’s mainframe model – IBM got into some serious problems with the anti trust people back then.
The major problems are that people like having a general purpose PC and aren’t going to want to go back to the locked down
For this to work you need a ubiquitous and high speed wireless access and as the USA seems to have major problems in getting mobile phones to work for voice let alone the massive amount. The trouble is that the PC is an evolving platform and whilst you can do cut down tasks such as crude word processing or basic spreadsheets Google docs is lacking when it comes to even open office which is again not as good is MS Office.
Google Chromium – Network Computers what again? November 19, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in Chromium.2 comments
Google have given some more details about their new operating system Chromium. It seems to be a very cutdown Linux running Chrome and is tightly locked down and Google say it will only run web based applications which given its Open source roots is kind of interesting I cant see RMS being to happy about this. Nor will the FLOSS/Linux community in general be to happy about this.
The Google team that build are pitching this as a second computer – but i don’t think the average user wants to have to learn a second GUI and the associated foibles of another operating system.
This seems to be yet another attempt to make the network computer work. I was a trialist in BT for network computers – at that time it was an interesting toy but was slow and relied on remote servers to run applications. Google seem to think that a limited computer that requires a high speed reliable connection to the Internet will work.
Hmm so Goggles home market is the USA which has difficulty with basic stuff like you know getting a mobile phone network to work (in the middle of San Francesco for example) – having spent a number of years inside the wire in BT and the view there was that Americas mobile network was considered “in need in some improvement” to use BT speak – on the intranet I can remember some very cruel (but funny) jokes about how ATT was going to break into the European market with their new Strowger technology.
So Google thinks that using 802.11n is going to be a solution, even if you have a wide spread wifi network. wifi has problems connecting more than a few devices to an access point CISCO quote 10 per AP in their design guides. So I doubt that a chromium net book in a crowded city is going to be that functional.
The actual launch is around a year away and it will be interesting to see how it turns out, I suspect that Eric Schmitt who used to be CEO of SUN (one of the original backers of the network computer) has managed to persuade Google to have another try at network computing – and given the number of times this return to a dumb terminal model has failed in the past I suspect it is a quixotic titling at windmills exercise.
You can look at a summary of the launch event here.
Google GO November 11, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in Google.add a comment
Google has just launched a new language GO. Google say is inspired by some issues Google have with existing languages. on the GO site the reason for creating this new language is given as:
Go was born out of frustration with existing languages and environments for systems programming. Programming had become too difficult and the choice of languages was partly to blame. One had to choose either efficient compilation, efficient execution, or ease of programming; all three were not available in the same mainstream language. Programmers who could were choosing ease over safety and efficiency by moving to dynamically typed languages such as Python and JavaScript rather than C++ or, to a lesser extent, Java.
Go is described as a lightweight systems programming language with built in support for concurrent processes. The developers claim it has the advantages of languages such as PHP with some of the features of a traditional compiled languages (type safety) such as C.
One of the developers is Ken Thompson one of the fathers of UNIX so the development team have form. It certainly feels like that the developers of GO wanted to get away form the tendency of OO programmers at the drop of a hat to spend hours having obtuse byzantine arguments of the doctrinal elements of Java /C++ rather than you know doing some actual work
And given Goggles infrastructure of massive amounts of small servers i can see theme using GO to program new services under the hood – they comment theta they haven’t used GO in a live environment yet – but it will be interesting to see what use people make of GO.
Currently GO only runs on Linux and OSX and its unclear if it has a self hosting compiler yet though it seems to use the Gcc route that a lot of languages seem to use on Linux
The GO language home page is here and the launch announcement is here
Micro Men October 9, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in Geek Stuf.add a comment
Just caught up via iplayer with the BBC 4 program Micro Men about the early days of the Computer industry in particular the rivalry between Sinclair and Acorn, with ZX80/81 and Spectrum vs Acorn’s Atom/BBC Micro. At the time I was working with some of the early PC’s PETS and Apples and both I an My office mate lobbied to use the BBC Micro as a cheap (£400) color interface for some of the experiments at BHRA.
Allegedly when a delegation from the PRC came to visit to look at a huge experimental model of the flows around the outfall of a new power station they where more impressed with the BBC that was used as a front end and displayed a heat map – and apparently scoured Bedford looking for a BBC micro to take back with them 
ZX80
The BBC Micro
A real blast from the past and reminded me of the old days.
Internet Developer Looking For a New Gig September 18, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in Uncategorized.add a comment
I am a UK based Internet developer looking for a new gig full time or contract. I have many years experience in web/Internet systems.
- One of the first 5 webmasters and champions of www in BT.
- Took over SEO at my last employer helped grow it to a large team with 25+ clients and 4 team members.
- Worked in genuinely world leading organisations at the cutting edge.
- Took part in research in ISO9000 / formal methods with BSI.
I’me currently looking for a new Gig so if you have an interesting SEO or Internet role - Pitch me via mail at morris@hauntingthunder.demon.co.uk mobile: 07984 301472 or via my Linkedin or Facebook profiles.
Ex illis Computer Gaming Meets Traditional Wargames August 20, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in Wargames.2 comments
Just heard via the D6 Generation of an interesting hybrid between computer based games and more traditional figure based games.
Ex illis uses traditional plastic figures as is now more common ala games workshop or rakham, though these figures are snap together and unpainted.
Bastion games say:
Ex illis is a hybrid miniature wargame that offers the best of the two worlds: the convenience of technology that makes video games so popular and the human interaction that is the essence of tabletop gaming. Ex illis is a large deployment wargame where players engage in battle using 70 to 100 high quality plastic figurines on a 36” x 45” squared mat.
The game board is paramount to any tactical thinking and all your device will display is a single square at a time. Ex illis uses iPod Touch, iPhone, netbook or notebook to resolve battle, it replaces dice, measuring tape and thick and expensive rulebooks!
Internet access is required though they unclear if you need a persistant connection or not to play, they showed the game at gencon running on an ipod touch though they say netbook’s and macs can run the software so it looks like a java client.
Its implied they you have to connect to their servers to upload you army at the start of the game but can then disconnect – how this would work when you have a pc/device for each player peer to peer or you have to have one pc/device as a master they dont say.
Also i’m not sure how this would work at large shows as big convention centers prices for data can best be described as eye gouging. And and hoc wifi networks have a few interesting security problems – I suppose you could set up a small infrastructure wifi network – but I would imagine that the intersection between wargamers and wireless networking is quite small.
Its an interesting idea but this has been done before I remembe years ago a similar computer moderated Napoleonic system that ran on Atari ST’s with then than at the time very expensive hard disks.
This Week In Google August 16, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in SEO, TWIG.add a comment
Just listening to one of Leo Laports Podcasts TWIG (this week in Google) all about Google Search and Cloud based computing. For those of us who work in search and SEO this is going to become a must listen podcast.
Along with Leo the other Main Hosts are Jeff Jarvis and Gina Trapani. They have done 3 shows so far and its getting into its stride.
One thing they probably need is some one with some heavy duty programming chops when dealing with some of the deeper tetchier aspects of cloud computing (and to mock Twitter when it crashes) they all missed one of the key announcements behind Googles caffeine update which was the announcement of the new Google distributed file system which is the reason that caffeine is so fast when compared to Google classic.
Sanctuary Season 2 August 16, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in Sanctuary.add a comment
Just found the S2 Trailer for Sanctuary – in the USA its debuting on October 4th lets hope that its gets picked up again by ITV after all now they don’t have Primeval they might promote it to ITV 1 if we are lucky.
And some of the Cast/Crew talking about the difference between S2 and S1.
3D Printing in Steel and Plastic August 6, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in Wargames.1 comment so far
A company called shapeways has developed an 3d printer that uses steel powder to create complex 3d shapes. Which could be interesting if they can get the price down – this could be a way for wargamers to print the figures they need rather than to buy cast plastic or lead figures.
3D printers have been used to produce 3d models for a while now but up until now they use fairly weak plastic this system uses a steal power which is held in place by a resin – they say:
This is a completely new technique which deposits stainless steel powder in a very thin layer, combining it with a binding material. Printed objects are built up like this, layer by layer, gradually creating the form just as you designed it on the computer screen. When complete, they are infused with bronze and cured in an oven. After cooling, the models can be left in the original steel finish or tumbled to get a great polished look.
If You don’t want to use metal some people are now producing DIY 3D Printers which for around £500 can produce 3D models in plastic and in fact make a copy of its self. The rep-rap team have a design which anyone can make here. this might make make nice way to make one off or hard to find models. They have a video explaing how the rep rap works.
RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.
So could this be the end for Games workshop
This Week In Wargaming Back of Hiatus August 3, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in Podcasting.add a comment
TWIW is back of haitus – my current plan is to co -host an at43 special when the new AT 43 Boxes.
Yahoo and Bing Merger – Back on the road to somewhere? July 29, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in SEO.1 comment so far
Well look like the announcement came sooner than we where all expecting it eve though its not a direct take over of Yahoos search engine by Microsoft.
Initially it looks like Bing will become yahoos! search engine whilst yahoo! will see ads on Bing.
Will be doing longer post at work tomorrow morning after I have a chance to think about it.
Chrome OS – Walt Mosberg Puppet Smackdown July 12, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in Funny.add a comment
Just enjoy this funny commentary on Google “New” OS
Torchwood S3 Spoilers – Wow that was different. July 11, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in Torchwood.1 comment so far
Last weeks season3 run of Torchwood stripped across all 5 days was a lot of things but does range some interesting questions about what next.
The new monsters the 456 where properly hide behind the sofa scary and of course the real moral is that humans can be just as monstrous. And people are saying this has the strength of BSG a rarity in British SF.
Having said that at the end RTD has burnt the franchise to do this – And I don’t see how Jack is going to fit back in to Dr Who unless he really goes dark side and ends up as an antagonist.
And the use yet again of a rebroadcast a signal back at the monsters as a way of defeating them is wearing a bit thin I always thought that RTD’s weakness was his apparent lack of knowledge of the Cannon.
hers how I would have possibly done it.
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Keep Ianto alive at least to ep 5 quiet easy if your off to face down an alien where one threat would be to break its environment cage and let out the poison gas do you not think that Jack would make sure his bf was in a hazmat suit.
You could get a terminally ill child make this one of Iantos nieces or nephews for extra pathos volunteer to go first to test the transport mechanism and get them to take a really big nuke up with them. or track the transport beam and use the particle weapon we saw in the “sycorax invasion”, or you could just pay it out using the child as a resonater.
You could keep Ianto / Gwen as the core of torchwood possibly with Lois and Johnson as new team members.
Id have also fixed some of the more glaring potholes I don’t think alien threats are part of the home office’s job and the America observer just taking over how dos that work – you could have played this out this as the American general playing the good guy and having the evil PM having him dragged out and shot in the gardens of number 10.
The Wargamers Pledge June 27, 2009
Posted by Neuromancer in Wargames.1 comment so far
Shalamansers blog about the “Pledge” struck a chord with me in wargames terms the “Pledge” is when a wargamer attempts to paint more figures in a year than he/she buys.
Currently MY brought and unpainted score for 2009 stands at
130 15mm Medieval’s (Free Company) for FOG
2 Uncharted seas starter fleets a total of 20 Ships
1 Hvy Carier plus 8 Fighter Groups @ a civilian Transport for Full Thrust
1 15mm G Carrier
4 Weird WW2 Figures
I should have all the 15mm foot base coated tomorrow.
