Marie PhD
  • Home
  • Politics
  • #OccupyCongress
  • Overview
  • Domestic Violence
  • Food

Anarchy and the internet

3/31/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
In a past life I taught data comms to college kids. And one of the things I taught was LAN (local area network) protocols. One of the famous protocols is CSMA/CD known by many names.

Why its outta control is that each actor is totally autonomous. Each entity on the LAN needs to figure out for itself whether it should be sending a message. It listens to the medium (carrier sense) to see if anyone else is talking. If there is silence it starts transmitting (only if it has data to send) at the speed of an electron wave propagating down wire (there are wireless versions amongst others).

This was the solution developed by universities under government funded grants for the original DARPA net that the internet we now have evolved from. Nevertheless, CSMA/CD is alive and well and still working on a LAN near you.

So CSMA/CD is what the government funded, a LAN, likely if you have a wireless network at home, like pretty much everyone in our neighborhood has, you are using CSMA/CD.

However the LAN developed by IBM, token ring, suffered a more tragic fate.

IBM developed their own LAN protocol, (also funded by the government with tax breaks and possibly grants). It was clunky, expensive, inefficient as hell and dictatorial. Basically you need to employ someone trained to manage your token ring, dedicate a computer to the task and it is controlling - basically, each computer is told when, by the master computer, it can talk and it prioritizes who can talk and when.

Unless you are a diehard IBM geek, which pretty much carries no cache, you wouldn't use it and if you did use it today you'd probably be laughed out of town by anyone who knows anything about data comms including those in red states voters. Basically token ring won the Darwin awards for LAN protocols.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I am interested in progressive politics, women's rights, science & art. I believe the only way we'll survive is if we help each other.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    Categories

    All
    Abortion
    Anarchy
    Animals
    Atheism
    Austerity
    Banks
    Bodies
    Caitlyn Jenner
    Charity
    Children
    Communication
    Community
    Conservative Christianity
    Conservatives
    Conspiracy
    Constitution
    Corporation
    Corporations
    Deficit
    Deregulation
    Despotism
    Disenfranchised
    Duggars
    Dylann Roof
    Environment
    Equality
    Facebook
    Feminism
    Food
    Foreclosure
    Gender
    God
    Gop
    Gop Primaries
    Government
    Guns
    Hastert
    Healthcare
    Hierarchy
    History
    Humans
    Independence
    Kindness
    Knowledge
    Law
    Libertarian
    Libertarianism
    Limited Liability
    Loneliness
    Love
    Mating
    Medicare
    Men
    Military Industrial Complex
    Motherhood
    Nature
    Obama
    Obesity
    Occupy
    Orwellian
    Pedophilia
    Politics
    Power
    Powerlessness
    Premium Children
    Prostition
    Punishment
    Rape
    Revolution
    Richard Dawkins
    Sanity
    Sex
    Slut-shaming
    Status Quo
    Stock-market
    Suicide
    Teachers
    Transgender
    TV
    Us Corporations
    Violence
    Vulnerability
    Welfare Queens
    Women
    Women's Work
    World Domination

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.