The 'Grid' could soon make the Internet obsolete

[Uncle Mxy]

Economics and commerce can both be defined as the exchange of goods and services. But humor me -- what do they teach you about the Grid in your e-commerce class?

[Zekyl]

Not much really, just that its in development and its going to make the internet obsolete. It'll be more secure, much faster, and it'll only increase the internet boom and the amount of things we'll do online.

My thoughts. It'll probably just add even more to the lack of interpersonal face-to-face communication, adding to the fat pathetic slobs that make up the United States. These people that spend all their time in front of the computer with absolutely no life whatsoever. I mean, obviously this doesn't pertain to the people on here, as we actually go away to have lives, then come back and talk about them. Hell, SDB's a posting machine and the guy's got a woman and kid. The pathetic people that live completely on the internet and have zero human contact just disgust me.

[Big Swami]

Kettle, you're black.

[Black Dynamite]

Its FoxNews,

<yawn> It's more sensationalist stuff.

Mxy owns

[Uncle Mxy]

Not much really, just that its in development and its going to make the internet obsolete. It'll be more secure, much faster, and it'll only increase the internet boom and the amount of things we'll do online.

That's not what the Grid itself is about.

The Grid is "simply" distributed computing, the idea of having ubiquitous compute cycles "out there" that people can use for truly generic number crunching. It's like SETI@home on steroids. Yeah, there's a stronger authentication component to Grid access. But it's your typical certificate scheme managed by a bunch of science geeks and the sysadmins who love them, with typical certificate-based management issues and trust limitations. And, as a bonus, it's more DoS-able. The transport technology in place is IP -- Internet Protocol -- and the Internet isn't going anywhere. There's private IP-based interconnects on the Grid, mostly so that traffic for doing scientific research doesn't get co-opted by file-sharing the latest movie (the typical college usage of Internet2, the last "network to replace the Internet"). But there's always been private IP networks for such activities. (The relative insecurity of the modern-day Internet has more to do with U.S. government stupidity leading to sub-optimal design choices in the 70s and 80s.)

The Grid is just part and parcel of "ubiquitous computing", moving toward a sublime life where you can ping a toilet seat and know if it's up or down.

My thoughts. It'll probably just add even more to the lack of interpersonal face-to-face communication, adding to the fat pathetic slobs that make up the United States. These people that spend all their time in front of the computer with absolutely no life whatsoever. I mean, obviously this doesn't pertain to the people on here, as we actually go away to have lives, then come back and talk about them. Hell, SDB's a posting machine and the guy's got a woman and kid. The pathetic people that live completely on the internet and have zero human contact just disgust me.

What are humans? Do they taste good with mustard? I got this book called "To Serve Man" but the recipes are a bit out there...

<laughs>

[Fool]

I used to do Seti@home. That sucker would eat your processor big time. Of course that was sory of the point.

[Zekyl]

I guess we didn't get as deep into it as I thought. Or I slept through that lecture (boring prof)

[Timone]

Kettle, you're black.

You calling Zekyl a pothead?

[Tahoe]

Mxy owns

FoxNews...More peeps watch FoxNews than CNN and MSNBC combined!

Now thats some ownage.

[Glenn]

FoxNews...More peeps watch FoxNews than CNN and MSNBC combined!

Now thats some ownage.

Brainwashing can be a wonderful thing.