Thursday, March 22, 2007
The pentium turned 10 today, wired reports.
The pentium was a big breakthough in computers, as the 386 had been a few years before.
With a 386, you could have text, and network computers together - it went beyond hobby machines into work horses for regular folks. The pentium allowed graphics and video and fast response times, so that if you could get a high speed internet connection, your machine could use it effectively. With these tools, there was a critical mass for people to move information online as the web exploded into e-commerce, leading to google and the open source revolution.
Meanwhile, 9 years after it started, a court has just struck down COPA, one of the government's several attempts to outlaw the internet. This a victory, but victories like this kill.
During the years when COPA hamstrung a transition to a web-based economy, countries like South Korea left ahead in deploying high speed internet networks,and the US lost ground in what had been one of its strongest advantages in the world economy.
The children, who would have been protected from the big bad internet, have grown up to find that jobs have moved overseas, as the internet routed around the censorship damage. Nobody in government is going to admit to the costs to the economy of this unconstitutional legislation. Kudos to Chris Hanson of the ACLU, who has stuck with the case for 9 years, a career in itself. The ACLU has become a 4th branch of government, repairing damage dome by oathbreaking legislators and the voters who allow the oathbreakers to remain in office. But it shouldn't have to be that way.
I was not able to sustain the struggle for 9 years, in the small part of the puzzle I used to work on. I do not love big brother, but I've been broken by the system,and have stopped fighting. For the moment I hold on to my law license, but don't do anything with it. My last few cases could dismissed any time now. I am currently renting out my body for medical studies, as a way to try to survive while I sort out what to do next. I need to get some sleep -(some ranting edited out.)
The pentium was a big breakthough in computers, as the 386 had been a few years before.
With a 386, you could have text, and network computers together - it went beyond hobby machines into work horses for regular folks. The pentium allowed graphics and video and fast response times, so that if you could get a high speed internet connection, your machine could use it effectively. With these tools, there was a critical mass for people to move information online as the web exploded into e-commerce, leading to google and the open source revolution.
Meanwhile, 9 years after it started, a court has just struck down COPA, one of the government's several attempts to outlaw the internet. This a victory, but victories like this kill.
During the years when COPA hamstrung a transition to a web-based economy, countries like South Korea left ahead in deploying high speed internet networks,and the US lost ground in what had been one of its strongest advantages in the world economy.
The children, who would have been protected from the big bad internet, have grown up to find that jobs have moved overseas, as the internet routed around the censorship damage. Nobody in government is going to admit to the costs to the economy of this unconstitutional legislation. Kudos to Chris Hanson of the ACLU, who has stuck with the case for 9 years, a career in itself. The ACLU has become a 4th branch of government, repairing damage dome by oathbreaking legislators and the voters who allow the oathbreakers to remain in office. But it shouldn't have to be that way.
I was not able to sustain the struggle for 9 years, in the small part of the puzzle I used to work on. I do not love big brother, but I've been broken by the system,and have stopped fighting. For the moment I hold on to my law license, but don't do anything with it. My last few cases could dismissed any time now. I am currently renting out my body for medical studies, as a way to try to survive while I sort out what to do next. I need to get some sleep -(some ranting edited out.)
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