A few people in the Ubuntu forums have of late been complaining about things they don’t like. Harsh words have been used. When someone referred to GRUB2 as “crap”, I found myself inspired to write a rant, reminding people that they don’t know how lucky they are. It is reproduced, lightly edited, below…
Apparently some people at University College London (UCL) have achieved data transmission speeds of greater than a terabit per second to a single receiver:
To which I say – phooey!
It’s on fibre – but copper is the future.
Copper is faster, cheaper, and can be installed more quickly. That’s why all the really top-shelf research is concentrating on getting super high speeds over copper. Apparently people are already pushing tens of gigabits over inch-long snippets; it’s just a simple matter of scaling that up. And Australia’s world-class broadband network will be ready and waiting when they do!
UCL? Fibre? What a pack of amateurs. Sheesh.
Putting cables (electrical, coax, fibre – whatever) on existing poles, or even putting up new poles to carry a new service, seems like such an obviously cheaper and easier way to go. But is it really? Let’s look at some of the reasons why underground is almost always better than overhead – even though overhead looks cheaper.
[This was written in 2006 in reaction to a then-proposed Australian benefits card, but it applies to any similar card, proposed by any Government, in any country. The card was intended, allegedly, to support access to welfare; in practice, however, the proposal described an identity card…]
We are many; the future will certainly find enough of our bones to work with.
Karl Auer, July 2006
I think all manufacturers should be required to mark their output with an identifier, and should be required to accept it for return at any retail or wholesale outlet of that product, at no (direct) cost to the returner.
We are now in a time where seriously good, seriously high-powered software tools are available to anyone. These tools are generally usable even by those with very little clue as to how to use them properly, and commonly with no clue at all as to how they work. Those able to use them properly produce good stuff, those unable to use them properly produce bad stuff. In between there is every possible level of variation.
I just found this in my archives as part of a discussion about IPv6 uptake:
The point is that the storm clouds have well and truly gathered, thunder is rolling in the hills, great big rain drops are splotting into the dust all around us, and what are we doing? Wandering around the outside of the Ark tut-tutting about the quality of the woodwork and loudly suggesting the construction of various sorts of rowboats.
Karl Auer, 2008