I keep a large collection of books in my office on computer related subjects. Some are new. Some are old.I even read some of them occasionally. Yesterday, I happened to grab the book The Whole Internet (1st Edition, 1992) by Ed Krol.
The focus of this book is how to use the Internet. But this is not the Internet as we think of it today, that we access effectively only via a browser. Nah. Browsers get a scant 10 pages, and there are no familiar names. No, the focus of the book is protocols such as Telnet, FTP, Gopher, Wais, Archie, fred, NNTP, finger. There are sections on FTP to VMS, IBM/VM, and MSDOS systems. This is the internet I grew up with. It is not what people think of today. In fact, I think many of these protocols have gone by the wayside or been buried. Use Gopher lately? Wais? Archie? When was the last time you needed to gateway between BITNET and the Internet? You know, these “kids” today don’t realize how good they have it. I used to carry packets by hand 10 miles through the snow… oh right.
The times, indeed, have changed.*
*: Yes, this is a reference to the title of this post, which comes from a Bob Dylan song. Re-reading it today in light of Katrina and the responses thereto, it seems even more appropros:
Come gather ’round people / Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters / Around you have grown
And accept it that soon / You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you / Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ / Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.Come writers and critics / Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide / The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon / For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who / That it’s namin’.
For the loser now / Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.Come senators, congressmen / Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway / Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt / Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside / And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows / And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.Come mothers and fathers / Throughout the land
And don’t criticize / What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters / Are beyond your command
Your old road is / Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one / If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.The line it is drawn / The curse it is cast
The slow one now / Will later be fast
As the present now / Will later be past
The order is / Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now / Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
I think the effect of the waters growing will be a rapid rethinking of the function of government. Our union was created to protect its citizens. With Katrina, this has failed, and there will be some change a coming. Those who can’t or won’t help will be pushed to the side (“Please get out of the new one / If you can’t lend your hand”), and this will be seen in the upcoming elections (“And the first one now / Will later be last”). Katrina is forcing us to face the class decisions in our society. This is seen in a number of ways. Those who couldn’t evacuate didn’t have cars: if it was a mandatory order, then why wasn’t the N.O. bus system used to get folks out? The aid then goes to the poor, creating trouble for the middle class. Aid was slow to get in because of turf battles between political entities. Our country, which has always been in the position to give aid, is having difficulty accepting foreign aid that is not in the form of cash. When the crisis might even have positive benefits in relations (such as accepting the Cuban doctors), we drag our feet.
There’s going to be some big changes, and the song is very prescient: Come senators, congressmen / Please heed the call / Don’t stand in the doorway / Don’t block up the hall / For he that gets hurt / Will be he who has stalled / There’s a battle outside / And it is ragin’.
And how does this tie into the subject of this post? Consider the work of folks such as interdictor. Consider the power of blogs on getting the true story of this event out. They have (again) demonstrated the power of the information, and the derogatory effect of corporate media outlets. This, of course, is all made possible by changes in the Internet. Gopher and WAIS wouldn’t have worked. We techies who were around in the early days have been a force for good in society (and I can say that, for I knew folks such as Lennie Kleinrock and Robert Braden, and have seen IMP #1 at UCLA).
The times, indeed, are changing.
