re: sci fi

[nobody@cypherpunks.ca (John Anonymous MacDonald)]

Without a doubt contemporary SciFi authors such as Vinge and Stephenson have produced
great thought provoking works. Always a good read. 

But sometimes I'm drawn back to the rollicking rampages of EE Doc Smith or the playful
frollicks of Harry Harrison. While not presenting a plausible vision of our future
they do offer a significant amount of enjoyment. Pure brain candy!

So will some exceptionally creative sort spend 3 or 4 hundred pages exploring
BlackNet and the future of global networking? 

Or has anyone looked at what has happened to trivial networks like 
IRC's EFnet to see a potential model for how global networking will become 
balkanized under bandwidth constraints, server cycle shortages,
and over worked sysadmins? One physical connection and many virtual,
private networks with limitted interoperability and crossover. The internet of
the near future may not be the open paradise it is today.

I read in InfoWorld that the Telco Dereg act may destroy the local loop market
for T1 lines from LD COs. As many as 900,000 new T1's may become available at bargain
rates on the order of $40 per month with end point hardware under $700. Watch 
PairGain Technologies as they are the leader in this hardware market and have
some real interesting vox/data over twisted pair toys.

Sheesh, I start out talking SciFi and end up talking PairGain! I guess the future
is now.

diGriz