Chris Goh's "On the Net"

A Lesson in Computing English

A lot of things are going digital, and so is the way they are distributed.

There's everything from digital video and photography, to digital televisions, digital appliances and watches.

What does it mean? Well, at the lowest level - machines can now talk to each other. Digital gives inventors a way to provide instructions between your computer and, say, your microwave oven. The only thing missing is language.

The Internet's language is TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), which allows digital services that support it to talk to appliances around the world.

Suppose you're a TCP/IP data packet instructed to talk to someone across the globe. So, you walk over to a Name Server, which is like the yellow pages, and it tells you where you have to get to. Along the way, you stop and ask for directions and take the quickest route (called routing).

There are other languages, but TCP/IP like English is the only language supported on the Internet.

One of the major problems and reasons why the Internet has found it difficult to publish broadband content, like video, is because TCP/IP is a gossiper, going through a lot of people before it gets to the right person.

Its main benefit is that by asking a lot of people (servers) it can find out if a particular path has a dead end and ask for another route, hence its obvious military application because it has a higher likelihood of getting to its destination.

Others are trying to develop a protocol that has the strengths of TCP/IP but is more efficient.

WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) was supposedly a futuristic language for wireless devices like mobile phones, however if you thought reading a PC screen was tough, a mobile phone is worse.

Human reality is one of the greatest hurdles to capitalist aspirations for a standard language or protocol, which is why TCP/IP has been the most successful.

The next generation - eight years in the making - is programs that can communicate with other programs. Imagine you both speak the same language, but don't understand each other because the message context is interpreted differently. Finding a common and standardised interpreter has been the challenge of the digital age.

The problem was that everyone thought their interpretation application was better. The Internet has brought about some marvellous standardisation revolutions, and you'll know when things are really working the day computers begin to disappear.

An example is the new Microsoft XBOX where a computer has become an entertainment unit. It's very similar to the Oracle - Larry Elison's concept of the Network Computer - except that it's not the computer that contacts a central service for information. Every device is a source of information - in effect your television is a computer and so is your stove. We might still have a central interface to conveniently manage and monitor them, but it could easily be your mobile now.

I could be hallucinating, but already everything from your car to pet (smart tags) has computer chips, so it promises to be an interesting evolution, the fruits of which won't be seen until way past my generation.

HotNews

Compaq's iPAQ has outstripped Palm sales over the last quarter, leading to suggestions that the CE operating system will eventually come to dominate the hand-held PC market. Palm has stuck with the same simple concept for the last four years without much change, which suggests the formula was right. Not many in the rapidly changing computer industry can boast success for that length of time. But now it looks like the honeymoon is over.

Now more than ever, Microsoft is looking like the 'we won't stop being a monopoly' company. The Gates gang have been busy, in sly negotiations with Citrix; the SQL2000 is becoming a dominant database service; the BizTalk services makes XML look like it was Microsoft's idea; the XBOX is manoeuvring to take over the games market; and Microsoft's media streaming and digital music player are even making AOL and EMI/ TimeWarner cry foul. They had the wordprocessing and spreadsheet market sewn up years ago with the release of Office. Then there's the Internet Explorer web browser. Now that the Washington experts are focussing on a fabulous missile defence system, they will probably be too busy to pursue Bill.

There are legitimate reasons why people choose Microsoft, but when you control the operating system, there's not a lot of choice anyway.

The American-styled slash and burn 90s management chickens are coming home to roost for Telstra, which is looking frail with its shares well down on their issue price. But there is good news - a complementary report has found that regional centres are well-resourced.

More good news for regional Australians wanting Broadband access. One of the most difficult things for a broadband provider to secure is the property to run cables through (especially on farms where they dig up the soil). Victoria took the historic step of allowing cables to be run along side its rail network and now other states have followed suit, allowing carriers to expand anywhere where a railway track is laid. Other public infrastructure, like radio towers, is now being considered.

HotSites

www.nrma.com

Most of you should know this site, but I want to direct you towards the map section. NRMA has done excellent job preparing travellers for their journey anywhere in Australia. Find either a map of the particular district or discover the quickest or most picturesque path to your favourite destination. Key towns also have references to key scenic spots, so it's well worth the look before setting out.

www.scout.net/

If you're into Scouts or Guides then this portal will help you be prepared with all kinds of stuff including information about Jamborees and also links to specific Australian content (also see www.scout.org).

www.nohope.com

I stumbled on this portal by accident. Although it offers no decent content of its own, it does provide some (American-based) support and humour for anyone who feels like giving up. And the state of the site is enough to make you laugh :-)

http://webmd.lycos.com/condition_main

But if you have a more serious problem, lycos has an A to Z on symptoms and what may be the problem, which is probably a better option than nohope.com, although I'd suggest a real live doctor is a better solution to self diagnosis.