Where would you be without the internet nowadays, huh? A little over 10 years ago, we had just discovered the 'world wide web', and figured it was a cool little way to browse (surf?) through a number of websites. There wasn't much out there at the time; a few message/bulletin boards, one or two email providers (where Hotmail was pretty much the only well known one, before it was owned by MSN), and very limited content to view.
With the years, it grew. More and more websites were created, by corporations, then small companies, and then individuals. Free hosting by services such as Geocities allowed people to create their own websites, so the amount of content increased tenfold. Then Yahoo came and organized everything for us, and made it easy for us to find them. Then came the messaging services, like Freetel and ICQ, and more people logged on to use the internet. And then the shopping frenzy of Amazon and Ebay. And Google. And Messenger. And Skype. And MySpace. And Blogger. And YouTube. And Facebook. And Flickr. And the story goes on.
And now, seemingly everyone is somehow connected to the internet. Not just connected; many of us rely on it. Whether for communication with friends, doing business more efficiently, booking a hotel for a last minute vacation, or finding out the information we need for our current project. Many of us are semi-reliant, if not fully reliant on the internet.
So what would happen to you if it was to dissapear? All of a sudden? We've become so attached to it, not only as individuals but as a society, as a planet, that results might be pretty extreme were it to just vanish. Very small possibility of that happening though, right?
Well, not exactly. The increasing usage and bandwidth requirement for data-heavy applications, combined with insufficient investment in infrastructure could mean brown outs by 2010. Yup, that's less than three years from now. We're looking at access resources being overwhelmed by our demand. Imagine that; our usage is killing it.
I remember the internet was pretty much text based at first. Then a few images were scattered here and there. Then more images. Then more high quality images, and animated ones too. Then flash presentations. Then music. Then video, and multimedia. Then live streaming video and music. I guess we all assumed that as the future comes, it would just get better.
Guess not.
Original Article; Information Week
(By the way, I blame it on Batelco)
12 comments:
I don't think that is too likely to happen. Anyways, I still think that many people abuse such great infrastructure for doing some silly stuff. I agree with you Ammar, IF that happen, expect some more bargaining power of the supplier!
I think the internet moving/going for the better! :D
I remember very precisely when I was introduced to the internet, and I'm still amazed everyday.
But younger people, like me brother (he's 15 - we have 10 years difference) grew up with it and just can't remember a life without computers... I do!
oh, that's really disturbing news!! I mean 2010 is not that far!!
Well, I can't imagine the internet crashing and the world just standing there looking at the whole thing, something MUST be done! It's sort of like dealing with unlimited resources (now becoming limited!) in a way.
And blaming Batelco...u have no idea how much I agree with u there!
I think soon everyone wil have portable notebooks that can fit in the pocket ( already ) but the charges will be sooo less !
This sounds Y2k-ish =p
The first time I used the net it was to browse a backstreet boys website -_- !!
Maybe if this happened I'd (and many others) actually go outside and like, enjoy nature or something. LOL. So this can be kind of positive? =p
Argghhhh...I'm addicted to the internet. I spend valuables hours online doing nothing! I really hope it does not crash cos I would be forced to go out and make friends, and I suck at that!
We have to find a solution asap...2010 is by the corner!
reloaded; it actually seems more realistic than most would thing. all the applications are more bandwidth intensive, and the number of users increases day by day...
rekoo; it should! but companies need to be spending billions more to improve the infrastructure to keep up with demand
zhu; life without computers? what was that like? lol... yeah i rememebr like before the internet, but not before computers... i remember my uncle brought home a computer back in 84 or something and i was playing around with it. Remeber C:/> dir
moonlight; it all depends on whether these companies will spend enough or not. its all batelcos fault :p
grey; thats already here dude! these new cell phones do everything a computer can do! where have you been?
taqo; haha, yeah, maybe positive in a way :p but all you guys will lose touch with me! thats bad! here everyone, take my number
confessions; what? make friends the real way? nooooo! :p
weird ..I was just thinking the same subject matter b4 few days...
I vote that we ditch flash presentations. Like the Xbox 360 website when it first launched-completely flash-raped and impossible to navigate.
Ammaro, I have come to believe that Mother Nature would come to the rescue... from everything.
From all these wars and all this pollution and overpopulation and everything.... the earth will finally begin to heal itself...
Whether it sends a plague to wipe out the population, or melts its ice caps to swallow the coasts and reduce the amount of people... some catastrophe will happen that will just shut us up for good...
And then the bandwidth would be available again, as well as all the other resources the current population number is consuming
My 1st use of the internet was for Mirc, and hotmail.
You can relate this whole topic to the use of the telephone from LAN lines, Pages, Car phones(box), to Bulky hand units, to the recent mobile phone which changes everyday to include cameras, music and connect you to the net
Our ever expanding world
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