XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: firstname@lastname.pr1v.n0   
      
   In article <874q7kunur.fsf@thalassa.informatimago.com>,   
   Pascal Bourguignon   wrote:   
   >"Alex"  writes:   
   >> Just curious if anyone else see's this from my point of view.  For true   
   >> hobbiests short of falling under some corporate envelope what else is   
   >> there to do?   
   >   
   >The Internet is not just the web and the mail.  There are other   
   >protocols and other applications.  Right, sometimes it looks like   
   >there's nothing else, you there's still a lot of hobby value in there.   
      
   I looked a lot at that when I ran the systems for a large ISP.   
      
   I was suprised to see X.25 alive and well, with thousands   
   of virtual XOT connections going all over the place, all running   
   on top of the Internet. Around 1.5% of total traffic, and consistent   
   with traffic volumes the old X.25 networks used to have. So, X.25   
   didn't go away; it just used the Internet.   
      
   There are hundreds of things like this that run on top of the   
   Internet, and work just fine in the shadows of the flashy stuff.   
      
   Around 10% of traffic is now VPN's, and the share is growing.   
   Webbing is soon below half. Media streams are growing by leaps   
   and bounds.   
      
   And the 'old stuff' like telnet (or ssh these days), ftp/sftp,   
   news etc defend their share well. It just keeps running in a corner   
   of the Internet.   
      
   The PHBs that think they control the Internet may be totally clueless   
   that this stuff even exists. It may be a wise choice to let them   
   remain clueless.   
      
   >Nowaday, with the explosion of opensource software, you have more   
   >opportunities to have fun.  20 years ago, only searchers had access to   
   >licensed unix sources.  Nowadays, any kid can read and modify linux or   
   >*BSD (including Darwin: you can hack the OS underlying MacOSX!).   
   >There are also other kind of OS, and emulators of older or different   
   >hardware.  If you want to hack VM on IBM 360, you can! (search for the   
   >hercules emulator).  If you want to hack on more modern OS, try   
   >coyotos, or Movitz (a Common Lisp on bare ix86 to write kernels in).   
   >To mix in the network, have a look at cluster stuff.  Or MMORPG   
   >(Massive Multiplayer Online Role Games), kind of like an "improved"   
   >BBS  ;-)  Or have a look at opencroquet.org   
   >   
   >You can still have fun with computers and the Internet!   
      
   You can download databases we would have killed for as recently   
   as 1995. You can download media handling systems that blow your mind.   
   You can get a large telephone switch up with just software.   
      
   It is all there for the taking.   
      
   -- mrr   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)