>> Or you have the network equivilent of "format wars" while the few 
>> biggest networks try to out-grow each other and win the game...
> 
> Yep. But again that's going to win/lose on lots of features, one of 
> which is how well the formats match what people want at the time.
> 
> The sad part is when a format gets entrenched and then people change how 
> the work to a way that the entrenched mechanisms don't support well.

The sad part is that the format that wins is usually the least 
technically sophisticated.

>> Fortunately, somebody invented IP. Before that happened, it was crazy 
>> out there...
> 
> Not especially. And IP didn't win. IP addresses a very small part of the 
> networking stack.

What IP does is provide a single language for networking. Any networking 
technology that has a standardised way of carrying IP can potentially be 
interconnected with any other such technology.

IP over Avian Carrier, anyone?

 From what little I remember, before that we had IPX and SPX and 
AppleTalk and Ethernet and Token Ring and none of it worked together.

>> Really? How would company X know that company Y is using a given 
>> technology?
> 
> I'm pretty sure it's not hard to figure out what technology  your 
> competition in network services is using. You think it's difficult to 
> figure out what coding an iPhone uses over the air, for example?

Er, YES. (?!)

>> Similar constraints probably apply to things like water or electricity 
>> distribution.
> 
> Yes. Around here at least, it's space underneath the roads to actually 
> run the pipes.

Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me...

And besides, why waste time and energy laying a dozen sets of cables 
when one will do?

>> Yeah, because the postal address already existed in the first place. 
>> If the post office hadn't existed first...
> 
> Exactly, yes.  But not because the post office was a monopoly.

So if the post office hadn't been a monopoly, and there had been a dozen 
different postal companies all start at the same time, they would have 
all used the same postcodes?

> Why would post codes need a monopoly if phone numbers, IP addresses, and 
> MAC addresses don't?

Are you telling me that IP addresses don't involve a monopoly?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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