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>> 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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