Diversity in a complex system is the best means of survival. In the market place this is called choice. Unfortunately humans tend to think in terms of controlling a resource, and excluding all else. This problem exists over control of the internet.
Rusty Elliot Harold's
Cafe Au Lait
and
Cafe Con Leche
have been favourite sites of mine for many years. I love the relevant technical or political quote up the top of the page which changes each day. I have also used one of his books online, and then emailed him saying I would like to pay for him offering that service for free. I thought he should be rewarded for it, as I found it of great value when I needed it quickly. He replied saying donate something to
Doctors Without Borders
. I did so; donating the cost of the book.
His quote on Cafe Con Leche for the 13th of October is by Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America and is taken from a news.com.com article titled,
"Net blackout sparks talk of new rules"
;
There comes a point where some of these functionalities, such as the seamless interoperation of the Internet, are too important to leave to the private interest of businesses. We like to think that people won't do antisocial things, but when push comes to shove they will defend their economic interests even at the expense of the public.
Both the corporate thinking, and the public thinking is of the internet being unitary. Being indivisible. Incapable of replication, modification, renewal, duplication etc etc etc. This is wrong.
There is already an
internet2
, developed partly to increase the throughspeeds of decentralised networks, but also because all the riff-raff (read non-academic population) was starting to jump on the internet.
The military and government has their own internet, and manner of interacting with the internet. This is probably why George Bush made a popular gaffe of the saying "the internets". Considering he is probably relatively new to the technology, he probably doesn't understand the nuance of decentralised networks.
There is also an open DNS system that exists outside of InterNIC. The
OpenNIC
DNS system, others of this type include AlterNic and Pacific Root. To view the internet as unitary is already a mistake.
What we call the internet today will only fragment more. System will be able to see inside each other, and communicate between each other. An example of this is the cell networks able to jump on the internet. A counter example is applications like VoIP being able to use the internet to connect to the phone system.
Networks do not exist in isolation. Their greatest facet is their ability to mix, inter-communicate, and disperse into new networks without losing the ability to talk to existing networks.
The internet is an abundance resource, that is capable of fragmenting in infinite smaller networks. This is its strength. Treating it as a unitary resource is not only wrong, but self-defeating.
cam
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
