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[network] On the net or in the net?

Last week, long time Internet pioneer Vint Cerf signed up to be Google’s chief internet evangelist”. His previous job was with the telecoms firm MCI. In the BBC report, the story concludes with the observation that The move of such an influential figure is significantin that it marks the way that power in the net […]

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[network] The tipping point for podcasting

Suppose a hundred people get told by an enthusiastic friend to try podcasting. Of these, ten don’t have any hardware on which they can play the podcasts. So the rest goes online, and tries to find interesting content, but only 50 people can find a directory in which they can even start to look for […]

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[network] The cost of delivering a single web page

The other day I wrote about Google’s technology cost, leading to an estimate of 0.5 dollarcents per delivered search result. There appeared to be a real contrast with the numbers Jim Gray was coming up with from his experience with the Terraserver. I interviewed him to dive deeper into these numbers and their composition. According […]

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[home computing] It is still too complicated

Home computing is still too complicated to install and maintain. Last week my neighbours asked for my advice on getting ADSL to their home, as their teen daughter is driving up the phone bill with her Internet usage. Even though they can opt for having the entire stuff installed by the ADSL provider, they are […]

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[network] Analysing the Google business model

How is Google making a profit? What are the costs and revenues if you look at each individual search result? I had a detailed look at the 2004 annual report to figure out these answers. Google’s total costs in 2004 were $ 2549 million, of which $ 1228 are traffic acquisition costs, e.g. paid out […]

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[network] Hackers are not anti-social

At the closing ceremony of What The Hack Rop Gonggrijp reflected on the event. He opened by congratulating the 1500+ attendants: “We pulled it off!”. It had not been easy to organise the event, partly because of misconceptions about the relation of hackers to society. These hackers are not anti-social, they just tune to different […]

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[network] Disconnect my brain

Sometimes, a memory from the past comes back.I remember walking around Washington square park in Manhattan, it must have been around 1987 as I was living in New Jersey (the ultra west side :-)), appreciating the street artists. The talent mix was incredibly wide, from jugglers keeping 7 balls in the air to kids banging […]

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[network] “What the hack” banned by mayor of Boxtel?

“What the hack”, a counter culture network technology conference now in its 4th incarnation, threatens to be refused by the municipality of Boxtel, Netherlands, who apparently misunderstand the nature of the event, and the almost eternal fame the conference can bring to their village.Read more about it at http://www.whatthehack.org/ and see what you can do […]

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[visual humor] Kids’ television with adult fun

Sometimes you see television that makes you wonder.This morning I watched, from the corner of my eye, a television cartoon my children were watching. The main character, Andy, is a highschool kid who likes to set up practical jokes. As one of these jokes fails in preparation, his punishment is to spend a day in […]

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