Internet brownouts. The explosive growth of the World Wide Web and all those cutsie graphics has already started to choke the Internet, according to Mark Kosters at Network Solutions Inc., which runs the InterNic. Kosters, quoted in a startling story on the MEME list, said the combination of wideb
Internet brownouts. The explosive growth of the World Wide Web and all those cutsie graphics has already started to choke the Internet, according to Mark Kosters at Network Solutions Inc., which runs the InterNic. Kosters, quoted in a startling story on the MEME list, said the combination of wide-band graphics and thin pipes has started to overwhelm the Net.
According to Kosters, when switches get clogged, all the packets—e-mail, Web data, etc.—going through that switch "simply disappear, swallowed into a black hole of inadequate bandwidth." The "user friendliness" of the Web could end up eating the whole Internet, according to Kosters. Maybe it's time we all turn the graphics off on our Web browsers.
To learn more, go to the MEME Web page, operated by David Bennahum, at "http://www.reach.com/matrix/." To subscribe to MEME, send an e-mail tolisterv@sjuvm.stjohns.edu with a message that reads "subscribe MEME firstname lastname" with your name substituted, and do not include the quotation marks.
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Ripper rips records. The Interceptor is picking up strong signals that at a recent DOD records management conference the Army C3I-Record Management Task Force handed out disks containing the Ripper virus, and now there are at least 19 contaminated disks floating around out there.
And to think the Army worries about attacks from the outside.
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New AF info boss. Our E-ring antenna site has picked up word that Brig. Gen. (select) David Nagy will soon take over as head of the new Air Force "Information Dominance" mission area that subsumed the comm/computer operation formerly run by now-retired Lloyd Mosemann. Nagy brings a warfighter background to the job, working last in the fighter and weapons systems C2 area.
Mosemann, I hear, received a fitting send-off at his retirement party earlier this month. Mosemann collects clowns and clown gear, and he received even more for his collection, which he plans to cart off to Florida. I have no doubt that his departure will still leave a few clowns in the Pentagon.
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New DISA WestHem boss? Our Courthouse Road emergency mobile unit (snow knocked out the permanent site) has picked up strong signals that Brig. Gen. (select) John Meincke will take over as director of DISA-WestHem from retired Col. Fred Essig. I also understand that DISA-WestHem will move from Fort Ritchie, Md., to Courthouse Road.
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NCR lives. I've wondered in the past if anyone really—even within AT&T—knew what AT&T Global Information Solutions meant or stood for. AT&T finally decided to end the confusion, giving the troubled computer division (soon to be spun off) back its old name: NCR. What are they going to do with all those Globalyst (an even dumber name) computers?
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Orefice lives. Affable (but nervous) AT&T veep Jim Orefice has switched back to the AT&T Government Networks Division from the government unit of AT&T Global Information Solutions. Guess he got tired of changing his business card.
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