Flashback to the last Millenia

[temporus]

Testing out an email archiving system at work recently, and during that testing, I poked around to some of the oldest emails I've got laying around.   I came across a snippet of back and forth discussions about our internet bandwidth from a decade ago.  We were talking at the time about upping our Internet connection, from the 128 KB connection we had.  It struck me as I read that old email, how strange it is, to be here a decade later with over 100 times the speed connection, and still somehow facing the same dilemmas.  Is there ever enough bandwidth?   I think the question is pointless, as we're likely to utilize every byte of bandwidth we can eke out of the system.   Still it struck me as wild to remember that old connection, which at the time seemed reasonably fast.   That it managed to handle the workload it did amazes me.

On the flip side, my phone has an internet connection speed these days that dwarfs what my corporation had a decade ago.  Back then, I didn't even have a pager, and had dialup internet access and was looking into getting DSL.   Now I carry with me nearly at all times three devices that can all reach the internet via Cellular connection, at speeds that nearly rival my cable connection.  I'm not sure I want to contemplate the scope of information that will be flying around the ether before long.   How will the next generation be able to cope?  Probably the way my generation has, despite having vastly more available at our fingertips than every before in history.

I'm kind of stuck at the moment thinking simultaneously: plus ca change, plus ca meme, and mentally humming Dylan's The Times They Are a Changing.

Comments

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

In 1992, I ran part of the IT training for the RAF in London. The PC's had removable, 20MB hard-drives. Our computers were considered high-tech because the working-storage ram was 4mb, as opposed to most other PCs, which had only 2mb.

A year later, I started teaching Windows 3.1, a skill which today is about as useful as knowing how to build steam engines ;)

If you ask me, it all went downhill when they stopped using valves :(

[dqg-neal.livejournal.com]

Actually knowing how to build steam engines comes in handy if you are in the right crowd now-a-days.

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

Nah, my punk days are well and truly over. besides, all that blue gel makes your hair fall out ;)

[dqg-neal.livejournal.com]

We will never have enough bandwidth. Purely for the reason that the technology will advance at the speed of need.

I remember having amazing software programs 20 years ago that would fit on a floppy disk or two. Now I have to insert a DVD to install the latest app that I want to use. Some of the apps basically fill the hard drive of a PC that might be assigned to one of our workers here. (The state only replaces them every 5 years or so.)

Bandwidth tied up? Our phones here are IP based. A few years back people used to try voice over IP on the internet and it sounded like you talked in an echo chamber.

The bandwidth keeps getting used for purposes it wasn't originally intended for.. like streaming video. Just because someone noticed there was spare bandwidth and found a use for it.