Monthly Archives: March 2024

Source: Hacker News

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Source: loriemerson

At long last, I can share the final table of contents for Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook (forthcoming from Anthology Editions…sometime…soon!)–a coffee table book that is equal parts speculative, playful, and serious. In the introduction I write about the need for “other networks,” how taxonomies shape and determine knowledge, why I decided on this network taxonomy in particular, and how the future of the internet is the future of networks. But just in terms of how I’m defining “other networks”…

My initial goal was to compile an inventory of networks that preceded the internet, by which I meant any network that existed before the widespread adoption of TCP/IP. This would have been simple enough, if it weren’t for the fact that the adoption of TCP/IP took over a decade (or longer) to happen, and also for the fact that (as it turns out) one may run a network on TCP/IP but not necessarily connect that network to the internet. Moreover, it also turns out that nearly countless computer networks emerged throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s—so many, in fact, that this book would need to expand to another two or three volumes in order to include them all. These networks also present intriguing complications when it comes to classification: according to the taxonomy used in this book, these networks would mostly be considered “hybrid,” in that they used (often undocumented, frequently proprietary) combinations of wireless and wired infrastructures, and they also often relied upon a wide range of protocols and/or software that this book’s structure, biased as it is toward material infrastructure, cannot quite account for. My imperfect solution, then, has been to include only one digital computer network (time-sharing networks) as a way to gesture to all the other “other networks” that remain to be documented and to try to account for many (not all and not even most) networks that did not use TCP/IP. For the sake of not allowing my definition of ‘network’ to remain tied only to computer networks, I have also defined a network simply as the connection between two or more nodes that facilitates human communication (thereby excluding networking technologies such as radar, that are mostly used for tracking).

Anyways, I hope this list intrigues!

*

Chronological List of Networks
Chronological List of Network Experiments
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction

Wireless Networks:
Sound Networks
[1] Drums
[2] Whistling

Air Networks
[3] Fire or Smoke Signals
[4] Pneumatic Tubes
[5] Skywriting

Water Networks
[6] Hydraulic Semaphore

Optical Networks
[7] Flag Signaling
[8] Optical Telegraph
[9] Infrared Communication
[10] Signal Lamp
[11] Heliograph
[12] Photophone
[13] Ultraviolet Communication
[14] Laser Communication
[15] Visible Light Communication

Radio Networks
[16] Amateur Radio
[16.1] Radiotelegraphy
[16.2] Radioteletype
[16.3] Amateur Television
[16.4] Hellschreiber
[16.5] Earth-Moon-Earth Communication
[16.6] Amateur Radio Satellite
[16.7] Amateur Packet Radio
[17] Radio Broadcast
[18] Pirate Radio
[19] Radiofax
[20] Two-Way Radio
[21] Pager
[22] Meteor Burst Communication
[23] Slow Scan Television
[24] Project West Ford
[25] Pirate Television
[26] Packet Radio Network
[27] Microbroadcast
[28] Software Defined Radio
[29] Wi-Fi
[30] Bluetooth

Microwave Networks
[31] Microwave Radio-Relay
[32] Communications Satellite

Wired Networks:

Electrical Wire Networks
[33] Electrical telegraph
[33.1] Electrical Printing Telegraph
[33.2] Image Telegraph
[33.3] Fire Alarm Telegraph
[33.4] Pantelegraph
[33.5] Telephonic Telegraph
[34] Telephone
[35] Wired Radio
[36] Telautograph
[37] Telefacsimile
[38] Videophone
[39] Telex

Barbed Wire Networks
[40] Barbed Wire Telegraph
[41] Fence Phones

Hybrid Networks:

[42] Library
[43] Book
[44] Postal System
[44.1] Pigeon Post
[44.2] Projectile Post
[44.3] Balloon Mail
[44.4] Pony Express
[44.5] Airgraph and V-Mail
[44.6] Email Letter
[45] Sneakernet
[46] Radio Broadcast Network
[47] Broadcast Television
[48] Cable Television
[48.1] NABU
[49] Cellular Network
[50] Time-Sharing Network
[51] Teletext
[52] Videotex

Imaginary Networks:

[53] Necromancy
[54] Pasilalinic-Sympathetic Compass
[55] Telephonoscope
[56] Telepathy
[57] Ley Lines
[58] Mundaneum
[59] World Brain
[60] Memex
[61] Faster-Than-Light Communication Networks
[62] Project Xanadu
[63] Metaverse
[64] The Clacks
[65] Pandoran Neural Network
[66] Cosmic Internet

Alphabetical Index

Source: Ars Technica

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Yuichiro Chino)

The Federal Communications Commission today voted to raise its Internet speed benchmark for the first time since January 2015, concluding that modern broadband service should provide at least 100Mbps download speeds and 20Mbps upload speeds.

An FCC press release after today's 3-2 vote said the 100Mbps/20Mbps benchmark "is based on the standards now used in multiple federal and state programs," such as those used to distribute funding to expand networks. The new benchmark also reflects "consumer usage patterns, and what is actually available from and marketed by Internet service providers," the FCC said.

The previous standard of 25Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream lasted through the entire Trump era and most of President Biden's term. There has been a clear partisan divide on the speed standard, with Democrats pushing for a higher benchmark and Republicans arguing that it shouldn't be raised.

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Source: Ars Technica

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Source: Engadget

Nikon has announced it is buying RED, the high-end cinema camera company, for an undisclosed sum. In a statement, the camera giant, which has suffered along with most of the imaging industry in recent years, said RED will become a wholly-owned subsidiary, as found by The Verge. RED currently has about 220 employees, and no layoff plans have been made public in response to the sale. 

RED was founded in 2005 and has since had its cameras used in popular productions, including Squid Game, Peaky Blinders and Captain Marvel — a market Nikon plans to expand into with this acquisition. Nikon has withdrawn from less profitable areas of the camera market in recent years, including ending development on new DSLRs

The move could benefit both parties, as RED's president Jarred Lang shared on Facebook: "This strategic partnership brings together Nikon's extensive history and expertise in product development, know-how in image processing, as well as optical technology and user interface with RED's revolutionary digital cinema cameras and award-winning technologies." RED's 2018 attempt to expand on its own (into smartphones, no less) didn't last long, and the products soon were discontinued. 

Interestingly, RED sued its new owner in 2022, claiming that Nikon knowingly used RED's patented data compression technology in its Z9 camera. Nikon, in turn, argued the legitimacy of RED's patents before the two companies agreed to a dismissal.