Re: [Paddlewise] Nobel Prize Winners Appropriate to Paddlers and This Forum

On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 2:02 AM, Rich Kulawiec <rsk_at_rockandwater.net> wrote:

>
> <engage arrogant Unix wizard mode at: 50%>
>
> Having used Unix for 32 years now (and its little brother, Linux, for
> about half as long)
>

I have no wish to burden this list with trash talk about operating
systems... my Nobel posting was near enough to the line as it was... but I
had a smile on my face as I read Rich's posting about Unix (and Linux). For
network engineers the ability to work in *nix is almost essential. In fact
Cisco's most up-and-coming competitor is based on Linux (Vyatta) along with
many bandwidth tools.

For many years I used the term "remote access" only to be met with blank
stares. For me it was essential to be able to configure systems from a
distance - often quite a distance - but for most people the idea was a
non-issue. However as technology improved lots of folks found that they
could use remote access to get more work done; or, for kayakers, the same
work done but not in the office.

This was driven home to me last summer on the muthah-ship as we tootled
around the San Juan Islands. I don't have anyone to replace me at work so in
order to support my clients I have to be able to respond when I'm needed.
For the better part of the last decade I've searched for a PDA that would
allow me to do this conveniently. I have a collection of Linux and Palm PDAs
that could only do it when there was a wifi access point within range but
until the last year or so there was nothing that would let me take a
vacation and still feel like I was able to work effectively. Before that a
cell phone would let me do little more than talk a client through the
keystrokes needed to determine what the problem was; not a very satisfactory
experience for anyone involved, I can assure you. It was only bearable
because so often my end of the connection was in a kayak cockpit somewhere
near Whidbey Island.

Suddenly, in what seems like only a few months, that situation has
completely reversed itself. My iphone, with a little fiddling (can you spell
"jailbreak"?) could get me into my systems securely from the muthah-ship
anchored between two little islands off Orcas Island last summer because it
could use both an available wifi connection *and* AT&T's 3G cellular system.
Now Verizon has a device that will let you connect several computers to the
Internet via its 3G and 4G networks. Just yesterday AT&T announced that we
can now install Skype (a voice-over-ip application that can let you answer
your calls from an isolated harbor in BC's Broughton archipelago while
avoiding the severe "roaming charges") on our iphones and use them with no
penalty. Access to corporate networks is now possible from many places not
even remotely similar to your office.

Netbooks, diminutive laptops with no internal CD, DVD or floppy drives, now
are available that include the connectivity for these 4G networks; no cell
phone required. I once once smug at being able to sit on my sofa in my
Spongebob jammies and get useful work (e.g.: billable) done mainly because
of Linux or Unix and my knowledge of arcane commands. Now, with these
operating systems and their incredible power hidden away in so many consumer
devices (as Rich mentioned) anyone can do it. These things can get us all
out on the water more often.

So it was for many reasons that a story about yet-another Nobel prize for
Bell Labs researchers even if the work they did was decades ago. A
20-something girl recently told me that she thought it was "wonderful" that
a person of "your age" could function in a connected world. That stopped me
for a few seconds until I realized that she - and many of her contemporaries
- thought that *they* had invented all this.

She couldn't have been more wrong. (They didn't invent sex, either.)


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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