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Essay: What if Internet Bandwidth Was Infinite?
newteevee.com — What would happen if Internet bandwidth was infinite — what would that change about the Internet itself?
msaleem- 906 diggs
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- TritonX, on 11/10/2007, -15/+28It would be nice, we could already have it, like many other good technologies. But the market will never allow it, ISPs are having too much fun creating different speed plans to milk the most out of customers.
- Error601, on 10/12/2007, -10/+38Sorry, science is not a conspiracy.
- TritonX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26My point is that we could do so much more if current technology was better implemented.
- sanman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Everyone on earth would work in the p0rn industry
- Yarin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Infinite bandwidth = Infinite porn, hurray!
- sanman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Everyone on earth would work in the p0rn industry
- acdcfanbill, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3What about Newtons Conspiracy of Gravity?
- dafragsta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5How is this a matter of science? Sure, the hardware serving and receiving the files is probably going to do extremely well to saturate a 1Gb link, but that doesn't mean we couldn't still have 1Gb residential links with FIOS and get loop providers to play ball with regulation. We are choking ourselves out of the technology race when the world leaders have 100Mb symmetrical consumer lines for very reasonable prices. Someone has to pay the piper, but they found a way to make it work. It's all a perceived cost beyond the initial infrastructure, unless of course you've been listening to Ted Stevens too much.
- TritonX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26My point is that we could do so much more if current technology was better implemented.
- hiphoc, on 10/11/2007, -0/+16Even Mark Cuban said something similar about speed. He said the local ISP's are not putting the proper infrastructure in to get bradband to everyone. The web slows down from the local ISP hub to your house. I think Cuban said the last 3 miles or so are slowng the web.
- toxicshok, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2bradband? He should try broadband.
- DiamondIce, on 10/13/2007, -1/+9Bradband is so much better. Brad and his band like to kick it old school.
- toxicshok, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2bradband? He should try broadband.
- themastersb, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Browsing stories on Digg would be a whole lot less aggravating if there were unlimited bandwidth for things.
- fryguy1013, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I don't think so. A lot of the problems servers die is because of increased load on the processors. Making the pipe bigger won't instantly make all computers run faster (although assuming "infinite bandwidth", one could conjecture that an infinitely fast computer could be made with the same technology)
- rouslan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4>ISPs are having too much fun creating different speed plans to milk the most out of customers.
I definitely agree, because the US has very low average speeds compared to Europe, and at the same time I've heard only 2% of installed fiber optic cables are in use.- g2g079, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1>>I definitely agree, because the US has very low average speeds...
I love your fix to the broken comment system
- g2g079, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1>>I definitely agree, because the US has very low average speeds...
- EbilPhish, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Speed plans are nothing, try having data limits.
- willynilly, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1What would be nice is if people would learn simple goddamned GRAMMAR.
What if bandwidth WERE infinite. It's a hypothetical or contrary-to-fact situation, and that calls for subjunctive. And not just in English, but also in Spanish, French,... really, log off and read a book. - gritta, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1No point increasing bandwidth unless you have the storage requirements to back it up. Sure you can get terabyte platters now in server hard drives but a single "wall-sized" losslessly compressed video will take up hundreds of terabytes.
- Error601, on 10/12/2007, -10/+38Sorry, science is not a conspiracy.
- Error601, on 11/10/2007, -8/+43Well, that was silly. He's confusing bandwidth with propagation time. There are many non-bandwidth related propagation delays such as router processing time and packet loss. Bandwidth saturation causes buffering and sometimes packet loss if the router doesn't have enough resources. Mostly you're limited by the remote server capacity as it almost always takes longer to process a request than transmit it.
- notthemama, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Did you read the article? He actually defined the difference between them and said most people misunderstand the difference.
He mentioned propagation time wouldn't change, as in a very wide hideway that still takes travel time.- mdg149, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Yeah, he mentioned the difference between latency and bandwidth, and then went on to suggest the latency would matter if you had infinite bandwidth. If you have infinite bandwidth and it took 240 ms to get to Bangalore back, then you could download an HD movie from Bangalore in 241 seconds.
Of course, then you have to start counting how long it takes to read from the disk in Bangalore and write to the disk on your PC. Infinite of any one thing is a dumb thing to even think about because there will always be bottlenecks, and in reality, the technology won't improve until there's sufficient demand for it. So once the technology has improved to that point, it'll be obvious what it will be used for. Back in 1985, 2 GB of system memory would have been functionally infinite and people would be boggled what to do with it all. Now, it's obvious that you use your 2 GB of memory to keep Vista from running like a snail.
- mdg149, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Yeah, he mentioned the difference between latency and bandwidth, and then went on to suggest the latency would matter if you had infinite bandwidth. If you have infinite bandwidth and it took 240 ms to get to Bangalore back, then you could download an HD movie from Bangalore in 241 seconds.
- notthemama, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Did you read the article? He actually defined the difference between them and said most people misunderstand the difference.
- leodavinci, on 11/10/2007, -4/+100The author does not even raise the ideas of anything more novel then streaming HD-DVD movies to anywhere on the earth... big deal, the ability to stream HD video will be available to 90% of the people online within the next five years. If you are going to make a post about infinite bandwidth (which is obviously impossible, there is a finite amount that is achievable) at least talk about something that is a little mind blowing, like perhaps streaming your entire brain to a robot on mars so you can explore and then downloading all the information gathered back to yourself on earth.
I don't know, I just pulled that out of my ass, but it is at least more exciting than "omg tons of bandwidth, HD HENTAI!"- notthemama, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Yeah, I was hoping the article was about something new coming or a way to achieve it with current technology, but it wasn't much more than the title itself.
- mikewhite314, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2bandwidth is a rate, not a quantity, so there is not, as you assert, a theoretical "finite amount that is achievable"
- noumuon, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4of course there is. there is always going to be an upper limit on things like bandwidth imposed by that pesky thing called physics. oh, and bandwidth, in terms of computers, is in terms of quantity / time.
- noumuon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2ok, so i quickly got dugg down. let me explain. in terms of computers, bandwidth is expressed in quantity / time... or bits / second... (that's quantity per unit time / bits per second). this is directly proportional in capabilities to the analog bandwidth of what you're sending packets over. mathematically speaking, infinite bandwidth is possible... in ideal terms. these ideal terms NEVER manifest in physical reality. it's an impossibility. you can only have infinite bandwidth in an ideal mathematical construct.
- Dunedain, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0the Matrix, anyone?
- Travisty2012, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Good question...horrible article.
- sowdog, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Agreed on the interesting question but poor follow up. if there was such a thing as infinite bandwidth, we'd have to rethink how we view our computer systems. online operating systems could be an option with online storage. maybe even change the idea of storage since everyone/anyones shared data is essentially local. no more seeding/sharing files, just running it out of the shared folder. im sure someone else can come up with a more interesting idea .
- syncosoftkerala, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Yes, he lacks Imagination. I would've suggested teleportation - convert ourselves into energy and transfer through cables.. Bwaahahahaaaa!!
- cherwilco, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3OMG I didnt even THINK of HD Hentai!!! WOOOOHOOOO
/sarcasm- towlie, on 10/14/2007, -0/+1So you did?
- badave, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Infinite bandwidth might kill the need for individual computers. At some point it'll be about buying a "computer" on a "network" somewhere with a certain amount of space and processing power (both hard drive space and processing power, at some point, will become an obsolete idea as well as processing power and storage space becomes "infinite" as well) and being able to do anything with that instead of having to have the individual computer with all the stuff in it. Everything could be done over the network if infinite bandwidth were possible. Laptops will be paper thin, and limitations like GPU speed on games will be a thing of the past.
Internet 3.0 will be the ultimate OS and everything you will do will be on that. Despite being remotely accessed, it'll be 25x times faster than anything now. That is, if zombies don't take over the world before then and nuclear war doesn't kill mankind. - jaytea90, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1What more can you want other than HD hentai?
- mklopez, on 11/10/2007, -3/+40Infinite bandwidth? One moment please...
[surfs to every pr0n site out there... clicks on every "download" and "save as" link found]
uh... Now, can I get infinite storage space too?- wordsofwisedumb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11One of the points he makes is that the need for infinite storage space would be cut down. With infinite bandwidth you could revisit the same website and re-watch the same pr0n just as fast as opening it off your local storage media.
- dafragsta, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I don't think people download porn strictly because of the bandwidth limitations. I think they probably do it just because availability of a particularly choice selection might not persist, because not everything persists on the intarwebs. I'm just guessing here, no extensive research.
- Dylan47, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4try web storage
- wordsofwisedumb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11One of the points he makes is that the need for infinite storage space would be cut down. With infinite bandwidth you could revisit the same website and re-watch the same pr0n just as fast as opening it off your local storage media.
- akkibaba, on 11/10/2007, -5/+18Then we could download UltraPorn!
- nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17you're not nearly old enough.
- syroncoda, on 10/11/2007, -9/+1http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime ...
i totally want the internet and computing in general to evolve into this kind of tech. it's so damn leet. glasses that you can see the internet... through! WOWZERS!
on a serious note. i really like this anime.- Roryking, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2did somebody just say weeaboo?
- shinynew, on 10/19/2007, -0/+2is it the same person that has desu girl as their icon?
- Roryking, on 10/18/2007, -0/+1OWNED!
- shinynew, on 10/19/2007, -0/+2is it the same person that has desu girl as their icon?
- Roryking, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2did somebody just say weeaboo?
- WiseWeasel, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1That would go against the business interests of some very powerful people... Not going to happen without a fight.
- SwissCamel, on 10/11/2007, -5/+3Is the internet still around then?
- jmkiii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17That fad ended years ago.
Carrier pigeons... Wave of the future!
- jmkiii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17That fad ended years ago.
- merdiesel, on 11/10/2007, -4/+63What if you had ∞ dollars??!
Come on, what are we 10?- nonokiaboy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+46That 8 fell over. Lol
- Chickenslayer19, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I can't believe something so simple made me laugh so hard...
- Bamborzled, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Oh yeah? I have Infinity MILLION dollars! Beat THAT!
- jhshukla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Easy. I have infinity BILLION dollars.
- lacronicus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have infinity billion PLUS ONE
- jhshukla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Easy. I have infinity BILLION dollars.
- Intoccabile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Dude come on your on digg! we're not 10......We're 13!
- LucianSolaris, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1***** digg comment system, bury me
- dubloe7, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1reminds me of an old folktale/myth about a guy that wished for infinite money (from a genie or something) and was given a coinpurse with an infinite number of silver coins in it, but you could only pull out one at a time.
- MaxPayne3476, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I'll give you a coinpurse ;)
- dubloe7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2...
*checks urbandictionary*
interesting... coinpurse is slang for both male and female genitalia... thank you internet.
- dubloe7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2...
- MaxPayne3476, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I'll give you a coinpurse ;)
- LucianSolaris, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1We could have infinite dollars if we had infinite resources for an infinite number of people to indebt themselves for.
Gotta love our monetary system!
- nonokiaboy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+46That 8 fell over. Lol
- deadlift, on 11/10/2007, -1/+27The author of this "essay" wants to feel like a scholar by labeling his article of writing an essay. lol
- mvandemar, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2Would that be similar in the way that you try to make it sound like there is some hidden meaning to the word "essay" that only you know about that would disqualify his writing as being one?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3Aessa ...- deadlift, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2Shut up
- mvandemar, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2Would that be similar in the way that you try to make it sound like there is some hidden meaning to the word "essay" that only you know about that would disqualify his writing as being one?
- bhattsan, on 11/10/2007, -1/+25Hell, I just want 100 mbps duplex *jealously looks at Koreans*
- Error601, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4Got a gigabit to my PC work. Doesn't do much good on the Internet since the other pipes and servers down the line can't fill it up.
- EnterDaMatrix, on 10/16/2007, -0/+7I think you are confusing LAN with the internet.
- g2g079, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1If not I think you need introduced to bittorrent.
- MaxPayne3476, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Hell even with my 6MB connection, I don't use BitTorrent to it's full capacity. There simply is NOT enough out there that I really care about.
- Error601, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4Got a gigabit to my PC work. Doesn't do much good on the Internet since the other pipes and servers down the line can't fill it up.
- swchen, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18Hmmm, well for one, sites wouldn't fall victim to the Digg Effect!
- Error601, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Since there could be an infinite number of simultaneous hits on your DB, you will need an infinite speed server to go with it.
- mb3581, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8maybe not,, but there would definitely be some melting servers... =O
- jhshukla, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1many times it's the server that doesn't have enough resources even when there is unused BW. so sites would still be slashdotted but less frequently.
- MaxPayne3476, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4what is this slashdotted you speak of?
- Error601, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Since there could be an infinite number of simultaneous hits on your DB, you will need an infinite speed server to go with it.
- Eastcoastsurfer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7No more connection lag in video games, that would be amazing. Now if we could get infinite money, I suppose anything could happen. This article is fail.
- demodawid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Lag is more often associated with high ping, not lack of bandwidth.
- EnterDaMatrix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4For an extreme example of high bandwidth, high latency see IP over Avian Carriers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carrier ...- ElRayQuieres, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1lol, that was great
- JeremyBanks, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1This "article" is about infinite bandwidth, not zero latency.
- DesignEx, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2If it ever happened, I'm sure just a handful of companies would own all the fiber and still charge to use it... just because they can.
- beansy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2There might be a finite latency, (car could only go a certain speed in an infinitely wide highway), but you could drive an arbitrarily large load down said highway.
- muniak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9There would be a plethora of streaming porn websites.
...oh wait.
Nevermind. - DeathJux, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8The Singularity would be upon us lickety-split.
- dubloe7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9i want to digg you for the singularity comment.
and i want to bury you for the 'lickety-split' comment.
*head asplode* - EbilPhish, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I wouldn't have a major effect on the singularity.
Granted you could cluster every computer on the internet into one giant system since there is no latency it would be like a 400,000 core system with the shared memory and storage etc..., but it wouldn't help since raw cpu power is only part of the equation for artificial intelligence.
What it needs is raw research and development of new technologies and bandwidth won't accelerate that much, sure a full dvd is 12gb, and 8000 fiction books in pdf format are 4.5gb (check Demonoid if you interested), Wikipedia is also around 4.2gb (download version, no images etc...) but a research paper is often less than a meg and even if you wanted to download all the research papers in the world there still hosted by those pay to access services. In the end the scientist is saved a few minutes and perhaps number crunching research data is now instantaneous.
If AI was just a matter of power, large corporations or the army would have made a system by now.- SharkyTech, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"If AI was just a matter of power, large corporations or the army would have made a system by now."
Yeesss, they would have, wouldn't they....
WAKE UP PEOPLE THE JESUS COMPUTER IS HERE, BUT IS BEING KEPT SECRET BY THE GOVERNMENT!
- SharkyTech, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"If AI was just a matter of power, large corporations or the army would have made a system by now."
- dubloe7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9i want to digg you for the singularity comment.
- damien6669, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I would need way more hard drives... and my power bill would be too high to survive. I would have to sell a kidney...
- linuxrebel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2It already is infinite .... just ask any PHB. They expect TB transfers to happen miraculously and instantly.
- linuxrebel, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1One question. In school we were taught that infinity was for all intents 0, since it was undefined. In that case infinite bandwidth is 0 bandwidth. Which is a lot like living in the Silicon Valley and having broadband from Comcast or ATT.
- dubloe7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"In school we were taught that infinity was for all intents 0..."
I don't even know where to begin on that. What high school did you go to so I know to never ever send any of my kids there. - noumuon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2wow... infinite would be quite the opposite of zero. infinite represents unbounded behavior; zero can be seen as representing no behavior.
- dubloe7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"In school we were taught that infinity was for all intents 0..."
- linuxrebel, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1One question. In school we were taught that infinity was for all intents 0, since it was undefined. In that case infinite bandwidth is 0 bandwidth. Which is a lot like living in the Silicon Valley and having broadband from Comcast or ATT.
- Jaymoon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Speeds aren't that important to me. What I want is infinite bandwidth as in "I can have as much as I want".
I mean, yeah, the backbone cost money to establish, but how can you charge for something that is non-existant in a physical sense. It's like somebody selling positive thinking, or good intentions. ...or carbon credits :P- SharkyTech, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Thats like saying that a trip down a tollway or a massage is paying for something that doesn't exist in a physical sense. Its a service, just because its not solid to be kicked doesn't mean its intangible...
- StandardsDT, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2If the Internet Bandwidth was Infinite the digg effect would no longer exist. Unless the server crapped out due to not enough memory.
- nonposter, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0What if... every router on the internet honored TOS and DSCP, eg prioritized based on those bits?
- silfiriel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5it's non sense. internet bandwidth can't be infinite and I mean never, since it's limited by capacityand it will always be, and more important it's limited by users. there are 6 billion people on the planet and that's the limit. teoretiacaly we can use infinite bandwidth in infinite time. he probably meant unlimited bandwidth. I hope he meant it, otherwise that whole article is a piece of garbage. but I am pretty sure he meant infinite.
- MicrosoftBob, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2No one would leave their homes. It would be like a WoW session x 10.
- Rupan, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Infinite Bandwidth would lead to a utopian world of information. We say we have so much at the tip of our fingertips but with this we truly would. Every movie piece of music book everything would be at your beck and call 24/7 and instant. It would create a system that I think would end up creating more knowledgeable and intelligent society after 2 or 3 generations of existence.
- silfiriel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1you do realize that's impossible. there's only so much information we can consume in one moment.
- EbilPhish, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Most music movies and literature are already at my beck and call, granted its not in an instant and yet I still spend most of my free time online on digg.
- bneuman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1We might create a more knowledgeable society but only knowledgeable about the content we have already created. We would spend so much time consuming that we wouldn't spend enough time creating new creative content. The world would slowly drift in an antisocial, cliched society. A lot like digg users are now. =)
- Travisty2012, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9BURIED: Good question...horrible article.
- yoda17, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Would have been nice if the author had put out some ideas about how things would be different if we had infinite bandwidth.
- Flashman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Here's the structure of the article:
[five meandering paragraphs on whether it's possible]
[one underwritten paragraph on what it would mean]
[paltry conclusion]
- Flashman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Here's the structure of the article:
- chakktor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Makes me think of Transmetropolitan. There was an article recently about how ultimately, with quantum processors and "infinite" bandwidth, the last bottleneck will be storage.
- rocknroll4ever, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0No matter what happens always remember BIG BROTHER is watching you !!!
- MatTipton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+33You have 1208339743804319384723046298294839484903098449049112893892975801 new messages in your spam folder.
- sakuraz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Spot on
- FBombAndy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6That should be "What if Internet Bandwidth 'were' infinite?" Conditional tense. Jerk.
- 3Den, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Infinite bandwidth is not possible... but, we can look at what would happen if bandwidth were orders of magnitude more available.
This is old, but very good..
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~gaj1/fiber.html - skyz, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2the internet should be free like the library ~ and for the same reasons ~ give an equal access to information/knowledge and anyone from the homeless man on the street can educate themselves and make a contribution to the whole of humanity ~ my city is going wifi for free ~ it has to be free as there is a law here about the city selling services ~ i hope it is fast enough and reliable ~
- thaslaw, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Panty-waste liberal. I suppose next you'll say air and water should be free too? My libraries used to levy nominal fees for borrowing CDs and movies. Of course, your commie pinko free internet and the P2P that hates our way of life have destroyed that little revenue stream for the library. How's that for a Catch-22?
- mdg149, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Get a haircut, hippy!
And you better check with city hall. A lot of cities *planned* to deploy free wi-fi, then realized it was too big and too expensive, so they're scaling back.
- danarama, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1columbus discovered what now?
- Irfit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4*****
- fivestarsoul, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1my thoughts exactly.
- riksta, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3Bandwidth has absolutely nothing to do with "the speed of light" or time! Clearly that is latency.
- noumuon, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2bandwidth has everything to do with time. it's measured in hertz or, in terms of computers, bits per second.
- dubloe7, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4comcast would stop calling me about my high usage.
- oneblackcitizen, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2what about other bottlenecks? CPU speed for example? Disk speed? RAM speed?
- Vetsin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1A normal 7200 rpm sata can write at around 60-70 MBps assuming you're writing a single file at a time... seek time may drastically reduce this. Also assuming you could have infinite bandwidth over a network, you could also have it within a computer between the cpu and northbridge, persay.
- xquizit, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1then there will be an infinite amount of porn!!!
- quirkychic22, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0it will include money, of course. it's all about the money.
- RicktheBrick, on 10/11/2007, -0/+51. No more tv schedules as all programs would be on demand.
2. One would shop at an on line virtual store and than go to that store to pick up the items.
3. At home schools for children 12 and above and would continue until retirement.
4. No local data storage needed as everything would be stored at the ISP.
5. Video phones in every room with access available to emergency people so they can determine when help is needed.- mdg149, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1None of these are bandwidth issues.
1. Can already watch shows on demand from the cable company. The problem: the selection is limited due to storage capacity. You can do this with music which has way smaller files. http://www.napster.com
2. Can do this at Circuit City among others. The problem: having to pick up at the return counter and waiting behind dozens of people returning broken TVs.
3. This sentence doesn't really make sense. Still, the bandwidth is already there, what's lacking is the software and content.
4. Bandwidth exists, but do you like your ISP enough to let them keep all your stuff? And what if you move? I'm pretty sure Verizon wouldn't transfer it. In any case, it's a problem of storage again, not bandwidth.
5. Even in Korea where people have crazy mobile bandwidth people don't use video phones. The problem: people just don't seem to like looking at people and being looked at over the phone.
- mdg149, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1None of these are bandwidth issues.
- hibachipenguins, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Then people would complain about about the latency being too high...
- Vetsin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Normally its the transmission time that really changes latency
Latency = propagation time + transmission time + queuing time + processing delay
Where usually queuing and processing delay is in the microseconds per router, as where propagation time is distance divided by propagation speed (the speed of light within a fiber cable, for example)
So still relatively low.
- Vetsin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Normally its the transmission time that really changes latency
- doom2quake, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Infinite bandwidth (taking into account the speed of light) for most business would mean nothing more than the ability to transfer more on the fly to the client end. Running AutoCAD or some crazily heavy application as a server-client would be very much possible across the internet.
Then cloud computing can literally take over desktop (or wouldve be able to spot the difference with that kind of bandwidth) - majordanger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've seen data rates progress from 110 baud 7 bits All CAPS to 100Mbit
Yet still a Gene Hackman movie uses the 6 chars/per second crawl with that annoying 'dwebble dweeble' movie data sound. - EbilPhish, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Darknets like Freenet would be great, since it would be 100% anonymity without the massively slow speed that goes with it.
The RIAA/MPAA would be truly screwed. - thaslaw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Too tarded for words. Except these: infinite bandwidth = infinite energy. Your energy bill would not go up, it would approach 0 because you could get all your power from the internet. Not happening on a computer network near you anytime soon. The INTELLIGENT arguments that should be triggered by a question like this are quite interesting. Too bad none of them fit in the essay. But as I was saying, pointless idea. Except for one.
/. pwns digg when it comes to threads like this. - jacklopter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0i wish something like this would happen !!!
- mrshll, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1not too much content, but well-written nonetheless.
+digg. - Kiltzg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0What if I were rich and famous?
It's nice to dream sometimes.
Now get busy increasing the bandwidth of you little corner of the net! - bbqribs, on 10/19/2007, -0/+2It wouldn't matter to me because AT&T would just ***** everything up anyway. My 3.0mbit DSL line here in the heart of the Silicon Valley is lucky to get 1.5, and I have 384kbps for upload.
yeah yeah, old copper phone lines, etc.. but this is (was?) the Silicon Valley. Tool sheds in Sweden are getting fiber, and we get hosed. -
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