Re: VR: Lat/Long of Internet Servers

Mark Waks (justin@dsd.camb.inmet.com)
Mon, 18 Jul 94 16:45:30 EDT


Ken writes:
>I think we need the lat/long client/server to form the basic grid of
>cyberspace. The rest of cyberspace can literally be built on this
>foundation.

"Need" is a very strong word. And, quite frankly, I disagree
vigorously. When I'm wandering around the Web, I don't care *where* a
server is located -- it's the furthest thing from my mind. I wander
from California to Norway at a shot, if that's where the data happens
to be. My expectation of cyberspace is very much the same way -- I
want to know *what*, not *where*. (Or, at most, I may want to know
where something is logically, but don't give a damn where it is
physically.)

I could see building a map like this on *top* of a purely logical
system. Indeed, it shouldn't be especially hard -- it's almost
exactly analogous to the map-based systems springing up on the Web.
But in my experience, those systems are at best marginally useful
unless I'm trying to find out information about a specific locale,
which is rare.

As a possible application -- sure. As the fundament of cyberspace --
I don't think so...

-- Justin

Random Quote du Jour:

To Xxxxx from VPI:
"I'm sure your girlfriend wouldn't appreciate your sending her (unbelievably
spectacular) measurements to me, but once again, I'm not interested. Although
I may be just a leeeetle bit bisexual, I'm certainly not THAT bisexual. I'm
not sure it's *possible* to be that bisexual. In fact if I were you, I'd have
trouble being that *heterosexual*. She sounds like the Hunchfront of Notre
Dame. I hope the FDA doesn't confiscate them."
-- Nurse Jones