March 2011 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

precisazioni su Baran e sulla nascita di Internet
by J.C. DE MARTIN March 29, 2011

March 29, 2011

> *Subject: * [ NNSquad ] [Les Earnest] Re: Paul Baran's passing > *Date: * Mon, 28 Mar 2011 23:36:25 -0700 > *From: * Lauren Weinstein <lauren(a)vortex.com> <mailto:lauren@vortex.com> > *To: * nnsquad(a)nnsquad.org <mailto:nnsquad@nnsquad.org> > > > > ----- Forwarded message from Les Earnest<les(a)cs.stanford.edu> <mailto:les@cs.stanford.edu> ----- > > Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:07:29 -0700 > From: Les Earnest<les(a)cs.stanford.edu> <mailto:les@cs.stanford.edu> > Subject: Paul Baran's passing > > I am saddened to learn of Paul Baran's passing (3/28/11 page B4) since he > has been a long time helpful friend. However I am also dismayed by false > claims in the New York Times article that Paul played a central role in the > creation of ARPAnet, the precursor of the Internet. I never heard him make > such a claim but see that others are now trying to rewrite history for some > reason. > > Working at Rand Corporation, Paul did important theoretical work in the > early 1960s on how to build survivable military communication networks and > tried to make it happen but was unable to get funding from the Defense > Department. He initiated a number of later innovations including Ricochet, > the first public wireless mesh networking system, in 1985. > > It appears to me that one source of confusion about networking history is > that nearly all writings on this topic skip over the first computer > network, which was part of the SAGE air defense system. SAGE was initiated > in the early 1950s by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and > also gave the first practical demonstration of interactive computing, > accomplished by timesharing, which was an essential precursor to ARPAnet. > Thus ARPAnet was a direct descendant of SAGE and was mostly developed by > people who came from MIT Lincoln Lab. I note that the Internet is still > mainly composed of timesharing systems, now called "servers," connected to > various kinds of terminals, many of which are now so small that they fit in > your pocket. > > SAGE used special purpose packetized networks to gather radar data from a > hundred and some radar sites across North America and to process it at 23 > large computer centers. SAGE also used land line data links to communicate > between adjacent sectors and with higher level commands.It used packet > radio systems to issue guidance commands to manned interceptors and > ground-to-air missiles in order to intercept incoming bombers. The only > problem with this technological marvel was that in an actual attack, which > thankfully never happened, SAGE would have immediately malfunctioned at > several levels. Nevertheless it was kept going for 25 years at a cost to > taxpayers of billions of dollars and to the immense profit of the > military-industrial-political complex. But that is another ongoing story. > > J.C.R. Licklider ("Lick" to his friends) helped design the human-computer > interface for SAGE and subsequently wrote a seminal paper on that topic > [1]. He also provided financial support for the development of general > purpose timesharing systems, both while managing projects at Bolt, Beranek, > and Newman (BBN) and when he later initiated a computer research program at > ARPA. The first person to advocate general purpose timesharing was MIT > Prof. John McCarthy [2] and Lick hired him as a consultant at BBN, then > sponsored the development of a demonstration timesharing system there. > > After moving to the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency > (ARPA) in 1962 Lick funded development of a number of general purpose > timesharing systems at various universities and subsequently called for the > development of computer networks that would interconnect such systems, > which resulted in the ARPAnet, though he did not specify exactly how this > should be done. > > How do I know all this? I was there. I had known Lick since 1949 and > reconnected when I came to Lincoln Lab in 1956 to help design SAGE. I > later developed an experimental cursive handwriting recognizer using the > Lab's TX-2 computer, which I shared on evenings and weekends beginning in > 1960 with other graduate students including Ivan Sutherland, then working > on his Sketchpad drawing system, Larry Roberts working on perception of 3D > objects from photographs, and Len Kleinrock, doing simulations of partly > connected computer networks. After later being sent to the Headquarters of > Central Intelligence Agency for a year and two years at the Pentagon > assisting the Joint Chiefs of Staff I escaped to Stanford University and > helped John McCarthy set up the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab > (SAIL). During 1967-68 I was the Stanford representative on the start-up > committee for ARPAnet, which included about a dozen people. > > The principal architect of ARPAnet was Larry Roberts, who had been > recruited to ARPA from Lincoln Lab. He based his approach to packet > switching on the analysis in Len Kleinrock's dissertation [3]. Our goals > had nothing to do with military communications or the survivability > thereof. Our aim was to facilitate cooperative research by interconnecting > academic timesharing systems. We didn't hear about the similar ideas being > proposed by Paul Baran and by Donald Davies in Britain until the end of > 1967 and by then our architectural specifications were pretty well set. In > any case, neither Baran nor Davies were able to get funding then, so there > were no competing development projects. > > Following our review of technical proposals for ARPAnet in November 1968, > BBN was chosen as the contractor and those working on the project came > mainly from Lincoln Lab. Our committee had foolishly rejected the idea of > providing email service, which turned out to be the first "killer app," but > the performance specifications that we chose happily turned out to be able > to support both email and the much later web services. We were ultimately > both surprised and delighted by the enormous growth and usefulness of the > net. > > Les Earnest > Senior Research Scientist Emeritus > Stanford University > > REFERENCES > > [1] J.C.R. Licklider, "Man-Computer Symbiosis," IRE Transactions on Human > Factors in Electronics, March 1960. > http://groups.csail.mit.edu/medg/people/psz/Licklider.html > > [2] John McCarthy, "Memorandum to P.J. Morse Proposing Time Sharing", MIT > Memo, Jan. 1, 1959. > http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/timesharing-memo/timesharing-mem… > > [3] Leonard Kleinrock, "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets," PhD > dissertation, MIT, 1963. > >

3 3

Fw: [Creis_Terminal] RFID, la police totale : le film
by Mariella Berra March 29, 2011

March 29, 2011

RFID, la police totale : le filmCarissimi si può non concordare pienamente ma induce una riflessione .particolarmente su chi riflette sull'etica. Mb ----- Original Message ----- From: Maurice Liscouët To: creis_terminal(a)lecreis.org Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 4:26 PM Subject: [Creis_Terminal] RFID, la police totale : le film Bonjour, Au sens premier depuis le XIIIe siècle, la police est le gouvernement de la cité - gestion et discipline, exercice du pouvoir politique - avant de désigner l'organisation rationnelle de l'ordre public. Subterfuge & Pièces et Main d'oeuvre présentent RFID : la police totale un film de 28 minutes contre la tyrannie technologique et l'avènement de la société de contrainte. On peut voir et télécharger ce film sur http://websuterfuge.free.fr/rfid.html On peut le commander en DVD, en envoyant un chèque de 5 euros (à l'ordre des Bas-Côtés) aux Bas-Côtés, 59 rue Nicolas Chorier, 38000 Grenoble, en précisant lisiblement sa commande et son adresse. Nous encourageons évidemment tout un chacun à le télécharger, à le diffuser, et à organiser des projections et des débats contre l'invasion des RFID. Peu de gens encore, hors des laboratoires, des services vétérinaires et de logistique, connaissent les RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), aussi nommées "étiquettes électroniques", "intelligentes", "smart tags", "transpondeurs", "puces à radiofréquences", "puces sans contact". Ces mouchards nés durant la seconde guerre mondiale supplantent désormais les codes-barres dans les objets de consommation et sont implantés dans les animaux, les titres de transport et d'identité, les livres des bibliothèques, les arbres des villes, toutes choses de proche en proche, et même de plus en plus d'êtres humains. Sans les nanotechnologies, qui permettent de réduire leur taille et leur prix, les puces RFID n'infesteraient pas nos vies et IBM ne pourrait pas proposer aux décideurs son programme de puçage généralisé de tout et de tous (des espaces "naturels" aux décors urbains, des marchandises aux infrastructures d'énergie, de transports et aux services, de santé, d'éducation, des animaux aux humains) baptisé "planète intelligente". Voici venu le temps du marquage électronique, universel et obligatoire. Bientôt il sera criminel d'extraire de son corps sa puce d'identité. - Avez-vous quelque chose à vous reprocher ? ******* Merci de faire circuler, Pièces et Main d'oeuvre -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Creis_terminal mailing list Creis_terminal(a)lecreis.org https://listes.globenet.org/listinfo/creis_terminal

1 0

NYT: "Paul Baran, Internet Pioneer, Dies at 84"
by J.C. DE MARTIN March 28, 2011

March 28, 2011

March 27, 2011 Paul Baran, Internet Pioneer, Dies at 84 By KATIE HAFNER <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/katie_hafner/i…> Paul Baran <http://www.rand.org/about/history/baran.list.html>, an engineer who helped create the technical underpinnings for the Arpanet <http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa091598.htm>, the government-sponsored precursor to today's Internet, died Saturday night at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 84. The cause was complications from lung cancer, said his son, David. In the early 1960s, while working at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., Mr. Baran outlined the fundamentals for packaging data into discrete bundles, which he called "message blocks." The bundles are then sent on various paths around a network and reassembled at their destination. Such a plan is known as "packet switching." Mr. Baran's idea was to build a distributed communications network, less vulnerable to attack or disruption than conventional networks. In a series of technical papers published in the 1960s he suggested that networks be designed with redundant routes so that if a particular path failed or was destroyed, messages could still be delivered through another. Mr. Baran's invention was so far ahead of its time that in the mid-1960s, when he approached AT&T <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/at_and_t/index.html?i…> with the idea to build his proposed network, the company insisted it would not work and refused. "Paul wasn't afraid to go in directions counter to what everyone else thought was the right or only thing to do," said Vinton Cerf, a vice president at Google <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/google_inc/index.html…> who was a colleague and longtime friend of Mr. Baran's. "AT&T repeatedly said his idea wouldn't work, and wouldn't participate in the Arpanet project," he said. [...] Continua qui: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/technology/28baran.html

1 0

Digitali e transnazionali. Giovani migranti e seconde generazioni sul web
by Viviana Premazzi March 28, 2011

March 28, 2011

Buongiorno a tutti, sono Viviana Premazzi di FIERI (www.fieri.it) centro di ricerca con sede a Torino che si occupa di immigrazione. Vi scrivo per segnalarvi due lavori che potrebbero essere di vostro interesse, realizzati con il mio collega Matteo Scali, su seconde generazioni di immigrati in Italia, tecnologie digitali per la socializzazione e rivoluzioni in Tunisia ed Egitto, : http://fieri.it/digitali_and_transnazionali_giovani_migranti_e_seconde_gene… Ogni commento che ci aiuti a migliorare il lavoro sarà graditissimo, cari saluti, Viviana Premazzi

2 1

notizie e rete
by peppino ortoleva March 27, 2011

March 27, 2011

Ho scritto in un saggio di tre anni fa che tra le implicazioni meno visibili ma più durature dello sviluppo della comunicazione in rete c'è il ridursi progressivo del ruolo delle notizie: in precedenza il mondo ci si presentava prima di tutto appunto nella forma del notiziario, col quale ci colleghiamo regolarmente diceva Hegel "per sapere come regolarci"; ora il mondo ha sempre più la forma di una rete con il quale ci connettiamo attraverso una pluralità di canali interpersonali. Devo dire che questo reportage del NYTimes conferma quell'ipotesi prima di quanto pensassi (e sicuramente troppo prima di quanto sperassi) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/us/27overload.html?_r=1&hpw

1 0

Copyright Police Want Truck Drivers To Have Licensed Cab Music
by Paolo Brini March 27, 2011

March 27, 2011

1 0

Re: [nexa] libertà di parola e campagne elettorali
by a.dicorinto＠uniroma1.it March 27, 2011

March 27, 2011

1 0

libertà di parola e campagne elettorali
by peppino ortoleva March 26, 2011

March 26, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26fried.html?_r=1

1 0

Eben Moglen: "Why Political Liberty Depends on Software Freedom More Than Ever"
by J.C. DE MARTIN March 25, 2011

March 25, 2011

Importante nuovo discorso, molto politico (nel senso alto del termine), di Eben Moglen tenuto al FOSDEM 2011 il mese scorso. Testo: http://www.softwarefreedom.org/events/2011/fosdem/moglen-fosdem-keynote.html Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BSLBvwyUEs Citazione (tra le tante): ‎"The job of North America is becoming to know everything about everyone everywhere" Riferimento (tra i tanti): questo reportage del Washington Post: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/ juan carlos

1 0

Re: [nexa] "Audizione di Catricalà innazi alla commissione parlamentare sulla contraffazione"
by m.bellezza＠oppic.it March 25, 2011

March 25, 2011

Mi permetto di segnalare il contenuto dell'audizione del presidente dell'antitrust Catricalà innanzi alla commissione parlamentare sulla contraffazione e la pirateria tenutasi lo scorso 23 marzo. Il presidente è andato un po off-topic parlando di efficacia del modello francese per il contrasto alla pirateria multimediale. Un breve resoconto con alcune considerazioni personali è disponibile qui http://www.oppic.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=477&Itemid=1 Un caro saluto Marco Da: nexa-bounces(a)server-nexa.polito.it A: nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it Cc: Data: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:00:03 +0100 Oggetto: nexa Digest, Vol 23, Issue 29 > Send nexa mailing list submissions to > nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > You can reach the person managing the list at > nexa-owner(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of nexa digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. R: NYT: "Judge Rejects Google?s Deal to Digitize Books" > (Maurizio Borghi (Staff)) > 2. Fwd: [psi-community] Call for Participation: Share-PSI > workshop 10/11 May 2011, Brussels (Federico Morando) > 3. Statistiche sul campo sulla velocit? di accesso a Internet > nel mondo (Vittorio Bertola) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:31:00 +0000 > From: "Maurizio Borghi (Staff)" > Subject: [nexa] R: NYT: "Judge Rejects Google?s Deal to Digitize > Books" > To: "nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it" > Message-ID: > <6DF441549E203A4E87D6C4D31953023C02F9FBE200(a)v-exmb02.academic.windsor> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" > > Cari amici e colleghi, > > Che la transazione per chiudere la class action su Google Books non fosse accettabile nella forma attuale erano in molti a pensarlo. Il giudice non poteva avallare una vera e propria ?copyright reform? fatta da due soggetti privati, per quanto portatori di interessi generali. Le riforme le fa il congresso, non le corti n? tantomeno i privati! > > Ora ci si chiede se le parti andranno avanti fino alla sentenza o se proporranno una nuova transazione. Il problema ? che la decisione, dichiarando irricevibile il meccanismo di opt-out che costituiva il cuore dell?Agreement, non lascia molto spazio alla fantasia degli avvocati... Senza opt-out, nessun accordo ? possibile sullo sfruttamento delle opere ?orfane? e fuori commercio, cio? proprio il movente principale della transazione. Rimane sul tavolo la questione legale vera e propria, l?unica su cui la corte sar? (forse) chiamata a pronunciarsi: ? permesso copiare integralmente opere letterarie protette e visualizzare estratti in risposta a ?search queries?? Dunque la nuova transazione, se ci sar?, potr? regolare essenzialmente questa attivit? e non altre. Ma Google ? disposta a trattare per poter svolgere un?attivit? che ha sempre sostenuto essere ?fair use?? E se cede ai titolari dei diritti sui libri, cosa far? con tutti gli altri titolari di opere che ? in conformit? all > a propria ?mission? ? copia, indicizza e rende ricercabile su internet? (Non a caso, nella transazione non era prevista alcuna royalty per la copia e indicizzazione dei libri, ma solo per la loro messa a disposizione del pubblico in forma integrale). > > Non vedo per? nella bocciatura della transazione un duro colpo per Google Books, come molti hanno scritto. Il fatto di possedere copie digitali di milioni di libri di tutto il mondo ? di per s? un enorme valore per Google, indipendentemente dal fatto che queste copie possano essere commercializzate o anche solo rese visibili agli utenti. Google pu? gi? fare, e continuer? a fare, usi economicamente molto vantaggiosi dell?enorme volume di dati che risulta dalla digitalizzazione dei libri. A Google interessa ?che cosa? cerchiamo nei libri, ?come? lo cerchiamo e ?perch?? lo cerchiamo. La sua ?mission? ? vendere informazioni sull?USO di informazioni; non ? quella di vendere informazioni in quanto tali (sebbene possa voler fare ANCHE questo, e la transazione aveva proprio questo obiettivo). Forse sar? smentito, ma credo che i piani di Google sulla ?digitalizzazione totale? di tutti i libri del mondo non subiranno profonde revisioni dopo la bocciatura della transazione. > > Un cordiale saluto > > Maurizio Borghi > > ________________________________________ > Da: nexa-bounces(a)server-nexa.polito.it [nexa-bounces(a)server-nexa.polito.it] per conto di J.C. DE MARTIN [demartin(a)polito.it] > Inviato: mercoled? 23 marzo 2011 14.45 > A: nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > Oggetto: [nexa] NYT: "Judge Rejects Google?s Deal to Digitize Books" > > March 22, 2011 > Judge Rejects Google?s Deal to Digitize Books > By MIGUEL HELFT > > Google?s ambition to create the world?s largest digital library and bookstore has run into the reality of a 300-year-old legal concept: copyright. > > The company?s plan to digitize every book ever published and make them widely available was derailed on Tuesday when a federal judge in New York rejected a sweeping $125 million legal settlement the company had worked out with groups representing authors and publishers. > > The decision throws into legal limbo one of the most ambitious undertakings in Google?s history, and it brings into sharp focus concerns about the company?s growing power over information. While the profit potential of the book project is not clear, the effort is one of the pet projects of Larry Page, the Google co-founder who is set to become its chief executive next month. And the project has wide support inside the company, whose corporate mission is to organize all of the world?s information. > > [...] > > Continua qui: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/technology/23google.htm > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:33:42 +0100 > From: Federico Morando > Subject: [nexa] Fwd: [psi-community] Call for Participation: Share-PSI > workshop 10/11 May 2011, Brussels > To: nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > Message-ID: <4D8B7266.8050606(a)polito.it> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; Format="flowed" > > Vi segnalo questo workshop (e relativa call), co-organizzato dal > progetto LAPSI (coordinato dal Centro NEXA) e dal Centro NEXA stesso. > > Federico > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [psi-community] Call for Participation: Share-PSI workshop > 10/11 May 2011, Brussels > Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:22:23 +0100 > From: Thomas Roessler > To: community(a)share-psi.eu > > > > Dear colleagues, > > on 10/11 May, the European Commission is hosting us for a 1.5 day workshop in Brussels to look at interoperability and re-use for public sector information: What is holding things up? What can be done? The areas we want to focus on are: Use cases; technical standards; legal and licensing aspects of Public Sector Information (licensing in particular). > > This is a place for you to speak up. The workshop results will feed into the Digital Agenda Assembly in June. > > Please submit position papers by 15 April 2011. > > More information is in the Call for Participation: > http://share-psi.eu/cfp/ > > Thanks, > -- > Thomas Roessler, W3C (@roessler) > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Community mailing list > Community(a)share-psi.eu > http://share-psi.eu/mailman/listinfo/community_share-psi.eu > > >

1 0