{"id":750,"date":"2006-05-25T19:01:40","date_gmt":"2006-05-26T00:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=750"},"modified":"2009-06-11T18:26:07","modified_gmt":"2009-06-11T22:26:07","slug":"information-superhighway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/05\/25\/information-superhighway\/","title":{"rendered":"Information Superhighway"},"content":{"rendered":"

An amusing quote, found on Slashdot<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There it is again. Some clueless fool talking about the “Information Superhighway”. They don’t know didley about the Net. It’s nothing like a superhighway. That’s a rotten metaphor.<\/p>\n

Suppose the metaphor ran in the other direction. Suppose the highways were like the net…<\/p>\n

A highway hundreds of lanes wide. Most with pitfalls for potholes. Privately operated bridges and overpasses. No highway patrol. A couple of rent-a-cops on bicycles with broken whistles. 500 member vigilante posses with nuclear weapons. A minimum of 237 on ramps at every intersection.<\/p>\n

No signs. Wanna get to Ensenada? Holler out the window at a passing truck to ask directions.<\/p>\n

Ad hoc traffic laws. Some lanes would vote to make use by a single-occupant-vehicle a capital offense on Monday through Friday between 7:00 and 9:00. Other lanes would just shoot you without a trial for talking on a car phone.<\/p>\n

AOL would be a giant diesel-smoking bus with hundreds of ebola victims on board throwing dead wombats and rotten cabbage at the other cars,<\/strong> most of which have been assembled at home from kits. Some are built around 2.5 horsepower lawn mower engines with a top speed of nine miles an hour. Others burn nitroglycerin and idle at 120.<\/p>\n

No license plates. World War II bomber nose art instead. Terrifying paintings of huge teeth or vampire eagles. Bumper mounted machine guns. Flip somebody the finger on this highway and get a white phosphorus grenade up your tailpipe. Flatbed trucks cruise around with anti-aircraft missile batteries to shoot down the traffic helicopter. Little kids on tricycles with squirt guns filled with hydrochloric acid switch lanes without warning.<\/p>\n

NO OFFRAMPS. None.<\/p>\n

Now that’s the way to run an Interstate Highway system.<\/p>\n

Author (maybe, it’s hard to track down sources on the Net): Jim Wiedman<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suppose the metaphor ran in the other direction. Suppose the highways were like the net…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[389],"class_list":["post-750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-fun-stuff","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-c6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":799,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/09\/16\/on-the-road-new-jersey\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":0},"title":"On the Road: New Jersey","author":"Keith Survell","date":"September 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Boy oh boy do I have a lot to say about driving in New Jersey.","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4602,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2014\/09\/24\/road-new-york-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":1},"title":"On The Road: New York City","author":"Keith Survell","date":"September 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Having lived a mere 35 miles from New York City for just over 7 years now, I figure it's time to finally put down in words what driving in the City that Never Sleeps is like. When I first moved here, I flat out refused to drive in the city\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"New York City (Broadway)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2014\/09\/Cinematic_New_York_City_6033969880.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2014\/09\/Cinematic_New_York_City_6033969880.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2014\/09\/Cinematic_New_York_City_6033969880.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2014\/09\/Cinematic_New_York_City_6033969880.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":826,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/12\/20\/peculiarities-of-australia\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":2},"title":"Peculiarities of Australia","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's spend some time talking about what's just a little bit different here in Australia compared with back in the U.S., shall we?","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":739,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/05\/09\/net-neutrality\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":3},"title":"Net Neutrality","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I think \"Net Neutrality\" is vitally important - and here's why.","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4810,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2016\/03\/08\/behind-the-wheel-2015-subaru-outback-2-5i-limited\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":4},"title":"Behind the Wheel: 2015 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited","author":"Keith Survell","date":"March 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, the repair costs on my faithful old 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander started to exceed the value of the car - so it was time to start looking for a replacement. One of the cars I looked at rather extensively was a 2015 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited. I wanted something similar\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2015 Subaru Outback","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2016\/03\/2015-Subaru-Outback-300x180.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":50,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2003\/11\/13\/zombie-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":750,"position":5},"title":"Zombie-week","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 13, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"On Sunday I went outside and found that I had a flat tire. It was freezing out and the wind was really cold, but I put the mini-spare on and drove down to John Fitch Highway to get it fixed.","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}