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It is necessary to point out that in the turbulent development of the Internet, the struggle is not limited to Netscape challenging the grudges and hatreds between commercial companies such as Zheru Software, but also industry organizations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Structure Committee, the Internet Society, and the World Wide Web Alliance. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The root cause lies in the fact that no one doubts the huge potential and value of the super platform of the Internet, and then as long as there is a little technical inventory in the belly, they are ambitiously trying to reach out and move their mouths to achieve the goal of leaving a name in history by participating in such industry institutions.

To cite the most ironic example, before the 1990s, the popular Internet Engineering Task Force triumphantly claimed to be a more agile, humble and open standardization entity than the sluggish and noisy bureaucracy of the ISO-International Organization for Standardization and ITU-T - International Telecommunication Union's Telecommunication Standardization Division.

As a result, in recent years, the scale of the Internet engineering task force has swelled rapidly, and the work efficiency style that was naturally brought about by the short, concise and natural work has basically disappeared - at the meeting, everyone wants to express their innovative views on the future, and they quarrel back and forth, and the people ~ the main party is enough, but it does not end up in a centralized manner, resulting in inaction. Not as good as ISO and ITU-T.

At the same time, the number of websites worldwide has exploded to tens of thousands.

There are no rules, there is no square circle - the Internet advocates freedom ~ is true, but it is also inseparable from various standards to regulate.

And this seemingly increasingly unsolvable chaos has made many people of insight helplessly pessimistic about the future - the famous Robert Metcalfe is one of them.

Originally, the Ethernet technology launched by this old brother competed with IBM's token ring network; the 3COM company he created was constrained by the board of directors controlled by venture capitalists, and it can be said that the entrepreneurial twists and turns continued, but fortunately, after following Tang IT, it came to work at the same time -- as Fangyuan's personal computer standards became the mainstream in the field of personal computers, Ethernet also became the mainstream in the field of local area networks; and 3COM made a lot of money just by selling Ethernet network cards.

It's just that the positions of CEO and chairman of the board of directors are not as idle as imagined.

As a result, Robert Metcalfe became lazy and transferred his position to others, and became an industry observer and angel investor himself—just like Woz, the founder of Apple.

Of course, the difference between these two people in terms of ideology is still very big, and it can even be called a polar opposite.

Robert Metcalfe, for example, is concerned about the unruly nature of the Internet and scoffs at the open-source software movement, while Woz speaks with relish.

Robert Metcalfe observes the dynamics of the industry with great enthusiasm and meticulousness.

In his speech, in addition to talking about the fact that the technical Internet norms cannot keep up with the development of the Internet, he also mentioned the problems at the legal and other levels -- US government departments such as the Department of Defense have been frequently attacked by cyber attacks this year; the FBI and the Secret Service have suddenly searched the homes of hackers everywhere without legal support, thus exposing the social crisis, the serious ignorance of the government ~ the government about the new form of network communication, and the Internet public ~ people ~ freedom ~ ......

It's no wonder that Robert Metcalfe predicted a "Internet crash next year" with a deafening prediction that all he saw was a looming crisis, while institutions with enough influence were operating slowly, leaving no solution in sight.

Tang Huan listened to it with relish—Robert Metcalfe's unfounded worries seemed ridiculous, but when you reach a certain level, you can understand that the essence is very serious.

At this stage, the Internet in the United States is very smooth to read pictures of "teachers", while in China, it is at the level of reading novels -- just like personal computers, and those who laggard cannot help but miss out on technology and related culture.

Robert Metcalfe's gambling vow is actually entangled in the freedom of the Internet ~ freedom - everyone wants unfettered freedom ~ freedom, but the freedom of a wild horse ~ is raised, and the dust raised by it makes the future obscure.

Of course, Tang Huan knows and can be sure that next year, the Internet will not collapse, and Robert Metcalfe, an old friend, is destined to eat his manuscript raw.

But Mr. The Richest Man still likes this seemingly pointless discussion, because it helps shape the momentum needed to launch P2P.

P2P is an indispensable foundation for many critical applications.

When it was his turn to speak, Tang Huan made a point of mentioning Robert Metcalfe's worries, and although he could not fully agree with them, he understood them very well.

Then, he turned to the topic: "As you may have noticed, the Zheru booth laid out a peer-to-peer network - P2P solution. ”

"I think that for the current chaos of the Internet, P2P may be able to play a positive role in 'doing nothing'. ”

"Because in this kind of peer-to-peer network, it is possible to achieve a truly ideal 'equality of all', that is, each node is a client and also plays the role of a server, so as to eliminate the excessive dependence of the network on the central server. ”

"There are two most obvious application scenarios of P2P, namely authentication and communication - simply put, when you need to confirm an identity or an operation on the network, everyone will endorse it together, and the more participants, the higher the credibility; ”

"In fact, the ideal state of the World Wide Web is a peer-to-peer network. ”

"A little news to everyone in advance - I have a new book coming out, don't laugh ......"

Tang Huan waved his hand and explained seriously: "I heard that some people complained about 'The Road to the Future', which is full of old stories and bloody chicken soup for the soul - I guarantee that the new book is really about the topic of the future. ”

The laughter in the audience was even louder, and the richest man shrugged his shoulders mockingly, "For example, the concept, exploration, and application of digital neural networks." ”

"If the Internet, like a biological neural network, can automatically respond correctly to various changes in the outside world, then there will be a lot less worries and worries for everyone. ”

"I personally believe that in order for the Internet to achieve this ideal state, it must first be achieved that every grid and every node is equal and has the same rights and obligations - the original intention of P2P is to build such a platform. ”

……

At the COMDEX Las Vegas Fall Show Industry Forum, in addition to the "retreat" Robert Metcalfe speaking out, the "explorer" Tang Huan talking about practice, etc., there are also "pragmatics" who directly fight for real money.

One of the most representative is Jim Bucksdale, the CEO of Netscape, who directly criticized Zheru Software by name, using its dominant position in the industry to monopolize and suppress the development of competitors.

It is not difficult to imagine that Jim Bucksdale's scolding is much more straightforward than the "profound" topics of Robert Metcalfe, Tang Huan and others, which can be described as extremely entertaining and immediately attracted a lot of attention.

When the richest man was interviewed by the media on a regular basis, he was naturally asked what he said about it.

"Now everyone is enthusiastically discussing the spirit of freedom and equality displayed by the Internet, but it is inevitable that some people will use it in a confused way to win sympathy as a weakling. Tang Huan said lightly: "We shouldn't turn a blind eye, Netscape's various extremely aggressive actions in operation - you can't start pretending to be pitiful and kidnapping public opinion and morality just because you rushed too hard and hit your head and broke your head - everyone is competing for which is better or worse in technology, and pulling those useless things, is it interesting?"

The richest man's disdain and contempt for Jim Bucksdale's jumping up and down was so overwhelming that the usually responsive reporters were in high spirits -- and they could make a big fuss.

Another reporter asked sharply: "Tang, someone recently discovered that StudiOS, the operating system of Zheru Software, will generate a string of codes related to the user's name and address according to the user's computer hardware configuration, that is, a globally unique identification code, and this identification code will be transmitted to the website server of Zheru Software Company through StudiOS's electronic registration process without the user's knowledge. ”

Some analysts believe that Zheru Software uses this method to determine whether a set of software is installed on multiple computers, and then find pirated software. ”

The New York Times even revealed that Zheru Software had quietly collected a huge database of user information in this way. ”

There is also a rumor that Zheru Software has partnered with intelligence services to hide code to track and collect information in StudiOS, the world's most popular operating system. ”

"May I ask, does Tang Zheru Software Company set up a 'backdoor' code in the product that may leak user information?"

The richest man listened to the other party very patiently, according to the notebook, after quickly asking the question, he made a powerful gesture, although brief, but not serious answered: "Zheru Software Company has always attached importance to computer security, respects the privacy of users, and will leave the choice to the user, and make his own decisions." ”

"Specifically, as far as I know, the data collected by Polestar through cookies in the browser is stored in a secure area of the user's computer and can be erased at any time in order to enhance the user experience, as well as information that is uploaded to the website's server. ”

"The rapid development of the Internet has indeed led to some new problems at the level of morality, law and so on. In this regard, Zheru Software has always maintained a sense of humility and awe, and stood with the majority of users. It is inviting experts in various fields to discuss how to update the terms of the software license agreement to govern everyone's behavior. ”

Although Tang Huan's answer was suspected of avoiding the important and trivial, the reporters also knew that he could only go so far, after all, there were some unspoken rules, as long as he was not mentally retarded, he would understand it.

Anyway, there are already topics that can be hyped up.

The richest man showed great disdain in the face of Jim Barksdale's accusation that Zheru Software Company was monopolistic and domineering, and let Netscape be treated by unfair competition, and in turn reprimanded that the other party was inferior in the right way of technical competition, so he went astray in anger, pretending to be pitiful and sympathetic.

Don't slap people in the face, don't expose them when scolding people - Tang Huan's response is not an ordinary embarrassment.

In addition to the heated war of words, people have also noticed the P2P technology and application solutions mentioned by the richest man - his style of acting is as always planned and then acted, and when things are revealed, they are already perfect enough in one step, and there is no need to tinker with a "trilogy" like Microsoft.

Naturally, P2P's unique advantages in transmitting data were first widely noticed.

Although P2P technology is copyrighted, it is open source, which can be described as "selfless", without those bullshit suspicions, suspicions, and fabrications.

Almost overnight, the software was installed on countless computers, and the P2P network took shape.

There is also a hacker race, and it only took three days to launch a third-party download software that meets the P2P specification.

As a result, even the most tech-insensitive ordinary Internet users know that downloading can be so fast! So cool! Pictures, music, and even videos can all be shared heartily!

At present, the most common modem dial-up Internet access mode used by ordinary users in the United States has popularized the access speed of 56kbps, while the ADSL used by commercial users is at least 128kbps.

This level is a leap compared to ten years ago, and there is no shortage of voices in the industry that claim that "network bandwidth is enough", such as He's company, which has been focusing on modem products for more than ten years.

Now, as soon as P2P came out, the various line providers were overwhelmed -- the cable communication load remained high, and it seemed that they were going to raise funds and engage in infrastructure construction on a large scale, while the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Zheru, and other equipment suppliers were quietly ready to meet the procurement trend.

The record industry is pessimistic in predicting that P2P will inadvertently contribute to the proliferation of unauthorized digital music distribution, and the sales performance of traditional record companies will be further hit.

These disturbances are only caused by the communication function of P2P, and the impact of the authentication function is also fermenting imperceptibly.