Colored Backgrounds

[David Gaskill]

On Mon, 13 Dec 1999 01:35:12 -0400 (AST), Trevor Smith wrote:

>On Sun, 12 Dec 1999 16:12:55, David Gaskill wrote:
>
>>I have enough on my plate without worrying about the Internet as a whole. 
>>When I switch another light on I do not worry about whether the generating 
>>company has sufficient capacity to supply this increased demand. 
>
>This is exactly the attitude that we are arguing to change. You and
>others (probably most others) do not believe there is any reason to
>worry about where the electricity comes from. It will just always be
>there, right?

The company that supplies my  electricity frequently sends me circulars urging 
me to buy appliances which will use more of the stuff. However this is not 
probably a good parallel with Internet bandwidth even though I suggested it in 
the first place. 

It is suggested that if I use more electricity more fossil fuel will be burnt and the 
planet will get warmer. 

I don't suppose an increase in Internet bandwidth well have much effect on the 
climate and the materials necessary to manufacture servers and optical fibre are 
not about to become exhausted. 
>
>I and a few others (probably very few others) feel it is important to
>wonder where the electricity comes from. It's the first step in
>making sure that there will always be more. The second step is
>acknowledging that it's not unlimited and attempting to use what we
>have efficiently.n't 
>
It seems to me that the amount of Internet bandwidth we can have is essentially 
limited only by the willingness to fund it and its provision has no ecological 
impact.  

Relatively few of those that have invested in Internet related businesses are 
making any money. They are relying on future increases in traffic to earn a 
return on their investment. The provision of bandwidth is getting ever cheaper 
and nobody sees the the lack of it proving to be a barrier to these companies 
becoming profitable. It seems to me that there are other factors which make it 
likely that many of them will never be profitable but that's another story ... 


David