My Ramadan

#230 by GT

GT,

To see the progress of the worldwide web, you need to strart with the `usenet`. I guess few people will remember that. The entire porn industry started by stealing from usenet and guess it still does. But ... and it`s a big `but` .. Usenet isn`t free. That`s the real and still the biggest internet and you only need access software. The content is free after that.

Instant messaging started from IRC network which is also free, but now almost extinct.

The point I`m making is that the internet is NOT jut www. It is much more. But it has been taken over and commercialized, and will continue to do so. What does anyone think the .com stands for?

All the domain names reside in the US. The www belongs to US. The US conglomerates (5 or 6) can do with it whatever they want. Neither Usenet nor IRC was in anyone`s control.

So beware. Your freedom of internet is not going to last for long.

Re: # 228 by zeemax

Zee:

You say:

``As for porn, yes that will remain, but I`m not really into that. ...... But the `services` we need everyday, will all be monopolized.``

Zee you bring up an excellent point. In what follows I base myself on the body of work done by David Levine and M. Boldrin (the latter claims to be an expert in porn). Sites put up movies and since there are no patents they are copied by other sites in a matter of weeks. Yet, and this is the point, people still make money out of their movies and the industry is thriving. Another industry, that you may be more familiar with, is finance. Financial products can be easily copied (and they are) with minor modifications and hence patents do not help. So, ask Boldrin and Levine, why should there be patents in other industries? This body of work is causing a lot of introspection amongst mainstream economists. I think patents are on their way out, at least in academia. It might take a longer time to convince regulators.

Re: # 228 by zeemax:

Zee:

Sorry for the interruption. You write:

`` ..... the `services` we need everyday, will all be monopolized.``

That is a pessimistic view, though one should always be wary of these monopolists. Remember the `robber barons`. A lot of their `wealth` now survive as endowments for universities etc.

``Why are these now extinct and inferior software like MS Word and MSN/Yahoo IM have taken over?``

If you are seriously into this question then you could read up on ``externalities``. Brian Arthur has written about it and his writings are simple. Essentially, markets tend to fail when there are major ``externalities``.

#226 by hamidm2

I did miss Amazon .. but I think it`ll eventually be bought out by e-Bay. It`s bigger. Big fish eats the small fish right? And e-Bay has telephony to compliment it`s shopping so Amazon can`t compete with it. Soon your green groceries will be delivered by e-Bay.

As for porn, yes that will remain, but I`m not really into that. That`s a niche business and all fringe niche businesses like casinos too will survive. But the `services` we need everyday, will all be monopolized.

Can you kindly answer my questions re Lotus and ICQ? Why are these now extinct and inferior software like MS Word and MSN/Yahoo IM have taken over?

Re: # 205 by masadi:

Asadi:

Look, Mills can assert anything he wants to. If for him a ``necessary condition`` is ``equivalence`` then I cannot do much about it. As far as my understanding goes I believe that Americans think that hard work and knowledge are neither necessary nor sufficient for power. Yes, with hard work, they do believe that, one gets a shot at fame, power, what have you. Hamid must have worked hard and now he has a good life, more power to him. He has all the right to think what he thinks. By your own account, you worked hard - someone noticed and helped you get a scholarship - now you are teaching - you seem to be proud of your achivement - and so more power to you too. Both of you are putting forth your ideas on chowk. I do not think anyone agrees with either fully, yet all may agree with either or both of you partially. This is the best that can happen in social sciences in general and chowk in particular.

On a different vein. If you like Mills, you may like Paul Baran too. The guy died very young. Give him a shot. Raghu Rajan in ``Saving Capitalism from the Capitalist`` takes a somewhat different view (he advocates less regulated markets). The guy is a prof. in Chicago and now is in the IMF. Don`t let that put you off. Give the book a shot too. It is kind of sad that economists do not read Marx anymore, though they read a lot about he supposedly said. The first 100 pages of capital Vol. 1 are gems. No one has been able to praise capitalism as Marx did. Unfortunately very few know about this.

Re: # 225

zeemax,


...... that`s the pessimistic view pushed by mills and masadi ......... things are still booming in the valley and venture capital money is still pouring in - there is no dearth of new ideas .......... in any industry consolidation has to take place and only the best of the breed survive - sometimes consolidations are reversed (as in the case of citicorp) and sometimes break-ups are reversed (as in the case of at&t) ........... and the internet is not the only thing around - there is biotechnology, nanotechnology, biometrics and things that haven`t been named yet ..........

by the way, you left off amazon, realnetworks, the jihadi networks and the hundreds of sex sites that have billions of dollars in revenue ..............

..............you should take a trip to the valley and talk to the thousands of twenty-somethings who refuse to read mills ................

#222 by hamidm2

Look hamidm2 ... it`s one thing to cheer the youtube acquisition by Google, it is quite another to think that in a few years all fresh talent will be gobbled up by monpolists, as indeed most of it has already been goobled up by just a few and I can name them on the tips of my fingers, and this is serious. It means you`ll have nowhere to go when they begin to blackmail and that day isn`t far. They`re not dishing out billions for nothing:

1) Microsoft

2) Google

3) Yahoo

4) e-Bay

5) Apple

6) That`s it!

All services you require on internet, i.e. may it be e-mail, shopping, telephony, instant messaging, free downloadable utilities & software, video, audio or even plain browsing, will be controlled by the above 5.

Do you remember the finest word-processor there ever was? It was called Lotus. MS Word still can`t touch it`s look and feel of 10 years ago. What happened to it?

The best instant messaging and indeed the very first was ICQ. What happened to it?

Wasn`t Hotmail better before it became MSN? Now it stinks. Monopolization kills ideas.

What it aims to do is to buy out competetion, and kill it.

This monopolization is occuring right in front of your eyes and you cheer it ... but later you`ll have to pay the cost.

Re Hamidm`s observation by Echoboom ...

....the failing performances by the Persian...

Aah now I see .. sorry Hamidm .. I thought you were talking about the American Dream ... not belittling Iranians.... but should have guessed ...

#220 by hamidm2

But piyaaray 2-number maal amreekan, who cares about your happiness in the land of bilk and money (sic)?

or are you also living in your own private La La Land?

Millions of Y-chromosomes perish before burRee mushkilsey noor-i-nazar and Deedavar is born in this garden.

You, a male, is insignifant in the Universal scheme of things....deluded under the opium of ruling the roost & running the world.

``READ! in the name of thy Lord, who created you from a single clot of blood...............``

P.S: an intelligent man like you cannot afford to be a non-muslim.

how to join the power elite and other stories - today`s BIG story


A profitless Web site started by three 20-somethings after a late-night dinner party is sold for more than a billion dollars, instantly turning dozens of its employees into paper millionaires.

YouTube, the video-sharing phenomenon that is the darling of an Internet resurgence known as Web 2.0.

“If you believe it’s the future of television, it’s clearly worth $1.6 billion,” Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, said of YouTube. “If you believe something else, you could write down maybe it’s not worth much at all.”

The price tag Google paid may simply have been the cost of beating its rivals — Yahoo, Viacom and the News Corporation — to take control of the most sought-after Web site of the moment. It was also perhaps the only price that two YouTube founders, Chad Hurley, 29, and Steven Chen, 28, and their big venture capital backer, Sequoia Capital Partners, were willing to accept, given that they most likely could have continued as an independent company. A third YouTube founder, Jawed Karim, left the company to pursue an advanced degree at Stanford.

takbeer! ..... that was simply to stick to the ramadan theme

Re: # 218

zeemax,

sigh ! ...... you missed everything ! ........it was the punch line .... that`s what happens when you read meaningless stuff by winged creatures like mills and gabriel ........ in case you missed that one : mills is the fairy and gabriel is the angel !

Re: # 214

echo,

....... i would be honored to have phaja`s son as my son-in-law - his father was an honorable man who built a successful business in an area inhabited by the only honorable muslims left in pakistan ......... as long as ollie has not heard of mills, does not belong to the msa and does not put gel in his hair, i am perfectly happy ..........

Zeemax:216
thanks , but I think Hamidm2 is still Art Buchwald..........and I just want to be me. No claim to name fame or blame here.

I have yet to find a humourist who can match Yousafi or Insha.

zeemax:218
Hamidm2 is right about the 2% part..It has nothing to do with math but the failing performances by the Persian...and there is Hamidm2`s punchline [ It is his George carlin`s borrowed routine]

#217 by hamidm2

zeemax, ...... no clarificaion or correction is required at all .....

HuH?

i buy something for a 100 dollar, sell it for 200, make my 2% and i am happy `` ............. simple math .....

A $ 100 profit on initial investment of $100 equals 2%? I must be missing something here ...

What is it? Pray tell ... don`t keep it to yourself for us miserable one`s sakes.

Re: # 213

zeemax,

...... no clarificaion or correction is required at all .....

#214 by echoboom

Hahaha .. Echoboom you`re the limit. Now I crown you the Art Buchwald of Chowk instead of the honour previously held by hamidm2.

No, seriously, you should write a full episode (or a series ... even better) and put it on FP.

I shall be eternally grateful. ``Hansney sey khoon barhta hai ...``

Sincerely,

Zeemax