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Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?

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Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?

#41

Post by jedberg »

bruce343434 wrote: post #34
jedberg wrote: post #23

TL;DR: Constants shouldn't be hard coded in the software, they should always be in a separate config The problem is that it's the 60s. My first thought was "security", but unless you an also teach them about elliptic curves, they're going to use the security of the 1960s, which as we now know isn't very secure. Maybe at least having security baked in would help make it easier to switch to better security later, like…

I really don't understand what stopped ipv4 from being extended like this: w.x.y.z == 0.0.0.0.w.x.y.z In fact, you can even ping any 32 bit unsigned integer and it will turn it into an ipv4. Try it: `ping 134744072` will ping `8.8.8.8` So why not 64 bit? 32 bits fit in 64. Instead we now have 2 concurrent protocols. ps. 8*256^3 + 8*256^2 + 8*256 + 8 = 134744072

Because all the existing routers would break on all the new addresses. A new protocol was created specifically so that legacy equipment would never get the request.

For example, if an old router got a packet for 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8, where would it send it, if it didn't crash just trying to read that address?

Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?

#42

Post by bruce343434 »

YossarianFrPrez wrote: post #37
dentemple wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding A, for which timezones? Any attempt to narrow browsing time would ultimately fail as soon as the web goes global.

Good question. Ideally, each user's timezone would be required information. The server would check to see if the requesting user's local time meant that the website should be "open" for them.

A minute of silence for those with unusual circadian rythms.

Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?

#43

Post by seltzered_ »

seltzered_ wrote: post #29

backlinks. (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpdDtK5bVKk&feature=youtu.be&... by Jaron Lanier, also see Ted Nelson)

Going a bit more philosophical, I found myself thinking about the lack of backlinks and people like René Descartes (via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/René_Descartes) :

" Refusing to accept the authority of previous philosophers, Descartes frequently set his views apart from the philosophers who preceded him. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, an early modern treatise on emotions, Descartes goes so far as to assert that he will write on this topic "as if no one had written on these matters before." "

Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?

#45

Post by bmcooley »

YossarianFrPrez wrote: post #37
dentemple wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding A, for which timezones? Any attempt to narrow browsing time would ultimately fail as soon as the web goes global.

Good question. Ideally, each user's timezone would be required information. The server would check to see if the requesting user's local time meant that the website should be "open" for them.

Honestly this would probably just make VPN services more widely used to workaround shutdowns.

Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?

#46

Post by bruce343434 »

YossarianFrPrez wrote: post #19

What a great question. One of two things: A) Establish the expectation that websites "close" in the middle of the night for ~5-6 hours, local time / for each timezone. I don't know if would best be done via cultural influence -- giving talks, writing essays, personal communication, testifying / making inroads with politicians -- or via creating some sort of protocol. The idea is to prevent the unhealthier aspects of…

Regarding the second point, it would probably just make people say things like "you sound fat". It's still anonymous enough. In fact, people say mean things in public all the time. It seems some people are just inherently mean.

Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?

#50

Post by eqvinox »

aliasEli wrote: post #9

Security should have been been a top priority right from the start. It is very strange that ARPA, a DOD agency that sponsored most of the Internet technology, cared so little about security.

A gun doesn't have built-in security either. But there's generally people with guns standing in front of the armory. I'd say they probably expected people with guns standing in front of the computers too.
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