Symmetric connections for everyone, everywhere by default (assymetric only when it's not feasible, i.e. mobile devices). This I always thought would open door for more peer-to-peer or onion or some superdecentralized architectures.
Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?
71–80 of 322 posts
Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?
#72Find a way to better decentralize it, so that it doesn't rely on single hosts(and later sites) as the source of truth for any particular function. The original idea was that protocols would allow any one to participate by simply making their own webpage. But dynamic IP addresses, the DNS system, and even just HTML design were out of reach for most people so that got lost and monsterous websites under centralized cont…
You seem to be talking about WWW and not the Internet. The Internet itself was designed to be decentralized, in fact that was a major motivator (distributed command & control in the case of a major war cutting off large chunks of the C&C groups from each other or eliminating them entirely). Now, it could've been done in a better fashion, more deliberately, or more broadly, but there are at least two notable early pro…
While yes, "the internet" and "www" are different systems, the latter built on top of the former, in practice "the internet" and "www" are one in the same. When we're talking - culturally - about problems with the internet, we mean the problems with "www".
Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?
#73We already have IPv6.
The only things broken on the internet are smartphones and closed IoT firmware.
Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?
#742-D syntax everywhere. It's a 2-dimensional binary. Suddenly the intermediate layers between binary and the higher level langs we work with day in and day out have the same form.
For example, 2d langs for HTML, CSS, JSON, others: https://jtree.treenotation.org/designer/
A 2D lang that replaces Markdown: http://scroll.pub/
You can have 2D langs for TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, et cetera. A grid is all you need.
I figured the math out 8 years ago, https://medium.com/space-net, and slowly getting there. Still in early days, but good annual growth rate. I'd be surprised if it doesn't happen. The math makes too much sense.
Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Yes, let's design the internet around keeping 90s routers running as long as possible. Excellent. Let's also design highways with a max speed of 20 MPH so we can accommodate Model T's
A better analogy might be something like upgrading roads with the newly liberated fourth dimension; so mere three dimensional Model Ts - that people will try to use no matter your protest - are very unlikely to end up in the right place. (And not just Model Ts, but the entire twentieth century and a bit's worth of vehicles.)
Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?
#76The most toxic part of the Internet today is identity. Some of the IP address space should have worked like mobile phone numbers - paid for by subscribers and representing single identities. Even better, after the invention of RSA, the government should have backed ISPs or states issuing signing identities for a protocol level identity standard - sort of like SIM cards that would “represent” you on a single, authorit…
What you're suggesting is a dystopia.
Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?
#77Get rid of limited TLDs, making any combination of something.somethingelse a registerable domain.
Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?
#78The most toxic part of the Internet today is identity. Some of the IP address space should have worked like mobile phone numbers - paid for by subscribers and representing single identities. Even better, after the invention of RSA, the government should have backed ISPs or states issuing signing identities for a protocol level identity standard - sort of like SIM cards that would “represent” you on a single, authorit…
I agree on the general problem of identity. Implementation-wise one could also think of some kind of digital numberplate, which can change, so that people can't follow you around on the net, but is still unmistakenly linked to you or your device.
Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?
#792-D syntax everywhere. It's a 2-dimensional binary. Suddenly the intermediate layers between binary and the higher level langs we work with day in and day out have the same form. For example, 2d langs for HTML, CSS, JSON, others: https://jtree.treenotation.org/designer/ A 2D lang that replaces Markdown: http://scroll.pub/ You can have 2D langs for TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, et cetera. A grid is all you need. I figured the ma…
I don't follow. Can you elaborate? What is 2-D syntax?
Re: Ask HN: You have one shot to redesign the Internet – what do you change?
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
You seem to be talking about WWW and not the Internet. The Internet itself was designed to be decentralized, in fact that was a major motivator (distributed command & control in the case of a major war cutting off large chunks of the C&C groups from each other or eliminating them entirely). Now, it could've been done in a better fashion, more deliberately, or more broadly, but there are at least two notable early pro…
While yes, "the internet" and "www" are different systems, the latter built on top of the former, in practice "the internet" and "www" are one in the same. When we're talking - culturally - about problems with the internet, we mean the problems with "www".
In practice they are not the same thing. And the original prompt poses sending you back to the 1960s, about 30 years before the WWW came into existence.