[Ibon]

We are in a very remote location and our internet service is provided by a small company that set up a series of microwave towers in the valley and fortunately our ridge top has line of sight with one of the companies towers. For $58 a month we have fast internet service. In the beginning the connection was slow and I mentioned this to the provider and for a one time $ 350 hard ware investment one of their technicians climbed the tower and provided us a dedicated point to point transmitter... (try asking Verizon to do that!)

During the rainy season (now) we have occasional outages. Sometimes the reason is up here on our end, sometimes down in the valley. Anyway, I have been observing myself when the internet goes out. Within a couple hours I start to wonder if this will be a longer outage. If it lasts overnight I start wondering what important emails and Whatsapp messages am I missing. When it goes to two days I start to get anxiety that I am missing some guest inquiries or some important news out there, important family info, etc.

And then when the internet comes back up almost every time there is absolutely nothing important that I missed. And every damn time I ask myself why did I start getting this anxiety? It's never about missing some important content, it is about not knowing what it is you might be missing. It bothers me though, this digital thread that makes it up here and makes me feel dependent somehow, and every time this dependency is only shadows.

The internet has had this this insidious ability to hitchhike on top of this innate sense you have of belonging and when it is removed you have this weird feeling like you out of contact with your tribe. It's all not real though but it triggers this innate sense of belonging that then has the ability of eclipsing organic reality.

I enjoy this site for example and being able to share thoughts with folks all over the world many of whom have world views different than my own and different from most of our guests. This is valuable to me on some tribal level. That part I recognize.

Also that we could not do this project in such a remote location without the internet because of all the logistics required.

[onlooker]

Seems Ibon, you have the best of both worlds. The natural organic "real" one and the cacophony of thoughts and concepts from many people deriving from this complex world we live in. Is it less real? Or do we simply recoil at times from the complexity, disturbing aspects , uncertainty and nonsense arriving to us from the Net/World. All of us to some degree are mesmerized by this world we live in and the Internet to it all. That can help explain why we alternate between wishing to go online and not

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')It replaces everything you every knew or even comprehended. It's like the Borg with a pretty face Has cryogenic eyes. sweetness

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'B')org.

Will it work in Hiva Oa? Better yet, half way there?

And NO, I will NOT be assimilated!

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I') know the fault-tolerant computer system you work on. It's great and its ancient. I'll bet you never even saw the microcomputer revolution coming? Otherwise you'd be just another Peter Gregory instead of a weird old systems guy retiring to his weird suburban doomstead up in the hills lol

And you know more than the techies and millennials at Wired?

[onlooker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hese ultimate "trusted systems" enable the web and in fact are the only computers that form the "database of record" about who has how much money and how they spend it.

[KaiserJeep]

There has never been a successful hack on a NonStop system, since I joined Tandem Computers in 1978. This is because you cannot have remote access to the operator interface unless the system administrator grants it. Most do not, basic security requires that you physically be on site with the appropriate passwords to effect system changes. The operator interface and customer applications and data are entirely seperate in most cases, few are willing to grant remote operations control. Even if you were to acquire knowledge of where the computer was located, electronic traffic between various systems in a network can be encrypted with strong encryption protocols. If one were to gain remote access to the administrator interface, you still could not see or alter the database of record. The system was archtected not to be vulnerable, and we sold audit services to make sure they remained that way.

[onlooker]

Wow,thanks for that technical detailed reply K

[yellowcanoe]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I') know the fault-tolerant computer system you work on. It's great and its ancient. I'll bet you never even saw the microcomputer revolution coming?

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'W')e are in a very remote location and our internet service is provided by a small company that set up a series of microwave towers in the valley and fortunately our ridge top has line of sight with one of the companies towers. For $58 a month we have fast internet service. In the beginning the connection was slow and I mentioned this to the provider and for a one time $ 350 hard ware investment one of their technicians climbed the tower and provided us a dedicated point to point transmitter... (try asking Verizon to do that!)

During the rainy season (now) we have occasional outages. Sometimes the reason is up here on our end, sometimes down in the valley. Anyway, I have been observing myself when the internet goes out. Within a couple hours I start to wonder if this will be a longer outage. If it lasts overnight I start wondering what important emails and Whatsapp messages am I missing. When it goes to two days I start to get anxiety that I am missing some guest inquiries or some important news out there, important family info, etc.

And then when the internet comes back up almost every time there is absolutely nothing important that I missed. And every damn time I ask myself why did I start getting this anxiety? It's never about missing some important content, it is about not knowing what it is you might be missing. It bothers me though, this digital thread that makes it up here and makes me feel dependent somehow, and every time this dependency is only shadows.

The internet has had this this insidious ability to hitchhike on top of this innate sense you have of belonging and when it is removed you have this weird feeling like you out of contact with your tribe. It's all not real though but it triggers this innate sense of belonging that then has the ability of eclipsing organic reality.

I enjoy this site for example and being able to share thoughts with folks all over the world many of whom have world views different than my own and different from most of our guests. This is valuable to me on some tribal level. That part I recognize.

Also that we could not do this project in such a remote location without the internet because of all the logistics required.

[Newfie]

IIRC wh have a fair amount of bacterial DNA floating around inside our cells, contributing to our internal and immutable programming. At least some hold that, even before computing, we were a. Elsewhere of differing technologies in this fashion.

The idea is explained by Dan Ruskin in his book Mother Nature is atrying to Kill You"

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181 ... o-kill-you

[Cog]

Most people use credit cards or debit cards to pay for everything. I have reluctantly started doing that myself for the cashback rewards.

Yesterday saw a guy hold up his phone to the card machine and somehow or other they communicated and the purchase went through. I'm old and cranky so I guess I will attribute my discomfort of what I saw to that. Just seemed wrong dag nabit.

[KaiserJeep]

It's probably worse than you think, Cog. My wife uses her phone as you describe at the Target store. This week they sent us a custom printed coupon book, in full color, containing coupons for everything we have purchased there in the last six months, and nothing but those items.

If you were doing anything but payting in cash, same problem. My supermarket sends me targeted coupons as well, and then thoughtfully tells me how much I saved with the coupons. They are identifying me by credit card, and the most important part of anybody's online dossier is everything you ever bought.

Even most cash purchases are no longer anonymous. The cash drawer is always under an HD camera and the cashiers are trained to stack the bills face up where the camera can read the bill's serial number. Add to that the face recognition file they normally get from your networked ATM, and you are associated with the purchase you thought was private.

Big Brother is watching.

[Cog]

Now this is going to sound a bit tin-foolish and probably is. I keep my cell phone on me all the time. Sometimes the wife and I will be talking about some obscure subject and the wife will say look it up on google when we are wanting an answer about something.

Now maybe google's search engine is getting very smart but when I type in my obscure search item, the query box will try to guess(auto-complete?) what I'm going to ask and the answer is usually at the top of the list. It makes me wonder if my phone is listening to me when I'm not talking on it.

[KaiserJeep]

No, your phone is not listening. That is not impossible but it needs to be done by law enforcement with a warrant from a judge. What is happening is that the phone number is being associated with your personal search history, and Google is tailoring that auto-complete to your past searches.

Incidentally, the phone can be used for more than eavesdropping. Your phone is GPS enabled, it can also be made to record and transmit a continuos record ofwhere you went and for how long, and both cameras can be turned on with no visible indication they are in use. Again, warrants are needed - in theory.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', '
')
Now you understand my statement that the human race is a cybernetic hybrid species of man and machine. Even the Third World is attaching to the network with solar powered mobile phones which connect to solar powered cell towers each of which has a satellite connection if not in line-of-sight to another tower.

[Ibon]

There is another paradox to think about. If I never got connected up here none of you would know about it. Which begs the question, how many places and spaces are out there right now un tethered with folks and happenings that we do not know about. We seem to have a cyber arrogance that anyone not connected is somehow missing out. But maybe, just maybe, there is a whole world out there of creative places and spaces that have chosen to not get connected.

If I was independently wealthy I would pull the plug. But then my wife would refuse to be up here with me. And probably I am not as much of a hermit as I like to think I am

But seriously, we should consider that cutting edge might be the invisible places and spaces that refuse to will filly infect themselves with the internet...... we would not know about them would we?

Just something to think about.

[KaiserJeep]

The insidious thing about the network is the accompanying efficiencies. I am in a local "Nextdoor" app cyber group called the "East Santa Teresa Foothills", 2056 members in the 2484 household area total. We sign up and are a member of a local geographic community of households, where we share resources. Have a surfeit of citrus or tomatoes? Logon and give away or trade away for something you don't have but need. Want to get rid of serviceable furniture or decor items? Log on, post a picture, and leave them for inspection at the curb. Crime wave like graffitti tagging or tire slashing? Log on and you will often find posted security camera footage of the perpetrators.

The latest trend is "supper groups" of 7-10 households, where you only have to cook (or have catered) food one day of the week, when you host approximately 15-20 people. If you don't want to be social, your warm meal is dropped at your door. Supper groups are even being victimized by the homeless stealing the warm meals. So you need a lockbox with an Internet-attached lock and you must logon and use the combination of the day.

But we have been making progress on nailing the mail box thieves. Tips on suspicious vehicles and people who may be casing houses with criminal intent abound.