The World’s financial system is going through a crisis, countries such as Germany are entering a depression. That’s the news that I hear every day in the news.
Are these tough times?
Strangely enough, my business is doing quite well considering the current economic climate. I think that people are more willing to invest a small amount in having a computer problem fixed, rather than the larger – more tempting – amount of buying a new one instead. That is, of course, good for me as a service provider, even if it’s not such good news for manufacturers.
Despite this, I’ve still decided that it is time to start reading Robert H. Schuller’s book “Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do!“, something I first read about on another blog. The first chapter alone, in which he talks about one of his own experiences, left me thinking “OK, it’s not that bad yet”, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the book.
These are tough times
.earth and .moon?
Have you ever wondered which top-level domain another planet would have if it were to be collonised? Or, for that matter, does the International Space Station have one?
Would all domain names get longer, to become eg. www.cymeradwyo.net.earth?
To be honest, that probably not the World’s biggest problem at the moment, but if it was there would be one problem that would have to be solved first. How do you get the internet protocols to work over large distances?
With large, I mean L A R G E – light years, for example.
At the moment, if you send an e-mail around the globe, say from the UK to Australia, then it is broken up into small chunks called “packets” and routed between various internet nodes to get there. Not all of the message necessary goes the same way, the packets are put back together in the right order when they arrive.
Of course, this all happens very fast and you probably don’t even notice it. But with larger distances you might still be waiting for one part to arrive.
This problem has, apparently, now been solved – as the BBC News website reported. It all sounds very simple, storing the data until the next node can be contacted. But it does present us with two rather important questions:
– how much data is a node likely to have to store?
– if that is the future, what do internet nodes do at the moment if they cannot relay the data? Do they just throw it away?
Time for the Euro?
With the pound hitting a new record low against the Euro, the exchange rate is almost down to 1:1. How about the UK now considering joining the Euro?
Think of the advantages:
– unlike other countries that had conversion rates with four figures after the decimal point, the UK could just switch over without the need for conversion and just simply change the pound sign to a Euro one
– people would not have to work out how much something was “in pounds”, as many people on the continent still do when buying expensive items, as this would not be necessary
– it would no longer be necessary to exchange money when going on holiday to the Eurozone countries
– the two currencies could co-exist side by side for a while, removing the need to suddenly print and mint lots more Euro notes and coins
Of course, the euro-skeptics would be totally against this idea. But why?
– because we are proud of the pound? Well, let’s be proud of the Euro instead.
– because we want the Queen’s head on our coins? No problem, mint the Euro coins with her head on the national side (as do Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Vatican City)
– because we don’t want to give up control of our currency? Well, at the moment some analysts suggest that it is the difference in interest rates between the Bank of England and the European Central Bank that is the reason for the pound’s loss of value. So why not join in and solve the problem?
Go on United Kingdom, take the plunge. Or am I missing something here?
