living on borrowed time in a mythical world


(opportunity costs of not measuring)
three `waves' of Internet applications/usage
first wave: shared (remote) use of computers
telnet, email, ftp
second wave: client/server model, formatted languages
web
third wave:  collaborative, peer-to-peer, interactive
napster, imesh, kazaa, gaming, video



emergence of third wave (`ngi') will require more real-time interaction with and reaction to network status
growth of these applications will be self-limiting (by user frustration with performance) unless we have either:
a better grip on measurement
either done by the applications themselves (e.g., vat) 
or via some other middleware aspect of the infrastructure
or no service-affecting queueing anywhere in the network
seems unlikely, even with lots of empty pipes