i disagree with you. profit is definetly a reason for doing it, but it was more of a way of comunicating better. it really wasn't about making money as it was the actual technical aspect of it.
TheNNS
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When nuts started breaking into computers.
The ultimate security system: Thumb and blanket.
MidiMagic
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You're right, the government did invest becuase it was an opportunity to make money, and they were right, so every one's happy. what are people complaining about?
TheNNS
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But government can't create wealth.
MidiMagic
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they can creat programs and projects that are beneficial and eventually become a source of profit.
TheNNS
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no complaining from my side. i initialy posted because the guy who started this thread said that the net is turning into a money thing.
but ventures the size of the internet had always been about the money. even if they start of as a dream they have to sooner or later involve the money.
the only such venture i dont get is nasa. they expand billions and i just dont see the profit(although i do see the point).
i can understand the exploring of the earth by ship some centuries ago because there was the possibility of colonisation and trade. but i cant see nasa's money angle. are they perhaps hoping to harvest solid mercury from jupiter's core?
dont think that i am against nasa. it is just that i dont see the money angle.
Sigh! The idea of ideas; knowledge for knowledge's sake has always provided wealth. I put it up there with music, art, etc. Wealth is not just dollars
The internet was started so that scientist could talk to each other - to communicate, using money provided by the military. It was not started as a method of making money.
NASA has returned something like $1000 for every $1 invested - it is all of society that has benefitted not just one person or corporationl.
It is infrastructure upon which our society is built; similar to the roi of the interstate highway system - almost incalculable because who we are, what we are as a society is so completely dependent the knowledge gained that we can't imagine what life would be like w/o it.
Free education, NASA, Interstate highway system, they all provide us with, with...
Dang!
Sorry, I started to rant again - it is just that so many people don't want to pay for anything that does not immediately benefit themselves, sigh!
GrimJack
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Can anybody remember when this world of ours ( THE NET ) started to become a place of congregation for profit hungry morons that were never interested in the technology to begin with ?
I got my first "send $5 to the names on the list today and become a millionaire in just 6 weeks" in 1989 when the internet was mostly USEnet news groups and Mosaic had only about 3 web-sites.
Those were the days, we didn't even have color - everything was in black and white, and we had to use the Post Office if we wanted to send messages to each other
GrimJack
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