Linux User

A few months ago, I started writing a monthly column for Linux User. The first one, Whose Net is it, anyway? is now up online. I’m not sure how long it will be there, or if there will be an archive, so get it whilst it’s hot. And, for your delectation, an excerpt:

Just imagine. The sum of all human knowledge available at your fingertips via a desktop machine. In 1985, that would have seemed like a dream. In 1945 when Vannevar Bush posited such a system – the Memex – in his essay As We May Think, it would have seemed like magic. Yet here we are. With Google and a razor sharp search term, you can now access a significant portion of all human knowledge. Indeed, some would say that the World Wide Web has exceeded Bush’s original vision: it’s not just a repository of information, it’s a communications tool that millions of people rely upon every day.