This is the end, Beautiful friend

As NET11 draws to an end, I have been thinking a lot about how my understanding (or at least, my viewpoint) of the internet has developed since beginning this unit.

To start with, I found the going very slow, I guess on reflection this is because I felt that the concepts that we were continually referring to sometimes seemed to be clutching at straws and often stopped short of comprehensively describing the relationship. That, and the fact that I have not studied a theory based subject for, almost ever it seems.

On reflection, however, I can see that the concepts actually have a closer relationship to the individual technolgies they were related to than I previously thought, and it is actually only because I now have a greater understanding of the relevance of these concepts, that I can see the relationship. In short, I couldn't see the forest for the trees. But now I can see the trees too, or is that a box of chocolates? or a jar of jellybeans? To be honest, I think I could now describe the internet to an eskimo using the right approach and this is a genuinely exciting prospect. I guess I would describe NET11 as a 'creeper' if you get that concept...

I really enjoyed the ping, traceroute and dns tasks – I was excited to discover many new and wondrous tools that allowed me to increase my view of the internet as a global network. Of course, I already knew it was 'global' but being able to devote time to studying how my ping might be flashing through a server in Nantucket was very cool.

My inbox at work has never looked so tidy, and after discovering 'the dark side' my search abilities have skyrocketed. In fact, by the time I was looking for resources for the essay assignment, I was discovering so many amazing articles on an incredible array of subjects that it was often hard to tear myself away from my computer even though it was 2 in the morning and I think I am developing a permanent hunch from being at my computer all the time. I now have so many articles in my bookmarks folder that I will have all the bedtime reading I can handle for a long time to come.

As I got to the end of NET11 I found myself revisiting earlier tasks and completing them again with the knowledge I have gained from the unit. Wow, I wish it made that much sense the first time around! I think the most valuable thing I have learned from this unit is that when I am studying in the future, or indeed when I come across an internet related problem/opportunity at work, my task can be made much easier and return richer results if I understand the problem in terms of how it relates to a relevant technology of the Internet. As I wrap up NET11, I have also become aware of how my view of cyberspace has changed to incorporate the distinct role that the World Wide Web plays within the Internet, and the huge difference in abilities of individual communication technologies within the online world. And so I leave you, my little friend the blog.

In the words of that cool cat, Jim Morrison,

There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the king's highway, baby,
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby!