What Will It Look Like?
The beginning of a new year, decade and century seems to get we pundits looking back to history while at the same time trying to predict the future, and I am not immune.
Stories by Scott Bradner
Bradner's column: Make or break? Hardly!
I was listening to one of the local news shows last night. The news anchorman told his listeners that this Christmas season will be a "make or break" one for online shopping.
Bradner's column: Tapping the Internet
Last week I wrote about the debate in the IETF over wiretapping the Internet. Two undercurrents of that debate are worth exploring in greater detail: that legal intercept (as it's euphemistically called) for voice is only the first step in the general tapping of the Internet; and that the desire for intercept may be thwarted by the Internet architecture anyway.
Bradner's column: When in Washington ...
The Internet Engineering Task Force went to Washington, DC, earlier this month and did what the Washingtonians do most often -- played politics.
Bradner's column: A perfect example
It would have taken a lot of hard work to have created a better bad example.
RealNetworks' approach to secretly collecting data on its customers is a perfect example of what Internet users are convinced that all 'Net companies do.
Bradner's column: An impure solution
In a distant lifetime, I did a few years of part-time teaching for the IBM internal education organisation. The job paid well and got me to a number of places I would not have considered going otherwise. IBM is now trying to minimise its need for people like me.
Bradner's column: Will the internet 'Wal-Mart' Wal-Mart?
Mayors of small towns shudder whenever Wal-Mart decides it wants to build a new superstore in the area. They fear, with some historical justification, that the Wal-Mart will draw so many customers away from local mum-and-pop stores that these small retailers will go out of business and the downtown area will wither and die.
Bradner's column: How big is the world?
An undergraduate student told me last year that "if it was not on the Web then it did not exist." The "it" she was talking about was research material.
Bradner's column: 'Best with ...' is bad for you
All too many Web sites have buttons on them labelled something like "Best viewed with Browser X." If you press the button, you get connected to a place where you can download that browser.
Bradner's column: IP phone or internet phone?
IP telephony was all the rage at NetWorld+Interop '99 Atlanta. But it is far from clear whether some of the people pushing this technology know all that much about IP networks.
Bradner's Column: Privacy - and security-enhancing technology
The Clinton administration's newly revised policies on the export of encryption technologies look amazingly good. But there are more than a few details to be revealed that may still change the picture.
Bradner's column: Where now for the IETF standards process?
A reporter interviewed me recently for a publication that covers the traditional telephony world.
Bradner's Column: When Is HTTP 1.1 Not HTTP 1.1?
I maintained in a public forum the other day that HTTP 1.1 was widely deployed because I heard that HTTP 1.1-compliant browser and server software were widely deployed.
Bradner's column: Reinforcing paranoia
The saying goes: "Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you." Just about anyone remotely concerned with individual privacy is feeling justifiably paranoid these days.
Bradner's column: Too bright a light?
It seems like there is a December tradition among various publications to issue predictions for the year ahead.