I watched a show on Australian televison this week and heard the song, Dear Mr. President, by the artist Pink for the first time. It is a powerful song that ask the current US President some fundemental questions. He will probably never answer them, and luckily his term is soon up, but I believe its good that artists get involved in the important questions in the way that Pink did.

Some more information about the song from Wikipedia: “Dear Mr. President” is a song by Pink featuring the Indigo Girls, and was recorded for Pink’s fourth album, I’m Not Dead. Pink said that the song is an open letter to the President of the United States, George W. Bush, and that it is one of the most important songs she had written. She stated that it would never be released as a single because it was too important to be perceived as a publicity stunt. It has since been released in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the UK. The video of her performance live from Wembley Arena has also been added to the VH1 line-up of videos.

The song was written by Pink and Billymann. Pink came up with the idea to ask the Indigo Girls to join the recording of the song. According to an interview, they “believe in the song. An open letter to the president, that’s what we needed.” During an interview with an Australian radio station, the Australian girl group Young Divas asked Pink what she was thinking when she wrote “Dear Mr. President”. Pink stated that she wrote the song on Martin Luther King Day in 2005. “I read The New York Times every day, and watch the news. And I was completely disgusted with it. I just felt like….I just needed to write a song.”

When I’m Not Dead was released on April 5, 2006, “Dear Mr. President” attracted considerable attention. Most of the discussion concerned Pink’s statement that the song was intended for United States President George W. Bush. The song’s format is a series of questions for the President, specifically pertaining to how he really feels about controversial issues such as war (”Let me tell you about hard work/Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away”), homosexuality (”What kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?”) –this can also be viewed as Vice President Dick Cheney not accepting gay rights when his own daughter is gay,– The homeless (”What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street”), the Patriot Act (”What kind of father would take his own daughter’s rights away?”) and drug abuse (”You’ve come a long way from whiskey and cocaine”), and asks “when you look in the mirror are you proud?”.

In an interview with MTV News Pink stated she hoped Bush heard the song and that “[he] is proud of the fact that we live in a country where we can do things like that, where we can have dissent, talk, communicate and share our opinions.”

Text source: Wikipedia.com

I am in no way an aspiring chef, but I have always liked to play around with food to see what I can cook up. It normally turns out pretty good if I should say it myself, and I rarely experience any kitchen nightmares. I guess those are the domain of Gordon Ramsey who has become my favourite chef and television personality. Should you have lived in a cave the past years, this is who Gordon Ramsey is:

Gordon James Ramsay, OBE (born November 8, 1966 in Johnstone, Scotland) is a Scottish chef, television personality and entrepreneur. He has been awarded a total of twelve Michelin stars, and as of April 2008 is one of only three chefs in the UK whose restaurant is rated at three Michelin stars. He is famous in the UK for presenting TV programmes about competitive cookery and food such as Hell’s Kitchen and The F-Word. He is best known in the United States as the host of FOX’s Hell’s Kitchen, which premiered in May 2005, and of Kitchen Nightmares, which premiered in September 2007, based on his successful British show Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.

In a ddition tto this he is probably best know for using the F-Word several times during his television shows, I believe it has been counted that he used it more than 50 times during a 60 minute television program. Do not let that put you of, the guy is simply brilliant in what he does.

I found a video clip on You Tube from when he went to Norway (my native country), did a dive to catch a kingcrab and then cooked it on the spot. Here it is:

You can find both Hell’s Kitchen (the US version is better than the UK version), Kitchen Nightmares, The F-Word and several videos with great cooking tips on You Tube. just do a search fro it and get hooked. He has also written several great cookery books and made several DVD’s that can be bought from a bookstore og E-bay.

Sources used: Wikipedia.com.

For 120 years it’s been the preferred lodging for film stars, writers, loyalty and politicians but Raffles Hotel Singapore began life as a 10-bedroom bungalow.

When Tigran Sarkies migrated to Malaysia from Armenia in the early 1880s, he hoped to prosper from the business opportunities the Orient had to offer. The 23-year-old bought a large home in Georgetown, Penang, in north-west Malaysia and by 1884, he had turned it into the Eastern Hotel.

Tigran’s brother Martin, 33, joined him in buying a second site, also in Georgetown, and in 1885, the Oriental Hotel opened for business. Younger brothers Aviet and Arshak joined the venture and the Sarkies became renowned as successful hoteliers with ambitions to expand. But Penang was too small a market, so they began casting an eye further afield in Singapore.

The brothers knew they’d struck gold when they found a large bungalow on the corner of Beach and Bras Basah roads. The property had been a boarding house for the Raffles Institution (a boys school named after Sir Stamford Raffles, a British colonial officer who founded modern Singapore in 1819). It needed minor alterations and in December 1887, the Raffles Hotel was opened. It had only 10 rooms but in six years two new wings were added.

Demand for luxury hotels was growing, however, so in 1897, Tigran announced plans for extensive and elaborate additions to create “of of the handsomest hotels in the East”. Renowned architect Regent Alfred John Bidwell replaced the old central block with a grand three-storey building in the Renaissance style, which opened in 1899. It featured a Carrara marble floor, a 500-seat dining room, 100 suits, and the huge veranda so closely associated with the hotel today.

FAST FACTS

1910 - 1915 Raffles bartender Ngiam Tong Boon invents the Singapore Sling cocktail (the exact year is unknown).

1942 Japan occupies Singapore during World War II and Raffles is renamed Syonan Ryokan (Singapore Inn). When Allied forces liberate the nation, more than 300 Japanese troops commit suicide inside the hotel.

1987 The Singapore Government declares the hotel a national monument.

2008 Eight Raffles hotels and resorts operate internationally - in Singapore, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Beijing, Dubai, Los Angeles, The Grenadines and Paris - and 13 more are in development.

1. Smoking can shorten your penis by as much as a centimeter. Erections are all about god blood flow, and lighting up calcifies blood vessels, stifling erectile circulation. So even if you don’t care all that much about your lungs or dying young, spare the li’l guy.

2. Doctors can now grow skin for burn victims using the foreskin of circumcised infants. One foreskin can produce 23,000 square meters.

3. The average male orgasm lasts 6 seconds. Women get 23 seconds. Which means if women were really interested in equality, they’d make sure we have four orgasms for every one of theirs.

4. The oldest known species with a penis is a hard-shelled sea creature called Colymbosathon ecplecticos. That’s Greek for “amazing swimmer with large penis”. Which supplants Buck Naked as the best porn name, ever.

5. Circumcised foreskin can be reconstructed. Movable skin on the shaft of the penis is pulled towards the tip and set in place with tape. Later, doctors apply plastic rings, caps, and weights. Years can pass until complete coverage is attained…. Okay, I’ll shut up now.

6. Only one man in 400 is flexible enough to give himself oral pleasure. It’s estimated, however, that all 400 have given their best shot at some point.

7. There are two types of penises . One kind expands and lengthens when becoming erect ( a grower ). The other appear big most of the times, but doesn’t get much bigger after achieving erection ( a show-er ). An international Men’s Health survey reports that 79 per cent of men has growers , 21 per cent has show-ers. Presumably, the second sort get the girls but the first sort make them happier.

8. German researchers say the average intercourse lasts 2 minutes 50 seconds, yet women perceive it as lasting 5 minutes 30 seconds. Are we that good or that bad?

9. The penis that’s been enjoyed by the most women could be that of King Fatefehi of Tonga, who supposedly deflowered 37,800 women between 1770 and 1784 - that’s about seven virgins a day. Go ahead, say it: it’s good to be king.

10. Better-looking men may have stronger sperm. Spanish researchers showed women photos of guys who had good, average and lousy sperm - and told them to pick the handsomest men. The women chose the best sperm producers most often.

11. No brain is necessary for ejaculation. That order comes from the spinal cord. Finding a living vessel for said ejaculation, however takes hours of careful thought and, often, considerable amounts of alcohol.

Taking a ferry from Singapore to the island of Bintan, Indonesia for a relaxing break.

Being a stone’s throw from Singapore those who are time-starved can get some R&R just 55 minutes away by ferry. Bintan Island, Indonesia, offers all the beachside appeal of Singapore without the stress.

Bintan is just 40 kilometers from Singapore and is the largest of the Riau Islands. Tanjung Pinang, the Riau capital, is located at the south-western tip of Bintan. While its sister island Batam has developed into an industrial town with substantial Singaporean investments, Bintan has become the resort playground of the Riau Islands and is a favourite among Singaporeans.

Bintan is blessed with beautiful white beaches and year-around tropical weather. Take a South Bintan tour that brings you to the heart of this island that is Tanjung Pinang, Senggarang and Pulau Penyengat. Explore Tanjung Pinang’s fish and fruit markets; seasoned Singaporeans often haul home snacks and condiments by the truckloads.

Architecturally, Bintan is rich with heritage sites, clustered in Pulau Penyengat, centre of the Malay Riau-Lingga empire. These include an old Dutch fort built in the 18th century and the Sultan of Riau Grand Mosque which is believed to have been built with egg white!

Although Bintan, being part of Indonesia, is a Muslim island, Senggarang is a Chinese fishing settlement and filled with centuries-old Buddhist temples, making it a popular pilgrimage site.

Visitors can even opt for trendy eco tours. Explore a traditional Indonesian kampung (village) and watch how they weave pandan leaves and tap trees for rubber.

The big bintan outdoors
Bintan is built for the sporty traveler. Gunung Bintan is situated at 340 meters, the highest point in all of Riau. Once an active volcano, it’s now called a mountain and a must-trek for the outdoorsy visitor.

Lagoi Park and Reservoir is a large (14,7 square kilometers) reservoir that supplies potable water to all the island’s resorts, and is open to kayak enthusiasts.

For company outings, Bintan offers a menu of corporate training activities. Paintball is a big favourite, with companies playing out scenarios of team rescue and hostage situations.

For a more edgy team-building exercise, there is the Adventure Training Centre. Teams climb up a tower using tight-ropes and rickety ladders. Fastest team to make it to the top (and over the only way down is by flying fox) wins. It is unnerving stuff that is meant to emotionally glue you to your workmates. That may or may not work, but the exercise is definitely fun.

All-in-one-holiday
On Bintan Island, there are plenty of hotels to stay at - Mana Mana Beach Club is the choice of backpackers and swinging singles; Angsana Resort and Spa Bintan for girlfriends who prioritise their spa treatments; and luxury hotel Banyan Tree for canoodling couples.

For the family (or families) with multiple kids and maybe even grandparents, nothing beats Bintan Lagoon Resort. This resort is also a favourite with corporations due to its sheer size.

Bintan Lagoon is the largest resort on Bintan Island, covering over 300 hectares of ground, much of which faces the tranquil South China Sea. There are 473 rooms, suits and villas, all tastefully done up in a modern Balinese style.

The Foral Suites are built for honeymooning couples, with a jacuzzi and private sundeck, while the Forest Suits offer separate living areas for parents and an adjoining suite for two children.

For VIPs, there are two huge suits - the Indraloka and Swargaloka, which come with separate living areas, sofa lounges and executive club access.

Private villa
The best options for families is the villa. There are three types which vary in size and view, and all are equipped with a kitchen and BBQ facilities. The largest of these, the Angsoka villa offers plenty of creature comforts. Watch DVDs indoor all day or dip in the private pool in the back garden. The villas are located a few minutes away from the main hotel, so every villa is equipped with a golf buggy so you can get to the big pool or restaurants for meal.

If you’d rather have your food come to you, full-service in-room BBQ dining is available. For SGD 200, there is enough food for 10 adults. A professional “BBQer” will do the grilling for you.

At the resort, two grand pools, including one with a waterslide, are guaranteed to keep your kids busy for hours. The beach is just a minute away - relax with a book and gaze at the clear horizon.

The resort also offers activities in the unlikely event guests get bored: Archery, all-terrain vehicles, beach volleyball, go-carting, petanque, elephant rides, laserquests as well as seasports such as snorkeling, scuba-diving and jet ski. or just enjoy a massage in the privacy of your own villa or a sala by the beach.

Dinner at Nelayan, the beachside restaurant, is highly recommended. Take your pick from a huge spread of fresh seafood - snapper, prawn, lobster - or sirloin steaks for meat eaters. Your selection is freshly grilled and served with a buffet of salads, starches and dessert.

Work of all that food in the championship 18-hole golf courses. Both are designed by golf legends, Jack Nicklaus and Ian Baker-Finsh. Each offer different terrain, landscapes and water hazards to challenge golfers of all standards.

Where to stay:
Bintan Lagoon Resort
Jalan Indera Segara, Bintan Utara,
Lagoi, Riau, Indonesia

Telephone: +62 (0) 770 691388 (Indonesia)
or: +65 6750 2280 (Singapore)

Things to do:
BRC Nature and Heritage Tours
Telephone: +62 (0) 770 692092 (Indonesia)

Double standards?
Two teachers from Bangkok’s Sai Mai district have been jailed for 50 years after being found guilty of sexually abusing five young girls.

Lon Soragnit, 58, and Pimol Sunsri, 49, raped five students aged between seven and eight in the school’s classrooms and at one of the defendant’s homes.

It’s a shocking case of abuse of trust, from people who are supposed to educate children, not molest them.

I know how keen Thai authorities are to ensure the safety of students (usually by forcing foreign teachers to produce their life history before being employed).

Still, now that these predatory teachers are safely behind bars, we anticipate background checks on all Thai teachers.

After all, whenever a foreigner is accused of stealing a packet of crisps from seven-11 a full-scale investigation takes place. Remember the nutter from America who claimed to have killed a young beauty queen, only for the police to insist all the evidence said he hadn’t? He turned up in Thailand and, the minute he was deported, background checks were carried out on teachers’ qualification. The American happened to be perfectly well qualified, as it happened, he was just weird.

Now, the Thai authorities are apparently going to ask for criminal background checks (which seems a lot wiser). There’s little wrong with doing checks, but by the time all the investigations are complete, many good teachers may well have found work in Vietnam or Malaysia.

Jobless handouts for all
We all know that unemployment in the UK has dropped over the past few years. Some may well think that it’s because more people are working, but we of course know better. It’s largely because the government will go to extraordinary lengths not to classify job-shy layabouts as unemployed.

One way around this is to say that they’re ‘incapacitated’. Incapacitated, in this instance, means bone idle.

The Department of Work and Pensions dishes out 70 billion baht a year to folk who suffer from such ailments as ‘tiredness’ and acne.

Officials have to deal with 2,000 folk whose problem is obesity, more than 1,000 have sleep disorders and 50 get cash because they have acne.

So, these folk are fat, lazy and have spots. Surely there’s work for them at Burger King?

Beer, beer everywhere…
Here’s the good news – some beer in the UK is now cheaper than water.

And the bad news – that’s only because water is bloody expensive.

Supermarkets are now filling their shelves with own-brand brew. This is a fair bit cheaper than the fancy bottles of water filled by pixies up in snow-capped Narnia that companies try and flog to gullible health freaks.

Naturally, the idea of cheap beer has outraged health gurus, who moan that it encourages people to drink more.

But surely it’s those that go out and buy water for two-pounds who are the ones losing their minds, not those who just want a cheap drink.

Teacher in Muslim ‘teddy’ row.
English teacher Gillian Gibbons probably didn’t think there was much danger in asking her class to give their teddy bear a name.

But the 54-year-old ended up nearly being flogged after one student suggested the bear be named after himself - Muhammad.

Ordinarily not a problem, but unfortunately Gillian was in Sudan, where the prophet Muhammad is revered. And so it was that a jobsworth secretary went running off to the local zealot, who promptly had Gillian arrested.

Gllian, from Liverpool, was arrested and hauled before a court for inciting religious hatred.

Sudan probably didn’t count on the international outrage that followed, and was soon trying hard to defend its stance. After a visit by some high-profile British figures, they eventually saw sense and released the techer.

There seems little point in pointing out the ridiculousness of the case, but it’s sadly another example of how a Muslim country can make a mockery out of a religion far more than Gillian ever did.

My favourite person of 2007 has to be Maurice Fox.
Maurice, 77, was booted out of his social club for breaking wind too loudly. Poor old Maurice didn’t go quietly though, and bravely tried to explain himself.

Kirkham Street Sports and Social Club in south-west England asking him to step outside whenever nature called, or trumpeted in his case.

Maurice protested: “It’s only a little bit of wind — it doesn’t really hurt anyone. I sit by the door anyway and try to get out when I can. But sometimes it takes me by surprise and just pops out.

“I think someone has complained about the noise. I am a loud farter, but there is no smell.” He added the odour had improved vastly since he gave up cider and took to drinking Bass.

As though that wasn’t more than enough information, Maurice wasn’t finished yet.

He was amazed that no-one else had thought to complain at the other club where goes twice a week, but conceded those who had moaned may have a point.

“I do not think it is unreasonable, you get ladies in there,” he said.

“The ladies find it a bit rude but the men have a chuckle. My wife died seven years ago and I live on my own so I might have lost a few social graces. But I was surprised to get the letter from the committee.”

To add to his troubles not only is his little problem now the talk of Kirkham, but it’s also made international headlines. Bless him.

I will participate on ADEX these dates:

April 27 PADI IDC Staff Instructor Update.
April 28 Emergency Instructor Trainer Course.
April 29 Relax and check out all the exhibitors.

Link to ADEX 2007 website: http://www.asiadiveexpo.com/

I love unusual rocks and will travel around the world to see famous ones. I’ve visited Ayer’s Rock in Australia and the spires of stone in Greece’s Meteora area. Perhaps one day I’ll even see El Capitan in Yosemite Park. I’m also quite fond of diving, so it’s no wonder that my favourite dives in Komodo National Park are an underwater rock and a nearby rocky point.

Return to Komodo
It had been several years since I had dived the Komodo area. The opportunity to do a checkout trip with liveaboard SMY Ondina in preparation for a charter in Raya Ampat arrived rather suddenly. Within twelve days my dive buddy and I had made out travel arrangements, flown to Bali, connected to Bima and were sailing into the prolific waters of Komodo, Rinca and the Komodo National Park.

Lucky that we keep our gear packed for such occasions! Two of my favourite dive sites in the area are Cannibal Rock and Torpedo Point. Both sites are hidden in a deep bay on the southern end of Rinca Island and are further sheltered by Nusa Kode, which sits in the middle of the bay. As with many great sites, strong currents often prevail. Fortunately, these sites are somewhat protected, so it only takes a bit of effort to coordinate dives for slack tide.

Cannibal Rock
Cannibal Rock just breaks the surface at low tide. Its barren appearance is deceiving, as below the water is some of the most concentrated marine life in the world. The nutrient-rich upwellings produced by the meeting of the cool Indian Ocean and the warm Flores Sea bring in food for scores of invertebrates and fish. The rock is blanketed with corals, gorgonians, black corals and crinoids in an endless variety of colour. The sheer density of life is mind-boggling.

Red, purple and yellow sea apples, a type of rare sea cucumber, are quite common here. For me, they are reason enough to make the trip. At night and when the current are running, these fascinating creatures extend their bright yellow and white tentacles to filter plankton from the water. We found plenty of other interesting animals - lionfish, angelfish, fire urchins (sometimes with Coleman shrimp!), lobsters and decorator crabs among the cracks and crevices of Cannibal Rock. At one large coral, we looked on as surgeonfish stopped for a spa treatment at the cleaner wrasse station.

When there was current, fish were more active. I watched as a golden trumpetfish tensed, then released like a golden arrow set loose from an aquatic archer’s bow into a closely packed target of silversides. Small schools of snapper, surgeonfish and other species swarmed around Cannibal Rock, making every dive frenetic and enthralling.

Torpedo Point
As photographers, my buddy Tony and I were quite happy to dive Torpedo Point and look for macro life as often as possible. Other passengers more keen on big fish, sharks and rays went to a different site on the southern end of the bay. The first subject to catch our attention here was an upside-down jellyfish that scooted across the sand atop a decorator crab that had adopted the jellyfish as camouflage. When I tried to take a photo, the crab buried itself in the sand, leaving only its eyes and the jellyfish exposed.

Moments after leaving the crab we encountered a 25-centinmetre long Armina nudibranch, which feeds on sea pens. As soon as I photographed one creature, we’d find another, and another and then another. We spent one shallow dive playing hopscotch across the rocks finding various species of colourful nudibranchs, pretty urchins and loads of juvenile fish. At night creatures such as squid, octopus, cat sharks, lobsters, crabs and Spanish dancers ruled the area. Patches of seemingly barren sand in the day became dotted with beautifully coloured sea pens rising out of the sea floor. Tiny crabs, shrimp or gobies lived on most of the sea pens, as well as on soft and wire corals deeper down. Torpedo rays, which stun their prey with an electrical charge, were prevalent in the sandy shallows.

With our night-time vision confined to the beam of or dive torch, we discovered three frogfish, one yellow, one grey and one a brilliant red-orange all nestled among the rocks, and all of which we probably overlooked on previous dives. We explored the area for two days, then sailed off in search of other interesting adventures and discoveries among the rocks of Komodo.

An apple a day
The strikingly coloured red and purple sea apple is a sea cucumber belonging to the genus Pseudocolochirus. This filter feeder uses rows of tube feet to attach itself to rocks or corals in an area of high current, then exposes its feeding tentacles to the passing water in order to collect and consume tiny plankton particles. Sea apple tentacles are covered with mucus. Once a tentacle accumulates food, it’s brought to the sea apple’s mouth, sucked clean and recoated with mucus.

Sea apples can inflate or deflate their bodies to ride the current or undulate their bodies and “run” away. When seriously disturbed, they will eject extremely sticky threads, called “Cuvierian Tabules” from their rear ends, which then stick all over a potential predator. One thing most divers don’t know is that sea cucumbers breathe through their butts. Most people assume the front end of the sea cucumbers do the breathing, but it’s actually the anus which opens and closes as the animal inhales and exhales!

Pinsi dive ships
Several liveaboards offering Komodo itineraries use traditional “Pinisi” style ships. These wooden ships are made by hand, following time-honoured methods used by the tribes of South Sulawesi for many generations. SMY Ondina, our floating home in Komodo, was built in South Sulawesi on the famous shipbuilding peninsula of Bira. Construction of the hull took one-and-a-half years, all by wooden mallet and chisel. Shipbuilders first assembled the hull, held together by wooden dowel pins, then slowly pulled it into the sea. The standing rigging was then erected using a carefully selected three for the mast. Delicate sanding and polishing by hand was required before the ship sailed to Makassar, where modern conveniences were added.

Factfile
Getting there: There are many liveaboards plying the waters of Komodo and Rinca. Trips usually originate in Bima or Bali. There are also land-based dive operators in Labuanbajo which are less expensive but require long boat rides to reach most of the dive sites. Many major airlines fly into Bali from Singapore, Hong Kong and other Asian hubs. From Bali there are daily flights to Bima (Sumbawa) or Labuanbajo (Flores).

Dive season and climate:
Tropical climate, with diving possible year round. The preferred season falls between May and November. Although the water temperature is generally warm, it can become chilly. A 3mm to 5mm exposure suit should suffice.

Documents and taxes:
For most countries, visas are issued on arrival at Denpasar airport. The fee is currently US$25. There is also a departure tax, payable only in local currency and currently costs Rupiah 100,000 for international departures and Rupiah 20,000 for domestic.

Communication:
Most, if not all liveaboards have satellite phones for guest use, as well as USB and VHF radio communications. Mobile phone coverage generally not available once ships leave port.

Electricity: 220-240V, 50Hz. Some liveaboards may supply 110V.

Currency: Indonesian Rupiah. US$ also accepted in some situations.

Tipping: Variable on liveaboards. General range of about 10% of the trip price is recommended, but check with the boat operator.

Health and safety: Malaria is endemic in many parts of Indonesia. Although mosquitoes are not common on liveaboards, a prophylaxis is recommended for land visits.

Time zone: GMT + 8 hours.

A short history of the early Internet
The starting point for the Internet is considered to be some memos by J Licklider of MIT sent in August 1962 discussing his “Galactic Network” concept. He envisioned a globally interconnected set of computers through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from any site. Licklider was also first head of the computer research programme at DARPA.

In 1965 Lawrence Roberts and Thomas Merrill - watched anxiously by Leonard Kleinrock, who had proposed using packets of information - connected two computers together across the US, making it the first WAN (wide area network).

Working at DARPA in 1967, Roberts proposed ARPANET based on the packet network concept. ARPANET came online in 1969 with four host computers connected together. The technology was demonstrated to the general public in 1972. The same year the concept of electronic mail was introduced, with Ray Tomlinson of BBN writing the basic email message send and read software.

It was from here that ARPANET grew into the Internet, the concept that a group of multiple independent networks could work together. The idea of the open-network architecture came from Robert E. Khan, also in 1972. His program was called “Internetting” and based on a packet radio scenario. Having problems with the original NCP (network control protocol) he came up with the basis for the idea of what would eventually become the common TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).

The first paper on the subject was a joint effort between Khan and Vinton G. Cerf that outlined the TCP part of the TCP/IP protocol. In 1983 ARPANET moved off NCP to TCP/IP but it had already been adopted by the military three years earlier.

In 1973 came the advent of Ethernet technology and by the early 1980s the growth of Local Area Networks (LANs), PCs and other workstations saw the young Internet grow. One big step was the introduction of the Domain Name System (DNS), invented by Paul Mockapetris of USC/ISI. The DNS permitted a scalable distributed way to resolve hierarchical host names (eg, www.seansite.net) into an Internet address.

The next step was to improve the message routing systems, which spawned the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) used inside each region of the Internet, and an Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) used to tie the regions together. This design permitted different regions to use a different IGP, giving greater flexibility to the network.

So by 1985 the Internet was already in place as a technology supporting a broad community of researchers and developers. Even before 1985, a number of networks were built specifically for individual groups. They primarily served scholars and researchers along with various government and military organisations.

ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990 but due to the efforts of NSFNET, TCP/IP was dominating most of the other wide-area computer network protocols worldwide, and IP was well on its way to becoming the standard service for the global information infrastructure.

A major key to the rapid growth of the Internet has been the free and open access to basic documents, especially the specifications of the protocols. Groups like the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), and a host of others including IAB, IESG and IETF , to throw some alphabet soup at you, eventually led to the formation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This was initially led from MIT’s Lab for Computer Science by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web.

Taking the Internet commercial
Up until the middle of 1985, there were no real commercial uses of the technology and it was mostly a research sharing and communication platform.

People started by adding TCP/IP support to their products while at the same time supporting their own protocols like SNA, NetBios and others. With some workshops in 1985 presented to over 300 different interests, the community was surprised by how open the innovators were and it started the kind of bilateral information sharing that has continued until today.

By 1988 the first Interop trade show was conducted and people saw how things could work together for their benefit. Since then Interop has grown to be conducted in multiple locations around the world. During the same period IETF meetings were held to talk about extensions to the TCP/IP protocol.

Also by 1988 the Simple Network Management Protocol, or SMTP, was chosen to allow for remote management of elements like network routers. Even today SMTP is still the most common network management protocol in use.

From here the Internet grew into what we have today - a vastly commercialised and in some ways over-burdened structure. At one end are the vendors with their basic networking solutions and in the middle are the service providers or ISPs who give us the connectivity and basic services. At the other end are the users and browsers also connecting through an ISP.

The result is a commodity-driven service and to a large extent the original purpose of the Internet as an information sharing resource has been overshadowed by the commercial elements. The result is a shift in focus towards better ways to support this commercialism and hence new initiatives like the updated forms and XML specifications.

We saw the early browser wars won by Microsoft and now the new mini war, which I hope is won by Opera or Firefox. The next battle will be how to get more people connected to the Internet to be able to exchange goods and services for money.

On October 24, 1995 the Federal Networking Council (FNC) unanimously passed a resolution defining the term Internet. The definition was as follows:

“‘Internet’ refers to the global information system that _ (i) is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons; (ii) is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-compatible protocols; and (iii) provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services layered on the communications and related infrastructure described herein.”

In other words, a network based on TCP/IP for everyone’s use.

How the Internet develops from here will depend on how the change is managed. In the past the decisions came from a core group of engineers who were not looking at the business considerations but the best way to get it all hooked together and working correctly and smoothly.

Over time the focus has gradually shifted and a large number of special interest groups with a lot of commercial might have started to influence even the so called standards bodies. The shift continues from intellectual to economic stakeholding and in some cases the shifts are towards proprietary technology and not open ones.

We are seeing domain name wars where the individual is forced to give up their long-held domain because some company wants it and, worse, these actions are sometimes supported by bodies like the W3C.

As more and more people want to join the Internet club the question becomes how to manage the growth. There are real costs in expanding network bandwidth and the resulting structures need to be coordinated and controlled not by business interests but by groups who want to continue to see the Internet be what it was intended to be.

Without a coordinated approach we could start to see some serious fracturing of the network and see segments become isolated, within regions or countries or by socio economic groupings. Once that happens it will signal the end of the original dream.

You shake a Marlboro from that iconic red-and-white pack and, letting it dangle from your lips, you flick open your Zippo with practiced ease. Cupping the flame from imaginary wind, you light up, snap the lighter closed and inhale. The familiar flavor of cigarette smoke floods the senses and a few seconds after it hits your lungs you feel the nicotine sway your world, a welcome counterpoint to the mild burn that comes from inhaling smoke. After a second you exhale through your nostrils, blowing smoke like dragon and casually tap ash from the tip of your cigarette. You’re cool, you’re hip and you’re participating in a minor form of conspicuous consumption. You’re also taking around 13 years off you life, and even if you ash that dart right away you’ll still be at a greater risk of smoking-related disease 15 years later.

We all know that smoking isn’t good for us but did you know that half of all smokers will be killed by cigarettes? That’s five million a year at the moment, and they’ll probably die a painful, ignoble death. But that’s a long way away for most of us. In the short term you ladies may be distressed to learn that smoking causes wrinkles, due to poor circulation, and men may be upset to learn that they’re up to 60 percent more likely to suffer erectile dysfunction. Puffing a Cuban cigar may be a highly phallic act but it ain’t no good unless you’ve got trouser-material to match it. Think about that, Marlboro man.

The good news is that, at least in the West, there are as many ex-smokers as there are practicing smokers, so kicking the habit can’t be that hard. Also, there is a range of medications available today that can help make quitting less of an exercise in iron will versus chemical need. That said, there are many hard-smoking regions in the world where temptation abounds and smoking is on the rise. But the reasons for giving up smoking are legion: Smoking turns your teeth yellow, makes your clothes stink and pisses off your non-smoking buddies. Or look at giving up for the greater good; its estimated that out of every pack of darts sold in the USA in 1999, $3.45 was spent on medical care for smoking-related diseases and $3.73 went in lost productivity; that’s $7.18 for those who slept through maths class.

Travel and smoking go hand-in-hand. Even people who don’t usually smoke at home pick up the habit on the road, and why not? Smokes are cheap in part’s of the world and you tend to spend a lot of time at bus stations or in bars, both dens of combustion. However, the big change in environment that makes non-smokers want to experiment can also make it easier for a confirmed smoker to give up. Smoking is a habit so a change of scene can be a powerful tool in giving up. If you’re tramping around temples and markets all day, you may not even notice you haven’t had a smoke in three days. Of course this necessitates forgoing the duty-free carton at the airport, as smoking is all about temptation.

If you are keen to give up, its best to make a plan and set a ‘quit’ date. This gives you plenty of time to get ready. If you’re a heavy smoker, you’re not going to enjoy the next few days. On the big day you should throw out all of your fags, ashtrays, bongs, hookahs, pipes, rolling papers and what-have-you. After all, you’re never going to need them again. For the next few days you’re likely to feel the effects of withdrawal, like restlessness, irritation, and increased appetite. This is a good time to warn your spouse/partner/pets to be forgiving over the next few days, as well as an excellent opportunity to say exactly what you think of them. During this time you should also drink a lot of water, get some exercise and keep your hands busy. Avoid alcohol.

Its during the withdrawal stage that you can use gums, patches or inhalers for ‘nicotine replacement therapy’ to get you out of the habit of lighting up. The patches have a good success rate but are prescription only and in some parts of the world only available from hospitals. New developments include prescribing the anti-depressant Bupropion (Zyban) to avoid the jitters. However, side-effects include excitement or anxiety, insomnia and change of appetite or weight (sound familiar?). A nicotine vaccine is undergoing trials in the US which will employ the body’s immune system to eliminate nicotine, but that won’t even go for FDA approval before 2007.

In the meantime, probably the most important things that will help you stay off the tabs are taking each day as it comes, the support of friends and family, and a great deal of patience.